Four Easy Ways to Kill all Love* by bluemoon

Rating: PG
Genres: Romance, Humor
Relationships: Lily & James
Book: Lily & James, Books 1 - 6
Published: 07/02/2006
Last Updated: 08/10/2006
Status: In Progress

Lily Evans has just about always loathed (not just hated, but actually loathed) James Potter,
but ever wonder why she dislikes him so much? Never should have listened to Sirius, James, never
should have listened to Sirius.




1. Solution One: Use a Love Potion
----------------------------------



Four Easy Ways to Kill All Love*

bluemoon

**Rating: PG-13 (Rated for safety, just in case-this fic probably won't contain anything
that** **really** **merits the high rate-there are some love potions, insanity, and quite a
bit of Lily beating up James, but other then that....)**

**Summery: Lily Evans has just about always** **loathed** **(not just hated, but
actually** **loathed****) James Potter, but ever wonder why she dislikes him so much? Never
should have listened to Sirius, James, never should have listened to Sirius**.

Here is another of those crazy stories that I just *had* to write, for reasons that I'm
sure nobody (least of all me) understands. It was one of those plots that creeps up on you and
bites you when you are least expecting it, thus infecting you and forcing you to write it.

Most of my stories seem to come about that way, however.

Just so you know, there will be five chapters in this.

**Disclaimer: No, I do not own Harry Potter, or anything affiliated with that series. Sorry,
but I just don't. Nor do I own love potions of any kind (though I can think of a few ways that
they would be useful if I did....)**

**Solution One: Use a Love Potion**

“Go on, do it!” Sirius Black urged his best friend in the middle of their sixth year at Hogwarts
School for Witchcraft and Wizardry.

James Potter didn't require much urging, but the other two members of the Marauders were
less easy about the whole arrangement. Well, that is to say, Remus was less easy about it, Peter
was really still just trying to figure out just what was going on.

“Prongs, I'm still not sure about this,” Remus said hesitantly, shifting rather uneasily
next to the two wickedly grinning boys.

“What are you talking about, Moony?” the black haired boy asked, sounding momentarily aggrieved.
“It's not like it's permanent or anything, it'll wear off in anywhere from 2 to 12
hours, depending on how much she takes.”

The group's resident werewolf just sighed and shook his head. “You know, James, if you were
ever hoping that she might agree to go out with you *willingly*, then I think you might be
ruining your chances.”

“Who ever said anything about *willingly*?” James asked his friend innocently, and then
cracked up at the look on his friend's face. “I'm sorry, really, I am, but the look was
just priceless,” he laughed, as Remus glared bloody, painful murder at him.

“You know,” Remus said, disgruntled, “I am a prefect. I could stop you. I'm *supposed*
to stop you, in fact!”

“Lighten up, Moony,” Sirius urged. “You were always the responsible one, sit back and have a
little fun now and then!”

“Like I ever have the time to stop being responsible around you guys,” Remus muttered under his
breath.

“Wait a second, let me get this straight,” Wormtail, the last and slowest member of the band,
interrupted. “You're planning on giving *Lily Evans* a *love potion?*”

James and Sirius looked at each other and sighed. “Yes, Wormtail,” the second of the two
patiently explained, “that would be the general idea.”

Peter looked around at his group of friends with large, moist, accusatory eyes. “She'll
never forgive you,” he said slowly.

“Exactly what I've been trying to say!” Remus exploded. “James, if you think that she
won't hex you so badly that you can't leave the hospital wing for the next three months
then-”

“Yes, I'd be very much surprised, but don't you think that it would be worth it? And
when the rest of the school finds out it will be great to watch,” he finished with relish.

Remus threw up his hands and looked towards heaven. “Very well, you go on and do that, but I am
leaving. That way when she comes after me with her wand out and murder on her mind, I can tell her
that I had nothing to do with it and it was all you.”

