A/N: Wow. I didn't expect to get any positive comments at all (something more along the lines of " U sUx! DiE eViL gUrL!" were, however, greatly anticipated), but they've compelled me to post this next chapter sooner rather than never. Thank you for the reviews! My updates will come at weird times because of time differences, and I may change my penname soon. Oh, and apologies for the short chapters (I normally write monstrously long ones) but I wasn't anticipating any response at all!
Disclaimer: *whistles innocently* Who, me? Couldn't be! ROWLING stole the cookie – er, wrote the book from which all these characters are taken.
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Chapter 2: Illogical
As the baleful eye of the Potions Master fell upon his panting figure, James briefly reconsidered his original plan – throwing on his Invisibility Cloak and claiming he had been there the whole time. Professor Flint was normally a fair teacher but he was one of Hogwarts' strictest disciplinarians and hated above all else a disregard for punctuality.
" Potter!" he barked, turning towards the entrance. All heads in the room snapped in his direction. " Are you aware that you are currently four minutes late for my lesson?"
Oh, you just had to pick a day when ol' Flinty was in a mood,' he rued silently. " I'm sorry, Professor Flint," he apologised between heaving breaths, " But I had to talk to someone." Which is the truth, unlike the excuse about the flaming salamander setting my robes on fire.'
" Really?" Flint snapped, advancing upon him. James swallowed hard, trying to ignore the gleam of triumphant Slytherin smiles in the dungeon gloom. He doesn't look convinced', he observed with a sinking feeling of dread. Just what I need, detention and rejection.' " And who exactly, Potter, was more important than arriving at my lesson at the designated and appropriate time?"
James hesitated, distracted by Sirius mouthing, " Yeah, who?" at him over Flint's shoulder. " Um" he faltered, and the Slytherin's grins widened. Come on, Prongs! Professor McGonagall about your Transfiguration essay, the infirmary about your salamander burns, anything but Lily Evans!' "Professor Flitwick. I was worried about my Summoning Charm, it's been a bit wobbly lately." He trailed off lamely, looking down, desperately trying to block out the unconvinced faces of Sirius and Remus.
" I see." James looked up. Thankfully, Flint didn't know him well enough to look either unconvinced or deeply sceptical. " While I am sure that could have waited for another time, you have yet to display a disregard for punctuality, Mister Potter, and so I will regard this transgression as a mere anomaly." James let out a sigh of relief, echoed by the Slytherin's cries of disbelief. " However," Flint said, his voice raising slightly, " I must remind you that as a Gryffindor Prefect, you are expected to be strictly punctual, and if I record anymore lax behaviour on your part, I will report to the Headmaster. I will deduct five points from Gryffindor as a warning." He moved to the front of the classroom, and James headed for his usual seat next to Remus and behind Sirius and Peter.
" That was close," he said under his breath, taking out his collapsible cauldron and his ingredients.
" You're lucky," Sirius hissed from behind him. " For a minute there I thought you'd be joining Peter and me in detention this week."
" McGonagall gave you detention this whole week?" he asked, incredulous.
" And the next," Lupin informed him, slicing up mushroom roots.
" Just for giving the salamander a little ride across the room!" Peter said, shaking his head.
Remus rolled his eyes. " I'd hardly call it a little ride'."
" Who knew she had a soft spot for lizards?" Sirius said, throwing his hands up helplessly. " I wonder what she'd say if it was a larger animal, and in the Great Hall"
Remus shot him a warning look. " Firstly, a salamander shouldn't be classified in terms of a common non-magical lizard and secondly, if you tie Fang to a Filibuster, so help me Sirius I'll" he trailed off, shaking his head.
" Or even Snape," Sirius murmured, completely ignoring Remus, a dreamy look in his eyes. " With an enlarged firework"
" We'll be in detention forever," Peter put in. " Especially after last year."
They all fell silent at the reference to Sirius' gone-wrong prank' on Snape. Glad that their digression had distracted Sirius from quizzing him on his whereabouts, he turned to Lupin. " So what are we doing today?" he asked, pulling his stool towards him.
