Author's Note: Ok, shorter chapter than most but it is the second posting for today. The plot will develop further in later chapters, but not this one.

Chapter 9

By: Almicene Melwen

Updated: September 23, 2004

Damn, she was coy and scarce when she wanted to be. Lily had managed to avoid him for days now despite the meetings that had as Heads, or the classes they shared. Every time James tried to approach her after class one of her friends would appear and whisk her away, apologizing for needing her at that particular moment.

His life had been pretty miserable with the dramatic increase of reporters and much to his chagrin, women at the Quidditch games. He was considering resigning for the good of the team. It was difficult to practice with girls squealing in the stands all trying to get his attention. And as if the girls weren't enough, he had become enemy number one for the guys for 'stealing' all the attention. As if it was his fault! Scowling, he furiously scanned the Marauder's Map again.

Aha! At least one thing was looking up, he spotted the dot of Lily Evans in the Head Common room. Grinning he hurried to his destination, making sure to take less used hallways and passageways, occasionally looking at the map to see if any girls were nearby. Last thing he wanted was to be intercepted so close to his goal.

Reaching the room safely, James breathed a sigh of relief. Looking up at the magnificent portrait of Julius Caesar he straightened his posture automatically. The Roman general drew respect even in his framed image.

"Hail Caesar," James said, reciting the unoriginal password. The extravagantly dressed Roman nodded his head, crowned with a wreath of olive leaves, watching James carefully. Julius held a particularly sharp looking blade in his hand, carved with intricate symbols in the hilt. Latin words were inscribed delicately into the metal itself reading "Ultima Ratio," meaning "Ultimate Sanction." The words seemed fitting to Caesar as his weapon was one of the few things that had not betrayed him in his life.

The portrait swung forward, letting James inside, and quickly swung back to prevent anyone else from going in. He saw her scribbling furiously on what looked like parchment, deep in thought. His heart began to beat faster against his will and his throat dried up. How odd, he thought, why could he face hundreds of people without batting an eye, and just thinking of what to say to the girl in front of him had him in knots.

She spoke before he even took another step forward. "I was wondering when you'd come. Took you long enough." She continued writing, not looking up.

How did she do that?! "How'd you know I was coming here?" James asked, glad that at least his motor skills were working.

She laughed. "I figured you might want to catch me now since you haven't been able to track me all week."

His eyes widened in surprise. Lily turned around, delighting in the delicious surprised look James had. She wouldn't be the one caught off-guard this time. She continued, deciding to alleviate the fear on his face, or make it worse. She grinned. "Did you think I got the Head Girl position accidentally? I know you have some sort of tracking device on everyone. That's the only explanation of how you used to be able to find me whenever you wanted, no matter how I altered my schedule or where I hid around the castle. It would also explain why you and your friends never got caught after the second year."

James' jaw dropped a couple of inches as the redhead got up and sauntered straight up to him. She placed a finger under his jaw, pushing it back up to close his mouth, ignoring her desire to place a kiss on his slack lips. Lily rolled her eyes. "Please, you're not the only clever one around here."

James gave her his grudging respect, but remembered why he'd hunted her down in the first place (or as she had put it, let him find her). He opened his mouth to speak but she stopped him by poking a finger at his chest, pushing him back towards the door.

"Oh no you don't, you big, fat jerk," she hissed, narrowing her eyes, which were turning darker shades of green at the moment. If James wasn't in so much trouble he would have loved to just study the different colors her eyes changed to. He gulped, his courage and confidence lost because of the girl in front of him. "You are going to let me yell at you at the very least for what I've gone through this week. Do you know how many girls have come up and told me they felt sorry for me?"

James shook his head wordlessly. It was one of those times that his Dad has advised him to not say anything and just let the girl rant. He didn't want to make her any madder than she was already.

"I wouldn't be surprised if it was half of girls at Hogwarts! And the other half wanted to know what your lips felt like! The nerve! And why the hell didn't you tell me about how much money you had or that you were such a public figure?!" Lily said, poking him in the chest with each exclamation, throwing her hand back after each push. And James was getting this strange desire to just grab her and kiss her with each passing second. But he didn't know how well she'd take that considering one little peck had caused her this much harassment.

"It's all your fault you stupid moron," Lily said, glaring at James, who was at this time backed against the wall. He was sure he'd have bruises on his chest tomorrow.

