"Reading between the lines, I’d say she thinks you’re a bit conceited, mate," said Sirius.
"Right," said James, who looked furious now, "right..."
"Don’t let it get to you mate," Sirius added genuinely. "There’s plenty more at this school like her, looks-wise, I mean, just choose one of them “ make her jealous! That’s how to win ‘em!"
James didn’t feel any better though. ‘Yeah, but I like her.’ He thought to himself. He reached his hand up to mess up his hair at the back, then suddenly stopped himself- remembering what Lily had said earlier. "Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you’ve just got off your broomstick…”
"Dammit, I AM an idiot," he said angrily to himself.
Sirius grinned. "Actually, now you come to mention it…" he joked. James ignored him.
Remus looked up from the book he was reading. He was trying to ignore Wormtail - who was attempting to remember the last two features of a werewolf that he missed on his OWLs.
“Prongs, there’s only one way to convince her that you’re not the toerag…well, that you’re only half the toerag she accuses you of being.” James looked at him blankly. “Talking to her?” Remus prompted.
James dawned on the idea. “Oh, um, yeah. I can do that.” He said slowly. “Okay, I’ll see you at dinner.” He said as he began to walk back up to the castle. “You can do it Prongs!” Sirius laughed.
James hurried through the corridors, up to the Gryffindor Common Room. He couldn’t find Lily. He saw her friends sitting at a table in the corner chatting. James tried to look confident. “Hey, um, have you guys seen Lily?” the girls simply stared at him. One looked at him with interest and said- “And for what reason would James Potter be looking for Lily Evans?” James was startled at the remark. “I just wanted to talk to her- d’you know where she is?” The girls continued to stare at him. “She’s in the Library, doing next week’s homework,” the first girl said, laughing.
James was relieved to leave. “Ok, thanks.” He said, and hurried off to the Library.
There weren’t many people in the Library, just a few scattered around chatting and doing homework. Lily was sitting at a table in the corner with her Transfiguration book open. She didn’t really appear to be working. She still seemed to be a bit huffed from her argument with James outside. James couldn’t help liking the way her curly red hair fell over her face. Now that he had found her, he couldn’t find anything to say. “Hi,” or “What are you doing?” both sounded a bit lame. He stuck his hands in his pockets, as if searching for ideas. Suddenly, the golden Snitch from his pocket flew out, and zoomed over to Lily’s table. James hurried over to catch it, as she looked up. He grabbed it, just before it hit her in the face. She looked startled, then saw James and her face began to look angry again. “Come back to brag a bit more, have you Potter?” she snarled.
“No!” James said quickly.
“Well, what are you here for? Come to laugh at me? Accuse me of being in love with Snape?” she snapped back at him.
“No, really-” James said hastily. “I just wanted to say...” his voice trailed off. Was apologising always so hard? “I wanted to say that I was sorry for being an idiot.”
Lily blinked. "Oh, I see your conscience got the better of you."
"Stop accusing me Evans, and hear me out!" James said angrily. Lily became quiet, her eyes were watching him carefully. "Look, I’m sorry for showing off…" he swallowed, "and doing all that stuff you said." Lily looked shocked.
"You - You're apologising?” she stammered incredulously.
"Yeah," said James. Was that so hard to believe?
"I can’t believe you," Lily said quietly. ‘You’re always putting people down and act like you own the school." James’ heart flopped. Why did she have to be so nice? Every other girl at school worshipped him. Or was that why he liked Lily? He thought to himself, because she didn’t?
James didn’t know what to say to her. What more was there to say? She clearly didn’t like him. Lily opened her mouth to say something, reddening a bit in the face, and hesitated before asking: “You didn’t mean what you said at the lake before, did you? When you asked me out?”
James was shocked. “Um, yeah, I did,” he said. “But I suppose I’ve got too much to make up for, don’t I?” Lily didn’t say anything for a moment, and then said-
“You could apologise to Snape. He’s an idiot, but that’s no excuse to tip him upside down and advertise his underwear to the world. Do that…" her voice softened a bit, still unsure, "‘Do that and I’ll go out with you.’"
James was furious. "You want me to apologise to SNAPE?” he cried. “No way Evans- that’s too much, it’s BLACKMAIL, that’s what it is.”
Lily’s face was blank. “I guess I expected that,” she said. She gathered up her books and left the library, leaving James very angry indeed.