"You're an idiot," Remus scoffed at his friend. "How could you possibly think that a girl like Lily would be jealous of you and that…girl?"
Sirius feigned hurt, and said in a wounded voice, "I resent that remark, Moony. It was my idea."
Remus smiled, nodding his head as though it was all clear now. "You mean you resemble that remark."
Sirius cocked his head, looking like he was processing it's meaning. "I resemble…Ohh, I get it. Nice. Very nice, Moony," he said sarcastically. "I resemble an idiot. Very mature."
"Yes, well," Remus responded, adjusting his badge. "As I was saying, James, it'll never work. You picked an airhead. A gossip, and a girl who Lily would be ashamed to be jealous of. Even if it works, she'll be angry with you for 'inadvertently' making her envy a girl who isn't worth her time."
"Janine is a perfectly respectable—"
"—whore," Remus finished reasonably. "Prongs, it isn't hard to see that she gives it out anytime, anywhere. I think if Lily is as smart as we know she is, then she'll see that you're only dating this girl for what she gives without question."
"And the problem with that is…?" Sirius said, twirling a hand to motion continuance.
Remus turned to face Sirius, with an amused smirk. "Even you must've seen this?"
"No…I don't see the problem with this."
"Padfoot…Lily will find James to be a regular, horny, female-user. She isn't into those types of guys. Who could like someone who uses people like that?"
"You see, Moony, it's called appeal. Why do you think I have so many girls chasing after me? I'm emotionally unavailable, and I cause heartache. It's every female's dream to make me finally settle down."
"Except Lily's," Remus amended, sitting down.
"Well, you can hardly classify James under my dating standards—"
"Hello? I'm still in the room," James interrupted grouchily. "And it's just about time for Quidditch practice, so you may continue, but please don't mind my absence."
---
His eyes scanned the field, piercing through the air to find the Snitch. After a good ten minutes of looking, he spotted a faint twinkle of gold and a flash of wings.
Finally, James thought, gripping his broom tightly, and tilting downward. His speed picked up gradually until he was near about level with the Snitch.
This was it. This was the finish line.
He reached out his hand, meanwhile urging his broom along. Almost there…
"JAMES!" shrieked a girl from below him. "GO, JAMES!"
Ignore her, his brain commanded, and he urged his broom faster to make up for the distraction.
The wind whistled past him, ruffling his hair just the way he liked it. He vaguely saw the seats around the Pitch whiz past as his fingers curled in anticipation of the Snitch.
"YOU CAN DO IT, JAMES!" the female shrieked excitedly.
Well that's stupid. Of course I can, he thought.
But the girl had officially distracted him, and the sweet victory that was so close had vanished. Elusively.
The captain blew the whistle signifying the end of practice, and said the spell that caused all the balls to return to their spot.
James watched the Snitch fold its wings and fall gently into place.
Aggravated, he touched back down to reality in search of the girl who broke his concentration.
A familiar face ran up to him, and threw her arms around him excitedly. "You were great, James," the girl breathed.
"Thanks, Janine," he mumbled through grit teeth.
"You'll get it next time for sure, huh?" she asked breathily.
He forced a smile, and let his eyes trail over to her companion. Lily.
"Evans," he nodded curtly.
Her face was serious, and she nodded as well. "Potter."
Janine latched her elbow possessively to his, grinning over at the 'former' object of his affections. "This is so cute, you guys! Oh…I think I see Kerry, and I haven't told her the news yet!"
She removed her arm, and gave James a kiss on the cheek. "Ooh, sweaty," she giggled, and ran off.
Lily's hands were behind her back, and she rocked back and forth on her heels. Noting his tension, she said softly, "If it's any consolation, I told her not to yell. I know it must be difficult to be up there trying to find it, without having her piercing screams on top of it all."
"Yeah," he admitted, grinning.
It was Lily. She picked up on things most girls didn't. She sympathized with him, and she knew what he liked and didn't like. Whether she wanted to admit or not, she was destined for him.
Her emerald eyes left his hazel ones, and she glanced down at herself. "What, did I spill something?" she asked nervously under his scrutiny.
"Er, no," he replied, still smiling.
"Then what?" she asked bewildered.
"Nothing," James insisted, wiping off the grin.
"So. Janine is certainly excited that the pair of you are together. Tell me," she began sharply, "how long before you break her heart?"
