Raindrops on Flower Petals
~By Jupiter13
James Potter/Lily Evans
Just to remind you all: I am leaving July 8th, and probably won't be able to write again (after I leave) until school starts. *Sighs* I really am trying to post more, but it's summer, and I find everything distracting. And I have limited computer usage. Anyway, bear with me! Thanks, and review, review, review! :D
Chapter 4.
The weeks continued to pass by and the school was approaching the end of November.
Along with work and Quidditch, James Potter was starting to feel the effects of it all weighing down on him again. Between planning Quidditch practices for his team (as he was Captain this year), and managing to get all-er, almost all-his homework done, James also had to work on his charm.
On the bright side though, things were starting to become slightly more civil between Lily and James. Because Because of their newly appointed partnership, Lily and James had been coerced into working together.
The first week had been a right mess. While James tried to please Lily by attempting to the potion, Lily found herself wanting to rip her hair out every time he made a mistake and corrupted their potion.
By the end of the next week though, the two had managed to find a happy medium.
James would fetch the ingredients and materials (though Lily would of course triple check that they were the right ones they needed), and they would both cut up/prepare the ingredients, and Lily would actually put them in the potion and do the mixing (since she had had the displeasure of watching him blow Thursday's particular potion to smithereens just by mixing and stirring too many times and adding too much of different ingredients).
But finally, the weekend came, and so did an important Quidditch match-Slytherin against Gryffindor.
That Saturday morning, Lily had woken up to the sound of her friends rustling about and dressing warmly enough for the match that was to begin quite soon after breakfast.
"Wake up, sleepyhead," Lily heard Mary say excitedly as she poked her awake.
Lily groaned something (with her eyes still closed) that sounded quite like, "Five more freaking minutes." Alice chuckled as Mary and Marlene rolled their eyes.
Marlene drew out her wand, and with a flick of her wrist, removed Lily's bed covers.
No longer surrounded by the warmth of her, Lily shot up, her eyes showing her irritation. "Why are you always prodding on the weekends!" she complained, throwing her feet over the side of her bed and slipping on her slippers.
While she stretched, Mary made a face. "You're not missing the match today, Lilian Evans," she scolded.
"My name is not Lilian," Lily pointed out stubbornly as she searched for her robes through her trunk.
Mary grinned, "I know. But I demand anything any other way!" she countered. "I'm dead serious that you are not not attending the match today, Lily, and the only way to express myself is by using a full name-which are used in time of scolding-but I can't bloody well use Lily! It would totally ruin the effect."
Lily rolled her eyes at her friends' blabbering as she dressed herself and applied the minimal amount of makeup she wore and fixed her hair. "And what is so special about the match today?" she asked. "I don't see why I have to go. I don't even like Quidditch that much."
Alice snorted. "Yeah, right. More like you just don't want to have any 'unpleasant' encounters with a certain black-haired, mischievous boy who goes by the name of James Potter."
"That too," Lily shrugged, and her friends laughed. She glared at them. "And what, may I ask, is so funny about that?"
Marlene smirked. "It's funny how you have one of the most attractive and popular guys practically in love with you, and you just throw him around like he means nothing. Honestly, I pity all the poor girls who have huge crushes on him. He must be fun to snog, but it probably means absolutely nothing to him."
Alice and Mary nodded in agreement, smiles playing on their faces. "She's right," Mary said. "He's had flings, sure-since you've never once said yes to him-but I doubt they really meant that much to him."
Lily scoffed, "You're all exaggerating. I can almost guarantee that all that is not true. James Potter is most certainly not in love with me. And I really couldn't care less if he has flings or not, and I don't pity any girl who likes him! Really, he's just an arrogant toerag! How could anyone find someone like him not infuriating?"
With one final straightening of her robes, Lily grabbed a scarf and stuck her wand in her pocket as she left the dormitory, the other three girls laughing quietly as they trailed behind her.
In the Great Hall, there were already many people gathered eating breakfast, wearing the colors of the Quidditch team or carrying the colors of who they supported.
Lily and her friends sat down in the Great Hall. After a couple minutes, Mary made an excited noise and the other girls looked up. Striding into the Great Hall as if they owned the place, were Sirius and James, wearing their Quidditch uniforms, their brooms tucked under their arms just to show off. Behind them were Remus and Peter, following but looking a bit weary.
"Ooooh," Lily heard Mary whisper. "Don't they just look extremely bangable right now?"
Marlene murmured in agreement and Alice nodded, despite the fact that she was currently in a relationship with seventh year Frank Longbottom of Hufflepuff.
Lily made scoffed, and elbowed Mary, who was the one sitting next to her and practically drooling over the two boys in front.
"You're being ridiculous," she whispered to them in irritation.
Mary rolled her eyes at Lily. "Admit it: If James Potter were to kiss you right now, you would kiss him back."
Lily looked horrified. "Absolutely not!"
Alice chuckled and Marlene tried to stifle a laugh. "We all know you would, Lils," Mary continued, trying to make her friend see reason. "You know you enjoy his remarks and teasings."
"I do not! I'd rather Potter dropped off the face of the Earth than have to put up with his immature and arrogant behavior and taunts!"
At that moment, Sirius decided to plop down on the unoccupied side of Mary, and James on the one next to Lily. Remus and Peter sat next to Alice and Marlene.
"Morning, Evans," James grinned. "Sleep well?"
"Fine, thank you," Lily said curtly.
"Good. Wouldn't want you to miss the best parts of our match, eh?"
Lily shrugged nonchalantly and said, "Actually, I'm not going."
James frowned. "Why not?"
"Yeah, Evans. Why not?" Sirius echoed.
"Because I don't want to!" she snarled, slamming the book she had been looking at, shut.
Sirius put his hands up in a 'Woah Nelly' sort of gesture. "What crawled up your arse and did?"
James shot him a look, while Lily fumed about his rude comment. "Nothing, Black," she emphasized. "I just have homework to do, and letters to write."
James made a face. "Come on, live a little, Evans!" he protested. "You can't miss this match!"
Mary nodded her head excitedly. "I told you, Lils, the match is important! This is Slytherin we're taking on! There's nothing like a good win against the Slytherins."
Lily rolled her eyes. "I don't want to go. End of story."
"Lily, you're going whether you like it or not," Marlene said firmly.
Alice nodded in agreement. "Plus, you don't even have that much homework! I'm in pretty much all your classes! Anyway, you can do the teensy amount you have tomorrow, alright?"
Before Lily could protest, Sirius clapped his hands loudly and grinned, "Great! Now that that's settled," he said, getting up, "James and I really must go."
James nodded and stood up with Sirius. He grabbed his broomstick and grinned down at Lily. "How about a good luck kiss?" he couldn't help but say. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Remus roll his eyes and give an inaudible sigh.
Lily regarded him with narrow eyes. "In your dreams, Potter."
"Oh, it's already happened there!" James shouted cheekily as he strutted away. Then, over his shoulder, he called, "See you in the stands!"
Lily growled while Mary giggled. "What a prat."
"But you're still going!" Marlene exclaimed. "Because there's no way you're not going! It's one of the last games before the winter."
Lily sighed. "If it really means that much to yo-" She was interrupted by the squeals of delight from her friends, who all slapped high fives.
Finishing their breakfast, they all dragged Lily off to the stands where the match was just waiting to begin.