Potter vs. Evans

by The Girl Who Lives

A Lily/James love/hate fic. They hate each other and have to accomplish detention together. It rains and they have to stay overnight in a cabin, and manage to hide their feelings, which is quite difficult in a situation like this. James has a girlfriend a

4. Lily-Lover

I have the fifth chapter done… I won't upload it before I get 180 reviews… so… it depends on you… REVIEW!!!

Potter vs. Evans – Chapter 4 – Lily-Lover

It was Hagrid. "Hagrid! We're so lucky to see you! I thought I might die, and then you showed up!" Lily ran towards Hagrid, who looked embarrassed, because she was in underwear. As she noticed his being embarrassed, she got embarrassed too. "Ow, sorry, my clothes… they are…"

But she couldn't finish her sentence. After Hagrid and Fang, Sirius Black and Konstanze Angelkort entered the room. Lily didn't know where to hide her face, and blushed freely Konstanze was really astonished and jealous and angry, but she ran to James, embraced him tightly and kissed him over and over on the lips… and for Lily's unconscious rage, James was kissing back!

"Hey," said Sirius playfully with a finger on her chin, turning her head to him and said, "I'm here!" Lily grinned, and Sirius whispered, between held laughter "What were you two doing? Playing strip poker?" But Lily didn't answer; she just kissed him.

James, who differently from Konstanze wasn't shutting his eyes, watched the scene in a mixture of feelings he couldn't describe. But he was hurt, it was undeniable, and Lily felt a strange pleasure at the look of that, but pretended not to see it. James grabbed Konstanze's hand and walked towards the cabin's door, but Konstanze stopped and said "Hey, James," she said the word 'James' in a way only she could, as if she was the owner of it "Are you going to leave this dirty place wearing only… these?" she was pointing at his boxers.

"Ow…" he muttered, but didn't blush.

"Well, well, well, James Harold Potter…" her tone was reproachful, "In the warmth of seeing you again, I almost forgot to ask you what does it mean?"

"What?"

"You being half-naked in the same deserted room as Lily Evans."

"Well… it was the power of the circumstances, you know…"

"The circumstances of being alone with a girl? Don't tell me anything…" she was hurt and even more angry, "I'm old enough to that bees and birds chatting."

"No! It's not like it seems to be. I am just this way because of there was a storm and my clothes were soaked and…"

"James! Don't try to fool me! There wasn't any storm, it wasn't even drizzling!"

"How come not?", James asked confused "I can swear it was raining hard!"

She crossed her arms in suspicion. "James Harold Potter, if I didn't know you, I'd say you were mad and are having hallucinations, but as I do know you, I'll say you are attempting to FOOL ME. And believe me, I won't be fooled."

But James was way too confused "I swear it was raining! If you don't trust me, you can ask Evans."

"Oh… if you were cheating on me exactly with her, do you think she is the kind of person I would ask for an alibi? I think not," and she turned on her heels, hoping to be followed by him.

"You know what, Konstanze? If you don't trust me, we'd better break up," he told her, knowing she would apologize to him the next moment, "I think every relationship is based on trust, and I really trusted you trusted me with all your heart, but if you don't, I don't think we can be together."

But she wasn't hearing "Huh?"

James was fairly tired to repeat it all, so he said "Nothing, hon. Just forget it. You know I wouldn't ever touch her, she's way too ugly and I hate her way too much, you know."

She couldn't resist, "Oh, James…" and kissed him on the lips.

Lily, who was near, watched the scene in disgust, "How can a girl be so dumb?". Sirius looked at her, and asked, "Why's she dumb?"

"How can she believe James Potter?"

"Why wouldn't she? Was he lying when he said nothing happened?", asked Sirius. Lily punched him playfully, with a huge effort not to blush "Of course not, you asshole. He was telling the truth, but she wasn't supposed to believe knowing what he is."

"Well," whispered Sirius, "Let's stop talking about them, shall we?" And Lily answered with a kiss on his lips.

