Hate Everything About You
Summary: Lily Evans is convinced that James Potter is bad down to the core. What happens when she realizes that this isn't true?
Disclaimer: I don't own any of J. K. Rowling's characters, locations, or other such ideas. Basically, I own Mandy, Amber, and other random characters in the story.
Chapter Three: Hogsmeade Havoc
Lily stormed up to her dormitory and, calming down a bit, lay down on her bed. She folded her arms behind her head and stared up at the ceiling, thinking.
'-just a black-hearted, stupid, self-centered, arrogant, pompous, lazy, know-it-all, bullying, show-off, annoying, cowardly GIT!' Lily clenched her fists in rage and sat up.
She heard footsteps from the stairway outside the door – probably a sixth or seventh year.
Rearranging her pillows, Lily allowed herself to sit back comfortably while she thought. Suddenly, she let out a shriek of rage, and the door opened.
Mandy, who was standing in the doorway, raised her eyebrows. "What's the matter?" She walked in, followed by Alice.
"I-" Lily began. They wouldn't understand, though. Why tell them?
"What's the matter, Lily?" Alice repeated quietly.
Lily suddenly realized how apprehensive the two of them looked. 'I must look furious, for them to be so scared,' she thought. She took a deep breath and changed her expression to one slightly more neutral. She sighed. "I ran out of adjectives that describe Potter."
She could tell how close her friends were to laughing in relief. They'd evidently thought it was something bad.
But this was bad! She'd said (well, thought) so many insulting words about Potter, even some swear words (which Lily wasn't found to be saying very often), and even if they'd all been strung together into one, long, super-mean-not-nice-insulting-word, they'd be an understatement to what she felt right now towards James Potter.
"Well, which ones have you got so far?" Mandy said, with a bit of a smirk on her face.
"So far, I've thought of black-hearted, stupid, self-centered..." Lily began.
Mandy started writing all of the words describing Potter that Lily had thought of so far. Once that was done, the three of them racked their brains for other words that they could add to the list. This calmed Lily down quite a bit, and she felt almost as content as she had earlier that afternoon, before the whole Snape fiasco had started.
Just as the girls, giggling, wrote down their newest insult ('pile of owl droppings'), Amber burst into the dormitory.
"What is the bloody matter with you guys?" she shrieked.
"What? Did we do anything wrong?" Alice asked innocently.
"I've been waiting for 45 minutes for you to come down to the Great Hall, but you never showed up! What have you been doing here all this time?"
"Great Hall? For what?" Lily asked.
"DINNER!" Amber half-screamed.
The girls all glanced at their wristwatches and identical expressions of surprise appeared on their faces.
"Wow, time flies when you're having fun," Mandy giggled.
"Yes, great fun!" Alice agreed, grinning.
Noticing Amber's confused expression, the girls explained what they'd been doing for the past few hours, and then walked down to dinner.
Lily purposely doubled her efforts of avoiding James. It seemed that he wasn't that keen to talk to her, either.
Just as the girls got up after finishing their dinner, Lily's assumptions were proven wrong. Potter stalked up to them casually, a silly grin on his face. 'Is he trying to be charming, or seductive, or something? Because it's really not working,' Lily thought.
"Hey, Evans, about this afternoon..." he began. He gazed at her for a bit, as if to make sure he had Lily's attention, before continuing. "Since you were maybe a little angry at the time-" Lily scoffed; typical Potter didn't even notice, but kept talking, "and since you were caught up in the, er... heat of the moment... you weren't able to give me a correct answer."
"What are you talking about, Potter?" Lily said, narrowing her eyes.
"Here. I'll start over. Will you accompany me to Hogsmeade on Saturday?"
Lily laughed. "Are you asking me out, Potter?"
"Well – yes."
"No."
"No, I'm not asking you out? What am I doing, then?"
"I mean, no I won't go out with you."
James rolled his eyes, as if fed up with a small child who just wouldn't understand something simple he'd repeated to them many times.
Lily rolled her eyes as well, but in her usual 'why-don't-you-just-give-up-Potter' way. She walked past him and towards the doors of the Great Hall, followed closely by Mandy, Alice, and Amber. It looked as though they would have to take out that insult list for the second time that day.
So much for studying for their OWLs.
