*Thanks for reading! Please let me know what you think!*
Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters they all belong to JKR :)
Chapter 4: The Promise
Lily avoided James at all costs on Wednesday and she was regretting making the prefect meeting that night. Unfortunately, following the meeting Lily and James would be doing the first night of rounds...together. As Lily walked into the Great Hall ten minutes early she was surprised to see Brad Matthews there.
"Brad! You're early," she exclaimed, walking over to him and smiling.
"I know! I just wanted to further prove why I should have been Head Boy," he joked and gave her a quick hug. "Actually, I wanted to catch you! I know the first Quidditch match is this Saturday but I was hoping that maybe after you'd like to go to Hogsmeade with me?" He blushed slightly.
"I-I...yes! Of course! Absolutely!" She said rather enthusiastically. "I would love to," she smiled at him and saw James walk into the room with Remus.
"Fantastic. It's a date," he said and walked away as James and Remus walked up to her. Lily smiled idiotically as James frowned at her.
"What's a date?" He asked curiously. Lily snapped back to reality and looked at him.
"Oh. Nothing. Just going to Hogsmeade with Brad on Saturday."
"But it's the first Quidditch match of the year!" James said quickly. Lily rolled her eyes.
"Well I'm not one for Quidditch but we're going after the game."
"Oh. Well that's good."
A moment of awkward silence sat between the three before Remus broke it. "Well, we should probably get the meeting going..." he muttered and quickly walked away from the pair, leaving James frowning at Lily and Lily avoiding eye contact with him all together and turning to the prefects in front of her.
"Good evening everyone! Thank you all for being here. What we're going to do tonight is hand out the prefect schedule for the next month. You may not like who you are assigned to do rounds with but these are the pairings I thought would be most productive and beneficial to have quick and complete rounds," Lily began as she handed out the paper schedules. "If you all have any complaints or questions, please let me know!"
She heard a few groans around her and ignored them. Lily knew that friends would want to work together but Dumbledore told her specifically to split up housemates as part of an attempt to bond between houses.
"Do you really think that a Gryffindor doing rounds with a Slytherin is going to be 'productive' and 'beneficial'?" Lily turned around and frowned when she saw who was asking the question.
"If you don't think you can handle the responsibility, Severus, perhaps someone else from your house would be happy to replace you."
"It just seems rather stupid that you are trying to create a 'bond' that doesn't exist and will never exist," Bellatrix piped up.
"Maybe if Slytherins weren't so impossible to work with we wouldn't be having any problems," Ravenclaw prefect Xenophilius Lovegood interjected.
"Oh please, Lovegood. Go back to writing your silly essays on plants and creatures no one cares about," Bellatrix smirked at him.
"Guys can we please just sto-..." Lily was interrupted by more comments.
"At least I am able to pass my Care of Magical Creatures exams, Bellatrix," Xenophilius added.
"Probably because you're kissing Professor Kettleburn's ass," Severus said, rolling his eyes.
"GUYS. STOP." Lily heard herself exclaim loudly and the room went silent. "Now I get that you all don't want to work with each other but it's time to get over it. Some of you are 17 years old and graduating this year. This is NO way to act towards someone, especially a classmate. I don't care if you don't like who you're working with. Don't walk together. Split up the duties. Just don't complain like a bunch of first years or I'll ask them to be prefects. Now if no one has any other complaints or questions you are all DISMISSED." With that rant Lily turned away from her fellow students and shoved her books into her bag, storming out of the door.
"Bloody hell, where is she running off to? We have rounds to do together," James groaned. "Now I'm going to be stuck with her and she's going to be bitching the whole time."
"Maybe you could do a little extra work to make her feel better?" Remus suggested, shrugging his shoulders when James gave him a look. "But good luck, you'll need it!" He put his items in his bag and followed the crowd out of the room. James groaned to the silent room again.
"Dammit."
"What's wrong, Potter?" Lily sneered, walking back into the room without her bag. "Don't tell me you didn't like how that meeting went because you stood there and didn't do anything."
"Oh please, you didn't give me a chance to!"
"Maybe you should have said something while the prefects were screaming at each other!"
"Maybe you should have thought a little harder on the pairings and not put a Gryffindor with a Slytherin. Do you really think that was a good idea, Evans?"
"Maybe if you had been at the meeting with Dumbledore you would have heard that he wanted to encourage more house bonding."
"Maybe if you told me when the meeting was I would have gone!"
"DAMMIT, Potter. Do you EVER shut up and take responsibility?!" Lily collapsed into a chair in the silent room, putting her head in her hands. "This is going to be the worst year ever," she muttered. James sighed, taking a seat as well.
