Disclaimer: Check! (I heard this was gratuitous but I enjoy doing disclaimers anyway)
A/N: Something I promised my friend I would write for her a very long time ago...yes, I am the master of procrastination! (Unless you wish to contend for that title.) It was supposed to be a oneshot, but it came off as a multiple-chapter story. Curse my stupid fingers. Don't get all excited though, it's only a chapter. I thought posting it would maybe encourage me to write more. And if anyone knows what in Merlin's name Head Boys and Head Girls are supposed to do, it would really, and I mean REALLY, help with this story. Thank you for reading this blabbering!
--
"Fourteen Sickles!"
"A Knut."
"You are so stingy, Beatrice."
"Oh, all right. Three Knuts."
"Merlin's ears, Beatrice, what's wrong with a Sickle?"
"Four Knuts then, that's my final offer."
"Two Sickles, at the very least? That's not much at all, and I only need a just bit more money for our first Hogsmeade trip-"
I listened to my friends with a mixture of amusement and annoyance as they continued to haggle over the price they were willing to pay when one of them would lose the bet, which was whether James Potter would once again make me, Lily Evans, his conquest.
"This would be the fifth year he's tried," said Beatrice loftily, "and that's only if he were to try again this time around, but I'm sure even James isn't so stubborn-"
"Did someone whack you over the head with a frying pan?" exclaimed Dorcas. "James is the most hardheaded person in our year!"
"Don't remind me," I muttered. We were in the Hogwarts Express, which was just coming to a stop at the station. Even as we stepped off the scarlet train, Dorcas and Beatrice continued to argue about the strength of James' determination.
"He's not going to do all those crazy stunts from last year again," said Beatrice firmly. "We're seventh-years now for heaven's sake, I think James would have gotten at least an iota of maturity over the summer-"
"Or maybe not," countered Dorcas. "He never learns his lesson, does he? Detention after detention every year, just like failed attempt after failed attempt on Lily every year. He just loves her too much. He-"
"Oh, please, don't make me sick," I groaned as we walked off the platform and into the throng, where people were hustling to get into the horseless carriages. I hoisted myself into an empty one and was about to help Beatrice get in when a large, callused hand slapped mine away and pushed my friend aside. My jaw dropped as the subject of my friends' aforementioned debate clambered in and shut the door, prompting the carriage to roll off without either of my friends. I thrust my head out the window and saw a resigned Beatrice give a gleeful Dorcas two Sickles. Both waved at me unperturbed, as if a maniacal stalker hadn't just abducted his helpless victim-i.e., me.
"Lily, we need to talk." I winced and turned around to face said maniacal stalker. "You…you ambushed me!" I said accusingly. I expected a hangdog look or a flirty smile in response, but he looked very serious. Ignoring what I said, he pressed on, "I've been courting you for the past four years-"
"Stalking, more like," I interrupted. "Annoying, more like. Bothering, torturing, humiliating-"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! Okay?" James raised his hands in surrender.
"I don't buy it," I said haughtily, edging as far away from him as I could. "What makes you think that just because we're in a carriage all alone, you can have your way with me?" I pulled out my wand and pointed it threateningly at him. "Leave. Now."
"I'm just trying to be chivalrous," James said, mussing up his cowlicked black hair, which irked me even more. "You're making things harder than they should be."
"No, you're the one who's made things harder than they should have been," I snapped.
"Touché," acknowledged James, "and that is the very matter I've been trying to discuss with you."
"Just spit it out already," I said sourly.
"I've come to realize that I've been a bit…overzealous when it comes to trying to win you over," James began again. I snorted but let him continue. "I have realized the error of my ways. I won't overdo it this year, especially now that I'm Head Boy and you're Head Girl-"
"Don't remind me!"
"You are now looking at the new and improved James," he finished.
"That's really great," I said, not believing one word his said. "Now get out."
"But the carriage hasn't stopped yet," protested the new and improved Head Boy James.
I opened the door and the carriage slowed to a stop. "Fancy that," I said. "Now it has." I pushed him out. Surprised, he hit the ground with a thud and rolled over several times before coming to a stop at the side of the road, becoming rather dusty along the way. Satisfied, I slammed the door shut and the carriage commenced moving again. I couldn't resist looking out the window to patronizingly wave.
