Seventh Year: The Defining Moment

1

The Summer from You-Know-Where

Lily Evans felt like she was going to scream... and it was only the firstweek of summer! 'I already have to deal with my sister in the summer but now I have to deal with that egotistic jerk too!!! Not to mention his annoying friend!'

She had taken a walk around her neighborhood, only to find that one of her least favorite people had moved into the big, old house down the street. When she saw that there were boxes and stuff outside the house, she walked over to have a look. When she finally got to the house, to her displeasure, James Potter was sitting under the oak tree out front, talking to his best friend Sirius Black.

"Potter?! Black?!" she exclaimed. As James looked up to see who had spoken, his expression turned rapidly from puzzlement to delight.

"Evans!!!" he shouted happily. "I didn't know you lived near here!"

"WHAT are you and Black doing here?" Lily said disbelievingly.

James walked up to her, threw his arm around her shoulders and replied, "Well, Evans my dear, my family decided to move here. As for Sirius here, he finally had had enough of his family and my parents graciously allowed him to stay with us. We had NO idea you lived in this particular neighborhood too. What a wonderful coincidence!"

Lily pushed his arm off her shoulder and stormed off, walking back up the street to her house. James followed. "Going so soon?" he said as he caught up to her.

"Leave. Me. Alone," Lily said through clenched teeth.

"Wouldn't dream of it!" James replied. Lily didn't respond to this. She did however, turn sharply down her driveway, walking extremely fast. James continued to follow her as she walked up her porch steps.

"So THIS is where you live," he said happily. Lily answered by slamming her front door in his face. That didn't stop James though. "Ok!" he shouted cheerfully. "I'll see you tomorrow!"

"Lily, who was that young man you were being so rude to outside?" Lily's mother asked as Lily came inside. Their front door opened up to their kitchen and Lily's mom was doing the dishes. "Well?" she continued expectantly.

Lily sighed and answered, "He's this arrogant jerk I know from Hogwarts who has a crush on me and he's moved into that old house down the street."

"He didn't seem too bad," her mom replied.

"You don't know him like I do," Lily said exasperatedly. With that, she marched up the stairs to her room and collapsed onto her bed. She hadn't been lying down for a minute, before a large barn owl swooped into her room. "I wonder who that's from," she muttered to herself. "As if I don't already know." Lily took the scroll of parchment off the owl's leg and to her surprise, the owl stayed there and waited. She read the letter and then threw it down in disgust.

It had said:

Dear Evans,

How nice it is to see you again! Would you like to accompany Sirius and myself to the icecream place in Diagon Alley tomorrow? We'll go by Floo powder. If you don't respond I'll keep asking.

Sincerely,

James

Lily turned the piece of parchment over and wrote in big, bold letters: NO!!! She tied the parchment back onto the owl's leg and it flew off. 'That guy just can't take a hint!'

.:*:.

The next day, Lily decided to walk over to the park. She'd go the long way so she wouldn't have to pass James' house. When she arrived at the park, she immediately turned back around, because as soon as she entered through the park gate, a boy with extremely messy hair ran over to her. "What are you? A stalker?!" Lily shouted at him.

"You could say that," James replied, once again following Lily. She suddenly had an idea. She walked over to a cluster of trees and hid behind them.

"What are you do-," James was interrupted by a loud CRACK. Lily had disapparated. Lily apparated onto her bed. 'At least he can't follow me that way. Thank goodness I can apparate now.'

.:*:.

Lily HATED the following month. It was filled with James and Sirius popping up everywhere she went and annoying letters from James. The next month was even worse. It was just Lily's luck that James' birthday was July the twentieth and hers was December third. On July twenty-first, Lily was enjoying a quiet moment to herself, inside a small clearing in the woods near her house, when James apparated next to her.

"Hey Evans, guess what?" he replied casually.

"What even though it's probably something that's going to make my life even more miserable than it already is," Lily answered him.

James grinned evilly and put his face up close to hers. "My birthday was yesterday."

"So-," but Lily cut herself short as comprehension dawned on her. 'James + seventeen + Magic = Trouble.' Now that James was seventeen, he could do magic outside of school without getting in trouble for doing "underage sorcery", because in the wizarding world, seventeen was considered being of age. "Y-you wouldn't dare!" Lily stammered.

"Wouldn't I?" James answered with a smile, than seeing the look on Lily's face, replied quickly, "No I wouldn't... I'm just kiddin' with ya."

"You had better be!" Lily snapped back. She then stormed off, James just managing to hear her say, "WHY does my birthday have to be December third? WHY?!"

.:*:.

In the 1^st week of August, Lily and James got their Hogwarts letters. To Lily's displeasure, James was in all of the nine N.E.W.T. classes Lily was taking. When Lily was walking down the sidewalk, James ran up to her, revealing this information.

Even worse, he announced, "Evans, guess who the new Head Boy is? ME!!!" Lily nearly screamed. SHE was the new Head Girl. When James found this out, he was practically jumping. "Ha!!!" he shouted. "Now you'll HAVE to spend time with me this year!!!" As Lily marched off down the sidewalk, James called after her, "I've also been made Gryffindor Quidditch captain too!!!"

When Lily thought she couldn't take it anymore, in the third week of August she got a letter from her best friend, Mara Thompson, asking her to come over to her house for the rest of the summer. Plus, Lily's parents said she could go and Lily's other friend, Jessi Spencer, would be staying at Mara's house too.

The next time she saw James, Lily was practically skipping. "Hey Evans, why so happy," he asked.

To James' surprise, Lily actually smiled and replied, "Because tomorrow I'm leaving to stay at Mara's house for the rest of the summer." Then Lily continued to skip down the sidewalk.

.:*:.

Lily thoroughly enjoyed the last week of summer. She went with Mara and Jessi to Diagon Alley to get her school stuff, practiced Quidditch in Mara's backyard (Lily and Mara were Chasers on the Gryffindor Quidditch team), and pretty much had fun. It even almost made up for her less than satisfactory summer.

Other than seeing James in Diagon Alley (He had shouted, "Hey neighbor!" at her and asked her out only to be turned down as usual.), Lily had had the first James-free week all summer. When Lily told Mara and Jessi about it, they had said they felt like pitying her and laughing at the same time. But alas, August thirty-first came and went, and the next thing Lily knew, she was boarding the Hogwarts Express.