More Than a One Night Stand

Promises

"So? Tell me! I want to know everything," Lisa said anxiously as she and Lily exited the classroom. Lily wondered whether she should tell her the truth or not. It would be great to confide in someone, to ask for advice, to have at least a bit of the whole situation off her shoulders. Lisa was her friend and she knew that she would never talk. But Lily feared what Lisa would actually think of her. Getting drunk and sleeping with James Potter...she would think of Lily as nothing more than a slut or something like that. No, Lily decided, she would keep it to herself, and nobody would ever find out. Except for Black and his friends, she thought resentfully.

"Well, it all started yesterday. I wasn't drunk entirely, but I was a bit off the spot and that made me talk to Potter."

Lisa gave her an odd look and Lily mentally smacked herself. "James. I mean James," she corrected herself and her cheeks turned pink. "I will have to get used to it. Okay, back to the point. We talked and I found out that he's not as much of a moron as I always thought he was. He was funny and nice. I had a good time with him, and after a conversation that lasted a few hours he just took me into his arms and kissed me." Lisa smiled excitedly, with a triumphant glint in her eyes, since she always hoped for they would get together at one point or another.

"That is so romantic."

"Yes, well, then I pulled away and gave him a questioning look. He apologised, but I silenced him with another kiss. That's how it happened." Lily was amazed at her ability of lying. She was always bad at it. Whenever she tried, she turned red and was all nervous and fidgety. It was too easy for the other person to find out she was not being honest. However, this time she was sure Lisa bought it entirely.

"Oh my goodness, Lily! That is so cool! Romantic and pretty, I'm so happy for you. It's like something from some love story. Two people that hated each other, but in the end, found their never ending love for each other. How pretty."

Yes, Lily though bitterly, pretty. The reality was much harsher, though. It actually would be very nice if it had happened this way, but it hadn't.

"Oi, James! You know what class we have next?" Sirius grinned as he sat right across from James in the Great Hall. "Defence against the Dark Arts with you know who? You guessed right if you guessed your new girlfriend." James frowned at him and took a large bite of his chicken. He chewed on it, still glaring at Sirius, not speaking a word. Sirius's face was still fixed into a grin, but that was fading more and more every second. "You will never stop being angry, will you? You know, if you tried to have a little fun and wouldn't sulk all the time, the whole thing would be much more pleasant."

James swallowed his chicken and slammed down his fork and knife with a thud.

"Fun? You can do you know what with your fun. I am no longer making a fool out of myself. I am done. I am no longer pretending to be her boyfriend; I don't care if you spill it out to everyone. Do as you please, I really don't give a shit anymore!" he hissed through clenched teeth and rose up from his seat. "I am now going after her and I'll tell her that it's over. That I don't care what she wants because I don't. You can come and look if you want." Without waiting for a response, he turned to leave the Great Hall and Sirius watched him for a second and then stood up and followed him.

James made his way through the crowded corridors and pushed past the gossiping students. Some whispered and pointed at him as he past them, he knew why and he had to restrain himself from going over and hexing them. Peeves appeared in front of him out of nowhere, carrying a handful of blood red roses. He laughed loudly and threw them at James. He dodged one, but the second one hit him straight in the face, the sharp thorn scratching his cheek.

"Potty luuuurves Evans, but she haaaaates him. He must've given her a love potion, didn't you, Potter? You always wanted the little redhead... Professor Slughorn will be very disappointed and angry when he finds out you poisoned one of his favourite students." He laughed again, throwing more roses at him.

"Shut up!" James shouted, fastening his step, trying to get away from the annoying ghost, but Peeves probably enjoyed himself too much to give up. He followed him, singing love songs with rude words and themes. First years in the corridor looked up at him, red in the face and James was soon redder than them. He broke into a run and kept on running until Peeves' stupid singing faded away. He turned his head to look, but luckily, the corridor was empty. He slowed down, but kept on looking behind him. That's when he felt something hard making contact with his head. His vision became blurry and he fell backwards.

