"Everybody Hurts"
Rowan Arkenson
Summary: Everybody hurts – especially when you're in love with a girl who won't even look at you. But James will soon realise that he's not the only one with problems...
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or the setting. JK Rowling does, and I guess she owns the general plot, but the story, lucky me, is mine. :) enjoy.
A/N: Hello once again. LAAA. Enjoy the chapter. Review. Blahh.
Emma&Zoe – I'm guessing I should thank you two for reading this even though you don't review o_O lol. Cheers for loving the story :D
Brazen Angel – oh my god your review was so nice! I was smiling for ages after reading it – thank you so much for liking my story so much!!
Hpfan20507 - by the way, i love the randomosity of the numbers at the end of your name! assuming they're random? and il try and make sure the cliffy at the end of this chapter isnt as CRUEL as i know the last one was, lol.
Wo Ai Ni16 - that bastard sirius. grr. i dont know WHAT he thinks hes doing. i tried to warn him that his best friend might me a LITTLE bit angry if he flirts with Lily, but NOOOO - he wouldnt listen. im losing control of my characters, help! argh!! that is an INTRIGUING idea you gave me, one of which you may just see pop up in some shape or form...lol. im not entirely sure whats gonna happen in this story tho, lol. i prefer to improvise!! i hope fanfiction sort themselves out, its getting really annoying now, not being able to upload chapters, having "sorry page busy/not found blah" cum up every few days. ITS ANNOYING. anyway, cheers for reviewing a LONGLONG review!! hope your wrists heal. :)
sailorsunandchildofthesun - is that two people or just one person with a really weird name?!?!?!? lol. well, i took your advice, and wrote more chapterness soonish assuming fanfiction actually lets me upload this one soon enough!!
fae - hee hee. i love it when fans hate me for cliffhangers. it just fills me with cruel satisfaction!!
fashiondiva - noo! i killed another one! im so sorry you died!!!!!!! if i update this quickly, will you come back to life and review it for me? ARGH IM GOING INSANELY CRAZY oooh wijimabong ... sorry bout that. so ANYWAY. since you wrote 8 pleases instead of the usual one, i will try to update this chapter for you ESPECIALLY for you, kind of soonish. :)
aLL aMeRIcAn gIRl 50 - nice name. you american by any chance?! ah yes, will they or won't they, the most cliched question that seems to get more annoying every time you ask it! well, your question is answered in the following text....enjoy......... MWAHAHAHAHA. ...i have NO idea where that came from.
mUd - dont insult the cliffhanger! its not its fault it suspences loads, or, whatever! lol.
Mrs. Katherine Maloney - intriguing name......your real name? i know what you mean about the writing chapters quickly thing. my friends at school are reading this and keep telling me to hurry up and write more - but im not exactly in control of it! i cant just sit down and write. it has to write itself. cheers for understanding!! the "dude" thing il explain in a/n. hope you enjoy the next chapter. :)
kimmi - please tell your table im ever so sorry i made you kick it. :( i feel so guilty...
klb14345 – cheers for reviewing. I quite like James in this story. He's not too much of a teacher's genius pet, and not a perverted bastard – which I really hate reading him as. I'm glad you like him here too. J enjoy the chapter.
A/N: the "dude" thing. many of you have commented on this, so im going to, like, talk about it and stuff! ok, first of all, im sure they did say dude quite a bit in the 70s (england) even if we say it more now (especially me!) and not everyone says it all the time anyway. its mostly with sirius, showing his immature character perhaps? or the rebel inside him or something like that, i dont know. anyway, hope everyone understood that, enjoy the chapter, and review!!!! ~rowanx
Chapter Three – Anita
James sat in the common room with a deep sense of confusion swimming over him. It was lunch time, he'd had only a spoonful of ice cream since yesterday, but he wasn't sure whether what he was feeling right now was hunger or a powerful sensation to throw up.
The Marauders came into the common room and went over to James when they spotted him. "And where did you disappear off to?" Peter asked.
