Lily sat in the deserted common room, curled up in the armchair by the fire, and stared over her book into the flames. Exams were over and the remains of the night’s celebrations were scattered around the room, waiting for the house elves to clear them away. She glanced at an empty butterbeer bottle that lay on the floor, glowing in the fire light, before turning a page in her book and continuing to read. After a few moments, she heard a familiar voice outside the portrait hole.
“Did you see his face?” the voice said, “I thought he was gonna wet himself!”
Through the portrait hole emerged four boys. The one who had spoken had dark hair that flopped over his eyes and was laughing with the others at what he had said. Behind him emerged a small boy who was staring avidly at the boy in front whilst laughing, almost too enthusiastically. Next to him was a taller boy with a pale face, carrying a book under his arm, who was chuckling quietly, and behind him followed the last boy. He was fairly tall with a thin face, hazel eyes and black hair that stuck up at the back. He now ran his hand through his hair as he turned to the fire and spotted Lily.
“All right Evans,” he said. Lily scowled at him and pretended to immerse herself in the book.
“Aw, she doesn’t want to play tonight,” said the boy with the dark hair. The small boy sniggered. Lily ignored them.
“Shut up Sirius,” said the black haired boy as he approached Lily. “I’ll be up in a minute.” Sirius shrugged and started to go up the stairs towards the boy’s dormitories with the other two following him.
“What are you reading?” said the boy reaching forward to take the book.
“Get off, Potter,” she said drawing it towards her and quickly tucking a strand of her red hair behind her ear.
The boy sat down in the armchair opposite her and began to watch her. Lily could feel his eyes burning into her face. She carried on pretending to read until she couldn’t bear it any more.
“What are you staring at?!” she snapped as she shut the book and looked straight at the boy, who appeared slightly taken aback.
“Oh…I was just thinking...um…I was going to say….” he said staring at the floor.
“What?”
“Well um…I…you see…”
“Come on!”
“Well…I wanted to say that…I err…think you…look comfortable there…,” he gabbled. Lily looked at him blankly.
“Is that it?!”
“No! Actually…what I really wanted to say was that…I’m sorry…”
Lily tried to hide her surprise. Was this James Potter “ apologising? Was he actually being nice? She stared at him.
“What for?” she said quietly.
“Well for being…for being a prat yesterday by the lake. I’m…sorry.”
Lily was still staring at the boy whose gaze was fixed on the floor.
“You were a prat, even if he did deserve it.”
As he looked up, Lily saw a grin flicker across his face. He sat up and leaned forward towards her.
“So…” he said slightly more confidently. “What are you doing up this late?”
“Just reading.” She took in his face. Suddenly she had an urge to reach up and try to flatten his hair.
“What?” he said anxiously, putting his hand to his head.
“Uh…nothing, nothing…um it’s late. I’m going to go to bed.”
“Wait “ before you go can I ask you something?”
Lily was curious “ he’d never been so normal before.
“Go on…” she said, smiling.
“Well … will you go out with me?”
The smile vanished.
“I knew it.” Lily got to her feet. “If you think that by apologising for one thing that you’ve done then I would go out with you then you’re even more stupid than you look! You’re so… so… urgh...” Furiously, she tossed her hair out of her face and, scooping up her book, made her way to the stairs. Behind her she heard footsteps and then felt a hand on her arm. She tried to pull away but James swung her round so that she was looking up at him, breathing hard.
“Look I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with you!” He was almost shouting himself.
“You’re supposed to give up!” said Lily trying to struggle free.
“I can’t give up on you, Evans.”
James had now grabbed her other arm and was holding her tightly. They stared at each other for a moment until James realised how strong his grip was and let her go. Lily stepped back and turned on her heel to walk up the stairs to the girl’s dormitories.
*
James wandered into the Great Hall and made his way over to the Gryffindor table where his friends sat. He landed dejectedly on the bench and, without speaking, began buttering a slice of toast.
“Didn’t go well, then?” inquired Sirius innocently, but smirking all the same. James glared at him. “Well I guess you just don’t have such a way with the ladies,” he said glancing down the table where three fourth year girls were watching him and giggling. “What did you say?” asked Remus, putting down his goblet of orange juice.
“Well,” said James slowly. “I tried to apologise…” Immediately Sirius started choking on his breakfast in a poor attempt at concealing his amusement, Remus looked at James almost sympathetically and Wormtail appeared to be torn between the three of them so contented himself with putting yet more food on his plate.
