The Risk

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Summary: As James Potter ends his sixth year, he realizes he needs to change. And as Lily Evans enters her seventh year, she just may need to accept that and, perhaps, change herself, too.

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Disclaimer: All characters (and various other things, etc.) that you may recognize belong to J.K. Rowling. Certain characters, plot lines, etc. belong to me.

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Chapter 1: Of Changes and Truths

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It had all started out completely innocently, or so James Potter liked to believe. Sirius Black, his best mate and member of the exclusive group the Marauders along with James, scoffed at the thought of him being innocent in anything. And rightly so, of course.

It was in the middle of their sixth year when James finally decided that he was doing something wrong in his efforts to date Lily Evans. Remus Lupin, the third member of the Marauders, had told him that he was too arrogant. In fact, Lily had told him that herself, although he liked to forget about those sorry moments. Peter Pettigrew, the fourth and last of the friends, had no opinion on the matter. Or, if he did, he had no intentions of enlightening the others.

Of course, there was only one thing to do: deflate his head. And so, James began the slow and, more often than not, annoying process of becoming less of a prat. The process was undoubtedly slowed by James’ constant attempts to show Lily how much progress he was making. This naturally did the exact opposite of what he had intended – Lily thought him to be more of a prat every time and she never failed to tell him so.

Finally, after at least twenty times (twenty-four, according to Sirius’ count), James got the general idea and stopped informing Lily of his progress in the de-prickifying process, a term that Sirius had coined. James liked to call it an all-around self-evaluation and improvement period. Sirius obviously liked his word for it better.

In Remus’ opinion, James was progressing rather well by the end of his sixth year – far better than he had been doing around January, at any rate. There was not really much a comparison to be made between the two times, though, as James had made absolutely no progress between the dates of January 1 and April 12.

For example, take January 1, the first day of the deflating period. It was midnight on New Year’s Day and the Marauders had gotten together to celebrate the event. The clock struck twelve and, as there were no girls on hand to kiss, they needed to do something with their time. Peter suggested sharing New Year’s Resolutions with each other and, as no one else could think of anything better to do (or anything at all, for that matter), they did.

“I,” Sirius said grandly, sitting down on the floor and looking up at the others expectantly so they would join him, “resolve to – blimey, sit on the floor, you halfwits! – to…” He trailed off. “I don’t know. What do I resolve to do?”

“Perhaps it could be to keep a girl around for longer than a week,” Remus suggested lightly. “A few days, even.”

Sirius glared at him. “Well, where’s the fun in that?” he asked. “No, my resolution will be to…”

“To think of a resolution before the end of the week?” James supplied.

“Yeah,” Sirius said, pointing a finger enthusiastically in James’ direction. “That’s the one.”

“That’s always your resolution,” Remus pointed out. “And you’ve never kept it.”

“Well, there’s always this year, then, isn’t there?” Sirius said cheerfully. “Your turn, then.”

Remus sighed. “My resolution is to,” he began, “actually get you lot to study for exams this year. Or at least to help me study.”

“We don’t need to study, Moony,” Sirius said, rolling his eyes exasperatedly. “We know all of it.”

“My resolution is to study for at least two hours every day,” Peter chimed in, effectively cutting Sirius off. “Prongs?”

“Er… my resolution is to,” James began, “go out with Lily.”

Sirius smirked. “Prongs, I think you’ve already resolved to do that.”

“Yeah,” Remus said, laughing. “Last year and the year before that and –“

“The year before that!” Sirius exclaimed. “Face it, mate. She’s just not interested.”

“She is, though!” James said hotly. “I know it.”

“If she’s so interested in you, then,” Sirius said, rolling his eyes, “why hasn’t she agreed to go out with you already? It’s not like you haven’t asked enough because, believe me, you’ve definitely asked enough. Too much, come to think of it.”

“She…” James said, trailing off. “She…”

“She thinks you’re arrogant,” Remus said flatly. “She’s already told you. I’ve already told you.”

“So, that’s it then, isn’t it?” James exclaimed. It seemed as though he had a sudden burst of inspiration. His friends were well used to this sort of event happening – James frequently had some stroke of brilliance that drove him to do something veritably insane. Usually it involved a challenge of some sort; he loved a challenge. “I’ll just become less arrogant, then, won’t I? And she’ll just have to admit that she wants me.”

