A Familiar Face PV Lilyanabell Lumen Finished

“It’s fine, really,” Lily replied quickly and quietly, as was her way, and looked up at him. A wave of surprise washed over her face as she recognized him, “James? Is that you?”

She tried to remember, rather unsuccessfully, where she had met him before. It was in the Muggle world somewhere, she knew that much, a long time ago... back before she was allowed to know about the existence of magic. Now she bumped into him, quite literally at that, at a place in the Wizarding World completely surrounded by magic on all sides. This was certainly a much more interesting meeting than last time. 

She looked at him for a moment, as if trying to remember something. Finally she did remember it, James Lachoneus, that boy who she had met in an ice cream parlor that long time ago. Rather ironic that they should be reunited here, at another ice cream parlor. But she had had no vague suspicion the first time they met that he was magic, unless she was just missing something? 

“It’s been a while. A long while. Are you going to Hogwarts too?” she inquired, more loudly this time and visibly more comfortable now that she knew who he was.

It took James a while to realize who he was addressing.
“James? Is that you?” the person asked.
James looked up into the person's face, wondering who this person was.
He saw a redhead girl with blue eyes and freckles (OOC: assuming from the profile pic you have) who looked about the same age as he did.
James still did not know who this was and cocked his head at her, wondering who this person was. She seemed to know him...
“It’s been a while. A long while. Are you going to Hogwarts too?”
Well, that explained it a bit... not really. If he knew her, he knew her from a long time ago...
"Um, sorry, do I know you?" James asks, trying not to sound rude. After saying it, however, he realized there really is no way of saying that sentence without sounding at least a little bit rude or suspicious. Instead, he decided to switch his phrasing.
"I mean, uh, what's your name?" he asks, hoping this comes off a little better.
"Sorry, I don't really do that well with faces... wait..." James at her a little closer... she did seem a little familiar...
Wait! He had just been thinking about her!
"Lily!?"

“Hi,” Lily giggled kinda awkwardly, and waved at him, “I see you still like ice cream.”

Merlin’s beard, Lilyanabell! How awkward can you possibly be? she scolded herself mentally, and looked visibly frustrated with herself, Well, he seems to remember you. And if anyone tends to remember anything about you, it’s that you’re a weird freak. Somewhat assured, and... enraged by her self-chastization, she refocused her eyes and smiled at him awkwardly again. This was a very awkward situation, after all, so being awkward won’t seem odd, at the very least. Although why she was suddenly so concerned with that she wasn’t quite sure.

Her gaze drifted about for a moment, and seemed unable to find a suitable place to rest. So instead she let the words spill out of her mouth, “Which flavor is your favorite? You used to always get some sort of mint flavor.” Oh boy, I am on a roll now. Words tumbling out all flippity flop in a generally unintelligible jumble... yep. She officially looked like a crazy person now. But then again... why did she care? Normally she didn’t, but there was something about actually seeing something she knew that was making her apprehensive.

Yeah, James recognized her now. She was the girl who he had met in the ice cream parlor back in the muggle world.
“I see you still like ice cream.” she said.
James found this statement just a little odd, but after thinking about it, he could understand why she would be talking a little awkwardly. He hadn't made it any easier on her by totally forgetting who she was.
Oh my gosh, James! You were literally just thinking about her! James felt another pang of guilt inside himself.
"Um, yeah, I guess..." James replied, laughing nervously.
“Which flavor is your favorite? You used to always get some sort of mint flavor.” she added.
She remembers that!?
This only made James feel a little worse. He still barely remembered anything about her, and she was pulling up memories as if they were good friends. The biggest problem with that was James couldn't even remember if they had been good friends.
James could tell that she was trying to make conversation, and internally, he applauded her courage to do so. 
James managed to nod slowly. "Yeah, mint has always been my favorite." James wished he could say more, but he couldn't help sounding and feeling a bit distant. He was mentally kicking himself. He didn't want to be like this, but he was having trouble feeling anything. Right now, he was just confused, more at himself than about her.
Another awkward silence passed. James stuck his hands inside his pockets, looking around at the shops around him, taking interest in the brick walls.
"Yeah, uh... good times." he mumbled no less awkwardly than she had spoken.

Lily thought for a very long moment before saying anything else. After all, there was a lot to think about, what with being... not in the Muggle world anymore. Although she seemed to remember quite a bit, she couldn’t for the life of her remember if James had ever said anything about magic. He couldn’t be a Pure Blood, because he had been in the Muggle world. He would probably seem more out of his element if he was a Muggle Born. That left Half Blood, just like her. Shut up, Lily, and go away. You’ve already done enough, the voice inside her warned, but she refused to listen.

