Chapter 3 ~ A Nice Potter?

LPOV

I had been sitting in the heads compartment for little more than five minutes when I heard the door slowly creek open and a terrified looking Potter's head gradually move into the room. I turned away from him. Even looking at him was annoying me.

Seeming to take my silence as a good thing, his body followed his head inside, and he perched himself the seat farthest away from me. Well at least he hadn't attempted to touch me.

A few extremely awkward minutes (on Potters part- I was merely enjoying watching him squirm) passed before he finally decided that he was going to have to be the first one to talk; I sure as hell wasn't going to help him out.

And guess what he came up with; 'Giant polar bear'. Yup, that seemed to be just as far as his intellect could reach.

'What?' I asked, trying my best to sound extremely pissed off. It wasn't hard.

'It's an ice breaker'. I couldn't help the grin that broke out across my face, before I quickly wiped it off and glared at Potter instead.

'Ha! Did I just see a smile?' he teased.

'Yes. I was laughing at your complete stupidity.' Okay, so it had actually been quite funny, but I was way too angry with him right now to give him credit, and besides he didn't need anyone trying to boost his ego; who knew if he would be able to fit his inflated head back out the door?

'Ooh. Cold, Evans.'

That really set me off.

'Cold? Cold! You want to talk about cold? How about any boy I might like, won't come anywhere near me because I'm 'Potters Territory'? And anyone who has been brave enough over the years has mysteriously ended up in the hospital wing, or the butt of one of your stupid pranks. You have even stopped my friends from hugging me!' I screamed, the words flowing freely now. 'And talking about your crappy jokes, how is it that you get away with skiving off, misbehaving, and not studying, and the teachers still like you, you get grades to rival mine, and you STILL GET MADE HEADBOY!' I bellowed the last part, as a rush of air escaped my lungs.

Potter was no completely squeezed into the far corner, his hands covering his face as though he expected me launch a physical attack on him any moment - I was seriously considering it. We both sat there in silence for a few moments, Potter hiding in the corner, and me glaring at the innocent sheep zooming past the window, when the door burst open and Black jumped in, his wand in his hand, darting around the room, reminding me of some kind of mission impossible stunt.

'Heard it go all quiet' he said suspiciously, eyeing Potter who was still cowering in the corner, 'thought you might have killed him, Evans'. He grinned.

'Marlene sent me to check it to out – didn't want Lily going to Azkaban, thought maybe I could help destroy the evidence' he explained, before moving forward and prodding Potter in the ribs with his wand, looking a little disappointed when he yelped and rubbed his side.

'Oh, thanks for your concern, mate' Potter seemed to have regained his composure, and was back to his cocky self. Maybe I should have given him a few bruises, like little reminders of his arrogance (and my superiority) every time he saw one.

'Hey! I least I came. Moony refused to even venture outside the compartment.'

'Can't say I blame him' I whispered, glaring at Potter, who at least had the decency to look at the floor, ashamed.

Black was shooting confused glances between the two of us. It must have been weird, from his point of view. He had seen us quite happy, only ten minutes before hand, and already I was screaming at Potter. Not that it was very surprising. Hogwarts had been home to many of our previous battles; it was not really a full week until there was a confrontation between the two of us somewhere within the castle.

The silence had once again become awkward, and Sirius slowly backed out of the compartment, his eyes darting between us in a meaningful way, as though trying to warn us (me) against violence through psychic vibes, before he went sprinting down the corridor, screaming 'He's alive, he's alive!' to anyone he met.

I stood up to leave. Potter was still sitting in his seat, watching me closely.

'Coming, Potter?' I snapped at him.

'Umm, where?' he asked tentatively. What, did he think I was going to ask him to follow me to his death? Actually that wasn't a bad idea. If I could just lure him to...

'The prefects meeting', I growled at him before the ideas could become any more pronounced.

He had been Headboy no more than an hour and he was already forgetting his duties. Great, this year was going to be a disaster. I stormed from the compartment and next door where all the prefects were already waiting, some giggling, some looking scared, which made me believe that they had heard the little tiff I had been having next door. Of course, they probably thought I had been talking to myself, seeing as Potter had made no move to stand up for himself. And now I was going completely red. And Potter is smirking at me. Great, just, perfect.

.*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The meeting went alright, after the little hiccup at the start. I learnt most of the new prefect's names, handed out all the patrolling schedules (which I spent ages arranging over the summer-without Potters help- so that Remus didn't have to patrol too near a full moon), gave out the new common room passwords and successfully ignored Potter the entire time.

I was now sitting with Marlene and Mary in our normal compartment discussing how wretched and stupid Potter is. Well I was telling them what an overprotective prat he is, Mary was trying to be sympathetic, and Marlene was just straight out laughing at me.

'What?' I eventually asked Marlene when she had once again giggled at me after I said that Potter was rude and totally stuck up his own arse.

'Nothing.' She whispered, looking out the window.

'No, what?' I exploded. 'If you're laughing at me, at least tell me what you're laughing about!'

