❛ THE 'NEW' JAMES POTTER ❜
☾ act one ⤼ chapter one ☽

❝ LILY! EARTH TO LILY! ❜❜

˚ ✩ ｡✩ ˚

IT HAS BEEN FIVE DAYS SINCE LILY EVANS had stepped onto the hogwart's express once again and finally made it back to the safe haven of the magical school and needless to say, she was already stunned.

Surprised, astonished, dazed, dumbfounded, shocked, basically speechless. You'd think after a winter break filled with your older sister who pretends you don't exist, but still manages to insult you in every single aspect would be able to stun her harder.

But, she truly was with this. And the reason was enough to make the whole school go into another gossip shenanigan, just like the many ones before, which were unfortunately mostly about her, along with a certain brunette boy. ( like when he hexed one of lily's ex-boyfriends into a parrot, don't ask )

And that certain boy was always the problem. If trouble had a human form, it would be him. He was the reason she was shocked to the point that she could barely speak. It was as if he had planned for her to be like this, trapped in her bewildered thoughts about what the actual fuck was happening.

Because that certain boy was a pain in the ass. No, this certain boy is a pain in the ass. He had this way of arrogantly strutting through the halls as if he owned the place, much to her displeasure. And he would go around pranking fellow students with his friends, the so called marauders, leading to many times where her prefect status would allow her to give them detention and get to rightfully warn them about the consequences of continuing to do the same thing over and over and over again.

He never listened though.

And another thing he never listened to was when she refused to go out with him. He even continued to ask her out, despite the many, many, many, many times she had replied with the infamous no! She told herself she would never go out with him, never ever. Not in a million years, not in five years. Not in her wildest dreams or in her reality.

She had expected him to stop at one point, most likely the second they graduated and then he would just slip out of her life just like that, throw her away like a bad habit and find company with other girls who would actually find him hot and fall for all of his "charms."

Him stopping now was not what she expected. He had just stopped. Typically, on the train, he would visit her compartment, confidently announce a cheesy pick up line, making her beyond just the word annoyed, and then when they arrived, he would continue to bother her with his constant ideas of how to ask out a girl, yet this time he hadn't done any of that.

Quite the opposite really, he just hung out with his friends. Smiles at people at dinner, laughed with his friends, and still was doing minor pranks, but nothing to truly grasp Lily's attention. This was weird. She couldn't wind her head around what was going on with him. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, it just wasn't something she was expecting. It was actually kind of nice, but weird. Really weird, especially when this boy wasn't just any boy. 

This was Bloody James Potter.

James Bloody Potter with his sparkling hazel eyes and tall frame where he proudly stood at exactly five foot eight inches. James Bloody Potter with his broad shoulders and quidditch built chest that Lily had definitely not noticed through the outlines of muscles through his crisp shirt. And, of course, his small, little smirk that brung every single girl ( and boy ) down to their knees, begging for a chance.

Did she mention he's also the star chaser on the quidditch team and has recently become the captain? And that he somehow manages to receive good scores and be a hardcore troublemaker? It was enough to make Lily huff in annoyance at the thought of it.

James Potter, the one who could do it all.

People just blissfully expected her to give in, give in to his facade of perfection and infectious smile that always hung on his lips. But, no. She wouldn't ever give in. Absolutely never. And if he were the only one to ever show interest in her, so be it. She would enjoy dying single, no drama and no strings attached.

But that wasn't exactly pleasant-

"LILY. EARTH TO L I L Y."

Lily blinked twice, losing her train of thought as she tilted her head up in the direction of her best friend, Marlene Mackenzie Mckinnon.

The reckless blondie who clearly was the exact opposite of Lily, in pretty much every single way. She was quite pretty, with her ocean blue eyes filled with adventure and courage, often attracting the likes of many. And unlike Lily, she welcomed the thought of love with a warm embrace, hoping that one day it wouldn't be taken advantage of. She thought of love like a melody that would whisper in your ear when the time was right.

But, right now, that wasn't the thought that stung in Marlene's mind. As far as she was concerned, at this particular moment, giving chances was nihilistic bullshit.

"Yeah?" Lily finally responded to Marlene, now looking down at the book she had left open for quite a bit now, closing it with a swift thud.

"Were you listening to a thing I was saying?"

Marlene sat down in front of Lily, taking a sip out of her cup of orange juice, since she had already finished her breakfast while Lily's was untouched. They had arrived in the great hall earlier that morning on good timing, but I guess we all have our moments where we, er, lose sense of where we are.

"Well, i-" Lily pauses her lie before biting her tongue, letting out a small breath and shaking her head. "Sorry, no."

Marlene furrows her eyebrows, placing her cup back down on the table with a thud. "i was talking about how annoying Diggory is!"

"Oh. Him. What happened this time?" Lily chuckles, playing around with her piece of toast, not making a move to eat it.

"He had the audacity to tell me that girls can't play quidditch! And that I should be learning how to cook, clean, and be a obedient, little housewife!"

Lily rolls her eyes. "What a git."

Amos Diggory was certainly a guy Lily steered clear of. It was as if he were stuck in the early 1900's, playing alpha male when heaven knows his mother still tucks him into bed. At least James Potter was above all that idiotic masculinity.

