Disclaimer: All the characters that you recognize belong to J. K. Rowling. The plot of this story was greatly inspired by the movie, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.
Author's Note: Thanks to Georgie Gryffindor, DanRadLuver01, lizziee, siriusforeva, SilenceIsLoud, julies07, -lily-potter-wannabe-, Juicilyn, x LiL jEsSi x, Miss Myrtle360, Amanda, x0x-Mystique-x0x, laurahonest, Ce, ellieo, beachbabe12, Solo-gurl, oct24rose, holyheartbreak, Smiles, famousindafuture, and annluthien for reviewing!
"James, its seven o'clock in the morning, why on earth are you so bloody happy?" Remus asked, groaning as he re-tied his tie for the third time that morning.
"I still can't believe she asked me out last night," he answered, a large grin appearing on his face.
"Get over it already," Sirius complained, "I really don't want to hear you go on and on about her again."
"Yeah, I think I'm all worn out from hearing the story five times last night," Peter added, emphasizing the "five."
"I'm sorry, but I don't think you guys realize just how incredible this is. I mean, Lily Evans, the girl that I've wanted for the past two years, the only girl that ever said no to me, finally realizes that she likes me. And not only are we dating now, but she's the one that asked me out," James said, revisiting last night in his mind.
"And I'm sure the fact that if you manage to get her to fall in love with you in ten days time then you win the bet and Sirius pays you fifty galleons, aids in why your so happy," Peter said, reminding everyone of the bet that was made on the train ride into Hogwarts.
"That's right, I forgot about that," James remarked, suddenly feeling uneasy about the bet. Yes, somehow he did manage to get Lily to like him, but love him was a different story. How was he supposed to get her to fall in love with him? Better yet, why on earth did he agree to that bet?
To make someone fall in love in ten days was impossible, right? Love takes time. Love takes getting to know someone and truly caring about them. Love can't be rushed into ten days.
Then again, Lily did suddenly show interest in him, even though he thought that she detested him. Maybe he could pull this off, maybe he could get Lily to fall in love with him in ten days time. After all, she must feel some sort of emotion toward him; otherwise she wouldn't have asked him out in the first place. Right?
"That's right, our wager is officially on the line as of eleven hours ago," Sirius said with a smirk.
"Yup," James said, giving the impression that he was going to win the bet, hands down.
"There's no bloody way she'll be in love with you in ten days, mate," Sirius told his best friend.
"She will be."
"What makes you think that? Other than yesterday, you haven't had a decent conversation with her, since, well, ever. And from you said, both of yesterday's conversations were extremely short," he remarked.
"But she started both conversations, not me."
"So?"
"So, that obviously means she's trying to be with me and likes me. Now, all I have to do is spend some time with her, show her the Potter charm, and she'll be head over heels in love," James said, sounding just as cocky as he felt.
"Aren't you forgetting something?" Remus asked James, a questionable look on his face.
"What's that?"
"She's already resisted the Potter charm, for the past two years she's been resisting it," Remus answered.
---
"Is it a problem that I've only been dating the guy for eleven hours and already want out of the relationship?" Lily asked Kelsey and Sam as the three girls sat in the Great Hall eating breakfast.
"Lils, haven't you wanted out of the relationship before either of you were in it?" Sam joked.
"Good point," Lily said, choking up a small giggle with her response.
"So, what's the Losing James Day 1 idea?" Kelsey asked.
Lily and Sam both stared at her before they simultaneously asked, "The what?"
"The Losing James Day 1 idea," she repeated. She then looked across the table at both of them and explained, "If you're going to lose James Potter in less than ten days, you need a plan. You need to drive him away, so what are you going to do today to drive him away?"
"Oh, just the typical annoying girlfriend bit, you know, being cuddly and obnoxious," she answered.
"That's it? That's all you've come up with?" Kelsey asked.
"Yes," she replied.
"Lils, come on, any girl could be like that. You need something better; you need something that will really drive him away," Kelsey responded.
"Like what?"
"I don't know, but those things won't work. Those things take weeks to get rid of a guy, not less than ten days."
"Well, I'm not sure what to do, I mean, we've got classes all day long, so it's not like I'm even going to see him very often," Lily informed her friend.
