Just the Girl

'Cause she's bittersweet

She knocks me off my feet

And I can't help myself

I don't want anyone else

She's a mystery

She's too much for me

But I keep coming back for more

She's just the girl I'm looking for

"So anyway, Evans, glistening dewdrop of my heart, will you do me the honor of accompanying me to the village of Hogsmeade on Saturday next?" James Potter, a handsome young man with messy black hair and intense hazel eyes, struck a noble pose as he asked out the girl of his dreams for the three hundred and forty-eighth time. Many of the other girls wandering around the lake swooned. What he wouldn't give for Lily Evans to swoon with them! James had been in love with Lily, now a stunning young woman with long red-gold hair, incredible green eyes and just a few freckles sprinkled across her face, since he first laid eyes on her in the Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry during their Sorting ceremony. And he had been asking her out with regularity since. Unfortunately, she turned him down with equal regularity. But James never gave up, despite the fact that he could have had any girl in the school. He knew that Lily Evans was just the girl he was looking for.

James had become accustomed to Lily turning him down every time he asked her out. So imagine his surprise when she took a small step toward him, her eyes softening. "So I'm your glistening dewdrop, am I?" James swallowed. Her voice could only be described as sultry, and he had been waiting for so long to hear her speak to him like that, he could hardly believe it was true. He had only heard that voice of Lily's in his dreams. He hadn't been sure it even existed until this moment. He nodded. "Well, James, if I glisten for you, it's only fair that you glisten for me, right?" She took another step towards him and lifted one small hand, placing it on his chest.

"Right, glisten, only fair," James managed to stammer out, as Lily's finger traced his shiny Head Boy badge. She gazed at him, unblinking, and slowly ran her tongue over her lips. James stiffened. Crikey, she was gorgeous. He was so crazy about her.

"Ready?" she asked, leaning in. He nodded again, not trusting himself to speak actual words, not with her beautiful face so close to his, so ready to kiss.

That was when she pushed. Hard. James toppled over backwards, straight into the lake.

It was cold. Bloody freezing! James crashed to the surface, gasping for breath.

"You know, Potter, I think I do like it when you glisten for me. Perhaps we should do this more often!" Sarcasm and triumph echoed in Lily's every word. Applause broke out behind her. Straining, James could see his friends, and fellow Marauders: the devastatingly handsome Sirius Black, the ethereal-looking Remus Lupin and the homely but friendly Peter Pettigrew. All three were laughing so hard they could barely stand, and clapping as hard as they could. That didn't really surprise him.

Sadly, they were not the only ones. It looked as though the whole school was looking at him. Lily turned, grinned and dipped an elaborate curtsy. Then she blew the crowd kisses. Laughing, she linked arms with her friends, Alice Parker, who had shoulder-length brown hair and was never seen without a smile on her face, and Colleen O'Brian, who wore her blonde hair in a chin-length bob and was so petite she needed three-inch heels to come up to the shoulder of her friends. The trio skipped up the hill to the castle, laughing the entire way.

As he climbed out of the lake, all James could think about was how great her laughter was. He dreamed about it every night. It always made him think about little golden bells. It was one of his favorite things about her.

"Siccaro!" Remus choked out, between gasps of laughter. Instantly, James was warm and dry again. He shot his so-called friends a death look, but none of them seemed to notice. They never did.

"You know, Prongs, I can see why you like her! She's nearly as devious as we are. Perhaps I'll ask her out myself," grinned Sirius. "I'm kidding, James, you know that. She's your girl," he said as James lunged for him. "I, for one, am glad this year has been so different. I should never have made fun of you for predicting it would be!"

"What are you talking about, Padfoot? Lily still won't go out with me!"

"I know that, my dear James, but she has gotten far more creative in her methods of turning you down. It has been most entertaining. Almost as good as the time we stole all the Slytherin's underwear and sewed the flies shut. And then froze them. And then hung them in the Great Hall." Sirius' face took on a happy, faraway look as he reminisced.

"You know, Sirius has a point," Remus put in. "So far, she's dumped gravy down your robes, turned your hair green, shot that gum up your nose and made you vomit slugs."

"And shoved you in the lake," Peter added. "Don't forget that!" As if he could. Usually she only figuratively knocked him off his feet. This time it was literal. He hadn't forgotten any of the things she did. They only made him want her more.

"She is very nearly as good as us. We should make her an honorary Marauder," said Sirius. The friends laughed, and started back up to the common room. When they got there, they found Lily sitting by herself in front of the fire. James barely paused to wonder where her friends were. He proceeded to sit in the nearest chair, messing up his hair and pulling out his wand as he did so.

"Accio Evans." Lily sailed into the air and landed neatly into his lap. Ignoring her furious expression, James plunged on. "You looked so alone over there, Evans. Just wanted to be sure you were okay."

She immediately extricated herself from his lap, looking down at him with icy eyes. "I would rather be alone than with you, James. You are not totally devoid of intelligence, I would think you would understand that by now." Lily flounced off up to the girls dormitory. James sighed. She always knew what to say to ruin his night. It seemed as natural to her as breathing. He said good night and meandered towards his dorm, her words echoing in his head.

A few weeks went by, with more of the same. James asked Lily out for the three hundred forty-ninth, fiftieth, fifty-first, fifty-second and fifty-third times. She continued to refuse him, sometimes with the creative methods his friends were in favor of (once, she locked him in a room alone with Peeves, without his wand and another time, she charmed a bludger to follow him around), and sometimes with a tired, "No, James." When he wasn't asking her out, they were arguing.