Lily was in Honeydukes two days later, indulging in the sweets. Sugar quills, Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans, Cockroach Clusters, and even Chocolate Frogs; she eyed them longingly, knowing that the money she spent should be towards a better cause. After all, her parents weren't exceedingly wealthy – she didn't have piles of Galleons rotting in a bank account, waiting to be spent. It was already hard enough to find somewhere to exchange a bit of Muggle money for some of the wizarding currency.
Surprisingly, Honeydukes was nearly empty. Maybe it was lunchtime? Lily checked her watch. 11:30 am. 'Close enough to lunch time, I guess.'
Mrs. Charleston, the saleslady at Honeydukes, walked up to Lily. "Need any help, dear?" she asked warmly.
"Oh – no, no thank you."
"Where are your friends?" she asked. Mrs. Charleston knew Lily and her friends well; they'd been regular shoppers at Honeydukes ever since their first visit in third year.
Lily's voice contained a trace of disappointment. "Well... Mandy stayed at the castle for a meeting for Quidditch. They've already finished the season and Gryffindor got the Quidditch Cup, so I don't know what the fuss is about. And Alice and Amber are on – I mean, they're with some other friends," Lily explained. She'd been about to say 'on dates', but she didn't know if it was safe to talk about these things to even kind, old Mrs. Charleston.
Lily had never been to Hogsmeade alone. Ever. She didn't know where her other friends were, either. It seemed as though everyone had disappeared. Was it really a Hogsmeade weekend? What if it was actually Friday? Or... what if there was an emergency OWL that all of the fifth years had to take in addition to their regular ones, and she somehow hadn't heard? She started bringing up memories of her Charms, Potions, and Transfiguration notes, then realized how awkward the moment was. She was standing there, wordlessly, in front of Mrs. Charleston, who was looking expectantly at her.
"Yes?" Lily said, as if she'd had her name called.
"I was asking you if you were planning on purchasing anything," Mrs. Charleston said, but with all her regular amounts of kindness.
"Oh, sorry, but I won't be. Just here to indulge, as usual," she smiled. Lily did buy candy from here a lot, but most of the time she and her friends came here just to be fascinated endlessly by the amounts of sweets they sold. They never really added anything new to their colossal collection of candy, but even the same old stuff made their mouths water.
"Alright, then. In that case, I'll be back in the storage room. Give a shout if you need me, though," Mrs. Charleston said and walked away.
James, crouching near the door of Honeydukes under his invisibility cloak, let out a small, inaudible sigh of relief. He'd thought that lady would never leave. Carefully, he pulled off his invisibility cloak, concealed it behind a chocolate display case, and walked silently toward Lily.
Lily was admiring some Fizzing Whizbees, eyeing them hungrily, when a pair of warm hands covered her eyes. Probably Mandy; she did this all of the time. Maybe she'd been let out from the Quidditch meeting early? Lily knew what was coming next: a 'guess who?' of some sort.
She was right, but the 'guess who?' hadn't come from Mandy. Unless, of course, her voice had become much more deep. No, Lily knew this voice, and it wasn't Mandy's.
Lily whipped around, making James' hands fall from her face.
"Potter."
"Evans," Potter said, as if to mock Lily.
"Aren't you supposed to be at a Quidditch meeting? Where are your dip stick friends? Or your even-more-dip-stick admirers?"
"I left early... it got boring. My friends think I'm still there, though, and same with my wonderful fan club," he flashed a wink at Lily. "Anyway, I came here just to talk to you. You know, a friendly chat, maybe a Butterbeer or two. Or better yet, snogging."
"Just go away. Can't you get the message? I don't want to –"
Potter had put his hands on Lily's shoulders, which made her stop. 'Oh, boy,' she thought.
"You're all alone here, Lil- Evans. What do you want right now?" he asked softly.
Lily hesitated. He couldn't possibly know how alone she felt at the moment. Sure, it was just Hogsmeade, and she'd been apart from her friends before. But the whole place seemed so... empty. She'd hoped that the days after the exams would be joyful ones. But really, they were boring. Even though it was only Saturday.
Lily looked down at her shoes. "I– er-"
James cupped her chin in his hand, and lifted her face so that he could look her in the eye. "I know what you want. Let me show you."
Suddenly, he put his arm around her waist, drawing her closer. His free hand caressed Lily's cheek.
Lily's mind was racing. This WAS NOT RIGHT. What was happening?
He moved in closer, tilting his head a bit. His eyes were closed now. His lips were puckering.
