Lily entered the Great Hall for lunch looking for her other fourth year friends among the crowd of Gryffindors at her table.
She finally spotted Janice but that was only because she was sitting in the middle of the table talking to the marauders. Lily wondered what Janice was doing there. The Marauders were the high and mighty Kings of Gryffindor who mostly talked to people above their own fourth year and thought it a total waste of time to talk to anyone beneath their year (sometimes those within their year as well). They rarely ever glanced at Lily, or even the other fourth year girls way.
Lily let her eyes stray further down to the table to see the rest of her friends sitting there. She walked past Janice, gave her a smile and sat down at the spot her friends had saved for her.
"How long do you think she is going to sit there trying to get Sirius Black to look at her?" Eve muttered, rolling her dark blue eyes and flipping her shoulder length black hair behind her shoulders. "She's got a better chance with James Potter; at least he's talking to her."
"Well they are good family friends." Jade pointed out and took a bite of her food. She allowed her hazel eyes to slip towards the middle of the table and land on Remus Lupin, but then with a quick shake of her dark brown hair she went back to her food.
Lily glanced again down the table and found her eyes wandering to James Potter. He was one of the cutest boys she had ever seen, Lily had to admit that.
She suddenly watched as Janice waved bye to James and finally joined her own friends.
Sighing Janice propped her head in her hand forlornly. "He's got another girlfriend." Janice mumbled. "He just broke up with Terra yesterday! I can't believe he moved so fast."
Lily rolled her eyes; this was Sirius black they were talking about after all. He had been known to break up with one girl and get with another within the span of two hours.
"Why not James Potter?" Eve suggested. "He's available right now and he actually talks to you. It doesn't hurt that he's drop dead gorgeous."
Janice shook her head. "He's too tall." Janice finally ended. "My neck would get sore just looking up at him. Sides me and James….just no way. I don't look at him in that sense. I see him more as a brother. We've known each other ever since we were young since our parents spend every hour of every day together." Janice rolled her eyes. "They are already hoping James and me will one day fall in love and make the four of them into real family members but uh huh. No way." She suddenly looked dreamily towards Sirius Black.
"He wouldn't be too tall for me." Lily said dreamily looking Potters way again. "He's only 14 and he's already 5'9 and I'm 5'8…too tall for most of the boys in our year." Lily said sighing and spearing a potato with her fork morosely. "It's not fair me being so tall."
"Cute guys ask you out all the time." Eve pointed out. "Stop being so picky Lily, so what if they're an inch shorter than you? Just don't wear heels when you're with them."
Lily shook her head. "They're not as cute as Potter." She finally ended and suddenly shook her head. Enough daydreaming for her. No way would Potter look her way, besides he was so arrogant…
"So you think Potters cute?" Janice asked eagerly.
Lily back to her usual self composed self shook her head suddenly. "No, he's not that cute." She ended sick and tired of sounding like one of those stupid fans of his always drooling over how cute he was.
"You said it! You said it!" Janice said. "Do you deny saying you think he's cute?"
Lily hesitated for a minute before shaking her head no. "I don't deny it." She confirmed. "but-"
"Then it's settled." Janice suddenly stood up.
"Where are you going?" Lily asked bewildered.
"To ask James if he'll go out with you." Janice said promptly. "You're the prettiest girl in our year Lily." She assured as Lily's eyes widened in disbelief. "I'm sure James will say yes."
"No! Wait!" Lily said scrambling to get a hold of Janice before she stood up. Eve suddenly grabbed her and pulled her down. "Let me go Eve!" Lily yelled. "Janice come back here!"
Janice merely blew her a kiss before walking down towards the marauders.
Lily cursed. "Hide me." She begged Matt, on of her best guy friends, who had been watching everything in silence. "Lean forward so he won't see me, please!" Lily implored trying to hide behind Matt's shoulder, for all the good it would ever do as he was still only 5'4 at the age of 14.
Eve began giggling uncontrollably. "Lily I think this is the first time you have ever asked a guy out. Guys always come to you not vice versa."
"I did not ask him out." Lily snapped angrily swearing to kill Janice as Matt smirked at her and leaned back instead of forward so Potter would get a good view of Lily. Lily shot him a dirty look and merely turned her head to look at Eve so Potter wouldn't see her face.
"Lily!" a voice suddenly called.
Lily suddenly turned to see who had called her. She cursed to discover that the voice had belonged to Sirius Black. He let out a low whistle and of their own accord Lily's eyes slid towards James Potter. James was looking straight at her and when their eyes met, he quirked an eyebrow at her.
