Not Just a Romance

Sitting in the middle of Hogwarts' completely empty Quidditch pitch was absolutely not Lily Evans' favorite way to spend a sunny summer day. She wasn't a "reading books for fun, tea drinking, poetry writing, sitting in the middle of nowhere to reflect on life" kind of person, if you know what I mean. She, in fact, was the complete opposite of that...a fierce redhead, short-tempered, what Sirius Black would call a "pistol." She always seemed to be in the middle of every single fistfight inside the walls of the school. She was everyone's nightmare. No one would ever want to come face to face with Lily Evans...

Or so she led everyone else to believe.

What exactly was she doing sitting in the middle of the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch when she could be at her home in Muggle London?

The answer would surprise you. When I first found out, I have to admit, it even surprised me. And, trust me, I don't get easily surprised...

...Lily Evans was sitting in the middle of the Hogwarts Quidditch pitch waiting for her boyfriend.

If you had uttered those words to any one of her classmates a couple months ago, they would've laugh out loud right in your face.

"Lily Evans is more interested in beating up boys then dating them," they would have said to you. There's not denying that the statement used to be true. But that was before she met James Potter.

It was a spectacular night when they first met. Even tough little Lily was awed by her very first glimpse of Hogwarts. The stars shone down on all of us like lanterns in the sky. It was picturesque. You know, kind of like the scenes in movies where the boy and the girl are sitting next to each either holding hands, going in for the kiss.

Well, it wasn't exactly like that. You see, the very first time James and Lily had met face to face was on the lake. Their boats were floating along. James' boat was adjacent to Lily's, and they got into a little disagreement. I can assure you that it was something stupid. Maybe it was something like Lily arguing with James about whether or not she could beat him up. I suspect that James had made a smart remark aimed at her.

Of course, I already knew that she could beat him up. Seeing her take down a boy twice the size of her and twice the size of James on the train was downright terrifying, but James didn't see her do it and didn't believe her. The argument was stupid, I know, but I have to admit that it was pretty amusing.

Well, anyway, they ended up trying to pull each other into the ice-cold lake, making both of their boats capsize. Unluckily, I was in James' boat and I ended up falling in too.

Oh, no. But that wasn't the end of it. After that incident, it had been full-throttle war between them. Seven years of war. Sure as hell there was always a prank up one of their sleeves. And you know that the other is always going to be the object of their prank. It was the whole works. No mercy.

I swear to the gods that they have had more detentions than anyone ever in the history of Hogwarts. It was six years of torture for the teachers before it was finally their seventh year. Maybe, they thought, just maybe, they might put the silly grudge behind them and learn to work together. Because what surprisingly happened in their seventh year-- even more surprising than when they became prefects in fifth year-- was that they became Head Boy and Girl.

They practically controlled the school. They had power, and with power they had responsibility. Pranks weren't the only things that were important to Lily and James. Obligation to the school was also somewhere on their priority list. I think that the whole school breathed a little sigh of relief whenever their little war was put on hold because of Head Boy and Girl duties.

I think we all could see that they had altered their relationship a little. While performing Head Boy and Girl duties, they maintained a strict business relationship. But the war relationship was as red hot as ever. No one wanted to be caught in the crossfire.

That is until James began dating Elise, and Lily was startled into a sudden realization. James was always the lady's man, but he had never been able to keep a steady relationship until Elise came strolling along with her tight, tight pink sweaters showing off her womanly curves. And I was the only one who saw it when Lily became jealous. Yes, you read right. Lily Evans was jealous of James' girlfriend.

To any other person it might have seemed absurd. Lily wouldn't get jealous over that! But I've known James and Lily for years. To me, it was perfectly understandable for her to be jealous when all of a sudden the object of her interest was so rudely taken away from her. Being the "pistol" that she was, she began to make Elise her objective, angering James, of course.

Her being jealous isn't what surprised me; it was when I saw that she actually loved him when I was surprised. Maybe, I thought, it was just a little infatuation...you know, one that lasted seven years. But, no, I saw it before anyone else saw it. Lily loved James. She was so used to having all of his attention. Elise took that away from her. And that meant revenge.

Elise, the small blonde with a perfect hourglass figure, was not as strong as everyone had anticipated. Her fighting power amounted to nothing, and she broke things off with James, leaving my poor friend heartbroken and not to mention furious with Lily.

For weeks, they didn't speak except when absolutely necessary (Prefect meetings and such.). No pranks were pulled, no fights, no arguments. Just silence. Since their feud began in their first year, it was what every single person in the school had waited for, but yet it was absolutely horrible.

Everyone sat in anticipation as Lily and James' stone cold feelings slowly deteriorated. And that was when I noticed...James loved her too.

It wasn't just a romance. It was the romance.

And them, being Lily and James, didn't notice until just before it was too late.

It was the last day. We all sat in our respective compartments on the train, looking out the windows at our beloved school, one last glimpse as students. All of the graduating seventh year Gryffindors were squished into one compartment, shedding tears and memories. It was a sad day. Even the "pistol" shed a few tears as the train pulled away. Well, a few tears isn't exactly what it was; she came up to me, hugged me tight, and burst out crying. It was the whole waterworks. Seeing tough Lily cry triggered everyone else's tears, and soon enough, the entire compartment was flooding with tears and hugs.

When the crying died down and everyone was exhausted from the loss of water, Lily looked almost embarrassed. She was sitting in the corner with her knees pulled up to her chest, sniffling and rubbing her eyes. And I could see James glancing her way every few seconds. It was getting quite annoying, and I could tell everyone else noticed too.

Softly but distinctly, I heard Sirius whisper, "You're not gonna leave this train the way things are between you two, are you? You love her!"

James, panicked, looked up at Sirius. "What are you talking about?"

Everyone who heard rolled their eyes. "We know, James!" I whispered.

By now, Lily had noticed the little whispers and was looking our way, curious. Everyone looked at James. He gave us all a dirty look and heaved a big sigh, rolled his eyes, and got up. Because the compartment was so small, he only had to take one step towards her. Everyone watched expectantly as he plopped down next to her. Lily and James looked at each other, in unison looked at the rest of us, stood up, and left the compartment. At their departure, a small cheer erupted.

And, of course, we couldn't just let them be alone. Of course, we had to eavesdrop. All of the Gryffindor seventh years crept out of our cramped compartment and made our way down toward Lily and James' compartment door. We all squatted down on the floor so Lily and James wouldn't see us, and we inched the door open, peaking through the crack.

What we saw triggered "awws" from the girls and cheers from the guys. Lily and James were locked in a tight embrace, kissing as passionately as you could get. Our reaction to the scene was clearly audible, but they didn't hear it or they didn't care, because they didn't seem to want to stop. Then, after a ridiculously long time, the Gryffindor crew left the two in peace.

"What a great beginning," one girl sighed.

"Beginning?" Sirius exclaimed. "It began when they were eleven!"

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Author's Notes: Sorry if there are any inaccuracies. This was written before OotP. And thank you to Sarah Padula "Lady of Ice", my beta reader.