A sudden realization came to Lily. Her body realized it before her mind did, and she did exactly what her reflexes told her to do: slap Potter hard across the face.
James opened his eyes and stood up straight. The slap didn't seem to have hurt him, but at least it had stopped him from doing what Lily had been dreading he would do.
He grinned, and touched the red mark on his face, wincing. Maybe it did hurt, after all.
"I will cherish this red mark for as long as it stays on my face... meaning, forever," he said a bit dramatically, still grinning.
Lily was furious. Not only was he being his normal arrogant self, but he had almost KISSED her! What if he had? What if someone had seen? Lily looked around wildly, but nobody seemed to be in the store. Even Mrs. Charleston was nowhere in sight.
She stared at Potter. "I have the strongest urge to kick you in one of the more sensitive parts of your body, but I think I'll save you the pain and just kick you out of this shop, instead."
Potter smirked. "You don't own the place. I can stay here if I want to."
"FINE THEN!" Lily shouted. "I'll just go out myself!" She stalked towards the door.
"Wouldn't go out of the shop if I were you."
Lily was absolutely loathing James at the moment. Why did he always have to be so stupidly calm? It drove her mad.
She whipped around. "Why not, may I ask?" she asked coldly.
"Something's going on outside."
'Stop being so vague, would you? Just get to the POINT!' Lily thought. She glanced out the window at the front of the shop, but couldn't see anything because it was all covered up in advertisements and other posters.
"I don't see anything."
"Really, now?" Potter said sarcastically. Dropping the sarcasm from his voice, he continued. "There's a bit of a... crowd... out there."
"Crowd? Why?" He was still driving her mad with his vagueness and whatnot, but Lily was interested.
"Well, er, I think that maybe... Snivellus has got himself a bit of a – a fan club." James said, looking as though he was unsure of Lily's next reaction. Evidently he was trying very hard not to break the peace that had suddenly grown between them.
Lily scoffed. "Are you trying to say that Snape's found some friends?"
Potter shifted his feet uncomfortably.
"Erm... not exactly 'friends'. No, I, uh, don't think that's the right word."
Lily was getting a bit annoyed, but as long as Potter wasn't being a pompous jerk, she'd try and keep the peace as well. "Can you please just spit it out? I don't have all day." Not the best way to keep the peace, but better than outright yelling.
"Fine. Near the Shrieking Shack, there's a – a... crowd. Of people. Students, more like. Fifth and sixth years probably. And they're uh... they're... harassing him."
"Who, Snape?"
"Yeah," Potter said softly, as though ashamed.
Lily gazed at him, trying to find any traces of a lie. None. He was telling the truth.
"Are you telling me that there's a gang of kids putting hexes on Snape like you were the other day? And – and calling him names?"
"Yup."
She was getting more frantic by the second. "So that's why the whole place is empty? Because everyone's outside, busy watching Snape get bullied and hexed, and not even TRYING to stop the madness?"
"Yes." Lily noticed that Potter was looking down at his feet.
Then came the fireworks. "You see? What did I tell you? You're a BULLYING TOERAG! And now everyone in the school is following YOUR – BLOODY – EXAMPLE! How do you think Snape feels about this? First he gets humiliated in front of lots of people because of you and your stupid friend Black, and NOW he gets humiliated in front of even MORE people, and is getting hexed by MORE PEOPLE, and it's STILL all because of YOU!"
Any previous trace of James' shame had gone. The red mark seemed to have gone too, but only because it'd blended with the redness growing steadily in his face. He was yelling, just the same.
"REALLY NOW? Well I suppose YOU, Little Miss Perfect, are ALWAYS right! It's ALWAYS my fault, isn't it? It COULDN'T be the fact that Snape is a complete TOAD, or that all of the other students are just as complete BABOONS for thinking that hexing him for no reason is funny!"
"Excuse me, POTTER, but wasn't it YOU who thought that hexing Snape for no reason was FUNNY?"
"WHO SAYS I DIDN'T HEX HIM FOR A REASON?"
"Then WHY did you HEX HIM?"
"SAME REASON AS WHY YOU WON'T GO OUT WITH ME!"
Lily was confused. She wasn't yelling anymore. "What?"
Potter seemed to have calmed down a bit, too. He was breathing heavily, though, and was still a bit red in the face. "You'd – rather – go – out – with – Snape – than – me!"
