Hello again! This chapter came up surprisingly fast! Probably best not to expect that in the future. University is a real bitch and ridiculously time consuming. Any who, just a gentle reminder that this story is set in modern times, as in 2015, when the reign of Apple is all powerful and consuming. So don't go looking for any anachronisms cause you won't be finding any!

Default: I think it's pretty obvious I don't own Harry Potter or I wouldn't be driving a 1998 Saturn.

I keep stalling out, I just can't keep up
There's alarming doubt; am I good enough?
But you keep coming around to convince me
It's still far from over
We are still far from over

- Stall Out, MuteMath

Chapter Two: Passive Aggressive

Short of stomping her way like a child back through the train, Lily found herself fuming by the time she reached her friends.

"Lily dear, you're back. I was going to-" Eva stopped short when she saw the expression on Lily's face. "Was the meeting that bad?"

Lily humphed and sat down beside Alice. "Think of the worst thing you could possibly think of and then times that by a thousand."

Alice gave Eva a concerned look before turning her attention to Lily. She gave her friend a comforting rub on the shoulder. "Surly worse things have happened?"

"Nope. I'm pretty sure this tops the cake."

Eva leaned closer to Lily, all ears now. "Alright, spill."

Lily had to breathe in slowly and out again. She wasn't going to lose her temper for a second time that day. "Potter." She said his name with a venomous spit.

Eva leaned back content. "Makes sense. I assumed he would have gotten all up in your face sooner or later. His timing is sooner than I thought though. I think that's a record."

Alice ignored Eva's remark and gave Lily a considerate look. "What did he do this time?"

"Besides just being alive and the overall bane of my existence? The stupid git had to go and get himself Head Boy!" Lily's hands were up in the air with exasperation.

Eva's face deadpanned while Alice let out a little giggle. "Be serious Lily. Dumbledore wouldn't insult you like that. I mean, just the very idea of it is ridiculous! I mean, you finding James as Head Boy is a very fantastic image in my mind. I can only imagine what you would have done to the poor bloke, but seriously-"

Alice stopped in her tracks with the look Lily was giving her. "Oh, you weren't joking."

"I'm glad you finally clued in."

Eva was picking at her nails now, looking for any imperfection she wouldn't find. "Well, I think this could be interesting."

All eyes were on her now. "Explain," Alice said.

"Think of it this way, you're going to be stuck with the git for the next ten months, right? That whole 'Head's get their own room' thing." Lily shuttered at the very idea. "You should use this to your advantage! Drive him nuts in the most passive aggressive ways possible! He won't be able to come out and directly fight you because he has to maintain good boy status if he wants to keep his Head Boy badge. And the chances of him figuring out its you is zilch. It's bloody brilliant!" Eva was very close to giving herself a pat on her own back. "You're welcome!"

"As much fun as toying with Potter could be, Lily would never go down to that level. Would you?" Alice asked, turning to face Lily. But Lily wasn't paying attention. Her mind was buzzing down a road of the potential havoc she could wreak on Potter. The boy wouldn't even know what hit him! For once, Eva's words made perfect sense. "Oh Lily, you're not really going to go through with this?"

"Mobile! I need it now! Cause girls, we're brain storming!" Shoving her hand violently into her bag, Lily pulled out her cellular device and began rampaging the screen. "Number one: steal small things from his room he won't notice till much later has gone missing. Number two: secretly refill his tooth paste tube just enough so that it never runs out but obviously should. Number three: when talking to him, look at his nose instead of his eyes."

"Oh, oh! Don't forget going into his room and moving everything over an inch to the left. My brother did that to me once and it drove me crazy. I couldn't figure out what was wrong in my room but I knew something was off!" Eva chimed in happily.

"Good one," Lily replied, typing it down furiously. "Alice? Any good ways to subtly mess with people?"

Alice grimaced, made nervous by the situation. She knew being morally right wasn't going to win her any favors from her friends. "Um... Well... You could slowly invade his personal space? Get close enough to touch but never quite doing it. It'll drive him crazy, I think..."

Lily and Eva burst out laughing at the same time. "Oh, sweet, sweet Alice," Eva cooed.

"I strangely like it. I bet it would erode his big fat ego. A girl right in his space that he can't touch! It's actually really good!" Lily said as she typed it down on her mobile. "Operation subtly fuck with Potter has begun!"

