Deflating

Chapter Two: A Change of Tack

***

"It'd be awfully cute," commented Emily Castner, Lily's roommate, "if, you know, he were…someone else."

"Anyone else," Lily corrected scathingly. "If he were anyone else, it'd be cute. Now, it's just annoying. Really annoying." She scowled.

"You're going to have to get used to it," smiled Charlotte, Emily's twin sister and roommate as well. "He doesn't appear to be in any hurry to back down."

Lily grunted derisively and shoved a Chocolate Frog whole into her mouth and threw the wrapper on top of the growing pile next to Charlotte.

"Maybe you should eat in front of him," Emily smirked as Lily chewed on her Frog, still looking murderous. "That might make him lay off."

Charlotte snorted. "That is doubtful. He eats just like her, he'd probably count it as something else they have in common."

"A fair point," Emily admitted, almost sympathetically. "Lily, dear, maybe you should refine your eating habits."

Lily swallowed. "I will not change a single thing about myself for James Potter," she declared stubbornly. "To get rid of him or otherwise. He'd take it as a compliment either way." She settled herself back against her seat and tore a Pumpkin Pasty in half, shoving one of the sections into her mouth and emitting a very muffled sigh. "Pretentious git." She swallowed again and launched into one of her more famous I-Hate-Potter rants: "Thinking that just because I told him I'd say yes to him if he changed! So he did change…changed into even more of a declamatory idiot…I knew he'd take it the wrong way, he always does…"

Emily and Charlotte eventually managed to tune her out.

***

"So what do I do now?" James asked, whining a little. He had just recapped the afternoon's events to his friends, and now he was hungry. He grabbed for whatever food he could reach and began to shovel it into his mouth as he anxiously awaited his friends' responses.

Sirius sighed. "I don't know why that approach didn't work," he said, and he truly looked and sounded disconcerted. "It always works for me." He bit into a Cauldron Cake, brows furrowed.

Remus Lupin smiled slightly, thinking that perhaps Lily was right in her assumption that James's tactic to land her as a girlfriend was merely a device to get her into bed, even if that wasn't James's intention. "Well," Remus said thoughtfully, "maybe you should go in a different direction."

James glared at his friend. "Why didn't I think of that before?" he said in an extremely exaggerated sarcastic voice, clapping himself in the forehead dramatically. "Oh, all I have to do is go in a different direction! I see it now…everything has become so much clearer…"

"Shut up," Remus muttered as Sirius and Peter Pettigrew snickered appreciatively. "Do you want me to help you or would you rather sit around making snarky comments?"

"I can't have both?"

"Not if you actually want a girl like Lily to be your girlfriend."

"He doesn't want a girl like Lily," Sirius interrupted. "He wants Lily. That's fifty times harder to get."

James sighed. "What direction do you suggest I go in?"

***

Be nice to her, James reminded himself, sucking in a breath determinedly as he strode purposefully up to Lily and her friends, who were walking towards the carriages that were waiting to traffic them up to the castle. Yeah, sure. It's easy for Remus to be nice to Evans--Lily, must remember to call her Lily--because she's actually nice back to him. But whatever, I can be--

"Potter, do you want something?" Lily was demanding, her eyes imploring, eyebrows raised in pure annoyance.

You. No--can't say that. That's pricky, that is. Oh, bugger; I'm not saying anything, am I? Perfect. I wonder how long I've been standing here?

"I would very much like to accompany you up to the castle," James intoned, reciting exactly what Remus had told him to say to Lily once he reached her.

"I'm sure you would," Lily replied icily. "But I'm afraid we're full." She hoisted herself up into the carriage and her friends followed, giggling a little.
James stepped up into the carriage with them, thoroughly wishing he'd brought Remus with him to hiss instructions in his ear. Before Lily could protest, he'd plopped himself down next to her and shut the carriage door behind him.

"What are you talking about, Lily?" he asked lightly, flashing her a smile. "There's plenty of room in here."

Her friends, those twins, seemed to think this all highly entertaining. Lily did not seem to agree with them; rather, she scowled at him.

Keep smiling, James told himself, eventually, she'll have to smile back or she'll feel uncomfortable…

She didn't smile, but glowered at him and snapped, "Leave me alone, Potter."

"Ah, but if I leave you alone, you'll never get to know the…the…" He struggled for words that didn't come and settled for running his hands through the back of his hair to make it stick up more. This made Lily narrow her eyes. Ooh, bad move on his part; he'd forgotten how much she hated that.

"The what, Potter?" Lily inquired coldly. "The massive jerk that you really, really are?"

"No," he replied, matching her tone. "You've already been acquainted with that side of me, haven't you?"

They stared at each other for about five seconds before Lily turned away, choosing to stare at the wall of the carriage instead of at him. "Take your hand out of your stupid hair," she muttered quietly.

He'd forgotten it was there, but removed it anyway, smiling wearily at Lily's friends.

They stared stonily back at him. The one on the left, Emily or whatever her name was, arched a careful eyebrow at him and shook her head slightly.

***

A/N: Oh my God! Oh my God! I have 20 reviews for one chapter of this story!! That has never happened to me before, and I am so excited I can hardly type correctly. Wow. Thank you so, so much. I am totally floored.…hope you like this one as much as you liked the first; and keep reviewing! It makes me impossibly giddy. ;)

Disclaimer: There is a necessity for one in this chapter, I'm afraid, as I didn't put one in last time and I borrowed a line this time. All characters you recognize belong to JKR, etc. etc. I borrowed James's sarcastic monologue to Remus from Friends, though not in the same words.