Lily

Lily frowned as she reached a particularly tricky question on her potions homework. It was the last one and the sheet had only taken a few minutes, her personal record (although it was very easy this week). Professor Slughorn had always had a soft spot for Lily, and as she had produced a perfect batch of Veritaserum, he had given the class much less homework than usual.

Lily paused and glanced at the clock in the deserted dormitory. Black had said that he would tutor her today in their free period and help her with Transfiguration, which Lily was particularly satisfied about, but she was still waiting. It's only been 7 minutes, she thought, and comforted herself with the thought that Black was probably the opposite end of the castle and was making his way there right that minute.

However, when Lily's eyes flicked to the door as it opened, she saw not Sirius Black but his best friend, James Potter. Lily felt her stomach tighten in dislike. She had never got on with Potter, who seemed to plan his daily routine so that they would cross paths as often as possible, and was constantly asking her on a date. How many times do I have to turn him down? thought Lily, because even though she didn't like him she always felt vaguely guilty as his eyes registered his hurt. There was also his boasting and arrogant manner to contend with.

She watched impassively as he looked around the common room and, spotting her, he made his way over. To her surprise, her dropped his books on the table and pulled up a chair, smiling his trademark arrogant grin. "Hey Evans."

"What?" Lily didn't want to seem too hostile, but at the same time she made no effort to mask her distaste at his presence. He noticed, and smiled ruefully before answering.

"Malfoy gave Sirius a detention, so he asked me to fill in for him," he said and then looked at her smugly. "Of course, I'm far better than Sirius, so really, you're getting a lucky break."

Lily scowled at him, but when he remained oblivious, gave up and said, "I was hoping to work on mammals, as they're the things I have most trouble with."

"Object to animal, or animal to object?" He asked.

"Object to animal," said Lily in the bossiest voice she could manage; she felt that if she could make Potter as uncomfortable as possible then this lesson wouldn't be a waste of time after all.

"Before we start, Sirius asked me to get you to write down a list of stuff that you can and can't do," Potter winked at Lily. "Of course, I'll probably have you doing everything by the end of the lesson, so it's kind of pointless." He passed Lily a sheet of parchment, which she snatched as viciously as she could, but he didn't seem to notice as he was too busy sweeping all her homework off the table and onto the floor to make room for his own bag. The books lay in a mess on the floor and her spare parchment spilled out across the floor. With a rush of anger, Lily saw her favorite book lying face down on the floor, all of the pages scrunched up beneath it.

"You idiot!" shouted Lily, standing up abruptly. "You've bent all the pages!" Potter started and hurriedly scrambled to pick up all the books while Lily watched in disgust.

"Sorry, sorry!" He seemed almost sulky, which infuriated Lily further. She bent over the parchment and began to scribble a list, venting her feelings by scratching the paper as hard as she could with the quill. He's probably going to try to interest me with a fascinatingly detailed description of his last Quidditch match next, she thought sourly. She watched him suspiciously out of the corner of her eye, noting the way his eyes studied her face.

"You have such nice eyes."

Lily wondered if this was his idea of a chat up line. "Thanks," she said shortly, trying to discourage him from continuing.

"And beautiful hair," he said, reaching up to run his hand over it. Lily jerked her head back, brushing her hair away from him protectively.

"What do you want, Potter?" He lowered his hand and took a deep breath.

"Evans…I was just wondering…you know, if you wanted to go-"

"No, I don't!" snapped Lily impatiently; she had predicted where this was going and had a retort ready, just waiting to be used. "How many times do I have to tell you, Potter? I don't want to go out with you! It's time you accepted the fact that you aren't every girl's dream man, you can't just go around expect that every girl would adore to be your girlfriend, we don't all fall at your feet to worship you, you know! You have made me plenty of offers, if I wanted to go out with you, I would just ask if the offer was still standing!" Lily enjoyed her verbal beating of Potter as much as she would have a physical one. There was an uncomfortable pause and he cleared his throat.

"Ok, I was just asking. You know, just in case you changed your mind." He smiled roguishly again.

The lesson was terrible. As Black had said, Potter was brilliant at Transfiguration, but he annoyed Lily all lesson with arrogant remarks and attempts to attract her, and generally belittled her so she felt like a complete failure at the end of the lesson. Black turned up just as the bell sounded, signaling the end of a period. He sauntered over and asked "How did it go, Evans?"

"Very good, thanks," said Lily stiffly. Black didn't seemed to notice her mood. "How was detention?"

Sirius seemed momentarily bewildered and the, with a quick glance at James, grimaced. "Ugh, Malfoy is such an idiot. Made me toilet-train the Flobberworms."

"You poor thing," said Lily insincerely, thinking that it could have been a lot worse. "I have Charms next."

Me too," grinned Sirius. "I'm in your class. I'm the awful one than needs tutoring by the great Lily Evans." Lily forced a laughed and then turned reluctantly to Potter.

"Nah, I've got Care of Magical Creatures with that old hag Kettle."

"She's not that bad!" snapped Lily, and walked over the portrait as fast as she could with the two boys trailing behind her. "Well, see you soon."

"Bye Evans!" called James cheerily, ruffling his hair up and smiling at her lazily.

"Goodbye Potter. Come on, Black."

"Call me James –"

"Call me Sirius –"

They both started at the same time. "Oh," said Lily, feeling pleased and annoyed. This was the big milestone in friendships at Hogwarts, getting each other to call people by their first names. "Well then, call me Lily," she said to Sirius. She extended her hand to him, but James jumped in first, clasping her hand eagerly.

"Hi Lily," he said. Lily just stared at him, and then shook her hand free and turned to Sirius.

"Hi Lily," said Sirius, grinning broadly.

"Hi Sirius," she said back, smiling as widely as she could and feeling a vindictive satisfaction at the hurt on James' face. She had just turned away to walk down the corridor with Sirius to Charms when James called her back.

"Hey, Evans," he smiled his usual, arrogant smile. "So, we're meeting outside the Entrance Hall on Valentine's day, right? To go to Hogsmeade together." She tried to flounce off, but James caught her arm. She felt her heart jump at the contact as James pulled her back round to face him. "Lily. Please." His eyes were large and pleading. She felt the combined stress of everything from the lesson ball up painfully in her throat and snarled at him.

"Let go of me! Don't ever touch me again!" she said angrily, then ripped her arm from his grip and stormed off.