AN: Hello! Next chapter is up!
The weather became colder and colder as they entered October, and by the week before Slughorn's party, the rain was quickly turning to sleet and Lily knew it wouldn't be long before it turned to snow.
The weeks had passed uneventfully for Lily, James was being his usual would-be-charming self, and Lily had noticed that he'd not picked on any of the younger students in a while, and he'd not been boasting and showing off as much as usual. As for their tutoring sessions, Lily stuck to letting him read and re-read the passages several times before practising any spells. She made sure she kept well out of range as she didn't want a repeat of the little metal chain.
Adrian Carter had been a lot more talkative in their transfiguration lessons too – Lily assumed it was because she'd made it clear that she wasn't with James. Lily was glad that James hadn't found out about her accepting Adrian's invitation, but some feeling deep in her stomach made her uneasy about this and she couldn't figure out why.
It was in Wednesday's lesson that Adrian was leaning back on his chair talking to Lily again.
"Hey, what have you put down as the answer for question four, Lily?" he smiled at her and ignored James' cold glare.
"The Gemino curse," she smiled back, after checking her own paper.
"Thanks," he grinned. "You're looking very nice today," he added. "Radiant, in fact."
Lily flushed and James scowled as the other boy turned back around.
"Why do you never act like that when I give you a compliment?" James muttered, and Lily was a little taken aback.
"W-what do you mean?"
"How many times have I told you your hair looks nice, you look good, this and that, you know – I'm always telling you how beautiful I think you are and you always do that… thing."
Lily frowned. "What thing?"
"You know, when you…" James then rolled his eyes and sighed in a very dramatic manner, and then altered his voice and said in a very bored tone, "Whatever, Potter."
Lily gave a little giggle. "I don't do that!"
"You might as well do," James said, slumping onto the desk. "It's like what I think doesn't even matter to you."
Lily watched him cautiously. "Well I'm sorry," she said finally, "but all of your ridiculous chat up lines can get a little boring."
"Hey!" James sat back up again, "I put hours into thinking those up! And anyway, a compliment isn't ridiculous. I actually mean it. He," James nodded at the row in front, "Just wants to get into your knickers."
Lily flushed again. "No he doesn't," she hissed.
James raised his eyebrows in a very, 'are-you-sure-about-that' manner and went back to his paper.
At the end of the lesson, Lily lagged behind. She wanted to talk to Adrian without James being within earshot.
"Can't get enough of me, can you?" he smirked in a very James-like way.
"I just wanted to ask you something… privately," Lily said. "Um… would it be okay if you didn't mention in front of James that we're going to Slughorn's party together?"
"I haven't mentioned anything to him before," he frowned. "Why would I say something now?"
Lily relaxed a little. "Okay, good. It's just, I don't think he'd take it very well, you know…"
"I thought you said you weren't going out with him?" Adrian asked as they both left the classroom.
"No – no, I'm not," she replied hastily, feeling slightly guilty, "I just… Just please can we keep it quiet?"
"Of course," he said. "Uh, hey – I'm going to the library, want to come with?"
Surprised, Lily agreed. She figured it'd be better to get to know him a little better if she was to be attending a party as his date.
The two students were seated at in the library, books and parchment spread over the table, when James walked into the library. He threw a brilliant smile at Lily but his expression turned cold when he saw who she was with.
"Lily," he said, somewhat excited. "I need to talk to you."
"What is it?" she sighed, putting her quill down.
James shot an annoyed glance at Adrian and then said harshly. "Could you give us a little privacy?"
The other boy began to get up but Lily put her hand on his wrist and he paused.
"Don't be an idiot, sit down," she said to him. "What do you want?" she turned back to James.
James went red and cleared his throat. "Come to Slughorn's party with me on Friday," he said.
This time Lily blushed.
"I can't."
"What?! Why not?" James cried, "I thought you liked me now!"
At Adrian's confused expression, Lily quickly said, "No, I'm just learning to put up with you. I can't go with you. I'm sorry."
"Why not?"
"Because… Because I'm already going with someone else."
There was a long silence, and then James said in a dull tone, "Him?"
Lily glanced over the table, and Adrian was slouching in his chair, looking rather smug.
"Don't you remember what I said to you the other week?" he said quietly to her, trying his best to avoid Adrian's gaze.
"I can look after myself," she hissed.
James scoffed. "Yeah. Okay," he muttered, and left looking either very angry or very hurt; Lily couldn't decide which.
The evening of the party arrived and Lily felt bad. Something was making her feel like she shouldn't be doing this – she shouldn't be at this party with Adrian. Rather, she should be there with James. But why?
Why not? The voice in her head was back again. Admit it, he's sorted himself out, he's at least half decent now – why not?
Lily tried to shake these thoughts away but they persisted. Just admit it to yourself, you like him.
Even if she did like him, what could she do? She'd made it pretty clear to him that she didn't want to be with him, and now she was on a date with another boy. She'd pissed him off.
Lily was waiting for Adrian just inside the sixth floor corridor entrance. She was wearing a simple navy blue cocktail dress and matching shoes. She'd hoped it was enough because a lot of students tended to dress up a lot for Slughorn's parties.
"Damn," Adrian said as he arrived. "You look hot."