"Look, I'm sorry. I know I've been sucking as Head Boy but now that Quidditch tryouts are over I'll be more inv-..."
"James! There you are! I was looking for you. Did you forget we were supposed to meet up tonight?" Brittney Bell, the giggling blonde from the train ride entered the room and stared at him. Lily frowned and stared at him as well.
"You'll be more involved. Right. Even though you schedule snog sessions with silly fifth years the night we're supposed to do rounds," Lily said, standing up.
"I'm actually a sixth year," Brittney added, folding her arms over her curvaceous chest.
"Right. Forgive me." Lily said sarcastically and looked at James. "When you're ready to be mature and take responsibility Potter, you know where to find me." Lily gave him one last look before walking out of the room. James sighed and stood up.
"Hey, Brittney. Sorry. With tryouts and being Head Boy I seem to be losing my mind slightly. Let me make it up to you," He muttered and kissed her passionately. Brittney giggled.
"Lily Evans is so annoying!" Brittney said, kissing him back equally passionately.
"The most annoying person ever. I don't know how I'll survive a year with her," James laughed and pinned Brittney against the wall.
"You'll have me to help," Brittney giggled again, unbuckling his belt.
Lily bit her lip as she stood outside the door to the Great Hall, having heard the conversation that just occurred. She blinked her eyes that felt hot and were filling with tears and quickly took off for the Gryffindor common room, not caring about rounds anymore.
"That I will," James whispered in Brittney's ear and pulled her shirt off over her head.
Two hours later, Lily was sitting on her bed reading over her essay she had written for Potions. It wasn't due until Friday but Lily had been so excited to write about Felix Felicis she couldn't wait to start it. She sighed, putting her quill down and pulled her large t-shirt over her knees. She didn't know why she was feeling down and mopey. Well, she knew why but she didn't want to admit it. She heard a knock on her door.
"Coming!" She exclaimed and walked to open it, knowing it was probably one of the girls. When Lily opened it and saw James Potter before her, she frowned. "What do you want?" She asked, crossing her arms.
"Er..hi."
"What do you want?" She repeated, glaring at him.
"I wanted to say sorry."
"Maybe if you didn't have a hickey on your neck I would believe you," Lily snorted and walked back to her bed, leaving the door open. James took this as a positive sign and walked a few steps into her room and closed the door behind him.
"Potions essay?"
"Yup."
"How many inches is yours?"
"Well it's supposed to be six...but I think mine is around ten," Lily said shrugging. "Why are you here, Potter?"
"I already told you. To say I'm sorry. I'm sorry about the meeting and I'm sorry that I forgot we had rounds tonight. Being Quidditch captain has had me so stressed out that I can't keep my head on straight. Not only that, but my parents are already sending me owls reminding me how many days I have until I go off to the Auror Academy. Lastly, I have no idea why Dumbledore picked me to be Head Boy but he made a huge mistake," James blurted out, blushing slightly at his rant. Lily raised an eyebrow at him and motioned to the empty chair across the room from her which he gladly took.
"I won't argue you on that last point," she smirked. "I'm sorry that you're stressed out. I know it's probably very difficult being so popular and having so much to do," She said, trying to lighten the mood. James shrugged.
"It's exhausting. Everyone thinks I have my head on straight and everything figured out. Everyone thinks I have it so easy and I don't have to work for anything. Even you think that," James said, staring at her, noticing for the first time she was just wearing a t-shirt. His eyes trailed down from her face and noticed that she wasn't wearing a bra; he saw her hard nipples pressed against the shirt. Lily saw him staring and blushed, grabbing a pillow to cover her chest.
"I don't think that you have it so easy. I just think that you get by easier than everyone else. You study half as much as I do yet you earn almost the same grades. You break every rule this school has seen yet you get named Head Boy. I'm sorry but in that aspect you won't get any sympathy from me," Lily said, staring at him and biting her lip. "But I am sorry that your parents are pressuring you. I know the feeling."
"Really? But your parents are Muggles..." James said, looking at her curiously. Lily shrugged.
"Doesn't mean they don't pressure me. Except mine pressure me about finding a husband and the fact that I should get a Muggle job and not one in the Wizarding world...though that will probably be the case because who would want to hire a Muggleborn to do a job for them when they can easily pick a pureblood." Lily sighed. "I accept your apology, James. As long as you promise you're going to try harder to help me out." Lily gave him a small smile, not knowing that by using his first name she caused his heart to almost stop.
