For Natalie ~ Slytherin8576

【In which Lily and James learn they might not hate each other after all...】

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Lily Evans and James Potter were complete opposites.

At least that's how it appeared to the untrained eye.

She was sunshine, he was rain. She was day, he was night. She was up, he was down. She was hide, he was seek. She was organised, he was messy. She was thorough, he was impulsive. She was Lily and he was James.

Lily Evans was bookish, kind-hearted and attentive. But she was so much more than that...
She was dancing in the rain, she was reading Jane Austen under the largest oak tree she could find. She was French braids tied with elastic bands, she was standing up on swings in the play park and feeling the wind rush though her hair. She bite marks on pencils, making flower crowns from idly picked daisies, she was blueberry pancakes on spring mornings, skipping straight to dessert, she was flicking through her favourite book just to find that one chapter that she adored so much. She was staying up all night giggling in warm bedrooms, she was putting back that one book onto the shelf and hearing the satisfying thump as it took it's place, she was long eyelashes and glittering eyes. She was the type of girl that made one believe in miracles. She was Lily Evans.

James Potter was different. He was coquettish, hilarious and loyal. But he was so much more than that...
He was running with sparklers in the pitch black, infectious laughter in empty corridors. He was firewiskey at quidditch after-parties, rides in the back of motorcycles and forest explorations. He was lying flat on grass he knew to be wet, he was guitars and campfires, inside jokes whispered behind hands at the back of the classroom. He was terrible pickup lines that somehow managed to be nonchalant, he was causing trouble for the thrill, cigarettes smoked out the window, and flying over the school grounds far too fast to be safe. He was burning cookies that he didn't follow the recipe for anyway, messy hair that he rumpled when nervous, strong jawlines and high cheekbones. He was bursting into classrooms half an hour late without an excuse. He was taking his team over quidditch plays for hours on end just so they're prepared. He was crooked grins and impish winks, he was leaning back on chairs, handing in homework two days late, he was passing tests he barley revised for. He was hazel eyes behind thick rectangular glasses. He was the type of boy she was told to avoid. He was James Potter.

Lily Evans and James Potter were complete opposites.

That's what they said. And for a while they were believed.

After all they did seem like opposites. James was loud and obnoxious, while Lily was reserved and quiet. He was tall and athletic while she preferred to read romance novels than go for runs. She hated transfiguration, he was top of the class. Similarly, James couldn't abide potions, while Lily could whip up a laughing potion with her eyes closed. She was even right handed while he was left.

But their oppositions went deeper than that. Lily believed in after life; James was a strong atheist. James loved the rain; Lily's hair went frizzy in the wet weather. Lily couldn't abide swearing; James cursed like a sailor. Lily loved to pick flowers while James was plagued with hay fever.
They clashed on many levels. Lily liked to see the good in the world while James preferred to be fine tuned to the shit. Lily liked to bring out good where there wasn't any, while James took the approach of stamping out the shit he found. She was glass half full while he had drank the glass' contents before he got the chance to study it.

And it was for this reason that most people- the majority, very dense people- expected to see Lily with the bookish, timid, quietly handsome Remus Lupin, or one similar to him.
And it was the reason that it was expected of James to belong with the red lipstick wearing, leather jacket clad Marlene McKinnon.
Remus and Lily buzzed off classic novels and sweet tea where Marlene and James got a kick out of rule breaking and cigarettes.

On paper this would be enough to conjugate a successful pair but it wasn't about what things looked good on paper (James would never read the form regardless).
It was about emotion. It wasn't something you can predict like the weather next week. It was random luck; like picking the ace of diamonds out a deck of fifty two cards, for example.

And it wasn't controllable either.

Trying to control love like that would be best described as trying to fend off hailstones with a knitting needle. It was nearly impossible.

You can attempt to hide away from the inevitability. But the hard truth was that no amount of firewiskey, cigarettes or meaningless Hogsmeade dates was going to shake it off your subconscious.

If she was up then he was down. It was simple. It was easy enough to understand, except the story didn't end at up or down. At left or right, at black or white. Nothing is quite that simple. Everything has little shades of grey...

Lily Evans and James Potter were complete opposites.

That's what they said. But those that looked close enough would realise that this wasn't entirely true at all.

Because on occasion James could be seen with a Jane Austen book stolen from Lily's bedside. He chose to read it hanging upside down from the oak tree but he read it all the same.
And every so often Lily could be found in the quidditch stands, cheering louder than anyone else in a ten mile radius.

