Lily, My Enemy

Fireworks exploded in the Gryffindor common room.

Lily Evans stood with her wand pointed at James Potter and was shouting every hex and curse she knew:

"Stupefy!"

"Wingardium Leviosa!"

"Engorgio!"

"Petrificus Totalus!"

"Reduc -"

By now, Potter was stupefied, lifted in the air, then smacked back down, enlarged, body-binded, and was about to be blasted into space, when-

"Miss Lily Evans!" a voice all too familiar screamed. "What in the world are you doing?"

"That's easy enough!" the girl said, her face as red as her hair. "I'm teaching Potter over here what you get when you pull a prank on Lily Evans - " The girl stopped when she saw whom it was she was taking to. "Err, Professor McGonagall! Err, I didn't realize it was you! - "

A furious McGonagall interrupted her. "Mr. Black! Please escort Mr. Potter to the hospital wing," she said to the muscular, tall black-haired boy who was standing next to Potter in shock. "Detention for Miss Evans and ten points from Gryffindor!"

A long groan filled the room.

"I have not chosen you as prefect only for you to be the one making trouble. I hope you have learned your lesson and that nothing of this sort will happen again!"

Then she walked out of the room, and the Gryffindors, who had been silent while McGonagall delivered her speech, erupted into endless chatter.

"What happened?"

"I can't believe Lily did that!"

"She's so perfect!"

"That prank was hilarious!"

"Did you see Potter enlarged?"

"Poor James!"

"Did you see McGonagall's face?"

"He deserved it-you should have seen what he did to Lily!"

"Poor Lily!"

"I reckon McGonagall hasn't been that mad since Sirius Black put a spell on her hair to make it half purple half green..."

"Poor McGonagall!"

"Yeah, right!"

The voices drained away as Lily made her way to the girl's dormitories. She heard footsteps behind her and turned to see her best friend, Arabella Figg.

"Lily!" Arabella said. "What happened? I just came from the library and when I arrived at the common room, Bertha Jorkins, goodness knows what she's doing here, she's supposed to be in Ravenclaw; guess she wanted to be at the 'scene of the crime' -anyway, she told me you had just cursed James Potter into the seventh hell! Now spill, Lily! What the heck happened?"

They had just reached the dormitories, and Lily plopped on her bed.

"I hate James Potter! I hate him and his group of moronic idiots!" Lily took a deep breath and went on. "Today, at Potions, Professor Levitt wanted us to brew this complicated potion and taste it when they were done. So Snape, who thinks he's the best at Potions, bragged his ass off that he could be the one who finished first. Potter & Company heard this and started grinning. Snape was about to finish when he turned around to add the last ingredient. When Snape's back was turned, Potter put something on the potion. That "something" was a love potion, which, when added to another potion, like a curing potion, erases all effects of the other potion and makes you fall madly in love with the first person you see. Well, Snape drank it and there was this big explosion. I turned around for a moment and locked eyes with Snape. Then he got off his chair, rushed to my side, and pledged his undying love to me. Keep in mind, Bella that Potter & morons were laughing their heads off. What makes it worse - "

How can this possibly get worse?" Arabella asked with her eyes wide. She always loved a good story. "I would have ran away from Snape if I were you!"

"Oh, yeah, Arabella, this gets worse," Lily's face showed pure vengeance. "Snape followed me around for a whole day and at Defense Against the Dark Arts, he grabbed my shoulder and planted his disgusting lips on mine! Professor Morgain was quite amused when I asked her if I could go to the hospital but she let me. I also found out later on that she took the love curse off of Snape. My God! That was gross! What are you laughing at?"

Arabella was rolling on the floor like a little puppy, bursting with laughter. "Snape kissed- haha -you? That- ahahaha! -Must have made you- hehehehe -so mad! -Muaahahaha- that was -hahaha- why you cursed -muahaha- James Potter- hahahahaha!"

"Shut up, Arabella, I'm going to sleep!" Lily stated.

Arabella tried, but couldn't muffle her laughter. "Sorry, but why are you going to sleep at nine o'clock?" she asked, quite amused.

"Because I want to," snapped Lily. She glared at her friend because she didn't stop laughing.

"It's just weird," said Arabella. "Snape following you around and then kissing you!" She let out a burst of laughter again.

"It's not funny!" Lily protested. She stopped talking when she saw a group of giggling girls come in. "Oh, look, Bella, it's the Giggle Gang... I'm going to the common room..."

"No! James Potter is not as cute as Sirius Black!" one of the girls sighed.

"James Potter is so cute!!"

"Oh, no!, Sirius Black!!"

As she walked past them, Lily yelled out in a fake, singsong voice, "Peter Pettigrew is WAY cuter than them!" leaving the girls to stare at her in shock.

'Finally, some peace and quiet in the common room,' Lily thought and headed down.

*~*~*~*~*

When she arrived at the common room, she found that it was empty.

'Good! No one's here,' she thought. 'I need sometime to think.'