He tried defending himself. "How's it MY fault?!" he protested. "You're the one that kissed me!" James got the sense that Lily wasn't entirely mad at him as she looked at him calculatingly, as if trying to decide what he was thinking and feeling.

Lily gasped. How dare he insinuate it was her fault, any thoughts of grabbing him and kissing him quickly faded! "It was your fault you dummy!" Her voice grew louder, as her senses were becoming pleasantly overwhelemed with James – the way he smelled, and how comfortable his chest was looking at this particular moment.

"It's not my fault! Why the bloody hell did you kiss me anyways?!" he pressed, wanting to know the answer to the question that had plagued him ever since.

"It is your fault!" Lily insisted, the next part slipping out, much to her horror. "You had to look so damn kissable!" She stopped advancing on him, covering her mouth with her hand. James, looked shocked as well, but recovered quickly.

She blushed madly as James' lip twitched upwards and he smirked. "I didn't mean-" Lily began to stutter out an excuse, desperate to cover up her mistake.

But by the way he was smirking it didn't look like it was going to be possible.

"Yes you did," he said arrogantly, his hazel eyes shining brightly. This day was definitely looking up. He reached for Lily, quickly pulling her to him, enjoying the feel of her in his arms. Leaning down, he made to kiss her but she pushed him back.

"No," she said softly. "You can't play with my feelings James." Her common sense kicked in and Lily wiggled out his grasp, slightly annoyed with his arrogance. "You should have told me everything that I had to find out from a bloody article."

She shoved a copy of Supra at him, swiftly evading him, and left the room without another word. James groaned, and unfolded the copy of the magazine. He thought Lily had been writing, but she had circled the parts about him in the article.

He sighed, seeing just a few sentences. "A few of the witches James Potter has been seen with are all from highly established pureblood families . . .and with rumored ties to Godric Gryffindor, no wonder the handsome wizard will most likely settle with a pureblood witch."

Slumping against the cold stone wall of the Head Common room, James pulled his knees to his chest, staring at his expensive new dress shoes. The small gold buckles at the edges of the black pair shined at him. What was it all for anyways? So what if he had money? Or was a Pureblood? He'd give it up in a heartbeat for just a normal life - one where he was free to pursue Lily and not to live up to someone else's expectations or being under constant scrutiny. One thing he thanked Witches Weekly for was the way they portrayed him as rejecting Lily. That would keep any Voldemort supporters away from hurting her or her family. The humiliation was enough. If they ever thought he was mixing his bloodline, threatening the Old magic, they would eliminate her.

He had experience enough to know, as he watched Sirius go through the pain of losing his first girlfriend for being a muggle-born witch. No wonder he despised his family so much. Despite being deep in thought, James heard a slight shuffle. Immediately leaping to his feet, he reached for his wand.

A fuzzy body rubbed around his ankles and James nearly jumped. Looking down he saw his fickle little kitten, Demmez. Sighing in relief. "Nearly gave me a heart attack darling."

He got an apologetic look in response. "Meoooow."

James slid back to his spot, scooping up the kitten in his arms, wondering how Demmez had known exactly when to show up. Scratching her ears and back absently he smiled at her. "You're such a beauty," he said. Demmez purred in response, jumping onto his shoulder and nuzzling his neck, showering as much affection on him as possible.

Pretending she could understand him, James spoke. "Why can't they leave me alone? Why can't they just leave Lily out of this?" he asked Demmez, as he ruffled his hair. The kitten swiped at his hand with her paw, claws retracted.

"Hey, what was that for?" James demanded, annoyed that the cat was preventing his method of calming himself. Demmez jumped back onto his lap instead, nudging his hand with her head. Oh, James thought, understanding. He chucked. "You're a spoiled little thing, always wanting me to pet you." He frowned again. "I was this close," James indicated a small space in between his thumb and forefinger, "to kissing her. And I mean really kissing her. Now I know she likes me at least. One less problem and ten more to go with it." The kitten looked up at him, cocking its head to the side.

"Meow?"

James continued. "I despise being Pureblooded sometimes, and having so much money. It's caused so many problems including to the muggle-borns I get close to. I don't want to put Lily in any danger. I couldn't forgive myself if something happened to her." Some sacrifices were necessary and he had a choice in that – to be selfish and endanger Lily with a relationship or to let her go and away from the dangers that he would bring her. Life sucked.

Sensing his feelings Demmez settled into James' hands, nuzzling him with her small orange body.

"At least I have you eh?" James joked, sorely depressed.

The kitten purred in affirmation.