The Girl with the Emerald Eyes [Jily]

Chapter 5- Idiots

Lily was almost falling asleep in Slughorn's potion class for the first time. Slughorn was asking the students to make a "Draught of the Living Dead" and Lily had completed hers 10 minutes ago.

She glanced over at the Marauders' table and met Remus' eye. He mouthed, "I am surrounded by idiots," and Lily had to focus not to laugh out loud. James was shaking a bottle of who-knows-what into his cauldron; Sirius was stirring his pot so much that it splashed about and got James and his robes dirty. James looked up and winked at Lily, who glared back at him.

She heard Slughorn walked up to the boys, and tried to instruct them on the proper use of a cauldron. Lily felt a twinge of jealousy and muttered to herself, "At least they get attention from Slughorn, I could be on fire and he wouldn't care."

Finally, Slughorn walked next to Lily's desk. She had been doodling on spare parchment, but she quickly stuffed under her potions book when Slughorn approached.

"Well, Miss Evans! If I do say, this is a perfect example!" Slughorn bellowed happily. Lowering his voice, he whisphered, "Since you clearly have a knack for potions, would you consider joining my elite Slug Club?"

Lily blinked. Slug Club? What's the Slug Club? Shrugging off her doubts, she told Slughorn, "Yes, I would love that!"

"Good, good. Also, do bring a partner to the Christmas Party! I'll be sending invitations soon!" Slughorn grinned at Lily, and she nodded.

The rest of the day went by fast. Transfiguration with the newly appointed Professor McGonagal was a bore. Lily hated that class. Mostly because that was the only class James was naturally good at.

When Lily sat down in the front and center seat, James immediately stood up and waltzed over the the empty seat.

"Why hello, Evans." He said charmingly.

Lily looked up, and then just looked back down.

"No hello?" James pretended he had been hit, "I am now wounded beyond belief, Evans. I do not think I shall ever be able to flirt again."

Lily let out a small giggle, but immediately surpressed it. James took that as his entrance cue, and plopped down in the seat next to her.

"Remus is supposed to sit there, Potter." Lily muttered.

"But Remy won't mind, right?" He shot a look at Remus, who quickly sat down next to Sirius.

"Nope. Nope, not at all!" Remus squeaked.

The teacher droned on, and eventually told them that they had to transform a toad into a golden ball.

Of course, James masted this spell within seconds, but Lily continued to attempt it. The best she could do was have a ball with the legs of frog.

James, noticing Lily's struggles, placed his hand on hers. "You do it like this." He muttered into Lily's ear. He swished the wand in a graceful way, very unlike Lily's sharp motions.

Suddenly, Lily's brain went into overdrive. "Does he actually care about me? Nah. He probably has some kind of prank that he is going to pull. But, nothing has happened yet. Maybe he has changed!"

Without her knowledge, her cheeks turned a bright red. McGonagal, seeing that, decided to skip their table, so they could hopefully get together. After all, she had a 10 galleons bet with Slughorn that they would.

James, on the other hand, was clearly enjoying this moment. Not only had Lily not pulled away, but she seemed to lean into him. He grinned to himself, but neither noticed that Lily had transfigured the frog. The wand dropped out of her hand, and James took it as an signal. He brought her hand down slowly, and wrapped his fingers around her.

Lily had no idea what James was playing at. She rolled her eyes, pulled her hand away, but muttered, "Thanks, James."

James grinned to himself, and told her, "No problem, L- Wait, did you just call me James?"

It slipped out before Lily had noticed. She hoped that James didn't noticed either.

"Darn it." She thought to herself.

"Um," she stammered. "I-I might have."

James, noticing her discomfort, remembered Remus' lesson on Lily. "If something seems to be bothering her, don't push it. Or else she'll push you into the lake."

It took all of James' restraint to just say, "Well, James is much better than Potter. And believe me, I would like to call you Lily instead of Evans."

He could feel her exhale. She turned around and said, "Yeah, um, t-that would be f-fine."

James blinked. "What?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "You are such a bloody idiot. I said 'Yes, we can call each other by our first names!'"

James chuckled, "But I'm your bloody idiot."

Lily smacked him on the arm, but he could feel her smiling.