"Okay, you've got a point, but come on, we've got to think of something," Kelsey stated.
"Guys, shut it, the Marauders just walked in," Sam urgently said. With her words, all three girls stopped talking at once. They couldn't let any of the Marauders hear their plan. It would ruin everything.
Lily looked over at the Marauders and spotted James at once. Despite his attitude and unfortunate personality, Lily couldn't help but admit that he was fairly attractive, the only plus side of dating him. His robe hung loosely around his frame, since it wasn't tied shut, she could see his shirt and tie underneath it. She noticed that today, unlike yesterday, he looked very sharp. Nothing about him was out of place, well except his hair, but there was no way he'd ever be able to tame that.
To her surprise, he looked straight at her and the held her eye for a moment. Fighting her natural urge to glare at him, she did something almost foreign. She smiled at him. It wasn't an overbearing smile, but a simple smile, a simple smile that showed her interest him, or at least, her pretend interest him. He smiled back at her, making Lily's cheeks turn a light shade of pink.
Lily then turned away from him and back toward her friends. She could do this. Yes, she could definitely do this. She could easily date James Potter for a week. After all, that little exchange between the two of them wasn't so bad, it was actually pretty easy. She could be nice to James Potter; she could pretend to date him with ease.
She felt her stomach lurch a bit and felt her smile fade into a frown. What was she thinking? She couldn't do this. What happened just then, that was from all the way across the Great Hall. What just happened, required no talking. What just happened, was obviously easy. But could she actually talk to James without exploding and yelling at him? Could she pull this off?
---
"Now class, today we are going to do something a little out of the ordinary," Professor Slughorn announced. "Instead of working in the classroom, I've got an assignment outside of the classroom that I want you to do."
Every student in the class looked around, unsure of if this was a good or a bad thing. On the bright side of things, they wouldn't have to be stuck in the class room, especially on this beautiful late September day. On the other side though, what was he going to make them do?
"Today, we're going to use our knowledge outside of class and I want you all to prepare the assignment on your own. The actually doing of the experiment, however, will be done in class tomorrow," Slughorn began, "I want you all the research the potion for curing burns. Now, there are hundreds out there, so it's up to you to find out the best one. It needs to be powerful, yet cannot exceed the brewing time our class. In other words, if you're not finished brewing by the end of class tomorrow, you will not get a decent grade on this assignment. And, you may not start the brewing of the potion before eight o'clock tomorrow morning."
The entire class looked blankly at their professor. Was he serious? Were they really supposed to spend hours in the library researching an assignment?
"Also, just to let you know, after you do the experiment for tomorrow, your next homework assignment will be to write a two page paper on this, so take good notes will doing your research," Slughorn informed them.
With that said, the entire class let out a groan. Seventh year potions this year was not going to be fun. This year already, they had four different paper assignments due, not to mention ridiculously difficult potions to brew.
"Cheer up," Slughorn told them, a smile spreading over his face. "I do have some good news; you can work in partners for this one."
Lily and Kelsey, who had been sharing a table, glanced at each other. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad.
"Partners of my choosing that it," Slughorn added.
Another class-wide groan sounded from the mixture of Slytherins and Gryffindors. Slughorn only chuckled at the response from his students before reading off a list of names, all randomly chosen with the flick of a wand.
As he read of names, Lily looked anxiously around the room. Kelsey and Sam had both already been paired, which took her two best friends away from her. Tracey, who Lily had gotten to know fairly well over the last few years and grew to like, was paired with Snape, and Lily shot her a look of sympathy from across the room.
"Miss Evans and Mister Potter," Slughorn read aloud.
Lily felt her entire body stiffen. Did she hear him correctly? Was she working with James Potter on this assignment? Was she going to have to spend quality time with him?
She glanced over at James. He was sitting with Sirius today and was whispering something to him. His back was facing Lily, which she was grateful for. Maybe this meant that she had heard Slughorn wrong.
To her luck, James suddenly repositioned himself in the chair and caught her eye once again. He sent a smile her way. He then turned back toward his desk and took out a piece of parchment and a quill and scribbled a message onto it. An instant later, he tapped his wand to the note and it disappeared. Lily looked down at her own desk and noticed that it reappeared before her very eyes. Hesitantly, she opened it up and looked down at what he wrote:
Lily,
What do you say we blow off this assignment for a couple hours and head back to the common room? And before you protest about getting our work done, everybody will be in the library now, which means that everyone will be fighting over the potions books. So, we'd really just be wasting our time by waiting for everyone to finish up with them.