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"But how am I supposed to deal with her?" James spat out for the fourth time in the last hour. After returning to his compartment, James had taken mere seconds before spilling out the ordeal with Lily. Remus, Peter, and Sirius had sat and offered condolences the first two times, ignored the second, and were getting rightfully annoyed with the fourth.

"Certainly repeating yourself isn't going to solve the problem," Remus offered while engaging in a game of Exploding Snaps with Peter.

Sirius, who was currently stuffing his face with a box of pumpkin sweets nodded in agreement. "I say you just go up and snog her senseless. Give her the ol' Potter charm. You'll render her speechless."

James snorted from his seat. "The idea of going anywhere close to her is revolting."

"And I recall her despising your very existence as well," Remus added in. It was common knowledge that James had spent almost every moment since third year begging Lily to go out with him. Every attempt was met with a stubborn 'no' from her part. After a particularly nasty moment involving Snape in their fifth year and some regrettable word choices, James and Lily had been at each other's throats ever since. He could hardly remember a time in the last two years when they weren't shouting horrible insults back and forth. He could barely remember what he had seen in her anyways. Her bright hair was obnoxious, her freckles overpowering her nose and forehead. Her luminous green eyes reminded him of the seaweed in the lake, and her pink lips only opened to shrill at him like a banshee. She had a personality to match a hippogriff and quite frankly, he was better off without her.

"I still think snogging her is the answer," Sirius muttered. "You can't deny she's hot Prongsie! You'd be blind to try and do that. You just have to go up to her and do this!" Sirius began to make kissing faces at James prompting a hard slap in the face. "Ow!" Sirius yelled rubbing his cheek dramatically. "You wound me brother!"

"And your intelligence wounds me," James muttered back.

"I think you should just be amicable," Remus cut in. "She's a good person if you bothered to get to know her."

James scoffed and ran a hand through his hair. "My mum always told me not to talk to strangers. Especially the dangerous, crazy ones."

As if the card in Peter's hand had been listening to the conversation, it gave a rather loud snap to illustrate James' comment. Peter coughed and waved his hand to disperse the smoke. His eyebrows had been burnt in the process. "You've known her as a stranger for a long time then," he said between coughs.

"I try to stay away from things that like to cause me bodily harm," James said while reaching for the box of pumpkin sweets in Sirius' lap. Grabbing a few, he shoved them in his mouth and chewed viciously.

"I think you should just try and get to know her. You got off on the wrong foot but you may be surprised," Remus said while dealing a new game.

"Might be worth it mate!" Sirius agreed. "And then you can make out with her! Or I can instead." His comment was followed by a sly grin and wink. "Or we can share her."

Sirius was slapped for the second time that day. "Some of us have morals, Padfoot," James cried.

The rest of the train ride was spent debating which girls would be worthy to hook up with this year. Despite James' usual enthusiasm for such a topic he remained rather quiet. His mind was taken by Remus' words of reason and then defiled by images of snogging Lily, curtesy of Sirius' suggestions. It was a weird and unsettling battle taking place in his mind. Dare he try to reason with the red head or go back to the way things had always been? He was comfortable in his relationship with her. He knew she was below him, pure and simple. Anyone with a bratty attitude like hers belonged nowhere near him. But what if there was truth to what Remus had said?

James was jostled out of his thoughts by the train coming to a stop. He had barely noticed the day losing its battle to the night. Following his friends out into the corridors, he trudged along blindly to the carriages. There were only a few left and they were filing up fast. Before he could reach up to pull himself into the carriage a hand stopped him.

"Sorry Prongsie. While you were off in la la land, your seat was filled by a lovely Ms. Fairview," Sirius said while motioning to a dirty blonde sitting herself down in the last spot. The rest were filled with Marauders, all except for him. "You don't mind taking the next carriage, do ya?" Sirius bend down to James' level and whispered, "help a brother out. Fairview apparently gives great-"

"That's enough Sirius," James threw out, cutting his friend off. Eyeing the busty blonde, James sighed and stood back. "I'll see you at the castle."

Sirius gave James his best grin before slapping him on the shoulder in appreciation. "You're the best!"

"Traitor!" James yelled after him as the carriage took off. Sighing once more for good measure, James turned around to find only one carriages left. Three bodies sat with their heads bent down in deep conversation. "Perfect," he mumbled as he made his way over. "Ladies." His tipped his head at Eva and Alice. "Evans." This earned him a dirty look. "It appears all the other carriages have taken off and Sirius volunteered my seat to a pretty blonde. May I?"

