Completely Out of Control
A/N: okay, this fic just popped into my head after I finished the fifth HP book . . . it stems from my favorite scene, in which Harry looks into Snape's pensieve. So if you haven't read OotP, click the "back" button, turn off your computer, and finish the book before you come back and read this! Unfortunately, I own absolutely nothing . . . so I'm just borrowing the characters that the fabulous JK Rowling invented. So please read this fic (and REVIEW whether you love it or hate it,) and enjoy!
Summary: It's Lily's 7th year, and she faces several difficulties. For one, Snape refuses to be civil, and James Potter refuses to be mature. But Lily can't help liking the popular, conceited guy anyway ... much to her own frustration.
*******
Hi, I'm Lily Evans. As of today, I'm seventeen and Head Girl at Hogwarts. My family was delighted to hear the news (except Petunia, of course) and I can't wait to go back to school for my seventh (and final) year.
So what's there to say about me? I have long red hair and green eyes, if you care about things like that. I'm smart (if I do say so myself,) and I like everything to be neat and ordered. Unfortunately, life doesn't always work out that way. Oh, and one more thing: some girls are attracted to men with money, others like good looks, and some value athletic ability. As for me? Above all, I am influenced by brilliance.
Which brings me to my seventh year, where I battle against a dangerous attraction to a guy so wrong that I hate myself for loving him.
*******
My parents drove me to King's Cross Station, and waved good-bye as I passed through the barrier at Platform 9 and ¾. I pulled my trunk up into the train, looking for a familiar face. "Lily!" I heard, and turned around to see my best friend in the world, Emily Weasley. Her bright red hair stood out from the crowd, far more than mine, which looked auburn or almost brown in contrast.
"Emily! Long time no see!"
"No kidding. You look great! Come on, let's get an empty compartment before they're all taken."
We walked down the corridor. I saw several people I knew who were already seated. In one compartment I saw Remus Lupin, and I almost went in to talk to him when I saw a boy with messy black hair sitting beside him. Remus was such a nice guy. Why did he always hang around Mr. Big Ego? I dragged Emily away and we finally found an empty room, where we situated ourselves.
"So Lily, how does it feel to be Head Girl?"
I fingered my new badge. "Exciting. Almost . . . surreal."
"Yeah, right. We all knew you'd make it. Well, all of us except you, maybe. You always were too modest for your own good."
"Oh, come on. By the way, do you know who Head Boy is?"
"Actually, I do. The one and only James Potter. Thankfully. I was worried they'd pick that slimy suck-up, Snape. Now we've got two Gryffindor Heads, which can only be a step in the right direction."
"Hm. James Potter, after all the trouble he's caused?"
"Well, he's just mischievous. And nobody can deny that he's absolutely brilliant." Emily blushed. "And cute, too."
I sighed. Brilliant, that was the word. Along with egotistical, conceited, insensitive, and obnoxious.
"Lily? Are you listening?"
"Of course I am. I heard you talking about how cute James is."
"Well, he is, even you can't deny it, Lily. Although compared to Sirius, he's nothing. Still, I don't see why you won't give him a chance. Can't you see that he's perfectly devoted to you?"
"All I can see is that he's a stuck-up, spoiled brat who thinks he can get whatever he wants."
Emily smiled and looked at Lily. "Everything except for what he wants most," she said under her breath.
*******
James Potter was annoyed. Six years of school with Lily Evans, and she still wouldn't even look at him. Unless it was to criticize him.
"Come on, give it a rest," said Sirius. "Every other girl in the school would go out with you."
"Why should I care, when the only girl I want hate my guts?"
"Lily doesn't hate you." Remus spoke for the first time.
"Yeah, but she's doing a pretty good impression of it. Doesn't she see that everything I do is for her?"
"Look, Prongs, I know you don't want to hear this," interrupted Remus, "but if you're trying to impress her, you're going about it in the worst way possible."
"Prongs, I still say you should just forget about her. As I said, there's plenty of girls--"
"Not for me. I've found my girl, okay? And I'll get her. I'll run her down, and eventually she'll see."
