Lily pad 

Defense Against the Dark Arts

'What do you call a person who's had a limb, let's say his leg, has been severed by a Klipton's curse – Mr. Potter?'

'You'd call her Eileen, sir.'

The class broke out into sniggers as Professor Norling clucked his tongue in agitation at the boy who stared all too innocently back. 'Five points from Gryffindor, Potter.'

The sniggers stopped and a soft groan emitted from half of the classroom.

Ignoring them, Professor Norling turned to the girl sitting next to Potter who still had her hand raised. 'Miss Evans?'

'Klippered.'

'Well done, Miss Evans, five points to Gryffindor.'

'Well that was completely pointless.'

'What was that, Mr. Potter?'

'I'd call her Ei-' Potter started to state loudly but was cut off by a rather sharp nudge to the ribs, punctured by a rather brutal blazing glare. 'I mean…' Potter faltered at Evan's hard expression. 'Klippend, it's the other option isn't it?'

'That's what you'd call his limb,' Norling gave Potter a nod before he turned to return to the front of the class. 'Now this is a rather nasty curse but it can be stopped however from…'

'Damn it Evans, you didn't have to poke so hard.' James Potter hissed under his breath to the red-head sitting beside him as he rubbed his aching side.

'And there's no need to be a smart-alec, Potter.' Lily Evans' green eyes graced him with a disproving glare before settling her gaze back onto the rambling Professor. 'You knew the answer, why can't you just give it to him straight?'

'Because he's teaching us things we already know, we should be practicing for the bloody exams already – you can't deny that.'

'Don't swear, Potter.' Lily said, after a moment of hesitation, not wanting to admit she agreed with what he said.

'Besides,' James said under his breath a smirk threatening to break out from the corners of his mouth. 'I would call her Eileen.'

Transfiguration

'Can everyone please look here for a moment?' Professor McGonagall raised her voice over the hubbub in her classroom.

The noise settled down almost immediately as every head turned toward her as she stood in the middle of the room.

Lily Evans gave a frustrated grunt at her frog, which resembled more of an orange with extra appendages than the animal she was trying to turn it into. She gathered it up so it wouldn't roll itself off her desk and turned in her seat to look at the Professor standing at the desk behind her.

'Mr. Potter.' Professor McGonagall said, enthusiastically, 'Show everyone what you just showed me?'

Lily was barely able to bite back a groan; Potter didn't need encouragement to show off.

James hardly hesitated or showed any embarrassment. He carelessly waved his wand, and lazily rolled his tongue over the 'r' in the incantation. The blueberry sitting solitary in the middle of his desk became swollen and changed colour until a bright green frog was sitting where the berry had been moments ago.

'That's a perfect example of what I was explaining before.' McGonagall said, placing an encouraging pat on James' shoulder.

James grinned up at his teacher, and almost missed the scowl on the face of Lily Evans sitting in front of him. He frowned back, confused.

Lily turned away, feeling rather jealous. He should not be allowed to be smarter than her – he never studied how can…

'Hey, Prongs – loved the joke this morning.' Sirius Black's voice cut across Lily's thoughts. 'Eileen, what a crack-up.'

Lily scowled to herself and tried to concentrate on her bloated, orange frog.

'Speak for yourself, Padfoot, I know a better one.'

'Come on then, let's hear it.'

Trying to ignore the immature jabbering on behind her, Lily waved her wand, failing the correct wand movement, she accidentally turned her frog blue. She cursed the owners of the jovial voices behind her.

'What do you call a girl with a frog on her head?'

Lily didn't need to hear the answer; she'd heard this one before from a friend in a muggle school before she went to Hogwarts. It had been funny at the time, but now as she felt something slimy land on her head, she wasn't laughing.

Unfortunately for her, Sirius was. He had fallen off his chair and was laughing loudly causing people to turn and stare.

'Mr. Black, please retain yourself and resume your seat, I – oh.' Professor McGonagall stopped short at the sight of Lily with James' frog on her head. By this time, half the class had noticed and were giggling.

Lily was highly affronted to see that even the Professor was trying to stop from smiling despite her efforts to quiet the class. Blushing to the exact colour of her hair, Lily lifted the frog off her head, and turned to return it to the boy behind her, along with an icy look of disgust.

James, however, smiled brightly and reached out to receive the frog. 'Thank you, my dear Lily-pad.'

Sirius lost it again.