James avoided looking at it, and walked towards his robes, that were surprisingly totally dry. He put them on quickly, walked over Konstanze, put his arms around her shoulders and walked out of the door, and – James thought he was going mad as he saw it – it was not the stormy outside of the cabin, but a corridor at Hogwarts.

**

"They're gone, Lil," Sirius told her, "Now you can tell me what actually happened." She was putting on her robes, which was quite embarrassing since Sirius was watching her, and although she wasn't naked; wearing bra and panties in front of a boy wasn't a normal circumstance to a schoolgirl like her.

"Sirius, my dearest…" she started sweetly and sarcastically, "As I told you before, I and Potter didn't do anything. Trust me." He shrugged and said, "So what did you do the whole time you two spent there?'

"Well, we…we…" Lily didn't know what to say. She didn't want to talk about their common meal, her being drunk, and their truth or dare game, nor about her and James kissing, so she decided to omit some things, "Well, we've spent the whole night sitting at…"

"Night? What do you mean by night? You were away from the castle since yesterday's evening to now, which means you've been stuck here for almost 24 hours!"

"Twenty four hours?" she asked astonished, "God! That explains why our watches' hands were running much faster than usual!" But when Sirius turned to see her watch, it was perfectly normally showing it was half past nine. She looked puzzled. "What? I can't understand it! First Konstanze tells Potter it wasn't even drizzling while we faced a storm. Then our clothes are completely dried while ten minutes ago they were all soaked. Then, what supposed to be a simple night is a whole day, and my and Potter's wrecked watches are now working perfectly. What now? My name is not Lily Evans but Fidel Castro?" Sirius laughed mockingly and said, "Well, your name is not Fidel Castro as far as I am concerned."

She breathed in relief, and Sirius went on, "But soon you are not to be Lily Evans anymore… but Lily Potter." She slapped him once again, and he exclaimed "Whoa, Lily-Lily, you love to hit me, don't you?"

And she smiled devilishly.

**

When Lily entered the Great Hall, everybody who were dining, seemed to know every little detail of her and James's staying alone in that cabin. Sirius's arm was around her shoulders, and everybody looked at them suspiciously.

"Perfect," she whispered to Sirius, "Now everybody will start saying that I am nine months pregnant with Potter's son," Sirius laughed mockingly, "Well, my dearest Lily-Lily, you're so thin that nobody can even say you're one month pregnant," She smiled. "But we can always shut them up," and he kissed her.

A certain Hillary Weathers, from Hufflepuff, stood up as if she wasn't hungry anymore and made her way back to her common room. But nobody realized it.

James Potter, however, didn't seem to care about it, although his insides were burning and screaming shouts of jealousy; he just turned to the girl in his left, who happened to be his own girlfriend and asked to talk to her in private.

**

"Well, as I was telling you all," said Lily between mouthfuls of pumpkin juice, "It was quite scary. And for worse, I was there with Potter."

"Oh!" everybody exclaimed, and she went on "But since I am Gryffindor, I was brave. I stood there, facing my worst enemy for hours and hours until my saviors," she blew a kiss at Sirius, who wasn't looking even a bit pleased with her talking about everything so stupidly, "coming at that place."

"Oh!" everybody exclaimed again, and they all would be silent if it hadn't  been for Lucia raising her voice "Look, Lily, I don't want to take off your merits, but… what other option did you have but facing your enemy?"

Lily blushed so little nobody really noticed, and said, "Well, anyways, it was a brave act, wasn't it? I could've turned him into a rat, but I knew how to keep myself calm."

"Lily, I think we've all had enough," said Sirius finally, and Lily could see he was frowning, "Let's go back to the common room."

She answered, although she knew she had no option but agreeing – if she disagreed, she would have to go there anyway – so she did what was more sensible, "Of course, Sirius."

And she had not even time to say goodbye to her listeners, for Sirius pulled her by her arm and practically dragged her out of the Great Hall.

**

"Er… Konstanze?" said an hesitant James. He was going to propose to her.

"What, my love?" she asked.