“What else was I supposed to do?!” he said angrily at Sirius, who had recovered and was now grinning at James.
“I dunno … but apologising?!” He started laughing again. James ignored him and turned to Remus who had been friends with Lily since they were made prefects. Remus looked at him intently.
“You know what she’s like,” he said.
“What “ confusing and bad tempered?!” snarled James.
“No she’s just…fiery,” said Remus quietly. “Maybe it’s the hair.” He turned back to reading the Daily Prophet.
James sighed to himself and looked down the table. She wasn’t sitting far away and he could see her easily. He watched her chatting happily to her friends, red hair clipped back on one side with a clip that matched her eyes exactly. Just as he was thinking about her eyes, she noticed him staring and quickly turned away. His heart sank.
“I’m not hungry,” he said to the others and left the Hall to walk up to the common room. He couldn’t get her out of her head. There was just something about her, something that drove him crazy, but attracted him all the same. Maybe Remus was right…maybe it was her ‘fieryness’; besides, at this rate he wasn’t likely to find out, since she would probably never speak to him again after the previous night.
James was sitting in Divination. Sirius was telling him about his latest dream so that James could analyse it, but he wasn’t listening. He was staring at the flash of red on the other side of the classroom and wishing that he could turn back time so that Lily would think he was sweet and charming and-
“Oi!”
His daydream was interrupted by Sirius batting him on the arm with his textbook. James looked at him.
“Seriously. You have got to get over her. She’s not interested!” said Sirius. James looked over at her again. She wasn’t doing much work either, but was trying to charm the window open.
“You’re probably right,” sighed James heavily, and he looked down at his book.
“Come on! You’re no fun since you got all obsessed!”
“Thanks, Padfoot…”
“Well what about that Eleanor Banks? She’s not bad.”
“She’s not Evans though, is she?”
“Well, no, but-“
“Excuse me, gentlemen, but I presume that because you are talking so much that you must have made some progress on your dream interpretation?” said Professor Armitage in her shrill attempt at discipline.
“Uh…” said James, frantically skipping through the pages of his book.
“Yeah, yeah we have actually, Professor,” said Sirius smirking, loud enough for the whole class to hear. Professor Armitage looked at him expectantly. “James was telling me that he dreamt about a certain girl with red hair and how much he liked her.” Some people began to snigger. James saw Lily turn round and stare at Sirius.
“And what does that mean?” said Professor Armitage who was apparently unaware that the rest of the class was listening.
“Well I reckon it means that she should go out with him or he should get over her. I mean, he’s not that bad really Lily and after last night he can’t get any worse.”
Professor Armitage suddenly realised that the whole class was now laughing and turned sternly on Sirius.
“Two rolls of parchment on the different meanings of colours in dreams and how they affect us,” she said as Sirius scowled. “For everyone!” The class groaned and began to pack their bags, muttering what were probably plots of Sirius’ death. James looked at Lily, and saw that she was staring at him with a strange expression on her face. Whilst Sirius had turned around to tell Remus and Wormtail something, James rushed over to her side.
“I only told him I apologised,” he whispered earnestly. Lily looked at him.
“Don’t bother. You know, last night I actually wondered if I’d got you wrong and that you were really a nice person inside.” She snorted. “I guess I was wrong.” She turned away.
“Evans, please,” he said “Please “ will you just give me a chance? There’s got to be something that will change your mind.”
“Until you prove that you’re not just some arrogant pig who shows off at every opportunity then I don’t want to be anywhere near you,” she yelled, and, with that, she picked up her bag and hurried out of the room, red hair swishing behind her.
James turned around to see his friends watching him.
“You,” he said pointing at Sirius. “If you ever do that again I will hex you into outer space.”
“All right, calm down,” said Sirius, glancing at the others. A smile played across his lips. “Come on, James, she’s just a girl.”
“SHE IS NOT JUST A GIRL!”
“Boys! What in the heavens is going on?” Professor Armitage shuffled into view. “You should be at lunch. Come along - chop chop!” And she hurried them out of the classroom.
Disclaimer - yeah none of it's mine...unfortunately...
A/N: Ok please, please review! I haven't been getting many and it's kinda discouraging so...just please do it - it'll only take a sec! Thank you xxx