“You can’t just… change your personality, Prongs,” Sirius said warily.

“I won’t,” James replied. “I’ll just… fix it up a bit. I bet I could do it by the end of the year.” He looked around at his friends eagerly.

Remus rolled his eyes. If he refused to take the bet, James would just raise the stakes. If he took the bet, well, it was safe to say that this year would be interesting at the very least. “All right, Prongs,” Remus finally said. “By the end of the school year, you have to successfully become less arrogant.”

“Spiffing,” James said, grinning, reaching across the circle and pumping Remus’ hand and then Sirius’ and Peter’s as well.

That was New Year’s Day. February 12, just a random day within the time period James had set for himself, was certainly not a benchmark day. In fact, it was just like every other day between January 1 and April 12 – a day of very little progress, perhaps even some negative progress.

“Today,” James proclaimed as the Marauders got dressed, “is going to be different. A day of –“

“Significant progress,” Sirius finished in a bored tone. “We know.” After all, he made the same speech every day.

“Right,” James said, unperturbed. “Very significant progress.”

“What’ll you do, James?” Peter asked. It seemed as though he were the only one who was even interested anymore.

“I’ll sit next to her at breakfast and charm the bloody pants off her,” he said. “Had the idea last night.”

“Marvelous,” Remus said blandly just as Sirius, with his shirt still over his head, asked, “Did I hear something about pants being off?”

James laughed and ignored him. “Let’s go, then!” he exclaimed, already bounding out the door. The Marauders followed him wordlessly, all wondering exactly what he had in mind for breakfast.

They reached the Great Hall in record time as James was almost running. He located Lily immediately (he usually did) and, by a sheer stroke of luck, saw an empty seat next to her – Lily never had an empty seat next to her probably to keep people like James away.

“All right, Lily?” James asked pleasantly, sliding into the seat.

“What is it now, Potter?” Lily asked, heaving a great a sigh. She kept her head facing her plate as she buttered her toast.

“Nothing,” James said easily. “I just wanted to enjoy breakfast this morning with you.”

The Marauders, who sat a few seats over from James, all rolled their eyes simultaneously. “I knew this wouldn’t work out,” Remus muttered, reaching for the sausages.

“I think we all did,” Sirius said lightly.

“Potter,” Lily said, putting down her toast finally and looking at him, “I think we both know that you obviously are looking to gain something here. So, out with it, then.”

“Lily, Lily,” James said, shaking his head. “I just wanted to spend some time with you. Nothing to gain here.”

“Right,” Lily said and she went back to her toast, though she did glance at him out of the corner of her eye quite often as if expecting him to say something. But James remained silent, chewing on his food thoughtfully and smiling at Lily.

“Wasn’t that nice?” he asked after he had finished.

Lily sighed. “All right,” she said grudgingly. “It was fine.”

“See?” James said, smiling. “I’ve changed. I’ve made progress.”

Lily threw her hands up in the air in exasperation. “I knew it!” she exclaimed. “Just stop, Potter!”

“Stop… charming you?” James asked bemusedly.

Lily rolled her eyes and stalked off, claiming that she was late for Potions even though both she and James knew full well that she was one of Slughorn’s favorites.

“Didn’t go as planned, then?” Sirius asked from a few seats down.

“Nope,” James replied. “Always tomorrow.”

But tomorrow and tomorrow’s tomorrow were all the same. No progress was made mainly because James kept thinking that he had made some. Finally, on April 12, something changed.

“I’ve changed, Lily, see?” James told her confidently for the millionth time. “Been making progress.”

Lily had her back turned to him, trying very hard to ignore him, but whirled around quite unexpectedly at his words, surprising both of them. “Potter,” she said. “Perhaps if you actually showed me you changed instead of merely telling me, I’d believe you.”

James opened his mouth to say something, most likely something clever that refuted her statement, but Lily cut him off. “Of course, I doubt you could do that anyway. So, you may as well keep saying it as though it’s true.”

And then, she walked away, leaving James staring after her, rather dumbfounded.

“She challenged you, I see,” Remus said.

