Lusting the Loathed

Chapter Seven - Another Night

Chapter Song: Madonna - Get Together

The night was fun. More fun that Lily had expected it to be, which was good. They got back at around ten, which was perfect since Lily was tired and they had classes the next day.

All through out the following week, Lily avoided James as best as she could. If there were meetings between the Head Students, she would only discuss current events at school and nothing else. Same with Prefect meetings.

It was awkward, confusing, and hard, but there wasn't much Lily could do. She still had mixed feelings about James, but she decided to keep them buried and only concentrate on the work that they had to do.

Fortunately, the first Quidditch game of the year was set to be on Friday. It was Gryffindor versus Slytherin and the whole Gryffindor Quidditch Team had their minds set on winning the game, especially James. It also helped him avoid Lily, as well, as his mind was pretty much focused on Quidditch the whole week. Unfortunately, the weather was being rather bipolar that week. One day, it'd hail like there was absolutely no tomorrow, the next day, it was so cold, there wasn't even a today, then the day after, the sun came out, shining brighter than ever before. Nevertheless, the practices were long, hard, and painful, but it was going to be so worth it to see the losing faces of Slytherin on Friday.

"All right!" James yelled to the rest of the team. It was the beginning of practice and James was about to dive into one of his famous prep talks. "We're going to win on Friday. Nothing can change that. Absolutely nothing. So, when you get out there, give me a hundred and ten percent! Got it?"

The rest of the team nodded, with large grins on their faces.

"And, remember--the team motto?" James asked.

"Faster, harder, deeper!" The team bellowed back. "FASTER! HARDER! DEEPER!"

"Excellent," James replied. "Now, kick off!"

The team did as they were told and flew into perfect formation into the sky. James was the last to kick up and took his place at the middle.

"Release the snitch!" He yelled back down to Tristan Davies, the assistant to the Quidditch team.

A small, tiny fleck of gold hurled its way into the sky.

The quaffle began to move its away around the players.

Bludgers were flying about.

The sun was shining brightly, brighter than ever.

James smiled to himself with delight.

Practice was going perfectly.

It was going to be a satisfying week.

- - - - -

Wake up, eat, classes, eat, classes, eat, homework, eat, homework, eat, and sleep.

It was already a Thursday and Lily could already feel her life settle back into the norm.

She'd been avoiding James all week; a childish thing of her to do, really, when they were the head students in the first place. She knew she'd have to face him sooner or later and might as well just get it over with, but she picked later, because, hey--it was the easier choice.

Besides, she was absolutely swamped in homework. She had never had such a full course load before (on a whim, she signed up for tough classes, trying to end her seventh year academically tough) and she was desperately wishing that she was smarter than she really was. Or smarter than she was giving herself credit for, at least.

"Miss Evans," Madam Pince berated. "The library will be in five minutes." A twinge of sympathy appeared on her face for a rare moment as Lily sighed and started to clean up her own little table. It was so littered with blank parchment, quills, and inkpots that no part of the table was visible anymore.

"Actually, make that fifteen more minutes, Miss Evans," Madam Pince said softly.

As she walked away, Lily wasn't surprised. She knew she had worked herself beyond what was physically possible and now she had the sympathy of Madam Pince; the most oldest, nastiest, meanest librarian Lily had ever had the pleasure of meeting. But it wasn't exactly bad.

As Lily cleared the table and filed away her homework as neat as she could and into her bag, she walked out of the library and headed back to her dormitory, looking forward to going to bed. As soon as she'd reached her room, she'd fling her bag onto her couch, take off her robes, and have a small martini as she dozed off into another world.

She smiled.

It would be perfect and exactly what she needed right now.

The walk back was much quicker now that the halls were so empty. It was definitely past curfew and any students out would immediately get in trouble.

But Lily would have been an exception, especially with the look on her face.

But the look on her face changed as she reached her dormitory.

"Fizzing Whizbees," Lily said promptly.

...nothing.

"Fizzing Whizbees," Lily repeated. Maybe she was saying it wrong. Her bag was weighing down her shoulder so she threw it aside and put her hands on her hips.

"Whizzing Fizbees?" Lily said firmly.

Nothing. Still.

