Disclaimer: Hogwarts, James, Lily, MWPP, the professors, Quidditch...are all belonged to J.K. Rowling. Nalia, who was going to be Nalia Longbottom one day, Gladys Lockhart, mother to the five times winner of Witch Weekly's Most-Charming-Smile Award, Katrina, Catti, Gem, Pearl, Samaro were mine. The theory of James and Lily's love/hate relationship is not mine. The plot is mine.

A/n: I rewrote it, and had it focused tightly on James and Lily. There're tons of excellent L/J love/hate fics out there so I did not put too many words into this subject. This fic weighed heavily on James and Lily's play of pretending to love, which I think could be something new to you:)...


When The Play Began


1. Introduction

James Potter, sixth-year, a prefect, Quidditch captain of Gryffindor, was famous. Not a single girl in Hogwarts did not know about his sparkling chocolate eyes, his stylish jet hair, or his easy charm; not a single female did not admire his talents or drool over his knightly look on his Cleansweep Four fluttering above the Quidditch pitch.
Except one.
James was born to be famous, with an Auror father and a mother being the daughter of the Minister. The boys regarded him as a good-tempered, natural leader while the girls desired him to be their knight-in-shining-armour. In all, James was the celebrity of Hogwarts. Currently, he was single and inevitably reached the top of the most-wanted bachelors list.
Walking beside James, busily chewing gum was Sirius Black, widely acknowledged as the most dangerous person in Hogwarts. Every boy watched his steps when he was ten foot around him in fear of getting the unwanted attention from Sirius; girls valuing themselves kept away from him for he had a reputation of making any girls surrendered to his lips in a minute. With his black flamed-like eyes, black wavy hair and the fearless grin, Sirius could get much more girlfriends than he was allowed to have. As I result, Sirius was never truly single nor unavailable.
Remus Lupin, being a few inches shorter than his friends, was in their shadows. His eyes were grey, his brown hair was parted with grey strands, and the air around him was always dyed grey in mystery. Not much was known about Remus except him being a quiet, nice student wearing a slight smile on his battered face all the time.
Normally, there would be a fourth person with them. But at present, Peter Pettigrew was at the hospital wing and was therefore unreachable.
James and Sirius were efficient mischief makers. If one did something wrong, they could make all his teeth turned blacker than their hair added together before he had realized what he had done. Whenever they went, all students flattened themselves against the wall and spared the whole corridor to their lordship either in fear or admiration.
Except one.
'Sorry.' A student coming out of a classroom pumped into James and jerked his hands out of his robe pockets.
'Either your eyes grow on your back, or they are too small to see anything.'
'I couldn't help but crashed into you if your gorilla arms are across the corridor. My eyes are at least big enough to see that.'
The student pushed James and Sirius aside and continued her journey to the stairs.
'Which is redder, you reckon, her hair or robe?' James, wand raised, asked Sirius.
A red bolt shot out of his wand tip, narrowly missed Remus and hit the student's cloak.
She whirled around, threw a sharp look at James and smiled teasingly,' don't you look cute in red?' After a wave of a wand in her hand that had not been there before, her red pony-tail disappeared around the corner.
Sirius, Remus and all the students around him burst out laughing. James did not need to take a look at himself to know what had happened. 'Mirror shield,' he murmured.
Sirius still had his body shaking helplessly in laughs and tears coming out of the corners of his eyes until James pointed his wand at him.
A second later, another person had his Hogwarts uniform glowed in bright red. The whole corridor fell into a dead silence at once.
With a last glance at the spot where the girl had been, James turned and headed for the opposite direction, his red cloak roared in the wind behind him.
All except one was brave and smart enough to stand in his way.
Lily Evans, sixth year, a prefect, was the only student who had the brains and guts to mess with James and get away unharmed. She despised him completely. In her emerald eyes, he was nothing but a spoiled bat with hair the shape of weed and eyes the colour of dirt.
Lily and James did not get along well.


