Mutual Agreement
How he ALWAYS turns up at the most inopportune moments is BEYOND me, but it is starting to edge past the annoying stage into irritating.
Oh and by he I mean James Potter. This moment happens to be just as I am about to break-up with my 5 month old boyfriend, breeching from a reason James...I mean Potter...told me which I discovered to be true.
I'm not really all that upset to find out Luke was cheating on me, to be quite honest our relationship had fizzled out after our first attraction faded away. What does upset me is that it was Potter who discovered it first and not me.
Really! Where does he get off? It ALWAYS is the cheated on who finds out not the cheated on's enemy, as really that is the only word I would use to describe Potter. Doesn't Potter read at all? It ALWAYS is that way in good love stories! Though I'm not secretly hinting that Potter and I are in our own love story. Ha! Perish the thought!
And that Potter should tell me on top of everything else is complete ludicris! Because be sensible! In a TRUE love story, the heroine's real love is the one to tell her and that dictates that Potter is my real love which certainly isn't true!
And besides that we've made a mutual agreement to disagree and if I agree with what Potter told me then I am breaking our agreement which has served me very well in the past, considering in the disagreeing I was always right!
Well accept when I disagreed with Potter that Luke would make a good boyfriend...that turned out to be wrong, but in every other case I was right!
Wait Potter just said something...I suppose I drifted off slightly. Better pay attention. I'm supposed to be dumping someone!
"What did you say?" I questioned. Potter smirked.
"Well I was simply saying that you might want to find a more private area. This area is full of people looking for a snog. Especially those rowdy Hufflepuffs."
How dare he! Making such a direct reference to the girl Luke cheated on me with. Really! He might have some manners!
"Actually I believe this spot WAS private until you barged in," I replied scathingly. "Do you mind fixing that by leaving?" I said glaring at him.
With the smirk he had drifting from his face he said, "Gladly," and with a swish of his robes walked back to the corner and turned back the way he had come.
I sighed, feeling relief that he'd left so easily. Then my stomach tightened again remembering I wasn't alone and what I had come here to do. I turned to Luke, as I had faced away from him to tell off Potter, and was stunned to see him walking away from me in the opposite direction.
"Luke!" I yelled after him. "Where the hell do you think you're going?"
He glanced back at me as I hurriedly caught up to him. "You were taking forever talking to Potter and I have to meet someone."
"Who is so important you have to ditch me for without so much as a word? Your Hufflepuff hussy?" I questioned him. He looked at me as if I'd grown a second head. "Oh yes, I know about your little trysts once a week. Merlin forbid, Potter had been correct about that accusation."
"You bitch!" he yelled and raised his hand and struck me. Merlin, the one time I need Potter and he doesn't show up. I thought.
"I'm not the only bitch in this hallway if that's the best you can hit." For, seriously, my sister has done more damage than he did with bitch-slapping. I raised my fists ready to fight him, which was foolish as we both had wands which could be much more effective than a fistfight. Then I sighed and told him, "You know what your not even worth it. And as of now we are officially broke up."
Apparently Luke's vocabulary couldn't expand with such a mental blow as his girlfriend breaking up with him since he just replied with a "You...you...you bitch," and slapped me again as he walked by me, although this one had much more gusto thrown in it and it nearly knocked the wind out of me. I stood there speechless while my cheek prickled and surely was turning red for some minutes, long enough that Luke had certainly finished his meeting and had probably returned to his common room, before I shook off my shock and slowly headed toward Gryffindor tower.
For once I was thankful that Luke wasn't in my house.
As I walked I noticed that curiously some tears were trying to make their way out of my eyes. And I don't know why but I always try to hold them back. I think I see it as a sign of weakness or something. Of course at this most vulnerable moment I notice Potter leaning against the wall. To be specific the precise wall that was directly around the corner from where Luke and I had made a scene earlier.
I had assumed he had gone on his way to do some Head duties (as he an I were most unfortunately the Head boy and girl.) or pull some prank but it was quite apparent he had been waiting there the whole time listening to what Luke and I were saying. And that, quite honestly, infuriated me to no end.
"What the hell Potter? Shouldn't you be with your bum boys and not listening to MY private conversations, which is considered rude in most parts of the world." I told him calmly I'm sure. (Ok, ok, so with barely supressed rage, but hey he deserved it!)
"Not in my world." He cheekily answered back. " Oh and I would really like it if you didn't refer to the Mauraders as 'bum boys'. That is terribly rude as well." I had to keep blinking so tears wouldn't leak out, since encountering James wasn't really soothing my wounded feelings.
"Yeah well, in your world pigs fly, the sky is green, and people marry hot dogs." I angrily told him.
"Hot dogs would be a great improvement on some of the jerks around here though, wouldn't it?" he said kindly. I could feel some wetness moving down my nose and dripping from it, making my nose terribly itchy. I sniffed and rubbed my nose. James looked at me sideways and started digging in his pocket.