"You missed lunch!" said Sirius. "Another meal, missed! I don't know how you can cope, Jamie." He sat down and petted his stomach lovingly.
Remus pulled up a chair and sat on it. "Where did you and Lily go?" he asked with a small smirk. "One minute you were there in charms, the next you were gone! Flitwick didn't seem to notice..."
"He's too worried his brain is frizzling up to make such horrified suggestions such to Lily and James ditching charms!" Peter said. Sirius laughed. "So, where did you go?" asked Peter, realising James hadn't said a word or even looked at them since they arrived.
"Nowhere," James answered, still staring into the fire.
Remus raised an eyebrow. "Uh, James, hate to break it to you, but that place doesn't exist."
"Had to see McGonagall about something," James said, most unconvincingly correcting himself. And still he did not let his eyes meet his friends.
Sirius smirked. "James, why would..."
"I'll see you guys later, ok?" James said, cutting Sirius off, and walked from the common room and out of the portrait hole. Not caring about what his friends were thinking at that moment, he walked through the corridors, back and forth, always walking, forbidding himself to think about Lily, to think about those luscious lips, so close to his... He shook his head. Confusion was never a good thing, and at this rate he was going to land himself in St. Mungos for driving himself mad with it.
Glancing at his watch, he realised with a sickening pang that his next lesson (his next lesson with the Marauders and Lily), potions, started in five minutes, and all the way down in the dungeons. James stopped and started running in the opposite direction. Running up to Gryffindor tower no one was there, so he speeded up to his dormitory and grabbed his bag, praying his things were in there. Running as fast as he could down to the dungeons he stopped at the stairs in the entrance hall, and paused, his hand on the railing. A grin slowly appeared on his face and he started laughing. He was five minutes late for potions – five minutes. Professor Kiel wasn't exactly going to expel him for being just five minutes late to his lesson! Chuckling at himself, James casually walked down to the dungeons. He didn't used to be like this. He used to be so laid back and uncaring. What had changed him? James knew it had probably been Lily, but he'd always liked her – it was only recently that he'd realised just how much.
Opening the door into the dungeon, he walked in, "Sorry I'm late," he said not sounding as if he was sorry at all. He walked over to the Marauders at sat next to them getting his things out.
Professor Kiel walked up to him. "Mr Potter, do you have a good reason for being late?"
"Um, no, no not really," James said, looking as though he'd been deep in thought.
Kiel narrowed his eyes. "Don't get smart with me, Mr Potter. I'll have five points from Gryffindor for your attitude." As he turned and walked back up to his desk he said, "Oh, and don't be late to my lesson again, Mr Potter."
"Is it just me or did that sound like a threat?" James whispered sarcastically to Remus. Sirius stifled a laugh from behind them.
"James, what's wrong with you?" asked Remus, his eyebrows creased.
"Nothing, nothing at all," James said with a grin.
Sirius leaned forward and clapped a hand on James' back. "Our Jamesie here seems to have remembered how to have fun."
Remus frowned. "How unfortunate," he mumbled.
"Oh come on guys there's nothing wrong or different with me," James said. The lights in the dungeon were very dim and were spotlighted on very small areas. As James shifted uncomfortably in his seat, he sat suddenly still as he saw the light bounce of off silky red hair... He shook his head and frowned down at his books. Forget her, he told himself, just forget it, forget it...
But returning to the old James didn't seem to work. Even trying for just a few minutes to become the arse he used to be, the feeling of glorious unease still flittered in his stomach whenever he saw her. Before, she'd been like a challenge, and he was just so sure he could get her, but the feeling wasn't too strong, he knew he could go for any other girl if he wanted to. But perhaps years of chasing had actually meant more than James had realised. Maybe he had always loved Lily, and had just been too immature to admit it...
"Prongs, staring into the sun blinds you, did you know that?"
Startled out of his thoughts, James blinked at Remus. "...What?" he asked after a few seconds.