2. James's pride

In front of the Fat Lady's portrait, James found the very least person he wanted to see these days.
'What the heck are you doing here?' He demanded.
The Ravenclaw raised an eyebrow,' how polite. If you're still treating the ladies in this way, you won't keep any of them long.'
It was James's turn to have his brow raised,' so, someone considers herself to be a lady here. Someone who hit a guy with a fist.'
The girl's prefect black hair shook against her creamy skin, still looking as attractive as ever. 'Always the same old James,' she said.
The Fat Lady stepped aside and Frank Longbottom, looking surprised to see his girlfriend with her ex-boyfriend, appeared from behind.
Katrina rushed to Frank. 'Oh, darling, I've waited for you for so long that my heart ached.' She planted a peck on his cheek, not forgetting to flash a teasing smile at James at the same time.
James, in front of Frank and his friends, remained calm and cool. 'Well then, I hope you two can enjoy a good evening. Bye.' He nodded at Frank, who smiled apologetically and walked away with Katrina practically in his arms.
The second they went out of his sight, James's eyes were throwing daggers in every direction.
Never had a girl deceived him like that. Never had a girl made an idiot of him in front of his friends like that.
His conscience kindly reminded him that it was him who deceived Katrina first.
I didn't. James fought back. Even though I had a purring Catti clinging to my neck, I didn't deceive her.
You cannot blamed Katrina. Catti was indeed pressing her body against yours, you know. His conscience reasoned.
Any girl in her right sense should've known that with someone like Catti, I was probably left with no choice.
But-
Oh, shut up.
With his conscience crawling back to the back of his mind, James stormed into the common room.

'You allow the girl to treat you like that?!'
'So what?' James said lazily from his usual armchair by the fireplace.
'Don't you have a man's pride at all?' Sirius, somehow, looked angrier than James in the matter regarding his former girlfriend.
'Of course I have. But what else can I do?'
Sirius put on a smile that could make others flee. 'Revenge.'
'Revenge?' Lupin's attention was drawn immediately.
'How?' James frowned.
'By doing what she had done to you.'
'With other girls?' James rubbed his chin.
'Not any other girls. But one who could make Katrina feel tiny in front of you. One who could make her feel that she was nothing in front of you because you can get many other girls better than her at any time you want.'
'What girl can fit this plan?'
'She must be prettier,' said Sirius.
'And must be smarter,' continued Lupin.
'And the girl will likely to be-' James said thoughtfully.
'Lily?' Peter, who had just returned from the de-pimpling that he got during Potions, suggested.
'Yeah, of course, Lily.' Sirius beamed at Peter. 'The only girl who can be compared with Katrina in Hogwarts.'
'But she hates me.' James gasped.
Lupin corrected, 'she doesn't hate you. She simply doesn't like you as much as the other girls do.'
'She'll never promise to do this.'
'Tsk, tsk, tsk.' Sirius waved a finger. 'You've underestimated your power, James. No girls can say no to a Quidditch captain. If you just find the right way to make her agree...'

The right way to make her agree. James had asked himself no less than twenty times that night. Shall I trick her? No. She's too smart to be cheated. There must be something else, something that she's weak at.
But what?
James rose from his pillow and look fixedly into the darkness of his dormitory with his eyes glinted in joy. The taste of challenges, the desire for success, the excitement of doing bad things. These were the forces that drive him to plant one dungbomb after another and sneaked around the school one night followed by another. James enjoyed it. The harder the problem was, the more motivated would he be.
Lily...What does she hate (except me)? Or...what does she love?
James couldn't give himself any answer. It's time to ask for the counselling of his father's book.
From beneath his bed, James pulled out a very ancient-looking tome, which had a word 'Potter' printed in what used to be like gold on the hardcover.
What am I supposed to find?
James stared at the book.
And realized that the answer was already staring blankly back at him.