"I… well, I…" God, I can't do it. Am I going to get married to such a brainless girl? My love, he thought to himself, That's so namby-pamby! Take a breath, Potter, he demanded himself, She's pretty and kinda nice, and it won't be at all bad being attached to her, therefore, you don't need to get married now, and you'll have a lot of time to think about it better, and then you'll meet many girls, and if it's better to, you can break up the attachment.

If you're intending to break up the attachment, if you don't want to marry her, why are you going to propose?

Well, I 'm not intending to break up the attachment… maybe I will, but possibly I won't.

"James! Earth to James!" Konstanze was calling him, "You've  been absent-minded for two minutes now."

"Ow, sorry. I made up my mind for an important decision that can change our lives."

She glared at him, in a mix of surprise and disbelief, and then asked, "And… what decision is it?"

He gulped, I'll propose, I will.

"Konstanze Kristin Angelkort, will you…"

**

"Ouch, Sirius," protested Lily, "Why are you acting so rudely? Why did you take me out of the Great Hall so violently?"

"Lily, listen to me," he started, ignoring her question, "You have always being harsh to Prongs, and I'll admit it used to be quite funny in the beginning. None of us, and I mean I and everybody who befriends both you and him by us, ever thought it was anything very serious," Sirius's seriousness was frightening her, "It was even funny, as I already said. But then, as the years passed by, we realized it was more than a simple joke, than a dislike of two people who are very alike," she opened her mouth to protest, but Sirius went on, "Yes, you and James are very much alike; you two like the same things; you two are brainy, popular," Lily glared at him and cut him off, "You are as brainy and popular as we are."

"Yes, I know," Sirius allowed himself to grin now, "Yet, I'm clever in a different way you and James are. My head is more able to create schemes, while yours and James's are the school knowledge type. I am the one with cunning plans, James is the one who applies logic. And so are you. But that doesn't have anything to do with what I'm talking about."

"If you want to convince me I'm madly in love with Potter, you've lost your time." Because I'm already convinced of this, she thought to herself, just to kick herself mentally a moment later.

"I'm not trying to convince you of anything, Lily. I'm just really disappointed with you for what you've done. Talking about James without the least bit of respect, and talking in a way very similar to those girls' you are always boasting you're different from, similar to those girls you love to blame. I didn't recognize the Lily Evans I know for six years when I saw and heard what I did a couple of minutes ago in the Great Hall," he was frowning and spoke so harshly Lily could hardly recognize him, "But I'm not mad for that. I'm annoyed because you are using me to make James jealous. I knew it from the beginning, and I also am guilty because I was the one who started this all. It was a deal, Lily. Just a deal I made with your best friend. A deal in which we were going to make you two get a little puzzled, for we want you and James to be friends. But the bit I didn't know was that you already cared too much for each other."

She opened her mouth to protest, but Sirius put his fingers on her lips. "Lily, you can even pretend you aren't in love with James, but I saw the looks you were exchanging, and I saw the way you were trying to pretend to yourself you want to make him mad, and jealous, and you are pretending to yourself you want to speak ill of him, and you're even going against your own principles."

"I…"

"Don't." Sirius was still pressing his fingers against her lips, "Think about it."

And he made his way to the sixth year boys' dormitory, without even looking back, and Lily realized she was alone in the common room, and realized that she was even more alone in her insides.

She was there, sitting on a loveseat, when the door suddenly burst open, and she saw as Konstanze Angelkort entered, tears running down her cheeks.

"Konstanze!" she called out for the girl, but it was useless; Konstanze was not listening to her, and she had already reached their dormitory. Lily thought about running after her, but she did not feel like doing it. And even if she did, she could not, for a moment, later, the door burst open again, and this time it was James who was entering there.

He looked upset, but not even a fraction of how upset Konstanze was. He looked rather tired, but when he saw Lily, he hissed, "You."

"What have you done to Konstanze, Potter?"

"Whatever I did, it's none of your business."

"Yes, it is, once she is my friend."

"Friend? Since when?"

She crossed her arms, and he went on, "Look, Evans, what I say or don't say to my girlfr… to Konstanze, it's my business and hers alone. You don't have anything to do with it."