-James
Lily sighed, but realized that he did have a legitimate point. Going to the library now would be as like jumping off of a twenty story building and landing gracefully on the sidewalk: impossible.
She took out a piece of her parchment and wrote:
James,
Sounds fine. I'll meet you in the common room.
-Lily
As she sent the letter on its way, she let out a small sigh. How was she going to do this? How was she going to stand being with James Potter for an extended amount of time? How was she going to repel him? How was she going to act toward him?
She didn't have a clue as to how to answer her own questions, something that she didn't like at all. She liked to know everything that was going to happen at all times. She hated surprises, hating not being in control of her every move, and hated the fact that now was a time that she couldn't control things because she didn't know the answers.
Snapping Lily out of her own thoughts, she heard the voice of Slughorn say, "Alright then that's everyone… Get working, you're dismissed for the day."
With that said, everyone piled out of the classroom. Lily's peers all went to their respected partners, trying to decipher a good time to meet about the project. Lily looked around and noticed that both Kelsey and Sam were gone, probably already off to the library to work. To her surprise, she saw James coming toward her, a smile on his face.
"Morning Lily," he said.
"Good morning," she replied, and then asked, "So, you want to head up to the common room?"
"Actually, I was just thinking about it, and the Great Hall still has food out, so, if you're still hungry we could go there."
"Sure," she replied. She wasn't hungry, not the slightest bit. However, the Great Hall was sure to have some kids in it. Anyone with a morning sleep in would be there now, whereas the common room had more of a chance of being empty.
---
Lily looked at him in disbelief, wondering how anyone could devour that much food in so little time. In less than ten minutes, James had eaten three large pancakes and was now half way through his fourth. She, herself, opted for her second cup of coffee of the day. And she knew she was going to need it too. Only caffeine would cure her predicted headache from being with James.
"Are you not hungry?" he asked, looking up and seeing the unpleasant look upon her face.
"No, I already ate," she responded, forcing a smile.
"So, Lily, what's new in life?" he asked her as he poured himself a glass of orange juice.
"Not too much," she answered. It was one of those awkward, not sure what to say responses. "You?"
"Same," he answered, fulfilling the rest of the awkward conversation.
They sat in silence for a moment, each drinking their juice and coffee. After a couple minutes, James finally stared at her and asked, "Why did you say yes?"
"Yes to what?"
"Yes to me asking you out," he answered.
"I asked you, remember," she stated.
"Well, yes, but what changed your mind? I mean, one day you hate me, the next you ask me out," he said, briefly summarizing the facts.
She felt a pain in her stomach as she replied, "I don't know."
He studied her for a moment before saying, "You're lying."
"Excuse me?" she asked, giving him a doubtful look.
"I said, you're lying."
"No I'm not."
"Yes you are," he stated before taking another gulp of his orange juice.
"No, I'm not," she repeated, feeling her cheeks burn as she spoke.
"Yes, you are," he said once more. He took a final sip of his drink before smiling at her and standing up to leave.
She got to her feet as well, and protesting once more, she said, "I'm not lying."
He sighed before turning to face her and saying, "You looked down as you spoke."
"So?" she asked, impatiently walking with him back to the common room.
"When people lie, they look down."
"That's stupid," she remarked.
"It's true. That's one of the things they teach you at auror school, how to lie without it being so obvious," James informed her.
"How do you know that?" she asked.
"My dad told me," he answered.
"Is he an auror?"
"Yeah," James answered.
"Do you want to be one too?"
"I don't know," he answered. "It's dangerous, especially nowadays."
"When have you been known not to do something dangerous?" she asked in a joking voice.
They reached the portrait hole and he muttered the password before saying, "There's a difference between risking my life and pulling a stupid prank."
She stared at him for a moment before they both turned and went inside the common room. Needless to say, Lily was shocked by his words. This was not the answer she had expected from him. She had expected him to say something dumb, like, "Danger's my middle name." That was something very dumb, guy like. What James had said, however, seemed honest and sincere.
