AN: This is my first fanfiction, so be nice, please. I don't own Harry Potter, in case you were wondering. I wish I did, but I don't.
They were at it. Again.
There was a difference this time, though. Only one of them knew it. The difference was simple. Lily had realised that she was, in fact, in love with James Potter. Something inside of him had changed. He was, as much as she hated to admit it, mature. He wasn't a boy anymore. He was a man. A man that she was very much attracted to. A man she was in love with.
Yet, they were still fighting. Why, you ask? Well, she asked that, too. The only thing she could come up with was that she realised that this was the only way that she would ever be able to be passionate with James anymore because he didn't care about her anymore. No more shouts of, "Go out with me, Evans?" No more sneaking up on her in the hallways just to try and corner her into a date. No more scaring off the other teenage monkeys that tried to hit on her. (The stupidest lines, really. "If you were a basilisk, I'd die just to look into your eyes." Really. Everyone knows basilisks are extinct. Merlin. So, maybe James's ego helped sometimes. Anyway.)
Back to the story. They were fighting. A loud one, too. A small crowd had gathered. Lily could see Black and Remus in the sidelines, watching Lily and James throw insults back and forth. She couldn't honestly remember what it was all about. Something petty, probably.
"It wasn't my fault, Evans! I didn't do it!" Ah, yes. She remembered now. She thought James had turned Snape's hair pink. Not that she had any problem with it, she just needed an excuse to start something.
"Well, then who did? Honestly, Potter, do you really expect me to believe that you, you, you wouldn't have anything to do with it? You, who tortured him nonstop for years- years, Potter," she screamed back. She actually knew that he hadn't done it, because, really, she knew exactly who did it. Lily Evans.
"Yes, I do expect you to! I'm not a lay about prankster like I was," James yelled. Lily swore she saw Black scowl a bit. "I am Head Boy, Evans! I am not about to risk that! I don't want to get into huge amounts of trouble anymore! That's not who I am! And it kills me that you still can't see who I am!"
"Why on earth do you care so much? What does it matter what I see you as," she yelled back loudly, to hide her heart's twinge as she asked. She knew it didn't, she just wanted a reason.
"Because, Lily!" She almost jumped out of her skin. He had never called her Lily. Ever.
"Because why, James? Why should I care?" She asked the question at a normal volume. Her heart was beating at three times its usual speed. She felt slightly dizzy.
"Because… Because I bloody love you, Lily. I love you… and that was the stupidest thing I've said yet. I cannot bel- mmmph!" He had to stop because as soon as she heard those three words, she had run at him and kissed him with all of her might.
James was surprised, to say the least. He had told Lily Evans, in a fit of rage, despair, both, he wasn't really sure, that he loved her. He had expected a slap in the face and a broken heart, but instead he had a dream come true. Lily Evans kissed him. From then on, all logical thinking stopped until they came up for air.
She reluctantly pulled her lips away from his as she had the need for air. There was a shocked silence all around the hall from the small crowd they had gathered. Lily could vaguely make out Remus's smug expression and Black's shocked yet delighted one, but the only one that really registered was James's. His was euphoria.
James's quiet question broke the silence.
"Go out with me, Evans?"
She simply nodded and kissed him again. That's when the cheering started.