3. A deal was made

'Evans?' The red-headed whirled around, and her ponytail smacked right at his face.
James massaged his nose. Stay calm, calm. She wasn't intended to do that...Or not. His devil added.
Instead, James put on the broadest smile he could managed. 'Can I spare you a minute?'
'What?' Lily studied the messy-headed intensely. Her hand reaching for her wand under the cloak.
'There's a bargain that I'd like to make with you.'
'And it's about?'
'You pretending to be my girlfriend.'
Lily was wordless for a minute, then, she broke into titters. 'What make you think I'll be your girlfriend-or pretend to be? Still, great joke, Potter.'
Before the girl could turned and hit his nose a second time, James said, 'have you ever heard about my family's book that my father had passed to me?'
Lily stopped in an abrupt. James continued slowly. 'It's not like the book of any family. It's the book of Potters-one of the oldest family around, you know. And, it was written how long ago? Probably in the medieval ages. You could never believe what you'll find in it. The spells, the potions...so many stuff that you-'
Lily cut his speech. 'What's your point?' She asked harshly.
'Well, my point is, if you agree to be my girlfriend for, say, three days. And who knows? Maybe I'll let you take a look at my book.'
Lily glared as hardly as she could at James. Yet, her eyes still betrayed her. To others, the terms might be hardly attractive. To Lily, it was like oasis in the Sahara. She might hate James. However, if there was one thing that she valued above all others, including making James suffer, it would be the pursuit of knowledge, knowledge of all kinds, especially about this wizard world that she had fallen in love with at the first sight. From the many never-before-seen spells that James had been performing at Hogwarts, god knew how many new ones she could find in that book, whose existence was already well-known among students and teachers. This was an offer very hard to be turned down. Lily struggled painfully between her proud and desire.
James looked as if he was enjoying a movie. 'So, deal or not?' He smiled confidently, knowing clearly what the ultimate result would be.
'Deal.' Lily choked out finally. She did not shake James's hands.

Having been through two hours with Professor Binns, Lily and her best friend, Nalia, collapsed simultaneously onto their respective beds.
'How could he make the life of that dragon hunter what's-his-name as boring as a duck hunter?'
'Well, you've gotta admire his ability for that. And the hero's name was Darylo the Dragonslayer, not some hunter.' Lily informed her.
'Whatever.' Nalia glanced at her watch. 'Oh, lunch's coming. Wanna walk me to the toilet?' She offered.
'No, I need to meet with someone. And sorry, I can't have lunch with you.'
Nalia looked hurt. 'Why?'
'I've made a-' Lily searched her mind for a most suitable word, 'contract with someone. I must eat with that person for three days.'
'Deal? Who's that person?' Nalia giggled. 'It wouldn't be a he, would it?'
'It's Potter.' Lily tried to make it sound as casual as possible. Nonetheless, it made Nalia shot up to the ceiling like Filibuster Fireworks.
'Potter? The Potter?' She pulled Lily up. 'James Potter?' The sleepy look she had on her face a second earlier vanished without a trace. 'I thought you hated him.'
'Yes. And I hate him. But it's merely a simple business promise and is nothing personal.'
Nalia was nearly dancing around the dormitory. 'Lily with James finally!'
'I'm not with him or anything. As I've said, it's only-'
Nalia was not listening. 'You don't know how many girls will die for the chance just to eat lunch with James! I mean, he's so famous and cute and smart and everything.'
'I'm not one of those girls. We're simply-' Lily rolled her eyes. An excited Nalia could hardly be reasoned. She would just have to make a little talk with her later.
'I'm going downstairs now and don't think I'm happy about eating with that creep.' Lily threw a sharp look at her friend.
Before closing her dormitory door, Lily could hear Nalia from inside, 'tell me what happened after lunch!'

The Gryffindor four were at their usual table by the cozy fire. His friends listened in wonder as James told them how his revenge started. He stopped suddenly, catching the sight of an arms-crossed Lily leering at him. James excused himself with a 'wish me luck' under his friends' smirks and went talking to Lily.
'You bring the camera?' Sirius asked.
'Definitely.' Lupin patted the lump at his side.
'Maybe we can even sell it at a price...'


4. The play began

'Remember, you have to look natural and pleased with our new relationship.' James told Lily as they walked side by side to the hall.
'I know. And remember that the book should be in my hands this Sunday, Potter.' Lily reminded him.
'Surely, and you should stop calling me Potter. Call me James, or no one will believe us.'
No one will believe us even if I call you my honeyed-buttered-sweetcake. No one will ever believe us together for we're probably from different planets. Lily snapped privately.
They arrived at their destination, which was nearly empty. The reason they were there so early was, according to James, to get the seats closest to the one Katria always sat with her Ravenclaw friends so that she could not miss them.
'Are you sure it'll work? The whole thing sounds really dumb to me.'
'Positively sure, if everything runs smoothly. And plus, Katrina is pretty dumb, too.'
'That's quite a rude way to speak of your former girlfriend. I hope you won't do so to me even if I was never your girlfriend.' Lily eyed James coldly.
James showed her a hurt puppy look, 'do you think I'll do that to you? Never in my life, honey.' He promised with a wink.
Lily shuddered.

