"You really shouldn't make it so obvious," he admonishes her.
She looks up at him briefly before returning to her essay. She furrows her brow in mock confusion and tries to focus more on her parchment than the smug boy standing next to her.
"What in the world are you talking about?"
"Oh you know. The usual. You're in denial about how much you like me. I know that you fancy me, Evans," he says, the ever growing smirk on his face.
Her eyebrow twitches and she stands up, "Potter, this is the exact reason that I have absolutely no romantic feelings for you at all. You're too arrogant."
And she sits down and tries to finish her essay.
He stands there for a moment, stunned by her words. He wasn't so arrogant anymore, was he? He had worked on it so much. All he wanted was to love her, and have her love him in return.
He sits down next to her and takes her quill from her hand, "Can we talk?"
"No," she tells him, trying to reach for the quill.
"Not a chance," he replies, putting the quill in his pocket.
She huffs, crosses her arms, and falls against the couch, "What do you want to talk about?"
"Us."
"There is no 'us'."
"Well, there should be," he says, nose wrinkled.
"Why," she challenges.
"Why not," he retorts.
"I don't have time to play your games. This essay is due tomorrow," she says icily.
"Wait," he grabs her hand, "can I tell you why we should be together?"
She bites her lip. She can finish the essay, or she can listen to what James has to say. The answer is obvious.
"Fine, but make it quick," she says firmly.
"To be honest, Evans, sometimes you're too serious. I add a bit of spontaneity into your life. Sometimes I'm too goofy; you're exactly what I need to calm myself down. You always keep me level headed. You're beautiful; I'm ravishingly handsome. I'm head boy; you're head girl. What else is there to say?"
"You're awfully shallow," she says.
"That's not exactly the reaction I was hoping for," he says dejectedly, "Go ahead, and finish your essay. I know you want to."
He tosses the quill back to her.
She writes vigorously, and he watches her the whole time. She feels a little uncomfortable under his never straying gaze, but she brushes it aside. She knows that he only does it because he cares. She's used to it by now anyways.
Suddenly, he points his wand at the parchment and erases her last word, "You spelt gillyweed wrong. You know how anal Slughorn is about spelling."
She blushes a little, but she's not sure if it's because he's so close to her now (he's writing it in correctly for her) or because she made such a stupid error.
"There. You're almost done right," he asks.
She nods numbly, "Yeah. Just a paragraph to go."
"Do you want to go to the kitchens with me," he asks.
She stares at the almost finished essay and stands up, "Let's go."
He blinks in surprise, "I promise that we'll be back in time to finish it."
Then she does something so incredibly different of her.
She shrugs, grabs his hand, and leads him out of the common room, "It's just a stupid grade. Who really cares anyways?"
~*~
"Ms. Evans, you're essay seems to be incomplete," Slughorn admonishes.
"Well, er-. You see, professor-"
"Sorry, professor, it's my fault. I wouldn't leave her alone last night," he says with a grin.
Slughorn looks between them skeptically, "All right. Ms. Evans, you have one more day to make this up without consequence. I expect it on my desk first thing tomorrow morning."
"Yes, sir," she agrees.
When Slughorn leaves, she turns to him, "Thank you."
"Don't mention it," he dismisses with a smile.
At the end of class he reads a note she left for him.
James,
Thank you for adding the much needed spontaneity in my life.
-Lily
He grins and runs off to find her.
Then they get together, snog, graduate, get married, have Harry, and die.
That's a weird sentence. You can completely ignore it if you want. It's probably what I'm going to do. I needed to get it out of my system.
This is weird and written in the present tense. BLAH, I never write anything in present tense. I'll fix errors tomorrow. Right now it's late, and I'm tired.
Disclaimer: I am most assuredly not Jo Rowling. At least, that's what the sane people in my life are trying to make me believe.