Loathing

Lily turned to Ramona, “God who does he think he is?!”

Her best friend knew imidietly who she was talking about, after all, that’s what best friends were for, “Don’t worry Lily he’ll give up soon enough.”

“I swear to god next time he sends me singing flowers I’m going to kill him.”

Ramona laughs hard, “Give him a break though, it is Valentine’s Day.”

“Yeah but all the other times weren’t.” As if he knew they were talking about him the dark haired boy rounded the corner of the corridor, “Potter!”

She strode up to him furiously, Ramona right behind her. James turned to them, his eyes full of mischief, “Lily. Always such a sight.” He looked her over and smiled. “What can I do for you today?”

“You!” She put a finger on his chest and poked him hard, “Need to stop sending me those damn
flowers!”

“Aw!” He proceeded to try and look hurt, it didn’t work, “You don’t like the flowers? But they sing.”

“I know they sing.” Her words were full of venom, “As does everyone else in my classes.”

“Sorry about that, I don’t know anywhere else to send them. At least I know you’ll be in class.” He winked and Remus and Sirius who had just rounded the corner pointed over towards them before waving. “You gotta admit they sing such nice songs.”

“Send me one more flower, singing or not, and I will hunt you down and make sure you regret it.”
She was on her toes, her nose almost against his. Remus and Sirius, who had been walking toward them, heard what Lily had said and burst into a fit of laughter.

James held up his hands, “Alright alright. Just don’t curse me Evans.” He clutched his heart, “I don’t think I would recover.”

Then he left, taking the still hysterically Sirius and Remus with him. Ramona came up to stand beside her, also trying not to laugh, “You think he’ll keep his word?”

loathing: (n) hate coupled with disgust.

“I’ll see you later Ramona. Have fun with Thomas.” She waved to her friend in the mirror while she readied herself for her date. It was all Ramona had been talking about for the past few days, not that Lily minded. But now she needed a little fresh air, so walking out of the room she headed for the courtyard. The light was starting to fade and she could see the first sign of sunset.

“Put me down Potter!” Rang through the wide space. Lily recognized the voice of her other best friend, Severus and made her way quickly to wear it was coming from. “Put me down now!”

He was dangling from him ankle in mid air, his hair standing up (down) and his face fuirious, “Let him go!” She screamed to James, her face heating. Why did the prick always have to pick on Severus?

“Oi, Evans do you know what this git said to me?” He was smirking but she could see the laughter in his eyes.

“No and I don’t care.” She pulled out her wand and pointed it straight at James’s head, “Put him down now Potter or I’ll curse you before you can say Hogwarts.”

He seemed to realize she wasn’t joking and dropped Severus roughly to the ground. Running forward she ran to her friend and fell to her knees next to him. “Are you alright Severus?”

“Get away from me!” He pushed her hands away, “I don’t need help from a mudblood like you!”

Lily stiffened at the word, how dare he call her a mudblood, “Excuse me?”

“You heard me! I don’t need help from a worthless mudblood like you!” Lily got to her feet and backed away.

“How dare you!” It was James, his face looked angry and sad at the same time, “How dare you call her a mudblood!”

He raised his wand and pointed it towards the boy struggling to his feet, “Stop.” Lily held up a hand. “He’s not worth your time.” Then, feeling the tears starting to rise she turned to run but was stopped.

“Wait! Lily!” She turned to see Severus, “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it!”

Now she was angry, angry beyond belief, how dare he try and apologize after what he called her, “Oh you’re sorry are you? Well then I guess all is forgiven because you’re SORRY!” she raised her wand.

“Please I didn’t mean it.” He pleaded.

She sneered at him, “But you call everyone of my race mudblood. Why should I be any different?”

“Because the rest of them aren’t like you. You’re different.”

Lily laughed, “Different how Severus?” She raised her wand higher and he stiffened, “Different how.” She demanded.

Severus looked around at the angry faces of Sirius, Remus, and James, “Because you’re Lily and they aren’t.”

