Why Potter?

She always felt like such a bad person every time she rejected James Potter. What was wrong with her? She liked him, so much. And yet she couldn't bring herself to say yes to any of his offers. Instead, she gave him a disdainful look, and kept on walking with her friends. None of them knew that she fantasized about him for hours at a time. The problem was, she could never bring herself to understand that the guy who asked her out every other day, with a hopeful expression on the face that never seemed to lose his coolness, was the same guy after whom a dozen girls trailed every single day, along with his other popular friends. Even her own friends liked Potter and his friends, though they pretended not to, since none of them knew that she actually did like him. A lot.

Last time he asked had been difficult to decline. She had been tempted to say, "Yes, of course I'll go out with you! I've only loved you since the first time I set eyes on you!" Instead, though, she just said no, and both of them just kept walking, as if none of them cared. Neither of them knew how much they did. It had almost become a game. For James, to ask her out every time he saw her, and for Lily, to fight her temptations and say no every single time.

The problem was that Lily wasn't sure if Potter really liked her. He looked so careless all the time, as if the only reason he was asking her was to impress everyone. As he was always showing off, this could be a great possibility. There were times, though, when she could swear she saw the hope leave his eyes, when she said no to his offers. Her friends, though, simply thought it was funny, and they giggled silly every time it happened.

You're going to be spending a lot more time with him this year, and you are so happy about this, despite the fact that you act as if this were the worst thing that could ever happen.

That is not true; I don't want to spend more time with Potter. Hello, who in their right mind would want that? Well, besides all the other girls in this school, I mean.

The fact that was going through the Hogwarts Express right now was that Lily Evans and James Potter had been made Head Girl and Boy. No one wondered about Lily, but James being made Head Boy was really amazing. He hadn't even been a prefect! And he had been most known for doing endless pranks on innocent first and second years. He and Sirius were known as the most troublesome kids in the whole school. How did he get chosen as Head Boy?

Trying to stop those thoughts and how much she was missing Potter, she didn't realize there had been someone in the hall of the train, following her. She stopped in her tracks, and turned around. Looking at her with a dumfounded expression was James Potter himself.

Lily Evans looked beautiful, as always. There was something like a guilty expression on her face, which soon was replaced with an annoyed one, the one she always put on when James was present. Even she couldn't take it off, it was automatically done.

"What do you want, Potter?" she asked, a little irritated. The truth was that she was a little embarrassed that James had caught her thinking about him. She had a habit of talking to herself, without knowing she was doing it. She fervently hoped that she hadn't been doing so.

"Well, Evans, I'm glad we've had this friendly encounter! I happen to be going to the same place you are. I don't know if you remember the small meaningless fact that I am Head Boy, and you are Head Girl. I'm sure you are blissful over the excitement of spending many hours of patrolling we will have to do together this year," he said happily.

She barely had a moment to remember that he was right; she had forgotten the "small meaningless fact" that he was going to be Head Boy, and that they were now going to spend more time together, as he had said. She was, inside, as happy as he about it, but of course she wasn't going to let him know that.

"Fine," she said grudgingly. "Let's just go and get it over with."

She tried to ignore the many girls that gaped at James as they went to give the prefects their tasks. They did so awkwardly, so much that the new prefects noticed something was off. It was mostly Lily who talked, though, since she was the one with experience.

As he walked back to his compartment, James thought about the great opportunity that fate had given him. Now, he had a great excuse to spend more time with Lily, and maybe in those many hours of night patrolling, he could convince her that they were meant for each other. He knew he could! He only had to work hard at it!

When Lily got back to her compartment, she told her two best friends about her "incident" with Potter. Alicia and Olivia were back to their "he so likes you" comments. They got back to them every year. This year, however, Lily hoped they would have more to talk about than rumors, such as there usually were flying around the school. Unfortunately, Potter was so used to her denials that it would be hard to convince him she was speaking the truth. And it would be hard to convince herself that James was not kidding around every time he asked her out.

As James told Sirius about meeting Lily on the way to the prefects' compartment, he started trying to dissuade him on the idea of Lily once again. This, as Alicia and Olivia's comments, always began at the start of the school year, when James started to get distracted because of Lily. Sirius personally thought it was stupid to waste his time on Lily when James could have his pick of girls all over the school, and he told Harry so. Harry, personally, didn't think so, and just shook his head, as if saying "you don't understand," when Sirius mentioned this.

It was quite understandable for James to think so. Sirius was the official heartbreaker of the Marauders. He went out with any girl, and simply broke up with her the next day. Everyone was used to it, and it was almost expected procedure. James just flirted with those girls, and although they all dreamed he could like one of them especially, they all knew he had his heart set on Lily.

As the other Marauders came in, Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin, and saw James's distressed face, and Sirius's convincing face, they knew what was up. All of them knew about James's love for Lily, though none of them could understand why Evans of all people, who had hated him since the first time he asked her out.

At that time, a girl came in the compartment. She was beautiful, with long black hair and deep blue eyes. However, as soon as she saw the boys' surprised faces, she blushed, realizing she had made a mistake.

"Oh, I'm sorry, I thought...," she started to say. "Sorry," she said again, and left the compartment.

The Marauders looked at each other, mesmerized. It wasn't only because of her beauty, but because she hadn't tried to flirt with them, like all the others. When they saw her get in the next compartment, they realized that she had indeed made a mistake, and that she wasn't only pretending.

"Well, we better put on our robes, we're about to get there," said Remus. With that, they all silently started to gather their robes from their trunks.

As the train came to a stop, the name going around was Lord Voldemort. No one wanted to believe it, but the rumor was that a new dark wizard was rising, and that he was recruiting followers, calling themselves Death Eaters.

No one was sure about this. The Marauders, especially, weren't worried for now. It was one of the few bad qualities they had: they wouldn't believe something until it hit them in the face. Peter was the only one who was a little afraid, but since he was a follower, after seeing the rest of them unworried, he-as always- decided to follow their footsteps. For now, they were both immersed in their own things: James in Lily, Sirius in the dark-haired girl, Remus in his books, and Peter- well, whatever the other Marauders were immersed in.

As they went through the path going through Hogwarts, though, they realized that others were very worried about this. Everyone had different stories to tell.

"My grandmother told me that Voldemort came to her neighbor's house this summer, and then she never saw them again," said a fourth year Hufflepuff.

"Shh! Don't say his name! They say that he is so powerful that whenever his name is said, he hears it," her friend said. Immediately, the first girl got very quiet.

"So do you think we should be worrying?" said James to Sirius.

"Us? Yeah, sure," he replied.

"Guys, I think this is serious. I mean, you never know, do you? We all have wizard families, none of us are muggles, which means that if Voldemort really is as powerful as they say, he may come knocking in our doorstep any day, don't you think?" said Remus, the only one actually worrying about this.

"But, Moony, I'm sure he's still not powerful enough to do that. Do you really think that he could beat a whole family of good wizards?" asked James, who didn't want to show that what Remus said was making sense.

"Prongs, I am very sorry to say this, but hear me out: surely Voldemort has followers already. There are many who would actually be honored to be a part of his "team,"' finished Remus.

"Fine, then, let me say one thing: I am glad Evans lives in a muggle place. That way she won't be in danger," said James, unsurprisingly.

"James, you are truly hopeless, and you know it."