Why I Love Lily Evans

Why I Love Lily Evans

James Potter watched idly from his chair near the fire as Lily Evans finished what she was writing, and very carefully tore it up.

'I wonder why she did that?' James thought, 'Perhaps it was a confession to some horridly dirty little secret?' he joked to himself with a sly smile.

As Lily picked up the pieces of her torn parchment, James noticed one of them falling to the floor. Curiosity very quickly getting the better of him, James nonchalantly made his way over to where Lily had been sitting moments before, sat himself down and, after pulling out a quill and parchment for the look of the thing, opened his Transfiguration textbook, kicking Lily's discarded piece of parchment under his chair as he did so. Turning the page of his book, James accidentally-on-purpose knocked his quill to the floor, and bent down to retrieve it, picking up Lily's scrap of parchment as he did so. Slipping the scrap of parchment into his pocket, James straightened up and read about a page of the text in front of him before he made some show of yawning, picked up his belongings and called out, "Right, everybody, I'm off to bed. Try not to pine for me while I'm gone, girls," he added, winking roguishly. It was all in good fun, after all.

James had to force himself not to run up the stairs to his dormitory. Once he was there, he shut the door, closed his curtains and sat on his bed, trying to convince himself that he was not, in fact, spying on Lily.

Hearing the unmistakeable sound of Sirius coming up the stairs some time later, James realised that his options had just become limited. Read the parchment now and hide it, or run the risk of having Sirius read it, whatever it contained.

'Or you could not read it at all.' A small part of his brain commented. James ignored it. Opening the parchment, James read:-

es Potter because...

don't want to love him, even though I do.

James blinked, not daring to believe that he had just read what he thought he had. He could have misinterpreted what he was reading, of course, but what else could it mean, really?

"Prongs? You awake?" Sirius called, entering the room.

James shoved the slip of parchment under his pillow before saying, "Well I am now, Padfoot, aren't I?"

"Well, 'night, Prongs," Sirius answered, yawning.

James shook his head. "'Night, Padfoot," he replied, laughing slightly. James waited until he could hear his friend falling asleep before he pulled the piece of parchment back out from under his pillow, and sat looking at it for a long time, wondering what to do.

'Okay, she likes me. This is good, right? What am I saying, this is definitely good. Now, what do I do about it?' he wondered, 'If I just flat out ask her out, she'll think it's just like every other time I've asked her. I have to seem serious.' He looked again at the slip of parchment in his hands. 'That's it!' he thought excitedly, 'I'll write her a letter. If I put things in writing, maybe she'll realise that I'm serious about her.'

James grabbed a sheet of parchment, a quill and some ink and wrote:-

Dearest Lily,

I love you.

He sat for a while, thinking of what to write next, before he simply screwed up that sheet of parchment and grabbed another. Thinking for a while, he eventually wrote:-

Why I Love Lily Evans by James Potter

Lily Evans is many things. A tempestuous redhead, a top student, a Good Girl. And those capitals are entirely necessary. She's the most beautiful thing I've ever laid eyes on. And she's sweet as Hell.

She's perfect. An angel. I'd date her in a flat minute if she'd let me.

So, of course, she hates me.

My constant joking around and slight player reputation haven't helped that, either. She doesn't think I'm serious, and even if she did, aside from the fact that hardly changes the way she feels about me, she would probably reason that we are polar opposites, and simply too different to work.

And we are polar opposites. But that's part of what I love about her. The way she studies her minutely detailed class notes before every exam and practice exam, and the annoyed look she gets every time I beat her in Transfiguration, even though she hasn't seen me study at all.

It's in her strict adherence to the rules, and the way that she would break them all to help a friend.

She's smart, beautiful, witty, caring, compassionate...and I love her for it.

I'd do anything for her if she asked me, anything to soften the impenetrable fortress around her emotions that she has built against me. But the more I try, the worse it gets. I've tried over the last year to cut back on my pranks against the Slytherins, but I will not allow them to attack my friends, close or not, without retaliation.

Besides, I don't think my pranks annoy her as much as they used to. Many a time when I've glanced at her after pulling a prank over breakfast I've seen her hurry to conceal a smile.

Not that she would ever admit that, of course. It wouldn't do to have the perfect, future-Head-Girl-type suddenly start being amused by rule-breaking, irresponsible pranks.

Anyway, none of that really matters. Lily is beautiful, yes, and smart, absolutely, caring, undoubtedly, good and honest to a fault. I know all of this, and I appreciate it as a part of her. But none it, not one aspect of her, separate or combined, explains exactly why I love her.

It's not even for the challenge. Yes, chase and competition is fun sometimes, but only if you have some hope of winning.

I don't know why I'm writing this, don't see how it could make a difference. I just know that everything I say around her seems to come out wrong, and that I had to try something.

If someone were to ask me why I loved Lily Evans, I could think of a thousand reasons, and none of them would be quite true. I don't know why I love her, only that I do. And if she never accepts me, I will still love her as I could love nobody else.

Dear Lily,

This soppy stuff isn't usually my style, but I decided that one of us had to be honest, or we'd never get anywhere.

Love you always,

James

P.S. I believe that I found by accident something of yours. You will find it enclosed with this letter. -J.P.

~*~

James carefully folded up his letter to Lily, slipped her fragment of parchment inside it, stuffed the whole thing into an envelope, sealed it and wrote her name on the front.

Moving quietly, so as not to wake his room-mates, James opened his trunk and moved some clothes aside to reveal his broomstick. He pulled it from his trunk, snapped the lid shut, and, broomstick in one hand and letter in the other, walked silently down to the Common Room. From there he walked over to the girls' staircase. Thanks to an embarrassing moment caused by an ingenious plot involving spiders and mud back in their first year, James and his friends had long since known of the charms that guarded the girls' staircase. And because not being able to get to the girls' dorms severely limited pranking opportunities (and other opportunities, but that was once they had grown up a bit) they had very quickly found a way around them.

So, tucking his letter to Lily into his pyjama pocket, James mounted his broomstick and flew carefully up the girls' staircase. Arriving at Lily's dorm, he held his broom steady with one hand and reached for the letter with the other. Leaning carefully down, he then slid the letter under her door before turning and flying back down the stairs. Once in the Common Room, he dismounted, before walking silently back to his room.

'Well,' thought James, 'that's that. I've done all I can. If she turns me down this time I swear I'll leave her alone. Now it's up to her...'