Lily felt a blush coming on and suddenly turned back to look at Eve. She resisted the urge to put her head in her hands.
Eve merely laughed. Janice finally arrived back at their table.
"He said yes." She said into the silence.
Lily couldn't help but let out a whoosh of breathe.
Not that she cared but-"D-did he really?" Lily asked expectantly.
Janice looked at Lily and laughed. "Yes he did, really. Neither Sirius not James could believe that they had overlooked someone as pretty as you."
Lily suddenly looked down at her hands. "This is awful." She suddenly moaned out.
"Why?" Janice asked confused.
"Well, it looks so weird that you went and asked for me! He's going to think I made you ask him."
"That's what he does think." Janice confirmed. "He wouldn't have said yes if he thought I came to him of my own accord. Why would he say yes to going out with a girl that wasn't interested in him?"
Lily shook her head. "Now he thinks I'm one of his stupid fans." Lily grumbled.
She then felt an onrush of panic. "How am I supposed to act around him now? What do I do? What do I talk to him about? It's rather awkward having your best friend ask a guy out for you. Oh my GOSH why did he even say yes? I would never say yes to anyone who had their best friend ask me out for them. He must think I'm a coward." Lily put her head in her hands for the umpteeenth time. "Whatever possessed you to do this Janice?" Lily moaned.
"Stop getting so worked up." Eve said calmingly. "Lily you're acting like something awful has happened."
"Something awful has happened." Lily confirmed never feeling as embarrassed as she did now after her 14 long (in her opinion) years of living.
"James Potter agreeing to go out on a date with you is not awful!" snapped Janice. "Do you know how many girls would love to be in your shoes?"
"But he's going to think I'm like another one of his fans!" Lily protested.
Janice shrugged.
"Prove him wrong." Was all she said.
Lily couldn't bring herself to touch another bite of food on her plate.
After the bell rang Lily looked up to see James looking at her. He motioned towards the doors trying to tell her that he wanted to talk to her once they were out of the Great Hall. In a fit of panic Lily looked away pretending she didn't see and literally ran out of the Great hall to her next class. She literally pushed Eve and Matt into the classroom and made them sit on either side of her as some sort of barrier. She was dreading having to talk to Potter.
When he finally entered the class 3 minutes later he sat down in his usual seat with the marauders and began talking to them. He was so totally unaffected while Lily was a mass of jittering nerves. This was not just any other boy-this was James effin Potter one of the marauders!
Lily was able to avoid James by running to and from all her classes until that is, dinner ended and the Gryffindors were walking back to their common room.
A hand suddenly came out and grabbed her elbow gently. Lily turned questioningly and found herself having to look up at the boy who had grabbed her elbow. Brown eyes stared back at her.
"Evans isn't it?" he asked good naturedly with a hint of amusement in his eyes. It gave Lily the impression that he was making fun of her in his mind.
Lily hesitantly nodded.
James smiled. "Good, for a minute there I thought Janice pointed out the wrong girl to me or something." He looked up to look at Lily's friends and raised his eyebrows as if to ask 'what are you still doing here'? They quickly turned and left.
Lily looked up at James waiting for him to continue.
"Not very talkative are you?" James asked in that same manner that made Lily think he was making fun of her in his mind. "Maybe that's why someone as pretty as you hasn't caught my eye until now."
Lily blushed a deep red at that compliment and James chuckled as if he had been expecting that reaction. He made her feel so inadequate. Usually she was the confident one in relationships but Potter was making her feel like a puppet in his hands.
"So how about I ask you formally. Would you like to go out with me sometime Evans?" James asked looking down at her kindly but with an air of benevolence, as if he was bestowing some huge favor upon her.
Lily tamped down a tide of rising annoyance in her and merely nodded again.
James shook his head. "Someday I'd really like to hear you actually speak." He commented.
"Yes!" Lily suddenly said loudly and James laughed. Lilly blushed again because she had been so loud and sounded like some sort of over eager child. What was wrong with her? Sure it was James Potter but she was Lily Evans! She had never felt so nervous in her life. Boys asked her out all the time, why was she getting so nervous?
Lily suddenly found herself trying to tamp down her annoyance as James grabbed her hand presumptuously and began to drag her along with him back to the common room. At first he had seemed startled as his hand touched hers. He stopped for a moment and looked down at her hand and then up at her. Lily looked back at him questioningly wondering what had startled him. Lily felt her ire rise as James stroked his thumb over her knuckles wondrously-it was as if he had never held hands before or something. What in the world as wrong with him? But then he suddenly tightened his hold on her hand and began pulling her along.
