"Oi, Evans!" James Potter shouted down the corridor, chasing a girl with flaming red hair.
When she turned to look at the boy, her eyes narrowed instantaneously. "What do you want, Potter?" She spat at the boy with the disheveled hair.
Although he had just sprinted down the corridor, this physical exertion seemed to have no noticeable affect on the fit Quidditch player. He looked down at her suggestively, "Oh, I just thought that I would give you the honor of accompanying me to Hogsmead next weekend." He flashed her a winning smile that made all the girls swoon at his feet, or that's how he described it anyway.
Lily looked dumbfounded. "Are you asking me on a date, Potter?"
"It wasn't quite a question, was it? Nevertheless, yes, yes I am." James told her before extending his arm to her and adding, "Now let me walk you to class Ms Evans and-" James never got to finish his sentence because Lily Evans slapped the boy across the face before stomping off down the hall, leaving James Potter in the midst of many "ooh!"'s from his classmates.
"Bloody hell, she's got a good arm... Maybe you should have asked her to be the second beater instead, mate," Sirius Black said as he pat his friend on the back while grinning.
"She said no..." James said with a look of confusion in his eyes.
Sirius just rolled his eyes, "What did you think was going to happen, mate, she hates you." Sirius pushed his friend forward and began to steer him to the common room and out of the way of the busy corridor that he had since been blocking. "Come on though, plenty of witches in the castle." His words were meant to shake James out of his stupor, yet nothing was pulling the boy out of the reverie of his own thoughts and confusion.
"Come on, mate, it's just one girl," Sirius tried to reason with his best fourteen year old friend hours later in their dormitory.
"No Sirius! It is not just a girl! It's the love of my life, the best thing to ever happen to me, the essence of my very existence! And she rejected me… How could she possibly reject me? I'm witty, intelligent, an amazing Quidditch player, I have the best pranking ideas, dashing good looks… What more could she possibly want?" James exclaimed, exasperated as he stalked back and forth across the boy's dormitory.
Remus, who had previously been writing an eight page scroll for Potions looked up and interjected, "Perhaps that's why she isn't interested in you. Lily is the type of girl who would rather have a boyfriend who is kind and modest. She doesn't care about Quidditch as much as her classes and most of your pranks end up harming her best friend. It's really not a wonder that she didn't say yes, mate." Remus was tired of James complaining about this girl. Lily Evans has hated James since the train ride to Hogwarts on their very first year and James didn't like her much either. Yet, all of a sudden, James claims that he's desperately in love with her. Like a fourteen year old could even know what true love was if it came flying through a window dressed like the giant squid. Besides, Remus had more important things to be worried about, like classes, something that James and Sirius should have been more concerned with, seeing as they will be begging Remus to help them with their papers soon enough.
"I agree with Remus, mate," Peter piped in. "What's so great about her anyway? You never liked her before." Peter was busy looking through the latest Quidditch magazine, seeing how his favourite team, Puddlemere United, was stacking up for the upcoming season.
James let out an enormous gust of air before throwing his hands by his sides and shouting, "Why are you guys not supporting me at all? This girl is the one I want and I'm never going to stop trying to win her over!"
"Oh please," Sirius said before turning to his broomstick to continue cleaning it, clearly giving up on attempting to reason with his best friend.
"Like we've never heard that one before," Peter said without even looking up from his magazine.
Remus just scoffed at James over his scroll before he continued his writing.
"You don't believe me? Wait and see. One day, I will win the heart of Lily Evans and I will not stop until she falls in love with me. I'm not going on a single date until it's with this girl," James promised his friends before snatching his broomstick from his bed and heading out the door, slamming it shut behind him.
"How long do you think this one will last?" Peter asked his friends.
"I give it two weeks," Remus responded automatically.
Sirius thought for a minute. He had never really seen James like this before. Yes, it was incredibly irrational, but James could have a thick head sometimes, Sirius knew that for a fact. "I don't know, he's pretty damn stubborn sometimes," Sirius said slowly, still maneuvering through his thoughts. "I think a better question would be how long do you think Evans will last before she gives in?"
Peter thought for a second, "She really hates James; I don't think she would ever think about dating him really."
Remus finally put his quill down to ponder this new topic. "I know Lily pretty well," he began. "And she's at least twice as stubborn as James can be. I don't see much hope for James winning her over either, I guess."
The boys were quiet for a moment before Peter practically shouted, "They lost to the Cannons in the preseason? Are you kidding me? The Cannons are a joke! This is ridiculous!"
"Pete, face it, Puddlemere United is pathetic, especially with their new captain," Sirius said without sounding the least bit surprised by Peter's outburst. Remus, on the other hand, didn't even look up from his essay to show any interest in the change of topic. Quidditch hardly interested him, though he loved going to the school games, he couldn't follow the regular season.
"I can't believe that complete idiot, that bloody prat, that vile piece of absolute rubbish who thinks he owns the school," Lily ranted to her own best friend as she paced back and forth between tables in the library.
"Lily, shh!" Alice said warningly, as her friend's voice was rising to a level that would certainly get them kicked out of the library.
