Chapter 2: Then What Is It?
"Gryffindor Seeker James Potter dives… Has he seen the snitch?" Ludo Bagman, a sport-addicted seventh year's voice boomed out across the pitch, resulting in a loud roar of approval from the Gryffindor crowd. All eyes fell upon James, who was almost vertical, plunging toward the earth, a glint of determination in his hazel eyes.
Of course, from where Lily sat with Cynthia and Alice, she couldn't see his serious expression, or the look of concentration in his eyes. All she saw was Potter, the pain in her side, playing a stupid game to get more attention, not that his swelled head needed it. 'But he is cute…'
Only a few meters from the grass of the pitch, James pulled up on his broom subconsciously, his only thoughts lying on the snitch that was fluttering in front of him. His bent knees brushed the grass softly, and James tuned out all sounds, his arm reaching out to the glinting ball of gold only inches from his fingertips. 'Almost there…'
"AND HE'S GOT IT! JAMES POTTER HAS CAUGHT THE SNITCH FOR GRYFFINDOR! GRYFFINDOR WINS, 240 – 60!" Lugo Bagman bellowed, as James held the small ball in his hand, raising it above his head and smiling gallantly. "GRYFFINDOR REMAINS UNDEFEATED!" Bagman continued to rant happily, but cheers from Gryffindor drowned out his voice, even thought it was bewitched to several times its regular, already quite loud volume. Lily, Cynthia, and Alice cheered loudly, and as Gryffindors spilled out onto the pitch to congratulate the team, they followed, Alice, anxious to see Frank, who played Chaser.
The crowd surrounding the quidditch team broke to make way for Cynthia, who strode purposefully through to Sirius, whom she embraced in a light hug. Alice and Lily followed, Alice flinging herself onto Frank. Lily stood at the edges of the crowd, and James immediately caught her eye.
"Do I get a victory snog too, Lily?" James asked slyly, gesturing to Alice and Frank, who looked like their mouths were welded together. Alice and Frank were, though not purposely, huge in the public displays of affection department. They were both so smitten with one another that they often just forgot where they were.
"Sorry, Potter, not while the giant squid is still available. He's a much better kisser than you are." Lily replied coolly, wiping the grin from James's face as the crowd snickered slightly.
Everyone was used to these conversations – James being cheeky or asking Lily out (or both), and Lily shooting him down. Normally, James would just shake it off, grinning or adding another comment just to infuriate Lily further, but this time, James's smug grin did not return. Instead, a weak smile flitted across his lips, before he silently pushed through the crowd. Lily watched him go in confusion. 'What happened to Potter?'
Sirius laughed loudly to break the awkward silence, chuckling to himself. "Silly James! Keen to get to the party, obviously." Sirius offered as an explanation, his tone loud and falsely cheerful. He gave a wide smile, before following James through the crowd, the other two Marauders, Remus and Peter, trailing after. The crowd stayed in stunned silence for a few seconds, before happy chatter broke out, and the crowds made their way back to the castle, ready for a party.
The party in the Gryffindor common room was rocking. Muggle music of all kinds bounced off the soundproofed walls, and even the first years were dancing, or eating. Sirius and Remus had returned from the kitchens levitating at least enough food for a meal for the entire school, and had laid it all out on a piece of parchment transfigured into a buffet table by one of the seventh years. Everyone was too busy screaming or having fun to notice that James was missing, but Sirius did, and though Sirius didn't know at the time, Lily did too.
"Prongs? What are you doing?" Sirius asked in an impatient tone, discovering his friend sitting solemnly on his bed in their dormitory. "There are easily forty girls down there, willing to do anything for you, and you're sitting up here."
"Why doesn't she like me?" James asked, looking at Sirius as though he had an answer.
Sirius frowned. "Who? Lily?"
James nodded, looking to a photo he had propped up on his nightstand. It was a picture of Lily, from the train ride this September. He and Sirius had gone about the train, snapping random pictures of people, and when James flung the compartment door open, Sirius had managed to get a shot of Lily smiling. The picture version of Lily smiled brilliantly and waved at James.
