Title: Inevitable

Summary: Set in 6th year. Your typical L/J love/hate fic. Well, hopefully not so typical. A little…um…darker than most, I think. Or maybe just weirder.

Pairing: Lily/James-one of the few ships that you really can't contest

Rating: PG-13

Disclaimer: Sure, everything belongs to me. And there are pink bunnies with blue polka dots floating above my head. ~snorts~ Honestly, people, if you haven't figured it out already, I'm not J.K Rowling and nothing belongs to me. So don't sue. Really. DON'T SUE.

 Lily Evans was curled up in a chair, engrossed in a novel. Suddenly her book was ripped from her hands.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, whirling around to see James Potter behind her chair, holding her book and giving her a wicked smile.

He opened the book to where Lily had left off. "So, what do we have here?" he asked, then began to read. "…A land where the light of day hides far more than the shadowy cloak of night," James intoned, and then cocked an eyebrow at Lily, who was glaring at him. "Huh. Interesting. Little too creepy for my taste, though." Lily got out of the chair and stood so close to him their noses were almost touching.

"Give it back," she ordered.

Instead, he glanced at the title of the book. "Tales of the Underworld," he read, then sighed. "My God, Evans, don't you ever read anything normal?"

She tried to snatch the book out of his hands, but he kept it out of her reach. "Give me my book, Potter," she said angrily.

"Uh, uh. Didn't say the magic word," he said in a sing-song voice.

"Give me the book or I'll rip your intestines out and use them to choke the life out of you," she amended.

James smiled. "On one condition."

If it was even possible, her green-eyed glare grew even icier. "I'm not going to bargain with you over my book. Now let it go."

"Come with me to Hogsmeade this weekend," he said, completely serious for once.

She laughed. "Yeah, right. Now give me the book."

"Evans-"

"Potter, we've gone through this since last year. I wouldn't go out with you-"

"-if I was the last man on earth and the future of the human race depended on us having sex and kids," he finished. "I've heard it before."

"Then why do you keep asking me?" she demanded, wishing they were the only two in the common room. "You know what my answer will be, you know that we have nothing in common, so why do you keep asking?"

His dark brown eyes were full of something she didn't want to identify. "Because I can't help hoping you'll say yes."

She sighed, not willing to go into all this right now. "I have to go." She weaved through the couches and chairs.

Just as Lily reached the portrait hole, James grabbed her arm. "Lily. Wait."

She froze. "You never call me Lily," she whispered.

He looked around at the people carefully not looking at them and sighed. "Come on," he muttered.

They went to an empty classroom. Lily turned around to face him and folded her arms. "Well?" she asked. "Half-no, most of the female population is crazy about you. Go after a girl who would actually welcome your advances."

"Now, why would I want to go for affection when I could have blind hatred and contempt?" James asked flippantly, and then grew sober. "Seriously, Evans, why won't you go out with me?"

Lily let out a scream of frustration. "Ugh! This is idiotic! You don't really like me; you're just hoping I'll say yes so you can add another notch to your bedpost. That's not liking someone."

James looked down at her with one eyebrow raised. "Lily, if I tried to pull something like that, I'm positive that Hagrid would break every single bone in my body."

She smiled slightly. "And then feed you to the giant squid. Well, of course, after I'd castrated you and then killed myself for having the bad judgment to actually say yes to your advances."

"You know, I don't think I like this train of thought all too much," James said warily. "Castration-yeesh. Where do you get these ideas? Oh, wait. Now I remember. From those macabre books you read."

"They're not macabre," Lily said defensively.

"No, just ghoulish."

Unable to think of a witty retort, she stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh, now that's a brilliant reply," James said sarcastically. "How very five-year-oldish of you."

She looked at him oddly and James grew uncomfortable. "What?"

"D'you realize that we've just spent the last few minutes engaging in civil conversation?"

"You call that civil?" James asked in astonishment.

"Well, civil by our standards," Lily clarified.

"Oh." James considered it. "You do have a point." He smiled. "Maybe there's hope for me after all."

She sighed in disgust. "Potter, get over yourself. There is no hope. I hate you and you would hate me if you weren't completely insane and way too horny for your own good-"

James snorted at that. "You think I'm horny? You have met Sirius, right?"

She didn't reply, only stared out the window. He sighed.

"Come on, Evans. Give me a solid, reasonable answer as to why you won't go out with me."

"Because," she muttered, still not looking at him.

James gently turned her around and tugged up her face so her eyes met his. "That is not a solid or reasonable answer. In fact, you could say that was a non-answer. Now. Why won't you go out with me?"

"I can't go out with you, James," she said softly, hoping he wouldn't notice that her voice was shaking.

But of course, he did. He stared down at her. "Why can't you go out with me?"

Her voice was little more than a whisper, and James had to strain to hear it, even though he was standing so close to her. "Because you'll hurt me."


"I wouldn't hurt you," James said softly. He then gave her a faint lopsided smile. "I'd be too afraid that you'd castrate me."

"Why do you want to go out with me?" Lily asked seriously.

He grew serious. "Because you're smart. You don't take crap from anyone, including me. And-you keep me on my toes."

She smiled at him and put her arms around his neck. "Really."

He flashed her a wicked, make-you-go-weak-in-the-knees type of grin. "Well, that and the fact that you've got a great arse-"

She effectively shut him up by kissing him on the lips.

When they broke apart, James was breathing heavily and was in shock. "What-what that for?" he asked. "Not that I'm complaining-" he added hastily.

She smiled. "That was to shut you up," she explained. "I've yelled at you, threatened to decapitate you, castrate you-nothing works. So now I'm going to attempt to shut you up by snogging you senseless."

"That," James said softly, "might work…"

And indeed it did.

A/N: I swear I didn't mean for the ending to get that fluffy. Oh, well. My inner urge for fluffy, happy, silly endings wins in the end! Muwhahaha!