"This just further proves how much you undeniably fancy me!" he shouted, still sprawled on the ground. He was grinning nevertheless.
--
I was pretending to be a part of Hestia and Alice's conversation at the edge of the house table when Beatrice and Dorcas finally joined me. "I can't believe you left me alone with that prat," I hissed as the Sorting ceremony began and a hush fell over the Great Hall.
"It's not like he's going to hurt you, he-" began Dorcas.
"-loves me too much, I get it," I whispered disdainfully. "Still, that's not the point, you know how much I utterly loathe him-"
"There's a fine line between hate and love," quipped Dorcas.
Just as I opened my mouth to retort, Nearly Headless Nick frowned at us. "Quiet, the ceremony's started!" I closed my mouth and stared glassy-eyed as one by one all the first-years were Sorted into their respective houses, not really seeing them. I was too busy contemplating what James had said earlier. Was he telling the truth? I would find out, wouldn't I? Among other things, there was one action he performed each and every year since our third year so that it had become something of a ritual-after the feast, he would follow me closely to the point where I grew afraid that he would step on my heels. He did so even as I hurried up the stairs to the girls' dormitory, where he would trip and tumble to the ground. It always got a good laugh, each and every year. It never got rid of him though; James was too good-humored to let a little thing like public humiliation get in his way of bumming me out.
I had been chewing on a strand of my hair when Hestia leaned over towards me and asked playfully, "Are you going to eat or what?"
"Oh!" I shook my head to clear it and began helping myself to some dinner. I was feeling a little more relaxed by the time dessert came. James never bothered me at feasts; I usually managed to sit as far from him as I could every year, although sometimes there was no avoiding it. Tonight, however, James seemed very focused on his pudding and did not try to surreptitiously look at me once, another habit of his. When everyone was dismissed, my pulse quickened. Would he, or wouldn't he? I hurried along, urging my friends to go faster. There was no breath on the nape of my neck. No footsteps echoing mine. Still, I kept turning around. "Who are you looking for, James?" asked Dorcas jokingly. I gave her my most scornful "Of course not!" and resisted looking back after that.
"It is a bit strange though," Hestia said from my right. "Isn't James usually stalking you around this time?"
"Yeah, where is your lover?" Dorcas started looked around.
"He is not my lover," I contradicted. "And I don't know why. Well, I do but-"
"This has something to do with him kicking us to the curb to get at you in the carriage alone, isn't it?" asked Dorcas, a smile beginning to twitch her lips.
"What did he say?" inquired Alice as all of us girls got through the portrait of the Fat Lady and went up the stairs to our dormitory without any hint of a stalking James in my wake. I flopped onto my four-poster, swatting feebly at the girls that crowded around me. "Get away, all of you. I have Head Girl duties bright and early tomorrow, " I said.
"Just tell us what happened and we'll leave you well enough alone," said Beatrice reasonably.
"There's nothing much to tell," I grumbled. "It's going to be anticlimactic."
"Tell us anyway," said Hestia impatiently.
"He told me he wasn't going to be such a prat this year, is all," I said, unclipping barrettes from my hair and placing them on my nightstand.
"What? Why?" asked Dorcas, astonished, as if James not being a prat meant the end of the world, which it probably did.
"A load of rubbish about that iota of maturity Beatrice mentioned earlier," I said irritably. "Now please, let me get ready for bed."
"Wait, it can't have all been rubbish," argued Dorcas. "He didn't do that weird stalking thing he does every year! That means-"
"-James isn't lovesick anymore?" Alice piped up. "Wait until Marlene hears."
"Precisely," agreed Beatrice, "Meaning, you owe me four Sickles now, Dorcas."
"I-what?" spluttered Dorcas.
"Accio Sickles!" A handful of silver coins from Dorcas' pockets flew into the air, caught by the now very smug-looking Beatrice with one hand, the other holding up her wand. "Thank you for the generous interest."
While Alice and Hestia looked on and laughed, Dorcas chased Beatrice around the room yelling, "Don't make me jinx you, give me the other twelve you nicked!" I, however, was failed to be amused, considering the money had been about a boy whose obsession with me had seemed to deteriorate.
Wait. That thought almost sounded as if I missed it. I shuddered. I definitely needed some sleep.