“Coward!” Sirius jeered good-naturedly. His friend threw him a scathing glare before running
down from the dormitory, presumably to the library. Moony had always had these odd ideas that, as
he was allowed to study here despite his... condition, he had better get the best grades in his
class and make everyone around him proud. It always drove him near insane how James got grades that
usually matched his by almost never studying, and were never more then ten points below. In fact,
usually they were higher. Evans got top grades too, but that was to be expected. She was a bookworm
of the first degree-when she had first come to Hogwarts it had been fun to tease her about it and
watch her turn as fiery as her hair. She had never really forgiven him for that, and James
reflected for a moment that it was a pity that she was so pretty now. But who would have known it
when she came? Or maybe he just wasn't to the age to notice girls yet....

He sighed. It was her fault, really, that he had to resort to these measures. Any other girl in
the school would have gone out with him without a second thought, and been amazed by their good
fortune! But not Lily Evans, she seemed to know how to carry a grudge. James had been asking her
out for most of his fourth year and all of his fifth, but all that she had ever done in response
was curse him. And so, quite naturally, he needed to up the offensive.

“What do we need to do to it?” the teen asked, pushing his glasses back up his nose.

“Hnnn... Bit like the... oh, whatsitmit... Polyjuce Potion, that's it. I think that we only
need to add a body part of yours-” James looked momentarily horrified and Sirius grinned, “relax, I
only mean a hair or a bit of blood, you don't need to go cutting off any fingers or anything
like that. It only has to get some of your essence, so that it's attuned to you, unless you
want her to fall in love with the first male she lays eyes on. And who knows, that could be Peter!”
(Both shuddered and Peter himself looked momentarily aggrieved) “Or even, if things go really bad,
Lucius Malfoy. Or even Severus Snape!”

At this suggestion they both shuddered quite splendidly. “Man, I wouldn't wish that on even
her,” Potter said. “For all of her curses, he has her outclassed.”

“I'll say.”

“Besides, I don't think that she would *ever* forgive me then.”

“And you think that she will now?”

“Shut up, Padfoot.”

They both paused for a moment and then looked down at the tiny, thimble-sized cup that was about
half full of a clear liquid, disturbingly like vetirisirium.

“You're sure that this is a full dose?”

“Oh yea, any more then that and she might end up messed up. Permanently, unless St. Mungo's
can do something.”

“Better not trust them, they certainly couldn't cure you,” James said, laughing, and then
ducked as Sirius punched him, rather gently, all considered.

“Nice,” he said sarcastically.

They sat in silence for a few moments before James finally reached up and grabbed one of his own
hairs, and then silently dropped it into the potion. The hair floated lazily on the surface for a
moment before turning a bright, clear liquid gold and sinking down through the potion in spirals.
And then the entire potion turned the red of roses, deep and rich.

They both stared, mesmerized, for a moment before James came up with a slight problem with the
plan.“How on earth are we going to slip this to her, anyway?” he asked curiously.

“Pumpkin Juice?” Sirius suggested. “After all, if it's a bit darker orange then usual, I
don't think anyone will really notice....”

“Hey, good idea! And she actually *likes* that stuff, Merlin knows why.”

“What are you talking about, it's great!”

“Yea, yea, keep on telling yourself that.... Pumpkin Juice it is, then. I mean, the potion will
be all right if we leave it here all night, right?”

“Aught to be. I actually heard that love potions get stronger with time.” Sirius grinned. “`Bit
like firewhisky, that way.”

James rolled his eyes and shoved his friend, and then froze as the cup rocked back and forth
gently, looking as though it were going to tip over. Both barely dared breathe, but the container
settled back without spilling a drop.

“That was close,” breathed James.

“Yea, we'd better put a shield up around this for now.”

“The whole table, do ya think?”

“Yea, or else someone could just bump that.”

Working quickly, the erected a protective bubble around the tiny table (really, it was
James's night stand, but that was beyond the point) and then retired, waiting eagerly for
morning.

Typically, James couldn't sleep. His mind was too busy, there was absolutely no way that he
would ever get to sleep tonight... no way... no possible....

