html The Elusive Lily Evans

By headupintheclouds

Part Four

Year Four

"Lily, please?" James implored, stuffing more sausage into his mouth.

"No!" Lily shrieked for the final time, slamming down her fork on her plate, which gave a soft 'clink,' and stormed out of the hall, all heads turned to James, who gave his fan club a lopsided grin that didn't reach his eyes.

He chased after her, finally finding her in a deserted hallway near their Transfiguration class, tears leaking onto her milky complexioned face. He bent down onto one knee in front of her, while she moved to face away from him.

"Please, Lil," he said quietly, and she turned back, avoiding his gaze.

"Why do you always DO that?" she asked the floor, but James knew the question was directed at him.

"Do what?" he asked, not completely genuinely confused, but trying to buy time.

"Ask me out in public situations. It doesn't make either of us look good, you know. And I'm not going to say yes. I don't know why you bother." She said quietly.

"But one day you just might say yes, by mistake or something. What's so wrong about me that you can't say yes? And please don't lie. I can change, you know." He said hopefully, but honestly.

"There's nothing so 'wrong' with you, it's just that I don't want to be James Potter's girl of the week. I know it won't last longer than that because it never does," she said.

"Well I'm not going to give up. Just let me know how I can change and I will!" he promised.

"Never ask me out again." Lily said.

James walked away frowning. He had a feeling that the day he didn't ask Lily out would be the day she would start wanting for him to ask. He also knew that the day he didn't ask would be the day he let her go.

The next day, at breakfast, James sat at the other end of the table from Lily, and didn't look her way once. She didn't notice, until she was carrying her own books to classes, which she did every day, but they seemed so much heavier now that James had stopped asking to carry them.

At lunch, he paid her no attention again, and it was starting to be unnerving, like taking away a known trait of the universe. By afternoon lessons, she found herself trying to catch his eye, and actually was caught unaware by a teacher, and almost received a detention for it. He seemed not to notice.

By dinner, she was feeling anxious, fixing her hair, checking her teeth, feeling like last month's reject pile. Lily Evans NEVER cared about her appearance.

In the common room, after dinner, he finally approached her, grinning broadly.

"How was that?" he inquired. She almost broke into a grin, realizing that it had all been a ploy. She actually wanted to be friends with James, now that she knew what a day without him felt like.

"You went totally over the top. I would like to be friends with you, just not be asked out by you before, at, and after noontime." She replied. Relief flooded her.

"Missed me, did you?" he teased.

"A little," she admitted. The answer shocked him into his old ways- before he could catch himself, the cursed words slipped off his tongue, as easily as they had rolled off the previous 2,305 times:

"Will you go out with me, then?" he asked, and immediately tried to pass it off as a joke, but fury filled Lily's eyes.

She let out a loud sigh, full of frustration and anger, and stormed up to the girls' dorms.

Defeated, James trudged up to his own dorm and fell asleep well before 9.

Part Five

Year Five

"Hey Wiwee," James said, swallowing his mouthful of food, "want to go to the party with me after we win the match against Slytherin?"

"Sorry, but if there is a party, I won't be attending, as my boyfriend is in Ravenclaw, as you know."

"Old Ludo, eh?" James asked, trying to keep his jealousy from entering his voice.

"Yes. Ludo is perfectly sweet, and I wouldn't go with you even if I wasn't dating him," Lily replied sharply.

"I'm sure, glad you're happy," James mumbled, pushing away his plate, and stalking out of the Hall, deep in thought.

Next day, at the Quidditch match, James scanned the crowd before shaking hands with the Slytherin Captain, who nearly yanked off James' arm, though he didn't let on.

As the Snitch was released, he watched it glint until it was out of sight, then turned his attention to a squabble between his teammates and the Slytherin players over possession of the Quaffle. The poor commentator was trying, and failing miserably, to keep up with the action.

Since the Snitch was hiding, he floated down to his fan club, who screamed, reaching for the hems of his robes. He shot up, barely avoiding a bludger, then back down, as the girls swooned.

He glanced at the rest of the crowd, and noticed Lily and Ludo unnaturally close. Suddenly, Ludo had her chin in his hands, and was drawing her nearer. Fury pulsed through his veins, and he surged over to the couple. Lily was trying to gently back away, but Ludo entreated her nearer. Not forcefully, although what he was doing could hardly be considered understanding.

James hit Ludo right in the jaw, without even considering his actions.

Lily Evans stormed into the Gryffindor Common Room, stiff with temper. James was seething in a corner. They stormed up to each other, and shouted in unison, "How could you DO that to me!"