'You should have purred.'
'Pardon? What did you just say? Purred?' Lily demanded.
'Girls purred to their boyfriends,' James complained.
'Excuse me, but my mother never purred to my father.'
'Muggles,' James mumbled under his breath. Needless to say, their plan ran less than prefect. Katrina did not even notice their presence behind her throughout the whole meal.
'Cat dung.' They shouted the password together at the Fat Lady, who was so startled that she nearly jolted out of her portrait.
The Gryffindor common room opened into their view. All the Gryffindors inside were gawking at the two incomers with great interest. Lily and James never looked at each other as they marched separately to their individual friends. Many girls cheered stealthily as that probably meant James would need a new girlfriend soon. Many were so surprised and disappointed when they saw James with Lily in the hall. On their way to the dormitory, Nalia was starting to say, 'how-' but was interrupted firmly by a glowering Lily, 'do not ask!'

Nalia peeked out the door. 'Oh my, Lily, he's waiting under the stairs.' The afternoon passed so quickly that Lily thought earth was starting to rotate faster.
Asking me to purr! It's his fault. Even now she was debating with herself. I won't talk to him or do anything he asks until he apologizes.
The softie inside her spoke. You can't blame him. He's just been abandoned by his girlfriend. The poor thing's probably experiencing emotional trough now.
He deserves it!
'Lily, you've gotta do something. You can't make him wait there all night, and you can't hide from him forever.'
Lily sprang up from her bed. 'I'm not hiding from him!' After that, she dropped back to her pillow again. 'You can go and have supper first. I'll come later.'
Nalia sighed, 'whatever you say.'
Lily rolled over her bed a few more times and rose lazily. Tying her long red hair into a ponytail with the help of her lily-patterned hairbrush, she had her mind made up.
Opening the dormitory door, she found James, as Nalia had said, waiting alone for her under the stairs. James's messy head shot up at her footsteps, and his chocolate eyes sparkled at the sight of her. Lily's heart softened immediately.
'Ah, you finally come. I was wondering if you'd ever come down or not. I apologize for the lunch, okay? Now, let's go before the seats are taken.' Before Lily could say anything, James had caught her hand and pulled her towards the portrait hole.

'Oh no, we're late.' James half brought Lily to the hall and found it to be quite crowded. 'Bet our seats were taken.'
From afar, Nalia waved and winked at Lily. During the Divination lesson, Lily told her best friend about James's and her deal as they had nothing better to do. Nalia kept giggling and gasping in surprise till Professor Trelawney asked her concernedly what was wrong and foretold her unusual behaviour could be the sign of a tragic future. 'No, they're still here.'
James saw Nalia as well. 'Your friend saved them for us? Thank her for me. '
Well, he isn't that bad for a friend, really. Lily commented to herself as she watched a beaming James waved back at Nalia in gratitude.
Katrina and her friends were among the last few to enter the hall for meal. So when Lily and James had finally squeezed their way to their chairs, they still got time to discuss their next moves.
'If you cannot purr, at least do something friendly and not to seat there like a robert.'
'So, what do you propose I should do then? And it's robot. Don't use muggle terms if you don't know.'
'You get my meaning... Maybe you can, you know, feed me. Yes, that's what valentines always do.'
'Feed you?' The old flame glowed in Lily's eyes. 'Hello, am I speaking to a handicapped here?'
But James's attention was drawn away. 'Look. Here come our little couple. Aren't them cute?' He said sarcastically.
Lily saw them too-hand in hand, mouth against ear, talking and laughing, completely oblivious to the surroundings. They looked more like lovers than she and James could ever pretend to look so.
'Frank? What's she doing with Frank?' Lily asked sharply.
James was surprised. 'They're an item now. I thought you know.'
Lily knew now, but not Nalia.
'What? You fancy him?' He gaped in astonishment.
'No, of course not. It's just-' She's not going to let out her friend's darkest secret to him. 'Frank is a good guy, and he deserved someone better than Katrina.'
'Katrina isn't that bad.' James murmured and luckily Lily did not hear him.
'Potter.'
'Yes?' James turned to found her wearing a look of utter determination.
'I'll do it. But no purring.' Lily added quickly.