He woke up the next morning to the part clockwork and part magical cuckoo bird that his mom had
gotten for him as a bit of a joke back when he was only 10. Still, every once in a while he used
it, and usually not to the pleasure of his dorm mates....

“Shut that bloody thing off!” came one muffled roar as a pillow flew in more or less the
direction of James's bed.

“Too early,” someone else was muttering.

Smiling, he reached over and touched the beak of the bird, stopping its shrill and piercing
shrieks. “Sorry, have to get to the breakfast hall early,” James said. He was greeted by various
groans and oaths, including a few suggestions that, if he took them literally, would be rather
difficult to do.

Cheerfully, he responded in kind, and then grabbed the potion and headed down to the great hall
for breakfast.

As he left the dorm he heard one disgruntled youth mutter, “Aught to be illegal to act that
happy this early in the morning....”

Laughing softly, he continued on his way.

Glancing around when he arrived, he saw that Lily hadn't arrived yet (and surely even she
couldn't have been and gone already) and so he settled down to wait at the Gryffindor table, in
his usual seat, which was as close as he could get it to the seat that she normally sat in. As her
friends took up several seats on the side of the table she was at, he sat on the other side, but
the distance was still quite manageable. Close enough for him to slip the potion into her pumpkin
juice if she followed the trend and sat in front of him. He could pretend to be reaching for some
bacon.

He grinned. This was going to be brilliant.

He didn't have to wait long. Lily Evans came down within five minutes, actually, laughing
with the one friend of hers who was also an early riser, and then settled down into her usual spot
without looking up. When she finally did, it was clear that she was in a state of semi-shock.

“Potter? What the... what are you doing *up* so early?”

“I just wanted to see you, my dove, my pearl, my sunshine, my rose!”

Lily scowled. James grinned and reached for the bacon, which was so conveniently next to her
glass of pumpkin juice. He dropped the tiny amount of liquid into her glass, and her friend's
pale blue eyes momentarily fixed on him curiously, as though she had seen. That would never
do-James quickly whipped out his wand and cast a charm that left the girl momentarily confused, and
chances are she wouldn't remember seeing him slip anyone *anything* for a little while
after.

“Knock it off, Potter.” Lily said, her green eyes annoyed. “Leave me alone, or I can't be
held responsible for anything that might happen to you.”

James's first reaction to this statement was to freeze, thinking that she'd noticed his
spell, but then he relaxed. It had to be his charming and playful reasons that had her so annoyed.
He grinned wider, and, seeing this, Lily rolled her eyes. He wouldn't be that bad, really-he
was funny and smart and cute, after all-if he didn't have an ego the size of Europe.

“James Potter, you have the biggest head in this entire school, and I don't know how, as you
have to have the smallest brain! I don't know when you're going to get it through your
thick skull, but I do not want to go out with you! Not now, and not ever if you carry on like you
have been!!!” Knowing that, if she continued, she would end up saying something that she would
probably regret later on, she grabbed her goblet of pumpkin juice and drained it, more to shut
herself up then anything.

James was positively cackling.

Lily, however, was feeling confused. For a moment-just a moment, mind-after drinking the potion,
she had felt a bit lightheaded, but then that seemed to pass and she was wondering why on earth she
had been yelling at James Potter. After all, he was so handsome, and smart, and funny, and he liked
her!

Lily was suddenly and inexplicably very, very glad for that fact.

And then, barely even thinking of what she was doing (though really and truly wondering why she
had-for years now-been snubbing the best guy in the entire school), she jumped up, ran around the
table, and grabbed James's hand to pull him up. She wanted to go somewhere *outside*
everyone's view.

“You still haven't eaten,” he laughingly pointed out, and Lily was swept away in a wave of
awe. He was just so smart! Laughing like a schoolgirl (and one much younger then she was herself)
she sat down next to James.

“All right if I have you?”