" The Felicitous Elixir," Remus answered, pushing a plate of daisies towards him. " The ultimate feel-good potion. This potion could make you so happy, use of it is controlled by the Ministry."
He thought of Lily, and tried to quash that loathsome feeling of rejection and loss. " I could use some of that," he muttered, slicing the head of the flower from the stem.
Remus shot him a glance out of the corner of his eye and moved closer to his friend's side. " Where did you dash off to just then?" he asked quietly.
If there was one person he couldn't lie to, it was Remus, the most understanding of all his friends. " I went to speak to Lily Evans," he said, closing his eyes briefly at the thought of her.
" Lily Evans?" he repeated. " The Ravenclaw Prefect? Why would you?" Remus trailed off, understanding dawning in his grey eyes. " What did she say?" he asked, his voice soft.
" No'," he admitted. " Right there, straight off. She said we were completely incompatible."
" What?" Remus said, his voice loud enough to draw the attention of the people around him. He looked around and sheepishly realised everyone was looking at them " Completely incompatible?" he repeated in a whisper, his brow furrowed. " Why?"
Aware of Sirius' gaze burning into his back, James recounted his conversation with Lily in an undertone.
Remus shook his head. " I'm sorry, James."
James groaned in frustration. " No, don't apologise. That's what she did. And you know when a girl apologises to you, she's just trying to soften the blow." Which doesn't help, at all. Because if it did, I wouldn't feel like I'd just taken two Bludgers to the gut' " I don't understand, Moony. I mean, I like her, I really do. And all I wanted to do was meet in The Three Broomsticks for a chat. All she could have said was " No, I don't really like you" but she comes out with all this probability stuff." He shook his head. " I just don't understand. "
" I do," Sirius's voice came from behind them, causing both James and Remus to give an involuntary jump. " What kind of girl comes out with calculations instead of a flat-out no' if she hadn't been thinking about it beforehand?" Both Remus and James stood in silence. " I'd place good money on the fact that she's been thinking about it, Prongs," Sirius elaborated. " Even a Ravenclaw couldn't come up with that on the spot."
She's been thinking about it,' James thought, a slow smile spreading across his face at the same rate as the elation spreading across his entire being. She's been thinking about me.'
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At that precise moment in time, Lily was indeed thinking of James. Or, rather, how exactly she had gathered up the courage to speak quite so forcefully to him. The last thing she had ever expected was for him to ask her out. Him – James Potter – ask her out. If it hadn't been for the look on sincerity in his eyes, she would have thought it was another prank.
She marvelled at her own self-control. She had only just managed to stop herself from exclaiming " What?" at the top of her lungs. Her heartbeat was still rapid, though nothing compared to what it had been. I should have asked him if he needed his prescription checked,' she thought, smiling softly to herself. What normal, prank-pulling Gryffindor would ever ask a bookworm of a Ravenclaw out?' She shook her head in disbelief. It just wasn't logical. It just didn't happen.
She tapped the end of her quill against her chin, letting the smooth feathers tickle her skin. I wonder what would have happened if I had said yes,' she thought, letting her mind wander. We would have been blissfully happy for all of two weeks, ignoring Quidditch and schoolwork and everything else. And then he would get tired of me, and it would be all soap opera sobs while I dealt with the work I neglected and failed everything.' She allowed herself a soft chuckle at her own cynicism.
But I've seen it before,' she reminded herself, and I'll see it again.' Admittedly, she did not speak from her own experience. Her only relationship had lasted a day in her third year and had abruptly terminated when she had refused to hold the boy's hand during Potions. No, she had observed it around her. She raised her eyes from her table to the sniffling form of Annie Banks, a Hufflepuff girl who was sneaking teary glances across the room at her now ex-boyfriend Amos Diggory. During Amos and Annie's brief relationship, Lily had watched Annie's Charms grade slide lower and lower, and she now relied on her classmates – Lily included – to help her with the work she had neglected.
There's no point ruminating on any possible relationships with James,' she chided herself, straightening and pulling the quill away from her face. You know what will happen, it's the only logical outcome.' She looked up at Amos and Annie again, watching the obvious play of emotions across Annie's face as Amos grinned at something the girl next to him said. People's emotions and actions follow very logical behavioural patterns. What's the point jeopardising everything when I know what will happen?'
