Harry Potter: The Invincible Stag

Disclaimer:

Harry Potter and all of its characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 22: Meeting at the Library

"Mmm… where could it be?" James muttered as he scanned the countless rows of books in the Hogwarts library. He never spent too much time here during his school years, and when he did, it was Hermione the one who always found the books they needed.

Now he found a bit lost while trying to find books on one particular topic.

"James?"

While considering if he should call the librarian for help, he heard a surprised voice calling his name, and when he turned, he found Lily Evans staring at him.

"Lily, it's nice to see you," he said, trying to greet her in a polite manner.

James wasn't very sure how to speak with her yet.

At the start of the year, she had seemed very hostile toward him for something he had done the previous year. But as time passed and she saw no more attempts to… as Sirius liked to say, "get in her panties," or any of his usual shenanigans, she seemed to have mellowed out a bit.

She had even defended him against Bellatrix the other day...something that had really taken James by surprise.

"It's rare to see you at the library by yourself," Lily commented. "Normally, Remus has to drag you here, but… we don't have any tests this week."

"I was just looking for some information on an ingredient," he admitted, a bit ashamed to say that he had forgotten how to process one ingredient he needed to make the Wolfsbane Potion for Remus.

He was supposed to receive the ingredients by that afternoon, but it had been too long since he had made that particular potion, and he had to come here to refresh his memory. There was no room for mistakes on this.

"A potion ingredient?" Lily threw him an inquisitive glance. "You've been doing really well in that class lately. Did you discover some sudden passion for the subject?" On the first day, she had thought that Bella had done all the work, but after paying attention to what James was doing during class, she had become very surprised by his sudden improvement.

"Yeah, something like that," James answered. He knew there was no plausible explanation for his improvement in the subject, so he was grateful she didn't inquire further.

"So, you're looking for information on an ingredient? I can help you find it if you want. I know this library like the palm of my hand," Lily offered.

"That would be great, thank you," he said. He had wanted to spend some time with her, so he wasn't going to waste this chance.

"Most books about potions are in that corner over there," she pointed out. "What ingredient are you trying to find?"

"Occamy egg," James told her.

"Occamy? I don't recall what creature that is…" Lily looked pensive.

"An Occamy is a serpentine, winged creature from India," James explained. "Don't beat yourself up for not knowing about it. The eggs don't have many uses in potions, so they aren't covered in class."

"Not for class… then what potion are you planning on making?" Lily asked with suspicion.

"Sorry… can't tell you that."

Lily frowned. "James Potter… tell me this isn't for one of your pranks, or I swear I'll never help you with anything again."

James leaned closer to her and spoke in a tone that left no room for argument. "It's not for a prank. I can swear that to you on my name and my family's name. Will that be enough to convince you?"

Lily was taken aback by his seriousness. She still wasn't used to seeing him behave like that. "T-there's no need to go that far… I'll believe you." She felt her face heating up because of his closeness, so she gently pushed him away before turning to look at the books.

"Okay… let's see. I don't know that creature, but there are several books here about ingredients from India. What you're looking for should be in one of those," she said before kneeling down to pick up one of the books.

"Mmm… let's see," James began to flip through the contents.

On the second book she handed to him, he finally found what he was looking for. "Ah… there it is."

James's amber eyes met Lily's green ones. "Thank you for your help, Lily."

He was about to turn around and leave her alone when she called for him.

"Wait… we can sit together if you want. I'm going to take some notes on Ancient Runes. You can join me."

"Of course. It would be rude to turn down such an offer," James nodded.

This made Lily chuckle. "When did you get so polite and posh?"

"I do wonder," James replied. He had never really thought about it, but he was nothing like that while growing up.

His persona had changed a lot over the years. After spending so much time interacting with members of important families, he must have picked up some of their mannerisms.

James's own memories had probably been too fragmented to affect his personality all that much, so he remained as he once was.

Lily didn't seem to mind it all that much. If anything, she preferred this new James over the old one.

The two of them sat down and went on to do their own studying without disturbing the other.

Lily would often lift her eyes from the paper and find James completely focused while taking notes on a piece of parchment.

'He always seems so concentrated when he's doing something related to potions…' She had noticed that he made the same expression when he was brewing.

'When he's like that… he looks a bit cute,' she thought to herself.

"Lily? Is there something on my face?" James asked.

Lily failed to realize she had been staring at him for almost an entire minute.

"Ahh!" She almost spilled her ink from the shock. "No… I mean, sorry!"

"It's okay…" James didn't understand what she was apologizing for. "I've finished with my notes. Do you need help with that formation?" He pointed at her notes.

"Wait… you know about Ancient Runes? You aren't even attending the class," Lily said, confused.

"Right… I've done some self-study on the subject. Not much, but I can tell that you made a mistake in this part." He moved his finger over the upper area of her parchment.

"Here?...oh!, you are right." Lily realized. "I wrote an 'ae' rune instead of an 's' one."

"The simbols are similar, dont beat yourself about it." James told her. Since they were in fourth year and elective subjects only start at the third...Lily had only studying Ancient Runes for a single year. She was still quite new to them.

"Is still a silly mistake to have..." Lily frowned. At this rate she wont be able to get good grades in this subject.

"Your calligraphy is really good." James pointed out something good in an attempt to make her feel better. "That is something often overlooked. Many runic arrays ended up failing because a rune was not engraved properly."

"Thanks...the professor also mentioned that." Lily smiled.

James analyzed the array she was making. "This is meant to create a light source, right?."

"Thats rigth!." Lily said with exitement. "You knew that just from looking at the runes?. You must have studied this a lot." The ammount of possible combinations of runes was massive. So one needed to have a great undertanding of them to figure out the offect of an array by just giving the runes a quick glance.

James wrote a symbol on a piece of parchment. "If you substitute that 'W' rune at the top for this one, you will bet a more stable light as the flow of magic will be smoother. "

Lily stared at the rune. "I dont remember seeing that one in the Elder Futhark alphabet..." She had made sure to memorizi it already.

"This is called a 'personal rune'. They are outside of the alphabet. Most of them are a combination of the runes you have already studied. In this case, this one is a mixture of the 'K' and 'W' runes." James told her.

"Mixed runes?... I think I heard some seniors speak about those. Isn't that for like Sixth Year?." Lily asked.

"Mmm...maybe?. I learned by self studying, so I didnt pay much attention on the year in wich those are taught." James told her the truth on that one.

Most of his knowledge came from self-study since it was done after Hogwarts.

"You got this far with self-study..." Lily didn't know what to say. She was now looking at James with different eyes.

'He must be a genius!' She thought with excitement.

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