Never mind about the calming down. Lily was back to yelling again.
"SO YOU'RE TELLING ME THAT YOU HEXED HIM BECAUSE I SAID I'D RATHER GO OUT WITH HIM THAN WITH YOU? Didn't you realize I could have been LYING? To get my POINT ACROSS? Well I suppose tomorrow you'll be tearing the GIANT SQUID apart, as well!"
"I DIDN'T TEAR SNIVELLUS APART!" There was a pause.
Lily stamped her foot. She was feeling awfully like a two-year-old.
"I DIDN'T TEAR SNIVELLUS APART!"
James was ferociously angry at Lily's wild accusations, but a small – no, large – part of him was happy that Lily had really been lying about the Snape thing. And she did look quite – no, extremely – pretty when she was mad – no, furious.
Lily stamped her foot, and whirled around. She walked to the front, opened the door, and was about to leave when James decided he couldn't contain himself anymore. He just had to say it.
"You would have made a lot less fuss if you'd just LET me kiss you."
Lily balled her fists, shrieked in rage, and walked out of the door and into the street. James thought he heard something along the lines of a faint 'STOP THIS INSTANT!' coming from outside.
All of a sudden, Mrs. Charleston appeared out of nowhere.
"Why, hello m'dear. Where's Lily gone?" she smiled.
What was wrong with this woman? Hadn't she heard anything from before?
"She's – er – she's gone to get a Butterbeer with some friends."
"Oh, alright. Well, if you see her, tell her I hope she'll have a good summer for me, won't you?"
This lady was even worse at detecting lies than she was at hearing the canons go off between Lily and James.
"Sure. I... I think I'll go and, uh, join her, then. See you next year."
"Of course, m'dear," she called after him as he left Honeydukes.
"STOP THIS INSTANT!" Lily yelled as loud as she could, running down the path toward the Shrieking Shack. She fumbled in her pocket and took out her wand before stopping a few feet in front of the group of students.
Several heads turned. Several didn't.
"Stop what?" spat an obnoxious third year.
Lily, though really answering the kid's question, yelled as if to address the whole group, "STOP HEXING SNAPE!"
This time, more heads turned. Many of the onlookers carefully stepped away to show that they didn't have anything to do with it. With the crowd dispersed, Lily managed to see Snape in the centre, dangling upside-down the way he had two days ago. She also saw the people who were the cause of it all. One of them was her ex-freind Larissa, a snobby Ravenclaw fifth-year who was the leader of the silent anti-Lily rebellions. All they really did was throw her dirty looks in the halls for being so 'cruel' to Potter, so the current situation was a surprise to Lily.
"Montgomery. What on earth are you and your little posse doing tormenting Snape?" Lily tried to remain as calm as she possibly could.
Larissa glared at Lily, and spoke with an equally forced calm in her voice.
"Finishing what James started," she spat, though her voice was momentarily softer as she said Potter's name.
"What?" Lily scoffed. Predictable, yes, but still a bit surprising.
"He never got around to taking Snape's underpants off, did he?"
"I wouldn't know."
"You probably don't know why he's so mad at Snape in the first place, either, do you?"
Lily thought she knew, considering her recent 'conversation' with Potter, but she wanted to know if Larissa was thinking the same thing she was.
"No, I don't," Lily said blankly.
Larissa's eyes seemed to fill with tears. "He was so sad that you prefer Snape over him that he couldn't bear it, the poor chap! He had to vent his anger, and who better to be his venting victim than Snape himself?" Suddenly, her voice went from soft, to cold again. "I'm warning you, Evans. You'd better just say yes and get that week over with so that the people who REALLY care about James can have a well-deserved second chance."
Lily ignored what Larissa had just said and asked, "So why are you still bothering Snape when I already told Potter I'd been lying?"
Larissa looked slightly put out. Her excuse wasn't valid anymore.
"Nobody here likes him anyway," she said, as though trying her hardest to think of a reason now that Lily preferred Potter over Snape.
Lily preferred Potter over Snape? No, she didn't. No way. She'd only just remembered her words to Potter. She speculated. 'Oh yeah, I do prefer Potter over Snape. Only because he wouldn't call me a Mudblood 24/7.'
She remembered the scene in front of her. Most of the crowd was gone. Larissa and her friends remained, along with some others.
"Leave Snape alone, Larissa."
"Why should I?"