She let herself begin to doodle idly. I wish he didn't look so unhappy when I said no,' she thought. But even though the outcomes are clear to me, he probably didn't realise I was preventing him from perpetuating a cycle of teen tragedy'. She tried not to giggle at her own hyperbolic descriptions. I wish I hadn't resorted to clichés, either. Apologising probably wasn't very smart.'
But I do like him,' she realised. I wouldn't mind getting to know him, either. He's always very nice at Prefect meetings. And funny. Even though he really shouldn't be pulling pranks during lesson time.' She grinned at the memory of the look on Professor McGonagall's face as a sparkling salamander shot towards her, fireworks erupting out of its backside, and covered her mouth with her hand to stop from laughing. He's not gorgeous, either, but he does have something about him,' she thought, thinking of the way he had looked, standing in front of her looking so sweetly anxious. She shook herself. Lily Evans, you really shouldn't be thinking of things like that, not with your N.E.W.T.S ahead of you,' she admonished herself.
But he did look very cute today in Transfiguration,' another voice, one she had christened her frivolous voice, argued. And his eyes are a lovely brown. Not all boring and flat but light—
Her reverie was interrupted by a rude jab in her ribs. She turned to the girl next to her, Saria, her mouth open in protest, but Saria was looking forward, her face a study of Marauder-like innocence, but with far more earnestness.
It was then that she realised Professor Flitwick was calling her name. " Miss Evans," he repeated again now that he had her attention. " I was going to ask you for a demonstration of a basic Animation Charm, but if you are feeling unwell?" Flitwick trailed off, looking down at her, seeming more worried than cross.
" No!" she stammered, horrified at being caught daydreaming. She thanked her lucky stars that she was one of Flitwick's favourite students. " Well yes, I admit I do have something a headache, Professor," she lied.
He nodded, and smiled kindly. " I quite sympathise, Miss Evans, I sometimes do find myself with terrible headaches. Do you need to go to the infirmary?"
Lily's face was flushed with embarrassment and she didn't want to call more attention to herself. " No, I I'd prefer to go after class, Professor." Once his attention was back on the rest of the class, Lily lifted her hands to her heated cheeks, cringing. She had never been caught daydreaming in class in her life! She briefly wondered where the self-control she was marvelling at earlier had gone as she turned her attention to making notes.
At the end of the class, Flitwick addressed the class atop his stack of books. " I'd like your notes on Animation Charms to check your progress in at the end of class, please."
As she reached down to gather her notes from class into a pile, she gasped.
That's impossible! Illogical that I would ever'
Right there, at the top of her page, was the biggest heart she had ever seen. The biggest heart that she had ever drawn. It had wings, a halo, and she had animated it to bounce happily across her page. And surrounding it was little dancing circles – walnuts? -- that looked suspiciously like Golden Snitches.
All the blood left her face. She couldn't hand in a page with hearts and Snitches all over it! Flitwick would never look at her in the same way again! Thinking quickly, she snatched her bottle of ink up and not-so accidentally poured it liberally over the page. She winced at the thought of her work gone. Come on Lily, there's no alternative!' " Oh, Professor Flitwick!" she cried, trying her best to look distraught. " I've spilt my ink all over my work!" She held the dripping parchment up as evidence.
Flitwick tutted as he climbed down the stack of books and off his table to approach her. Lily held her breath as he inspected the mess that was once her work, and prayed that he didn't think to use any sort of Charm to get rid of the ink. Instead, he patted her elbow comfortingly. " Not to worry Miss Evans, I'm sure you grasped the concepts perfectly." She breathed a sigh of relief, and again thanked whatever forces were necessary for making her Flitwick's favourite student.
She hurried out of the classroom and shook herself liberally. You know Lily,' her frivolous voice sounded out in her head. For someone who believes so strongly in set behavioural patterns, that was pretty unpredictable of you.' She set off towards her next lesson, trying to ignore the image of wire-framed honey-brown eyes dancing before her vision. No,' she corrected herself grimly. Wasting a whole lesson daydreaming and doodling was pretty illogical.'
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