Seventh Year: The Defining Moment

2

Back to School... and the Ever-so-Annoying James Potter and Co.

Lily Evans, Mara Thompson, and Jessi Spencer had managed to find an empty compartment on the Hogwarts Express. Just as the train was leaving London, the door to the compartment was slid open by James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew, the group of boys otherwise known as the Marauders.

"Did you miss me?" James asked Lily as he and his friends entered the compartment.

"If you mean did I loathe the memory of you, by that, then yes," Lily replied coldly. "And FYI, the only reason this summer wasn't a complete waste, was because I got to escape to Mara's place during the last week, no thanks to you." With that, Lily got up and pushed the four boys out of the compartment. She probably wouldn't have succeeded, but she had caught them by surprise.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! CRACK! James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter had just apparated back into the compartment.

"JAMES POTTER!!! If you don't stop stalking me, I'm going to hex you!!!!!!!" Lily shouted.

James smiled and replied smoothly, "Then you might as well do it now baby, 'cause I'll NEVER stop chasing you." Suddenly, the compartment door was opened by Frank Longbottom, who was a Beater on the Gryffindor Quidditch team.

"Hey Lily," he said. "I think you weren't quite loud enough. The people in Russia didn't quite catch all that you said." Everyone but Lily burst out laughing. "Anyway," Frank continued. "What did James do this time to make you explode?"

"He was stalking me!" Lily said accusingly.

Frank rolled his eyes and remarked, "I'm not surprised. People have been taking bets for ages now, wondering when the restraining order goes into effect." This time, everyone but Lily and James burst out laughing. "Oh yeah," Frank continued, "Do you know who's the new Quidditch captain?"

"I can answer that," James replied before Lily could answer. "I am."

"Awesome!!!" Frank exclaimed. "Well I got to go; Alice is waiting for me back in our compartment. And if I were you James, I'd leave too before Lily curses you into primordial ooze." With that, Frank left, followed by the Marauders who didn't feel like dueling with Lily, who happened to be one of the best Defense Against the Dark Arts students in the whole school (James was probably one of the other best D.A.D.A students, but he wasn't going to be jinxing Lily anytime soon).

Pretty soon the train pulled into Hogsmeade Station. Students piled out into the corridors, pushing everyone forward. Being Head Boy and Girl, James and Lily had to see that all the students got into the carriages, while Hagrid dealt with the first years.

"Midgets over there! Everyone else follow me and Evans!" James yelled.

"Potter, don't call the first years Midgets!" Lily exclaimed.

"Well they are!" James shot back. Lily felt someone tap her shoulder and looked down to see that it was a second year.

"For a Head Boy and Head Girl," he said. "Y'all sure argue a lot!"

James smiled and replied, "I'd rather me and her not argue at all but-"

"He just frustrates me... a lot!" Lily finished for him.

When Lily was out of hearing distance, James asked the second year, "So do you think she likes me?"

The second year looked at James and said rather frankly, "I think you're hopeless." Then he marched off.

"Midgets," James muttered under his breath. "No respect whatsoever."

.:*:.

After the Sorting, the golden plates on each House table were filled all kinds of delicious foods. A girl, who was one of the new Gryffindors, was sitting beside Lily and nudged her gently. "Huh?" Lily managed to say through a mouth full of roasted chicken.

"Did you know, that boy over there with the messy black hair is practically drooling over you?" the girl asked. Jessi, who was sitting across from Lily, started giggling.

Lily glared at her and answered the first year saying, "I know. And if you ever need to practice a hex, use HIM for target practice."

The first year laughed and said, "Ok! My name's Jenny. What's yours?"

"Lily."

"What year are you in?"

"Seventh."

"Hey! Aren't you the Head Girl? I heard you telling the Head Boy to stop calling us first years midgets!"

Lily smiled and replied, "Yeah. And the boy who won't stop looking over at me every ten seconds is the Head Boy."

Jenny grinned evilly and said, "Even more of a reason for me to use him as target practice!" Lily, Jessi, Mara, and Jenny burst out laughing. "

Well, Jenny," Lily said smiling. "If you ever need help with something, just ask me. Especially if you're going to try the curse or whatever out on James."

"Is James the Head Boy?" Jenny asked.

"Yes," Lily, Mara, and Jessi said in unison.

Lily smiled and replied, "Only James could be that pig-headed."

.:*:.

It seemed like the first month of school, had passed like lightning. During the first week of October, Jenny had taken Lily's words from the first day of school to heart. One day in the Gryffindor common room, when James wasn't looking, Jenny snuck up and "practiced" the Jelly-Legs Jinx on him. The room had burst out laughing and Lily, Mara, and Jessi had all high-fived Jenny. James looked as mad as a hornet.

"Will somebody stop laughing and hand me my wand?!" he shouted. "Either that or perform the counterjinx!!!" Lily finally decided to be nice, and undid the spell. Nobody knew which was funnier: A first year succeeding in an attack on a seventh year or James wobbling around on "jelly-legs".

"I ought to give you detention for that!" he shouted at Jenny.

Jenny just smiled innocently as Lily replied, "As if you haven't done that to someone before? Last time I checked you've done worse without getting in trouble. Mainly because one of your best friends is a Prefect, who, I might add, just ignored it all." At this point she glared at a blushing Remus. "And besides," Lily continued. "At the feast on the first day of school, I kind of told her to use you if she ever needed to practice a hex." Then leaving a gaping James, Lily walked up into the girl's dormitory, followed by Jenny who probably didn't want to get in trouble.

.:*:.

The next day was a Saturday and Lily had Quidditch practice at one 'o clock PM. It was the first practice of the year and the first Quidditch match was against Slytherin during the second week of November. So they had basically five weeks to practice before the match. Lily absolutely dreaded practice. Now that James was the Quidditch captain...

After lunch, Lily and Mara headed out to the field, where James and Sirius had already arrived. James was still in a foul mood over what had happened the night before.

"Hey Jelly-Legs!" Lily shouted.

"Do you have to do that?" James snapped.

Lily laughed and replied, "Two words: pay back."

"Pay back for what?" Lily turned around to see Frank and the rest of the team coming up the field.

"My summer basically went down the toilet thanks to Potter," she answered. Everyone on the Gryffindor Quidditch team laughed except for James. The team was made up of a variety of Gryffindors. James was the Seeker and Sirius was the Keeper. The Chasers were Lily, Mara, and a burly, brown haired third year named Anderson Glade, who was new on the team. And last, but not least, the Beaters were Frank Longbottom and a red-headed sixth year named Alec Waters.

In Lily's opinion, Quidditch was the only thing James took seriously. Whenever he had managed to get a hold on one, he'd show off in front of Lily with a Snitch. Jared Blackwell, who had been Quidditch captain before James (he had left Hogwarts the year before), had probably spent half the practice time saying "Potter stop showing off for Evans! She ain't paying you the least bit of attention, so get back to work!!!"

James spent most of the practice making everyone else miserable. It seemed that he had decided to take his frustrations from the night before, out on everybody else (with the exception of Lily ^^).

After practice Frank said to Lily, "Man! You're lucky James has a crush on you! My arms are aching so bad, I doubt I'll be able to lift a fork!"

Sirius knew exactly what was up with James. He was upset that he had been made a fool of in front of Lily. Usually he managed to do that himself. Sirius rolled his eyes as James marched down anyone who was in his way as they went up to the common room and replied, "James! Chill out! You're scaring the children!!!" Sure enough, there were a couple of first years huddling together and looking at James in terror.

James sighed. "You're right. I do need to calm down."