"I promise. And you have permission to kick my ass if I slack off again," James said and smiled at her. "And for the record, I would hire you over a pureblood any day," he added, standing up. Lily blushed again.
"Don't worry about your parents, Potter. You're doing great things. You're going to be fine." Lily stood up as well to walk him to the door. James grinned at her.
"Next time you should wear a shirt that's a little bit shorter...then you would have my FULL attention," he winked at her as he opened the door. "Good night, Lily."
"Night Potter," she muttered and closed the door behind him, blushing again slightly. How was it that James Potter always made her so infuriated yet was able to compliment her and even embarrass her seconds later. She hoped that he was serious about helping her more. Lily honestly thought that if the two of them could get along they would make a great team. Little did she know that things would get worse before they would get better.
James trudged down the stairs away from his private room and to the room of his three best friends and Frank. He pushed open the door and let out an exasperated sigh, collapsing onto Sirius' bed near the door.
"You ok, Prongs? I heard the prefect meeting didn't go so well," Sirius smirked, throwing a Quidditch magazine at him. James groaned.
"It was awful. Just like how I am as Head Boy-AWFUL," James grumbled and opened the magazine.
"Whenever you're ready to relinquish your title I'd be happy to take it off your hands," Remus said, smiling at James.
"That may happen sooner rather than later, Moony."
"Weren't you supposed to do rounds tonight with Lily?" Peter asked curiously, giving him a look. James groaned again.
"I was. But then Brittney came and found me so I messed around with her then I went and apologized to Evans for being a git and now I'm here," James muttered, flipping through the magazine.
"Brittney is h-o-t, mate. So hot. Are you two just shagging or is this some actual thing?" Sirius grinned at him, girls often being the topic of their conversations. James shrugged.
"Shagging for now. You know how I don't like relationships."
"Very true. Now, I know you're going to hate me for saying this, but can we just acknowledge very briefly how bloody amazing Lily Evans looks in a bathing suit?!" Sirius exclaimed. "Merlin man. If I didn't fancy Marlene..."
"Shut up, Padfoot," James groaned, putting the magazine over his eyes. "I was trying to get the image of her out of my mind and now it's just back in it."
"Oh, like you didn't use it for motivation in the shower this morning," Peter snickered and high-fived Remus. James blushed.
"I don't think of Evans that way. Besides, I have Brittney to take care of that," James said, sitting up. There was silence for a moment.
"That doesn't mean you can deny how good Lily looked," Remus grinned. "She really is a beautiful girl. I think I would take beautiful over hot any day."
"I had no idea she had such a nice ra-,," Sirius began to say.
"STOP." James yelped, covering his ears.
"Oh, Prongs. Just admit you want to get with her and we'll lay off of it," Sirius grinned. James shook his head.
"Evans and I are coworkers. Nothing more. Nothing less. She can barely be in the same room as me for an extended period of time. I highly doubt that she'd ever want to snog me, let alone shag me!" James stood up, crossing his arms.
"You didn't answer the question mate," Sirius said, laughing at James' attempt to play coy.
"I'm not dignifying it with a response," James muttered and opened the door. He turned around to close the door and gave the Marauders a final look. "But I would not be opposed to seeing what she has under her bathing suit," he said, slamming the door behind him. The remaining Marauders howled with laughter.
"They will easily be shagging by Christmas," Sirius grinned, climbing into bed. "I know that Lily is James' unspoken property and none of us would even dare laying a hand on her...but you all thought she looked banging too, right?" Peter and Remus exchanged a look and Remus emitted a groan.
"I'd never talk about Lily in such a sexual and crude way but she is very well endowed," Remus said, covering his eyes with his hands. "That's all I'm going to say."
"We know that you probably had to take an hour long cold shower after seeing her in a bathing suit, Wormy," Sirius snickered. "If James doesn't start getting a move on I may have to break our promise and go after her myself."
"You wouldn't dare," Peter gasped. Sirius rolled his eyes.
"Of course I wouldn't. But perhaps competition is exactly what James and Lily need to see that they are made for each other," Sirius shrugged and closed his eyes.
"That may already be happening," Remus said, turning off the light.
"What do you mean?" Peter asked curiously.
"Brad Matthews asked Lily out to Hogsmeade after the Quidditch match on Saturday. James found out and I don't think he was too happy about it," Remus sighed. "Those two are so bipolar. They need to get together and get it over with."
"Yeah or just have hot sex. Good for Lily though. But 5 galleons says that Brad somehow ends up sick before the match on Saturday," Sirius laughed. "And it won't be my doing!"