The Problem with Pretty

By LittleMissRedShoes

(A/N: Time for a little bit of Lily/James. I used to read a lot of this pairing when I first starting reading fanfiction ten years ago. Wow that makes me feel old! I've not read any of this pairing in a long while, but I have to admit I am really enjoying writing them. It feels kind of like coming back full circle. Anyway, this chapter is a little conversation heavy, something I always feel a little awkward writing, so any hints and tips about how I can improve this or any other aspect of my writing are greatly appreciated. Just hit that review button below! And on that note... on with the story!)

"Evans?"

Lily jumped in shock as she walked through the common room. She hadn't expected anyone to be in the common room this afternoon. She turned around to find where the voice had come from to find James Potter.

"James! You scared me. Why aren't you at the Quidditch pitch with everyone else? The match starts in an hour." It was the second match of the School year, Gryffindor vs Slytherin. While Lily usually didn't care one jot about Quidditch, today she was hoping that the Slytherin team would be pummelled by her housemates. After certain events earlier in the day, she wasn't feeling particularly charitable towards Slytherin house. And there was one chaser in particular who she hoped got to meet the business end of a bludger.

James raised one eyebrow at her use of his given name. She had once told him to never call her by hers again unless he wanted to be hexed. And he knew first hand that the witch could cast a nasty hex or two when she wanted.

Something felt a little off kilter. She was being almost civil to him. While it was a welcome change, he was certain that is wasn't because she had suddenly changed her mind about him. Her eyes were slightly red and puffy, like she had been crying and she had her arms wrapped protectively around her middle, her wand grasped in her right hand. James knew that when she walked the halls her wand was always safely stowed in her satchel, as no magic was to be used in the corridors, and Lily Evans was nothing if not a stickler for the rules. No, something was very, very wrong.

"Why have you been crying, Lily?" He asked the witch gently.

"I'm not crying!" she snapped entirely too defensively for anyone to have believed her. "Anyway, why do you care? Just go and play your stupid little game with your friends and leave me alone. Why won't people just leave me alone?" Her voice cracked a little as she spoke.

"I'm not leaving you while you're upset. Please tell me what happened."

"Why? Because I owe you an explanation? The whole world thinks I owe them something. That they can just touch me whenever they want. Take whatever they want."

"Who touched you, Lily?" Whoever had hurt her would pay, he would make sure of that.

"Like it matters. You're just the same." Her words cut him more than anything that she had ever said to him before.

"I've never touched you."

Lily thought back, searching for a memory to prove him wrong. Anything from grabbing her hand to a peck on the cheek, but none were forthcoming. He was right. He had never once so much as brushed up against her in all their years at Hogwarts. For a split second, she wondered why. Maybe he didn't care about her as much as he claimed. She banished these thoughts, but not quickly enough for her not to register the slight disappointment that came with the idea.

"Maybe not, but you still think I owe you my time and attention."

What hurt James the most was that she was right. He had just wanted her to like him. He wanted to know her so badly that he had forgotten to consider whether she wanted to know him, which she clearly didn't.

"You're right." He admitted. "I'm sorry."

She was entirely taken aback. She had never expected any acknowledgement of this at all, let alone an apology. She smiled a little at him. "Thank you. I'm sorry for going off at you before."

"S'alright." He replied, running his hand through his hair as he stood before her awkwardly, not really knowing how to react to her being nice to him. "Would you like to talk about what happened?" he asked, hoping that she would. He just had to know what had made her so upset, because if he didn't know then he couldn't fix it for her. The only thing he wanted in the world was to make her happy.

"I'm probably just overreacting." She replied. "Avery kissed me and I didn't want him to. He didn't hurt me or anything. I'm just being stupid."

James was going to kill that slimy son-of-a-bitch. "You're not stupid." He told her.

"It just gets to me. People think that because they think I'm pretty, I have this obligation to them to be nice and smile, and accept the flattery and catcalls." She didn't know why she was opening up to James Potter of all people, but she somehow knew that he wouldn't tell her to just enjoy the attention like everyone else did. "Nobody wants to know who is underneath. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be telling you all of this."

"I know you." He told her, his voice barely above a whisper. In response, she let out a short derisive laugh. How could he possibly know her?

"You are Lily Evans, the smartest witch in that I have ever met. You have a sister called Petunia, but you don't get on with her very well. You hate strawberries and love the colour yellow. You're top of our class in Potions and Charms, but your favourite class is Transfiguration because it doesn't come as naturally to you. When you perform a new type of Transfiguration successfully for the first time, your whole face lights up because you feel like you've really achieved something. Your favourite month is April because it rains a lot and you like to sit beside the window and listen to the raindrops on the glass. I know that you go on holiday to France every summer with your family and that Paris is your favourite city in the whole world. You love going there with your parents, but you sometimes wish you could just go alone so that you could visit all of the magical sights that you can't go to when you're with them. I know-"

He was cut off by Lily's lips crashing into his. She was completely overcome. She had no idea that he had really cared about her. The real her. What she liked, what she didn't. She had been looking for someone to want to know her for so many years now, and it seemed that he had been there all along. Cliché perhaps, but also very true.

James wasn't really sure how to respond. He had wanted this for such a long time that he almost couldn't believe that it had actually happened. She pulled away from him sharply, bringing her fingers up to touch her lips.

"James," she whispered. "I'm so sorry. Here I am making all of this fuss about Avery kissing me without my permission, and here I am doing the same to you."

James brought his hand up to cup her cheek. "Lily Evans. I want to kiss you today, and every day for the rest of our lives." He kissed her deeply. The passion that was present in that one kiss was like nothing that either of them could have ever dreamed of.

James manoeuvred them to the back of one of the sofas in the common room and lifted her up to rest on the back it, his lips never leaving hers for a moment. This brought her up to his height allowing him better access to her mouth, as well as having the desirable side effect of making her cling onto him tightly to prevent herself from falling. Her arms were wrapped around his neck, her legs, circling his waist, pulling him closer. He realised that, rather awkwardly, she could most likely feel the effect that their kiss was having on him, but when she moaned into his mouth and used her legs around his waist to draw that particular part of his anatomy closer, he found he no longer cared.

She forgot all about the fact that this was a public common area, and that anyone could simply walk in and see them. She forgot that he had to leave for the Quidditch match or he would be late, and surely someone would come looking for him any second now. She forgot all about her tears from earlier and that she was supposed to hate him, because all her mind was filled with was the fact that she was kissing James Potter and it felt good.

The clock in the common room chimed, signalling five o'clock. She pulled herself away from his lips for just long enough to exclaim "The Quidditch match!"

"They can play without me." He sucked her lower lip into his mouth, eliciting a moan.

"They can't you're the captain, and the seeker." He placed tiny kisses down the side of her neck. He groaned as she disentangled herself from him. "James you, have to go."

"Can't I just" kiss "stay here" kiss "with you?" He nibbled lightly on her earlobe, breaking her resolve as she arched into him and drew him back for another minute of heavy snogging. He whimpered a little as she drew back from him again.

"You're going to be late." She informed him.

"Come watch the match?" he asked her.

"I don't watch Quidditch." Was her reply.

"Then don't watch the match, just watch me."

"On one condition…." She looked up at him with her wide green eyes.

"Anything." He assured her. And he meant it.

The corner of her mouth was upturned in a wicked little smirk. "Kick their arses!"

James grinned and grabbed her hand as they dashed out of the common room headed in the direction of the Quidditch pitch.