"Stop following me, Potter!" Lily Evans yelled furiously over her shoulder as she strode down the corridor, her body ridden with hatred. The man kept trampling after her.

He ran a hand through his messy black hair and tried to keep his temper under control. Damn, he loved Lily, but she could be so infuriating sometimes.

"Lily, would you just listen to me! I didn't mean for any of that to happen! The whole thing just got to me and I couldn't deal with it anymore! I just-- snapped!"

"Just snapped?!" she cried, still walking purposefully throughout the corridors of the castle, making her way to the common room. "You can't just SNAP, Potter! You're sixteen years old for Merlin's sakes! When are you going to grow up?!" She stormed up a staircase.

James trooped after her. "Lily! Stop being so god-damned closed-minded! Why won't you just listen to me--!"

"Oh, I'm closed minded?" Lily replied with a voice of fury. She turned her head sharply to look behind at him, her honey-colored hair whipping around her green-eyed face. "I'm closed minded? You're so full of yourself that you can't see anything that's two feet ahead of you! He was one of your best friends, Potter? Does that mean anything to you?"

James paused, at a loss for words.

"That's what I thought," Lily scoffed. She kept walking up the staircase. "I used to think better of you, Potter, if only slightly. Even though I always knew you were arrogant and ignorant, I at least thought you were loyal. But I guess not."

"Evans, I already told you that I didn't mean for any of that to happen! It was a mistake! I lost control for a minute, it happens!"

"Not if you let it!" Lily shook her head. "Just go away, Potter."

James kept following her. "Lily, I'm telling you I'm sorry--"

"I've heard hundreds of your apologies, Potter!" she interrupted. "And I've learned they don't mean anything! You just keep on being your same self!"

James let out a groan of exasperation and frustratedly ran a hand through his hair. It stood on end. "Evans, will you please just--"

"No, Potter!" she yelled. She whipped around to look at him, face to face, her green eyes casting a stunning gaze into his hazel ones. "Stop! Just stop! I'm don't want to go out with you! I won't now or never! So will you please stop asking! It's really just getting desperate!"

Whether it be because of her rude interruption, or at the sound of her last few statements, James' eyes suddenly sparkled with fury. His cheeks turned a bit red and he clenched his jaw.

"You don't even realize what you're saying, Evans! I wasn't asking to go out with you!"

Upon hearing this, Lily turned a bit red herself.
"Are you more into yourself than I ever thought?" James continued. "Do you really think that every one desires you so much that they won't stop coming after you?" He paused a moment to control himself. "I wasn't asking you to go out with me," he began, managing to control his voice. "I was asking for you to just please listen to me. Just fucking listen to me for once. You have this ugly mental picture of me-- someone who's cruel and one-sided and rude and terrible-- someone who's not me! I'm just a person. I'm not perfect. But I'm definitely not who you think I am. I'm tired, and friendly and contemplating. And I'm lonely. And I know that you are too. So I thought in some back room of my mind, that we might be good together. Two halves making a whole."

Lily scoffed at this, a crude smirk on her face. "You think I'm lonely?" She said this as more of a statement than a question.

"I know you are. I see you. Oh, you act all social and friendly and outgoing and flirtatious with your girl mates and the boys and everything. And even in front of Him," James couldn't bring himself to say the name at this moment. "But I see you at your true self. I see you when you're alone, quiet, in the library. Or sitting looking out at the lake. I think that's your real self, a self with no stress and no worries. A self that cares more about people than what people think of her. And a self that is also very lonely."

Lily wouldn't look at him. James noticed her eyes had a strange glimmer about them, as if she were crying.

"Lily, can't you just see me for who I really am?" James kept looking at her.

She bit her lip and looked away.

She was like a frightened little child. Like she had just waited all year come to find out that Christmas had been cancelled. That she had saved all her knuts and sickles just to learn that the owl she had been saving for had been sold. James just wanted to take her into his arms and comfort her.

Like she'd ever let that happen.

"Lily--" James began.

She shook her head. "Stop talking to me, Potter." And then she walked away.

James sighed and rubbed his temple with a hand, then began walking dejectedly toward the common room.

"Bad luck, Prongs," commented Sirius, as James passed him and Phoenix in the corridor. Phoenix gave him a rather sympathetic look. James ignored it. He didn't want sympathy from her. He didn't want sympathy from anyone.

He turned into the portrait hole to return to the common room.

And write a letter to his grandson.