"Ugh, if you pull out a rat I swear I'll..." I drifted off as he pulled out a handkerchief. "Nevermind," I mumbled.
"Did that scum really hurt you?" he questioned as he handed over his hankie. "You weren't truly in love with him were you?"
I avoided his questions by laughing as several tears started dripping out of my eyes and dabbing them with the white hankie I noticed had the initials LE on them. Strangely the same as my own. "Really, who has handkerchiefs nowadays?" Trying to put on a happy face that probably wasn't very convincing as my tears were currently making a small river on both sides of my face.
James looked at me oddly, "Well since it is YOUR handkerchief I don't see what point that question has except to distract me, which won't work." Hoover Damn. I knew I recognized this hankie. Though the question is why did James have it? "So back to my questions...Lils, did you truly think he was good boyfriend material? I can't imagine his cheating on you would have effected you this way. And I said before you even dated him he wasn't boyfriend material-"
"Which is precisely why I went out with him in the first place." I said breaking him off. "And no I didn't love him. That is a load of horse shit. And he didn't hurt me, not really..."
"Though I see you are sporting evidence that he did." James said touching my cheeking that was still slightly red from Luke's slap. Is it wrong that my face tingled more now than when Luke hit me?
I stepped away from James and his confusing touch and scoffed. "My sister can bitch-slap a helluva lot better than he can, and that's saying something."
"So I've heard." James said with a smile. Then I realized how odd the situation was with James being nice to me and not to mention the fact that we were standing entirely too close to each other. James was completely invading my personal bubble and to my dismay I stepped slightly away from him with a blush.
I was curious as to what the sudden change was all about and asked him so, if not in so polite a manner.
"What the hell is wrong with you James?"
Ok maybe in a rude manner.
"What?" He asked looking astonished and a bit taken back.
"Well your acting extremely odd. Not at all like your normal self. I was just think you might be ill is all."
"I am perfectly healthy, and what the hell is up with you and that phrase?" he asked his face getting a distinctly sour look about it.
"I don't know. Then what is your reason for behaving so strangely? Pray tell I should discover it."
"FYI, I thought you wouldn't take too kindly to me if I teased you so soon after breaking up with that bastard. I can see I was totally off the mark and will refrain from any such activity in the future." James remarked his eyes going dark and a scowl taking residence upon his face.
"You needn't use such language. He only kissed a girl that wasn't me while we were dating. There is no reason to call him that." I said taken aback by his language.
"For the love of merlin Lily, don't protect him after what he did to you! He is an arsewipe if I ever saw one to give up a girl like you! Noone cheats on an amazing woman and isn't a bastard or an idiot in my mind."
"James, please, you don't need to use such language. Besides I never really cared about him in the first place."
"Then were you sniffing floo powder when you said you'd date him or something, because that was possibly one of the stupidest thing you've done."
"I already told you I agreed to date him because you said I shouldn't!" I shouted at him. We were standing very close to each other now. Almost nose to nose. Or well nose to chest as James was a lot taller than me. "And what other stupid things have I done, might I ask?"
"Well for starters, you wouldn't agree to go out with me which would have made this conversation completely unneccessary!" He bellowed. As his voice reverberated off the wall and we sunk into silence each of us absorbing what the other had said.
At this moment the electricity in that hallway could have ran several muggle homes, and not electricity from just anger. Oh no, it was radiating off of both James and I and was strangely attracting our lips to each other at an alarming rate.
In the amount of time it takes a light to go on after flicking the switch, my hands were in James messy locks and his hands were wrapped around my waist, and something static and raw was passing between James's lips and mine, besides tongues. It was intoxicating. It was like a drug or really good chocolate. I hated to break apart, even to breathe. As I did, the static broke away and I realized what I, well and James, did. And I did what every girl does in love stories.
I ran.
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I suppose I knew I couldn't get very far away since James had those cursedly long legs, but I was going to try anyways.
Before I was 20 ft away from James, he shook himself out of his shock and after a few brisk strides caught my wrist.
"Where, in Merlin's name, do you think you are going?" he asked in a slightly ragged voice. I guess that kiss affected him as much as it did me.
"I don't know. I need to think." I told him absently, and I discovered it was true. I needed to think, and some Ben & Jerry's would certainly help.
James looked slightly hurt. "Why? I don't have to."
I brushed a stray piece of hair out of his face as I said, "Just give me a couple of days James. That's all I need. Just a couple of days."
James grabbed my free hand and inspected it angrily. "How can you not know now? It is so easy to figure out." He pushed my hands away and let go of them. "No. I need to know now."
"Know what?" I asked. I was clueless to what this mystery topic was that neither of us had spoken.
"Merlin, Lily! Are you that dense?" James shouted frustratedly and took off at a quick pace to the heads dormitories. My eyes followed him, astonished and slightly upset. I made no point to follow him as I needed my peace and he likely would have shouted at me again.
Instead I headed towards the kitchen as I knew a huge bowl of ice cream was calling my name.