Charms

This was becoming confusing. Because of an event a day ago with a frog some people had felt obliged to call Lily Evans 'pads'. Despite hating the name, Lily began to respond to it without thinking.

Today it was even worse as Sirius Black was delegated her charms partner as he also donned the same nickname.

James Potter found it amusing. He sat behind them in class and randomly called out 'Hey, Pads.' And both Sirius and Lily automatically turned around to face him, only for him to say, 'Never mind.'

At least Lily had a friend in Sirius who joined in with her in giving James the cold shoulder after the seventh time he called out 'Hey, Pads.'

James pulled a face at the back of their heads when he realised they had stopped falling for it. 'Spoil-sports' he said, good-naturedly, before turning back to the giant hair-clip he and Hannah McKinnon were supposed to be charming to emit sonic glitter. At the current it was simply smouldering.

Hannah threw down her wand in frustration. 'It glowed for a second and then started burning.'

James quickly undid the spell before it caught fire like Peter's shoe had in the front row. 'We're trying to rush this – we've missed something.' He gazed at the back of Lily's head as she was re-clipping her hairclips to hold her fringe out of her face, he wondered mildly if he could…

'James!' Hannah slapped his arm sharply, 'Staring at Lily isn't going to help.'

Lily whipped around and glared at James, who grinned at her before turning back to his frustrated partner. Lily turned back around feeling flustered. 'Black, did you get it?'

'Sort of.' Sirius said half-heartedly. He held up their half-singed quill, its sonic glitter charm was evident but hardly working.

'Good enough.' Lily sighed. 'Can I…?'

'Touch it up a little? You're the expert, I'm just chuffed that I'm going to get a mark higher than average in charms.'

'Oh, so is that why you were happy to partner with me?' Lily grinned, taking Sirius aback – she had never smiled at him. Hesitatingly, he grinned back as she renewed their damaged feather and strengthened its glow. 'So pretty.' Lily admired her work.

Lily watched as Sirius enthusiastically took it up to the Professor. She grinned as the professor nodded up to her. It was then that she felt a rather odd sensation – a tingling just above her ears, her hands went up and clasped her head, but the sensation had gone as quickly as it had come. Frowning slightly she turned to see if Potter had done anything to her hair.

However, James was currently playing with Hannah's hair, Hannah's now blue sonic glittery hair. She giggled as James magically teased her hair out into a style that was nothing short of insane. 'Hang on, party pieces – multipi-isees' James curled his wand numerous times over their original works of the plain hair clip that was now in platinum pink coloured sonic glitter.

Lily stared in shocked disbelief as James clipped each of the escaping strands of hair in place before Hannah skipped down to Professor Flitwick who nearly had a heart attack on just the sight of her.

Potions

There was a lot of glittery heads in Potions that afternoon, much to the amusement of Professor Slughorn. He approved of Hannah's fashion statement and once he found out who had done it, requested the James design one for him.

James was rather happy to oblige, and even more when Slughorn gave him extra house points for doing so. Slughorn proceeded to teach the class without removing the sonic glitter which became rather disturbing for Lily, it was hard to take the Professor seriously with a glitter pineapple hairstyle.

However, Lily was well underway with her antidote for a love potion, which she had chosen after her neighbour, James Potter, decided he was going to make a love potion. Despite a few unnerving disappointed glances from Snape who was across the room, she felt quite comfortable, even when James called her his 'Lily-pad' again; he immediately withdrew with shouts of 'Sabotage!' as she pretended to flick Ferna weeds into his potion which would make it redundant.

An hour later, she feverishly re-clipped her hair again and went to make a note on her parchment. After poising her quill, she froze. Her fingers were glowing sonic green. Dropping her quill, she inspected her fingers as the glow faded; her fingers weren't charmed, something she had touch was charmed.

Lily glanced up at all the glowing heads; she hadn't touched anyone, how could her fingers glow? She ran a hand over her head, and upon bringing it back down to write, she did a double take. Someone had charmed something on her.

Lily stuck her glowing hand in the air. 'Professor Pine- uh Slughorn.'

Laughter rang out in the dungeon hall, and she blushed as Slughorn chuckled as he approached her.

'Yes, my dear…' Slughorn stopped to survey what Lily realised must have been the charm in her hair. 'My dear Lily-pad.'

Lily froze as muffled laughter passed around the classroom.

Sirius had snorted, causing more giggles from the far side of the dungeon.

Lily spoke through her teeth to stop herself from shouting. 'My anti-dote needs ten minutes to simmer, may I please go to the bathroom?'

