Chapter VI: Phase IV: Partnering Up
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I can see there's something in your eyes;
You just took a fall from paradise,
Saw the lipstick on your neck,
Maybe you should just confess
I don't wanna lose my head today,
But I know there's something in the way,
Maybe I made a big mistake last night,
when I left you alone with Chelsea…
-"Chelsea" by Stefy
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Thursday
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"I don't want to go in, I hate potions, it's boring," Lily whined as Elle and Alice literally tried to push her into the room.
"Yes, you do manage to fall asleep from boredom in that class very often, but," Alice said, throwing an arm around her shoulders and pushing her into the class. "Just imagine Fen-Prick's reaction when he sees you working with James rather than him as he'd expected."
Lily smiled a bit at the mention of it, "Do you think he'll be jealous?"
"Fen-Prick's the type, especially if you choose James of all people over him."
"Hey Lils," Benjy suddenly grabbed her from behind and turned her to face him, giving her a quick kiss. "What table do you want to sit at today?"
"Uh- well- um- I kind of-"
"She promised to be my partner today Fenwick, sorry," James suddenly interrupted seemingly out of nowhere before taking her by the arm and leading her to a table in the back of the room.
"Lily," Benjy called out, following the pair, quickly pulling her away from James with a scathing look sent this way. "What's going on? We always work together."
Lily paused for a second, searching for a plausible excuse, cursing the fact that Alice and Elle weren't around to help her with it. "I know, I know, but James really needs help in potions and we have a ton of Head stuff to go over so we figured we'd just do it all in class so we don't have to waste as much of our free time," Lily told him before walking away to sit by James not even processing the lie before it left her mouth, even shocking herself by how naturally it came out.
Benjy was in a state of shock, grumbling as he searched for another partner before gruffly grabbing Rachel, who was passing by them, and pulling her to the table next to Lily and James's, only bothering to mumble a quick, "Come on," as he dragged her to their seats.
"He's sitting with her?" Lily whispered as she jealously watched the two sitting at their desk and listening to the professor's instructions.
"He's an idiot Evans, ignore it. Besides, the whole point of this was to make him jealous, not the other way around."
"Yeah, but still, he's my idiot Potter… I love him… all of this, it's all for him," she told him, her eyes never leaving the two.
James gently pulled at her so that she was facing him rather then the other couple, "I don't get it and I'm not going to pretend to because it's your life, your prerogative, but if it helps, I can tell you that he's definitely jealous."
"Really? You think so?" she asked him, her face immediately lightening up at the prospect.
"Yeah, he's even sending me a death glare as we speak."
"Well… good, serves him right," Lily adamantly said.
"Don't pretend like you actually mean that, it makes you seem more pathetic then you already come off as by wanting the guy that cheated on you," James told her before going off to the supply cabinet to collect their ingredients.
Lily waited for him, internally fuming over his comment, his audacity. While she was mentally composing a list of "101Painful Deaths to Inflict upon One James Potter" she suddenly heard someone whisper her name. "Rachel? What do you want?"
"What's with you and Potter lately, since when are the two of you all buddy-buddy?"
"What do you mean?"
"You sit with him at meals, talk to him, and now you work with him during class… wait a minute, oh my God, you're not like rethinking your relationship with Benjy or something, are you? Because if you are, you know you can talk to me."
When Lily looked at Rachel's face, she was shocked by the girl's facial expression. It was like one of those maniacal, conniving looking villains that she only ever saw on her Saturday morning cartoons and in movies like "Who killed Roger Rabbit," only that time it was brought to life, real. It was at that moment that Lily realized that Rachel really had the whole evil bitch thing down pat; it was practiced to a "t," flawless. For the first time Lily was scared, she started to realize that she could fail, after all, she was going up against a professional at manipulation.
"Sorry to interrupt ladies and you're gossiping, but Lily and I really have to start working on this potion if we want to finish on time," James interrupted when he arrived with the materials.
Rachel smiled coquettishly at him; after all there was an undeniable je ne sais quoi about James that was irresistible, regardless of whom the girl, or even at times guy, was. "Sure, wouldn't want to come in between the two of you," she told him before winking at Lily.
Lily just sat there frozen with a confused expression on her face, watching Rachel and Benjy get to work, "God, I hate her."
"You know, the whole brooding thing you have going on for you there, really isn't very attractive, you look rather constipated-help me with the snake skin," James told her as he passed it to her.
"You really are a jack ass… and I'm not pathetic!" she told him as she began cutting up the snake skin.
"No, because acting like a five year-old isn't pathetic at all."
"I am not acting like a five year-old."
"Then, stop pouting."
"Can't you ever just be nice?-and stir that ten times clockwise then four counter."
"I agreed to help you piss off Fenwick, not to let you live in your delusional world where he does no wrong, because guess what, he's a cheating prick. Face facts Evans."
"You're such a jerk," Lily told him louder then she had intended, managing to get the entire class's attention.
James turned to her, eyebrow cocked, and signature smirk in place, "You know, I never noticed it before, but you're pretty sexy when you get all hot and angry like that."
She laughed, "No matter what you're always a flirt above all, aren't you?"
"What can I say; it's a gift-well, looks like the potion is done."
It was at that moment that the bell to signal the end of class rang and with it came Benjy, immediately appearing behind her, ready to pull her away from James as soon as possible after having witnessed their little show. "Ready to go, Lils?"
