Cruel Summer - Lily and James Potter

Chapter 3 - Alterations

'What are you doing?' he asked her suspiciously.

'Making alterations.'

He didn't get time to say anything before she transfigured his black robes into a pair of jeans and a turtleneck sweater.

'There,' she looked at him, 'now you look presentable.'

A snort came from the other side of the room, making them both turn to the noise. Petunia stood in the doorway, looking at James as if he was an insect that was in desperate need of a squishing.

'Real clothes can't hide the fact that you're both freaks!'

Lily narrowed her eyes at her sister and played with her wand in her fingertips, 'Tell me, Petunia, would you like any alterations while I'm just giving them away?'

Petunia sneered before scuttling off into the lounge as Lily grabbed James and dragged him out of the house.

*********************************

The walk to the train station was a definite interesting one. The fact that muggles were everywhere made James nervous, resulting in him looking like an escaped criminal when he kept looking around everywhere. His constant pestering to apperate there faster was slowly but surely driving Lily insane. By the time they had arrived at the station and they'd fought over the timetable to catch the right train, Lily was good and ready to charm something away like she had promised.

On the train they sat opposite each other in silence, which she was glad about while James looked out of the window at England passing by at 70mph.

He turned to look at Lily as she glanced at her muggle watch, 'I don't like your sister much.'

'She'll be so upset,' she answered sarcastically, 'I think she's really into you.'

James chose to ignore the sarcasm, it had been less than a day that he'd spent with her but it felt like a year already.

'Merlin, does this girl piss me off,' he thought, 'she's worse than Wormtail.'

As if reading his mind, Lily looked at him and asked, 'Why do you hang around with Sirius and that lot?'

James shifted his gaze to her question, 'Why not?'

'Don't do that.'

'What?'

'Answer my question with a question.'

'Sorry your Highness.'

Lily rolled her eyes and sighed, 'Well?'

'Coz they're my mates; the Marauders. You know the deal.'

'Hmm,' she mused, folding her arms, 'all I see are immature little boys that name themselves considerably more than you actually are. Which is also profoundly sad by the way.'

James acknowledged her coolly as she sat back in her seat with a small smirk on her lips.

'You're lucky I don't hit girls,' he said calmly.

'Why? Because you would kick my ass otherwise?' she scoffed, laughing, 'Yeah I can just see that happening.'

James' jaw hardened and his features froze as she continued with the stream of insults.

'And what's with all the nicknames? Does every member get a cute little pet name to go with their imaginary power?'

Lily's eyes lit up and she smirked, 'Ooh, do you talk in code?'

James lunged across the space between them, grabbing her throat and pinning her to the seat, his cerulean eyes piercing her deep emerald ones like shards of splintered glass. Lily had sucked in her breath as James had leapt on her, pressing her into the soft material. She was glad the carriage was quite empty suddenly as she made her alarm quite evident in her face and body language.

'Fucking shut up, Evans. You don't know what you're talking about,' he growled in her face.

'Get. Off. Me.' she warned.

'Listen to me Lily!' he seethed, fingers pressing deeper into her soft neck, his breath hot on her face, 'Don't even dare to say anything about them in front of me. Do you understand?'

Whether Lily was disorientated by his actions or the fact that he'd used her first name, she didn't know, but she looked hard into his raging hot eyes and leaned forward the inch between their faces to meet his lips. Utterly stunned for a second James pulled away fast from her and she pushed him hard, backwards into his seat.

Lily grabbed her bag as the train pulled into the station and stopped, and she got up fast from the cubicle and strode towards the open doors. James, still thoroughly shocked, watched her leave without actually acknowledging that she was and he paused for a second. When he realised that he was on his own he jumped from his seat and scrambled out of the train.

Stepping onto the hard platform, he looked around but all he saw was muggles. They were everywhere waiting for trains. James scanned the crowd, honing his Seeker skills on finding her. He only had to do it once before he caught sight of her retreating form, heading for the station exit, her wavy red hair swaying behind her.

James sprinted towards her, using his Quidditch skills again to weave and dodge the oblivious muggles, managing to catch her up quickly.

'Lily!'

She ignored him.

'Lily!'

Again, she chose to ignore him. James grabbed her arm hard and spun her around to face him.

'What the hell was that for?' he exclaimed, still latched to her arm in case she bolted.

'It got you off me, didn't it?' she answered flatly.

Lily tugged her arm from his grasp and walked through the exit onto the street, leaving James standing on the platform thoroughly confused and a strange sensation bubbling in the pit of his stomach.