When they reached the common room Lily pulled her hand free of his and went to walk towards her friends.
"I'll meet you in the common room tomorrow before breakfast." James suddenly said. "We'll walk down together."
Lily turned to him, nodded and went to sit with her friends.
"So…" Janice prompted Lily, wondering what had happened.
Lily looked back to where James was sitting now laughing carelessly with his friends.
"He's a bit….arrogant." Lily finally ended and she did not like the way he made her feel. She felt lost when she was with him. With other guys she'd never had this feeling. She'd always had the upper hand in any relationship. James made her feel like she was having a boyfriend for the first time in her life. Lily shifted uncomfortably. She didn't like this feeling. It was too foreign.
Eve rolled her eyes. "Lily this is James Potter! He has every right to be arrogant. Star player of the Quidditch team-" she began ticking the reasons off on her hand. "-richer than all four of us put together, cuter than most of the 7th years, cooler than most of the 7th years, dates girls in 7th year when he's still in fourth! Need I go on?!"
Lily bit her lip worriedly. She had a very bad feeling about this. Something had begun, something that she was now powerless to stop. She suddenly felt as if this was the beginning of a very long and tiring journey.
OoOOoOoooo
Lily ran down the steps, late because Eve had insisted on putting makeup on Lily and curling her hair. Lily had merely shaken her head and allowed Eve to do as she wished only because Eve had threatened she would knock Lily out and if Lily didn't comply.
Lily reached the common room to find James waiting with the marauders impatiently. He suddenly seemed taken aback by Lily. Lily merely looked at him as James looked at her dazedly almost as if he had never seen her before. Lily began to seriously wonder if his mental condition was stable or not.
Sirius suddenly nudged James in the ribs and James shook himself out of his daze.
"Morning Evans." James said back to his old self. His hand suddenly went up to ruffle his hair. Lily wondered why he was ruffling it. His hair was already messy enough, why was he suddenly trying to make it messier? He suddenly grinned at her charmingly and Lily found herself smiling back. The pit of her stomach suddenly dropped uncomfortably as she read the look in his eyes. Lily again felt like she was playing into his hands. He was looking at her as if he had expected her to come down late and be all dressed up.
Lily again tamped down on her rising annoyance at that infuriating self assured grin on his face. She was not supposed to feel this kind of annoyance towards him but she did.
No sooner had they began walking down the hall than James suddenly handed her a huge pile of books.
"What is this?!" Lily asked in surprise staggering suddenly against the weight of the books.
"Books for my classes." James said loftily. He looked at her and gave her his infamous grin. "You don't mind carrying them for me do you?
He looked as if he expected her to turn into goo at such a grin. All Lily felt was anger as his heavy books weighed down on her. She remembered Eve's warning telling her to keep a check on her temper. Lily gritted her teeth and merely shook her head afraid that when she opened her mouth she would yell out an insult in his face.
When they entered the Great Hall and sat down together it became common knowledge that Lily Evans was going out with James Potter.
Lily sat eating her food and felt totally out of the loop. Neither James nor the other marauders even talked to her as they sat and ate. They merely talked and joked amongst one another. Lilly dearly wished she was down at her own end of the table. She tried to glance Janice's way, trying to at least get her to come up and sit with her but Janice merely looked at her and sent her a thumbs up sign before gong back to her food. Lily decided that Janice was going to die a slow and painful death.
"Oy Evans did you hear that?" James suddenly said catching Lily's attention away from Janice.
Lily bit back a retort at his rude voice. He talked to her as if she was at his beck and call. She merely looked at him.
James seemed taken aback by the fire in her eyes but plowed on. "That transfiguration essay that's due after lunch. Think you can write it for me? You're pretty smart." He said smiling at her with his famous smile. "I'm sure if you skipped lunch you could finish it on time for me."
Lily let her mouth drop open as she registered that James Potter was asking her to do his homework for her. Of all the…DID HE KNOW WHO SHE WAS? SHE WAS ONE OF THE MOST POPULARIST GIRLS IN HER YEAR! BOYS BEGGED FOR THE HONOR OF DOING HER HOMEWORK?! How DARE he suggest that she do HIS homework for him?!
James merely looked at her wondering why her mouth was hanging open like an idiot.
"Oh!" James said suddenly remembering something. He took out some parchment and put it on the stack of his books he was making Lily carry. "Don't forget to take notes for me in History of Magic." He smiled at her again. His smile faltered when Lily remained looking at him with her mouth open. She was struck dumb that he was now even telling her to write his notes for him.