However, it didn’t take her very long to realize that James felt as awkward as she did, and almost instantly whatever feelings of uncomfortable- ness she had possessed merely seconds before faded away into nonexistence as if they had never been in the first place. Now that she had that out of the way, if only she could decide what to talk about... if anything at all. He didn’t seem particularly pleased about her presence in general, which she supposed could be expected. After all, hadn’t her family split in half because of her? Then what else should she expect?

Eventually, however, against her better judgment, she decided to repeat her previous unanswered question, “Are you going to Hogwarts this year?”

James' attention had gone from the wall to the cobblestone road at his feet. He had been kicking his toe against a stone sticking out of the ground a bit, and then he heard Lily ask another question.
“Are you going to Hogwarts this year?” she asked.
James looked back up at her.
Okay, this is your chance at redemption...
"Oh, yeah! Yeah, I'm going to Hogwarts! I'm guessing you are too?" James replied eagerly, hoping to sound a bit more like himself.
James honestly didn't know why he was struggling so much with this. He didn't remember Lily that much, but why was that stopping him from acting normal? James thought it was all from mostly guilt. Which was probably the right answer. But there was something else... something JAmes couldn't put his finger on quite yet. Oh, whatever... 
James brushed aside those thoughts for now, focusing in again on Lily and also trying to pull up memories of her. 
Her name was Lily. The two of them had met in an ice cream parlor back in the muggle world. They are both going to Hogwarts, and now they have both met up again.
That was all the information James could pull from his brain that involved her.

Lily nodded, thrilled to finally have seemed to have gotten through all the awkwardness, “Yes! I’m kind of excited, but also kind of nervous. I don’t really want anyone to look at me the way that they would look at my mum, which would not be great.” And yep, I should probably shut up now. James doesn’t need to know who or what your mother is. Why should you even care anymore? She left you. Called the voice in her head again, but yet again she refused to listen to it. She still hadn’t accepted the fact that half her family was gone for good, and she wasn’t about to any time soon.

“Are you looking forward to any of the classes? I think Charms will be fun,” she said, somewhat more quietly again. The little mouse sort of personality was starting to take over again, and she wasn’t quite sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. But, either way, she was about to find out. No matter what, though, she was immensely pleased with the fact that she would know someone already going into Hogwarts. Maybe they would be in the same house? That would be kinda cool. Or not? She literally had no idea, it was just exciting to think about.

(After this encounter, we can time skip to about a week later after we've been to Hogwarts for a couple of days... what do you think?)

James shrugged in a confused way.
"Well, I don't really know what many of the classes are... I was raised entirely muggle, without any knowledge of the existence of magic, so I'm probably going to be very, very lost." James admitted.
"Charms does sound interesting, though..." he added honestly. But to be honest, he didn't know much about any type of magic, so any type of magic would be interesting to him...
"What about you?" he asked, looking back at Lily, "When did you know you had magic? Or that it was real?" 
"I've only ever done muggle magic tricks, like on a stage... but it's all that fake and illusionist stuff." James explained a little quietly. Was he ashamed of being into all of that stuff? Or was it because if James had been Lily's friend before, he hadn't told her that stuff? Oh, how bad of a friend was James!?
But then again, maybe he was only just overreacting a bit. People forget each other all the time, especially after long periods of time not seeing each other... but James still didn't feel so convinced.

(That works for me.)

“I’ve always known magic exists, I think. You see, one day I was reading a fairy tale, and my mother got all mad at me and said magic didn’t exist and I wasn’t allowed to be around anyone who thought so or do anything even indirectly involving it. She kind of made it a bit too obvious. Then I saw my father doing magic when I was nine, so...” Lily kinda trailed off. And it was that point that I completely ruined the relationship between my parents and destroyed my family. Yeah, no. She definitely didn’t need to say that out loud, at least not to James. Why should he care?

But she was interested by the fact that he had been brought up Muggle as well. Maybe all wizards and witches were like that? That would certainly make it insanely easier to fit in. Then again, since when had she ever fit in anyways? Or why did she suddenly care? Now she was thoroughly confuzzled... but it didn’t really matter, she supposed. All first years were going to be confused, right? She instinctively fiddled with her necklace, and looked around again. Why did she feel so awkward again all of a sudden?