"POTTER! I didn't do anything to YOU, and you come up and KNOCK OUT my boyfriend!" Lily yelled. By now, the music had dimmed, and neither realized the publicity they were being subjected to.

"He was making you KISS him! That is most certainly NOT okay with me!" James yelled back.

"James, I will NEVER go out with you, no matter how many of my boyfriends you knock out, and you have NO place to tell me who I can or cannot KISS!" Lily exploded.

"You didn't even WANT to kiss him!" James screamed.

"Well thanks to you, I'll never have the chance, since he said I'm much too 'dangerous' a girlfriend! Potter, I don't understand you, and I never want you anywhere near me EVER again!"

"You don't mean that," James whispered, sounding on the verge of a break down.

"I do." She said, speeding up the steps to the Girls' Dormitory, leaving James in the middle of the crowd, staring at her wake.

At breakfast the next morning, James sat next to Lily.

"Lily, I'm sorry. You're right, I have no place to do what I did or tell you who you can kiss," he said, sounding sincere.

"I know," Lily replied, standing up and going to class.

He caught her before their next class, and asked, "So we're good?" with an angelic smile on his face.

"I suppose," Lily replied, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Great! So you WILL go out with me?"

"POTTER!" she burst, just as the Professor demanded the class' attention.

Part Six

Year Six

Lily scrawled tiny notes in Professor Binns' class, taking accurate and exact notations of the Dragon's Blood Trade Restriction of 1783, when a tiny note zoomed onto her desk.

She glanced around the classroom, trying to find the source, but all eyes were either on Binns or closed. She opened it carefully, as though afraid of detonation.

b You can't honestly find this interesting. Why not talk to me? /b

She scanned back around the room, trying to find the source. The messy slant seemed to belong to a boy, but none of the waking boys seemed to be the ones with whom she would converse with, except Remus, and he was a firm believer in a no-notes rule.

She decided to chance a reply.

u Well, not exactly, but there's not much else to do. I want to do well on my N.E.W.T.S. Who is this, anyway? /u

As soon as her quill had left the page, the note disappeared, only to reappear in the same location not 30 seconds later.

b Why don't you guess? If you get it right, I'll tell you. If you don't guess who I am by the end of class, I'll give you a clue. However, let's not just dither in that boring junk, let's talk. Who do you like nowadays? /b

Lily grinned, realizing that passing notes was a much more intriguing way to spend class than taking notes, and she felt the rush of doing something she knew she shouldn't. The rest of class was spent on this valiant work:

u I think you're... Peter Thomas! And why do you care who I like? We haven't said two words all year! But, I may as well inform you that I don't like anyone. It's hard to, because Potter always intervenes. /u

She paused as the note disappeared, briefly wondering if it WAS Potter with whom she was writing, but decided it didn't matter all that much. He probably wouldn't chance being cocky since she didn't know it was him. If it WAS him, that is.

b No, Alas, you're wrong. Not Thomas. Look at him He's practically drooling. Do you see spittle on this note? Well, why don't you just go out with Potter? He's not so bad! /b

u Then you must be Sirius, as he's one of the few people who would refer to Potter so casually. And I won't go out with him because he's a slimy git. /u

b Nope. Sirius wrong. For being a passably intelligent girl, you certainly aren't a very good people person! I just have a rather neutral opinion on Potter. So why do you loathe him? /b

u I don't... /u She wrote, before scratching it out.

u I'd rather not discuss Potter. So anyway, who IS this? /u

b This is a person… And in exactly 3 minutes and 42 seconds, you'll get your clue, assuming you can't guess. /b

u Well what shall we talk about for 3 minutes and 42 seconds? /u

b Actually, it 2 minutes and 54 seconds now, but whatever. How about… The weirdo DADA teacher? /b

u Hey! I LIKE Professor Cannor; And DADA is one of the most useful subjects we learn! /u

b Oh, come on! How can you NOT read ex-con? It's written all over his face! Not to mention the jail striped turban! /b

u Moving on, how much longer till I get a clue? I'm impatient! /u

b Only about another 43 seconds, but since you've been so good, I'll give it to you early. Six words: "Will you go out with me?" /b

A soft groan of fury emitted from Lily, and as class was called to an end, she turned around and threw the balled up note at his grinning head. But she only half intended for it to hit him.

A/N: Next time, we'll enter 7th year. That's the interesting one, since all this was a preface. Given, a very fun one to write :D Anyway, that was almost 2,ooo words, so none of you better complain!

A/N TWO: I hope HTML works on here, because I can't get the thing to format my work right! 

/html