A/N: Okay, I know I really took the piss with uploading this chapter, sorry! This is the penultimate chapter, aaaand, I dunno. It's kind of like, woah. Kind of. But yeah, hope you enjoy!
Making his way up to his Astronomy lesson, James had his hands in his pockets, fiddling with the small red box he had acquired a few weeks ago. He'd found it on the stairs leading down to the dungeons, and since no one was around to claim it, he took it for himself. When he'd opened it, he'd found a shiny gold neck chain. He had planned to keep it for himself, however eventually decided it looked far too feminine and would ruin his image.
He had still held onto it however, just in case he might need it at some point.
This is why he carried it around with him a lot recently; he planned to give it to Lily. He thought that once he'd finally managed to explain himself, whenever that may be, he could offer the necklace to Lily as a sort of peace offering. He'd seen Sirius give expensive gifts to many girls after arguments, and they'd always accept them and forgive him.
Luckily, Astronomy was one of the few lessons he shared with Lily, and so today he had planned to finally get everything off of his chest.
So, after dinner, he got up out of his seat, bid his friends goodbye and departed for the Astronomy Tower. To his surprise, and mild pleasure, he bumped into Lily almost as soon as he left the hall.
Great, he thought, I can talk to her on the way up. That might make it less awkward… Somehow…
But again, it was Lily who spoke first, surprising James even more.
"Oh, James, I've been looking for you, I need to ta-"
Utterly shocked, he interrupted, "You've been looking for me?! Wh- why?"
Lily looked slightly taken aback. She shook her head and continued, "I need to ask you what the he-"
Again, he interrupted her. "Wait, no, Lily. Before you say whatever it is you want to say, I need to talk to you. It's much more important, I- I am so… so…"
He bowed his head. God, this was awkward.
"Lily, I'm so sorry for everything, I – I didn't mean to hurt you or… or upset you - you don't understand! I just want you to be mine, Lily, I know that I've been a dick but really, you have to listen! I'm so, so sorry, please, please, forgive me, Lily, I-"
Realising he'd hardly stopped for breath, had been talking at one hundred miles and hour and had actually been confessing to the floor, he looked up warily and then dared to look her in the face.
Her expression was actually quite comical, though he tried not to laugh; he didn't want to make things worse. Lily's mouth was half open, her jaw moving slightly like she was about to speak. Then her eyes narrowed slightly and she began to frown at him. Finally she spoke.
"…What?"
"Haven't you been listening?" he managed to say. "Everything I've done, everything I've said and lied about – I'm sorry!"
He looked at her for reassurance, silently begging her to reply, to tell him she forgave him. unlikely, he thought. Still, she just stared at him.
He let out an exasperated sigh, growing impatient. "I know you won't forgive me but please, I really do like you and wouldn't have tried so hard if I didn't! And… I found this…" He took out the small, red box from his pocket, grabbed her hand rather aggressively and shoved the box into it. "I thought you'd like it… It's pretty, like you – Please take it, I'm so, so sorr- Aren't you going to open it?"
Eyes wide with disbelief, she slowly tilted her head down to the box. Completley speechless, she just stared at it.
James was now very impatient. Why wasn't she speaking? He wanted to know what she thought, if she forgave him, and yet… nothing. Practically no response, no nothing. He took the box back out of her hand and fiddled with it, trying to open to clasp at the front of the box.
Out of nowhere, someone yelled "OI!" from across the entrance hall. Too busy fiddling with the box, James did not look up to see what was causing the commotion, and subsequently didn't see the tall dark figure run up to him out of nowhere and grab him by the neck, throwing him up against the hard stone wall, dropping the box on the floor.
"WHERE DID YOU GET THIS?" the person roared in his face, pointing to the box on the floor. Dazed from the pain that throbbed at the back of his head, he squinted and managed to make out the long face of Severus Snape.
"Oh…" he winced, "it's you, Snivellus… Indoor voices, if you don't mind…"
Tightening his grip around James' neck, Snape brought his face right up to his.
"I won't ask you again," he snarled, "where did you get that necklace?"
James was struggling to breathe now, and could feel Snape's fist tightening by the second. Deciding he wouldn't last much longer if he kept this up, he thought it best to answer him honestly.