'Did you see her look when I called you my sweet watermelon?' James, shaking in laughs, asked Lily, who was breathless from too many ha-has as well.
'Yeah. She looked like a bullfrog with her goggling eyes and her cheeks swelling up. And did you notice her shoulders had trembled when I asked you to open your mouth and then fed you?'
'Absolutely. I would not miss that for a thousand galleons.'
Tonight, the Fat Lady and the Gryffindors were pretty nonplussed to find two very different James and Lily as they climbed through the hole. When they parted to return to their own corners of the common room, both were eager to expect what would come tomorrow. In her dormitory, this time, Lily was more than willing to give Nalia a blow by blow account of James's revenge during supper, though she avoided mentioning Frank.


5. A lesson with fairies (and monsters)

Lily watched in delight as Professor Filtwick grabbed a handful of blue powder from a glass bottle and threw it into the air. The fine powder flickered under the light and it reminded Lily greatly of the flying powder in Peter Pan. When the professor pointed his wand at it and said the magic word, a lovely little boy with wings and dressed in blue pants appeared out of the mid air from nowhere in a flash. The remaining powder sank slowly under him like snowflakes.
Lily gasped in amazement along with all the Gryffindors and Ravenclaws. She had been expecting this day for all her life. Ever since the day she saw Professor Filtwick did that in year one, she had fallen in love with Charms and had been looking forward to it. Her heart beat merrily now thinking of it.
'Today, I'm going to teach you how to summon fairies,' the professor announced. 'There are three rules that you should bear in mind. First, not everyone can summon any fairies they like. See the fairy I just summoned?' The fairy that had flown around the classroom with unbelievable speed eventually landed on the professor's head and fell into sleep on it.
'It is a boy and will always be a boy, as long as I'm a male. Because fairies can only be summoned by people of the same sex as they are. So, it's one of the most effective ways to determine one's sex if it's not conspicious enough.' The class laughed.
'Second, fairies are harmless magical creatures of nature. They are divided with the colours of the rainbow. Hence, there are seven types of fairies. The powder in this bottle is in fact flower pollen. As you could've guessed, pollen of that colour will summon fairies of that colour.
'Third, you need to say the magic word "Fairos!" clearly. In addition to these three simple rules, considerable skills on Charms is required to suceed so if someone fails to do so or summon other creatures instead, do not panic and report to me at once for me to deal with it.' Professor Filtwick's beady eyes unmistakably fell on Peter, who sank lower under his desk.
'Due to the first rule, you have to work in pairs-boys and girls.' This statement brought immediate response from the class. Girls giggled and boys' eyes darted from female to female.
'But-but,' the students cooled down as the professor continued. 'To prevent mayhem, you'll get paired in random.' Some girls groaned loudly in complaint.
The teacher levitated a wooden chest as tall as himself onto his table. 'Inside will be twenty bottles with different colour of pollen. Students getting the same colour will work together and the box will ensure no two girls or boys will be paired up.'

Who cared whom she would end up with? Lily thought as she joined the queue of students. So long as she could summon those cute fairies.
When Lily pulled a bottle filled with yellow powder, her heart leapt...no sank. She corrected herself. If she wasn't mistaken, the only person who got the same colour with her was...he was walking towards her with a mischievous smirk on his face...James.
As if I haven't spent enough time with him these days. Lily cursed her luck as James pulled the chair next to her. Also, she analyzed the funny feelings in her stomach by saying to herself that she was both shocked and disappointed at the arrangement, mostly under the influence of her proud.
James didn't look at all unhappy. 'So, here we are again.' He proclaimed with a sickening grin (in Lily's own opinion of course).
'I want bonus for this extra work. We're not supposed to be together except during meals.' She grumbled.
'Hey, I didn't make you draw that yellow bottle.' He protested.
Well, that was true.
Not far from them, Katrina was eying her partner, Peter, with both fear and disgust.

