V. Mistake 4—Acquaintances

"How did the éclairs go over?"

I cringed at the sound of the voice. I had been trying to avoid him, and I had been successful until we finally met to patrol Friday evening.

"Hello Potter," I said briskly, "Let's just do this, shall we?"

He nodded, not bothering to say much else.

"So…er…Emmeline told me she's tutoring you in Transfiguration," he said after a prolonged silence.

Hm. She would.

Now everyone is going to know I'm bollocks at Transfiguration.

"Mmhm," I said disinterestedly.

It fell silent, and it was very awkward actually. It wasn't even a comfortable silence. It was more of his attempt to make conversation and me shooting him down. Ha.

Does he blame me? It's not like we're friends or anything. So when rounds end, I muttered a quick "Bye, Potter" and scurried back to my dorm.

I thought that this would begin something. Maybe he'd take my awkwardness as a clear 'I don't want to talk to you—ever.'

He didn't.

I know this because the next morning, he kept following me around. Weird and creepy, right?

Doesn't he have a girlfriend to bother?

I eventually lost him in the dungeons where I had an awkward run in with my previous best mate, Severus. Fabulous. My day just keeps getting better and better.

I should have listened to Petunia. She always said Severus wasn't any good, but Petunia's never ever right so you can understand why I ignored her advice—even before she began hating me.

Anyway, I went and hid out in the library deciding to work on Transfiguration after a narrow escape from Potter yet again (my first tutoring session was tomorrow—I had to be ready).

"James is looking for you," Marlene said when I returned to the common room that evening after a not-very-successful attempt to study for Transfiguration.

"Why?" I said quickly, glancing around the common room with him. I'm pretty sure I could make a mad dash to the girl's dormitories before he spotted me.

"He and Sirius left a few minutes ago," Selene said absently. She was flipping through her copy of Witch Weekly, not even bothering to look up, "Oooh…the Wizard of the Week is Francis Jacques…he's that French Qudditch Keeper."

"I don't like Quidditch players," Marlene said, scrunching up her nose, "They're cocky and annoying."

"Didn't you date Samuel Wood last year?" Selene asked, raising her eyebrow, "The seventh year Keeper?"

"Right," Marlene shrugged, "And it ended badly, remember? I'm no longer going to date Quidditch players…thank Merlin the new Keeper is a girl," she said smirking. Selene and I both laughed.

I sat around talking, not getting any work done, with my mates when I heard Potter's voice calling my name, "Evans!"

"Oh no!" I moaned, jumping up to make a dash for the girl's staircase, but Marlene pulled me down by my book bag. Selene was giving me a bemused look.

"Why are you avoiding him?" asked Selene.

"Yeah, why are you avoiding me?" Potter had appeared. He looked frustrated.

"I wasn't avoiding you," I said immediately. Of course I was avoiding him!

"I tried talking to you three times today. The third time you said 'there's no Lily Evans here' before running away to the library."

He knew I was in the library? Creepy.

"That wasn't me," I said quickly.

Potter ignored me and gave me a stern look, "Evans," he began, "I need to talk to you. Now," he added, glancing at my mates. Well. They are allowed to listen if they'd like. He has no control—

"We'll go," Marlene said nodding, "C'mon Selene."

"Right," she smiled, "Going," they hurried up the girls staircase. Great friends they are.

"Anyway," Potter is looking at me again. I sighed and crossed my arms.

"Fine, what do you need that you've been desperately trying to get a hold of me all day?"

"Us."

He said it so simply that I almost nodded, as if that was a completely normal response. Then I realized what he said. Us? There is no us.

"Er—what?" I managed. Wow. Way to be articulate, Lily.

He sighed, "Listen, we have to work as Heads all year, right? And let's be honest…patrols last night…" he gave me a sharp look, "That was painfully awkward."

Yeah. For you.

"Was it?" I asked innocently. He responded with a sharp glare, so I continued (gleefully may I add), "Maybe it hasn't occurred to you….but I just don't like talking to you," I said. Keeping it nice, simple, and honest.

He looked even more irritated by this than I expected, "This is what I'm talking about Evans! Listen, I realize I was a bit of prat in the past—"

"A bit?"

He gave me a cross look, "Fine," he said. I wanted to laugh, but it probably wouldn't have been appropriate. He was already getting a bit red in the face, "More than a bit…" he admitted grudgingly, "the point is, I'm not the same person I was when I was thirteen—or fifteen for that matter. We're adults now. I think we can handle our Head responsibility without trying to get on each other's nerves. We can…respect each other."