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Once the house elves had given me my usual, I sat there spooning it in and trying to think, but all that I could do was see James hurt and angry face staring at me out of the bowl and I soon found I couldn't eat anymore of the chocolatey dessert.
Why is all I can think about is James?
Are you a complete ninny? Why would you think of anything else after that amazing kiss?
I don't know...maybe I should.
Why? Or more accurately, what would you think about?
I don't know. Maybe the look that crossed James face when I told him I needed to think. Why would he be so upset over that?
Well maybe, just maybe, he was afraid you didn't care about him. Or that you would go and regret what happened and despise him even more because of it.
Why would I regret that kiss? It was the most amazing and exciting thing to ever happen to me.
Really? Why don't you tell him.
I will.
Oh, and while your at it, you might want to mention you're in love with him.
I'll do that. Wait a minute...Oh Merlin! I do love him!
With a gasp I stood up from my melted ice cream and made a break for the kitchen door. I had to tell him right away so he wouldn't despise me forever. Or at least for the rest of the year.
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I hurriedly climbed into the Head common room. I looked around and found no sign of James was here except for his shoes that were kicked off and laying haphazardly just inside the door on the floor.
Knowing James was at least here, I made my way to the door leading to James room. I knocked, rather timidly I think, on the door. I received no answer. I tried to open the door but it was apparently locked. I said a quick alohomora and tried again. This time the handle turned smoothly.
Really, James would have to try harder than THAT. But as I pushed on the door it wouldn't budge. I couldn't picture James barricading the door, but thats what appeared he had done. I pushed forcefully once more and as the door didn't move at all, I yelled at James.
"James! You great prick, I need to talk to you and no door is going to stop me! If you don't kindly open up I will resort to shouting and that will make me hoarse and not want to kiss, so if you'd stop being an arse for once maybe we could actually have a real convers-"
I broke off as I saw the door open a few centimeters, which convinced me to plow open the door before James changed his mind and shut it again. Unfortunately as I flew open the door it banged right into James forehead as he hadn't moved away from the door quickly enough.
"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry! Here climb into your bed. I'll be right back with a wet cloth and some ice. I'm really sorry!" I said as I rushed to the bathroom and rinsed a cloth with cold water and hurried back to James room.
"Oh dear," I said as I climbed into James bed and draped the cloth over his forehead. "I really didn't mean to do that. You'd think your quidditch skills would be good for something...James say something so I know you don't have some mental defect." For James was being unnaturally quiet, for him anyways.
"Well?" he asked.
"Well what?" I asked back.
"WELL, are you done thinking?" He asked me in an angry tone.
"Yes," I said. With a gulp I continued, "and first of all that kiss was one of the most amazing and exciting things to ever happen to me."
James eyes softened but he prompted me with an "And?"
"What makes you think there is an and?" I asked indignantly.
"Well if there is a first of all, then logically there has to be a second of all, right?"
"Yes I suppose," I said grudgingly, and then I got nervous again and started sputtering. "Well, I think that, actually I suppose I know that, I am quite possibly, falling...in love...with...you."
"Finally!" James said in a slightly exasperated tone.
"Excuse me?" I asked slightly angrily.
"Hey, wait a minute, don't go and get all mad now, its just that I've known I loved you since 5th year and its nice to finally have the feeling reciprocated. I tell you there isn't a worse feeling then unrequited love." James said tugging on my waist to pull me closer to him.
As I placed my hands around James neck and his lips came closer to mine I told him teasingly, "Well if you had kissed me like you did a while ago back in 5th year, I am quite sure I wouldn't have held off this feeling for so long."
James stopped and said "Really?" to which I answered by pulling him to me and kissing him, which I was pleased to learn felt every bit as good as it did several hours ago in the hallway.
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James came up to me several days later with a sheet of paper in his hand.
"What, pray tell, is that?" I quizzed him as he sat down next to me in our common room. He gave me a kiss on the cheek and replied, "Our contract." I set my book aside and looked at him curiously.
"What contract?"
"The one Sirius made up that we signed saying we agreed to always disagree," I laughed, remembering, and James smiled, "only I've made a few changes."
As I glanced at the paper, recognizing Sirius's sloppy script I noticed the dis- had been crossed out of disagree, and I laughed again.
"We simply need to sign it again to instate the new guidelines, I have my lawyer," Sirius popped up from behind the couch, "and I've gone through the trouble to get you one as well," at this point Remus stuck his head up from the back of the couch too, "it's only fair."
I laughed once more and James smiled more widely and handed me a quill. I hesitated then said, "Only if I always am the one who is right."
If possible James smiled even more widely and said, "I wouldn't have it any other way," and I signed underneath my previous signature and handed it over to James so he could do the same. We handed it to Sirius and Remus to look over and they nodded.
At this point James and I started kissing and were provided with retching sounds from the other Mauraders. We stopped to glare at them and resumed as the boys left the common room.
"Lily, be my girlfriend." James said with a hopeful look.
I laughed and said, "I wouldn't have it any other way."
And THAT is how my love story turned out.
