LILY AND JAMES (part 1): “The Making of a Friendship”

By, Joni

Written in January 2000

Revised September 2001

Lily sat alone outside in the courtyard of Hogwarts with her Charms spell book open in her lap. It was a beautiful late summer day with a pleasant breeze and Charms happened to be her favorite subject. She was in her fifth year at Hogwarts studying to be a witch. Her parents thought it was wonderful to have a witch in the family, but Lily’s sister, Petunia, thought is was a disgrace. She missed them all, even her horrible sister.

Lily was suddenly distracted from her studies as an unexpected gust of wind came and blew off her pointed hat, blowing it across the courtyard. It landed it the lap of another fifth year student.

She recognized him immediately, although they had never met. He was James Potter, Gryffindor prefect, sitting with his close friends, whom she also recognized. James and his friends were very popular, although she always thought them an odd bunch. James was tall and skinny and he had funny black hair that went in every direction. Lily thought it always looked like he forgot to comb it. His friends were Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. Lily sighed heavily, and wondered why her hat had to land by such a group of troublemakers, because that was what James and his friends were known for the most.

James looked at the hat down in his lap and then glanced around to determine to whom the hat belonged to. He saw a girl coming toward him, and knew it must be hers because she had no hat. He recognized her right away, everyone knew Lily. She was pretty, with golden red hair, and the brightest green eyes he had ever seen. She was also very smart and fairly shy. She was a Ravenclaw prefect but James had never spoken to her. He jumped up and went to her, glad to have the chance to meet her.

“I think this is yours,” James said, as he handed back her hat.

“Yes, thank you. Sorry it bothered you,” Lily said taking the hat and putting it back on.

She started to walk back to her books when James said, “Wait! We’ve never met. I’m James Potter.” He extended out his hand to her.

“I’m Lily,” she said politely, shaking his hand. Then turning again to go back to her books. James followed her there and asked, “What are you studying?”

Lily told him she was looking at the Charms spells they would be learning this year and that it was

her favorite subject. James told here that his favorite subject was Transfiguration and then they talked a little about being prefects. James was outgoing, liked being a prefect, and meeting people. Lily was shy, but she liked to work with people, she just found it more difficult.

“Maybe you would like it more if you knew more people. Come on, come meet my friends,” James said, grabbing Lily’s hand and dragging her back to where he had been sitting.

Lily was embarrassed, but was starting to think James wasn’t as bad as she had thought and felt ashamed to have judged him before knowing him. It turned out that James and his friends were all really nice and anxious to know her. Sirius Black was very smart, just as James was, and the two were best friends. Remus Lupin was also smart, but quieter than James and Sirius and Peter Pettigrew was timid and not as smart but enjoyed tagging along. It wasn’t long before she became good friends to James and his group and was known to hang out with them a lot, although she didn’t cause nearly as much trouble as they did.

One day when Lily and James were studying together in the library, James was telling her how he had been given detention for being caught out on the grounds after curfew.

“Why do you always get in so much trouble?” Lily asked him.

James smiled. “I don’t know. I guess I’m just good at it.”

“But that’s the third time this year you’ve been out after curfew. You’re lucky you’ve only been caught once. Don’t you ever learn? I guess not because something tells me you’ll be out after curfew again. Why do you do it?”

James stopped smiling and suddenly became serious. “There is a good reason I go out like that but I can’t tell you why. Maybe someday I can tell you, but just know this—I do it to help a friend when he needs it. That’s all I can tell you.”

Lily knew he was serious and believed him and even though she wanted to know more, she didn’t question him any further. Often she wondered which friend he was talking about and what could possibly be helping that friend by being out after curfew. The more she thought about it the more concerned she became because James’ friends were her friends, too. She decided she’d better just keep out of it because she didn’t want to get into trouble.

A few months later, Lily was up in the astronomy tower at midnight with the other Ravenclaw fifth years for their weekly astronomy lesson. It was a gorgeous clear night and the moon was full and bright. She was studying a constellation through her telescope and taking notes on her parchment when something below on the ground caught her attention. A beautiful stag was galloping across an open field not far from the school. Lily stopped to watch it. She had never seen anything like it before and had no idea there were any animals like that around Hogwarts. Lily picked up her telescope and put it to her eye to get a closer look. In the moonlight she could she it clearly. The stag was a beautiful beast with gleaming brown fur and large majestic antlers. As she watched the stag it suddenly stopped moving and looked straight up at her in the tower. Lily lowered the telescope and a very unusual feeling came over her. Lily felt that the stag could not only see her but it seemed to recognize her, too, and even stranger than that, she had the most peculiar feeling that she knew the stag for somewhere. “That’s impossible,” she thought, but she couldn’t help feeling a strange sensation in her stomach as the stag stared at her for a few more seconds before turning and racing into the Forbidden Forest.

She tried to get the stag out of her mind, but the next day it was all she could think about. In the library James noticed that she was preoccupied.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked Lily.

“Nothing…just this homework,” she said.

“Lily, you’ve been staring at that same page for ten minutes. What’s on your mind?”

“O.K., I’ll tell you, but promise not to laugh…it’s kind of weird,” Lily said.

“I promise. Now what is this all about?” James said, very curious now.

“Well, last night I was up in the astronomy tower for my class and I saw this really beautiful stag outside on the grounds.” Lily said.

“What’s so weird about that?” James asked.

“Nothing. But I swear this stag saw me looking at him from up in the tower. He seemed to see me and not only that; I got this weird feeling that I knew the stag! I know it sounds crazy,” she said quickly as she saw a strange look come over James’s face. “How could I possibly know a stag? I’ve never even seen one before that close until last night.”