There were times when James would feel the need to complete his homework on the date provided and there were times that Lily could be seen scrawling the remaining three inches of her essay as the professor collects them in.
There were times- not very often- but times, when they might even complete their homework together.

Lily Evans and James Potter might be different, but the truth of the matter was that they weren't in anyway complete opposites.

But despite this, they all said that she hated him.

But that was easily proved wrong...

She could be caught smiling at him in classrooms, blushing when he told her she was beautiful, rising to his flirtatious comments and playfully scalding his homework and cussing habits. She could be seen snatching cigarettes out from between his teeth and making him finish his essays. She cared about him, even if she didn't tell him so, she did.

There wasn't an exact place to pinpoint where it happened, but somewhere down the line her care evolved into love.

They were still Lily Evans and James Potter but together they were so much more...
Together they were stolen kisses in between classes, they were holding hands under the table at the back of the classroom. They were clandestine rendezvous in broom closets, they were extensive bets on who could do something better. They were midnight adventures around the castle, they were jumping into the Black Lake with all their clothes on in the middle of the night. They were his kisses peppered all over her freckles, hers along his sharp jaw. They were snuggling on front of the fire on winter nights, resting their heads on each other's laps, they were playing wizards chess late into the night. They were driving down county roads with all the windows down, kissing on New Year's at midnight, they were lying on their backs stargazing well after curfew. They were random exclamations of love for no reason at all. Together, they were Lily Evans and James Potter. They were matching puzzle pieces, binding, final.

They were soulmates.

Lily Evans and James Potter were complete opposites.

That's what they said.

She hated him.

She did, once.

She hated how irritatingly good he was at transfiguration. She hated how strict he was on his quidditch team, she hated how he hexed Severus, and she hated how he loved to do all of those things.

It wasn't for her to know that on occasion he took great pleasure in tutoring younger students in transfiguration. It wasn't her concern that he often spent merlin knows how long convincing his quidditch team they could do anything, and that he was only hard on them because he knew how much it meant to them to win. She was too blinded by naïveté to see that he hexed Severus every time he insulted Remus and his scars.

But how was she to know?

She hated him.

Didn't she?

Did she really?

Because the kisses told another story. The hugs, the breathtaking crooked grins, the subtle winks, the note passing, the quidditch sweater wearing, the laughing, the crying, the laughing till you cry, the flying, the falling and the everything in between.

He didn't know what love was until he met her. He didn't know it at first but it was always her. Through every meaningless Hogsmeade date, every standard kiss on the astronomy tower, every breakup that he should really be sadder about. It was always her.

He didn't know it at first. But he realised it when he found himself lying with his head on her lap as she braided daisies into his curls, he realised it was love when he didn't have the heart to tell her about his debilitating hay fever, instead he just let her continue and he suffered the consequences later.

He realised it was love when he noticed halfway through reading her Jane Austen novel upside down on the oak tree that he'd read it before- his mother had forced it on him. And yet Lily looked so excited to see what he thought of it, she looked so happy. He realised it was love when he lied to let her keep her happiness. He told her he loved it and it was all thanks to her.

She found out he lied when she saw the copy already under his bed.
And she found out about the daises when she saw him the next morning with red rimmed eyes, sneezing like there was no tomorrow.

She asked him why?

He told her it was because he loved her.

She loved him too.

She never thought it possible to fall in love like she did, but yet again James Potter proved her wrong.
She loved him when she watched him zip through Slytherins and bludgers on his broomstick, so fast he was difficult to see. She loved him when she noticed him smile at the second year chaser- the youngest student on his team. He could have easily scored that goal but instead, he passed it to her. She scored the winning goal.

And Lily knew.

So when they said she hated him, none of them really knew the truth.

The stolen kisses proved them all wrong. The midnight swims in the lake with their clothes on told them they were fools. The clandestine rendezvous in the broom closets made them doubt why they ever even thought it in the first place. Stargazing on the astronomy tower changed the minds of far too many closed minded people.

Because they were in love.

Different or not.

Opposites or not.

Up or down.

Left or right.

This or that.

Back or white.

They were in love. And nothing in the world could take that away from them. No one, could. Not a soul.

Lily Evans and James Potter were complete opposites.

That's what they said.

She hated him...

Nah, she didn't.

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