“I was thinking more along the lines of a few more traditional breakfast foods.” Lily pouted
very prettily at this, but then smiled again when he added, “But I wouldn't be against that if
you wanted to after....”

* * * * * *

Right, I'm not going to describe the rest of the day, I will leave that up to your *PG-13
rated* imaginations. Nothing... untoward happens. Although there was probably a lot of snogging
(kissing). After all, this is *James*, who is currently the object of adoration for the girl
of his dreams....

-->



2. Solution Two: Give a 
------------------------



**Solution Two: Give a “Gentle” Hint**

Lily woke up, very slowly, and wondered lazily where she was. Mmm... she was leaning against
something soft and warm.... She made a little kittenish motion that scrunched her up closer,
feeling wonderful... and then she opened her eyes.

She was cuddled up next to James Potter, with her head on his chest. After she had had time to
process this fact, and determine that this was not some awful nightmare, she let out a piercing
yelp, but more with surprise then anything, and sat up very suddenly, scooting away.

“You!” she squeaked, leaping to her feet as he began to move closer. “What were you... I mean
what was I....” Her mind was racing furiously as she tried to think up an explanation for this
madness. She had been feeling a bit queer this morning.... “You... You... *THERE WAS A LOVE
POTION IN MY PUMPKIN JUICE, WASN'T THERE????*” It was, after all the only explanation. She
went hot then cold as she remembered of the past day. If it was true.... Lily blushed *very*
deeply, her face going as flaming red as her hair. If it was true then James Potter was a... a...
really, there was no word in the English language to describe just how *horrible* he was!

Meanwhile, the inhuman *thing* only smirked at her. “Well, you wouldn't pay attention
to me any other way....”

Lily gasped in outrage. “*HOW DARE YOU?*” she trumpeted in a voice that probably
reverberated throughout the whole castle.

Up in the boy's dorm, Sirius grinned as he stared up at his canopy. “Ah, well, there she
goes. Moony, I'll bet you a case of Chocolate Frogs that he spends the night in the hospital
wing.”

“I'd say more like a week, given the sound of things,” the werewolf replied, cocking his
head slightly. “I've *never* heard her sound this mad, not even when James replaced her
Boomslang skin with potato peels that one time when we were in the second year, remember?

Sirius grinned at the memory. Indeed he did. Lily was, and always had been, amazingly talented
at potions. Without a shadow of a doubt, or even any real effort, she left the rest of her class in
the dust, even Snape. Maybe this accounted for the reason that he had never liked her that much. In
any case, she had always managed to do everything so amazingly well that every once in a while
Slughorn, even as early on as their second year, had put her to more complicated projects, as he
had the rest of his class work on the normal sort of things. And it had been James's idea to
replace one of her ingredients one day, and then watch her go half insane trying to figure out what
she had done wrong and why nothing was working. And it really had been beautiful, like a work of
art, to watch her in potions that day.

Of course, when she had accidentally found out a few weeks later, her wrath had also been
exquisite, and after James had finally recovered, he had to serve detentions with Slughorn for most
of the rest of the year. Slughorn *liked* Lily Evans--she was one of his favorites, for all
that he always claimed not to have any.

“Lily,” they heard James laugh downstairs, and then there was the reverberating sound of a slap,
followed by what sounded not so much like *a* spell, but rather an avalanche of spells
shrieked at the top of her lungs, and then thundering steps up the staircase.

“Well, come on, we'd better get him to the hospital wing,” Remus sighed. Sirius was actually
all for leaving him out there for a while longer, and Peter rather shared that opinion, but Remus
wouldn't allow it. (“Just think how you would feel!”) and so the threesome trooped down into
the common room. Once they got there, it took a little while just to completely confirm that the
thing they were looking at actually *was* James. Sirius actually collapsed with a fit of the
giggles before they were done, while Remus did most of the work (but then what else was new?) and
Peter just stood to the side looking faintly queasy.

“Well, um, James, you can't say I didn't warn you,” Remus said finally, and even he
sounded like he couldn't decide whether to be mildly amused or bemused.