'Fairos!' From the air above James, appeared a boy fairy in yellow pants.
Lily glared at the prefect fairy. She might not be as good as James in Transfiguration but she came first in Charms and she was not going to give up that position without a fierce fight.
Directing her wand at the floating powder, Lily also summoned a prefect fairy in a yellow dress with a 'Fairos!'
James, an eyebrow raised, took that as a challenge and accepted it with a slight smile. Opposite to him, Lily, wand tight in her grip, was ready to prove to him that she didn't get the second best marks in her year for nothing.
'Fairos!' Another pair of fairies joined their flying friends.
Around them, the other students were not so smooth in their summoning. Some found instead of two wings, their fairies had two legs that added up the total to four; some found their fairies to violate their professor's definition of fairies being 'harmless' by having sharp teeth that bit; many more found themselves staring into half-fairies or quarter-fairies with the remaining fractions being replaced by parts from other creatures.
It wasn't until Professor Filtwick had popped up between them did James and Lily notice their classmates had their eyes fixed on them in bewilderment and the huge cloud of golden yellow above their heads that were the fairies. They laughed further more when they saw each other's head and shoulders being covered completely in yellow powder.
'Er...professor?' Peter asked shakily from behind.
The referred teacher let out a deep, long sigh. 'Yes, Peter?'
'There's a-a...' Peter could do naught but point. On his desk was a really strange creature. Calling it a monster would be more appropriate for it had a rat's head and tail and what looked like the body of a frog.
'A moufrog, dear.'
The moufrog, being nervous under the sudden attention it got, jumped onto the perfectly combed hair of Katrina, who was hiding behind her chair. The thunderstruck girl watched horridly as the moufrog, which seemed unfamiliar with its frog limbs, slid down her straight nose. And when her mouth opened into a scream, its hairless tail landed on her tongue.
The whole class thundered with laughter.


6. Did I care about your feelings?

'What does the note say?' Peter, with his head practically buried among the crowd standing outside the hall and a red patch that matched the shape of Katrina's hand flawlessly on his swollen cheek, had to relied upon his taller friends for the information on the school board.
'They're going to give us the Hogsmeade visit back tomorrow, after all.' Sirius cheered.
Traditionally, Hogwarts students had a Hogsmeade visit before the Halloween party. Yet, on that day, two hundred muggles were kind enough to pay the Hogsmeade village a visit by landing their airplane there due to a leaking oil tank. Naturally, the Hogwarts students' one had to be cancelled as the village was already extremely crowded with its villagers and muggles and one hundred more visitors from the Ministry.
'I was thinking they were going to steal it from us forever.' Lupin commented on their way to the common room.
'It's surprising McGonagall would make such a decision. Must be Dumbledore,' said James. 'Oh wait I've got an idea... There she is.'
Sirius and Lupin watched silently as James went talking to Lily. Even the flame usually present in Sirius's eyes was gone.

'What's Sirius and Peter?' James found Lupin alone at their table.
'Toilet.' Lupin studied James in an almost un-Lupin-like way and asked, 'what you and Lily were talking about just now?'
James grinned, 'I asked her to go to Hogsmede tomorrow with me-a final strike to the unforgivable Katrina who brought me the shame. Ha!'
Lupin did not looked too excited. James was starting to get uneasy under his friend's penetrating stare.
'James, are you sure all you wanna do is to anger Katrina?'
'Absolutely, that's the reason for the whole thing.' James was surprised at Lupin's question. 'It were you and Sirius suggested it to me after all.'
Catching James's look, Lupin shook his head and sighed, 'you never care about girls' feelings, James.'
James, on the other hand, had not a single idea of what his friend had talked about.

Lily and James were, again, among the first to enter the hall. After a few times' practice, they now took their business more gladly and casually. For the time being as they were waiting for supper to start, they even chatted like long-known friends.
'Rock stars? Muggles have rock stars?'
'Yes, I thought you knew.'
'How do rock stars shine?' James asked out of logic.
Lily frowned. 'Well...I've been pondering about that myself for ages.' Then, she cracked up.
'No, rock stars are musicians who play a kind of music known as rock, which I think you may like.' Lily explained.
'Why, did muggles name some music as rock?'
This time, Lily really had to twist her mind and think about it. 'Probably because...you'll want to bang your head against a rock when you hear it.'
'I doubt I will like it.'
'Why?'
'Because I don't think I'll like to hit my head with a rock.' James answered matter-of-factly.
'Of course, of course.' And Lily broke into a series of laughter again.
'Lily, you know what? You're a very special girl.' James looked at her almost in admiration.
The familiar funny feelings grew in Lily's stomach.
It's hunger. Yes, I'm really hungry from the laughs. She told herself.

