Never Got Along
By: neen
author note
Please read this before reading the story! The info might help you out a lot…and takes about one minute!
Set in 5th year as you might notice. It's the beginning of Lily's hate for him
My own character: Penelope Walker. She is a Gryffindor, who is also in 5th year and is basically Lily's best friend.
Yes, James has recently asked Lily out before this opening scene (the 1st time as well) and Lily refused him and gave a reason of studies being more important. Then Lily notices his personality and attitude and greatly hates it.
Chapter Eight
Did he really like her that much? Lily squirmed with guilt. Even though she had noticed James was changing somewhat, she didn't know that the reason behind it all had been for her. Actually, she still didn't quite believe that James had changed. Her mind couldn't comprehend such a crazy, unbelievable thought.
James.
Lily jolted straight up.
She had mentally called him James.
She slowly slid down again.
No. This was not happening. What if this was all a stupid act to win her stupid heart? No…he's not really that nice or polite or sweet. He's still a prat deep down.
"Be strong, Lily. Don't give in to that prick," she muttered to herself before drifting off to a less-stressing dream.
The next morning, she was immediately seized by Sirius as she entered the Common Room.
"Merlin! Sirius, what do you want?" Lily glared at him as he dragged her out of the open.
Sirius looked somber for once.
"Evans, give me a straight answer. Do you like James or not?"
"No! I thought I clarified that a long time ago!" Lily snapped, already in a bad mood. She didn't wake up to be harassed by Potter's best friend to talk about Potter.
"Then as a friend?" Sirius pressed on.
"Just because he's saying a few nice words and being polite doesn't mean I'm about to suddenly fall to his feet, proclaiming my hidden love for him!" Lily said furiously, her cheeks reddening with anger.
"You know what, Evans? I completely blew up at James yesterday at Honeyduke's," Sirius began.
"I know," Lily said without much thought.
"What?" Sirius narrowed his eyes.
"I said, 'oh'," Lily covered up, mentally chiding herself.
"Yes, well, I told him that you weren't worth his time. It's not that I hate you or anything or that you're ugly. You're a nice girl. But do you realize he can get just about every girl in Hogwarts? Yet he has been pining away at you for about two months now. This isn't like him. He doesn't change for girls. I hope that you change your decision, because James is a good guy," Sirius sighed and left.
As she went in for breakfast, she noticed that Sirius had literally thrown himself in a circle of giggling girls, a fake smile plastered on his handsome face. Then she glanced over at the Marauder's usual table and saw that the usual loudness was gone. Remus was busy reading a book and Peter was piling up on food. Ja—Potter was sticking his fork absently at his food, at a loss for appetite.
Lily sighed as she grabbed two pieces of toast and left for the Common Room.
That whole day, she worked on all of her homework, but paused occasionally to think of what Sirius said and what her inner voice was saying.
Finally, night arrived. Penelope was already ready as Lily quickly dressed into her pink gown and did her hair into an elegant French bun. She hurriedly added earrings as Penelope did her makeup for her.
"Lily, you look so pretty! You're going to knock James out," Penelope grinned as she finished touching up on Lily's blush (erm, for those who don't know, the usually pink stuff that goes on cheeks).
Lily smiled radiantly at Penelope as she complimented her back.
Then she slipped into soft, pink satin slippers and opened the door. James was waiting for her at the end of the stairs. Lily could tell that he was nervous and smiled.
James finally looked up when Lily stepped onto a stair that creaked.
His eyes were near to falling out of their sockets.
"You—you, Lily—you look—you look very—er—you look pretty," James managed to say.
"Thanks, Potter," Lily said gracefully as she glided down the stairs.
James was still staring wide-eyed at her until Lily asked him what was wrong.
"Nothing, nothing," James looked away, turning pink.
Lily smirked. She was going to have some fun tonight.
As they entered the ball room, many girls stopped to compliment Lily on her gown choice and of course, her date.
"He's not my date! He's only an acquaintance!" Lily said heatedly after a girl commented, "Good looking date you got, Lily." The girl just smiled knowingly.
