Chapter 3

The morning had not been going well. I woke up late, I could not get my eye makeup right. My tea scalded my tongue. There was only wheat toast at breakfast so I had to have porridge and then I dropped it on my lap so I had to run back to my dorm to change and so I was sprinting through the halls hoping that my previous years had afforded me enough knowledge of the castle to take secret passages and maybe not be too late to class.

I ducked into one behind a portrait of Odric the Oddball and if I remember correctly, it should dump me out at a Scottish Landscape. I clutched my bag to my chest and sprinted down the narrow corridor. There were a lot of sharp twists and turns, and I ran into a couple walls and had to bounce around corners and keep upright and moving. I was finally grounded when I ran smack into a person and fell on my tush.

"Oh gosh," I said trying to get back on my feet, but it appeared as if there was a person on top of me and I couldn't move. "I'm so so sor-" I looked up and realized that the person I had ran into was my arch enemy.

"Potter." I growled.

"Evans." He grunted back. "Always a pleasure."

"Get off of me you oaf! I'm late." I tried to shove him off of me, but he turned out to be quite solid.

"Ah- that was my stomach!"

"Don't step on me."

We finally managed to detangle ourselves from each other and get to a standing position. I dusted myself off and I started looking around for my bag. I was saddened to see that it was behind James. I moved to step around him and retrieve it, but he slid over to stand in my way.

"Aren't you going to apologize?" He said in a smug tone.

"Apologize?!"

"Ya, you just barreled into me."

"You ran into me!"

"I was not moving."

"Why were you just standing in the middle of a secret passageway?"

"That's my business."

"Uck, whatever." I said, rolling my eyes and trying to step around him again. He stepped in my way again. A little too close to me in the narrow hallway. Causing me to stumble back.

"Let me by, James."

"Now why would I do that?"

"I am late! I have to get to class."

"Ah shucks." He said clicking his tongue. "Tardiness! Who could ever get a job with one of those on their record?"

"Just because you don't care about your studies doesn't mean no one else does."

"I do care about my studies, I just don't make it my whole life, like someone else I know."

"What is that supposed to mean?"

"Come on, Evans." He murmured, taking a step closer. "When do you ever care about anything other than school?"

"When do you ever care about anything but yourself?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"All you think about is yourself." I was starting to lose it. It had been the worst day of my life. It was as if everything was piling up on me. I started spiraling even further. I couldn't help but thinking that if I was late to Transfiguration that I would have to stay late to get the homework and then I would be late to Potions and then Professor Slughorn would stop thinking of me as his star student and then he wouldn't write me a good recommendation and I wouldn't be able to get a good job and then I would be living with my parents working at a muggle food chain at age thirty. Something in me snapped a little.

"You are so obsessed with yourself." My voice started to rise. "You're constantly playing with your hair. Always making it the perfect amount of messy trying to make it look like you don't care about your looks, but since you spend so much time on it you clearly do! And how you always manage to be tossing around ink pots or even going as far to steal an actual snitch from the school, for the purpose of only having the whole school know that you are a quidditch superstar!"

"Wow," James said with a slight shake of his head. He seemed completely unphased by me screaming insults at him, which only served to enrage me more. "For someone who claims to not care about my hair, you seem to notice it a lot."

"You disgust me!" He did have a point; I did notice his hair a lot. It was so difficult to not notice it when his strong, broom-calloused hands were constantly running through his silky locks. "You constantly act out in class-"

"Are you still all hot and bothered about me mastering the door mouse to door mat spell before you?"

"At least my door mat didn't squeak!"

"You can't stand anyone being better than you at anything, can you?" He said taking a step toward me. I, revolted, took a step back.

"You are not better than me!"

"So, you admit it!" Another step toward me, another step back. "You do rank our classmates."

"I do not rank the class!" I was so horrified that I stumbled backward into the wall.

"Right," He scoffed and moved closer. "Just the ones that threaten your rep as top dog!"

"I am not top dog!"

"Sure, you are!" He was looming over me now, my back against the wall. I had nowhere to go. "You are brilliant and clever and pretty."

"How dare you!"

"How dare I?"

"Ya, how dare you call me pretty! With your charming smile and the whole bad boy thing you've got going on!"

"It's clearly not working because you are the only girl who has shown 0 interest in me unless I'm insulting you or performing better in a class."

"You could have any girl in the school!"

"But none of them are as annoying and pompous as you!"

"Of course, that is what you would only be interested in a girl that doesn't want you. You prick."

"Snobby trollop!"

"Arrogant arse!"

"Gormless slag!"

"Hunk of man candy!"

Ha! I had done it! I had finally left the great and care-free James Potter speechless! I had won. Of course, when James Potter had nothing left to say, he took action. He grabbed my face and kissed me.

The most shocking thing about the whole situation wasn't that he kissed me. He was a terrible flirt and I'm not going to pretend like I'm repulsive to the opposite sex.

It wasn't that the kiss was mind-blowing. Any rumors surrounding him included the words like Casanova or Adonis. He had full lips and a fit body, what else would you expect.

No, the most surprising thing was that I kissed him back. I consider myself to be disciplined and focused. I hadn't spent much time on any boy, let alone my arch enemy because I was so focused on my studies. And now, even though I was most certainly very late to class, it didn't seem like that big of a deal. Not when I was in a dark corridor running my hands through his magic hair. I suddenly understood why he was constantly running his hands through it; if I had hair like this I wouldn't be able to keep my hands off it either.

My brain kinda divided into two parts, like Janus the god of decisions and doorways, two faced and in constant disagreement. The one side argued that James was a prick and had done nothing but torment me for the past six years. The other just couldn't get over how amazing it felt when his lips were on mine, passionately pressing into me. So amazing, it was agonizing by comparison the few milliseconds when they were separated for a breath of air.

Then he did the unthinkable. He pulled away. How dare he! I couldn't believe that he finally got what he had been asking for all year and he just stopped. Wait. Was it not what he expected? Was I terrible? Great. Now I was feeling insecure and feeling like I wasn't good enough because of an arrogant prick. Rage started boiling in my stomach and I felt like I was going to explode.

His mouth opened and closed like he was trying to think of something to say. What could he say? Whoops! I rescind all my previous efforts to get your attention because you're a terrible kisser. Who did he think he was? He spends all year being a total arse while asking me out like it's nothing but flirting. Then he basically tackles me to the ground, makes out with me, only to find me subpar. No! He does not get to make me feel inferior!

Also, he made me late. That was the last straw. I was fed up with James Freaking Potter and I was just done.

SMACK!

What was that? Oh! That was me, I slapped him on the face. I almost apologized then I realized he totally deserved it. He stumbled back, Finally, getting out of my way. So, I darted by grabbed my bag and dashed off to class. My lips still tingling from the kiss and my gut rolling with anger.

What just happened? Did he really just do that? Did I really just do that? My head was spinning with all the emotions going through it. Did I enjoy that? Am I disgusted? I had no idea.