“No, no,” James told her. “I don’t think it sounds crazy but it is different. Are you sure the stag looked at you and not something else?”

“I’m positive. I can’t stop thinking about him,” she said.

“You know,” said James, “there are a lot of magical creatures living in that forest. Maybe this stag is one of them. Maybe it did see you and you just thought it knew you. Some of those magical creatures are very mysterious.”

“Yes, it’s probably something like that. Still, I’ve never had a feeling like that before. I wish you could have seen him. Maybe you did see him, you were out when you weren’t suppose to be last night, weren’t you?” asked Lily suspiciously.

James quickly said, “Yes, I was out. Keep your voice down I don’t want everyone in here knowing about it. And no, I did not see a stag. By the way, how did you know I was out anyway?” “I can figure these things out, James; you are only out when you aren’t suppose to be when the moon is full. What are you, a werewolf or something?” Lily said, jokingly.

However, James either didn’t get the joke or didn’t like it. He glared at her and said forcefully, “No, I’m not!”

“James, I was just kidding! What is the matter with you?” Lily said, suddenly concerned.

James looked around the library anxiously, biting his lip. Then he grabbed her arm and said, “There is something I need to tell you, but not in here. Someone might hear. It’s a huge secret and I can’t keep it from you any longer. You’re bound to find out sooner or later anyway and I think it will be better if I tell you myself. Come on; let’s go outside. Get your cloak and meet my by the front doors in ten minutes.”

Lily watched with her mouth open as he grabbed his books and practically ran out of the library. She felt a little scared and confused but grabbed her things and went back to her dorm room to get her winter cloak. Ten minutes later she came to the front doors and saw James waiting, still looking very nervous. He grabbed her arm again and they went outside. Neither of them said anything as they walked away from the school quickly. It was a sunny day, but cold and snow was still on the ground from a recent storm. Their breath rose out in whispy clouds as they quickly went across the grounds, around the forest, and down by the lake. James finally stopped and looked around quickly to make sure no one was around.

“Please tell me what is going on, James,” said Lily. “You’re scaring me. Wait a minute…” she suddenly ripped her arm out of his grip and backed away a few steps. “You ARE a werewolf! That’s what got you so scared all of sudden!”

To this James smiled and said, “Don’t be silly, of course I’m not.”

Lily put her hand to her heart and sighed. “Thank goodness. You really had me worried for a second. What is so important that you have to tell me?”

James took a deep breath and said, “I do know someone who is a werewolf.”
“What?” said Lily, shocked, “Who?”

“You have to promise not to tell anyone who it is or anything I’m about to tell you,” said James.

Lily gulped, “Okay.”

“It’s Remus.”

“What? That’s impossible!” said Lily. But Lily could tell by the look on James’ face that he was serious. Then Lily started to panic. “James, you should stay away from him!”

James looked at her and said, “Please don’t say that. Remus is my friend and yours, too. Before I came outside I asked him if it was okay to tell you about him. He said I could because he trusts you. Besides, it’s not his fault he’s a werewolf. He was bit when he was very young.”

Lily looked at the ground, ashamed, and said, “You’re right, of course. Please forgive me. This just isn’t what I was expecting you to tell me and it’s a shock. Remus is my friend and nothing else should matter.”

“There’s more,” said James. “Dumbledore said he could come here as long as it stayed a secret, so please don’t tell anyone about any of this. Every full moon Remus has to sneak out of school so that nobody gets hurt when he changes. In our first year, I met Remus and he became friends with Sirius, Peter, and I. We noticed that he always left school around the full moon and eventually we figured out what was going on. He was afraid we’d tell everyone about it or stop being his friends, but we weren’t scared and wanted to help him. It didn’t bother us that he was a werewolf, but when he went to transform it was horrible for him. He would bite and scratch himself and he always came back miserable and exhausted.”

“That’s terrible, James, but how could you possibly help him?” asked Lily.

“Well, this part is even a bigger secret, even Dumbledore knows nothing about this. You see we knew that werewolves would only hurt people, but they don’t hurt other animals. So, we decided that we had to find a way to become animals. It took us a long time, but finally, just this year, the three of us learned how to become Animagus. Now that we can transform with Remus he doesn’t hurt himself and he is happier now than he has ever been. Every full moon, we sneak out to be with him and keep him company. That is why I’m always out on the full moon.”

Lily could barely take in what she was hearing, but the look on sincerity on James’s face convinced her that what he was saying was true. The story was too unbelievable to be a lie anyway.

“This is amazing, James, I can barley believe that it is true, but I know you wouldn’t lie to me. If it okay for me to ask, what animals do you three become?” Lily asked.

“I’m glad you asked me that, it’s the best part. Sirius can turn into a large dog and Peter turns into a little rat. I turn into a stag. I saw you last night looking at me from the astronomy tower.”

“That explains why I thought I knew the stag…is was you,” said Lily, amazed.

For a few minutes neither said anything. Finally, Lily said, “I think it’s wonderful what you are doing for Remus. He’s lucky to have friends like you, Sirius, and Peter. I feel lucky to have friends like all of you, too. You know now I’m going to worry about you guys during every full moon. Please don’t let anything happen, I care about you,” and she quickly added, “And Remus, Sirius, and Peter. Please don’t take any unnecessary risks. I don’t want to lose any of my friends.”

James smiled, “Don’t worry, we’ll be careful. I promise. Now let’s go back inside, it’s getting really cold out here.”

They walked together slowly back to the school, neither one saying anything. Finally, Lily said, “You must really be a talented wizard, James. It takes someone very special to become Animagus so young and keep it a secret. I knew you had talent, but I had no idea.”

“Thank you,” said James. “You are really smart, too.”

They smiled at each other and went back into the school glad to be out of the cold weather.