'Of course, my dear.'

James wisely kept his head down and smirk hidden as she went past – Lily resisted the temptation to belt him around the head and walked calmly until she was outside the classroom. She ran to the bathroom, vowing to find a way to hurt him in the worst possible way. Revoking him from his Quidditch Captaincy seemed like a good idea. Her ideas, however, were stopped mid-thought as she burst into the bathroom and stepped in front of the closest mirror, expecting the worst.

A cry of startled surprise escaped her mouth as she caught sight of the two small clips in her hair. They were no longer plain, there were subtle little frogs perched on either clip and emitting a sonic glitter glow of the exact same colour of her eyes. It was neither outrageous nor ridiculous, but it was eye-catching in a cute way.

Lily's anger ebbed away as she adored her new clips, as ironic as they were. She stood there and stared, admiring them. It wasn't until a faint knock at the door of the toilets was she startled out of her revere.

'Yes?' she called, quickly washing her hands, 'Come in!'

'I can't.' Came the amused response, 'I'm not allowed, really.'

'That's hardly stopped you before, has it?' Lily emerged, somewhat nervously and met an equally nervous James Potter in the hall.

'That's beside the point.'

'Uh-huh.'

An uncomfortable silence passed between them until James spoke timidly, 'You're not mad at me?'

Lily stared, James was never timid. 'Not really.' Lily said, somewhat uncomfortable about this polite James.

'Good, I had to take your cauldron off the heat – it had more than ten minutes and I think it's not meant to start smoking…'

'Oh no!' Lily dashed off, James on her heels all the way back to the classroom.

Astronomy

'Partner off –. Lupin, Harringsbrow. Balsingsworth, Lehman. Potter, Evans…'

'I like the sound of that.' James murmered to Lily as they walked together to a spare telescope.

'Sound of what? The frogs?' Lily said, distracted by the croaking from the lake.

'Potter-Evans.'

'Potter, if I'm going to be working with you on this tonight, don't test my patience, I'm tired already.' Lily said wearily.

James just hummed in response as he set out his paper and ink on the ground. Lily took a seat next to him. 'Let's move quickly so we can get a decent amount of sleep.'

'It's a mild night; it'd be nice to sleep out here.' James lay down on his side on the soft grass so he had easy access to the telescope and his notes.

Lily mirrored his position on the other side of the scope as James kept bantering.

'Would you sleep out here with the frogs, dear Lily-pa…' James had to duck as Lily too a swipe at him. Unmoved, James simply grinned as she sent him a glowering look before she turned to the telescope.

For the next hour, they talked astronomy to each other in hushed voices to not disturb the other working couples not too far from them in the dark. They took turns to take notes and look through the telescope, and worked in such a cooperated fashion.

Halfway through the lesson, James cracked open a packet of chocolate frogs that he smuggled to the class. Lily was disapproving, but as long as he shared, she wasn't going to tell.

Completely relaxed, Lily almost didn't realise that James had been coiling a loose lock of her hair around his finger and letting it slide back repeatedly whenever her attention had been at the telescope.

A gentle tug gave him away, and Lily pulled away from the telescope, blushing. She slapped his hand away. 'Cut it out.' She hissed at his non-chalant expression in the dim green light they were in. She clipped up the stray hair that he had been playing with – and would have turned back to work had her fingers not been glowing green again. With a growl of annoyance she unclipped the glowing offenders and pocketed them.

A moment later, James' hushed voice simmered across the silence. 'What'd you take them out for – they were cute on you. Plus, now I can't see my notes.'

'Fine.' Lily snapped, flustered at being called 'cute'. She pulled them out again. 'You can wear them.' She promptly put them in James' unruly hair, expecting him to object, but he held still so she got them in properly.

'Thank you.' James said sincerely.

Lily was suddenly fighting the urge to giggle, James looked quite ridiculous, with the glowing clips, but his expression of concentration on his notes. A squeak escaped from Lily's throat and she quickly bit her lip as he look up in surprise.

'What?' he asked, startled by her amused expression.

'Nothing.' Lily said, unconvincingly. 'Those clips make you look nothing short of ludicrous, in an adorable way of course… I mean…' Lily flushed as she stuttered to a halt. She had called James adorable?!

Unfortunately for her, James' caught her sudden fumble. 'You think I'm adorable?'

'I said nothing of the sort.' Lily said, flustered, as she turned back to peer through the telescope as a means of escape. 'Now look what you've done, I've lost where Jupiter is…' Lily's breath was short as the realisation that James was suddenly a lot closer than he had been half a second ago.