Another thing about Lily. She always seemed to bring up the things he wanted to talk about least. It was almost like she was testing him, time and time again. She was never afraid to be blunt.
"Evans, I would never purposely break a girl's heart," James replied smoothly.
She blinked, and granted a nod. "Well. In any case, I won't keep you from your shower. Have a good day, Potter."
It was hard to tell when her moods would sway like that.
From friendly to frigid in 2 seconds flat, James thought wryly.
---
Lily rolled her eyes and mentally envisioned using her wand to shut Janine up for the last time.
"…So he's not as annoying as usual, right? I think he was so cute, being all openly affectionate with me. I imagine you're just about kicking yourself right about now," Janine sighed. "He's the perfect boyfriend, in my opinion. I think he's just all-around perfect, actually."
Lily was a friendly person by nature, but this was just ridiculous!
"Janine, I'm going to head to bed, ok?"
"That's ok, I'll go talk to—"
Lily didn't wait to hear who was going to be tormented next. She slammed her door shut, and walked over to her bed.
As a force of habit, she smoothed out the nonexistent wrinkles in her white nightgown before pulling back the covers.
She crawled into bed, absolutely exhausted. It was Sunday night, at 11. She should have been asleep by now…classes were tomorrow.
---
James immediately confronted his friend the next morning when he awoke. Janine was completely horrific.
"Sirius, what were you thinking?" he demanded, thrusting aside Padfoot's curtains. "Janine isn't human; she's a…a…clingy THING!"
Of course, Remus was already awake and watched James stab his finger into Sirius' chest. "I hate to say I told you so, mate…" he began with a smug smirk.
"Don't even finish that sentence if you plan on living to see another full moon, Moony!" James growled, rising from the bed.
Sirius brushed back his bed-matted hair, and tilted his head. "Prongs, I don't see the problem here. Lily certainly seems less than thrilled."
"Yes, well, anyone would be less than thrilled to be with Janine," James snapped. "She's ungodly, and evil! She's driving me insane, and it hasn't even been 24 hours!"
Sirius watched in amusement as James threw up his arms in frustration, and knocked irritably on Peter's bedpost. "I'm telling you, Prongs, one heavy snog with her, and you'll be sold. One heavy snog with Lily watching…and you'll be set."
James glared at him as Wormtail opened the curtains of his bed and looked out bleary eyed.
"What's all the…" he paused to yawn, "commotion about?"
James turned to face Peter and sighed. "Janine is my new 'girlfriend' and I hate her! I cannot stand her! It's all Padfoot's fault!"
Peter rose an eyebrow and said, "Then break up with her," as if it were the simplest thing in the world.
Which, it undoubtedly was. James fantasized briefly.
"It's not just to be going out with Janine," Sirius cut in with an annoyed voice. "It's to make Evans jealous, thank you very much."
"Don't act so annoyed that your plan was put into question," Remus said, yanking on some clothes.
"It's a bloody brilliant one! Evans won't know what to do with herself she'll be so jealous!" Sirius protested, running a comb through his hair.
James sat moodily on his bed, mulling things over. "At least I got her to feel something other than hatred towards me last night," he mused calmly and softly.
Sirius shot Remus a triumphant smile, and nodded. "What did I tell you? Worked like a charm, didn't it?"
"Not quite. She was in an apologetic sort of mood when Janine ruined my practice. At least, she was until she turned into a frigid ice queen in about all of two seconds."
"Evans is hot, I'll admit, but I don't understand what you see in her," Sirius murmured, watching Peter crawl back into bed.
---
Lily angrily pushed her eggs aside, wondering when Janine had figured her as a new best friend.
"So anyway, I couldn't find him this morning, but luckily enough, we've got him for our first class of the day. And I was thinking—"
Lily mentally pictured her pancake to be Janine's face, and mashed it and tore it to shreds. It looked completely unappetizing when she had finished mutilating it, and of course, Janine had a comment about that, too.
"Lily, what in the world did you do to that poor pancake?" she exclaimed indignantly as though the thing had actual feelings.
"It was staring at me," she bit out sarcastically, glaring at her friend Carol who was sitting further away than usual.
Janine tossed her a weird look, but Lily didn't care. The girl was as dim as she was slutty. A known fact.
What does James see in her? Lily wondered off-handedly.