*******
Tired of Emily's boring chatter about Sirius' dreamy eyes, I walked into the corridor, hoping to see the food cart. Disappointed that nobody was to be seen, I decided to make a trip to the girls' bathroom. On my way out, I bumped into someone.
"Get out of the way!" shouted an extremely angry Severus Snape, a skinny boy with oily hair who was currently scowling at me. "Can't you look before you crash into someone?"
"I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention," I said apologetically. "It's really no big deal, why do you have to make it that way?"
"It's none of your business how I act. I don't need a psychiatrist, especially not some mudblood who thinks she knows everything." He pulled open a compartment door and slammed it shut. A moment later, another door opened.
"Okay, Evans, where is he, that git?" a furious James Potter asked. "I'll get old Snivelly this time, who does he think he is?"
"Who do you think YOU are? I can fight my own battles, thank you very much."
"C'mon, Evans, why do you always have to be so stand-offish? Let's learn to be friends, especially since we'll be spending a lot more time together as Head Boy and Girl. And as for Snivelly, why don't you let me lend a hand? A girl like you shouldn't have anything to do with a slimy git like him." He smiled at me sweetly. Unfortunately, he also took the moment to run his hand through his already rumpled hair. I snorted and walked back to my compartment. Who did he think he was, indeed? If he had any more ego, his head would explode. On the other hand, why did Snape hate me so much? It was as if he tried to make himself unpopular. Guys, I thought. You could never figure out what was going on in their heads.
I walked back into my compartment, and saw Emily with a lap full of various sweets. Apparently the food cart had paid a visit while I was gone.
"Hey, Lily, what's up? You look upset. Tell me."
I smiled weakly. "Only if you give me one of those Chocolate Frogs."
"Deal." She held out a package and we settled down to candy and gossip.
*******
Severus Snape looked around the empty compartment. What was that Evans girl up to? He had insulted her, ignored her, and eventually did anything to avoid her, but still she tried to be polite. As if he wanted anything to do with a mudblood Gryffindor, even if she had piercing green eyes and silky red hair . . . but what was he thinking? She was just a girl like all the others, drooling over that idiot Potter. There was nothing special about her . . . or was there?
*******
James was bored. You could watch Remus and Sirius play chess only so many times before it became tiresome, and even Peter's admiring compliments were grating on him. Because he had only one thing on his mind: Lily Evans.
It surprised the entire school that James Potter, Gryffindor Seeker and heartthrob who could get any girl on campus, spent six years crushing on Lily Evans, Miss Perfect. But James was persistent. While other girls goggled at him and sent him adoring glances, he looked at Lily and nobody else. So it was no surprise that when the Hogwarts Express stopped at last, he practically ran out, hoping to get a chance to talk to the elusive Lily.
Instead, he was immediately stopped in the corridor by a tall, dark-haired girl with violet eyes.
"Hey James," she said with a smile, "why are you in such a hurry?"
"Oh, hey Bella," he returned, without so much enthusiasm, "I'm trying to find a teacher or something . . . I think I'm supposed to get instruction for my Head Boy job." Unconsciously, James ran his hand through his hair, an action that drove all the girls wild.
"Oh . . . I heard Lily Evans was made Head Girl." Bellatrix evidently wasn't very excited about the choice.
But James' face softened, and he smiled. "Yeah. Look, Bella, I gotta run. See you later, okay?"
She stared enviously at his retreating figure and muttered, "okay, bye," but he was already gone. That stupid Lily Evans, she thought, what does she have that I don't? But don't worry, she told herself, I'll get Potter eventually, if it's the last thing I do.
*******
Okay, I guess that's the end of my first chapter. So tell me what you think! Is it good? Bad? Confusing? Or what? Just tell me! Reviewing can take you thirty seconds, but just think how happy I become whenever I read one! So please please please! Just review! Oh, and one last note: Emily is just some sort of relation to the Weasleys that we are familiar with, not necessarily a direct relation to Ron.