"Yes, I do. As far as I'm concerned, Konstanze and I know each other for six years now, and she looked really, really upset. WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HER?"

James was really angry. "You know what? I broke up with her. And I can't help her being upset, for I know I am really perfect, so losing me must have caused her a depression," he snapped.

Lily was red in anger too, but she could not help feeling a slight relief, "You know what, Potter? You'll never change, you'll always be the same conceited, arrogant, loathsome, repulsive, idiotic James Potter."

She could not understand why he was smiling, but he stepped closer to her – so close she could feel even the warmness of his breath - and whispered, "You forgot to say irresistible in your little compliment list," and he leaned even closer, so they weren't even half an inch apart, and their lips were almost touching. She felt her eyelids fall down, and as James realized her eyes were closed, he suddenly stepped back and grinned from ear to ear. "You know I am irresistible," and he walked to his dormitory.

She opened her eyes and felt very, very stupid.

**

When Lily arrived at the dormitory to sleep, she could not do what she intended to, for Konstanze was crying really hard. Lily and Konstanze had never had a real friendship; they have been roommates for six years, but they have never been the kind of friends who tell secrets to each other; Lily always thought Konstanze was the kind of clothes-and-boys chatting. But now, despite the fact she was ready to yell at Konstanze twenty minutes ago, she felt somehow pity for her. She had been dumped and her best friend was not even there. So Lily felt it was her duty to comfort her. "Konstanze…"

Konstanze's blue eyes were red and puffy and wet. There were tears sprouting from them, and her normally tanned-white face was now as red as a tomato. Those sparkling blue eyes Lily had been ready to pierce a couple of minutes before were now glaring at her.

Lily thought – she was used to take other people's actions by her own – Konstanze was going to yell or snap at her, however she seemed ready for hours of talking and comfort when she said, "He doesn't love me, Lily."

Lily kneeled close to her, "I always told you all who was the real Potter, but none of you wanted to believe me."

"Yeah you did. But neither you didn't know him."

Lily looked puzzled, "Anyway, you're mad at him, aren't you?"

"Mad at James?" Konstanze almost laughed, "It's impossible to be mad at him. After all, he was very nice to me when he said our relationship wasn't going to work. He told me he was in love with someone else," Lily felt her heart beating twice as fast as usual, "He was very nice to me. I mean I know other boys would rather take advantage of me just waiting for the other girl. James even said he would like to befriend me even after our break up. I'm not mad at him, but I can't help being sad. He's way too good. I can't imagine what kind of moron wouldn't like him," she was still crying when she looked at Lily and remembered something, "Sorry, Lily, I didn't mean to insult you. I was referring to the girl he's in love with."

"Y-you… you don't know who she is?"

"No, he said he didn't want to tell me and I respected his decision."

"Are you jealous?"

"Of course! I've been dating him for months. James had never dated a girl for so much time as he dated me, I was even fool enough to think we were going to marry and have children…" she was sobbing uncontrollably, "how could I? He's way too superior!"

Lily never thought Konstanze Angelkort would ever humiliate herself like this, so she felt pity for the girl, but she could not help asking "Erm… Konstanze… what about the ball? Are you two still going together?"

"He said he would still go with me, but I said we'd better go separated."

"Okay," Lily did not know whether to be happy or sad.

**

When James arrived at the dormitory, Sirius seemed to be already deep asleep. "It's safe," he thought to himself; sat heavily on his bed; opened a small blue velvet case and stared at it thoughtfully.

**

Lily woke up very early (not to say late, as it was still eleven o'clock), even though she must be very tired. Patricia, Lucia and Konstanze, her roommates, seemed to be deep asleep. She stood up to change her robes when she realized a small velvet case on her bedside. There was also a piece of folded parchment bellow it. And inside the parchment there was a lily – a single and simple white lily.

She would have thought it all was addressed to either Konstanze or Lucia, if it didn't say, written in emerald ink, the name Lily.