"The nerve of this lot," Lily muttered darkly.
The music started.
"Do you want to dance?" James asked casually.
Lily nodded.
James looked taken back a bit but took her onto the dance floor.
As he twirled her around, Lily 'accidentally' stepped on his foot twice.
"Oh my goodness! I'm so careless! Sorry, Potter," Lily faked a gasp.
"It's all right," James just smiled.
"Either he's a simpleton or he's really become nice," Lily thought.
Lily decided to try again.
She jabbed her elbow into his stomach a lot more noticeably.
James winced slightly but said that it was fine when Lily asked how he was.
After the song was over, Amos Diggory came over to ask Lily for a dance. Lily immediately said yes without any thought and freed herself from James.
"Finally," she thought as she looked as Amos, "a dance with my true love."
As she danced with Amos however, she couldn't help but wistfully remember how good of a dancer James was compared to Amos. Lily saw James at the corner of her eye. He was now dancing with a very pretty brunette, but he had kept looking at Lily. She quickly looked away, busying herself with staring at Amos's gray eyes. Gray eyes that held no depth. She had remembered looking at James's hazel eyes and seeing a slight twinkle whenever he glanced at her.
She sat down on a chair after the song was over. Someone quickly sat down next to her as she did so.
"Sirius? Why aren't you dancing with your date?" Lily asked as she noticed who it was.
"Quick break, but the real reason is that I wanted to remind you about what I said. James is a good guy," Sirius said firmly.
"I got that already," Lily said as an irritated look situated on her face.
"Ah, well I must leave now. Best of luck," Sirius managed to say before he was taken away by a dashing blonde Ravenclaw girl.
"Best of luck?" Lily repeated silently.
Lily spotted James, who was looking around wildly, a look of panic on his face. She almost laughed and then realized that James might have been looking for her. Lily knew that she was going to regret her action, but she walked up to him anyways.
"Hi."
Unmistakable relief washed over James's face as he saw Lily.
"Lily! I thought that Diggory might have er—tried to snog you or something," James said, embarrassed.
"No, I decided to have a drink. Dance?" Lily asked, forcing herself to be polite.
"Er—sure," James looked mildly surprised before he handed Lily his hand to dance.
"Potter's not so bad, I suppose. I guess Sirius is right. Maybe I should reconsider things a bit. Being friends wouldn't hurt," Lily thought to herself as she absentmindedly stared at James.
"What are you thinking about?" James whispered near her ear.
Lily felt a shiver run through her body. She couldn't believe that James had that effect on her.
"Oh! Erm—how—how messy your hair is. Can't you do anything to it?" Lily asked, frowning slightly.
"It's a curse. I've tried all the hair things and they won't work on it." James grinned. "Quidditch doesn't help much either," he added as he distractedly let go of Lily's hand to ruffle his hair in the middle of the dance.
"Maybe you should stop messing your hair up to look like you've just got off a broomstick too," Lily said sharply as she stepped away from James completely.
James's grin faltered. "Perhaps."
"And don't get mad at Sirius for telling you the truth! What he says is right—no matter what you do, I still won't go out with you," Lily blurted out angrily before sitting down again.
"I just ruined it again," James could have punched himself for it as he saw Lily agree to dance to a tall blonde Hufflepuff boy.
James danced with a couple random flirty girls because they had asked, but his eyes were on Lily the entire night.
He had screwed things up once again.
author's note:
oh, poor James! I feel really bad for doing that, but don't worry, Lily was just really, really mad when she said those words. I'm a huge fan of Lily/James, so don't worry, they'll get together in the end…I just decided that because it's only the beginning of 5th year that it would be too rushed and I'm trying to follow OotP with how it said that Lily and James started going out in the 7th year. I actually don't think I should have made James deflate his head so quick in 5th year, but please don't get mad at me! I'll make things better, I promise!
Much love,
neen
reviewers:
: cylobaby : Thanks—I'm glad you like this.
: My Taste of Ink : thanks for the great suggestion…I changed it.