“I didn't know that she could do this!” James said mournfully in a voice that sounded
nothing like his normal tones.

There was a pause of a few minutes awkward silence filled only by Sirius's last gasps of
mirth (the thing that was James shot him a baleful look) before Remus finally sighed heavily. “Ok
then, let's get you to the hospital wing.... Wormtail-me and Padfoot can get him there if you
want to finish that essay.”

“I guess.”

So, as Peter went back up the stairs to collect his ink, quill and parchment, Sirius and Remus
carefully gathered up James and set off for the hospital wing.

At the same time, upstairs in the girls' dorm, a throughly enraged Lily Evans was pacing
back and forth, her face as red as her hair-though with fury this time, not embarrassment-and
gesturing wildly as she ranted. “Arrogant, lousy, unsufferable *prat!* Detestable, vain,
big-headed, chauvinistic male *pig!* HORRIBLE little inhuman thing! He's so full of it,
his eye's should be brown! Cold, *INFURIATING* absolutely deplorable little-”Here she
broke off into something that sounded remarkably like quite a lot of swearing in something that
could have been Spanish, French, or Italian; no one was ever sure which.

Anyway, this sort of thing went of for about half an hour-Lily cursing the air around someone
blue, and in more then one language. Finally, when she seemed to be content for the moment just to
stand fuming, a rather shy girl named Emily Schidehs asked timidly, “Umm, Lil? Who are you talking
about?”

“Who am I talking about? Who am I *talking about?* I'LL TELL YOU WHO I'M TALKING
ABOUT! JAMES DAVID POTTER!” Lily Evans looked truly terrifying at that moment. Her hair felt to her
almost like a giant birds' nest, and her emerald-green eyes put one in mind of lasers more then
anything else.

A bold girl named Violet spoke next. “What do you mean, Lily? After all, you sure were
*acting* like you liked him all today....” And, though she had started off confident, her
voice dribbled off pathetically as Lily turned her fiery gaze to glare daggers at her instead.

“Yes, well, I suppose that I was *acting* that way *today.* But do you know
*why?* Do you know what that miserable little worm DID? *LOVE POTION, THAT'S WHAT HE
DID!!!”*

There was a moment of shocked silence while this little revelation seemed to sink in, and then
everything exploded. It was a bit like watching a volcano erupting-not one of the nice, calm little
eruptions that is little but lava spilling out, but one that actually blows the top off of a
mountain. On a slightly smaller scale, you can get the same effect by shaking an unopened bottle of
soda for roughly half an hour, and then throwing a small grenade at it.

Yea, boom.

The point is, the world momentarily became one great jumbled mess of every girl in the dorm
gasping in a horrified manner, or shrieking in indignation and outrage, or muttering various oaths
against James Potter, as well as any friends and close relations that they could get their hands
on. Many of the girls were all for marching up to the boys' dorm and doing various things to
James after dragging him down to the common room, the nicest of which was turning him into a mouse
and then setting him loose in a house full of cats, knezles, and various cross-breeds.

However, to *everyone's* surprise, it was *Lily* who halted their plans. When
everyone demanded in one voice *why* she wouldn't let them go and make him pay by teaching
him a lesson that (even with a boy's capacity for short-term memory) he would not soon forget,
Lily had only smiled in a self-satisfied and slightly evil way. And then she had told them that she
had taken care of it.

Seeing her grin, slow smiles began to spread across all of the other girls' faces as well.
Lily, after all, *was* a prefect. She was also the top of her class, a sure pick for Head Girl
next year, and had one of the most impressive collection of curses, hexes, and jinxes in the
school.

If *she* said so, then James had gotten it good.

He was going to have an interesting time of it for the next few days too-Lily usually put a barb
in the tail end of all of her spells that made them exceptionally hard to break. Her professors
loved her for it-it was one of those reasons that her getting the Head Girl spot next year was
practically guaranteed-but they rather doubted that James would admire her prowess nearly so
much.