“She challenged me,” James repeated dazedly, still looking down the hall in the direction that Lily had gone. He looked stunned, to say the least: his eyebrows were raised, eyes wide, mouth slightly ajar. And slowly, ever so slowly, a smile began to creep onto his mouth, growing slightly every second until it became somewhat manic. “She challenged me.”

Remus looked on, confused. “I know,” he said slowly. He was honestly beginning to wonder what exactly was wrong with his friend.

“You know what that means, right?” James asked, turning to face him finally. “Do you?”

“That she… challenged you?” Remus was unbelievably confused. “I don’t know, Prongs, just tell me.”

“She likes me,” James said, his eyes sparking excitedly. “She wants me to win this one. She knows I can’t resist a challenge.”

“So, now you’ll…” Remus trailed off, looking at James expectantly.

“I’ll win,” James stated decisively. “I’ll win.”

Remus looked away, rolling his eyes. Everything was a challenge with James. Everything was a competition. But, perhaps, this time, he could use that to his benefit.

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A month and a half later, on the last day of their sixth year, the Marauders sat in a compartment on the Hogwarts Express discussing James progress in his quest to “fix his personality”.

“You have no way of proving that you did it, though,” Sirius said for the third time. “If you’re not asking Lily, or telling her, rather, that you’re different, then how’re you going to know what she thinks?”

“I already told you,” James said exasperatedly. “I know she likes me. And I know that she can see the difference.”

“Right, she likes you so much she won’t even go out with you,” Sirius muttered.

James ignored him. “And in September,” he continued, “we’ll just see how much she wants to go out with me.”

“Wormtail, I bet that she’ll still feel the same way towards him,” Sirius whispered conspiratorially.

“Excellent,” James exclaimed loudly. “So, you are on my side, then, Padfoot. You think that she’s still going to like me, then.”

“Sure,” Sirius said, shaking his head towards Peter. Again, James ignored him.

“I bet,” Sirius said, now speaking to James, “that you can’t get her before Christmas.”

“Christmas?” James repeated. “That’s easy. I’ll take that bet.”

“No, wait,” Sirius said. James smirked knowingly. “Before Halloween, then.”

“All right,” James replied. “Before Halloween.”

Remus shook his head as Peter looked on; well, at least he definitely knew that his seventh year would be interesting.

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Lily Evans sat on the Hogwarts Express silently. It was not that she was alone, because she was certainly surrounded by her friends, but rather that she was just thinking. Thinking about James Potter, that is, something she would rather not admit.

“Lily,” her friend Elizabeth said, “you’ve been rather…”

“Out of it?” her other friend Madison supplied. Lily’s eyes slid back into focus as she looked around at Madison, opening her mouth, obviously ready with some clever retort. “And don’t even think about telling me that you weren’t thinking about him,” Madison said, effectively silencing Lily.

Elizabeth turned her large blue eyes onto Madison, twirling a piece of her long brown hair on her finger like she did when she was nervous. “Madison,” she said warily. “I really don’t –“

“She was, Lizzie,” Madison said, her hazel eyes sparing Elizabeth a glance. “He’s all she thinks about. If it’s not how bothersome he is, it’s his disregard for the rules. There’s always some recount of his interactions, or lack of interactions, with her. Always.”

“Well, maybe she’s serious about that whole thing and she really does dislike him that –“ Elizabeth said.

Madison tugged at her straight blonde hair as she was wont to do when annoyed. “Lizzie!” she exclaimed. “Everyone dislikes people but no one thinks about said person as much as Lily thinks about James.”

“Madison,” Lily interjected, finally coming into this conversation about herself, “I am not, by any means, fond of James Potter.”

“Sure,” Madison said, rolling her eyes.

“How many times do we have to discuss this?” Lily asked exasperatedly. Elizabeth sighed and sank lower into her seat, twirling a piece of her hair on her finger distractedly; she hated these discussions. “I have –“

“Standards,” Madison completed in a bored tone. “We know. You tell us all the time.”

“Well,” Lily said in a dignified sort of tone, “it’s true. And Potter… well, he doesn’t even come close to meeting any of my standards.”

“Perhaps,” Madison said loudly, “you should let go of your standards and humor the poor bloke.”