James plopped down onto a warm, plush chair by the fireplace and smiled at Lily as she sat across from him. He decided that he could genuinely get used to the view of Lily across from him, it was nice, very nice.
"So, so you're father is an auror, what's your mother do?" she asked, trying to make some conversation.
"She works at a dress shop in Diagon Alley," he answered and then added, "It's not really much, just something to keep her busy. She told me that when I was young and at home, I kept her busy all day long, but now that I'm here, she gets bored and can't stand to be at home all day long alone."
"That's a reasonable idea," Lily replied, and then let out a small smile. It wasn't directed toward James, it was more of time filling smile. A smile that comes when the conversation starts to die down.
"What about your folks?" James asked.
"My dad's a muggle police man, and my mum is a preschool teacher," Lily answered.
"What are those?" James asked.
"Their jobs."
"Well, yes I figured that. But Lils, a police man and a preschool teacher mean nothing to me. I don't know a lot about muggle terms," he earnestly answered.
"Well, for muggles, there is school starting at age four. When you're four years old, you go to preschool, and it's really more for developing social skills than anything else. In preschool, there are naps and you color and do arts and crafts," Lily answered.
"And a police man?"
"It's sort of like an auror. If someone is murdered or if something is stolen, the police will investigate it and get the bad guys," she replied.
"How do they do that?" James asked.
Lily looked at him as if he were from another planet, "what do you mean?"
"How do they get the bad guys, as you so greatly put it," he replied. Seeing the expression on her face, he added, "You know, without magic."
"Oh, well, I don't know," she said, "they just do…My mum doesn't like to hear about my father's work, so I don't really know all the inside details of it."
"Why doesn't she like to hear about it?"
"He was shot in the leg when I was six, and I don't remember it, but mum said that the doctor's were sure if he would live, it was that bad. Since then, my mum hasn't liked his profession very much, she even asked him to quit his job, but he's too stubborn to do that," Lily told him. She went on to inform James of her parents relationship together as a whole, telling him secrets that even her best friends didn't know about.
"I know that they're not happy together, I can see it every time I'm home. They argue and bicker about everything. My mum says that my dad's a lazy slob and then he complains that all she does is nag him about stupid things," she said. "I'm scared about them…I know that they don't want to be together any longer, but they won't separate because of my sister and me, not to mention it would be scandalous, and if there's one thing that they can agree on, it's that they don't want people talking bad things about them."
James intently listened as Lily spilled her heart to him. Not once did he look away from her eyes or let his mind wander, which was one of the reasons why Lily found it so easy to confide in him, a quality that she later learned to adore about him.
Lily caught her breath for a moment and realized exactly what she was doing. She was telling James Potter her family's problems. She mentally slapped herself, why was she doing this? Why did she find it necessary to tell James information that not even Sam and Kelsey knew about?
She looked him square in the eye before turning a deep shade of red and refocusing her attention on her hands, which were folded in her lap. "I'm sorry, I was rambling on and on about stuff that I know you really don't want to listen to."
"No, its fine," he answered, and then jokingly added "It's nice to know that I'm not the only one with a dysfunctional family."
She smiled, but her blush didn't fade.
"My mother, well, she is one of a kind," he said with a smile.
"How so?"
"Well, I told you that she didn't start working at that shop down in Diagon Alley until I left for school, well, although that is completely true, there's more to it. You see, my mum is probably the most neurotic woman I've ever met," he told her, flashing her his infamous smile.
She smiled back at him and repositioned herself in the chair so that she wasn't slumped back anymore, but rather leaning forward and anticipating what he would say next.
"Until I was nine, she wouldn't let me play Quidditch."
"It can be dangerous."
"In the backyard with my dad," he added.
"That's not too bad."
"She wouldn't let me go anywhere without her being there as well, she didn't trust any other adult with me other than herself. We've got a small stream that passes through our yard, and she wouldn't let me play near it."
"You could've fallen in."
"It was only two feet deep."
"Ouch, that's brutal," Lily said.
"Tell me about it," he replied with a smile.
"I still think I beat you when it comes to messed up families," she sweetly told him.
"She put up a muggle alarm system around the house."
"I haven't even started to tell you about Petunia."