"You!" he heard a soft voice, but couldn't open his eyes to look because his head throbbed with pain. Finally, when the shooting pangs eased into a dull ache, he opened his eyes to find a pair of green ones staring down at him. "Are you okay? I didn't mean to hit you, I just opened the door and... hit you. But it wasn't on purpose, seriously." She spoke fast and James didn't sense everything she was saying because his head still ached. "I know you will know think I did it on purpose since we're both angry at each other, but I really didn't. Please forgive me, I admit that I don't like you, but I realise that that isn't a reason for banging a door against your head."

"Please, be quiet," he said quietly, slightly annoyed. He sat up and looked at her. It was impossible that he could feel even more stupid than he did before. "It's alright. I am still alive, right? So please stop talking so fast."

"Sorry," she said, couldn't help but feeling offended. She was worried about him, she was worried about the guy that got her into this whole mess and he would tell her to be quiet. How nice of him. She stood up, not bothering to help him. "We have Defence against the Dark Arts in a few minutes," she said in a businesslike voice, leaning against the cold wall. The weather outside seemed to go down with her mood because it started raining and the wind howled through the building. "We'll have to pretend for a whole hour, can you imagine?" she said with a suffering voice and rolled her eyes.

James stood up, holding his head in his hands. He screwed up his face in a painful grimace and then fixed his eyes at Lily.

"That's actually what I wanted to talk about. I am no longer playing this game," he said quietly. He watched as her face changed every second. First she looked absolutely shocked, then repulsed.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, her voice quiet, but dangerous. James leaned against the wall too, right next to her.

"I mean that it's over. I am no longer going to pretend. To be honest, I don't care anymore what Sirius does. I'm sorry, but I am not going to make a fool out of myself in front of you and everybody else. That's it, the end," he said solemnly, crossing his arms at his chest, avoiding her eyes. He felt her tense beside him.

"You can't do that," she said after moments of silence.

"Excuse me? I can't? Watch me," James said angrily, straightening up and starting to make his way down the corridor. Lily, however, quickly grabbed him by the shoulder and turned him around to face her.

"No, you really can't do that. I...you...Sirius cannot scream it out into the whole world. What will people think? Teachers? Professor Slughorn? Professor McGonagall? Or Professor Dumbledore? I'm the Head Girl, dammit! You cannot do this to me!" she cried, her voice absolutely helpless. James tried to stay cold as a stone, but he couldn't. Impossible how could this girl mess up his whole personality. "My… my…," she went on exasperatedly, "my whole reputation will be ruined. People will think I'm a slut or something! Teachers won't ever trust me. People look up to me; just like they look up to you...we can't ruin all that! James, I worked for this seven years, don't take it away from me. Please. Please."

James looked away and tried to ignore the fact that she called him 'James' when there was no one around. He winced as she tightened the grip on his shoulder, boring her nails into it. He snatched it away from her and frowned even deeper, if that was possible.

"Will you stop caring about yourself all the time? Have you ever thought about how I feel having to take all this?"

"Think about myself? And what do you do? You think I'm actually happy having to pretend we're a happy couple that got together romantically? You think I'm happy about what I did and about the consequences? No! But I am willing to last only one week, but I need your help. Please don't do this to me. James! I promise I will stop being so harsh."

"I don't care about your stupid promises!" he barked, but the look in her eyes made his expression to soften. He didn't understand why she cared so much about her reputation, but he knew that she really did work hard to get where she was now. He never met a witch that was more ambitious and strong than her and he really didn't want to be the one to ruin it all.

She kept looking at him with pleading eyes and James sighed. He ran a hand through his hair and pulled away from her grip. He avoided her eyes, but somehow, she always found a way to make eye contact with him.

"Fine," he said finally. Lily let out a sigh of relief and closed her eyes with a smile. "I will somehow make it through the week," James muttered to himself. Suddenly, Lily swung her arms around James's neck, hugging him tightly.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" She then took a step back, but before that she kissed James on the cheek. Taken aback by her own actions she felt embarrassed, but that was soon forgotten when the new situation sunk in. James wouldn't betray her and ruin her reputation. It was unbelievable, but Lily felt so thankful.

James stared at her in shock, touching the spot on his cheek where she had kissed him.

"I'm sorry about that; I was just...well, anyway, thank you. I promise that from now on, I will not be such a bitch and we'll play this game until the end outplaying your oh-so-smart friend. What do you say?" she asked, her lips curling into a small but honest smile. James wondered whether this was the right choice, whether he shouldn't just stand his ground and end this. But her smile made him forget that. He would do it for her.