When James had gotten his Hogwarts letter that summer and learned that he was the new Head Boy, he had nearly fainted with excitement. Everyone knew that Lily would be Head Girl. It guaranteed that they would be spending a lot of time together. James was ecstatic. Until he got to school.

Lily had made it clear that she was not at all happy about Dumbledore's choice of Head Boy. She only spoke to James when she had to. Sometimes this involved turning him down when he asked her out. Often she had to speak to him because he had done something wrong in her eyes. And so they argued. They fought about school rules, about patrolling, about James' Marauder activities, about his docking points from Slytherins simply because he didn't like them. James thought Lily was even more beautiful when angry, with her emerald eyes snapping, her hands either on her hips or flung into the air, and her lovely hair falling into her face. Once, he made the mistake of telling her that. She'd exploded, yelling at him for provoking her on purpose and seeing her as an object, not a person.

James was at a loss. It was November, and he was no closer to Lily than he had been in September. Their fights had become an almost daily occurrence. It killed him to yell at her, but he didn't know what else to do. As he hollered, he knew he was pushing her away. James became depressed. He wandered around the castle and the grounds, not really speaking to anyone. His Quidditch suffered. He stopped organizing pranks, and barely even teased any Slytherins. He stopped flirting with all girls, Lily included. His friends didn't know how to help him. Even when Sirius charmed a bar of soap and a bucket of water to follow Severus Snape (the most hated Slytherin) around, singing "Splish Splash I was Taking a Bath," with new lyrics, such as "Splish splash, I really need a bath," James only shook his head. He wandered around the school more like a zombie than a wizard.

One Friday night, James and Lily were patrolling the corridors. It had been a quiet night; they hadn't yelled at anyone, including each other. James was rather glad for the silence. He liked to just have her next to him.

"James, are you okay?" James was startled out of his thoughts about Lily by her actual voice. She had asked if he was okay. He was fairly certain that was the first time she had ever inquired about the state of his health. He said as much. "So you just think I don't care whether you are okay or not? You think I am that much of an unfeeling beast?" Lily's voice rose with each word, and she had stopped walking. "You think, Potter, that just because you can get on my nerves and we argue a lot and it drives me crazy when you pick on people just because you don't like them or are bored and I loathe it when you make your hair messy on purpose and I can't stand when you get all big-headed and egotistical and I hate it when you embarrass me by asking me out every five minutes, I don't worry if you stop doing those things?!" By the time she had finished, Lily was all-out shouting.

"What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean? You hate it when I do...all that...but you worry when I don't? Lily, I swear, I will never understand you, no matter how hard I try! I know what you think of me, I'm an egotistical ass, an arrogant prat, too popular for my own good and a great bullying toerag. Don't confuse the issue!" James was hollering now too. He really would never understand her. He couldn't help it, though. She was the only one he wanted. He noticed that Lily, rather than looking stormy as was the usual during an argument, was looking thoughtful.

"Have I really called you all of those things? I don't remember."

"Well, I remember every single bloody damned thing you have ever said to me, and I guarantee that you've called me all that and much, much more." Oops. James realized that that had been the wrong thing to say. She was angry again.

"There is NO POSSIBLE WAY you can remember all that, so just stop insulting my intelli-" James couldn't listen to her shout at him any more. He had to stop those words from coming out of her mouth. So he did the only thing he could think of. Literally, it was the only thing he had thought of for years. He kissed her.

At first, he thought she was going to slap him. He certainly saw her arms coming at him out of the corner of his eye. Then he realized that her arms were around his neck. And she was kissing him back. She was kissing back! Lily Evans was kissing James Potter! He was so ecstatic, he could barely breathe. Fireworks exploded inside him at her touch. Her lips were so soft, and her mouth was so warm. He felt her body pressed up against him and her hands running all over his back. It just fit. It felt like they had been molded together. He slid his own hands into her hair. It was silky smooth. He loved the feel of it. She kept kissing passionately. He felt his knees buckle, and realized that the only reason he hadn't fallen was she had pushed him up against the wall. It was perfect.

In the back of his mind, James heard applause. It seemed Lily heard it too, because she pulled away. Sure enough, there were the Marauders, clapping and whistling along with Lily's friends Alice and Colleen. Sirius was carrying James' invisibility cloak, which was obviously under the effects of a strong Engorgement Charm. James grinned and ran his hand through his hair, blushing. Lily was blushing, too.

"I loathe it when you do that, remember?" she said softly.

"I know, but you worry when I don't." James smiled. Nothing would take the smile off his face now. He wound his arm around her waist. Lily was smiling too.

"Trapped by my own words."

"Listen, I am really happy for you guys and everything," began Colleen, "but I just have to know. James, why didn't you give up on her? Everyone thought that you had. Even Lily did, when you got so depressed."

"Yeah, Lily said she realized that she cared for you when you stopped being yourself," Alice put in. "She said she missed the old James." There was a chorus of "Aww" from the Marauders.

"I can't help myself, I never wanted anyone else. So I guess I just kept coming back for more. Lily's just the girl I'm looking for. I love her. I love you," he said, looking down at her. At that, tears came into Lily's eyes.

"You know what, James? You're just the guy I'm looking for. And I love you, too." Then, as their friends applauded, James Potter and Lily Evans kissed again.