Disclaimer: I don't own anything. All characters belong to J.K. Rowling and the story is based on the Korean movie "My Tutor Friend".
Rating: PG-13
Summary: James Potter seems on top of the world: popular, good looks & good grades in almost everything except Arithmancy, and needs it to pass. Lily Evans: studious, temperamental, good girl was appointed to tutor.
Title: Loving My Tutor
(A/N): Okay first to answer those who reviewed: First thing, Lily is not trying to seduce James – she has not yet any feelings for him. She changed her mind because she knew that if she were caught in the act of skipping the tutoring lessons, McGonagall will be disappointed in her – which Lily doesn't want.
And James doesn't have feelings for her either. They are in their hate phase right now. They are neither friends nor lovers. They still have a long way till that happens.
Chapter FOUR
Staring back
The next morning, consistent with her habit of waking up quite early, Lily Evans was up by six-thirty. She took a shower and put on her robes and uniform; ready to face the day. For some reason unbeknownst to her, she was even humming a cheerful tune...
She really began to wonder what was making her so ecstatic when caught herself skipping down the hallway. Normally, Lily Evans was someone of very a serious manner because of her Head Girl position. When, however, she caught a group of people staring at her, she stopped skipping immediately. "Isn't that her?" she heard, and blushed crimson. "What was that about?" she wondered, as she shook her head and continued on her way, trying to convince herself that nothing had happened.
Lily stepped in the Great Hall and marched towards the Gryffindor table. The ceiling had a warm sunny glow, with sunrays stretching their way onto the tables and fluffy-looking clouds dotting the cyan-blue sky, everything was set so it would seem like the perfect day.
Suddenly, a boy with messy dark hair on the other end of the table caught her attention. He was staring at her quite intently, holding on his scowling – yet handsome, Lily had to admit – face an expression of absolute annoyance. It finally stroked her that the boy was no other than James Potter himself. She looked away, unable to sustain the weight of his gaze, and joined her friends at the table.
Lily sat down and started to put food on her plate, still lingering on the thought of what could possibly be the cause behind James' glare. The glare certainly spelled out "I want to kill you." quite clearly. Lily was use to the fact that James disliked her, but this time, his hazel eyes were burning with sheer hatred.
She poked her fork into her eggs and bacon absent-mindedly, lost in her thoughts until her friend's voice came crashing in on her half-daydreams.
"Are you alright, Lily? You haven't touched your food yet." Emmeline Vance, a girl with dark brown hair, noticed.
"Huh? What? Oh… sorry, I was just thinking." Lily smiled.
"What's on your mind? You look a bit... disturbed. Is it bullies? Because you know, I can beat them up for you." Emmeline suggested with a grin.
Lily laughed. "No, don't worry; just keep on eating." Emmeline shrugged and turned away to chat with the other girls.
Lily threw a look back at James, and saw that he was no longer staring at her. Instead, he was talking and laughing joyously with his friends. All of a sudden, she remembered... she knew why she was so happy this morning; she knew why James looked furious: She was going to have to tutor him…
The previous night's argument flooded back into her memories. The sound of their angry voices and the triumphant smile she wore when she won the fight all came back to her. Unfortunately, with those memories came the voice in her head that reminded her "Oh, don't look so happy. Remember, you still have to tutor JAMES POTTER: the one person in all of Gryffindor you can't stand."
Lily muttered to herself tangling her fingers into her hair, "What have I done? I should have just accepted his offer…" She spent the rest of the morning sulking, all because of a mistake she made... damn stubbornness.
88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
James saw Lily entering the Great Hall; yesterday's row still fresh in his mind. Seeing Lily's pale face made white hot anger boil within him. He hadn't yet noticed that he was staring at her rather fixedly, but abruptly, Sirius' cheery voice cut through his trance.
"What are you looking at mate?"
Before James could look away discretely, Sirius already spotted what he was staring at, "Evans? You were staring at Evans? Could you possibly have a little something for a certain redhead?" Sirius asked with a sly voice and a wink. "'Didn't know you liked redheads, especially the ones like Miss Lily here." Sirius poked James in the side with his elbow.
"What!" exclaimed James' current girlfriend, Julie Hayman, as she turned around, shocked from what she just overheard. "James, please tell me you don't actually have a thing for this… this hag!" (A/N: In the movie, she was really like that. She used the word "bitch" a lot too.)
James pushed Sirius' elbow away and punched him on the arm. "Don't be daft, Padfoot. I do not like Evans!"