"I dunno, mate. I really think you oughta get over this crush of yours though."
"It's not a crush." James replied defiantly.
"Then what is it, Prongsie? An obsession? A fascination? An obsession? A fetish for redheads? Please don't tell me it's – "
"I think its love, Padfoot." James interrupted dreamily, gazing at Lily's picture longingly.
"I was going to ask you not to tell me that. I think the fetish concept was a bit more realistic."
"I'm in love with her, Padfoot!" James said brightly, the realization dawning on him.
"Prongs! Love is such a strong word! And you know NOTHING about Lily Evans, aside from her love for books, her temper, and what she looks like!" Sirius protested, aghast at his friend's queer behavior.
This silenced James, who regained his forlorn look, and slumped back down onto his bed. Sirius could hear the music blaring from the common room, and longing to return to the party, and cheer up his friend, he spoke gently. "Alright, Jamesie. We'll call it a redhead fetish for now, until you really get to know Lily."
"And how will I do that? She hates me, didn't you hear what she said at the pitch?" James replied disdainfully.
"Well, we'll start with that. She obviously doesn't like your big head and cockiness. It rubs her the wrong way." Sirius replied, sounding exceptionally intelligent for Sirius.
"Then what?"
"Once she's realized you're not that big of a prick, she might let you spend sometime with her." Sirius explained, looking very clued-up and somber, which was a rare situation for Sirius.
"You think that'll work?" James asked hopefully, perking up slightly.
"Why not? And then, after you know her, you'll discover that really, it's just a fetish you've got going on right now. You'll find yourself a new, less bothersome girlfriend, and we can go back to having fun!" Sirius exclaimed happily, before yanking James in the direction of the door. "Now COME ON, the party awaits!"
As soon as the two boys reached the bottom of the stairs, a crowd of admiring girls swarmed them, asking the boys to dance, or for a snog, or if the boys would marry them. James was surprised to see many of them in yellow robes, and he wasn't the only one.
"What are Hufflepuffs doing at a Gryffindor victory party?" Cynthia asked distastefully, taking a small bite into the Cauldron Cake she was holding loosely in her fingers. She was planning to slip it down Pettigrew's collar the next time he danced by with that third year Hufflepuff.
"Dunno. Guess they wanted to congratulate James." Alice suggested, sitting on the couch next to Lily, who had a book propped open, and was reading intently.
"Alice. Their own house lost to us. Why would they celebrate their house losing?" Cynthia asked, looking very irritated, and smashing her Cauldron Cake on top the of a Hufflepuff girl's head.
"Hey!" The girl protested, turning to face Cynthia, looking very annoyed. "Watch it!"
"Shouldn't you be in your own house common room?" Cynthia asked in a sinister way, staring the girl down. The girl squeaked and fled, disappearing in the dancing crowds again.
"Cyn!" Lily protested, looking up from her book with a horrified expression. "That was rude!"
"Should a prefect be sending the Hufflepuffs back? I was merely assisting you." Cynthia replied nonchalantly.
Lily frowned with disapproval for a few moments, before Alice sighed.
"So, Lily, nice comment toward James… After the match." Joanne McGarey said with a smile, breaking the silence and sitting down on Alice's other side with a friendly smile. She was in their year, and shared a dormitory with Cynthia, Alice, Lily, and another girl named Margie Stevens.
"Thanks. I s'ppose. Although he actually seemed a tad hurt by it." Lily admitted thoughtfully.
"Could it be Lily doesn't completely hate James Potter?" Cynthia taunted, wearing an expression of disbelief.
"I didn't say that! I merely mentioned that he actually seemed to take that comment to heart. He's an arrogant prat, who's head is so swelled I'm surprised he can fit in the castle." Lily retorted, a hint of colour appearing on her cheeks.
Silence fell on the group, the other three girls knowing it was best not to push Lily's buttons and get her all riled up.
"I think I'll head up to the dormitory. Could I borrow your book again, Jo? It's quite good." Alice asked, looking at Jo, who nodded, and then to Lily and Cynthia, to see if they would accompany her.