"I f-f-found it on the f-floor," he wheezed, his head beginning to thump.
"WHERE?!" Snape roared again, a sinister look in his eyes, which intimidated even James.
He really couldn't breathe now, and could feel himself begin to pass out. So, mustering up what effort he had left, he kicked Snape hard in the crotch, sending him flying backwards, and allowing air to find it's way back into his lungs.
A small crowd had gathered now, and James had just remembered that Lily was still there. He looked around, trying to find her, and saw that she stood in exactly the same place, with the exact same confused expression, and her hand still out in front of her, just as it had been when James had placed the box in it. Her eyes were fixed on him, but he had no time to wonder what she was thinking because Snape was on his feet again, wand pointed directly at his face.
"Tell me the truth, you lying little thief, or I swear to God I will hex your fucking balls off!"
James knew that Snape was somewhat of an expert in hexes, and was pretty sure he wouldn't think twice before hexing him.
"I found it on the steps, leading back from the dungeons," He thought it best to keep calm. "I did ask around, but no one claimed it, so I kept it," he lied. "Problem?"
Wand still pointed at Potter, he bent down and picked up the box. "I bought this, six months ago. I lost it a few weeks ago. JUST AROUND THE TIME YOU STARTED FUCKING AROUND WITH MY RELATIONSHIP!"
James looked down, feeling slightly guilty. He felt that he should apologise to Snivellus too, because after all, he had ruined his relationship and upset him as well as Lily. He hated Snape though, and he just couldn't bring himself to apologise. It wasn't Snivellus he cared about anyway, it was Lily.
"Look," he began, still wary of the wand being pointed in his face. "I swear, I just found it. I actually planned to give it to Lily," he glanced over at her, "I wanted to apologise for… everything… I didn't know it was yours-"
"Apologise to Lily?" He laughed quietly. "What for? For scaring the shit out of her? For threatening her? For bullying her and insulting her? For ending her somewhat stable relationship with me? For causing her unhappiness for these past few months?! HUH?!"
"I – yes. Yes."
Snape lowered his wand slightly, shocked. He hadn't expected that.
Now it was James' voice that had a menacing tone to it. "Lily belongs with me. We're perfect together. She shouldn't be wasting her time with a stupid, evil pathetic thug like you. I understand you have feelings for her, I don't blame you. But if you really loved her, you'd let her be with me, because everyone knows that I'm so much better for her." He ended his patronizing speech with a patronizing smirk.
He'd pushed Snape too far, he was about to explode. He raised his wand again, pointed it at James' face and began to shout a spell. Surprisingly, his voice was feminine and light, and then suddenly, Snape's wand had vanished.
James looked around, bewildered, and then noticed Lily, one hand in the air which had just caught Snape's freshly disarmed wand, and the other held in front of her, gripping her own wand which was pointed at the two of them.
Livid, Snape took no notice of his missing wand, and instead curled his hand into a fist and punch James in the face, hard. He turned on his heel and marched away, thrusting the necklace case into Lily's hand as he went past.
Before he'd gone too far, she grabbed the sleeve of his robe, and muttered, "wait", and he stopped in his tracks but didn't turn around. Lily took a deep breath, and marched up to James who was steadying himself against the wall.
She looked down at him; she wasn't scared or confused anymore.
"I guess you've answered all of my questions," she spat. "You are a filthy, arrogant, selfish pig, and I hate your fucking guts. How can you think I'd be better off with you? You've made my life hell, you've messed with my head. I knew I couldn't trust you, and that's why I tried not to. I actually thought you'd turned over a new leaf, but I guess you can never grow out of being an obnoxious little scrote."
He hoisted himself up again, using the wall for support. At full height, he was at least a head taller than her, but she still stared at him coldly, and full of hate, took her turn to punch him in the face, with all the strength she could muster. He slumped down the wall again, and she took this opportunity to kick him in the balls.
With one final cold glance down at him, she swiftly turned leaving him on the floor in pain, her long red hair swishing behind her, and walked back over to Severus.
A/N: Okay ah, what d'you think? I know Lily got a bit crazy at the end but seriously, I hate Potter and he deserves what he gets! There is only one more mini chapter to go!