“Poor bloke?” Lily exclaimed. “He can have any other girl. He’s a Marauder, for heaven’s sake!”

Madison smirked knowingly as Elizabeth sunk lower into her seat, hoping to not be dragged into the conversation. “So you admit it, then? He can get any girl?”

“I said, ‘any other girl’,” Lily corrected. “Which means that I am not included.”

“What is it, exactly, that you can’t stand?” Madison asked.

Lily watched the scenery roll by her window outside, trying to avoid the question. The truth was that she could no longer think of anything of great importance; the bloody wanker had fixed everything! “He’s exceedingly arrogant,” Lily said.

“Not anymore,” Madison pointed out. “He changed, didn’t he, Lizzie?”

Madison looked around at Elizabeth and, slowly, she sat up in her seat, her finger locked in her hair. “Yeah,” she said quietly, as though the volume of her answer would somehow affect Lily’s reaction to it. “He’s changed.”

“See?” Madison said smugly, a smile playing about her mouth, her eyebrows raised to pose a challenge to Lily.

Lily looked between her two best friends in disbelief – was no one on her side anymore? Of course Madison was not – she had always seemed to root for James during the whole escapade that had lasted for the last few years. But Elizabeth! She had always quietly agreed with Lily and now she was agreeing with Madison? And for that reason only, Lily mused that maybe James had changed a little bit. “Fine, then,” Lily said after a long pause. “Well, he’s obviously just into the whole challenge thing. Once he gets me, it’ll be over within a week.”

“Why would James Potter change his whole personality, for the most part, just so he could be with you for a measly week?” Madison asked.

Lily shrugged, saying derisively, “Like I know how his mind works.”

Madison rolled her eyes. “All right, Lily,” she conceded. Elizabeth looked between her two friends hopefully, thinking that maybe a truce had finally been reached – it would put an end to an argument that had lasted ever since James had set his sights on Lily. “It’s the summer holidays now, but in September, I am almost one hundred percent positive that you will not be able to resist James Potter any longer.”

“Why?” Lily asked, her eyes narrowing, scoffing, “His charm will be too much for me to resist?” To her right, Elizabeth fixed her eyes on the floor again, knowing that nothing good would come of this.

“No,” Madison said confidently. “You like him. You always have. You always will.”

Lily stared, her mouth agape. No one had ever said that to her before. Madison had, perhaps, alluded to it more than once, but never had she stated it that bluntly before. The train, much to Lily’s dismay, lurched to a stop and Madison rose out of her seat and walked briskly out the door, bidding her and Elizabeth goodbye over her shoulder. Elizabeth, after staring between Madison and Lily, shook her head and left, waving to Lily as she did so. But Lily sat in her compartment for a little while longer, watching the students fill the corridor and file off of the train.

She saw the telltale mop of messy black hair ambling by her cabin, engaged in a deep conversation with his friends. Madison’s voice ran through her head, You like him. You always have. You always will.

Suddenly, she stood up and shook her head violently, trying to expel that particular thought. Distractedly, she flung the door to her cabin open and joined her classmates in the corridor.

Madison was wrong.

Right?

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A/N: So, here it is. I’ve only been mentioning this story for over a year now and, while I’m not finished with it like how I had hoped to be, I’ve decided to just go ahead and post. The reason it took so long was that I really had wanted to finish the story, that way I could just post in three day intervals and not have to worry about making people wait. However, my entire idea behind this story changed completely.

This first chapter has remained the same throughout. However, after reaching the ninth (or was it tenth?) chapter of the story, I decided that I did not like the direction it was going, and deleted each chapter as I wrote a new one in its stead. If you would like, I could tell you how the original story was supposed to go.

So, plans for this story… Every week (perhaps on Mondays?), I will update. As of this moment, I have five full chapters written and ready to post and the sixth is coming along quite nicely. I do not yet know how long the story will be but I do know what the direction of the story is, now.

Also, just a warning: this is not quite like my other James/Lily stories. It does not focus on James’ “deflating”. I don’t want to say too much here and give it all away, but you’ll begin to see what I mean as the story continues.

And, with that, please review and let me know what you thought! Reviews are greatly appreciated. I mean, they make my day.