Chapter Four:
I broke into your house last night
And left a note at your bedside
I'm far too shy to speak to you at school
You leave me numb and I'm not sure why
I find it easier to sit and stare
Than push my limbs out towards you right there
My heart is bursting in your perfect eyes
As blue as oceans and as pure as skies
-Spitting Games, Snow Patrol
Lily had avoided him all week, but he was always insistent and stubborn. Now that Lily thought about it, she was that way too.
Doesn't mean anything though, she told herself. He's still a prat.
She was only referring him to `you', since now that Lily knew what her mouth was capable of, she didn't want to take any chances of calling him by anything other than his surname. I really hate him sometimes.
"How's that essay coming along, Lil?"
"Go away," Lily said through gritted teeth. She didn't even bother to look up at him and continued to sip some of her juice then diligently return to her work. He sat down close to her-a little too close, in Lily's opinion-and reached for a fruit from the basket in front of him.
"What kind of juice is that?" he asked her. Lily rolled her eyes and bit on her thumbnail, ignoring him. "That's a bad habit, by the way."
"I know it's a bad habit," Lily snapped despite herself. "But I don't care."
"You should. Your hands are so nice."
Lily glared at him but he looked unperturbed. "I bite my nails because of people like you." She said venomously.
"You mean devilishly charming and handsome people?" he said teasingly. Lily narrowed her eyes down to slits and gave him a look that clearly said `Shut up', but he kept on going. "You didn't answer my question about what you're drinking."
"It's apple." Lily said tiredly. "Apple, okay? Now leave-me-alone."
"Apple, you say?" he said, as if he wasn't giving her a mental breakdown and as if they were good old friends who were chatting about the weather. "Look at that."
Lily was beyond exasperated. "Look at what?"
James-or rather, Potter-pointed at the fruit he was holding. "I'm eating an apple," he said, just in case she couldn't identify the round, red fruit that was being held by his fingers. "And you're having apple juice. You see? We do have some things in common."
Lily raised her eyebrows. "I never said we didn't." Although it is true.
"Then why don't you say it?" he said. "It would give me some hope, you know."
"And that, is precisely why I don't say it." Lily sighed. The bell rung overhead and she stood up to gather her books; cursing that yet again James Potter had disturbed her work ethic. She stuffed her things inside her book bag and slung it over her shoulder, very much aware of the fact that he was walking beside her.
"You don't want to give me hope?" he said, looking wounded. "That hurts, Lil."
"Don't call me, Lil-"
"I mean, can't you see that I genuinely and truly like you?"
Lily paused in her steps, looking at him critically. His expression was rather hopeful as her eyes traveled from the top of his shaggy head, to the soles of his shoes. "No," she finally said, then continued walking.
"But why not?" he said in a whining voice while Black laughed passing by.
"Because we've never had a proper and real conversation, you don't even know anything about me, and I don't know anything about you." Lily said immediately, giving him a cold look. "Does that answer your question?"
"You think you know me, though." He said, smiling slightly. "You call me smug and a stupid prat all the time."
"Are you saying that you aren't?" Lily said coolly.
"Are you saying that you're wrong if I say I'm not?"
Lily had to think about that for a moment. "I suppose." She said slowly.
"Then Lily dear, prepare to be proved wrong." He said, and then opened the classroom door to let her through.
***
"Hola."
James raised his eyebrows inquisitively. "Excuse me?" he asked Lannie, who was now leaning across the table that he was sitting at in the common room.
Lannie sighed, sweeping her bangs aside. "It means `hi'. Didn't you ever study Spanish?" she asked, sitting down.
"I'm pureblood, remember?"
"Hm. Right." She said, rolling her eyes. She looked up upon seeing Sirius walking towards them, grinning.
"Guess with whom Mr. Handsome just got a date with?" he said, completely ignoring Lannie and wiggling his eyebrows at James.
"One of the slut patrol, I bet." Lannie said, jerking her head towards Heather, Daphne, and the other girls. Sirius gave her a weird look as if to say `who the hell are you and why are you here' but she merely grinned. "Ah, I see I'm right."
