Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or anything to do with it. Mostly. Joking, I don't own any of it *sobs*

Chapter 11

Or Not

Lily didn't stop running until she reached her dormitory. She sat down on her bed, panting hard. Her mind, along with her heart, was racing. What had she been thinking? She actually called him James! Lily, you idiot! Now he'll think you like him! She smacked her forehead for her stupidity. Maybe I do like him, she thought. Then she whacked herself on the head again. Of course I don't like him! James is the stupidest, most arrogant, cocky idiot in the whole school!

"Lily?" Alice emerged from the bathroom, a towel wrapped around her head. "Is that you?"

"Yeah," Lily said.

"You look worse than you did when you woke up," Alice told her shamefully. "I cannot have you go around like that if you'll insist on going to class."

"Give me a sec, I just ran up here from the first floor," Lily told her friend, flopping backwards.

Alice laughed. "And why on earth would you do that? Though I would've loved to be there. I never really have seen you run…"

"When I went down for breakfast, I apologized to Potter for last night," Lily said. Alice nodded. "Then I went to go to class, but he caught me and asked if he could walk me there. I have no idea why but I said yes. Then he was talking and I accidentally called him James. My mind is all messed up and kooky!"

"Did you just say 'kooky'?" Alice asked her with a giggle. Lily shot her a glare. "Sorry! Well, you're not yourself today. I think you may have hit your head last night when you fell on him."

"He's hard-headed enough," Lily commented, making Alice laugh again.

"Anyways, don't worry about it! Just make sure you act normal again and pretend like it never ever happened," Alice said. "If you do that, he'll be bound to forget about today and then it won't matter."

"But he won't forget!" Lily moaned. "He's James Potter! Anything I do that's in any way remotely friendly makes his delusional mind thing that I'm as obsessed with him as he is with me!"

"That may be true," Alice said, pausing to think for a moment. "Well, just act like normal and then it won't matter. Now come on, I've got to fix your pretty little face before you leave this dorm again." With that she pulled Lily up and dragged her into the bathroom.

James, meanwhile, had stood stupidly in the middle of the hall, staring at the corner Lily had disappeared around. After several minutes he finally turned and went back to the great hall to see his friends and finish breakfast. Peter didn't seem to notice his return as he was in the middle of shoving as much food in his mouth as humanly possible. Remus looked up at him curiously and Sirius cocked his head like a dog.

"Where'd Lilypie go?" Sirius asked James. "Didn't think you'd come back without her."

"She freaked out and ran away," James replied, plopping into his seat and picking up his fork.

"And you just let her go?" Sirius said, raising his eyebrows. "You're such an idiot, Prongs!"

"You're one to talk," said Shelby as she took the seat beside Remus, who blushed scarlet. Chloe sat down by James and Addy dropped by Sirius.

"What're you guys doing here?" Sirius asked them, giving Addy, a distant relative of his, a rather miserable look.

"Obviously we're here to ask you what the heck you did to make Lily all depressed and freaky," Shelby said, looking at James as she said 'you.'

"How'm I supposed to know?" James asked them. "She was like that when she came down. She apologized to me. Then agreed to let me walk her to class. Then she ran away again."

"Nice job, mate," Sirius said sarcastically. "You scared her again?"

"Shut up!" James said, scowling at Sirius.

"Well, whatever," Addy said. "Don't care about how scary you are, just about what you did that made her like that!"

"I don't know!" James said exasperatedly. "Last night she was angry but didn't seem like she was today. I don't know!"

"Uh huh," Chloe said. "We've got to go, but believe me, this isn't over." With that, the girls got up and walked away again. Shelby stopped and looked at them before going to say, "Hey Sirius? You've got eggs down the front of your robes."

"What?" yelped Sirius, looking down and exclaiming, "Blimey!" Then he grabbed a napkin and starting wiping it off.

"They're crazy," Remus said. "Just ignore them. You didn't do anything."

"Except scare her away again," Sirius told him.

"I didn't mean to," James said.

"Sure…" Sirius said.

"We'd better get to class, too," Remus said, standing up. James got up as well, followed by Peter.

"But I'm not done eating!" whined Sirius.

"Bummer," Remus said as the 3 left without him.

James entered the transfiguration classroom and immediately noticed Lily sitting by herself. He plastered a smile on his face and walked over, taking the seat beside her. Lily scowled and turned away.

"Can't you find anywhere better to sit, Potter?"

"Aww, Lils," James said, looking at her with large hazel eyes.

"My name is Lily," she snapped, glaring at him over her shoulder.

"And mine is James," he replied.

"Potter is part of your name," Lily commented.

"Not my real name, though," James said. "I'd prefer you didn't call me by my surname."

"Alright then," Lily said. "I'll call you moron."

"That's definitely not in my name."

"It should be."

"Alright, class, settle down!" said Professor McGonagall as she walked into the classroom from her office. 10 minutes later she had set them to work on a rather lengthy essay due by the end of class, reviewing what certain spells did and how to perform them. Lily immediately set to work while James doodled idly on the corner of his parchment.

"Lils," he said, tapping her on the shoulder.

"Lily," she hissed back.
"Lily," James said apologetically. "Anyways, I was wondering if you'd like to go to Hogsmead with me this weekend."

"No."

"Just give me a chance!" James pleaded.

"No."

"Why do you hate me so much?"

"Because you're the most annoying person on the face of this planet. Now will you please let me work?" She turned further away from him so that all he saw were her robes and the top of her red head. James was silent for a few minutes.

"Hey, Lily?"

"What now?" she asked him irritably.

"Can I copy your essay?"

"NO!"

The whole class turned to look at Lily, who blushed scarlet before she stood up and moved to sit on the opposite side of the classroom. Sirius tossed James a folded up piece of parchment, which he picked up and unfolded. Better luck next time, mate! He scowled and began to work on his own essay.

Author's Note: Tada! Chapter 11! Thanks to the people who're still around.

Alicecullenisrealinmyworld and LilyXJames - thanks so much for reviewing! You guys ROCK!

I'll try to get some more up in the next few days. Just letting everybody know, I had auditions for my high school play and I have callbacks for one of the big roles (Abby Brewster – has anyone heard of Arsenic and Old Lace?) so I'll probably be really busy. Sorry! I'm just an insanely stupid person for joining so many things.

Until next chapter!

-Naomi