'Okay.' She sighed. 'It's just that you always go on about how Potter is the one that is rude and arrogant etc...' she said rolling her eyes. 'But as far as I can tell, Potter has been nothing but nice to you since 5th year, after...' she trailed off. We all knew what she was referring to: the 'Snape Incident'. We don't talk about it. She quickly continued, 'and all the things you describe him as, you really are' she finished. My mouth dropped open in shock.

No. I'm not like that. Am I? I thought back to 6th year. I couldn't remember exactly what he had done to annoy me, he just had. Marlene had the wrong end of the wand.

I. Am. Not. Like. Potter.

I huffed away from Marlene and glared at the seat next to me.

I was vaguely aware of the door opening and people coming in but I was in a daze and didn't bother to check who it was. After a while I heard Sirius's loud, intrusive voice.

'For Merlin's sake Prongs, will you just sit down!' I looked up at James who was standing huddled by the door.

A soft thud told me that Sirius had pushed Potter down into a seat. The seat I had been staring at. Anger bubbled in my veins, and I turned my face away and looked out of the window instead.

Then I remembered what Marlene had just told me about my rudeness to Potter. I was being mean to him right now; I wouldn't even look at him. And I think he had just been standing up because the only free seat had been next to me. Maybe he didn't want to upset me? Or be attacked by me? Either way, it was because I was being rude that he had been standing there for the past 15 minutes. I shook my head. I had a reason to be angry at him this time.

I was shocked when Potter didn't try to put his arm around me, but decided that he probably wanted his limbs intact by the end of the journey.

A good while later I heard someone calling my name, but it was muffled as if someone had cast the hairy ear charm on me.

'Evans' it murmured 'the trolley is here, do you want anything?'

I shook my head silently, afraid that if I talked I would snap out of this peaceful daze. Much to my embarrassment my tummy rumbled, giving me away, and the same deep voice as before chuckled softly from somewhere above me. I felt something being thrust into my hands but I refused to hold whatever it was. I heard an exaggerated sigh, and I yawned quietly, at which point something chocolaty was shot into my mouth. Mmm, it tasted so good. I felt a small smile spread across my lips and I decided that now would be a good time to join the group.

I opened my eyes slightly, to find that it was nearly dark outside, and Potter was grinning down at me. I was about to scowl, when I noticed the bar of Honeyduke's chocolate in his hands. Ohhhh. It was him. Figures. Like I said before, over protective, couldn't have his Evans going hungry.

I was staring at his hands, and he laughed at me again, flaring up my anger, but he passed me the bar, and my annoyance was quick to vanish. Merlin it tasted good!

My eyelids started to droop and another yawn escaped my lips. So much for joining the group. I held them open (a feat that I was quite proud of) long enough to see what fun I was missing out on. Not much apparently. Remus was reading his DADA text book next to Peter who was staring at Sirius who was staring at Marlene. Hmmm. What's going on there? And lastly Mary was sitting opposite Remus and was... watching him read? Sounds like something Potter would do to me. Okay this was getting extremely weird. I looked up at Potter who was also looking around the compartment with a curious look on his face.

I smiled and handed the chocolate back to him, but he refused to take it.

'Take it. Besides the last to eat from it has to chuck the wrapper away' he grinned at me. I rolled my eyes. But I was happy. I spontaneously decided that I would count the nice things Potter did for me, against the mean or annoying things. I would be fair, to see if Marlene was maybe onto something. So it was 1-0 to Nice Potter.

I felt myself thinking back to last year. Trying to remember him hexing any Slytherins for no reason, or teasing first years to prove my Arrogant And Mean Potter theory, but nothing came to mind. Hmm. Strange. My brain must be too tired to function properly.

Then all of sudden I remembered the day that Marlene had dragged me and Mary over to sit with the Marauders at lunch. It had been 6th year, a few days before Halloween. Marlene had had a massive crush on Sirius at the time, and hadn't wanted to go over there by herself. So we were all carted along up the table to eat lunch with them. James had pushed Peter off of his seat so that I could sit next to him, something that I felt bad about later, but I had been tired at the time so I had just giggled and sat down. The main thing I remember was the massive grin Potter had given me when I had sat down next to him over the empty spot next to Remus. It was the first time we ever had a civil conversation. Of course I can't remember what we talked about; I just know that we didn't argue the entire time. It was really nice. Then as I walked away he had asked me out. End of polite conversation.

However, Mary and Marlene had enjoyed themselves too, and when we entered the Great Hall for dinner, the Marauders had waved us over to sit with them again, and now we had become our own little group. We ate meals together, hung out in the common room together, and studied together, well everyone apart from me. I need silence to study and that isn't one of the many talents of the Marauders. However I really enjoyed spending time with them, they were fun. They just got on my last nerve sometimes. And by they, I mean Potter, and on occasion his partner in crime; Black.

I felt sleep washing over me, my head tilting to the side, finding a nice soft spot on the wall. I shivered slightly, it was getting cold. Damn this stupid t-shirt. I was just about to pass out, when I heard an audible moan of pleasure from somewhere above me. Odd. However, I couldn't stay awake to ponder this any longer, and I fell quickly into slumber.

A/N: Hope you enjoyed that chapter; it was quite enjoyable to write.

Anyway, if you like it, or don't, review and let me know!

Thank you, Anna-Cate xxxx