The thought surprised her, but she didn't have a mental battle with herself. It wasn't an odd, jealous type of question. She would question anyone who chose to go out with Janine.
She risked a glance over at the Gryffindor table, and saw that James wasn't with his gang of friends, and felt curious. Her curiosity was soon satisfied when she felt a presence behind her.
"Janine," he murmured in a husky sort of voice, wrapping his arms around Janine's back.
Lily automatically moved over so he could sit if he so chose, and James naturally took the seat. He nodded briskly at her, and offered a neutral smile.
Lily stared at him from the corner of her eye, admiring the messily adorable dark hair and the piercing hazel eyes.
She had to give herself a mental shake, before turning her attentions back to the uneaten food on her plate.
It was as though James knew what she was doing, and the moment she averted her gaze, James looked at her plate.
"Eat up, Evans. I never pegged you as an anorexic." He paused, eyeing her pancake. "I also ever pegged you as the violent type towards your food."
Lily glared as Janine giggled at the comments, and James threw a smug smirk in her direction. As if to say, 'I am 100% over you'.
"I ought to slap you for talking so inappropriately towards me," Lily snapped, dropping her fork. It clattered loudly on her dish.
"And I ought to report you for being so humorless," James returned snarkily. "It's got to be illegal to be so stiff."
She rose from the bench angrily. "Enjoy your breakfast," she growled, looking once more in Carol's direction.
Nothing.
---
Lily had retreated to none other than the Library, her refuge of choice. She still had an hour before Charms would start, which gave her room to complete her History of Magic essay due next week.
She was nearly bored to tears, poring over the dull book for useful information to use. As a result from craning her neck out of habit, Lily was left with a horrible crick in her neck.
She massaged it roughly, pushing her fingers deeply into her pale skin, moving in circles around the sore area. There was nothing to do about her back beside stretch languidly in her seat.
Unfortunately, someone caught her mid-stretch, so that her chest was stuck uncomfortably too far into the air as her back curved to get out the kinks. She knew she hated that stretch for one thing or another!
"Evans," greeted a cool voice from beside her.
Lily knew it was James without another glance, and glared irritably in his direction. "What do you want?" she demanded harshly.
"Do you always need to be so frigid with me?" he asked in return to her question.
"Yes, I do," Lily replied, reverting to hating him with every bone in her body. "Go away if you have nothing useful to tell me."
"How about the bell's going to ring in two minutes?" James offered in a manner that he clearly thought helpful.
She snapped the large book shut, and shoved it into her bag. After she had packed up all her things, and slung the bag onto her shoulder, Lily stood to face him.
He had been waiting patiently beside her without speaking.
"Thank you," she said tight-lipped, before turning on her heel with the swish of her knee-length skirt.
Again, James chose to say nothing.
---
James watched her leave, feeling somewhat like he had failed. The day was long from over, as well as his sham of a relationship.
He figured that tonight he would need a release of sorts, and hoped that Janine would be feeling friendly tonight. But not too friendly.
Not yet.
He ran a hand through his tousled hair, feeling suddenly drained of energy and tired.
It was positively amazing how much effort he put into trying to have a relationship with Lily Evans. It was positively amazing how she didn't appreciate a single thing it did. It was positively amazing how she didn't seem to return his affections a single bit.
There were glimmers of those shining moments where it seemed that it was working. But those moments were over almost quicker than the blink of an eye.
Because Lily had that uncanny ability to switch gears when he thought he had finally opened a door to something helpful.
Take last night, for example.
James heard the bell ring himself, and Lily was long gone. But his feet remained firmly rooted to the spot he was occupying. And randomly, thoughts of her flowed into his mind. Thoughts he knew she would hate.
For that simple reason, James Potter enjoyed the images thoroughly.
---
A/N: Thank you everyone, for your reviews! It's nice to see some people are paying attention to me, and my new ship (meaning new to me)! I appreciated it very much, so thanks again.
I'm going to taunt you right now, and say that the future of this fic is an exciting and original one, I hope. I don't know how many of you have been wondering what I was blathering on about in the prologue, but I quite like the idea. And the best part for you, is it's only 3 chapters away! Hehe, so review or something with your ideas!
Finally, if you want an email notification from me when I update, please tell me (and leave a name/place to email you) and I shall put you on. Mind you, you will receive these everytime I update; not just for this story.
Later days, and I hope you enjoyed this installation!
[Submitted: July 6, 2004]