"We're taking the long route so we can put dungbombs in Filches supply closet." James said shoving his book into her arms. "So we better leave early otherwise we'll be late for class."
He stood up and looked down at Lily expectantly who had her mouth closed and was gripping his books. She stood up still looking down at his books.
"Hurry up Evans we haven't got all day." James said impatiently.
"That's it!" Lily burst out. She looked up at James and James seemed taken aback by her angry face. Lily watched in satisfaction as he voluntarily took a step back from her. James Potter was going to finally face the brunt of her temper and so help her Lily would not hold back. She threw his books at his feet in a huff. "You are the most arrogant, idiotic, egotistic, ARSEHOLE I have EVER had the misfortune to meet!!" she yelled.
The great Hall quieted down as they watched a very pretty redheaded girl yell her head off at James Potter.
"I am NOT your servant!" Lily railed.
"You're my girlfriend!" James suddenly threw back. "All my-"
"I am NOT your girlfriend James Potter!" Lily yelled. "I only agreed to go out with you…ON A DATE! That doesn't make me your girlfriend!"
"You agreed to come down to breakfast with me and held my books for me! That makes you my girlfriend Evans!" James yelled back.
"Fine then!" Lily roared. "I WAS your girlfriend now I'm BREAKING UP with you! You egotistical PRAT! What you need is a house-elf not a bloody GIRLFRIEND!" Lily railed.
"Well…who needs you anyway?!" James yelled back. "I only agreed to go out with you because of Janice!"
"I don't care because of WHO you agreed to go out with me-I just don't believe I actually considered going out with you!! Good DAY Potter!" she spat and turned on her heel to leave in a huff.
She angrily sat down in her usual seat, threw her friends a murderous glare clearly threatening them to say anything and stuffed a croissant in her face.
As the day progressed Lily felt better. Her anger cooled down and it was as if the whole debacle with Potter had never happened.
A few days later Lily was quite surprised when a 7th year Ravenclaw came up to her during lunch and sat down beside her.
"Hey Evans." He said looking down at her. He was a good 5 inches taller than her and Lily smiled up at him kindly. "Mind if I join you?"
Lily shook her head. She couldn't seem to shake the thoughts going through her head.
HE IS SO CUTE! SO CUTE! SO SO SO CUTE AND HE'S A SEVENTH YEAR!!!
Her brain screamed at her over and over again.
"Glad to see your hostility doesn't extend to all the males at Hogwarts." The boy who had by now introduced himself as Jake said. They had been having quite a pleasant conversation for a good part of breakfast.
Lily blushed as she was reminded of the fiasco from a few days ago. "Potter-"she muttered vexingly. "-has an ego the size of Great Britain."
Jake laughed. "You're the first girl to ever say that."
Lily shrugged. "I may be the first to ever say it but I'm sure a great many think it." She deadpanned making Jake laugh some more. He suddenly put her arm around her.
"I like it." He said smirking down at her. "You know you're very refreshing from the other girls here at Hogwarts who don't have enough gray matter between their ears to even form an opinion."
Lily laughed. "You're exaggerating I'm sure." She said. "If not, I can introduce you to a lot of girls I know that are the exact opposite of your definition."
"But the only girl I want to know is you." He suddenly said leaning in close to her ear.
Lily found herself blushing again. She laughed nervously. Suddenly the thought of going out with a 7th year seemed like a very bad idea. Guys his age tended to be more…fas,. Lily concluded as Jake suddenly snaked his hand down her arm to hold her hand in his. He was practically draped over her and Lily opened her mouth to tell him to back off but before she could Jake was suddenly pulled from his seat by a blur of black and punched squarely in the face.
Lily looked horrified, looked at Jake's bleeding nose and suddenly turned to look at his attacker.
"POTTER!" Lily screamed standing up. ""What do you think you're doing?! Why did you hit him?" she raged at James as McGonagoll made her way through the crowd of students to yell at him too and deduct points from Gryffindor.
"Because!" James replied. "You're MINE!" he yelled as if bestowing some sort of noble title on Lily.
Lily saw red. How dare he make such assumptions?
"I AM NOT AND NEVER WILL BE YOURS!!!" she yelled as loud as she could. "JAMES POTTER YOU HAVE AN EGO BIGGER THAN THE SIZE OF ENGLAND AND I WILL NEVER BE YOURS EVEN IF YOU WERE THE LAST MAN ON EARTH!!!"
"YES YOU WILL! I'M TELLING YOU TO GO OUT WITH ME AND YOU'RE GOING TO GO OUT WITH ME!!" James roared back suddenly getting as worked up as Lily.