"So i hexed him." Marlene proudly states, grinning happily at Lily as if she hadn't been frustrated just a few minutes earlier. "For the record, I don't think he'd want to try a batch of my taste-like-shit brownies."

"Agreed." Lily chuckles again at the thought, imagining Amos' pink, little face taking a bite out of that inedible treat. "Is that all you were going to say?"

"Yes. Congratulate me."

Lily sighs, sarcastically responding, "Congratulations."

Marlene jumps up, beaming. "Thank you, Thank you."

Lily just shook her head, running a hand through her hair. Even though she wouldn't admit it, it was nice to have a distraction from her dumbfounded thoughts on James Potter, even just for a few minutes. But as quickly as it had gone, the thoughts stormed their way back in, causing Lily to sigh in agony.

"Okay, what's up with you?" Marlene raises an eyebrow, a small grin playing at her lips. "Before you deny it, you've been staring at your food for the last thirty minutes, looking as lost as greasy haired, wannabe depressed kid does when he's not around you."

"Nothing, nothing." Lily claims, ignoring the mention of her ex-friend and feeling her failure to convince Marlene. "Just...thinking."

"About what? Or who-" Marlene started teasingly before being cut off by the appearance of the last person Lily wanted to see.

James Bloody Potter.

Lily's eyes followed Marlene's to be met face to face with his hazel eyes and messy brown hair. He strut right in, seemingly grabbing the attention of the whole dining hall, with, of course, his friends by his side.

Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew. They were all laughing at something James said and Lily could swear she heard at least ten girls gawk over them all. They all made it to the Gryffindor table, James sitting exactly two seats down from her.

Lily looked at him for a few seconds before looking away, hoping no one had seen her, her eyes dropping back down to her uneaten food.

"C'mon! Let's go say hi!" Marlene says with a mischievous grin, grabbing Lily's hand and pulling her straight up with her. Lily sighed, knowing that this was Marlene's revenge for her zone out session this morning mixed in with the fact that Marlene had always been team James and Lily.

"Hi Jamie!" Marlene grinned as she pulled along Lily, giving James a big hug while Lily stood awkwardly, waving to Remus quietly.

Marlene and James were childhood friends, having known each other since birth. Their parents hung out a lot while they were growing up, so their bond was pretty strong even though they had both gathered other friends as they grew into their teens.

And everyone knew that that was as far as their relationship went. It was pretty clear they were just friends when Marlene was dared to kiss James at the annual winter party and Marlene said it would be like kissing a naked mole rat. ( to say James was offended would be an understatement, but he got the message )

James returned the hug to Marlene, laughing slightly. "Hey Marly."

"You didn't have too much fun without me, did you?" Marlene asks, clearly enjoying having Lily within an earshot, staring at her fidgeting fingers. "Cause you never can truly have fun without me."

"Never Marls never." James shook his head, running a hand through his delicate, brown strands, which Lily was sure had to been one of the most softest things to ever exist.

Not like she would ever find out.

"Did you guys behave? I hope Remus kept you all in line." Marlene jokes, but, dear, she had a point. These guys always seemed to grasp trouble in the oddest of ways, even with Remus's typical logic and somewhat maturity.

"Always, since when do we not behave?" Sirius chimes in, smirking his infamous smirk, as if he could feel the gaze of the girls who had sat down a few seats away, blinking their eyelids too many times that anyone could count.

"All the time, Padfoot, all the time." Remus pat Sirius on the back before flicking Peter in the head who was about to add something to Sirius's comment, heading over to Lily.

"Let me guess-she dragged you here, didn't she?" Remus whispered to Lily, taking a sip out of his glass of orange juice, his voice sounding rather amused.

"No shit, Sherlock." Lily muttered back, leading to Remus to let out a small laugh which he made no effort to hide.

"She's getting revenge. I zoned out in our conversation while she was ranting."

"You should have known."

"I definitely should have."

"Well, we better be off, Lily and I." Marlene states a little while later, a small smile on her lips. "I'll talk to you guys later on."

"Can't wait." Sirius winks jokingly and Lily could swear she heard at least one of the girls sigh deeply.

"Bye Marls." Remus chuckles, before turning to Lily and saying, "Bye Lily."

"Bye." Lily says, looking at all of them except for the one who she was quick to get out of her sight, getting ready to turn away.

But before Marlene and Lily could leave and get on with their day, a voice spoke up in the chaos of the great hall.

"Bye Lily."

Lily knew that voice too well and the sweetness laced with the words made it fit the confusing Potter who immediately went quiet after speaking.

She paused her walk, letting Marlene get a few steps ahead of her, taking it all in with a deep breath before a smile reached her lips.

He had changed.

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your favorite bitch is back!

finally published this after a million years and i am so damn proud of myself, someone get me a medal !! i finished this up after coming back from my hiatus and i'm actually kinda proud of how this was written ?? like that's a first.

chapter two is in the process of being written, probably gonna have more of our favorite boys!   i planned out this whole entire book yesterday and that's when inspiration hit !

also, what did y'all think of the length of this chapter? was it too short or pretty good? i think this was pretty okay in length, but idk.

lastly, if any of you have any good headcanons that you like to imagine of jily, comment them cause they may or may not appear in this book!

welp, that's all! have a great day / night / morning and when you're feeling down, think of the godly ship of jily :)

- adrienne