James, meanwhile, certainly *was* having an interesting (if somewhat worrisome) time of it.
Both Madam Pomfery (the young and certainly pretty new assistant nurse) and Madam Thidy (who was
the much older Head Nurse, and not nearly so easy on the eyes) were standing over his hospital bed,
looking down at him somewhat bemusedly.

“And this really is James Potter?” Pomfery finally asked, slightly disbelievingly.

“Yes, I am!” croaked what once had been James, and both nurses jumped.

“Ah, you can speak? That makes things... marginally easier. Now, do you know what you were hit
with?”

James sat for a moment in contemplation, as he tried to recall it all. “Just about everything, I
think,” he finally said.

Thidy sighed.

“I don't know if I've ever seen *this* particular effect before....” puzzled
Pomfery. “Is it new?”

“The spells seem to have mixed with some... interesting results. James, I'm sorry, but
you're going to be here for a while. Who was it, anyway?”

“I didn't see.”

“Not at all?”

“No, Madam Thidy. I'm sorry.”

The head nurse merely gave him a somewhat scrutinizing look before sighing and turning back.
“Right, well, as this will take some time, we might as well get started. Come on, we need to start
unpicking this mess....” Both nurses acquired an intense look of concentration, and finally one
said, “Isn't that the Jelly Legs Jinx?”

“I think so, let's try the countercharm....”

* * * * * *

And so ends Chapter Two! Did you like it as much as Chapter One? James (btw) is probably going
to be able to begin atoning for his... folly with refusing to tell. Lily would have cheerfully
served detention for what she did, and not getting into trouble (and finding out that him not
telling was the reason) is going to intrigue her, methinks.

-->



3. Solution Three: The 'Fairy Tale' Method
------------------------------------------



**Solution Three: The “Fairy Tale” method**

Lily had, of course, spent the next week sitting rather tenderly on her pins and needles, just
*waiting* for *someone* to show up and give her detention for what would probably amount
to the rest of her life. And when no one had, well, she was rather surprised. After all, the only
way that she could think that she had gotten out of all of it was if James hadn't told, and of
*course* he would have.... After all, she had attacked him with so many spells....

But then, maybe he had felt that he had deserved it. Or-and this was much more likely in her
frame of mind-he was trying to blackmail her somehow or get into her good graces by *refusing*
to blackmail her. (How and why such stark contrasts could exist was never thought about-that was
simply the way that it was.) And so she had determined to most pointedly and coldly ignore him when
he got out of the hospital wing.

Of course, she had a while to wait. And when he actually did get out, she failed miserably in
the ignoring part. The fights between the two became *legendary* in Hogwarts, the more
advanced students teaching the new little first years to hit the ground when they saw the two of
them approaching each other. Not, of course, that James ever did much on the offensive side, and
didn't even try that hard to defend himself, it always seemed, despite the fact that it was the
rare event for Lily to actually hit *him.* And she blazed so much at that... well... it was
said that every time Lily Evans and James Potter fought, her temperature rose and broke another
record. ((A/N: For those of you wondering, yes, this was modified from Penelope's line in
*See How They Run*-which, similarly, I do not own.))

As I said, though, all this took a while. In the end, it had taken nearly a month to untangle
all of the spells that Lily had layered on James, but he (as he had promised) had only laughed.
Once the shock of finding himself looking the way that he had had worn off, of course.

Needless to say, this had just made Lily despise James the more, and from that day on she became
the founder (and basically only member) of the Unofficial I Hate James Potter Club for Gryffindor.
James actually laughed even harder at this, and redoubled his efforts.

There are several long and complicated stories in all of this, but the end result was that, by
the beginning of their mutual seventh year, there were few people who had ever had such a share of
unadulterated loathing (agreed Gryffindor House and most of the rest of the school, almost without
exception) heaped on one person as James David Potter had daily piled on him by Lily June
Evans.

James was somewhat bemused at all of this but still took it in his stride, and *that* took
Lily to the point of screaming in frustration more then once.