"I hope it's Heather, so you could get her off my back." James said grimly. He closed his book and gave him a questioning look. "Are you supposed to be Mr. Handsome?"
"Who are you?" Sirius said, rather rudely. He was still staring down at Lannie.
"Lannie Williamson." She said unabashedly. James looked from one to the other, raising his eyebrows.
"The girl who's in love with Moony?"
Lannie furrowed her eyebrows. "Who's Moony?"
"That's what we call Remus," James said unconcernedly; Lily had just retrieved from her dormitory to search for her Transfiguration book. He knew that was the book she was looking for because he was the one who had taken it from her.
"So, are you the one who's had a crush on him forever?"
It was one of those rare moments in which Lannie looked embarrassed and blushed. Nevertheless, she scowled defensively and said casually, "Black, forever is a considerably long time."
"Where is my book?" Lily demanded. She had just stomped over to their table, looking furious.
"Lily, how lovely to see you." James said, raising his eyebrows and grinning.
"Ah, I've been looking forward to this," Sirius said, leaning back in his chair on its hind legs and looking amused. "I believe Evans here only yelled at James today-what? Twice? Three times?"
Lily gave him a sour look. "Ha-ha, Black."
"You're pretty mean, you know." Lannie said, looking rather serious. She was staring at Sirius, who was staring at her, and who was being stared at by both Lily and James. Finally, Lannie shrugged, saying, "Well, you are."
"Right." Lily said, furrowing her eyebrows. She turned to James again. "James, can you please give me my book and my essay?"
If she thought that the silence would be broken she was certainly wrong. Instead of everyone staring at Lannie, everyone was now looking at Lily, who had just blushed crimson and slapped a hand over her mouth.
"You just called him James," Sirius said slowly.
"Isn't that his first name?" Lannie asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I can't believe it," James said, grinning smugly. "You said it again."
Lily huffed and put her hands on her hips, but James saw through this immediately. She was trying to act all tough and indifferent, but her flaming red face gave her away.
"So, that's how you're going to play, isn't it?" Lily said defiantly. In one moment she snatched James's The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection and tucked it underneath her arm. "Fine. You don't have to give me my stuff right now, but I'll just be keeping this for the time being."
She then stalked off over to her lone table, swinging her bag over her shoulder and stomping up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.
Lannie gave James a sympathetic look. "Ah, I see."
"See what?" James snapped. He was pretty annoyed right now, and didn't really feel like listening to anybody at the moment.
"I see why she doesn't like you." Lannie clarified.
"And why is that?" James asked dully.
Lannie stood up from her seat, her ponytail bouncing behind her as she took her books from the table and held them in her arms. She grinned. "Well, you're not very romantic."
James's jaw dropped. "What? I am too." He said, sticking out his chin and crossing his arms.
"Prongs, I'm not so sure that's a good thing," Sirius said lazily, leaning back on the hind legs of his chair and smirking. He suddenly looked thoughtful. "I always thought you were too romantic though…"
Lannie pushed her bangs out of her eyes. "Well, either way, you have to show it more. And you need to grow up, Potter-taking a girl's book will not win her heart."
"That's probably why you like Remus so much," Sirius said, raising his eyebrow. "Because he acts like a forty year old."
Lannie glared at him. "He does not."
Just as Sirius was about to retort, James interrupted. "Well, how should I do it, Williamson?" he asked crossly.
"Say and do nice things." Lannie said slowly, as if she was talking to a stressed two-year old.
James scowled. "I am nice." He said.
"Well, I know you are, and Black probably does too-"
"I don't think so," Sirius said, his gray eyes glinting mischievously as he grinned at James.
"Whatever." Lannie said, rolling her eyes. "The point is, Lily doesn't know that. She thinks you're an arse. You should see the number of times I see her come up to our dormitory looking pissed because of something idiotic that you said."
"Really?" James asked, looking crestfallen. That's not the reaction he wanted Lily to have. Lannie nodded, and James ruffled his hair in an exasperated sort of way. "Well, I don't mean to make her mad. I just-can't exactly…help it sometimes."
Lannie merely shook her head at him, and James sighed. "Lannie, can't you-er-you know…"
"I'm not telling her you're some god or something." Lannie said, looking amused.
