A/N: My entry for the Cockroach Clusters: "[They] Are gross. Just kidding. People hate cockroach clusters (because they have real cockroaches in you say yuck?) so this challenge is to write about someone that hates someone else. For example, Lily hates James, Voldemort hates Harry, etc. etc." category for owluvr's Honeydukes Competition. Obviously a bit cliche, but I liked it. Enjoy!

Loathing

Fervid as a flame, does it have a name? Yes… Loathing! Unadulterated loathing! For your face, your voice your clothing, let's just say – I loathe it all! -What is this Feeling, Wicked the Musical

"Oh my goodness! Just SHUT UP, Potter!"

The Great Hall was silent as an irate Lily Evans stormed out of the Great Hall. As her echoing footsteps faded away, every eye seemed to turn as one to the shocked form of one James Potter. Suddenly he shook himself out of his trance and hurriedly tried to stand up.

"Not a good idea, mate," Sirius whispered into his ear. "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned. Remember what your dad said? Maybe you should just lay off for a while. Give it a rest."

"But I need to go and apologize!" James shouted, louder than he had meant to. The quiet murmurings that had started up again suddenly faded once again to nothing.

"James Potter, apologize?" Marlene McKinnon hissed sarcastically from a little way down the Gryffindor table. "The world must be ending. Actually Potter, I'm surprised she made it this far without snapping. I won't betray her trust, but I will let you know that it's been a rough week for her, so just leave her alone." Her steely blue eyes glared menacingly at him and he sunk back onto his seat next to Remus, where he played with his food for the rest of the meal, pushing it around his plate with his fork and not eating a bite.

Lily was curled up in a small room in the Southern tower of the castle; a place that she and Severus had found while exploring during their second year, looking for a place to hide from the 'Marauders'. It was secluded enough that students rarely ventured there, but together they had cleaned it up and spruced it up, adding carpet to the stone floor and adding warming spells once they got older and learned how, so that the chilly drafts of winter wouldn't make a difference.

The auburn-haired witch had often found herself coming to their 'secret hideaway' whenever she just needed to escape from the world and, though she had come less and less after the fight she and Severus had in the year previous, it still remained a place where she could simply relax and attempt to forget about the rest of life.

Ugh! She hated James Potter so much! Why couldn't he just stop being an arrogant prat for one second and realize that she would never go out with him unless he shaped up and finally stopped simply hexing people for the fun of it. Especially Sev. Because despite him calling her that terrible name, she did still wish they were friends.

If only Potter hadn't felt the need to pick on him, they might've still been friends.

If Potter hadn't made every effort to ridicule him because of how he was, there might not have been a problem at all.

If Potter hadn't been attempting to draw her attention to him for six long years of schooling, Severus wouldn't have felt so protective of her… almost like a brother.

If Potter hadn't begun to ask her out in front of the whole school at least once a week, it would have been much easier to just ignore him as she usually did.

If Potter wasn't friends with Remus and Black… he wouldn't have been able to save Severus.

Lily huffed angrily, frustrated that she wasn't able to keep her temper boiling. She still wanted to rage and storm at him for being an arrogant idiot, but she did feel like he deserved some modicum of respect from her because he had saved Severus from Remus' werewolf form. At least he wasn't completely heartless…

Still, it had been a taxing week. Prefect duties, a fight with Severus, tensions with her sister and just schoolwork in general were making life terribly difficult without the added weight of trying to ignore an obsessed James Potter.

She groaned, pressing the heels of her hands into her eyelids, trying to stave off the sudden headache she was feeling.

All she knew was that there was NO WAY IN THE WORLD that she would ever fall in love with that douche bag. She simply hated him too much, even if he wasn't quite evil.