James put an arm around his girlfriend's waist and assured her that nothing was going on. Satisfied, Julie turned her head away and continued talking to her friends, happy that James Potter was still hers. James looked down at his plate, and threw one last glance at Lily. "How can anyone like a girl like Evans?" James thought angrily. He turned away to talk to Remus.
Sirius smirked to himself as he saw his best friend looking at Lily one last time. He knew something was happening between them; Sirius knew James Potter well enough to know that when his best mate didn't want to share something, he was very good at hiding it... but Sirius Black was also very good at finding out what it was that James was so adamantly trying to hide.
88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
After the end of classes late in the afternoon, Lily decided it was a nice day to go outside for some fresh air before supper. She went to her dorm, settled her books on her desk and picked up her cloak. She then made her way downstairs till she reached the main entrance.
As she stepped outside, she could feel the wind blowing up against her skin. A couple of students were still in sight, running around and laughing. Leaves could be seen in various colors as the trees shed them off their branches: Autumn had announced its arrival.
Lily found the perfect place and then sat down against a tree nearby the lake. Her eyelids grew heavy as she watched the Giant Squid's tentacles moving around on the surface of the lake. Losing the battle against the increasing weight of her eyelids, she gave in. She felt content with her eyes closed, feeling the sun rays warming up her skin against the cold wind.
And as she started to drift off into the land of dreams, the sun was no longer upon her face. "It's not already time to go inside already, is it?" she wondered sleepily, as she noticed the sudden change.
She opened her eyes lazily and found Sirius Black blocking her view of the sun. He stared down at her, and she stared back; both with blank expressions on their faces. An outsider could have decided that they were having some sort of a staring contest.
"What do you want, Black?"
Sirius raised an eyebrow, "Please, call me Sirius. We're fellow Gryffindors; we don't need to use our surnames with each other."
Lily rolled her eyes, shrugged and sighed, "Alright, what do you want, Sirius?"
"I want to know what's happening between you and James."
Upset, thinking that Sirius was suggesting that she and James were seeing each other, she answered back, "You must be delusional, Black, because nothing is happening between us."
"I didn't mean it that way," Sirius snorted, "what I meant was, are you two on speaking terms now or are pieces of parchment still your preferred method of communication? And as I said, call me Sirius."
"What would make you think that I talked to Potter?" Lily asked curiously.
A smile playing on his lips, Sirius answered simply, "Well, there is the fact that he was staring at you when you entered the Great Hall at breakfast. Oh, and may I add that he was staring at you quite intently. I just figured something might have happened between you two."
Lily raised an eyebrow. "So Potter hasn't told you yet, has he?"
"No, apparently he hasn't, and I doubt he's ever going to. He seemed quite keen on keeping it to himself before... but I see that you do know something about this. So please, do tell me about it." Sirius told Lily, intrigued by what she was going to say.
Lily sighed, shrugged and answered back dully. "I don't see why Potter is trying to hide it." She paused. "I was assigned to be his tutor for Arithmancy, if you must know. Unfortunately, Mr. Potter is failing the subject and McGonagall wants me to help him. And that's about it…"
Sirius remained silent, while Lily failed to figure out what he had to say. Lily looked at Sirius. "Anything else I can help you with?"
"No, it's alright." Sirius grinned. "Thank you for your help, mademoiselle, now would you like to accompany me to the Great Hall? It seems like the sun has already gone down." (A/N: no, he's not hitting on her.)
Lily shrugged. "Sure…"
88888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888888
After dinner, Sirius asked to talk to James, in private, throwing a look at Julie who was clinging to James' arm.
They walked until they'd reached the Heads' dorm in silence; wanting to be sure nobody else overheard them. Approaching the room, Sirius interrupted the silence and asked "Prongs, why didn't you tell me that you were failing Arithmancy?"
"You've been talking to Evans, haven't you?" asked James, annoyed.
"No… well yes, but that doesn't matter. You never told me that you were failing."
"I know, Padfoot, I know. But…"
"And now, Prongs, Evans tells me she has to tutor you?" asked Sirius, making James laugh as Sirius waited for him to answer.
He finally replied, "Yeah, it is true. McGonagall told me that if I didn't pass it, I wouldn't be able to graduate... and Evans didn't make it easy either. I tried to compromise with her, but instead, she--"
"Don't tell me; Evans found a way to blackmail you." interrupted Sirius.
"Exactly. She threatened to tell McGonagall that I haven't been attending the lessons if I try to skip them. But not to worry, I worked out a plan…" James replied with a smirk.
(A/N): This is again, not a cliffhanger, people. James has a plan and that's all. So liked it? I didn't… especially the ending with James and Sirius. Anyways, review please?