Er—come again?

Was this really James Potter speaking?

"Potter—"

"Listen," he said bracingly, "I just don't want to have to force you to talk to me during patrols. I'm not saying let's be best mates—that will obviously never happen."

Hey. What's wrong with being my best mate?

"But we can get along and be…acquaintances."

"Acquaintances?" I repeated skeptically.

"Yeah," he grinned, "What do you say, give it a go, Lily?"

"Er—sure," I found myself saying,nodding slowly in agreement. I'm going to blame it on the fact that he used my first name for once. Because hoenstly...what did I think I was agreeing to? My head was screaming…mistake! Mistake! I sort of forgot though because he smiled widely. It wasn't his usual smirk or devious grin but a nice, happy smile.

"Brilliant," he said.

"Yeah," I still felt a bit off about all of this, "If you say so, Potter."

"Oh," he smiled again, "Just call me James."

I almost choked. Call him James? Who does he think he's kidding?

I think he noticed my skepticism because he just laughed and said, "It is my name, Lily—and we're not enemies. You call everyone else by their given names, yeah? Well, I better be off. Nice chat, I think," he said bracingly, flashing another smile.

He didn't wait for my response. Probably because it would have just ended in us arguing. I mean, does he seriously expect me to ever call him anything but Potter?

That's just ludicrous.

Marlene is going to get way too much pleasure out of this.

-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-…-

Well, Marlene was certainly entertained by the idea of Potter and I being acquaintances. She kept bringing it up all day. It was really getting on my nerves…which wasn't fair because my nerves were already frazzled.

Of course, I think we all know what today is.

Tutoring day.

Yay.

I can't wait.

Really.

In fact, I'm sitting in the library waiting for Emmeline. I'm early, but I'm kind of hoping she'll be late, so I can make her look bad…

"Lily!" Emmeline's cheerful voice came from in front of me. I looked up from my book and forced a smile, "You're early," she noted, "Excellent. We can just go and get started, what do you think?"

I think this is bollocks.

"Sure," I said easily.

Unfortunately…well actually I guess it is fortunate…Emmeline is a great tutor. I mean, I don't have Transfiguration down in one session, but she is actually very helpful and now my homework makes a lot more sense. I suppose that's her job.

I just hate that she's going to get credit for that.

"So," Emmeline said as we ended, and I began packing up my bag, "How are Head duties going?" she asked conversationally. Like she actually cares. Pft.

"Er—alright, Po—James and I had to patrol." See? I was trying. I called him James. Urgh. That just gave me unpleasant goosebumps. I knew being his acquaintance was a bad idea. Proper acquaintances don't give you goosebumps.

Emmeline seemed to notice that me using his first name was odd because she gave me a curious look, "You two are on first name basis now?"

"Er—kind of. He had a stern talking to me. He was trying to act mature…I don't know how long that will last," I added jokingly.

Emmeline didn't think it was funny. She pursed her lips in disapproval. Actually, it made her look a bit like Petunia now that I think about it. Huh. Another legitimate reason not to like her—the whole pursing the lip things—it says something about your character. You're just a fun sucker and not likable in my opinion.

"You know, James is a very different person than he was when he fancied you," she gave me a look, "he's more mature…" she smiled, "His tastes are more refined."

Hm. I suppose you're referring to yourself? I wanted to ask…plus a few other choice words. Instead, I held back a biting comment.

"Yeah, well, we're acquaintances now…friends even," Haha. Friends? What was I saying? "You're right, I think he's beginning to realize he needs to find new…uh…people to surround himself with," I said giving her a pointed look.

Yes, Emmeline. He should hang out with me instead of you.

Er—Wait. What? Thank goodness I hadn't said that out loud. Sometimes I don't think before I speak. Honestly. What is wrong with me tonight?

Never ever under any circumstance would I want to hang out with Potter! I just want to make Emmeline mad and apparently my mistake in becoming his 'acquaintance' has done that.

Jealous much?

Seriously. All we've done is referred to each other by our birth given names—I really don't think that means he fancies me or vice versa.

That was so fifth year.

But you know, I began thinking about it as we split off—her to Ravenclaw and me to Gryffindor—if becoming acquaintances with James Potter makes Emmeline jealous, this mistake just might be worth it.

Just a thought.

A/N: A short chapter, but you got to see a small taste of Lily and James trying to be...nice. :)