"Staring at Lily's hair," Remus said with a nod in her direction. "I'm sure it can't be good for you."
"Shut up Moony," James said, as Remus leaned back in his chair grinning.
When Kiel had finally talked them through the potion he'd written the instructions for on the blackboard he coughed loudly, pretending he couldn't hear the noise around him. Telling them to make the potion as best they could "or else", he lay back in his chair and closed his eyes. No one was ever sure whether he fell asleep during these times or whether he did it just to try and catch them out when they thought he was sleeping. So far no one had dared test this theory.
"So James, what did happen when you and Lily sneaked off?" asked Sirius, crowding round him and Remus. Behind there was a small explosion as Peter's potion blew up. No one even turned their heads. Peter blowing things up in potions wasn't exactly a rare thing.
"Nothing much," James muttered, hating the way this conversation had started.
"You do realise," said Sirius, "that you will say nothing happened, we will ask you again what happened, you will say nothing, we will call you a liar, you'll get angry at us and probably not talk to us for a few days, and then we'll apologise and ask you again and you'll tell us needing to get whatever it was off your chest – don't you? Well, why don't we just skip all that and you can tell us now."
James narrowed his eyes. "I hate you."
Sirius grinned. "Hey, if you can't hate your best friend, who can you hate?"
"Fine," James said with a small sigh. "I took her to the kitchens, because she said she was hungry..."
"And you didn't ask us to come!" Sirius said, insulted. "I was hungry too, you know!"
"Padfoot, your hunger was hardly a life and death situation now stop complaining and let Prongs finish!" Remus said exasperatedly. Sirius pouted and James continued.
"Well, we kind of got into a food fight and somehow ended up on the floor, lying together..." Sirius opened his mouth but Remus quickly silenced him with a spell. "We were moving closer to kiss each other, and at the last second, she slapped me and jumped off, shouting at me for taking advantage of her!" James finished angrily.
Remus frowned. "That doesn't make sense."
"Really?" James said sarcastically.
"Why would she lean in to kiss you and then tell you off for nearly kissing her?" James shrugged, but Remus merely looked triumphant. "I knew it! She's just as much in denial about loving you as you are about her HA I was right I love being right..." Remus leaned back in his chair looking superiorly smug.
James frowned. He wanted to believe Remus, wanted to believe he might be right...but he couldn't shake off the terrified and disgusted look on Lily's face as she had jumped up off of him earlier. She hated him... James shook his head. "No, you're not right," he said. "She hates me. She's always hated me, why would that suddenly just change?"
Remus and Sirius looked at each other significantly. "Well, Prongs, you have changed a lot, you know that?" Remus said.
"Yeah," agreed Sirius. "You used to be a complete arse, like me. Unfortunately, you grew up," he said with a sad shake of the head.
James slowly unfolded his arms. "You think that's it? She just happened to notice me grow more mature from her not paying any attention to me?" Sirius opened his mouth to speak but James stood up before he could say anything and walked off to the front desk to collect some ingredients he didn't have. Reaching his hand out towards a jar of something, he saw one got there quicker than his. He saw the beautifully curved and slender hand grasp itself around a jar and pause there, its owner he knew staring at him in anticipation. Expecting him to say something. James didn't say anything. After being transfixed on her hand for almost a minute, he looked up at her. Deep into her eyes he stared, trying to see what his friends seemed to see. What he saw there wasn't love, and he certainly didn't see happiness; he saw a great sorrow in those deep pools of green, in the tingling eyelashes, he saw fear, and it scared him.
Knowing she was still expecting him to say something, from the way her eyes pleaded with him not to make her speak first, he tried hard to think of what to say. But there were no words. She must know how he felt about her by now, and he sure as hell knew how she felt. Suddenly feeling angry at this unrequited feeling he had, he frowned at her, challenging her, daring her to say the first words. He was always the first one to say anything, and he was bored of that. Lily opened her mouth to speak but James left her there, mouth hanging open, feeling sick of it all; feeling angry that he had to love her when she clearly didn't love him; feeling angry that she'd pretended she had wanted to kiss him, and then had shouted at him instead; feeling angry she had to be on the quidditch team, so now they were around each other all the time; feeling angry that he lost control of all of his senses whenever she was near him; feeling angry that Remus had been wrong about her; feeling angry that she had no words for him.
