"Come on, Evans!" I heard him say as I was storming off. Arrogant pig-headed fool, he was! Thought he could trick me! Well, I wasn't going to stand for it! Obviously the best way to deal with things was to cool off, far far away from him.
"Evans!" His footsteps were tramping along just behind me now. Why did he have to follow me? I didn't want him around; I thought I'd made that perfectly clear.
The sun was just barely up in the sky. It was late enough that there was no sun rise, but early enough that there was just that bit of soft morning glow filtering in between the clouds. It was nice out, cool and breezy and I'd had just enough optimism to leave my scarf behind. All in all, it was a wonderful day.
But James Potter just had to come and ruin it.
"Evans!" he repeated and grabbed my arm, swinging me around to face him. I angrily wrenched it out of his grasp.
"What do you want now?" I asked, not really caring what the answer was. Just so long as he'd get it over with and out of his system and I could walk away, I'd be fine.
"Ev- Lily, I..." He trailed off, looking slightly sick at what he was about to say. "I suppose I better..." He coughed, " er... apologize." He rubbed his hand through his hair, making the black strands even more chaotic than they'd been before, and stared at the ground.
I let out a bark of laughter. "What? Really? James Potter, coming to apologize? Well this is a big occasion!" I pulled my books closer to my chest, getting a better grip around them. The Monster Book of Monsters rumbled in irritation and made yet another one of its frequent attempts to escape its shoelace prison. I shushed it. Care of Magical Creatures could wait, this I wanted to hear.
James was still staring earthward, his feet turned in and shuffling, looking meek. I didn't believe it for a second.
"Well?" I prompted.
His eyes flicked up to me. Surprisingly he looked like he genuinely felt bad about something, for once. Though, I was curious, did he feel guilty about what he had done, or the fact that I was hating him even more for it? His eyes roved over my face, searching for forgiveness. Well, he'd find no such emotion in my face. I was done trying to keep up with Potter's mood-swings. I cocked an eyebrow.
"Yes, what do you have to say?"
He opened his mouth. Then he closed it. Then he raised a hand and made a vague gesture behind him towards the lake. "I'm...." He stopped short. Again.
I sighed. Was it really that hard for him to get out a simple 'I'm sorry'? It didn't have to be anything complicated, I'd settle for simple. Couldn't expect much more from him, the way his brain worked. It wasn't so much that he wasn't intelligent, because he was; I had been witness to the Marauder's pranks along with the rest of the school. He chose to skive off classes simply because he'd rather take a nap in the common room than to conk out on a hard desk. He won his way out of homework with a charming smile at least once a week. McGonagall might not be susceptible but there were a few of the other teachers that couldn't resist. And why should they? He might be a slacker but he got grades almost as high as mine. I wasn't all Os all the time, but I certainly wasn't a bad student. And he made grades like mine without effort. To think of what he could do if he really tried...
Potter coughed and made another pathetic attempt at speech.
"Just spit it out!" I exclaimed.
He looked affronted. "Now look Evans, here I am, trying to do something nice for you-"
"Something nice? I hardly think it's nice. Don't try and pretend you're doing me a favour-"
He continued on as if I'd never spoken, "- by taking you out so you won't be alone while everyone else goes to Hogsmeade-"
I spluttered, "What? Did you actually just ask me out? After that?" I dropped my books on the ground and took a step forward. "James Potter, you arrogant-"
"-little toe-rag, yes, I know." He nodded his head along to the words like he had heard them a thousand times. I'd only ever said them twice! Alright, maybe four times tops. "But the point is," he carried on, "that deep down, in that dark pit of spite you call a heart, you really fancy me." He raised his eyebrows. "Come on, just say yes. We both know that you want to."
Immediately I bent down, scooped up one of my books, and knocked him about the head with it. Lucky for me, less so for him, the book was Hogwarts, A History. It may have been a right pain to lug around every day, but it made an excellent Potter-pounder. Hm, Potter-pounder, I liked that. I'm sure I could make a good galleon selling it, what with all the times he deserved a good whack.
"Ow!" he exclaimed. "Merlin, what was that for?" He rubbed the spot on the side of his head. "That was uncalled for."
Idiot. "No it wasn't," I said and lightly stepped back to gather the rest of my books. "Keep on and you'll get more where that came from." I raised a book warningly.
He raised his hands up in surrender before sliding back one through his hair. I rolled my eyes. "Alright Evans, be that way." He began slowly stepping backwards. "But I warn you, I'll be back tomorrow, with an even better line." With one last smirk he turned and began jogging back to his friends.
"And I'll be back with a bigger book!" I snapped back. Turning, I began marching back up towards the castle, my head held high. I'd show that James Potter. He thought he could win me over? Ha, like that would ever happen.
I was on the fourth step leading up into the courtyard before I realized what I had done.
"Merlin's pants," I muttered under my breath, spun around again, and started back towards the grounds.
I couldn't believe I let Potter rustle me so much that I walked off in the complete wrong direction. We even had the same class! I must have looked like a right idiot. Sure enough, as I passed Potter and his cronies, they were cackling with delight.
Chin up, I sped right past them. There, I was cool, collected and not at all bothered by Potter. Not at all.
"Hey, Evans!" Potter shouted at me. "Changed your mind yet?" He grinned, wider than ever before.
"In your dreams," I grumbled, and raced down the steps.
Thanks for reading! This is my first foray into HP fanfic so any advice would be much appreciated
Neither characters nor setting is mine, bow to the great Rowling, etc.