"I didn't mean that!" James scolded, although by the way he blushed you could tell that what he wanted Lannie to say was something along the lines of that. "But you can at least put in a good word for me now and then…"
"Potter, even if I did," Lannie said patiently. "She won't believe me because of the stupid things you say."
"I second that." Sirius said, and James glared at him. "Honestly, Prongs, why do you like her so much anyway?"
"You always ask me that," James said tiredly. "And I can never answer."
"Anyway, I'll go now." Lannie said, already starting to walk off. "Adios."
James and Sirius looked at her bewilderingly. "It means bye," she said tiredly.
"Ah, right." James said, nodding. He grinned at Lannie. "See you later, Williamson."
She left, leaving only the two of them at their table. Sirius raised an eyebrow at James and said, "Why is she hanging out with you, anyway?"
James gave him a questioning look. "Um, I don't know. She started talking to be a few days ago."
"Hm." Sirius said, but he did not elaborate.
"So," James said, glancing at the girls' dormitory door and then forcing himself not to look at it. "Do you want to do something tonight? Or are you too busy with whatever her name is?"
Sirius shrugged. "My date with Daphne is tomorrow. I can do something tonight, though."
James grinned. "Okay. Let's just get out our trusty map…" He reached towards his bag and took out his stack of parchment, where he usually kept it so that it would look irrelevant. He furrowed his eyebrows upon not seeing it, then looked through his One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi, which was on the table…
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing." James muttered, opening The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 7 and flipping it upside down so that any papers that were in it would fall out. The only thing that dropped from the book, however, was a half-finished essay that he had to do for Transfiguration (how did he manage to be Head Boy?) and a broken quill. "Well, except that I can't find the Marauder's map."
"It's probably in your bag." Sirius said without the least bit of worry as he looked at his fingernails.
"I looked in my bag." James said, taking his book bag and spilling its contents onto the table frantically. He was starting to panic. "Where is it?"
Sirius let the front legs of his chair set down onto the floor and furrowed his eyebrows at James. He seized the nearest book also and looked underneath it, spreading James's homework so that he could see if the map was anywhere to be seen. Even if it was blank at the moment (the boys always remembered to wipe the map blank after their mischief-making was done), it was rather distinguishable because they had used it so many times and could practically memorize every crease and bent that was in the parchment.
"Okay, let's think. Where was it the last time you saw it?"
James froze in his actions, having just opened Numerology and Gramatica and holding it in midair to dump everything that was in between the pages. He had a horrified look on his face, an expression Sirius knew too well and knew that it meant trouble. Sirius furrowed his eyebrows, clearly saying, what the hell did you do?
"It was in that book," He said, looking terrified. "Lily has the map.
***
Lily really thought that James wouldn't mind so much that she took his Defense Against the Dark Arts book; in fact, Lily thought that he wouldn't even bug her about it. True, it was a weak offense on her part, but it was the only thing that she could think of doing to aggravate him, even if it might've not have worked.
It did though.
"Listen, Lily," James said the next day during Potions, looking extremely nervous while Sirius gave him an ominous look next to him. "I know that I wasn't being nice to you, so would you mind-er-giving my book back?"
"Give me my book and my essay then." Lily said promptly at the supply shelf, taking the necessary ingredients and moving over so that Remus could get access to the shelf also.
"But, um…I don't really have it right now." James said. Lily stood up, her arms full of Ashwinder eggs and bezoars and a cold look on her face.
"No book then." She said coolly, setting off to her desk and dumping the ingredients next to her cauldron. James followed her however, looking anxious.
"But you have it with you, don't you?"
"No." Lily said. "It's in my dormitory."
"Can we get it after this class then?" James asked quickly.
Lily raised her eyebrow suspiciously as she took the Ashwinder eggs and started to shell them. "We only have Defense Against the Dark Arts in two days…why do you want it so much?"
"No reason." James answered, although by the look on his face, it was far from it. "Just give it to me soon, okay?" He started towards his own desk where Sirius was. Lily saw that he was looking rather angry and had asked James something, who shook his head.
"Is this seat taken?"