Sitting back down at his chair he slammed his hand down on the table. After a few seconds: "Uh, James? Where's are the toads' feet?" asked Remus cautiously.
"None left," James mumbled, ignoring the numbing pain in his hand.
"Ok," Remus said slowly. "I'll just go ask Lily to borrow her jar of them, in which there seem to be many toads' feet left," he said, and got up, walking over to Lily. James kept his head down but his eyes followed his friend's every move. Remus said hi to Lily, who smiled at him. He pointed to her jar and said a few words, at which Lily quickly glanced at James, and James turned away. He kept his eyes focused harshly on the table, and when Remus returned, he didn't even notice his friend standing there, slowly making the potion without him, and without complaining.
That evening in the common room, James and Remus were playing chess. James said he needed to warm up for their match on Sunday, but really he couldn't give a toss about chess. He just wanted something to take his mind off of things. Sirius had complained about not having pranked the Slytherins for a while, and so he and Peter had borrowed James' invisibility cloak, taking the Marauders map and had gone to cause mischief. James was quite pleased really. Those two were getting a bit loud for him, and he felt he could use some peace, which was where Remus came in handy.
But as they were playing chess, Remus didn't seem to hold quite the enthusiasm he usually did when playing his favourite game. James watched as Remus put a knight forward and across one jump and then turned his head to stare out the window. After a moment of watching him, James cocked his head and said, "You alright, mate?"
Remus didn't look at James. "Fine," he said unconvincingly.
"You really expect me to believe you?"
Remus turned to look at James. "Not really. Just thought it might show you that I don't want to talk about it. I thought even someone as stupid as you might get that obvious message."
James frowned. "Fine, we won't talk about whatever's screwing you over. Sorry for caring."
The two endured a five minute silence with many chess moves before Remus sighed and said, "Sorry James. I didn't mean to take it out on you."
James paused. "That's ok," was all he said, before moving his queen forward and saying, "checkmate."
Remus smiled softly. "Good move," he mumbled. He looked up at James and looked away again. "You really want to know...?"
"Only if you want to tell me," James answered kindly.
"Well..." Remus took a deep breath. "I'm worried about Padfoot." James raised an eyebrow, inviting Remus to go on. "The other day, I was walking up to the dormitory, and standing outside the door I could hear Sirius talking to someone. He was swearing and cursing his family and all the Blacks who ever lived and...really harsh stuff," Remus said uncomfortably. When I opened the door, no one else was in there. Sirius looked at me as though he didn't care I'd heard but wanted to kill me all the same and then stormed past me and out of the room." Remus carefully pulled out a crumpled piece of parchment. "When I walked into the room, I found this on the floor." He handed it to James who skimmed through it.
"It's a letter from his parents," James said quietly. He gasped and looked up at Remus. "Disowning him??"
"I know," Remus said, matching James' disbelief. "Sirius always pretends he doesn't care. In fact I think he's put on a bloody good face so far. But that's got to be crap. Running away from home and then having your parents disown you for god's sake."
James glared at the parchment angrily and then stuffed it back into Remus' hands. "I hate his family. I hate the whole lot of them. They're no worse than the Malfoys."
Remus was looking past him and James turned round to see Sirius walking towards them with a small frown on his face. "I agree with you, Prongs," he said quietly. "But they're not all worse than the Malfoys. I'm a Black, remember?"
The colour flooded from James' face quickly. "Sirius, I didn't mean all the...I was just..."