"Who's Petunia?"
"My sister."
"Older or younger?"
"Older, by two years."
"Okay, shoot, but I'm positive that my mum is stranger than anyone else in the world," he stated.
"First of all, Petunia hates anything that has to do with magic, including me. When I came home for Christmas when we were in first year, I showed her a chocolate frog and she screamed bloody murder, ran up to the bathroom and locked herself in there for three hours. She wouldn't come out until my mum promised her that I was up in my room and all the magic stuff was up there with me. After that, she wouldn't come near for nearly four days…In third year, I told her I'd learned a really cool spell that turns someone pink for the day and she was so paranoid that she spent four days at her best friends' house," Lily told him.
"Okay, that's a bit sad," James confessed.
"Oh, it gets better," she replied with a smile. "Not only is she deathly afraid of magic, but she's also just really weird in general. She spies on the neighbors all the time, she even bought a small telescope so that she can see what they're up to. She won't admit it though; she claims that she wouldn't spy on anyone in a million years. Personally, I think that she's checking to make sure that they aren't secretly witches too."
"That is weird; I'll give you that, but come on, my mother. I mean, I'm already afraid for whoever my future wife may be. Having my mother as a mother-in-law, it scares me just thinking about it," he told her.
From there on they continued swapping stories about their families and their own lives away from Hogwarts. In the end, Lily agreed that James's family was much more dysfunctional than her own, but only because James informed her that his mother once took him to the emergency room because she thought he might have swallowed a bug.
To both of their surprises, they each found it very easy to talk with each other. Lily felt that she could have told James anything, as if her were her oldest friend rather than her boyfriend of less than one day. For James, this conversation was everything and more than what he had pictured in his mind over and over again fro the past two years. She went up and beyond his wildest dreams of her; she was more than he ever imagined her to be.
It wasn't until James casually glanced at his watch did he realize the time, "Holy shit, Lils, it's nearly 10:50."
"What?" she snapped, jumping to her feet and running over toward him, grasping his wrist in her hand to get a better look at the watch.
"McGonagall is going to kill us," he stated.
"Shit," Lily swore aloud. Luckily for them, their Potions class was supposed to be a double block, meaning that it went until 10:00, and Transfiguration was to start at 10:05. If Potions hadn't been a double block, though, they would have missed two classes rather than just one.
"So, class should be getting out in fifteen minutes," he dumbly said.
"Yeah, and then we've got Charms," she added.
"So, you want to walk down there early? That way we'll make a good impression on Flitwick, to make up for this impression on McGonagall."
She smiled at him and wondered how his mind worked.
---
"So, you didn't show up to Transfiguration this morning, how come?" Kelsey asked as the three girls took there seats in the Great Hall for dinner.
"Yeah, talk about very un-Lily-like," Sam added.
Lily blushed for a moment before answering, "I was with James."
Both of her friends sent surprised looks her way, and Sam commented, "James, since when is it just James? I mean since practically the first day of school he's been "Potter" or at the very least "James Potter", but never has the actual name James left your lips."
"He's actually not that bad," Lily said, although with that comment it wasn't clear whether she was defending her calling him James or digging herself into an even deeper ditch.
"Not that bad?" Kelsey asked, shock locked into her eyes.
"He's nice," Lily said, and then added, "He's got this manner about him that makes him very easy to talk to. And, well, he can actually be kind of funny sometimes too."
"Lils, did you just hear what you just said?" Kelsey asked, a bit outraged at her friend.
"I know, I know, but once you spend some time with him, he's not all bad," Lily protested.
"Not that bad? This is the guy that put glue in your hair in fifth year just to get your attention. This is the guy whose hobby is making out with girls and then dumping them the next day. James Potter is the type of guy that all your life you've been trying to get rid of. He's selfish, arrogant, cocky, and basically thinks that everyone should worship the ground he walks on!" Sam exclaimed.
"I know, I know," Lily said in frustration. "And all I'm saying is that he can be kind of sweet."
"Lils, sweetie," Kelsey sympathetically said, "that's all an act, and you and I both know it. He's the type of guy that will butter up to you at first, just to get what he wants and the next day he'll throw you out like yesterday's news."
"No," Lily began.