Lily began whispering once again, "I'm sorry, I'm just so disgusted by him. He's such an arrogant arse. And his 'jokes' are just plain mean! Did you see what he did to Sev the other day? Ugh, it was horrible! And he's always picking on people and he thinks he's the best thing to walk this Earth but I'll tell you right now that he is definitely not!" Lily's voice seemed to rise higher with every word she spoke.
"Lily! Keep your voice down!" Alice hushed her friend once again. "And honestly, he's really not that bad. Most of his pranks are pretty funny. And why are you friends with Severus anyway? He's really not very nice either Lily."
"Sev is my best friend!" Lily saw the hurt shown in Alice's eyes and quickly covered herself by saying, "I mean, he's the first person I knew as a wizard! He's always very nice to me."
Alice rolled up her parchment and shut her textbooks. "Look, Lily, you know how I feel about him. You heard the word he used last week! Doesn't that offend you at all? That he can throw around that word when his so called 'best friend' is one? You're right, he is nice to you, but that doesn't make him a saint, Lils. I think you need to really think about this whole thing some more, you're being irrational," Alice said as he stood up from the table.
"I'm not being irrational at all! I just don't want to date a self-centered, pompous, egoistical prick! And I can guarantee you that I will never, ever date James Potter." Lily began to rant again.
"Okay, whatever, Lily, I'm going to meet Frank, I promised him I would help him with the Potions essay." Alice began to walk away. "I'll see you in the dormitory later tonight." She added before she finally turned away and walked out the door. Truth be told, she wasn't supposed to meet Frank for another hour, however, she could stand being around Lily for another second. She loved her best friend, but sometimes she was just far too stubborn for her own good.
Lily sighed as she sat at the table and put her head in her hands. Gosh, she loved Alice like a sister but sometimes she just wished that she would be more supportive. Lily knew plenty enough about James Potter to know that he just wasn't her type at all. She couldn't even stand sitting near him in classes he was so insufferable! Oh well, Lily thought, the past is the past and now it's time to move on and quit lingering thoughts of a stupid boy who asked her out. Why would she even linger on that anyway? It's not like it was even a big deal or anything, she said no and that was that, end of story… Right?
"I need a cup of tea," She mumbled to herself as she collected her belongings and left the library.
"Hey, Lily," Remus said as he took the seat beside her in the Great Hall.
"Hi, Remus," she responded with a slight smile. "How is your Potions paper coming along?" She asked him.
Remus smiled, "I just finished it. It's so nice to get things out of the way early and not have to stress about them."
Lily let out a small laugh. "You're right! If only I could finish something this early. I've hardly even started mine." Lily feigned hitting her head off the table, only to raise her head again with a smile and took a large gulp of tea. "I swear it's true, tea can mend any problem." She sighed contentedly.
Remus chuckled, "That sounds pretty true to me." He added to her previous thought. A quiet moment was shared between the two as they picked at their dinner plates before Remus finally asked her, "So what did you think of James earlier?" He tried to sound casual and also tried to not delve too deep, he wanted to keep the conversation as casual as he could, although his eagerness for an answer was evident.
Lily stiffened at the thought and her mouth formed a rigid line that, if she could see a mirror image of herself, she was sure would look just like her sister, Petunia. "I think he's an arrogant prat and I would never even think of dating such a foul, pathetic excuse for a human being." Lily said vigorously before jabbing her potatoes with her fork.
Remus could see the topic was not a good one, yet something compelled him to push her further on it. "James was pretty upset… He said he wasn't ever going to give up on you." Remus tried to say this tentatively, yet the words came out rushed and expectantly.
Lily looked stunned, yet her irritated face quickly returned. "He was upset because he is a spoiled brat who finally can't have something that he wants for the first time in his life. He's going to give up in two days when he sees another girl that catches his eye. I can't imagine dating someone so shallow," Lily took another stab at her plate as she spoke her last word and the two friends sat in silence for the remainder of the meal.
How could she possibly not want to date me? James thought to himself. She always called me an idiot, but I'm nearly top of the class; I'm good looking, at least better looking than Snivellus and she's friends with him; I'm funny and my jokes really never hurt her at all. I just don't get it…
James potter was, in essence, everything that Lily Evans thought that he was as a fourteen year old boy. He was cocky, spoiled, and couldn't deal with not getting what he wanted. But Sirius was also right about the something, the boy was stubborn as all hell, and even though Lily, Remus, and Peter were sure he was bound to give up within weeks, the concept of giving up never quite got through James' thick skull.
A/N: It's been a while since I've written anything but I just had an idea and maybe it was the spirit of NaNoWriMo and maybe it was just chance but I got it down on paper and I do plan to continue this at least weekly (hopefully), though I'm sure chapter two will be out much sooner. Let me know what you think and please give me ways to improve! ~Gabs
Please also note that I will not be continuing other stories that I have written. I no longer have any of those documents because that computer crashed and even if I did, AESYMS is a story that I'm not proud of because of misportrayal of key characters. I would have to rewrite the entire story to make it what I would like it to be and I just don't have the time for that honestly. I'm sorry to all who read that and enjoyed it but this is the way it has to be.