Title: Fan of the Enemy
Summary: During a chance meeting, Lily meets a fellow hardcore soccer fan. And he's cute, too. Too bad he supports her team's hated rival. Otherwise, she just might've fallen in love... AU
Rating: PG. Minor swearing, nothing big. May be changed.
Disclaimer: I am not, do not own, and should not be associated with J.K. Rowling or any of her characters. I am a FANfiction writer, and I plan to stay that way. Any words from a song will be credited for.
Beta-ed by: ...Me :D
A/N: I know you all probably hate me for starting yet another story, when I haven't even updated That Thing You Do, but I wrote this a long time ago...maybe a year, year and a half? Anyway, I found it the other day, and didn't think it was too bad. So I just decided to type it up and see how it does!
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Chapter 1: Chew and Choke
"What would you like, miss?" the cashier asked Lily Evans cheerfully.
Lily let her green eyes wander upwards at the menu. She twisted a lock of her red hair between her fingers, and finally answered, "I'll have the number six special, please."
"That'll be 2 pounds, please," the cashier answered before walking to the back to get Lily's order.
As Lily fished her money out of her purse, she didn't fail to notice the boy at the counter beside her. He looked about fourteen, her age, with his jet-black hair and what appeared to be chocolate brown eyes. He also appeared to be waiting for his meal.
Lily drummed her fingers on the counter as she waited for the cashier's arrival. Finally, it came.
"By the way, this special comes with a baseball cap with a logo from an English Premier League team," the cashier informed her. "Enjoy your meal!"
Lily lifted her tray and set off to find a seat. However, it was lunchtime, so of course there were no empty seats. She walked around a bit, until finally she spotted a table for two in the back corner.
Before anyone else could claim it, Lily slid into one of the plastic chairs.
Just as she was opening the paper bag that held her lunch, a voice interrupted, "Er...could I sit here? There are no other seats."
Lily looked up, only to see the boy from the counter, "Sure. Be my guest."
The boy slid into his own seat, and opened his own bag, which, Lily noted, happened to hold the same special as hers.
As if on cue, they both reached inside their bag and grabbed their hats.
"Oh no..." Lily groaned as she looked and saw the logo of Liverpool staring back at her.
It was then she realized that the boy seated across from her didn't look thrilled, either.
"What team did you get?" Lily asked the boy.
"Manchester United," the boy replied, scrunching up his face in disgust.
"Really? I love them! They're my favourite team!" Lily exclaimed, "I got Liverpool." This time it was her turn to scrunch up her face in disgust.
"I love Liverpool!" the boy exclaimed.
"Really?" Lily raised her eyebrow. "How about we switch then?"
"Sure," the boy answered. The two exchanged and then both turned their attention back to their food.
After a few moments of silence, Lily shook her head, "I can't believe you like Liverpool. I hate them!"
"Yeah? Well I hate Manchester United!" the boy retorted, "Besides, what's wrong with Liverpool?"
"What's wrong with United?" Lily countered.
"They're full of themselves! They think they're hotshots! And just because they have a few good players!" the boy answered heatedly.
"Well, at least they GET somewhere! They WIN things!" Lily retorted.
"Excuse me, but I believe Liverpool has 18 titles to their name," the boy informed.
"Yes, but Manchester has 14," Lily replied.
"Yes, but Liverpool has 18," the boy repeated, "4 more than Manchester."
"Wow," Lily responded sarcastically, "You cheer for crap teams and you can do math! Quite the package!"
The boy stared at her for a few moments. Then, surprisingly, the corners of his mouth turned up into a smile, "My name's James Potter."
Lily was about to reply with, "Wow, and he knows his name!" But she thought better of it, and instead replied with, "Lily Evans."
They shook hands and smiled before taking a large bite of their burgers.
In an attempt to strike conversation, Lily asked after chewing, "So what are you doing here?"
James looked confused for a moment, "Eating lunch."
Lily smiled, "No, really? What I meant was, why here? I mean, I come here often, and I've never seen you here before."
"Well, to tell you the truth, I'm eating here to get away from my mum for a bit."