Lily had hated James Potter like a cat hates a dog. She had hated James Potter the very first time she'd seen him.

'Wait, that's wrong!' Lily exclaimed. 'I've hated him ever since I saw the real James Potter' She thought back to the first time she'd seen him:

Lily was nervous and excited. She could barely wait to get to Hogwarts. Away from her evil sister Petunia for a whole year, learning to be a witch! Lily laughed joyfully, full of expectations for the coming year.

"Hey. Laughing Flower, what are you laughing at?" a cheerful voice behind her said.

Lily whipped around to see a tall, black-haired boy with gleaming black eyes. Standing next to him was another boy with messy black hair and brown eyes the color of hot chocolate. Another boy with spiked up brown hair and kindly features was beside him.

"Hello!" Lily said pleasantly. "Do you happen to be going to Hogwarts?"

"Why, yes, Rose flower," the black-eyed boy, said. "Sirius Black at your service!"

"I'm sorry, but my name is Lily, not Rose," Lily smiled.

"Well, it was a flower, wasn't it?" Sirius said. " This is Jamie Potty." He pointed to the brown-eyed boy. "And Remie Loopy, Lily," this time he pointed to the brown-haired boy. He paused before adding, "Ooh! That rhymes!"

"I'm really James Potter," the kid with the messy black hair said, then he hit Sirius in the head.

"And I'm really Remus Lupin," said the kind-looking boy. "Sirius just likes names that end with ''y''".

Lily, who had been laughing all this time, asked, "Do you think you could help me with something? My letter says Platform 9 and 3 quarters, but there's only 9 and 10."

"You must be a first year. We're first years, too," said Sirius. "But are you Muggle-born?"

"Pardon me?" Lily said. She didn't know what 'Muggle' meant.

"Muggles are none-magical people," Remus informed her.

"Oh!" Lily said. "Yes, I'm Muggle-born."

"Well, do you see that sign that says '10'? You run through that wall," James said, suddenly grinning.

"Yup!" Sirius joined in. "It's sort of better if you run".

"Thanks!" Lily took her thing and prepared to run through the wall. "Please let this work!" she muttered. Then she ran full force and---

Hit her head.

"Ouch!!" she exclaimed, dropping her things and clutching her head. "Oh, I knew it was a mistake! I don't really have magic! I'm not really a witch!"

She turned around and saw the three boys laughing their heads off. Lily thought they were very inconsiderate of her feelings. How could they be so mean?

"It's not funny!" exclaimed Lily. "While you're off having fun in Hogwarts, I'll be stuck with my evil, sister Petunia! I was expecting so much! I was just dreaming, then. I not a witch! I haven't a grain of magic in - "

"Oh, poor dear!" a girl with blue eyes and curly black hair said. "Don't ever listen to James Potter and Sirius Black! They're the biggest pranksters in the world. You are a witch because McGonagall never makes mistakes. They've just taught you the wrong way to get into the platform. You run through that wall between Platform 9 & 10." She gestured for Lily to move.

"Go on!" she said, but Lily was too scared. Who knows what would happen if she listened to this girl? What if this girl was making fun of her like those boys?

The girl sighed. "All right, I'll go."

The girl walked through Platform 9 and 10 and disappeared.

Lily's eyes widened. Maybe following this girl wasn't such a bad idea. Lily followed hesitantly and saw an enormous train in front of her.

The girl was standing beside her. "Let's go inside, so we can get a good compartment."

As they walked, the girl exclaimed "Goodness! I've forgotten my manners! My name's Arabella Figg!"

"Pleased to meet you," Lily said. Her excitement at going to Hogwarts was slowly coming back. " My name's Lily. I thought those boys were horrible, pulling that prank on me, an inexperienced, Muggle-born witch! How do you know James Potter and Sirius Black and Remus Lupin?"

"I've had the honor of being James and Sirius' neighbor," Arabella said. "We all live in the same block. You haven't met Peter Pettigrew yet. He's part of their gang, though he's quite ugly. Anyway, the four of them always met up at James' or Sirius' house, and I always end up being the butt end of their pranks. Oh! Finally! An empty compartment!"

"Err, girls?" squeaked a small boy with a homely face. 'I'm saving this for the Marauders."

"Lily, that's Peter," Arabella said and turned to Peter. "Marauders...that's what they call themselves now?" Then she turned to Lily and said "They change their name every year. It's been Thunders, Warriors, Prankers, and who knows what other ungodly name--they should call themselves Retards one time." She turned back to Peter and said, "I'm sorry, Peter, but this is the only other compartment we could find, so we're taking this".

"It's a pleasure, girls," said a voice behind them.

They turned around and found the three other 'Marauders'.

~*~*~*~*~

Ever since that time, the Marauders had felt it up to them to include Lily in their "harmless jokes". Remus had become her close friend, Peter her ally, but James her mortal enemy. Sirius made Lily's hair boil, but she could never stay mad at him for more than an hour. He made her laugh as much as he had made her mad.