"Do you remember Sarah Sweeny?" Sam asked. "He swept her off her feet; I remember her gushing her heart out about how sweet he was to her and how kind he was and so on. After a week of dating her, he got bored and dumped her… Do you really want to be around a guy like that?"
"No, you're right," Lily said, sighing as she spoke. She hated that her friends were right, she hated that they reminded her of exactly why she had despised him for the past six years. Most of all though, she hated herself for forgetting about that when she was with James. She hated the fact that he had the ability to make her forget all her standards and all her beliefs against him, and that was all in a matter of hours.
"Okay, well, now that you're back into the sane part of yourself again, what'd you do to bug the fuck out of him?" Kelsey asked with a smile.
"I, I um, well, I was..."
"Lily Marie Evans, please tell us that you did something to drive him away," Sam complained.
"Ah, I know, I'm an awful person. I spent nearly three hours with the guy and didn't do anything. My God, I wasn't even being clingy," Lily admitted.
"Three hours?"
"Yeah," she answered, "Three hours of just talking and hanging out."
"Wait, you didn't even do that project for Slughorn?" Sam questioned.
"No, we're meeting in half an hour at the library," she answered, her face lighting up as she spoke. "That's it! Okay, so this morning was a total blow as far as the plan goes, but tonight, tonight I'll make him dread the day he ever showed interest in me."
---
James was already in the library when Lily arrived. She watched as he opened up a large, brown book and skimmed the index, looking for the potion that would benefit their assignment. In front of him, there were five books stacked in a pile, each one containing several potions needed to cure burns.
"Hi," she brightly said as she took a seat next to him.
"Hey," he responded, smiling at her as she took a seat. He noticed that as she scooted herself and the chair closer to the table, she also came closer to him. That small action, whether intentional or not, made his heart skip a beat. Yes, he'd been with plenty of girls in his life, but none of them had ever made him feel this way before, especially with such small actions.
"Sorry I'm a little late," she said.
"Oh, no, it's fine…I found some books, you can go through them and if one looks useful, jot it down or something," he replied.
She did as she was told and reached in front of James to grab a thin, yet very tall book titled, "Modern Potions Dealing with Common Problems." Judging by the title, she highly doubted that the type of potion that they needed would be in it, but she opened to the index anyways. Although burns could be a common problem, this type of book dealt with simple, fast solutions. These were the type of potions that would work, but not for a long period of time, or would work, but not as effectively as another potion.
She skimmed the materials needed to make the potion and the time it would take and then quickly shut the book tightly. Her judgment on how the book's potions would be, was entirely correct. The potion that she found was not only a poor quality potion, but she would be embarrassed to even suggest such a minor, simple potion to be performed by seventh year students.
Lily glanced over at James and noticed that he was concentrating hard on one potion; she leaned slightly toward him and tried to glance at the words on the pages. "So, did you find something?"
"Yeah, I think so," he answered, turning toward her and smiling.
"Let me see," she said, pulling the book closer to her. She read the material closely, it appeared to be acceptable, and so she began to read the ingredients needed. After reading about how to chop of the gazu-weed, she noticed one minor detail that James must have skipped over. "This has to set for three weeks before you can add the final two ingredients."
"What?" he asked.
She pushed the book back toward him and pointed to her observation.
"Fuck," he muttered.
Seeing this as her chance to annoy him, she put one hand on his shoulder, and leaned even closer toward him. "Ah, James, sweetie, its okay. We all make mistakes."
He blinked his eyes tightly and asked, "Um, what did you say?"
"We all make mistakes," she offered.
"No, before that."
"Sweetie?"
"Yeah, that's the one," he said, his eyes widening.
"What's wrong with sweetie? Don't you like it?" she asked, turning her head to look up at him.
"Well, its fine, but, you do know that we haven't even been dating for twenty-four hours yet," he commented.
"So?"
"It's just that, you know, people generally wait a little bit before calling each other names other than their first names," he replied.
"Are you calling me weird?" she asked, trying her best to sound shocked and truly hurt.
"What? No, not at all; I never said anything like that," he defensively said.
"Do you not like the name sweetie?"
"No, its fine," he said, "I just think that maybe it might be a better idea if you called me James, for now anyways."