Lily gave a weak smile, thinking that she preferred being called beautiful to hot.
"Uh… thanks," she said quietly, and they headed into Slughorn's room.
There were already a lot of students already there, as well as a few other people that Lily didn't recognise. For a brief moment Lily thought she'd caught a glimpse of James' familiar, messy black hair, but she assumed she'd imagined it. James had too much pride to come by himself.
They mingled for a while, until Adrian said he needed to use the bathroom. Lily wandered through the crowd, hoping to find a refreshment table somewhere.
"Having fun?" a bitter voice behind her asked as she drank from a goblet of Butterbeer.
She looked around and sure enough it was James.
"What are you doing here?" she spluttered. "I thought - "
"There are plenty of other girls who want me," James said quietly. "What makes you think you're so special?"
Lily frowned. Yes, what did make her think that? Four years of you pursuing me, perhaps?
Just then, a very pretty girl with blonde curly hair and small blue eyes appeared at James' side.
"Honey, what are you doing? You just wandered off… Oh," the girl caught sight of Lily. She possessively slid one hand around James' waist and extended the other to Lily. "I don't think we've met properly," she said in a sickeningly sweet voice, "Katherine Beal, Hufflepuff."
"L-Lily Evans," she shook her hand nervously, looking at James with confusion.
"Yes, I know who you are," the other girl said in a would-be sweet tone, but Lily felt it was rather threatening.
"It's okay," James muttered to Katherine, who was still eyeing Lily. "I'll come back over in a moment."
She smiled at James and kissed him swiftly on the cheek before disappearing back into the crowd. Lily watched her until she vanished.
When she drew her gaze away, James was watching her intently.
"What was that?" Lily asked, exasperated.
"That was a very nice young lady who's finally been given her wish of dating me," James said haughtily.
Lily scoffed. "Are you trying to make me jealous?"
James narrowed his eyes. "Why? Are you jealous?"
Lily shook her head slowly. "You shouldn't lead her on."
"Who says I'm leading her on?" James asked.
Lily didn't say anything.
"Fine," he said after a moment. "I just brought her to make you jealous – don't give me that look! That's exactly what you're doing to me with that Carter idiot!"
"No it's not," she snapped. "He asked me and I said yes, that's all."
"You said yes to him because you knew it would piss me off."
"Why would I want to piss you off?" Lily sighed, temper rising.
"Well, you tell me," he folded his arms. "For years now you've known how much I like you and you do nothing, and if you really don't like me, Lily, then why are you standing here talking to me now?"
Lily took a deep breath, attempting to keep her temper under control and prevent her face from going red.
"What do you want from me, James?"
"I want you to realise that we are meant to be together, Lily Evans. You've got to stop pretending that you hate me, and decide whether you want to know me or not."
Lily glared at him, heart beating fast.
"You're so arrogant," she managed to say at last.
Just then, Adrian appeared. "There you are – I've been looking for you, it's so crowded in here – oh." He noticed that James was standing there and Lily was still glaring at him. "Is, uh – is everything okay?" He wrapped his hand around Lily's waist in the same possessive way Katherine had done to James.
"I'll let you think about it," James said quietly to Lily and then shot Adrian an annoyed look before disappearing back into the gaggle of people.
"What's going on?" Adrian asked her, staring after James. "What did he want?"
"What? Oh – nothing, don't worry about it," she forced a smile.
"Do you wanna get outside? It's mad in here," he asked, and led her out of Slughorn's room and into the corridor outside where it was quieter and cooler.
"What's the matter? You seem really tense," he asked her.
"I'm fine," she mumbled. But she wasn't. She couldn't get what James had said out of her head. He was right but she still didn't want to admit it. She'd gotten to like him a lot more over the past few weeks and she couldn't deny that she was getting comfortable around him.
"Relax," he said, as he slipped his arm around her shoulder. Before she knew it his lips were on hers and he was kissing her. Lily tensed. She didn't want this – she didn't want him. She pushed him away.
"What are you doing?" she gasped, and he gave her a lazy grin.
"Just relax," he repeated, and he made to kiss her again, his hand trailing down to her breast. Lily heard a shout in the background but ignored it – she wasn't taking this crap. She pushed him away again with a lot more force and then brought her knee up to his crotch, hard.
James, the person she'd assumed had shouted (who else would it be, she thought) came running over.
"Don't," she shot at him, as he opened his mouth in outrage. "I told you I could take care of myself."
She turned on her heel and marched off down the corridor, James following.
"What did I tell you?!" he called after her. "I told you he'd try something!"
Lily ignored him.
"Are you okay?" he asked as he caught up with her.
"Perfectly fine, thank you."
He followed her in silence up to the Gryffindor common room.
"I'm going to bed," she told him before he could say anything else to her. She paused when she was halfway up the stairs and came back down. Luckily James was had collapsed into an armchair.
"What if I just wanted to be friends?" Lily asked him, making him jump.
"I – Wha – Friends?"
"That's 'knowing' you, right? That's what you said?"
"W – Yeah," James said, running his hand through his hair. "So we can be friends?"
"Just friends," Lily told him sincerely.
He nodded and Lily smiled, then turned and headed to bed.
"We'll get there in the end, though," James muttered to himself, smiling into the fireplace.
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