Rumtreiber Oneshots/ HP

Reasons why Lily gradually decided she liked James Potter

"Oh, sorry. Hey there Evans, but no time for flirting. We're acutally busy."
Sirius smiled at her cheekily, while James hadn't even replied. After smiling at her, he just continued scribbeling on his parchement, starting the second piece already. 

Lily had to grin at Sirius' answer, but decided not to give in.
"Too bad, I already saw you two doing this essay earlier today. So, what are you doing? Planning a prank?"

Sirius shook his head, acting like he was in complete disbelief. 
"Evans, darling, what do you think of us? We'd never dare to prank someone inside a school building! That's against the rules, Ms. Evans."

As Lily just rolled her eyes but didn't want to give in. She really was curious about what those two did in the library, when they could relax in the dormitory on a Sunday evening. Potter exhaled deeply and finally looked at her with his big hazel eyes. 

"We're writing Remus' essay. He doesn't feel too well and we didn't want him to write it, while he's barely able to keep his eyes open."

Lily looked at them, astonished. 
"But...Professor McGonagall surely is going to find out. She always uses spells which recognize copying."

"We aren't copying, Mrs. Evans. We're writing the essay, just like a striving student would do." 

Still in disbelief, she continued to look at them, long after they continued writing Remus' essay. As they seemed to be finished, Potter tapped to parchement with his wand and his writing changed. It looked like Remus had written the essay now. 

As they rolled up the parchement, brought back the books and waved at Lily before leaving the library, Lily couldn't help but feel sympathy for the two boys. Maybe they weren't so bad after all. 

Fifth year at Hogwarts, 1975

Everyone had heard about it by now. At the latest one heard about the rumours, when Bellatrix Lestrange loudly announced at breakfast, that Sirius Black was kicked out of his home because he seemed to be a "filthy blood-traitor" in his mothers eyes.

Lily always took a poor view on rumours and wasn't one the believe them, but when she saw Sirius gripping his cuttlerey tighter and all the colour disappearing from his face, she knew that it had to be true. She thought about asking him at the table, but before she could even open her mouth, James Potter had gathered a bunch of pasties with one hand and grabbed Sirius with the other. They were off, quicker than anyone could have said something. 

In the evening, Lily was studying in the common room, as Sirius stumbled in. This time, he was alone, because James was helping the newest addition to their quidditch team practice. Lily debatted for a moment, whether she should say something and decided to do so. Sirius was just about to climb the staircase to the boys dormitory, as she stood up from her stool. 

"Sirius, wait." Surprised, he turned around. 

Surprised, because: First, they did not talk a lot in general. Sure, they were civil, but they weren't the best of friends. Sirius didn't understand why she turned off James all the time and therefore had a certain grudge on her too. Second, Lily never called him Sirius. When she had to talk to him, he was Black. 
But this time, it was different.

"Listen...I just wanted to say, that I'm sorry about what happened between your family and you this summer. I'm sure you can fix it."

Sirius first looked a little startled at what she said, but he put a small, appreciative smile on.

"Thank you, Lily. That means a lot, actually. But I don't think that we'll be able to fix it...you know, contrary to my family I'm not really keen on joining the Deatheater-Gang." 

Even though he tried to joke about it, Lily knew it hit deep. 

"But...What are you gonna do then? Where are you staying?"

Sirius, again, seemed surprised about how she appeared to care about what was happening to him. First he wanted to joke again, but after this long day, he really just wasn't in the mood to do so. 

"Don't you worry. I'm staying at James'. Went straight to the Potter's after I ran away...I was always welcome there and was spending most of my time at Potter Manor anyway. James and his parents assured me I could stay as long as I'd like."

Lily looked at him: Surprised, but pleasently. 

"Oh...That's very friendly of Potter."

Sirius looked at her, thoughtfully. 

"No, that's just James. Unconditionally loyal and always there when one needs him. Maybe you should try and see him for who he really is, not for who you think he is. He really changed, you know."

After that Sirius turned around and left to join Remus and Peter in the boys dormitory. 
Lily just stood there for a while, looking after him. She was quite speechless, actually.

Fifth year at Hogwarts, 1976

It was a rather early Monday morning and even though nobody seemed to be exceptionally motivated, nearly all of the fifth year students were gathered in the Great Hall for breakfast. Tomorrow they would start their O.W.L.s and everyone still wanted to get a bit of studying in before their first big exam at Hogwarts. 

As Lily sat down at the breakfast table with her two best friends, Marlene and Alice, she noticed the Marauders behaving in an unusual way. Remus, who normally always started studying early in the morning, was fast asleep on James Potters shoulder, while Potter himself was busy forcing a pale-looking Sirius Black to eat some oatmeal and drink a glass pumpkin juice. Said Black seemed to strongly refuse doing so, but he didn't seem to have a lot of choices, as Potter practically rammed the spoon into his mouth. Pettigrew wore Potters quidditch coat, while being fast asleep on the table. 

It was a rather strange view to see on a monday morning, and even though the night before had been a full moon, even Lily got a bit of sleep. But the Marauders seemed quite sleep-deprived, and while three of them were either half asleep or on the verge of doing so, one of them acted quite motherly. Feeding oatmeal, packing lunch for those who were asleep and lending his best friend a shoulder to rest on.

Suddenly, a hand started waving in front of Lilys face. As she turned her face back to look at her friends, both smiled at her knowingly. Lily just shook her head and burried her bright red face in a bowl of cereal.

Sixth year at Hogwarts, 1976

It was late and Lily just arrived back in the Gryffindor common room after spending the whole afternoon in the library. The N.E.W.T.s were coming up rather quick and she wanted to keep up her good grades. As she walked in through the portrait hole, she noticed the entire common room already being empty, appart from six students who were sitting on the couch in front of the fire. 

They all seemed to be only in their first or second year, appart from a lanky boy who stood out from the others. He had messy black hair, that seemed to do everything but what the boy wanted it to do, and glasses, which were placed lazily on his nose. James Potter. 

Lily watched them for a while and James seemed to help them transform their tea-cup into a turtle. He patiently showed them the wrist movement, told them how to pronounce the spell correctly and corrected their mistakes, so that they would be able to try again. 

To her own surprise, Lily smiled at the scene. Potter always had a certain talent for Transfiguration and passionally loved it. It was nice of him the help those students, who seemed to be really anxious about their first upcoming exams.

The scene in front of her was admittedly...rather cute. 
As soon as he noticed her standing there, he smiled and waved goodnight, as she walked up into the girls dormitory. Lily waved back and couldn't hide her blushing cheeks.

Maybe James Potter wasn't so bad after all. Maybe, she even started to like him.