Lily kicked the door out of anger.

It was her dormitory in the first place and how could she be locked out?

Damned password system.

"Whizzing Fizbees!" Lily shouted as she pounded the door with both fists. "Fizzing Whizbees! Fizzing Whizbee! Whizzing Fizbee!"

Still nothing.

Lily was beyond frustrated, but she kept banging and kicking the door as tears streamed down her cheeks.

Her fists began to hurt and so did her feet and she slumped into a messy pile against her door, asking the gods why did life have to be so damned complicated? Couldn't they give her a break?

She was sobbing now, her face and spirits even worse than they had originally been. She knew the smart, sensible thing to do would be to get up and find her pals and ask if she could crash for the night, but she felt that she deserved a crying jag right then and there because everyone deserves a crying jag once in a while.

"Lily?"

Lily suddenly stopped and turned around.

It was James.

Perfect.

James had probably just finished a rather arduous Quidditch practice. He was standing there, clutching his broom, looking tired, sweaty, and ready to have a martini and as he dozed off into another world, just like Lily had been prepared to do.

"James. I'm, er, I'm fine, really. Just got locked out, that's it." Lily got up and began getting her papers into her bag again. They were scattered everywhere. Lily decided right then and there to never fling her bag ever again. It was a very dangerous thing to do.
James set his broom down and walked over. "Here, Lily. Let me help."

"I don't need any help," Lily muttered as she furrowed her eyebrows, gathering up all her things. "But thanks."

"Hey, I was just offering."

"And I said thanks," Lily snapped. She heaved a sigh. "Look, James. I'm tired and my shit is all over the floor. Let me be."

James also sighed and rubbed his temple. "Look, we're both tired as hell. Why don't you just crash in my room again tonight? It's the easiest solution until you can go ask Dumbledore what the password is because chances are, the door in the bathroom that leads to your room has the same password as your room."

Lily realized he was right. There was no way to get back into her room until she had asked Dumbledore or another professor at least.

She also realized that crashing with James would be one of the most awkward things in the world that she would probably ever experienced but at that point in the night, she was so bloody tired, she just didn't give a damn.

"I have butterbeer," James offered. "Warm butterbeer. It puts you right to sleep."

"Fine," Lily sniffed. "But let's go to sleep immediately. No chit-chatting."

"Couldn't agree more," James answered as he picked up her bag. "Pick up those papers and we'll be on our way."

Lily hurriedly cleared the floor of her things and followed James as they walked for a short bit and then turned around a corner.

"Fizzing Whizbee," James said promptly. The door immediately opened.

"Isn't that my password?" Lily asked, confused. "At least, that's what I remember Dumbledore telling me."

"You probably just heard him wrong or something," James said as he threw Lily's bag to one side and his broomstick to the other.

Lily felt herself get enveloped in all the gold-and-maroon-ess again. Only this time, it wasn't so much as terrifying, but it actually felt comforting for once. Or perhaps she was too tired to even feel anymore.

James handed Lily a steaming mug of butterbeer. She inhaled deeply and smiled, feeling ready to leave the world of consciousness already.

"James, I pretty much fucking love you," Lily answered as she took off her robe. She didn't know what it was with James, but she just felt so at ease with him.

"Obviously," James responded as he settled into his couch. "Take the bed."

Lily arched an eyebrow. She didn't want to cause him trouble. "Maybe we should share. Last time didn't work out too badly."

"Thanks for saying that. I wanted to be polite to offer you the bed first." James headed over to the bed and immediately settled in.

"I'm going to borrow a pair of boxers and a t-shirt, all right, Potter?" Lily asked, not bothering to hear his response as she walked over to his wardrobe. "'Kay, thanks."

"You're very welcome," James replied. "Let's just fucking sleep already, okay?"

"Cranky, cranky, cranky," Lily replied. She took a white t-shirt and maroon and gold boxers (might as well match with the room) as she headed into the bathroom. James might have already seen her practically naked, but they weren't exactly together and Lily didn't want him to see her any more. She was surprised neither of them mentioned anything about ignoring each other for almost a week, but they were so both haggardly exhausted, that was probably the last things on their mind.