No.

He would do it for what he once felt for her.

"I agree, we'll outplay him," he returned the smile and together they headed down the corridor. Once they entered much more crowded places, James slipped his arm around Lily's waist, pulling her closer. At first, Lily's first reaction was to pull away and slap him, but she realised what was actually happening. She would really have to get used to this.

She held his hand that rested on her waist and smiled at people that cast them unbelieving looks.

"So, why have you stopped calling me Potter?" James asked quietly as he too smiled confidently at everyone else.

"Don't you think it would be a bit weird to call you Potter in front of people?"

"There was no one back there," he said as a matter-of-factly.

"True, but I was...erm...practising," Lily said, her tone a bit nervous than usual.

"Practising? Okay then," James said with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulder, but he secretly smirked to himself.

"I think that my mouth will stay like this forever," Lily muttered after a second, through her big wide smile.

"Well, to tell you the truth, you are a very good actress. I always thought you sucked at lying, but you for sure don't suck in it more than you suck in Quidditch," James chuckled, but groaned when Lily stomped on his foot under their robes.

"There you go, you idiot," she laughed quietly.

"What about your promise?" James asked angrily, limping.

"Oops, sorry," she said, not sounding sorry at all. James glared at her for a moment before pulling out his wand from the pocket of his robe, pointing it to her head and whispering an incantation under his breath. He then smiled, clearly satisfied with himself.

Lily felt weird because the stares of people became more intense and focused upon her and they were all laughing. Were they really that funny? Lily then spotted her reflection in a mirror and gasped. Her face and hair were green, just like her eyes and as if that wasn't enough, it was formed into various animals on top of her head. She looked at James to find him choking with laughter.

"Undo it," she growled, but James just kept laughing.

"I didn't do it," he said innocently. "Oh come on, you match. It looks perfect."

"Fuck you!" she gritted through her teeth. "You promised to stop acting like a brat!"

"Oops, sorry."

"I thought you wanted to finish it," Sirius said as he met James in the hall after the class. Lily went off to the library with Frank Longbottom to study for their new project. James didn't look at Sirius just as Sirius didn't look at him. They just walked toward the common room beside each other.

"I did."

"Well, I never thought Evans could do things like this to you. And it was just an hour ago when you said you will no longer make a fool out of yourself, yet you still jump as Evans orders you," Sirius smirked, the Black side of him coming out onto the surface. James tried to remain calm and ignore the comment.

"I just changed my mind," he shrugged.

"Of course," Sirius snorted ironically. "I saw everything. Next time, if she will cry, will you jump off of your broom?" he asked and James didn't know why he was so angry all of a sudden when it was James that had the right to be angry. "Outplay me? Pfft!"

"What is your damn problem? You got me into this!"

"Nothing, just forget it. It doesn't matter. Anyway, you both were very trustworthy back in Defence. If I didn't know any better, I would think you were deeply in love. Cuddling in the back of the classroom...how romantic."

"If I am not mistaken, it was you who made us to do all this. What is wrong with you anyway?"

"That's none of your business. I also wanted to remind you that there is a full moon tonight. You know what that means. I have to go now. Oh, and by the way," he said, turning around before walking away. "The hair trick was cool." And without any further ado he was gone. James felt completely puzzled by this behaviour. As if it hasn't been his best friend at all. Strange.

Author's Note:

First of all, I'd like to thank you all for your wonderful reviews. They mean so much.

Then I'd like to explain to some people what a beta reader means because many of you didn't know. Well, a beta reader is someone who gets to read your chapter/work before you post it. Beta reader looks through it and correscts mistakes. Grammar, spelling, characterisation, plot, style and other useful things that you might've overlooked while writing the story. Beta readers are very useful and many times great people, that's why I'm very thankful to Amanda a.k.a. Opalfire for helping me with this chapter. Thanks again.

Also, please visit my livejournal. There's a link in my userinfo and it'll be very quick. I have replied to many of you because I didn't want to make this Author's Note too long. The post is public, so you don't have to friend me or be a memeber in order to view it. You can even reply, either anonymously or with your LJ nickname. Please visit the place. I strongly recommend it.

Thank you.

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