Lily pulled out her shiny Prefect badge, and was about to explain that Prefects still had power in Hogsmeade, when someone appeared behind her.
"Because Lily said so," Potter huffed.
"Oh – okay. Whatever you say, James," Larissa said, her voice soft. She didn't put Snape down, though, because she was drawn to Lily and James' bickering.
"I don't need you to help me, Potter!" Lily spat.
"Well, clearly, they weren't listening to you."
She shoved her Prefect badge into Potter's face instead.
"Well, I was going to show them this, but then you turned up."
Surprisingly, they were speaking very calmly.
"I had to stop it... they shouldn't have been tormenting Snape."
If he was trying to portray himself as a nice guy, it wasn't working. Lily could see right through him that he was trying to impress her with his 'care for his enemies'.
Lily looked over at Snape, who was still dangling upside-down.
"Put him down, Montgomery."
Larissa seemed very reluctant to come out of the entrancing stare she was giving Potter. "Fine."
With a flick of her wand, Snape was crumpled on the ground. He'd heard the whole conversation, Lily was sure, because he was smirking at Potter.
"Heard the Mudblood would rather go out with me than with you, Potter," he sneered.
"She was lying."
'Stupid comeback,' Lily thought. She turned on her heel to leave, but James caught her arm.
"You were, weren't you?" He looked at her with pleading eyes.
Lily looked from Potter to Snape, from Snape to Potter.
"Of course I was. Being called a Mudblood gets really boring after awhile," she said, hoping to be as monotone as possible. Just because she'd sooner go out with Potter than with Snape didn't mean she liked Potter. She still hated him.
Potter turned back to Snape, looking pleased with himself. "See?" He looked at Lily, and held is arm out to her. "Shall we go to the Three Broomsticks to get some Butterbeers?"
Lily refused the arm, but walked to the Three Broomsticks anyway. She knew that Amber was there with Sirius. Probably Alice and her date, Frank Longbottom, a Gryffindor seventh-year, were there as well. She hoped she wouldn't be too rude, interrupting her friends' dates.
Lily walked in and saw Amber immediately. She was chatting with Sirius, and things actually seemed to be going pretty well. The second-to-best condition for a date to be in before she interrupted it. The best one was having a bored atmosphere, Lily had learnt.
"Hey, guys!" Lily said, trying to sound as cheerful as the two of them looked.
Amber looked up. "Oh, Lily! Hi!" She was happy to see Lily, but evidently a bit put out that she didn't have Sirius to herself anymore.
"Evans," Sirius nodded. Lily smirked.
"So, uh... what are you doing here, Lil?" Amber said politely.
Lily frowned. "Trying to get away from Potter, Snape, Montgomery, and practically everyone else who I'm not on friendly terms with."
Black, who had been sipping his Butterbeer absent-mindedly, looked up, interested. "Why Potter, Snape, and Montgomery?"
Lily sighed. Might as well start from the beginning. But as long as Sirius was here, she'd leave out the part about the kiss.
James followed Lily toward the Three Broomsticks, but then thought the better of it. His invisibility cloak was still in Honeydukes. He wanted to be alone, anyway, and think through the recent events. He was feeling both put out (by Lily) and happy (Lily liked him more than she liked Snape!). He was also feeling annoyed, angry, and disgusted toward Larissa. She was extremely good-looking, that much was true. But James' experience with her had told him a lot about her. She only cared about herself. An honest part of James (which was very small) confessed that even HE wasn't quite that bad. And plus, she was a horrible kisser.
He went into Honeydukes, snatched his invisibility cloak from behind the chocolate display case when he was sure no one was looking, and threw it over his head. He tiptoed to the storage room at the back of the shop. Going through the secret passage from Honeydukes to Hogwarts would be comforting. It was quiet, peaceful, cool, and most importantly, void of other people.
A/N: So... that's chapter three! ) sooo sry it took me so long to update! School is evil. We can all agree on that, rite? P anyway... i think my ending is exceedingly crappy, but I'll manage!
Angelgurl161: thx for the advice! yea, lol my friends said that too but i was laughing at them. I guess you're right though, it sounded bad when i reread it.
Barf and Pammi: fankoos for being my faithful editors!
Feifs and Jenn: hope you likes!
K, well I'll update as soon as I can! (for now... wish me luck with my h/w! Grumble.)
((This chapter has been edited… for the good of all readers.))