Since Lily had to see Professor Filtwick, James walked back to the common room alone and met the very least person he wanted to see these days without Lily by his side, Katrina.
'Waiting for Frank?'
'Yes.' She replied coldly.
Instead of saying the password to the Fat Lady, James asked Katrina seriously, 'did I care about your feelings?'
He expected her to scowl, to shout, anything but shook her head and sighed just like Lupin. 'James, you make an excellent friend, but you are a poor excuse for a lover.'
'But Catti and I-' James began to argue.
'I know what Catti is like, James.' Katrina looked at him straight in the eyes. 'I knew you weren't intended to do that.'
'Then-'
'I don't know if you treated all your other ex-girlfriends in this way or it's just me. But ask yourself, James, ask yourself if you have ever genuinely cared about my personal feelings. And even now, you came and asked me that, which isn't what you can call a pleasant question to any ex-girlfriend. And I think you should get the answer from yourself, not from me.'
'I'm sorry, I-'
'It's okay, James, okay. I like you, though, obviously, I'm not the one for you.' Katrina patted his shoulder.
The Fat Lady, who had pretended to be asleep yet heard everything, disappeared as Frank and Nalia came out through the portrait hole.
This time, Frank looked less than happy to see his girlfriend with her former boyfriend. Still, he smiled friendly at James as he left with Katrina.
When he turned and caught the look on Nalia's face, James understood why Lily was suddenly so keen to get Katrina mad.


7. A night stroll to the kitchen

'I'm starving. Gonna fetch some food. Want some?' James asked his friends.
'It's only nine.' Lupin gasped. 'You didn't have dinner?'
'Or you didn't eat well without us to compete with you?' Sirius teased.
'I just feel hungry.' That was hardly an excuse but there's no way he would let his friends know he didn't eat much during supper because he was chatting busily with Lily.
'Er...James?' Peter called.
'What?'
'Can you bring some food for me please? I'm a bit hungry.' Peter smiled awkwardly.
'Whatever you say.'

James liked to travel in his invisibility cloak. For one thing, it was a great fun to be invisible. For another, he could avoid drawing attention from giggling girls as well as pumping into those he didn't want to meet, like Snape or Flich for instance.
Unluckily, or perhaps very fortunately, James found Miss Norris, which was still a virgin at that time, padding towards him along the corridor. Surely he could bypass it if he was on another corridor. This particular corridor only linked to the prefect's bathroom and was intended only for prefects to use. The corridor was too narrow and Miss Norris was no slim kitten.
James had three options: jumped over Miss Norris, went all the way back, or waited in a bathroom. Since James did not appreciate of having a horny cat between his legs, even for a second, he chose option three that offered the shortest route to his food.
Facing the door under his silvery cloak, James whispered his name and assigned his favourite password 'Butterbeer' to it. (This was the old system of Hogwarts' prefect bathrooms.) As it was pretty normal to see doors that open automatically in Hogwarts, Miss Norris, totally oblivious of a male near her, continued her catwalk along the corridor as graciously as her round body allowed.

James, leaning against the marble sink, thought he had sacrificed enough time to earn a cat-free corridor when the bathroom door suddenly opened. To his much horror, a little bit surprise as well as some amusement, Lily, her hands buried under a pile of clothes, walked into the bathroom.
A horrible thought passed his mind.
How does she get in here? I've assigned the door a password.
Then, a less than horrible thought appeared.
Is she going to take a bath?
Lastly, a more than pleasant thought caught his attention.
Am I going to stand and wait?
And he had a wide grin on his face.
No. No. No. His conscience crawled out again from the back of his mind. This isn't right and t'is a cheap thing to do-spying on girls taking bath.
I'm not spying. I'm merely watching. I mean, I came here first and t'is my bathroom. The devil inside him rebutted.
But this is no other girls. She's Lily. Conscience reminded.
Well, if she was other girls like Katrina. He might be more than comfortable to do whatever his devil desired to do. But conscience's right. T'is Lily, after all. Even his devil felt uneasy about this. For some reason, he, and all the voices within his head, thought differently of Lily as a girl.
James was no novice in girls. Nevertheless, he was still a bloody teenager and it cost him every ounce of righteous strength to fight back the powerful hormonal influence in his veins. In addition, and most important of all, Lily was quite the opposite of an ugly and unsttractive girl.
If someone had the ability to see the invisible, he could be highly entertained to see a messy-haired boy rotating on his spot next to the sink with a painful look on his face as if he was undergoing some bloody self battle.