"We'll come." Cynthia decided. "It's so boring – "
"My favourite ladies, leaving already?" Sirius asked, breaking into the conversation with a puppy-dog look. "Please don't go." He whined, whimpering at Cynthia.
Cynthia groaned. "It's boring, Siri."
"Well, I believe we can fix that." Sirius replied with a smug grin, turning to look over his shoulder and yell out across the common room. "JAMES POTTER! REMUS LUPIN! HERE! NOW!"
Alice laughed, but within a few seconds, both James and Remus Lupin pushed their way through the crowd, looking flustered but pleased by presence of the girls. James gave Lily a quick smile, and Lily was surprised by the sincerity it seemed to have.
"Okay. Dancing is fun. So you dance, then you have fun. People having fun are never bored." Sirius said brightly, herding James and Remus closer.
"Wow, Sirius, I never knew." Cynthia replied sarcastically, quirking an eyebrow.
Sirius ignored Cynthia, and took Alice's hand, pulling her up from the couch, and pushing her towards Remus's general direction. "There. You dance with Remus, Lily dances with James…" Sirius narrated his actions, pulling Lily up and pushing her towards James. "And I'll dance with Cynthia and Jo."
Without allowing any responses from the girls, the three boys dragged them out onto the dance floor. Lily and James were actually being civil toward one another, achieving this by not speaking, and doing a simple two step, holding hands loosely. Sirius caught their smiles and grinned, pulling out his wand and pointing it at the record player crackling in the corner. Cynthia stopped dancing for a moment to follow is gaze, and the guilt returned with a pang in her chest. Lily looked like she was having a lot of fun, she was smiling brightly, and James was watching her the way that one of Cynthia's older brothers, Josh looked at his girlfriend.
With a flick of Sirius's wand, the music died and was replaced by a slower song. No one complained, and immediately paired off. James looked at Lily awkwardly. She had dropped his hand, and was looking in the other direction.
"Dance with me, Evans?" he asked softly, tapping her shoulder so she spun around and faced him.
Lily frowned slightly, but nodded politely, and wrapped her arms around his neck and the two began swaying softly.
"Can I ask you something?" James asked after a moment of silence.
"Sure." Lily replied nonchalantly, expecting him to make a cocky comment or ask her out.
"Why do you hate me?"
Lily was silent in shock for a few seconds, and cursed the fact that they weren't dancing closely, and she had to look into his soft hazel eyes.
"I don't hate you, Potter." Lily answered simply, hoping to avoid the subject.
"Then why do you do that? Call me Potter? Get mad whenever I'm around?" James persisted.
"I don't know why I call you Potter. Habit, I s'ppose. And I'm not always mad when you're around. I don't know James, sometimes you just rub me the wrong way, and I've got an awful temper that I can't really control." Lily answered honestly, surprising herself.
James smiled. "If I try not to 'rub you the wrong way', d'you think we could be mates?"
"Don't see why not." Lily replied with a forced smile. 'But only friends.' She added mentally. It was easy to honour the contract when you found all the boys in your house to be stuck-up prats, but if James acted like this more often, she wasn't sure how she could react.
"The sooner he realizes she's not worth it, the better." Sirius muttered, watching them as he danced with Cynthia.
Cynthia frowned, and followed his glance once more to find Lily and James. "What do you mean?"
"He says he's in love with her. I helped him realize that he doesn't know her. Hopefully he'll get bored in the 'getting to know her' stage and give up the idea completely. No bird is worth that much effort." Sirius explained absent-mindedly.
"Excuse me, Black?" Cynthia roared, pushing away from him and looking at Sirius in disgust. "Love is worth it! And Lily is worth it too! You are just a deluded, womanizing, self-absorbed… PRAT!" Cynthia yelled, before slapping Sirius across the face in her anger, and storming up the stairs to her dormitory, ignoring the fact that the entire common room had stopped dancing, and were watching her and Sirius.
"I'd better go talk with her." Lily explained with a smile as she pulled herself from his grip, hiding a tinge of disappointment in an apologetic smile. "See you later, P-James."
"Good night, Lily." James said with a smile, in ecstasy. She had called him James.