"What?" Lily looked concerned, "Did you have a row?"
James shook his head quickly, "No, nothing like that!" he blushed a bit, "She's just, well, doing some spring cleaning..."
Lily chuckled, "Spring cleaning? But it's summer!"
"Maybe for some," James replied, smiling, "But with my mum, every day is spring, and that means cleaning."
Lily grimaced, "I feel your pain."
James looked curious, "You mean your mom is a clean freak, too?"
"Nope...just trying to sound supportive!" Lily shrugged.
James laughed.
He looks awfully cute when he smiles...
Lily's thoughts were broken by his voice, "So are you looking forward to school?"
Lily just shrugged.
"Come on! Bugging all the teachers, being with your friends all day...you don't have fun?" James asked, disbelieving.
"I'm home-schooled," Lily replied bitterly.
"Ouch. That must suck!" James winced.
Lily gave him a weak smile, "So what school do you go to?"
James seemed to pale a bit, but replied, "I go to a boarding school."
Lily nodded, looking down at her hands. In the process, she happened to see the time on her watch, "Oh my gosh! I promised my friends I'd meet them ten minutes ago! I better go! It was really nice talking to you!"
James barely got out a, "Bye!", before she was gone.
It was then that he looked down at the table and saw two trays full of cold fast food, with two baseball hats next to them.
Quickly, he jumped up and ran out the door.
He looked in both directions for some sign of Lily.
After a few moments, he saw a flash of red hair and yelled, "Lily!"
The redhead didn't seem to notice, so quickly he chased after her.
It wasn't until he reached her that he noticed she was surrounded by her friends.
Shyly, James tapped Lily's shoulder, and thrust the hat at her, "Er...I didn't think you'd want to forget this," James blushed under her intense-eyed stare. Not to mention all of her friends' curious looks.
"Thanks, James!" Lily grinned as she took the hat and placed it backwards over her stunning hair.
"No problem," James blushed, "Well..."
One of Lily's friends nudged her with their elbow, and Lily came to her senses.
"Oh! Right! You guys, this is James. I just met him during lunch," Lily introduced, "James, there are my friends! This is Courtney," Lily pointed to the girl who had nudged her. She was medium height with light brown hair and bright blue eyes, "And this is Jeff and Robyn." Jeff had reddish-brown hair and green eyes, like Lily. Robyn had blonde hair and brown eyes, and was the shortest of the group.
"Nice to meet you, James," Courtney smiled.
James returned the facial expression, and replied with a quick, easy, "Ditto."
"Hey, we were just gonna do some window-shopping. Why don't you join us?" Lily offered.
"Well..." James hesitated, as he looked around at the expectant faces surrounding him.
"Please?" Jeff pleaded, "Do not leave me along to shop with all these crazy girls! I won't last an hour by myself! At least with you here I'll stand a chance!" Then, noticing the long, sharp-looking nails of Courtney and Robyn, added pointedly, "Well, maybe not, but if you're here, they may not be so vicious."
James laughed, nodding, "All right, I'll come."
Lily grinned widely, as did Courtney.
"Great! Now can we get a move-on? A lot of the shops close within the next 7 hours! That doesn't give us much time!" Robyn urged.
So her and Courtney rushed ahead, dragging Jeff, who didn't look too pleased, with them.
James shook his head, and murmured, "What have I gotten myself into?"
"Oh, don't worry about it so much!" Lily advised, "Once those two get going, they'll forget you're even there! You never know, you might even end up having a good time!"
With that, Lily followed her friends, who were already a good distance ahead, towards one of the shoe stores on the long, winding, store-filled street.
James half-smiled, "No Lily, I don't know. But I'm willing to take a chance and find out." And he followed the redhead down the sidewalk.
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A/N: Hey guyz! Thanks for reading! Whether you liked it or not, I hope you review!
The teams' titles...well, when I wrote this, it was legitimate. I didn't feel like changing anything, so whatever.
Luv alwayz,
-Shree-
PS- I don't know when the next chapter will be up! I'll try my best to be quick, but I do have to update TTYD first...