Eventually, the battle came to an end. Neither conscience nor devil won. His proud did.
Proud's voice, loudest of all, came near the end. If I want to watch a girl taking a bath, I'll ask her openly like a man and not peeking at her like some freak who does not have enough manhood to make a girl surrender willingly. Proud won instantly.
But proud's power could only hold James's back against Lily till she was safely hidden in the pool, anyway.
'I can see nothing except her head.' James, dropping into a sitting position on the marble floor, assured his conscience.
Her eyes are so green.
Lily hummed a little song to herself.
She has a beautiful voice, too. If she isn't snapping or laughing like a guy.
Her shoulders are so round, so are her arms. Look, it just comes to a prefect bend in the middle...
Conscience, sensing the potential danger if this continued, brought James's eyes back to Lily's head.
Oh, her red hair looks so nice under the light. She really should've let it that way all over her shoulders. It'll make her look more feminine. I for one will treat her nicer as a girl...
Lupin's voice somehow stood out from his mind. You never care about girls' feelings, James.
Katrina's, too. You should get the answer from yourself, not from me.
And then there was his own voice. Did I care about your feelings?
Do I?


8. The vanishing brush

James, with his eyes on Lily's face, was so deep in his thoughts that he didn't realize she had already finished her bath and was getting out of the pool. He had ended up seeing a little more things he shouldn't see before he could whirled himself around. His mind was entangled in thoughts among thoughts that he didn't need to struggle with himself any longer. After what felt like eternity to James, Lily left the bathroom.
Realizing how much time he had wasted (gladly wasted, he added secretly) in this bathroom, James decided it was time to leave when a blue something by the pool caught his eyes.
Approaching it with cautious steps, he discovered it to be a hairbrush with little lilies on it. James raised it to his face. It still carried the smell of Lily's shampoo.
Just at that very moment, the bathroom door was opened and Lily appeared from behind. James nearly jolted out of his cloak.
She must be coming back for the brush!
James looked at the blue hairbrush in his hand. Oh no, it has gone invisible with me. He swallowed a big lump in his throat.
If James was surprised, it could not be compared to how Lily felt. Her hairbrush gone in a minute! Could it be flushed into the pool along with the water? She examined the hole. It could hardly accomodate a toothbrush, let alone a three times bigger hairbrush.
James gasped in shock as Lily turned and walked straight into him. Thanked to his Quidditch practice, he jumped out of her way before she could feel him physically. Lily, eyes narrowed, seemed to hear the gasp but didn't do anything, not that she had anything to do either. After several minutes of searching and rubbing forehead, she left with a final desperate look around the bathroom. James collapsed on the floor in a corner, the brush tight in his grip.

'You've been gone for a long time.'
'And I see you haven't brought back any food either.' Sirius and Lupin's faces were packed with as much suspicion as they could manage.
'Cos, I'm simply...full from the trip.' James's hand was on the lump under his robe. Must not let them know.
'No food?' Peter looked very disappointed. It seemed like he was a bit more than a bit angry.
'Oh, I forgot about you. Sorry, Peter. But I still get a few apples in the dormitory. Want some?' Peter nodded happily.

With Lily's hairbrush under his pillow, James was sleepless.
He was going to fetch his invisibility cloak for another trip to the kitchen (he felt hungry now) when he heard Sirius under Peter's snores.
Not moving an inch, he pretended to be asleep but listened attentively.
'I think I've got something for her.' Sirius pressed his voice into a low whisper.
'Something? You didn't mean feelings?' Sirius gasped.
'Yes, it is.' Sirius admitted with a touch of rare sadness. 'Do you think James will mind if I...you know...'
'Of course he won't.' Lupin assured confidently. 'He's just acting with her like in a play. His only intention was to get Katrina mad. He told me so surely this afternoon. And from the way they shouted at each other. You'll think they are from families of Romeo and Juliet.'
Romeo and Juliet? James searched his mind and got nothing related to them. Probably two jerks selling easter eggs on the same street.
'Well, that's good then.' Sirius sighed in relief.
'Why are you so interested in her all of a sudden?'
'She's simply so...ritzy...But it's her eyes, Remus,' said Sirius dreamily, 'her eyes...so beautiful and so green that I can't help but to be pulled into them and lose my senses.'
That night, James did not sleep well.






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