Eva and Alice turned to Lily waiting for her consent. "There's no chance of making you walk, is there?" Lily replied quickly.

James, pulling himself in, settled across from Lily and beside Alice. "How was your summer, Al? I hear Frank is doing well in his training?" His blatant disregard of Lily's comment didn't go unnoticed.

"It was fine. And yeah, Frank is doing well. You?" The carriage had now begun its way to the castle.

"I quite enjoyed myself. Sirius was mental as usual but he provides great entertainment. Eva?"

The blonde gave Lily a quick look before turning to James. "It was lovely. I hear congratulations are in order. Lily tells me you made Head Boy. Can't imagine anyone better suited for the role."

James glanced quickly at Lily before going back to Eva. "Dumbledore works in mysterious ways."

Eva played with her hair thoughtfully. "I wonder what ways he's working in now. It didn't involve money, did it? Although I never really expected Dumbledore to adhere to bribery. Drugs, perhaps?"

James leaned back. "Obviously bribery. A few lemon drops and you could get that man to do anything for you."

"Mmhmm. I thought so," Eva agreed.

By now Lily was doing anything and everything to ignore James. In true muggle fashion, out came the phone. James eyed it apprehensively. "I thought you weren't allowed those things here."

Annoyed to have to converse with him, Lily held it up. "It's a mobile, Potter, not a bomb. No one ever really brings them because they don't work in the castle. At least because there's no Wi-Fi. Yet. But they're still more interesting than dealing with you. "

"What's Wi-Fi?" Eva cut in.

"Don't you ever pay attention in muggle studies? It's technology that allows cellular devices to connect to the Facebook," Alice chimed in with an air of knowledge.

"Well, she's technically right," Lily added.

"Then why bring it if you can't connect to the Face-thing or whatever?" James said, partly to annoy her and partly because he genuinely wanted to know more about her. No, not her, the muggle world.

Lily scowled at having to defend herself. "Because Potter, I said there was no Wi-Fi yet. The Mug Bee's and Professor Tailor are working on it."

"I'm sorry, did you just say the 'Mug Bee's'?" Potter asked incredulously.

Lily was getting tired with his ignorance. "Yes! Mug Bee's! As in muggle borns! You know, like me?"

Not sure how to react to this, James said the first thing that came to his mind. "The fuck kind of name is that?"

Eva and Alice were too enthralled by the direction of the conversation to butt in. "It's what we've been calling ourselves since fourth year. It's a much better name than what your kind gave us!"

"My kind? The hell do you mean my kind? I have never said anything like that to you!" James was all fury now at her accusation. Surely she thought better of him than that!

"Yes, your kind! As in your egotistical, self-righteous, oppressive pure blooded kind!" Lily was standing up now, barely balancing in the rocky carriage. But she was too angry to care.

James stood up and loomed over her, trying hard not to throw her over the edge. "If you ever compare me to those kinds of wizards again, I'll- I'll…"

"You'll what? Call me a mud blood?"

James opened his mouth to respond but froze just about as he said yes. He stared down into Lily's furious green eyes. The look she was giving him was taunting him to say those words. Two little words which held so much weight to them. So much violence. "Fuck you, Evans." And with that, he leapt out of the carriage, determined to walk the rest of the way to the castle than to let her ruin him.

Lily caught her breath after her rage had subsided and sat back down. She immediately buried her head in her hands before looking at her friends. "I didn't mean it."

"I know," Eva said softly.

"I don't think all purebloods are like that."

"We know," Alice replied, giving her friend a soft, sad smile.

"I just don't think James knows that," Eva added quietly.

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James kicked at a rock hard and sent it flying in the air. He couldn't remember a time he'd been so furious at Lily before. She should know he would never have said those words, right? But he wasn't so sure himself. They had nearly left his mouth on a determined path to break her.

Finding another rock to kick, James put every inch of resentment into his swing. He wasn't so sure if he was mad at Lily or himself anymore. She had blurred the lines for him.

Spending the rest of the walk kicking at innocent rocks, James continued to repeat the conversation over and over in his head wondering how it went so wrong so quickly. Lily had a habit of bringing out the worst in him and she had managed to do it successfully one more time.

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Another chapter! And things are getting heated between our two lovely lovers.

I have the next chapter ready, but I'm gonna hold off on posting it until you lovely people review! Because it makes me happy and I really want to know what you think so far! So review, review, review!