Lily jumped and nearly toppled off her seat. Lannie was standing across from her, smiling and holding her cauldron underneath her arm. "No," Lily said, not really thinking about it (she was still looking at James's and Sirius's suspicious reactions), and Lannie sat down immediately.
"What are you looking at?" Lannie asked, turning so that she had Lily's line of vision.
"Nothing." Lily said hurriedly, just in case Lannie got any wrong ideas of how Lily felt about James. She realized that she had been calling him James inside of her head and not Potter all of the class period, and she inwardly cursed herself.
Lannie raised her eyebrow and smiled slightly, taking her own Ashwinder eggs and shelling them. "So," she said, trying to initiate a conversation. "Potter seems to really like you."
Lily gave a very cynical laugh. "Or so he says," she said. She had already cut her eggs in top speed and had dumped them in her cauldron, and was now weighing her bezoars.
"You think he's just fooling around and being his usual idiotic self?"
Lily looked at Lannie from her scales and furrowed her eyebrows. "Well, yes." She said matter-of-factly.
"I don't think so." Lannie said firmly, shaking her head so that her ponytail thrashed behind her. When Lily openly stared at her, she added, "I mean…I've been talking to him lately. You're all he talks about."
Lily smiled for a fraction of a second, then remembering that she wasn't supposed to be flattered by anything James would do or say, just shook her head and said acidly, "Well, even so, he really doesn't feel anything for me. He just thinks I'm another challenge for him."
Lannie smiled, as if she knew better. "You don't really think that."
What the heck? Lily thought, furrowing her eyebrows. They hardly even knew each other, and the girl was already telling her what was right and wrong! And now that she thought about it, why was Lannie even sitting with her? Lannie had been one of the few in their year who was taking Potions due to N.E.W.T.s, but she had always sat with people like Samantha Welling and Terry Jordan, who were both in Ravenclaw.
Lily realized that Lannie was talking to her again, and was waving her hand in front of her face. "You awake?" she asked, grinning.
"Uh, yes." Lily said. She blushed and looked down at her scale again.
"Okay," Lannie said, laughing slightly. She glanced over at James, who was raising his eyebrow at her and widening his eyes in some sort of silent communication. Lily noticed this too.
"Are you two in this together?" Lily asked suspiciously, raising an eyebrow.
Lannie waved at James then turned to Lily. "Well, he asked me to try and talk to you."
Lily snorted. "Typical."
"But I told him no."
"Oh?" Lily asked, feeling slightly taken aback.
"Now I'm just in this for the fun," Lannie said. She gave Lily a wicked grin, who was feeling more confused than ever.
***
Remus looked at Sirius, who was glaring at James, who was looking at Peter hopefully so that he would come to his defense. Remus sighed and pressed his fingers to his temples, closing his eyes for a moment then reopening them.
"Can you believe this prat?" Sirius had finally broken the silence and was now giving James a very murderous look.
"James, don't you ever listen to me?" Remus asked calmly, although there was definite crease between his eyebrows.
"He doesn't listen to anyone," Peter said, shaking his head.
"Pete!" James exclaimed indignantly, looking affronted. He expected at least Peter to be on his side.
"Well, he's right." Remus said, raising an eyebrow. "How did you ever get to be Head Boy and Quidditch captain?"
James couldn't help but grin, even though most of his friends at the moment were glaring at him in their dormitory. "You're the one who didn't want to be prefect anymore, Moony."
Remus rolled his eyes. "James, why do you do these things to Lily?"
"Exactly!" Sirius said, pointing an accusing finger right at James's face. "If it weren't for you attacking Evans all the time-she wouldn't have stolen our map!"
"She didn't do it on purpose." James said defensively.
"But you stole her things on purpose." Remus replied patiently. "And Sirius is right-we wouldn't be worrying about our map if it weren't for you."
"It took us two years to make," Peter said, shaking his head. "We're disappointed in you, James."
The other three boys were all making their way to the dormitory door, and the discussion was clearly over. James furrowed his eyebrows as the rest of the Marauders left the room to go downstairs to the common room.
"Yeah, yeah. Keep your hats on." James said grumpily, reaching for the door handle. "I'll get it, don't worry."
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