: )
Enjoy the second part!
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Part TwoThe first day back at Hogwarts from summer break was always a bit crazed. Everyone wanted to catch up with friends about what had happened over the past two months. For one group of Gryffindor girls, this was fulfilled in a nice, long gossip session.
"I think we should be fine in the common room," a raven haired girl remarked, "after all, we have the Head Girl with us, so we can't get in too much trouble."
This earned a snort of laughter from Lily. "Right, Cari, you four won't get in trouble—it'll just be me."
"And our darling Head Boy," Pamina added mischievously, earning laughter from the other girls.
"He gets in enough trouble as is," Alice stated.
"Too true," Judith replied dryly.
With an arch look, Cari asked, "How do you like our Head Boy, Lily?"
Lily sighed before answering, "As of now, I think little of his appointment—give me some time and I'm sure I'll be able to bore you to death with my opinions."
This earned another bout of laughter from the seventh year girls—which in turn, slightly frightened the people left in the common room.
"Are you sure you'll be able to have a good working relationship?" Cari asked.
Lily's only response was to raise an eyebrow.
"What she means," Pamina continued with a smirk, "is how will you two work together when it's obvious that he wants a different type of relationship?"
"I maintain the fact that all of you are delusional," Lily sourly replied.
"Oh, come on, Lily," Alice said. "Certainly you can tell that he thinks very highly of you…"
"And he's asked you out countless times…" Cari contributed.
"Plus, he always seems to watch you," Pamina added.
Lily glared at them, and Judith decided to keep her mouth shut on this one.
"We really aren't making it all up," Cari said. "And I don't know why you won't even listen to the evidence…"
"I have listened, haven't I? Or why else am I still sitting here?" Lily questioned angrily.
An uncomfortable silence ensued, in which Lily was scowling at nothing in particular and the others were staring at her, wondering if she expected an answer.
Finally Judith broke the silence by asking inanely, "Did you hear that Will Loanan broke it off with Stacey Marks?"
Cari's eyes lit up, and Lily threw Judith a grateful look.
"Really? When did this happen?" Cari asked. "Details, Judith, details!"
Judith laughed. "Patience, Cari, patience!" Then more seriously she said, "You know Stacey lives near me and we're fairly close, so she came over for comforting. The poor thing was absolutely heartbroken—she really liked him a lot. And the worst of it is he didn't even have the decency to do it face-to-face—he broke up by owl."
"What a coward!" Pamina exclaimed vehemently. "If he didn't want to be there in person, he could've at least talked through the fire!"
"But he likes using owl post," Lily stated. "Don't you remember when he broke up with Anna Hillbury? He did the exact same thing."
"True. But he and Anna weren't as involved as he and Stacey," Alice pointed out.
"Yes—that relationship was dead by the time he broke it off. Even Anna said she would've broken up with him if it went another week. And we all know that Anna isn't one to take action," Cari said.
The girls continued in this line of conversation, gossiping about various relationships that had been started or ended over break, as well as those the people in consideration were previously involved with.
It was very late when they had finally exhausted that source of gossip. The only people left in the common room were the five girls and six boys, who were sitting across the room. The boys were, naturally, the rest of the seventh years. To these poor souls, the girls' conversation soon returned.
"I thought you'd like to know, Lily," Cari said, "that Mr. Potter is staring at you."
Lily resisted the urge to yell out, Of course I know he is! For she had, unbeknownst to her friends, developed a sixth sense when it came to James and could tell when he stared at her—after all, it had ample time to develop with the amount of staring he did.
Instead she used her defense mechanism and asked skeptically, "Oh, really? How can you tell that he's staring at me? He might be looking at you."
"Lily," Cari answered, "his eyes haven't moved off you. I'm beginning to think that they're permanently stuck on you."
"I'm sure you're mistaken," Lily replied incredulously.
"You could always turn around and see for yourself," Pamina added impishly.
"I wouldn't wish to give any of you the satisfaction."
"I'm telling you, Lily, he's head-over-heels for you," Cari said knowingly.
"Ooohh," Lily said, her voice positively dripping of sarcasm, "he told you this, did he?"
Cari didn't know how to respond. "I… Well…he never said anything…but…"
"It's utterly obvious that he likes you a lot," Pamina finished for her.
Lily looked toward the two quieter girls to see what they thought of this.
Alice shrugged apologetically, "They have a point, even if it is a bit exaggerated."
"I don't think he's really head-over-heels, yet," Judith agreed, "but I don't know why you dismiss the fact that he likes you so rapidly."
"Exactly," Cari said. "Why won't you hear us out when we try to tell you that he likes you?"
"I've told you that I listen to your 'evidence' that he likes me," Lily replied, her eyes flashing. "In fact, I've heard your cases for James Potter time and time again—and I won't believe it unless he decides to make this case himself. Until then, I have to act as I see fit—and what I see fit isn't what the rest of you seem to."
This outburst seemed to send the girls into a shocked silence. None of them could piece together what exactly Lily had meant.
Lily took advantage of this silence and the late hour. She rose from her chair abruptly and said with finality, "Goodnight." With that, she turned on her heel and went straight for the staircase.
She was, of course, hyperaware that everyone in the room was looking at her—she supposed that the angry tones of her softly spoken speech had carried through the room. And she was equally determined not to look at any of them—least of all at James Potter.
***
After reaching the darkened dormitory and changing for the night, Lily thought back to the night's conversation. And for once, she decided to be brutally honest with herself on one subject: James Potter.
He did have a large amount of arrogance—he always seemed to think everyone liked him. Which was often the case; he was very well liked at school (Slytherins excluded). He also allowed this popularity to go to his head—and he used it in stupid ways; for instance, bullying people just because they annoyed him (and his friends).
But James did have good points. He was very charismatic (thus why he had such popularity) and was good at nearly everything he did—especially Quidditch. In fact, Lily was a bit envious of these qualities.
Lily saw little of these good qualities. Whenever James was around her, he tended to come off as conceited. The few times that she had a glimpse at the real James (when she had been near him without his knowledge), she saw a very different person—someone who wasn't idiotic and boastful.
Even when he was being arrogant, Lily had a hard time ignoring James. It seemed the more she tried to do this, the more she noticed him. His habits, from the way he constantly messed up his hair to his showing off with his Snitch to his often witty statements, Lily could recall in an instant.
If it hadn't been for his arrogance, Lily was certain that she would like him. In fact, she was afraid that she liked him in spite of this horrible trait. But, of course, he had grown up in the past year and hopefully he'd continue to—so maybe his arrogance wouldn't be a problem….
But Lily stuck by what she had told her friends. If James Potter wanted to convince her that he really liked her, he would have to do so himself. After all, Lily still had her doubts on his sincerity.
~~~
The third part is giving me a bit of trouble—yes, writer's block has struck with a vengeance. I'll work on it some more over the holidays, so around mid-January it should be up; but who knows, maybe I'll get it up before then.
~KAT:Megate~
Oh! one more thing: Please review!