Thanks a lot to kittyatza, Angelfly06 and Whitelight72 for reviewing the first chapter of my fanfic. I really appreciated your encouraging feedback:-)
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Ch 2: Hatred
Time passed quickly and the summer felt like an eternity ago. Lily kept herself busy with her mountain of work and her Head Girl duties. Unfortunately, her duties included spending time with James Potter.
Late one night, Lily was patrolling the corridors with James, pointedly ignoring him and trying to avoid conversation. After keeping it up for well over an hour, James eventually broke her act.
"Are you planning to ignore me all night Evans."
"I was hoping so. The silence has been lovely, please don't stop now."
James was slightly hurt by her vicious comments but would never, in a million years, let her know that.
"Since you've been enjoying my pleasurable company so much, why don't you come to Hogsmeade with me next weekend?"
"I will never never NEVER go out with you Potter. I would have thought you might have gotten the message by now but obviously it can't get through your thick, incredibly large head!" Lily spat back angrily.
Why did she always reject him?
"What did I ever do to you Evans, so make you hate me so much? I'm charming, handsome and funny, what more could a girl like you want?"
Lily snorted in disgust. He really was extremely full of himself.
"Take a look at yourself Potter. Take a good, long, hard look in the mirror. You just might see all the things that are wrong with you that the rest of us have to put up with every time we look at you." Maybe a little harsh, but still true. Lily found it unbearable enough to have to do rounds with him. She felt nauseous just thinking about having to spend a whole day with him.
When their rounds of the corridors finally came to an end, Lily breathed a sigh of relief at no longer having to be in the company of James Potter.
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Lily hurried up the stairs to her dormitory, quickly grabbing the book she left behind before breakfast. Marly, Clara and Natalie were all eating lunch in the Great Hall. As she sped down the stairs Lily stopped abruptly as she tried to avoid running into the form of Remus Lupin.
"Oops, sorry Remus, I didn't see you there." Lily smiled kindly.
The harassed look on his face died and he grinned back at her. Remus was the only Marauder that Lily could stand. After both being Gryffindor prefects for the past two years, Lily got on well with Remus and loved that she could talk about the latest book she had read or swap notes from classes with him.
If Lily were to ever get a boyfriend, she would definitely choose someone like Remus. He was kind and funny and while not as handsome as his two friends he was still good-looking in his own respect. Unfortunately, Remus was often sick and appeared pale and peaky and Lily had never figured out why. Still, he was smart and loyal but the only problem was, Lily only saw him as a friend, nothing more, and he her. But even though, Lily knew that her friendship was of huge annoyance to James.
Remus was as different as possible from the other three Marauders. James was arrogant, a bully, a show off, incredibly smart but lazy. Sirius was, well, Sirius: handsome, conceited, and a playboy. And Peter. An annoying little worm in complete awe of his popular friends. Neither smart nor good-looking, Peter was the oddball of the group and I don't think even he ever knew how he became part of the Marauders.
"Lily! Long time no see. How are you?" With James Potter to keep from hexing anybody during the Head's and Prefect's meetings, Lily never had time to chat with Remus anymore.
"I'm fine. How about you? Those barbaric monsters you call friends keeping you in trouble?" Lily joked laughingly while inwardly slapping herself for insulting his friends. While she detested them it was not her place to say that. However, Remus didn't look slightly fazed by her remark and laughed heartily.
"Yep. Sirius blew up another toilet on the second floor but so far has managed not to get caught for it. I think Apollyon Pringle is on to him though." Apollyon Pringle was the bad-tempered caretaker, always on a mission to give detention to anybody who did or didn't deserve it.
"How are you getting along with my other thick-headed friend constantly trying to woo you? Still cruelly turning him down" Remus asked jokingly. If Lily didn't know Remus as well as she did she would have suspected that James had put him up to this. Remus was always subtly hinting for Lily to accept James' many proposals to go out with him. Wisely, he never pushed the point though, he learnt his lesson on that years ago.This conversation had taken place many times. Nowadays, it had become a joke between them.
"He's not as bad as you think, you know. He does mean well." Lily pursed her lips and bit back her retort. Remus looked at her apologetically, regretting his words. He would never try to do anything to ruin the friendship he and Lily shared. Sometimes he just got carried away and tried to play matchmaker when clearly it was never going to happen. Lily's hatred of James was unlikely to ever fade, even Remus who would like nothing better than to see James happy with the girl he had adored since 1st year knew that it was a hopeless case.