She picked up the lily and looked at it in a way that no word could describe. Then she picked up the parchment, and read in it:

Lily,

Whether to write dear or hated, I did not decide

So I just did write lily, because that's all you are

And what am I? The answer is in you inside,

For I am just what you grant me to be

Perhaps your enemy, yet sometimes I feel like you're a close friend of mine

Anyway, I wished I could be more, and you know what I mean

Will you consider being my love? Meet me

At the North Tower and under the grim moonlight of midnight we shall see;

Will I be the happiest or the saddest of all?

You tell me.

Yours always and forever,

Lily-Lover

Lily did not recognize the handwriting, but she knew who had written this note, although it seemed hard to believe. Her heart was beating twice as fast as usual. It may be him… It might not. Hell! Who else would write me a letter in which he says he's perhaps my enemy? Yet, since when James has gotten so mushy? And where is my so-called subconscious to argue with me? And why the hell I'm thinking so much of Potter if I know I'm not in love with him? I mean… I'm not… Am I?

She shook her head and pondered: to go or not to go? That's the question.

She opened the velvet case and found a diamond ring that could be described, at least, as extravagant. She kind of liked it, but she did not want to use it before talking to whoever gave it to her. But she liked it. She just knew she liked it. Yet, she did not like liking it.

**

Since the very moment of knowing about the meeting, Lily had started dressing up. She brushed her hair so carefully, as she never did before and put the lily in her hair as an ornament, and even cursed herself for being so vain. In the same time, she wanted to be as beautiful as she could be.

**

The common room was totally, deadly empty. Lily did not find it strange, since it was five to midnight, and everybody was already in bed. She stepped though the portrait hole and find herself in the corridor. Then she made her way to the North Tower.

She did not notice, but a black shadow that was behind an armchair in Gryffindor's common room, followed her.

**

The North Tower stairs were cold, Lily thought to herself, so, how cold would  the tower itself be?

But she did not care. Even though she did not admit it, she was happy, and was smiling.

When she reached the tower, a tall, black haired figure was staring at her. Her jaw dropped. "Snape?"

**

To Be Continued

**

A/N – Oh, my! I've got tons of e-mails (thanks to everybody who send them!!!) and reviews (thanks to every reviewer!!!!!) telling me I stopped the last chapter on a cliffhanger. And the strange thing was that… it wasn't supposed to be such a thing! I thought it was obvious to everybody that it was Hagrid who opened the door, and I just did not put it in the last chapter because even not being exactly a mystery, I thought the chapter could not stop without a bit of suspense. Anyway, I guess it was because as I already knew it, I didn't find it mysterious. When I found myself aware of the furor the door opener was making, I even thought of putting Barney the Dinosaur as it (Just Kidding). I took much time to write this chapter because all I had written until a week ago went to TRASH. I really, really wish you liked this chapter, I'm getting more responsible about this story in particular (I'm writing more often), since there are 30 people who kindly choose "Potter vs. Evans" as one of their favorite stories, and I'm too happy about it. Before I forget (as if I could) a HUGE thank you to Shanleigh Kennedy (pen name – Polgara La Fae), my beta-reader, who had patience enough to correct it all, and I must say my fanfics have LOTS of mistakes.

About the next chapter… it won't be the last as I supposed to, simply because I started writing it, and I found out that I still have much to write in this part of my love/hate saga (Potter vs. Evans may have a sequel… just depends on you), so I estimate it will end in chapter 6 to say the least (again, I may write a sequel for it). And I didn't stop on a cliffhanger! I told you all who was the black haired figure! You probably thought it was James, didn't you? No problem… it was exactly my intention :-)

The only thing confirmed to be in chapter 5 is James telling Lily about… erm, his feelings… but that doesn't mean his going to declare himself madly in love with her. That's all! I don't want to spoil the reading…

The Girl Who Lives, alias The Girl Who Gets Happy With E-mails About Her Fanfics

PS.: I have a fanfic, Lovely Friendship, also L/J, that I like very much, but I don't have any idea nor time to finish it. I'd like someone to help me… would you be so kind?