Stage Two
The day proceeded and nothing out of the ordinary happened…well unordinary for James and Lily.
James let out a sigh as Slughorn gave the instructions on how to broil a proper boil potion. "What would you do without me Love?" James rhetorically whispered, their hands clasped under the table. He was starring at her and had been starring at her for some time, which Lily found to be very unnerving.
"I'd be happy." Lily said sadly as she leaned forward on her desk, propping her head up with her hand.
James chuckled as if he thought Lily was actually joking, "You're just so adorable the way you joke like that."
"Joke?" Lily said, arching an eyebrow. "Yeah right." She tried her best to pay attention to what Slughorn was saying but it was near impossible with James yapping in her ear.
"You know it's true…" James cooed, examining her eyes as she watched Slughorn.
"What's true?" Lily asked, putting a hand up to the side of her face to keep James from looking at her anymore. She was so used to this starring and even though she didn't like it, she learned to deal with it.
"That you love me." He answered, leaning back in his chair, still not letting go of Lily's hand. In fact, James hadn't let go of Lily's hand all day.
"Leave me alone Potter." She replied. James reached forward and gently pulled Lily's hand away from her face so he could resume starring at her.
"But you're starting to fall for me…" James continued, ignoring her demand to shut up.
"James, I will never fall for you. Get that through your thick head." Lily replied, watching Slughorn demonstrate how to brew a potion. She quickly put her hand back up to the side of her face so James couldn't stare at her again.
"Hey Evans? Potter?" A voice said from behind the couple.
James and Lily turned around to face the handsome Ravenclaw that had called them and he continued, "Are you two going out?" He asked eyeing their touching hands.
Lily shook her head furiously but James said, "Yeah we are."
The Ravenclaw raised an eyebrow, "So you are or aren't?" He asked, confused as to why Lily would say no and James would say yes.
"Ahem!" Slughorn cleared his throat as he saw they three talking. James and Lily quickly turned around to face the front of the classroom.
"You know what?" James asked after Slughorn had gone back to lecturing.
"Don't know. Don't care." Lily replied, trying hard to focus now.
"You're lucky." Lily let out a laugh and quickly realized, as the quiet room looked over at her, that she had interrupted the class again. She tried to disguise her laugh as a cough but to not much avail.
"Breath love breath!" James said, hitting her on the back with a hand, like you'd burp a baby.
Lily frowned and squirmed away from his hand, "Alright, alright. I'm fine Potter." She insisted.
Slughorn let out a sigh at this second interruption before continuing again. "Now you want to boil it a low temperature at first…"
"And why exactly am I lucky?" Lily whispered curiously to James.
"Because I'm a nice blackmailer." James said which almost sent Lily into another fit of laughter.
"I can't wait to hear the explanation of this one…."
"Well most other guys who had complete control over you would have you in bed within an hour." He said matter-of-factly.
"Well most other guys wouldn't stoop so low as to blackmail me in the first place." She hissed through gritted teeth. She could feel her temper rising; bubbling up inside her.
James shrugged, "If it meant they could sleep with you they would."
"No because most guys who want that could do it the normal way." She said, her face turning red with anger.
"Normal way? You mean like offer to pay you 10 galleons for a night…?"
Lily wheeled around and smacked him in the shoulder, "Shut up Potter. I mean date me first." She snapped.
All eyes in the room turned to the pair after hearing Lily's hand collide hard with James's shoulder. James winced and rubbed his arm. "Is there a problem over there?" Slughorn asked.
"No everything's fine." James said but Lily just rolled her eyes.
"Really everything's fine Professor." She said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'm perfectly happy to be spending two blocks of Potions next to Potter while he whispers perverted things to me." She said audaciously before she could stop herself.
Slughorn, instead of getting upset, let out a roar of laughter. "My, my. Lily have I ever told you that you'd do well in my house?"
"Hundreds of times." Lily replied dryly.
"What cheek!" Slughorn boomed.
"Suck up…" James whispered as Slughorn went back to blabbering about potions. "Why does he love you so much? Did you sleep with him?" He asked, his eyes narrowing at her.
"James, leave me alone." Lily hissed as she slid her chair farther away from him.
"But Lils." He replied, moving closer to her as she tried to get away from him.
"You just insulted me and you think I really want to talk to you?" She snapped.
"Come on it was a joke, I don't think you actually sleep with guys for just 10 galleons."
"Excuse me?" She wheeled around to look at him.
"20 galleons at least." He continued.
Lily's face grew red as she tried to decide whether she should kick him first or hex him. "Just joking." He added, before Lily could snap at him again.
"You better be…" Lily mumbled.
"Why? What would you do if I wasn't?" He asked.
"Hex you." She replied, throwing her red hair behind her shoulders.
"So you're telling me," He began and Lily let out a sigh. "That it doesn't matter what I say to you as long as I don't mean it?"
"Well, kind of." She answered, trying to half listen to Slughorn.
"Then if I said to you that I would pay money to lay you, you wouldn't get mad because I was just joking."
Lily's face turned even redder as a fellow Gryffindor boy turned to look at the couple. "Piss off." She snapped.
"How mad are you at me for saying that?"
"I'm 'I want to wring your neck' mad at you right now." She said, clenching her teeth in an attempt to distract her from James.
"But I didn't mean it…"
"Yes you did Potter." Lily replied.
"No."
"Yes you did!"
"Nope." James replied and Lily groaned.
"Please James, you would pay me just for a kiss on the cheek." Lily hissed.
James shook his head, "I don't have to." He replied, leaning back in his chair.
"Oh really? Why? Do you think I'd kiss you 'just because'?" Lily asked.
James shook his head slowly again. "No, need I remind you that I'm blackmailing you. So if I want you to kiss me, I can make you without paying you." He said.