And then, at the beginning of the seventh year, after only about a week of half-hearted attempts
to get Lily to go out with him, James did an amazing thing.

He seemed to back off.

Lily was (understandably) shocked, and didn't really understand this move. He had, after
all, been asking her out since basically the day that she had turned 14, (when he was almost 15 and
swooned over by practically every other female member of Hogwarts) and she just could not seem to
believe that he had just given up after all of those years. He had to be planning something!
Something simply horrible! He was concentrating so hard on that that he was slacking of in making
her *daily* life a misery. He was thinking of some huge, cataclysmic thing that he could do
that would ruin her life in five new ways before she would have time to twitch! This would make the
love potion seem as nothing!

Understandably, Lily had become rather jumpy around James.

Actually, James was doing no such thing. He hadn't given up, not by any means, but he had
decided to leave Lily on her own for a while, making her decide that she was in fact madly in love
with him (and always had been). You know, the whole “absence makes the heart grow fonder” thing.
And, simply because she was suddenly paying him so much attention, he had thought for a while that
he had succeed. He, needless to say, gained a new swagger in his step, one that Lily was simply
aching to throw out on its ear, but given that she still wasn't sure what was going on, she
didn't. Thus James strutted around the school more and Lily got more and more annoyed, and yet
didn't do anything.

This was about the point that it dawned on James that something wasn't working in exactly
the way that it should. After all, if it was, then why hadn't Lily admitted to undying love for
him yet? Then again, Lily hadn't even really insulted him recently. But she still wasn't
acting like she liked him or anything. But then, neither was she really acting like she hated him
any more. At least, not to the extent that she had been before.

James David Potter had rarely felt so confused. Most things just seemed to come naturally to
him, this was the most trouble that he could remember having with *anything* for... well... it
was a long time, anyway.

“What on *earth* is she doing, Padfoot?” he murmured one day in charms, as the two of them
sat peering quizzically down at her.

“I dunno. Maybe just trying to confuse you?”

“Well, if that's her aim, she's succeeded.”

“Or maybe she's just worried now that *you* don't like *her* anymore.” Sirius
said after a few moments of serious contemplation.

James started, and his head snapping around as he turned to stare at his friend. “You think that
could be it?”

“Well, you certainly haven't been paying her as much attention as you used to, maybe she
just thinks you're not interested. Maybe she thinks you finally got the hint to move on, and
now she wants you sticking around, but is too proud to admit it.”

“Do ya know,” James said when he could finally speak again, for he had been stunned by this
revelation, “I think that must be it.”

Sirius grinned. “And not only that, but think of the reputation she has to uphold. If she
doesn't think you like her, she's not about to go and ruin it.”

“And she *has* seemed rather half-hearted about insulting me lately. I don't think that
she's even yelled at me for... a few days, at least.”

Sirius sat back with a smirk. “There, you see?”

James sat back, thunderstruck. “Well, what should I do about it then?”

“Why not prove that you still like her?”

“But how? Most of the time she just seems annoyed with me whenever I do anything along those
lines.”

Sirius looked thoughtful once again. “I dunno. Maybe just wait for it. Something will probably
come up.”

Two rows down, Lily Evans fidgeted and wished that James would get it over with, whatever it was
he was planning. She didn't have long to wait. A week later, that opportunity he had been
waiting for presented itself.

It was getting close to the end of the year and... well... it was the year that the students
would take their N.E.W.T.s. The students, indeed, could not forget this if they wanted to (as many
did) as the teachers seemed to talk of nothing else. It was impossible to forget even for those
students who slept through most classes, the amount of homework saw to that. Therefore, all things
considered, it really wasn't that unusual to see overworked upper-years paging frantically
through a book, their eyes red-rimmed and bloodshot, ink stains coving their hands. And it was even
more common to see them slumped over half finished essays, a quill with drying ink still resting
gently in their hand, dead to the world.

So what happened to Lily really wasn't that abnormal. At first, at least.