He was coiling her hair again, now that it hung loose around her face, and pulled it gently aside to expose her ear.

James' cool nose was suddenly pushed against her ear accompanied by warm breath that was washing over her neck, and all Lily was breathing was the scent of rich chocolate. James' voice sounded like chocolate as well as he whispered in her ear in a smooth undertone, 'I think you're adorable in a ludicrous way.'

Lily's breath hitched in her throat as his lips gently brushed the lobe of her ear. The kiss itself was only feather light, but caused tremors to rock through Lily's body. With a gasp, she pulled away, her hair bouncing as it slid from being toyed with in James' hand.

Her startling eyes met with James' as his lids unwillingly opened, his expression, even in the dim light, was overwhelming.

'James…'

'Alright, lesson's over – we'll meet back next week, same place, same time-'

Lily leapt to her feet and flew indoors, leaving James to pack everything up.

Qudditch Practise

'MacDonald, get up there! I don't care how tired you are – we've only been going for an hour and a half.'

'It's been two hours, Potter!'

'Get up there!' James growled at the younger girl.

The girl glowered at him before taking to her broom and taking out her anger on the quaffle scoring points against the keeper who was tiring fast.

James frowned as he observed his team, they've gone for longer than this before – there was exhaustion from everybody. James assumed that perhaps it was mental exhaustion, there had been a lot of tests at school this week in preparation for exams. He thought that perhaps Quidditch practised should be at the start of the week rather than on an exhaustive Friday afternoon.

James leapt to his broom, took merely minutes to find the snitch and located back to the ground. 'Alright, pack it in!' he yelled, blowing on his whistle for attention.

With a tired cheer, the players gathered in, leaning on each other for support rather than huddling properly. James let it pass.

'Next week we're changing the practise to Tuesdays and I've also booked for Saturday morning, early – don't groan at me, you'll do what you're told.'

'I have a detention on Tuesday.' Sirius Black whined.

'I'll talk to McGonagall.' James shrugged it off. 'I won't beat around the bush, you're all whiny today, I get you're all tired, but I need your enthusiasm and willingness when you play. Don't just get your job done, do it well – alright, everyone go hit the showers and then I recommend your beds, you all look wiped out. Go, nick off!'

The players milled off the field as James packed up the practise equipment with a wave of his wand – except for the snitch, which he let go again.

James zipped around the empty field, just sitting slightly behind the gold glint, catching it, then letting it go, giving it a moment to disappear and then find it fast again. He looped skilfully around the small ball, his focus intent, unaware that a pair of emerald eyes was watching his endeavour.

The showers were empty as James emerged from the hot water. He slipped into his tracksuit pants and a clean Gryffindor Quidditch singlet. He himself was tired and planning on spending the rest of the evening in bed, maybe dropping by the kitchens to satisfy his grumbling stomach as the leftover chocolate he found in his school bag were soon gone as he hungrily stuffed his face, making a mental note to restock as he emerged from the building.

'Where's mine?'

James froze, mid-face-stuffing, as Lily stood before him, hand out-stretched for a share in the chocolate.

'Urhh…' The bag James held was empty, the remains of what had been a chocolate feast was now half a frog in his hand. He blushed, he couldn't offer her tha…

Lily plucked the treat from his hand, and ignoring the fact that he had already taken a bite out of it and put it in her mouth, turned around and started walking out of the stadium.

James hurried after her, trying not to choke as he forced to swallow the mouthful so he could speak without spraying. 'Why are you waiting for me?'

'I didn't get to catch up with you earlier – I want to thank you for dropping back my notes and clips that I left behind.'

James suddenly noticed the clips in her hair – she had put them back on, the glowing frogs, subtle but effective in really bringing out the spectacular colour of her eyes. 'Well, as much as I would like to wear them, they suit you better.'

Lily laughed. 'You ludicrous idiot.'

A silence passed over them until they passed into the door of the castle.

James found Lily's hand and squeezed it reassuringly. 'But I am adorable, aren't I, my dear Lily-pad?'

Lily stopped, causing James to halt beside her, suddenly fearful that she might take another swipe at him for calling her his 'Lily-pad'. They stood in the empty hall, hand-in-hand. Lily suddenly wrapped her arms around his neck, forcing his head down so that their noses met. 'You most definitely are.' She affirmed, planting a chaste, firm kiss to his chocolate coated lips.