"Well, I'd better get back down to lunch before all the desserts are gone." Lily said lightly as she turned to leave. Instead of retreating in the opposite direction as she expected him to, Remus accompanied Lily to the Great Hall. Walking amicably together, they discussed school and books, each sorry for bringing up James. James was the only tension in their otherwise pleasant friendship.
When they reached the Great Hall, James' face tightened when he saw Lily laugh at something Remus said. Jealousy bubbled away in his veins as he forced to control it. Remus was one of his best friends and he trusted him with his life but his friendship with Lily caused James a great deal of discomfort. She liked Remus, yet she couldn't stand the sight of James, and that bugged him more than he let on.
Lily smiled at Remus again as she took a seat between Marly and Clara. The tension from before had long since evaporated.
"So, are we going to Hogsmeade together Evans?" James said, his playful humour back. Lily glared at him angrily.
"As usual, Potter," She spat out his name with venom, "I would rather go with the giant squid!"
Maybe next time, James sighed, admitting defeat for today. She was bound to come around soon.
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Lily and Marly went to Hogsmeade together the following weekend. They planned to meet up with Natalie and Clara later after Marly had dragged Lily along to all the shops. Marly loved shopping, especially clothes shopping. She was highly fashionable and loved wearing the latest clothes. Lily enjoyed it but could only tolerate it in small doses. However, she had promised Marly that she would go shopping with her and a promise was a promise.
The Marauders also enjoyed their trip to Hogsmeade, using the opportunity to stock up on dungbombs and lollies from Zonkos and Honeydukes. They sat in the Three Broomsticks drinking butterbeer, planning their next pranks while Sirius flirted with Madame Rosmerta.
Later, as the four sat under a tree on the streets of Hogsmeade, James pointed to a stingy teenager with lank, greasy hair and a hooked nose, "Look whose sitting over there?"
"Why, if it isn't our dear old friend Snivellus." Sirius cackled evilly. "Look, his greasy nose is so close to his book, I'm surprised he can read it through all the grease marks he's leaving behind. Oi, Snivelly!" He called out.
Severus Snape stiffened but he ignored Sirius.
"It's rude to ignore people, Snivelly." James taunted as he hit Snape with a curse.
Unluckily for James, Lily and Marly entered just into to witness James jinxing Snape.
"STOP IT!" Lily shouted. Why couldn't he leave people alone? He thought he was so cool just because he could jinx someone.
"Chill, Evans. It's only Snivellus. Don't get your knickers in a knot." James replied casually as he aimed his wand at Snape.
"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lily screamed at James. Sirius scoffed but James released Snape from his hex.
"You know the drill Evans, I will if you go out with me." James looked at her hopefully.
Snape tried to hit James with a spell but James was too quick.
"Expelliarmus!" Snape's wand flew from his hand and landed several metres away.
"You're supposed to be Head Boy. I'm going to report you for this Potter. And I would NEVER go out with you, not even if you were the last man on earth!"
"I am Head Boy, and you wouldn't dare." James was quite enjoying watching her outraged expression. She did look exceptionally cute when she got angry with her hair falling out of her ponytail and framing her face and her cheeks pink.
"I HATE you James Potter!" Lily stormed off and Marly ran to catch up with her. James looked after her, stunned and hurt but trying to act like her words didn't faze him.
"You're never going to win her heart acting like that." Remus said matter-of-factly.
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Lily's words had stung James more than he was prepared to let on. The events of that day had caused a change in James and Remus' words played over and over in his head. You're never going to win her heart acting like that.
No one is saying that from that day on, James became Prince Charming and swept Lily off her feet. Nothing of the sort. However, James did change, subtly, but still a change. James still flirted with Lily constantly and teased her at every opportunity but he lost his arrogance. His head deflated a bit and he stopped jinxing people for the fun of it (except Snape but he always checked to make sure Lily wasn't around to witness it).
This was his last chance. After this year he might never see Lily again. He had to make her like him, love him if he could manage it but that was probably asking for too much. Lily hated him and he knew it would take something huge for him to redeem himself in her eyes. In every spare moment he had, James racked his brains for something to make Lily like him.
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A/N This chapter doesn't really add much to the overall plot of the story so it is quite short. I hope it doesn't bore anyone who actually reads this fanfic! ;-) This chapter mainly gives a background into how much Lily really does hate James and how James eventually does try to change. The next chapter will have more to do with the overall storyline.