Sirius dismissed his apology with the wave of a hand. "Whatever, it doesn't matter," he said, even though it obviously did. At that moment Peter came tumbling through the portrait hole, laughing so hysterically hard it was blatantly hard for him to breathe. He had white bunny ears. James gave Remus a curious look and then looked up at Sirius to see that he had the bunny ears as well. Sirius looked at Peter and back again, smiling. James raised an eyebrow. "It was worth it," Sirius replied, grinning evilly.
"James!" James flinched at the sound of the voice and didn't turn round.
Sirius looked for him. "Hey, it's your girlfriend!"
"She is not my girlfriend," James said angrily. Sirius laughed.
Anita Wilkins came rushing up and threw her arms around James' neck. Remus and Peter hugged. "They make such a cute couple," said Peter, pretending to wipe a tear away from his eyes. James glared at them over Anita's shoulder.
Anita drew away. "James, when are you going to take me out?"
James smiled pleasantly. "Never," he said with a smile.
Anita whined impatiently, her shoulder-length brown hair staying stock-still with all the gel that she had used. James winced. "You always say that," she moaned, sounding like a six year old.
"Sorry, baby, but I...well...there's no nice way to say this..." James sighed and put a hand on her shoulder. "But I can't stand you. The very thought of you freezes my blood and makes me want to throw up. I would never go out with you if you were the last person alive, and not just because my parents want me to go out with you, but because I HATE YOU!"
Anita giggled. "Oh James," she said playfully, patting his shoulder. "You're such a tease. You forget, I like it when you play hard to get." She stroked his shoulder gently and James pretended to shoot himself in the head.
"Look," he said, "I don't date fifth years, ok? So leave me alone."
He walked off with the Marauders as body guards, and seeing that she wouldn't be able to get to him, Anita called, "Ok, well I'll see you later then!"
James groaned in agony. "I don't think she's quite getting the point," he said.
"Yeah," said Sirius. "I mean, you certainly spelled it out clearly enough for her. Is she deaf?"
"I think she must just blot out the things she doesn't want to hear," James mumbled.
Remus laughed. "James, why don't you just go out with her? She's not that bad! It's not like you already have a girlfriend – "
"And you're hurting all those lovely young girls out there!" Sirius put in. "All those young women lining up to go out with you and you say no to every single one of them. WHY?" James opened his mouth but Sirius continued on. "Yes, I know I know, Lily, right? But she doesn't want to go out with you. They do," he said, pointing to a particular crowd of girls standing by the lake. They giggled as James and Sirius looked over and James rolled his eyes.
"Look, I don't want to just go out with anyone," he explained. "I'm not like that anymore. I don't want some stupid prissy girly-girl who'll go out with any guy who asks her."
Sirius held up his hands. "Why not?"
"Because James has seen the light and has been sucked into it," Peter said quietly. The Marauders stopped and looked at him curiously. "Oh," he said, "I mean, he's fallen in love."
"Well, why didn't you just say that?" asked Sirius.
"I wanted it to sound pretty," mumbled Peter.
"'James has been sucked into the light'?" Sirius echoed. "In what way is that pretty?"
"Shut up," Remus said. "Prongs, if you don't want to go out with her, why don't you tell your parents? That should get her off your back if your parents and her parents talk or whatever."
James sighed. "You don't understand. My parents can be extremely persuasive when they want to be..."
"Prongs, I don't think you give your parents enough credit," Sirius said. "I'm sure if you tell them you don't like her, they'll understand."
James glared at Sirius. "Padfoot, you've been living with my parents for one summer. I've been living with them for seventeen years. Trust me. They won't understand."
Sirius munched on his cake. "They're always nice to me."
James rolled his eyes. "That's because you're a poor little boy been thrown out of your house to wonder the lonely desolate streets without any help in the cold blackened nights," he said mimicking his mother's high-pitched voice. Remus laughed.
"I wasn't thrown out, I ran away," Sirius pointed out with a huge chunk of cake rolling around in his mouth.
James made a disgusted face and went on. "Well anyway, not the point. The point is, I don't exactly have a choice here. While I'm single, I kind of have to go out with her." Remus looked thoughtful and stopped walking. He looked up at the sky, then looked at the ground, and then grinned at James. "What?" James asked cautiously.