"MAKE ME!" Lily replied as the signal for end of breakfast went off. She didn't even look back once and kept muttering to herself incoherently. In her present rage all of her friends steered clear of her.
"Evans." Came a tentative voice a few days later n the common room.
Lily looked up coolly to see James Potter standing there. Continuously for the past two fays he had yelled at her to go out with him and she had continuously refused. This morning she had past contemptuously a "try asking.", before turning on her heel and leaving him n the Great Hall.
"I-I-I'm ss-s-s-sooo-" he stopped short as if he was unable to get the word out.
Lily looked at him expectantly.
"So-so-soorrr-sooo-ssaawwww-ssss-" he stuttered.
Lily shook her head and went back to her magazine.
"Sorry!" he finally said in a rush.
Lily looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "It's all right." she said surveying the sincere tone in his voice.
Potter suddenly smiled and sat down across from her.
"Great, so now will you go out with me?"
Without looking up from her magazine Lily let out an emphatic 'NO.'
"Aw come on Evans go out with me." James said poking her in the arm. "You know you want to." He teased.
Lily looked up at him coolly. "After surveying the treatment a girlfriend of yours gets I definitely KNOW I DON'T want to."
"I'll treat you better this time around." James assured confidently. "Come on. I'll carry your books for you." He offered as if he was giving her some sort of charity she should be gratefully for.
"I have working arms and hands, I can carry my own books." Lily retorted.
"I'll take you out to Hogsmeade whenever you want, I'll go shopping with you too. I'll BUY you whatever you want." He ended confidently. "Whatever you want it's yours."
Lily put her magazine down and looked at James as if he had grown two heads.
"Potter-" she said in a deathly whisper. "-are you trying to BUY me?"
James shrugged. "There must me something in this world you want, name it and it's yours in exchange for being my girlfriend." He tried to keep the eagerness out of his voice.
"Now that you mention it." Lily said maliciously. "There is something I would like very, very much."
"What?"
"FOR YOU TO GO AWAY AND LEAVE ME ALONE!" Lily yelled.
James looked at her startled.
"HOW DARE YOU THINK I CAN BE BOUGHT!?! You can't just BRIBE people to like you!" Lily yelled throwing her magazine at him. She stomped up the stairs angrily.
2 months later….
"Go out with me Evans."
"Go away." Lily said for the umpteenth time that morning. This was now a normal occurrence. She put her head in her hands as she sat in the library. It was a Saturday morning and already Potter was pestering her. He was now poking her arm, trying to get her to look at him while naming all the benefits of being James Potters' girlfriend.
Lily groaned, why did she get the feeling this was not a temporary phase of Potters? How LONG was he going to pester her until he finally STOPPED and GOT A LIFE?! She would go crazy if this kept up. The best course of action was to have him kidnapped and sent off to Switzerland if this didn't stop by the end of fourth year. She herself would surely go crazy and need to be shipped off to St. Mungos if this continued. Didn't he have anything better to do?!
'What a looser', Lily finally decided as his relentless poking continued. Lily cringed as he said that they would be together forever. Forever?With Potter? As if!!
A/N:hehehe little does Lily know that eventual she WILL end up with Potter.lol..lol. So yes this was my oneshot and i had alot of fun writing it. Now i have a question for anyone that reads this oneshot. Would you like me to post a tagalong of this fic with James POV so you know what went through his mind and what exactly led him from 'who needs Evans'? to 'I NEED EVANS'??? I originally had his POV in here too BUT i thought it would be bettter to have just Lilys so i cut his out. However if any of you are interested in knowing his POV i will be happy to post another oneshot. Remember the more of you who review and request another oneshot the more likely i am to post James POV in a seperate oneshot. I am sorry but i am not going to go through all that trouble of writing another version of this story and adding James POV inside of it for only a handful of people when there are alot of other people out there who are waiting for the next chapter of LLL. Eventually i WILL post the version with JAMES POV in it bc it would be creul not too but my first priority would be updating the next chapter of Letters Lead to Love. I don't mean to be creul but majority is the authority here. However if anyone DOES wish for me to post the tagalong i will post it. Dont worry...it will just take a few weeks to put up that's all. Anyway i had alot of fun writing this oneshot. I hope everyone had fun reading it!!!
-END OF HORRIBLY LONG AUTHORS NOTE THAT NOBODY REALLY WANTED TO READ ANYWAY-
hehehe i love all of you people that read my stories!! I've been through alot and it is because of your support that i am able to pick myself backup and continue writing instead of sulking around.
Therefore i dedicate this oneshot to all of you!!!