“You filthy piece of scum.” James started in but Lily beat him to it. Throwing her wand aside she clenched a fist and punched Severus’s face as hard as she could.

“Bloody hell!” He clutched at his bleeding nose and ran. Lily ran too, but in the opposite direction, her tears flowing freely down her face. She ran so quickly that she just about missed the boys stunned faces.

“Lily! Hey Lily wait!” She heard James running behind her but just kept going. She ran until she couldn’t run anymore, her lungs exploding with the effort. A second later she was on the floor, her knees against her chest, and her arms around her head. “Lily.” It was James again, sounding out of breath.

“Damn you run fast.”

She looked up to glare at him but quickly turned away, not wanting him to see her cry. “Go away James!”

“Wow. First name, he must have really hit home.”

“GO AWAY!” a first year walking by ducked his head down and ran.

“Sorry.” His voice was soft and sounded different. Older somehow, “I’m not good with serious situations. But don’t let what Snape said get to you.”

“He was my best friend.” She sniffed and wiped her eyes, “How could I not?” it wasn’t really a question but he answered anyways.

“Because you are better than him.” He pushed a strand of hair behind her ear, and his voice hushed, “You are a strong, smart, beautiful girl, don’t let him break you.”

“Don’t lie to me James. It’ll only make me hate you more.”

“And then I’ll be sad.” He sounded sincere and she looked up into his eyes, a perfect hazel color.
Her breath caught and she might have done something stupid had he not broken eye contact at that moment to sit down properly, leaning back on his hands he stared to the wall opposite of them. “I’ve thought that since the first moment I saw you, couldn’t help it really.

“Remus is always telling me to get over you. Says that you’ll never like me back if I keep being such a git. ‘Stop sending her those stupid singing flowers James!’. I didn’t listen of course, kept sending you those annoying flowers.”

Lily started, if he thought they were so annoying why did he keep sending them? She was about to open her mouth to ask but he cut her off with a chuckle, “Yeah I knew they were annoying. But I also knew if I kept sending them you would have no choice but to talk to me. Until then you’d been ignoring me, walking in the other direction when I’d look your way. I knew you wouldn’t talk to me if I’d sent you any old flower, so I sent the most annoying one I could think of. One that sang.”

He smiled at her but it wasn’t his usual patronizing smile. This one looked genuine and she realized that when he wasn’t being so sarcastic he was actually good looking, but then another thought occurred to her, “But why did you have to pick on Severus? If only you’d left him alone-“

“Like I said. You didn’t hear what the git said.” He looked angry again, his face hardening.

“Well what did he say?” She wanted to know what he had said to make James, a joker himself, so angry.

“He was making fun of Remus. His scars.” He muttered to himself, “He knows. He knows why he has those scars and yet he still makes fun of him.”

Even though she had no clue what he was talking about she felt as though she needed to comfort him. So placing a hand on his shoulder she tried to catch his gaze, “Don’t let him get to you.”
James smiled, “You’re starting to sound like me Evans.”

“Hey!” He looked startled when she smiled at him, “It’s Lily.”

His eyes little up and she had a sudden urge to kiss him. But no, she thought, that’s crazy! This is Potter she was thinking about. She couldn’t feel for him like that, not James. But in these past few minutes he had grown up more than she had ever seen him. He was nice, caring, and even funny. She could see that this was his true personality now, the sarcastic version of him was just a front. A front to make people think he didn’t care, that he didn’t hurt.

He looked at her curiously as she stared at him, staring for a long time. Then slowly but surely she leaned in to kiss him. At first he was shocked, his eyes going wide with disbelief. Then slowly he leaned into her, deepening the kiss, his eyes closing. Her hands went to his hair, his to her waist. They stayed like that a long time before breaking apart. James looked at her in utter amazement and she smiled, licking her lips.

“Bloody hell.”

Lily smiled, “Glad I have that effect on you.”