A/N: I know I should be working on Accepted, but I hit a snag on my plotline, and I'm considering rewriting it entirely. But while I fiddle around with that, I decided to work on this one. It's been sitting in a dusty folder for awhile on my hard drive, and I figured if I post this bit and get at least four or five positive yet critical reviews, I'll continue with it. Otherwise I'm just going to restrict myself to the one shot circuit, because they are all I ever finish, lol. Reviews maybe?? - Chrissa.
----------OoOoO----------
Gravity
----------OoOoO----------
I tend to blame things on gravity.
Like tripping over thin air. Or dropping things for no apparent reason. Or basically anything that brings me "down." I just always figured that things went down because of it, so we might as well get angry at it when it ruins our highs. In a way, it's better than blaming ourselves. I used to do that a lot, but my friend Natalie won't let me anymore. She says it's emotionally unhealthy. I guess I sort of agree, because normally I don't really listen to her directions and demands, but this time I kind of did.
But anyway, I think gravity has started conspiring with my enemy.
Because now I get this weird tug in the bottom of my heart whenever I see him.
And when I think of tugging, I think of gravity.
And when I think of my enemy, I think of James Potter.
----------OoOoO----------
"Evans?" James called after me. I can avoid him, I really can. The tugging started.
"Evans?" he called again, slightly louder, slightly more expecting. The past few days, every time he called my name I would answer right away, just to try getting rid of the tugging. It only makes it worse. I'm trying a new approach.
"Evans!" Now he was getting impatient. Just keep walking, I told myself, maybe he'll go away...
Then he grabbed my shoulder. My stomach lurched. "Evans?" he said breathlessly, "I've been looking for you. Did you get the message?" He held up a scroll of parchment with a crisp purple ribbon knotted around it. "We've got work to do."
I sighed. I did get the message from Dumbledore. I just nodded in response, trying to avoid speaking. That normally made the tug worse.
He grinned. Tug. Gravity has a sick sense of humor. "Good. So when are we getting started on this? I was thinking we could do one of those themed occasions. It'll be easier to decorate if we know what we're looking for. Any ideas?"
That wasn't a yes or no question. I had to speak. "Not really..." Tug.
He furrowed his eyebrows. "Nothing?" I shook my head, and he frowned. We walked in silence for awhile, jostled by the wave of students rushing to dinner in the Great Hall. "Why don't we talk about it later? After dinner maybe?"
I reluctantly nodded, and he smiled again. "Okay. See you then." He walked away briskly, just like always, and was all the way down the hall and around the corner before I had moved five feet. I groaned to myself. This wasn't going to be easy.
----------OoOoO----------
When I finally got down to the Great Hall (Hey, I have short legs), Natalie Dennis waved to me from the far end of the Gryffindor table. I walked over, feeling somewhat self conscious, and sat down beside her.
"Y'know," she said as she poured a river of gravy over her potatoes, "I'm starting to think you need a bike just to get around school... You walk like a turtle." She said it slowly, thoughtfully.
"You talk like one." We were quite the pair. I walked slow and talked fast. She was the opposite. I had red hair and green eyes; she had brown hair and brown eyes. I was short and klutzy; she was tall and graceful. We were polar opposites; I didn't understand how it worked.
She shrugged off my comment. "Did you talk to Potter about the dance?"
I snorted at her forwardness. "You ask the worst questions."
"I'm just curious what I should plan on wearing," she said innocently. There's another thing about the two of us: I get a temper very quickly, she responds the same way to everything. Calmly.
I sighed. "It's not for a month. Why worry now?"
"Because I don't like shopping when the other girls are rushing around..." She shook her head disdainfully, pursing her lips. "I could get trampled." I blinked. What a stupid lie.
"You want to know what's going on with Potter." It wasn't a question.
She nodded easily. "Yeah, pretty much."
Okay, I think I should give a few details here. Before the whole gravity-and-Potter versus me deal, and that message from Dumbledore explaining the seventh years' dance that the Heads (that is, Potter and I) are suppose to plan, Potter and I were sorta, kinda, maybe becoming friends.
Is it possible to be friends with your enemy? Because I still consider him my enemy. And I sort of consider him my friend. Does that make sense? Maybe 'friend' isn't the right word. Let's say acquaintance instead. Yes, that's better.
But anyway, Natalie has this weird notion in her head that I like Potter in a more than an acquaintance/enemy way. Which is utterly ridiculous in my opinion. I mean seriously. Me and Potter? Ew. That's like putting vegetables and chocolate together in the same bowl. Or even in the same room. They just don't mix. And they definitely don't have romantic relations. By that I mean the vegetables and chocolate, not me and Potter. But Potter and I wouldn't have romantic relations either, so I guess it works both ways. We just wouldn't make a good couple.
"Lily?" Natalie tapped my shoulder.
"Do you think vegetables and chocolate would make a good couple?" I blurted, voicing the question I had meant to ask myself. She blinked, her mouth opening and closing several times in confusion. Then she shook her head.
"I think you spaced again. But you have a visitor."
"What?" You can't have a visitor when you're eating in the Great Hall, it's a public place... I turned around to see Potter. "Oh. Visitor."
"It's geting late," he said, rocking back and forth on his feet with his hands behind his back. "We should start working now if we want to get something done. We should at least pick the theme. And maybe make a list of things we'll need." He said all of this in a rehearsed sort of way, and I began to wonder how much thought he was putting into this dance.
"But I just sat down to eat, and I have loads of homework tonight, and -"
"And it's Friday; you have the whole weekend ahead of you." Then he pointed to the enchanted ceiling, which was currently a dark, dull gray without a star in sight. "And you won't miss anything. It looks like it's going to rain for the next few days." He, as much as I hate to admit it, had a point. I looked at Natalie for an escape route, but she was making a show of buttering the roll in front of her. I turned back to Potter and opened my mouth to speak.
"And in my personal opinion," he said, cutting me off, "vegetables and chocolate would not make a good couple. They don't even live on the same planet as far as I'm concerned." Natalie snorted beside me.
"Well, erm, I suppose, um," I stuttered; Natalie elbowed me in the stomach, "I suppose we can talk things over. I'll just visit the kitchen later..." So I stood up again and led the way out of the Hall myself as quickly as my little legs could carry me.
And let me tell you, ignoring the tugging feeling this time was very, very difficult.