"Remus is probably the best of them all," Lily muttered. "He's handsome, nice, and he's not a player like Sirius or James."

What had aggravated Lily more than anything else, though, was that last year, in their fourth year, Sirius and James had started paying more and more attention to the opposite gender. They had made it their favorite hobby to date a girl every week. At the end of the week, they came up with a reason to dump them. Lily hated that.

"Remus would never do that to a girl," Lily said. "He's nice, considerate, and caring."

She stood up to go back to her dormitory when--

She hit the air.

"Wait!" Lily thought. "You can't hit the air. I hit something in the air."

She heard laughter and turned to the door. She saw James Potter and Sirius Black.

"So the 'something' in the air was ANOTHER PRANK!" Lily thought furiously.

"What do you think I am?" Lily yelled. "Do you think I'm some idiot who don't know what you're up to? I will so get you, JAMES POTTER!"

"What? What did I-?" James stuttered looking very confused.

"Shut up!" Lily hated it when people pretended not to know when they really knew. "Don't do your innocent act with me! You can't fool me ever! Because I know what you really am! A lying son of a b--"

Then she stomped out of the room.

"I HATE JAMES POTTER!" Lily thought.

She was going to get him for this!

~*~*~*~*~

A few minutes before:

Remus Lupin paced around in the boys' dormitories. Where were James and Sirius?

"Stop pacing, Remus," said Greg Finnigan gently. "They'll come back as soon as they can."

Remus still wasn't comforted. He went to James' bed, grabbed a bag, and went down to the common room to wait for them.

In there, he opened the bag and took out a fluid, silvery gray material: James' invisibility cloak. Remus draped it around himself.

He was about to leave the common room when he saw someone. Remus jumped in shock. He didn't know anyone was here!

He walked to where the person was sitting. Holy Cow! It was Lily Evans. She was sitting on an armchair looking like she was a million miles away. Then she spoke.

"Remus is probably the best of them all," she said. "He's handsome, nice, and he's not a player like Sirius and James."

Remus was shocked. Lily Evans thought he was handsome, even better than Sirius or James! It seemed the first time a girl had ever picked him over those two.

"Remus would never do that to a girl. He's nice, considerate and caring."

Remus could not believe what Lily was saying. But what was it he would never do to a girl? "Oh, well," he thought. "It must be something good." He felt a burst of confidence when Lily said "nice, considerate, and caring."

Remus was so interested that he stood in front of Lily's chair, and was leaning over, waiting for her next words.

He did not expect Lily to do what she did next, or else he would have moved away. But Lily Evans was a very unexpected person.

She got up and collided with Remus.

"Uh-oh," Remus thought. He moved out of the way quickly. Then he heard footsteps.

Sirius and James were finally coming back from the hospital wing.

"Oh man, oh man," Remus thought. "Why do Sirius and James always have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

He rushed to them to stop them from coming.

"Stop!" Remus whispered. "It's me, Remus. Lily Evans is here and she collided with me."

The thought of Lily bumping into something invisible must have cracked up Sirius and James because they started laughing hysterically.

"How did she take it?" Sirius whispered to Remus. "Did she yell your head off?"

Lily most likely heard them laughing, because she started 'yelling her head off'.

"What do you think I am?"

"Oh Lord Oh Lord," Remus kept muttering.

James looked very confused. Why was Lily yelling at him? He hadn't done anything! "What? What did I...?" But Lily was on a roll.

"SHUT UP! Don't do your innocent act on me! You can't fool me ever!"

Remus zoned out, but snapped back to reality when Lily shouted, "A lying, idiotic son of a b-"

Then she stomped out of the room.

"Ouch!" Sirius exclaimed. "She hates you all right! But don't worry, old James, old buddy, there's still lots of girls in the sea." He patted James in the shoulder as if in the act of comforting someone who is mourning.

"That was close," Remus whispered, taking off the invisibility cloak.

Sirius was laughing like a moron (A/N he is a moron, but we all love him anyway!) and Remus and James were looking at him angrily.

Then James turned to Remus and said, "Why was she so mad?"

Remus answered "I told you, she hit me when I had the cloak on."

"Oh," James said. "What was she doing?"

For some reason, Remus didn't want to tell even his best friends what Lily said. Maybe it was because of embarrassment, or maybe it was because he wanted to enjoy the fact that Lily liked him just by himself, but, nonetheless, he told James "She wasn't doing anything. Or if she was, I didn't see, I was barely here for more than a minute." Why did I say that? Why couldn't I tell him the truth? I've never lied to James before in my life!

"Oh man!" Sirius exclaimed. "Why couldn't you have found out some kind of nice gossip about her? Imagine it--"

"Shut up, Sirius," James said jokingly.

Sensing that James could not be disturbed or teased at this moment, and, being the best friend that he was, Sirius obediently followed his command, even though he didn't know what was bothering him.

Then the three boys went up to the dorm silently, each busy with their own thoughts (A/N which I will leave up to you to imagine).