She forced a look of confusion onto her face, her forehead scrunched up tightly, as if she wasn't sure whether to cry or to be angry. "I can't believe it…This is just like George Kane all over again." With that said, she cupped her hand to her lips and acted as if she were trying to fight back tears.
"Who's George Kane?" he gently questioned.
"Oh, just a guy, an ex-boyfriend of mine actually…You know, maybe you guys should meet sometime, he's exactly like you," she said, changing her tone of voice to sound bitter.
"How's he like me?" James asked, trying not to upset her.
"Oh, he didn't like names either. I called him muffin one day, and the next day he dumped me," she said. Her hands now flew up to her eyes, trying to hold back tears.
"Wait, Lily, wait, don't cry," he pleaded, "I love the little name that you called me…I could really get used to being called…sweetie."
"Really?" she asked, popping her head up and getting an excited look in her eyes.
"Of course."
"Oh good, sweetie," she said, smiling at him.
The truth, however, was that there was no George Kane. Never in her life had Lily ever used pet names on any guy that she dated. She found them to be annoying and childish. People were given a name for a reason, she reckoned, and therefore should be called by that said name.
"James, sweetie, I can just tell, this is going to be the most fantastic relationship ever," she informed him, grasping his hands in her own as she spoke.
"Yeah," was all he could muster up to say.
"Today, at dinner I was thinking about you," she suddenly said.
"Good thoughts, I hope," he joked.
"Oh, they were amazing," she replied, moving her hand onto his thigh and running her fingers up the length of it. As she neared the top of his leg, she paused and gave him a tight squeeze. "You know, I really don't what some of the other girls are saying. Size really doesn't matter."
He nearly choked on air as the words left Lily's lips. Did he hear her right? "Excuse me?"
She turned to face him and smiled before saying, "I think you know what I mean."
"I really hope I don't."
"James, sweetie, I know you're probably embarrassed because I know about your teeny wee-" He instantly covered her mouth, preventing her from completing her sentence. He could feel the heat rising to his cheeks and was still in denial about her actually bringing up this conversation.
"James," she said once he removed his hand from her lips.
"Lily, I don't care what you've heard, it's not true," he said, trying to regain his dignity.
"James, you don't have to lie to me. I already told you, size doesn't matter."
"I don't care," he said, the tone of his voice showed the franticness that he felt, but the volume remained a whisper. "I don't care that you don't mind that sort of thing. But I'm saying, what you heard isn't true."
"Okay, fine, no need to freak out," she said, rolling her eyes as she repositioned herself to fully face the table in front of her.
"I'm not freaking out," he snapped.
"You sound like you are," she remarked.
"I'm not," he said again.
"Fine," she replied, rolling her eyes again.
James was still shocked at how Lily had acted by the end of their time in the library together. Not only had she named him "sweetie" and made reference to certain parts of him that he wasn't comfortable talking about with her, but she also continued to be clingy to him all night long. It even came to a point where she was leaning on him so much that he couldn't read the Potions book because her hair was in the way. And this was all on their first real day of being a couple! He couldn't even imagine what was soon to come.
What shocked him the most; however, was how different Lily was from when he talked with her in the morning. Earlier that day, she was amazing. She was the type of person that he could spend all day with, just talking. She was interesting, funny, and admirable. She showed attention to every word he spoke, every story he told. She made him feel as if he could spend every hour of every day with her. Even the way she spoke to him made him feel good inside. Her cute, little laugh during the humorous parts of his stories made him smile. The way she acted excited when he was leading up to the "good part" of his tales, made his heart skip a beat. This was the Lily Evans that he dreamed about at night. This was the girl that he had been madly in love with for the past two years.
The Lily Evans that he was with just recently, however, was the complete opposite. It was as if she did a 180 degree turn from her usual self. She wasn't full of spark and sweetness; instead, she showed her annoying, irritating, and downright rude side of herself. James had always known that she was outspoken, but the outrageous conversations that they shared in the library, well, they crossed the line from outspoken to discourteous. Needless to say, this was one side of Lily Evans that he could truly do without. He could only hope that the next few days would get better…
Author's Note 2: Hey guys, I hope you all liked chapter 5! I'm so sorry that it took me this long to update, but I hope you'll forgive me because this is the longest chapter I've ever written in my entire life! Well, please review!