She was writing a particularly nasty essay for Transfiguration and could barely keep her eyes
open. Normally, of course, Lily was hardly one to fall asleep doing homework, but these were hardly
normal times. Over and over she repeated to herself that she *would not* fall asleep, she
*would not* fall asleep, she *would not* fall asleep. The spell diagram she was copying
with notes to show how it worked and how else it could be applied, seemed very far off.

Ah well.

Could not fall asleep. *Would* not fall asleep.

Still, she decided, she could rest one eye. If she rested both then she would fall asleep, but
surely not just one....

Within minutes both eyes were shut and her breathing was deep and rhythmic as her quill sat
gently on the table, looking forlorn.

Nearly an hour later, James climbed through the portrait hole (the password at the time was
*Houle,* one of the words that the uppers were supposed to know by then anyway - consequently,
the Pink Lady didn't let anyone in their seventh year through unless they both named and
defined the current password), Sirius on his heels. It was nearly one on the morning and they had
just gotten back from their respective detentions. Both were tired and sore and just wanted to go
to bed, but James had frozen when he saw Lily.

She was asleep, curled up and looking peaceful and kind and even more pretty then she usually
did, which was saying something.

“Sirius,” James had breathed.

“Yea?”

“I know what I'm going to do.”

“What?” Sirius asked, looking over at James with an eyebrow cocked.

“I know what I'm going to do. I know how to show her.”

Maybe he had been maturing in the past half a year. Maybe it was that he was tired. Maybe it was
something he had eaten. Still, whatever it was, this was not the James who had laughingly fed Lily
a love potion.

At least... not entirely. There was a small corner of that being left, but most of him wanted
something else, something different, something that would convince Lily that....

She was a sleeping beauty, really, and deserved to be treated as such.

And with this final thought, the vague inclination that had planted itself in his mind the
moment that he saw her solidified. She needed to wake up and finish her essay, and she
deserved....

Gently, James walked up and kissed her.

At first, Lily had relaxed. Nice... it felt... nice. Then, as she finally came out of the foggy
veil of sleep, she realized what was happening.

James Potter was kissing her. *On the mouth.*

With a gasp and splutter, she pulled away, feeling her face turn red as a tomato. For a moment,
as she put her hands over her reddening she wondered if she was more angry or mortified, before
settling on anger. Anger was easier.

“Potter, what do you *think*-”

“Aw, come on, Lily!” he'd said, cutting her off. “You were - are - a sleeping beauty. And
she deserves to be woken up with a kiss.” He sounded aggrieved and almost as though he was
pleading.

“So you like fairytales, then?” Lily yelled. “Well then try *this!*” She had been thinking
of that transfiguration essay that she had been writing, and almost before thinking, she cast the
spell. And set conditions, so it would be almost impossible to break without fulfilling them. Every
spell needed a loophole, after all. It almost always was the normal `out,' the one that the
designers of counter charms had written into their spells. Those, however, who understood how a
spell functioned, the poetry and *language* of it, could set their own conditions. They just
had to exist, that was all. In any case, it was much more difficult then it sounded. Not many
people could do it, and they not for many spells. But for those who could....

A frog, green and spotted, gazed sorrowfully up at Lily and croaked. She stood over it,
breathing heavily, a few strands of her copper-red curls sticking to her face as her emerald-green
eyes wavered.

Then, without another word, she turned and fled the common room, running pell-mell up the
stairs, the essay that she had been working so hard on lying forgotten on the table.

Once in her room, Lily threw herself down on her bed and buried her face in her pillow, her
cheeks still afire. She felt... confused. Angry, certainly, but hurt and disjointed as well.

The main problem was how *good* it had felt when he kissed her. That had thrown her, and
she could still feel the soft warmth of....

Furiously she shook her head and then rolled over onto her back and sighed.

*** * * * * ***

I FINALLY DID IT! I UPDATED! HOORAY FOR ME!!!!!!

I will finish this story, I will I will. Don't worry, `tis now almost done.

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