She whipped off her school clothes and into James's clothing which hung loose on her frame. She inhaled his masculine scent patchouli noir and what seemed to be wood. Probably from his broomstick which was now lying lifelessly on the ground. Lily put it in his wardrobe, just in case, because she knew that it was something of special important to him.

"Are you done changing?" James asked.

"Whoa, I thought you were asleep," Lily responded, a little surprised.

"No, waiting," James said. "I need to shower. I probably have around five layers of thick sweat covering me."

Lily laughed. "Sounds like you smell good. I'm done. Go."

James headed to the bathroom and eyed her on the way. "Nice boxers."

"Thanks."

"Those are my favorite."

"I'm shocked."

James gave Lily a slight grin as he closed the bathroom door and turned on the shower. He knew they were in a weird place right now but it felt nice that they were acting friendly with each other and not completely ignoring each other as they had for the past week.

Lily, meanwhile, sipped her warm butterbeer slowly as she tied up her hair and settled into bed. It was finally the end of what seemed like the longest day in her entire life.

She was also rather thankful that James took her in. God knows that his bed was about a million more times comfortable than any old bed in a dormitory, even though it was completely maroon and gold. She felt like she was a princess of a maroon and gold kingdom.

She kind of was, in a way, if you thought about it. Head Girl. Gryffindor House.

Lily began to doze off, her thoughts mixing together, and enjoying how at ease and satisfied she currently felt. But the lights were so bright, even as she closed her eyes, she felt their presence.

The bathroom door clicked open and Lily sleepily looked up. "You done? Let's close the lights."

Lily suddenly realized James was topless. And wearing a towel. A small white one. "Hold on, let me just put my pants on."

Lily's eyes stayed glued to his body. She had already seen him topless before, but it was still rather exciting. She suddenly knew why so many girls ogled him. But she wasn't about to become one of them. He also had quite nice shoulders, Lily noticed. Broad, but not too broad. They were just right.

"Put a shirt on, Potter, you're ruining my virgin eyes!" Lily complained, rubbing her eyes.

James laughed. "You've already seen me without a shirt on, Lily."

"True, but I just opened them. They're virgins!" Lily insisted.

"Well, sorry, I popped your eye cherry."

Lily laughed. They didn't make any sense whatsoever.

James went into the bathroom again and emerged in black briefs. Lily peeked again and he looked even more extraordinary this time. He hadn't toweled himself off too well so his hair was still wet and sticking in every direction (as usual) but the wetness gave his hair a sort of spiky quality it usually lacked. His chest was still a bit wet, which made him seem even more attractive than ever and his abs were looking better than last time.

"Quite a sight, huh?" James asked, grinning.

Lily blushed but remained confident. "I've seen better. Way better."

"By the way you were watching me, I'm sure."

"Shut up. You better be."

"Oh, don't worry. I am." James climbed into bed.

"Nice briefs," Lily commented.

"Why, thank you."

"I figured you a boxers man."

"I'm more of a sometimes-boxers-sometimes-briefs guy." James shrugged. "Depends how I'm feeling. Now let's sleep."

Lily finished the rest of her butterbeer in a few hungry gulps. She immediately felt warm and a little woozy. Perfect.

"Turn off the lights, Potter."

"That means I have to get up and get my wand."

"Precisely."

"...damn you." James got up and got his wand and whispered a few words.

Darkness.

"Better," Lily commented approvingly. "Good night, James."

"Goodnight, Miss Lily," James replied.

They both settled in their respective spots and they both felt very comfortable.

Lily felt like this is what married life would be like with James. Except for the sex part. If they even were to have sex if they got married.

It actually wasn't too bad.

The whole room smelled like James. The smell of the patchouli noir and wood was around the whole room and especially in his sheets.

Meanwhile, James wondered how Lily was sleeping in his bed for the second time and absolutely nothing had happened besides a little harmless flirting. But then again, he did realize what was at stake if something were to truly happen. He wanted her, sure, but he didn't want to take a chance on ruining their relationship professionally.

It actually was kind of nice. Sleeping next to each other without actually having to be sleeping with each other.

Probably different than what they both were used to.

But deep down inside, both were content with what they currently had with each other and what they had right now.