"You say you don't want to go out with anyone, because you're in love with Lily, right?" Remus asked. James nodded. "But unless you're dating, you have to go out with Anita, right?" James nodded again. "So why don't you ask someone to pretend that they're going out with you!"
James looked doubtful but Sirius grinned. "Yeah, that's perfect! You can get your parents to meet them and everything!"
"Who would want to come and meet my parents?" James asked.
"You could ask Priscilla," Peter suggested. "She's a friend, right?"
James shook his head. "Wouldn't work. My parents know Priscilla's parents. It would be too risky."
"So ask November," Sirius put in.
"But if we're right and she does fancy him...that might get too complicated," Remus pointed out. There was a moment's silence whilst everyone tried to think of someone else. Suddenly a smile lit up Remus' face. "Ask Lily."
"What?" James asked, not believing that Remus could possibly suggest that.
"It would be perfect!" Remus insisted. "You two are kind of friends now, right? Well, in between the borderline anyway," he added at the look on James' face. "Your parents have never met her or her family, and you're in love with her anyway, so you wouldn't have to act as though you are!" James still looked doubtful, so Remus added, "It's the 16th of October, right? She could go home with you for the Hallowe'en break and meet your parents then."
"Perfect," said Peter grinning. He clapped James on the back. "Right?"
James smiled weakly. "Right," he said quietly. The four walked on. James' insides churned at the thought of asking Lily to pretend to be in love with him... After all, that would be really hard for her. She hated him...right?
James paced around the changing rooms, worried, nervous as hell, and feeling a deep sensation to throw up. The sensation was in fact so deep, that he actually did throw up. Keeling over just outside the changing rooms by a bush, James clutched a hand to his shaking chest. Why the hell was he so nervous? He'd asked girls out before. Hell, he'd even asked Lily herself out before. But he'd never had to ask someone to pretend to go out with him. And that someone had never been Lily. James hadn't spoken to her for days, since they had nearly kissed. They had passed once or twice in the corridors, but all that had been exchanged was a nod or a small or just an awkward fleeting look. James knew that Lily was just as nervous around him as he was around her. He knew it didn't mean anything though. She was just nervous he might try to kiss her again.
Standing up and breathing in deeply, James ignored the fact that Lily had leaned in to kiss him as well. Great, the denial's back, thought James. No, wait, it's not denial, because there's nothing to deny, because it's the truth. Yes. That's right. Yeah... Having this strange conversation inside his head, James walked back into the common room to find most of his team standing waiting for him. He cleared his throat. "Hey." James looked around. "Where's Lily?" he asked Priscilla.
"She'll be along soon," she answered quietly, looking a bit pale.
"You all alright?" asked James.
"First Quidditch Match soon," said Priscilla, biting her lip. "Against the Slytherins."
"Yeah, I do know," said James, "But all our first matches come up eventually and they are against the Slytherins. Always. So why so nervous this time?"
"Because we haven't had a match without Danny before, and we've barely practiced with Evans," cut in Anne.
James looked around at the team. Everyone nodded their heads, and most looked just as queasy as Anne. He looked away. She was right. He'd never had a match without Danny. Never. The old captain had never missed a match once, he was so loyal to it. James almost smiled. They were acting as though Danny was dead; but he had made such an impact on the team, James doubted he would ever play a match without thinking of him. "True," said James, looking up again. "I don't even think we have what it takes to beat the Slytherins without him. He was such a great chaser." James looked away and shook his head. "I just don't think you're all good enough..."
"Now, wait just a second," said Arthur. James looked up. "We may not be great but I'd say we were pretty damn good."
James sighed. "I just don't know..."
"Look, you have no right to talk to us like inferiors," said Julie, holding the snitch delicately in her hand. "We've put in loads of effort and I think we've improved so much." There were murmurs of agreement.