"Actually, she and I aren't done talking yet," James answered for her.
"I'll meet you at lunch," Lily told him.
Benjy clenched his jaw, addressing Lily through gritted teeth, "Can I talk to you, alone?"
"Um, sure," she said, as he pulled her out the room.
"I don't want you hanging out with him, Lily," he told her gruffly.
"Benjy, don't worry about me. I mean, don't you trust me?" she asked him, fully well aware of the fact that she was pulling out all the stops by asking him that seemingly innocent question.
"Of course I do Lils, but I also know what he's like, you don't know him like I do--"
"That's enough Benjy, he's a mate of mine and I won't let you say that about him. Just drop it," she told him before walking away with James in tow.
"OH MY GOD!" Lily shrieked joyfully as soon as the pair was outside of the castle. "I can't believe it, he's actually jealous."
"Well of course he is, he just saw his girlfriend flirting with his worst enemy," James pointed out to her as the two walked towards the lake, taking a seat in a deserted area by the rocks.
"You know what this means, don't you? Our plan's working."
"Well, that depends."
"On what?"
"On what your goal is," James shrugged.
"What do you mean?"
"You know for Head Girl you can be surprisingly dense sometimes."
"And you're a total jackass, we've already covered that. Now how about we skip the insults for once and just get to the point."
"Do you just want him to be jealous or to actually stop cheating?"
"I want him to love me," Lily said quietly, embarrassed by the statement.
James looked at her incredulously, pausing for a second to process what she had just said, "But- but you two have been together forever."
"So?"
"So hasn't he ever told you that he loves you before?"
"No… never, I guess it never came up. I just-I just want him to realize that he does, I know it's there. He just needs to see it."
"So you think he does, but doesn't know it? Fuck Evans, that's got to be the stupidest thing I've ever heard."
"Well, then seriously, what other reason could he have for staying with me for so long?"
The face that James gave her then made her feel so ignorant, naïve-pathetic. It was an expression of such pity that it made her feel like hell. "Lily, I may think that you're annoying and all that-"
"Gee thanks."
"No interrupting just let me finish first."
"Fine."
"Even with our animosity, I can admit that there's something about you. I mean-," he said with a sigh, obviously searching for a way to explain it to her. "Okay, one: you're hot as hell-"
"Um, what does that have to do with anything?"
James smiled, waging a finger in front of her face, "I said, no interrupting."
"Prick," Lily mumbled.
James ignored the comment, "and in spite of your evident lack of maturity-"
"That's rich, coming from you."
"I'm trying to help you understand, I don't have to if you don't want me to."
Those words shut Lily up, he was right; she was genuinely interested in what he had to say. If there was anyone that could interpret Benjy, it was James, even someone as naïve as her could see that one. "Sorry," she mumbled, unable to say it louder due to her pride.
"You're the hottest girl in our school, smart, Head Girl. Hell, you're even funny at times. You're the most wanted girl here, and for that reason he wouldn't ever let you go even if he lost interest in you. You're the biggest prize around here."
Lily looked at him disbelievingly, "now that doesn't feel degrading at all. I can't believe you're saying that he feels nothing more for me other than pride over the fact that he `owns' me. You don't really believe that, do you?" she asked him with distaste.
"Considering that he's schtuping one of your friends behind your back? Yes."
"ugh, you're such a wanker, I can't believe you'd actually say that to me! You don't know anything about us James, he's not like that, I know it!" she told him before she pushed him off the rock into the water and walked away, ignoring his long stream of inappropriate words directed towards her.
As Lily was walking towards the castle she noticed Rachel making her way to the quidditch field. Time to do some damage control, she thought to herself as she made her way to her former best friend. "Hey girly," she greeted Rachel.
"Hey, what's up?"
"Nothing much, what about you?"
"Well, you know what a rabid quidditch fan I am."
"Yeah," Lily said, thinking about the double meaning behind those words. "Anyway, I wanted to ask if you had any plans for your birthday."
"None as of yet, why?"
"I wanted to throw a party for you… something really nice."
"You would? You are the best mate ever, you know that?" Rachel told her as she pulled her into a bone crushing hug.
"Well, glad to know you like the idea."
"I love it… oh, can it be a surprise party?"
"But you already know about it."
"Yeah, but I can pretend that I don't, I'm a great actress so it shouldn't be too hard. Come on, please, I really want one."
"Um, okay, sure-listen I should go, you enjoy your boy watching."
"Okay, bye," Rachel called out after her as Lily left.
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This love has taken its toll on me,
She said, Goodbye, too many times before,
Her heart is breaking in front of me,
I have no choice, `cause I won't say goodbye anymore
-"This Love" by Maroon 5
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Lily walked in to see Alice and Elle sitting by the fire flirting with two players from the quidditch team, but as soon as they saw Lily enter, they quickly excused themselves.
"Hey what's up?" Elle greeted her.
"Any chance you two would be interested in helping me plan a party?" Lily asked them.
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author's note: so I had major problems writing this chapter, something just feels off about it, my beta (being the amazing person she is) re-read it like 12 times trying to figure out what was wrong with it, but ultimately all she could come up with was that it was a filler so it just wasn't as exciting
I honestly don't know, but if any of you have any ideas, feel free to share!
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