This shut Lily up as she turned back to face the front of the classroom. "I hate you."
"Why does my cleverness make you jealous?" He asked, holding her hand tighter in his own.
"No your conceitedness makes me sick." She corrected, trying to pull her hand away from his but he only gripped it tighter.
"You know you love me." He said, running a hand through his hair.
"Stop saying that." Lily replied.
"But you do."
"James, I love Snape more than you."
James frowned. "Do you really mean that?" He pouted a little and looked her straight in the eye as he spoke.
Lily looked over his hurt face. Was she actually regretting saying that…?
"Yes!" She snapped.
"No…you can't." James concluded, turning back to Slughorn.
"Well I do." She said defiantly.
"Really?" James asked in a softer tone.
"Since when do you get so upset when I say something like that to you?" Lily perused.
James shrugged, "I don't know." He looked down at his desk, his hazel eyes wandering up again to Lily.
Lily sighed, her regret now eating away at her. "Fine I take it back. I don't like Snape more than you."
"So you'll have my babies then?"
Lily let out a groan, "Piss off. I was trying to be nice to you and look what I get."
"Don't be so uptight. I was just joking." He said with a wink.
"Well it wasn't funny."
"Maybe you don't have a sense of humor."
"Or maybe it was a sucky joke." Lily lamely retorted.
James grinned at her, "I love you too."
"Just leave me alone Potter."
And to Lily's surprise, he did leave her alone.
That night, Lily had gone to Newell's office for her detention. And to no one's revelation, James was late.
"Where is he?" Newell asked.
"How should I know?" Lily replied, annoyed. Newell went silent again and tapped him quill anxiously on the desk.
Lily was getting quite irritated by the tapping and was tempted to tell him to stop but knew that would only make him angrier than he already was. But what irritated Lily more was that James hadn't shown up yet.
Lily had told him the other night about this detention and she must have complained about having to spend more time with James at it, all day. So James knew about the detention, he obviously just didn't care enough to come.
"Bloody prat…" She mumbled to herself, imaging James off at some party while she sat here and suffered. She'd get him back for this if it was the last thing she ever did.
Sighing, Newell began to speak, "If he doesn't show up in five more minutes you can leave." He said to Lily. Lily looked up at him, slightly confused.
"Why would you let me leave?" She asked.
"Because you actually showed up and he didn't." Lily still didn't understand why she should be able to go because of that but she wasn't about to argue with him.
Five minutes later, Lily was permitted to leave. "And Miss Evans." Newell said. "Please try to keep your temper under control."
Lily turned her back to Newell and rolled her eyes, "Alright Professor." She replied and opened the door to the dungeons.
Lily smiled a little as she left the room. At least James was good for something….
"Boo!" A voice said to the side of Lily once she was in the corridor.
Calmly, she turned to face whoever made the noise. "James?" She asked, her eyes adjusting to the darkness of the dungeons hall.
"Hiya." He said. He was sitting against the dungeons wall with a charms book in his hand and by the looks of it, he had been sitting there a long time.
"What are you doing here?" Lily asked.
"Reading." He replied simply.
"And how long have you been reading?"
"A half hour."
Lily shook her head at him, "And could you tell me why the hell you didn't come to detention if you've been sitting out in the hallway this whole time."
James looked up from his book at her and said, "So you could get out of detention."
"Please, there is no way you could have known that if you didn't show up for detention Newell would let me leave early." She replied, crossing her arms over her chest as James stood up.
"Actually," He began calmly. "He gave me and Snape a detention once and he told us that if either one of us didn't show up, he'd let the other one go without a detention. It was to keep either of us from bailing on it because he knew neither of us would have come otherwise. So I figured he'd do the same with us." He said with a shrug.
Lily frowned and looked over his face trying to see if any part of him wasn't being serious. "Why'd you do it for me though? You're going to be in twice as much trouble now." She said.
"Because I love you." He said, throwing her a cheeky smile.
But instead of getting mad at him for saying something stupid, she merely nodded. "Oh," She said, still unable to get her mind around the concept that James would actually do something nice for her.
"Well, I'll see you around." James said, turning to Newell's door.
"Wait."
James turned his head to look at her, "Thanks." She replied, with a soft smile.
He grinned, "No problem."
"You know…" Lily said, taking a step towards him. "I'd like you a lot more if you acted like this more often."
"So you are falling for me." A knowing smile spread across his face.
"Of course not." Lily said, stepping back from him slightly disgusted by that thought.
"Uh huh…" He nodded. "There is no way you can't be falling for my charm."
Lily's eyes narrowed at him, "Shut up."
"So you're not going to deny it? Must be it's true then."
"I'm not going to deny it because I know it won't do any good." She answered. "You'll just argue with me."
"Liar. You love me."
"Please…"
James looked her over carefully before saying, "I'm just warning you now that I'm really going to try to get you…"
"Haven't you been really trying to get me for years now?" Lily asked.
James nodded slowly and answered, "Yes but it's going to be different now."
"Different?" She asked, raising her eyebrow at him.
"Yeah because before I had to drive you crazy to get your attention. But now, I have your attention so I can loose that act and make you fall hard for me." He replied.
"So you're saying the whole time I've known you has been an act?"
"I didn't mean act…" James said trying to think of a new word. "I meant I was just trying too hard to get you because I wouldn't have gotten your attention otherwise. So now, I'm moving to stage two." He said.
Lily raised an eyebrow curiously at him. She wasn't really following him or better yet, she didn't believe him.
"You will fall for me…" He said, confidently.
"Goodbye James." She said, letting out a groan before turning away from him.
"Bye Love."
A/N- Sorry that took so long to get out and sorry that wasn't one of my better chapters.
Thank you to everyone that reviewed. I really appreciate it.
Oh and reviews make me write faster….
Claire