"We don't need Danny, or you!" said Priscilla, folding her arms smugly. We'll show you just how great we can be." With a nod of her head, she stalked out of the changing rooms. Everyone else followed her apart from Sirius and James.
Sirius clapped a hand on James' shoulder. "Well done," he said.
"You don't play quidditch for five years with Danny Trill and not learn a trick or two about reverse psychology," said James, laughing.
"So that's who you got it from." James wheeled round. Lily smiled. "I always just thought you liked lying," she said with a grin.
James nodded weakly. "Come on," said Sirius. "The team's waiting." He walked out to the quidditch pitch leaving James and Lily on their own.
"You sounded really convincing," said Lily. "I was feeling so nervous before your little speech."
"...And now?" James asked.
"Now I just want to prove you wrong and fly." Lily smiled and walked up to James. She raised herself up onto her tiptoes and kissed him gently on the cheek. James gave her a questioning look. "Thank you," she said quietly, before walking towards the door. "You coming?"
James stared at her for a moment before coming back to life. "What? Oh, yeah, sorry." He followed behind, touching a hand to his cheek, and grinning widely.
Quidditch practice went surprisingly well, taking into account it was their first practice without Danny, they had a new chaser they'd never flown with before, and that chaser happened to be Lily. James was quite proud of himself; he'd only been knocked by a bludger once when he'd lost concentration after seeing Lily grin at him after a particularly great session of passing before James had thrown the quaffle into a hoop.
James felt the familiar crunch of pain at the pit of his stomach as he landed afterwards, knowing he soon had to talk to Lily, not even knowing why he was going to ask when he knew she was bound to say no and detest the idea. But Sirius had threatened to ask Lily himself if James hadn't by the end of the practice, so James didn't exactly have a choice.
Setting his broom carefully on the ground he grinned shakily at his team. "That was a great practice, everyone. You certainly proved me wrong!" Everyone smiled smugly but it just made James laugh. "We'll be fine next week, Slytherin have nothing compared to us, right?" Everyone cheered and roared and then went off to the changing rooms. James followed. Taking his quidditch robes off, he waited until Lily had finished before going over to her. "Hey, Lily, can I talk to you for a moment?" Shrugging, she set her broomstick down and followed James back on to the pitch. James ignored the wink of support from Sirius and concentrated on not throwing up.
"So, what is it?" Lily asked, turning to James. She looked worried. "Was I really bad? I mean, I know I can't play as well as Danny could and this is my first match and everything..."
"No, no, stop." James grinned lightly. "Lily, you're a brilliant flyer, and chaser, and I think we're bound to win on Saturday with your help." Lily grinned as James' smile vanished. "I just wanted to, to ask you something...strictly non-quidditch related..."
"Well, what is it?" asked Lily kindly, throwing her hair over her left shoulder.
James hesitated, praying for air, then said in a quick mumble, "I need you to help me my parents really want me to go out with this girl Anita and I don't really have a choice but I don't want to go out with her because...well...and Remus thinks that if my parents think I have a different girlfriend who I really love then they won't force Anita on me so I need someone to come home with me for a weekend at Halloween to meet my parents and I know it's a really stupid idea and that you probably hate the idea but Remus said..."
"James, stop." Lily held out a hand, and looked at James softly. "Are you asking me to be your girlfriend?" she said quietly.
"No, oh, no no," James said quickly, "Just, just to pretend, you know, for my parents."
Lily looked away thoughtfully. "At Halloween?" she repeated.
"Yeah..."
Lily chewed on her lip for a while before looking back at James and smiling faintly. "Sure," she said. "Why not?"
James heart swelled up and a huge grin erupted on his face. "Oh, thank you, thank you so much Lily, I know this is such a stupid idea..."
"It's not so stupid," Lily said. "I think it sounds like fun, deceiving your parents!" she laughed and James followed suit, feeling beyond happy that Lily hadn't just said no.
a/n: I managed not to put a cliffy in, aren't you proud of me?! lol. review pleeeeeeaze ~rowanx
