The story of how James Potter managed to win over Lily Evans after she was painfully pushed away by Severus Snape.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of its characters or…anything. J.K. Rowling does.
…………
"Evans, wait! I let Snivelly down, come on…." Lily remained deaf to James' entreaties and pumped her legs even faster. That arrogant Potter boy might be quick on a broom, but on the ground she could outrun him any day of the week.
Auburn hair flying behind her wildly, Lily fled from the two people who, at that moment, she despised most in the world. She did not check her speed until she got to the bank of the lake, where James Potter and Severus Snape were no more than silhouettes on the hill she had left behind.
Looking back, she bit her lip angrily to see James' face still turned to her hopefully. She turned her back and stomped away further along the shore, only to catch her foot in the crevice of a rock.
A gasp of pain escaped her as she hit the pebbles, closely followed by a wave of furious embarrassment. The Potter boy had almost certainly seen her fall flat on her face, and Lily's jaw clenched in anger to think how he and his stupid friends were probably laughing at her right now. Then a worse thought hit her: what if one of them got heroic and tried to help her?!
No freaking way. That is not happening. She started to struggle to her feet, and almost immediately fell back down as an arrow of pain shot through her ankle. No!! Not my ankle! What's that healing spell we learned a few weeks ago?
Her memory struggled for a moment, while her alarmed ears picked up the sounds of someone coming towards her. But that spell was for broken bones, and this feels like a sprain.
"Dammit!" she cursed aloud to herself and yanked out her wand, though there was nothing she could do with footsteps sounded closer, and now she realized there were two sets of them. Preparing for a reluctant defeat, she hoisted herself, wincing and still gripping her wand, into a sitting position and whipped her head around to see the intruders.
"Geez, Evans, what did you do to yourself?"
Lily grimaced to see exactly who she had expected and yet had hoped it would not be. "What do you want?" she snapped, her sharp eyes flashing, as James knelt down beside her. Sirius stood next to him, concerned but attempting to look indifferent, like the absurd teenage boy that he was.
"What do I want?" James grinned. "I don't think you really want me to answer that, Evans."
Lily rolled her eyes and said nothing.
"Besides, the question is what do you need? The answer: you need a lift back to the castle."
"I don't need anything from you, Potter," Lily muttered, shoving her wand back in her pocket and trying mightily to stand.
She could not forgive so quickly the boy who humiliated and hurt her oldest friend. Even though that friend rejected you when you defended him. For a moment, Lily ceased her attempts to get up and allowed her heart to absorb the sting of that all-too-recent memory. Her eyes aching with tears unshed, Severus' words came rebounding back to her in a flash: "I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!"
Those words sunk in deep, and Lily felt them making a permanent scar on her insides. Slowly, the thought engrained itself in her mind: Severus hated her, James liked her and was offering her a kindness. She knew refusing his offer would be foolish and simply a result of her pride. Gawd, I'm getting as proud as Potter himself. As Lily sat there on pebbles, her ankle screaming in pain, she looked into James' earnest-for-once hazel eyes and made her choice.
Please review; tell me what you think.