The Transfiguration Assignment

Chapter three

Lily sighed, recrossing her legs under the table and tapping her fingers on the desk.

He was late.

Of course, Lily had realized as soon as she sat down to dinner last night that it might have been a bad idea to have scheduled a meeting with James Potter on a Saturday morning. She had never even seen him up before noon on weekends before, so she doubted that he'd actually meet her in the library. On leaving her own room this morning, Lily had checked to see if James was up, but his room had been empty. At the time she had thought he had gotten up early to meet her in the library, but now she knew that it wasn't the case.

She should have expected it, Lily knew that, but somehow she had hoped that James had matured a little and was actually going to work on this project with her and keep his word. At least she'd know better in the future, she thought, checking her watch. It was 8:40. There was no way she was going to spend the rest of her day wasting it on waiting for James Potter.

Flipping open her textbook, Lily reached for her Advanced Transfiguration notebook just as the doors to the library swung open. In raced a dark-haired somebody carrying a slightly empty-looking bag.

Lily put down her quill and frowned, cocking an annoyed eyebrow, wondering what kind of excuse he'd make up this time.

James sat down across from her, breathing somewhat heavily. His hair was dripping, as if he'd just taken a shower, the top three buttons on his shirt were undone, and his uniform jumper was nowhere to be found. His face was flushed and his eyes were apologetic. Lily noticed his glasses were slightly askew and foggy.

All in all, he was what every girl dreamed of.

"Sorry," he panted, reaching into his bag to get a notebook and his quill. There were shadows under his eyes.

"Late night?" Lily asked tersely, her words clipped and full of frustrated energy.

"You could say," James shrugged, opening his notebook. "I sort of overslept and had to take a shower," he explained, as a bead of water slid from his ear down his neck and slowly made its way down until it disappeared under his shirt collar.

Lily, ignoring the tantalizing image of him taking a shower, clucked her tongue and gave a slightly unamused snort, but otherwise didn't comment.

"What? You don't believe me?" James asked, his eyes focusing on her face.

Lily shook her head, exasperated. "Thanks for coming on time," she muttered, rearranging some notes.

"Look, I said I was sorry," James said, leaning forward in his chair.

"Sure you did," Lily answered, nodding--nodding in a way that made James feel as thought she meant the exact opposite of what she said.

"What more do you want?" James asked. He was entirely bewildered. He'd said he was sorry. Couldn't they just start working? Why did she have to make every little thing into some huge problem? "I apologized and I'm ready to start working, even if I'm a little late. Doesn't that count for anything?"

"You might not have been late if--" Lily stopped herself, shaking her head. "Nevermind."

"Nevermind what?" James asked. "I 'might not have been late if...' what?"

"Nothing," Lily said. "Shall we get down to work?"

"No," James answered. He shook his head. "I don't get it. I couldn't exactly help being late, I told you. I was out late last night--"

"My point exactly," Lily said angrily, throwing down her quill. "If you hadn't been out late doing...Merlin knows what, you wouldn't have shown up late and wasted forty-five minutes of my time."

"Wasted your time?" James snorted. "You're the one that's wasting time right now. And like I said, I couldn't exactly help it--"

"Yes, you could have," Lily interrupted. Why was he being so difficult? "You needn't have gone out with your friends, or out with a girl, or whatever you were doing last night."

James was annoyed. "It was Friday night, Evans. Not all of us sit up in our dorms reading with nothing better to do," he snapped. "And maybe I didn't have to stay out late, but it's not my fault it was a full moon--" James cut himself off abruptly, frustrated and not really knowing why they were arguing. He silently cursed himself for mentioning the moon.

Lily knew she was blushing. She felt her cheeks burn and the heat spread across the rest of her face and covered her entire body, all the way from the top of her fiery head to the tips of her black-clad toes.

Biting her tongue and shaking with thinly concealed anger, Lily started gathering up her things. She didn't know what he meant by that full moon comment, but she didn't really care. All she knew was that practically saying to her face that he thought she was a friendless, no-fun, goody-goody prude hurt, even when she told herself that his opinion shouldn't matter to her. There was no way she could ever work with Potter. She didn't know what anyone saw in him. Dumbledore and the rest of the school must be blind, she decided.

As she reached for her quill, James's hand closed over hers, warm and apologizing. But before she knew what she was doing, she grabbed her quill and jabbed the tip of it into his hand. James jumped back, nursing his pricked hand, staring at her.

"Don't touch me, Potter," she spat. Lily threw her quill at her bag. "And just so you know, last night I wasn't locked up in my dormitory reading or studying or doing whatever the ... the shit you think I do. And what I do with my time is my business and not yours. I can sneak up to the astronomy tower with George Rastner and snog his brains out or I can curl up in front of the fire planning Head Duties, but it's none of your business what I do to spend my time. Not all of us go romping around breaking rules and pranking hardworking people for a laugh every Friday night." Lily was breathing hard. She braced herself against the table and leaned forward, the better to yell in his face. "That was just the sort of comment I expect from you, Potter. It seems you haven't grown up at all. You're still the bossy, big-headed little second year I remember." Even though she saw him wince, Lily didn't let up. "I don't think we're working all that well together," she said. "I'm going to do this assignment on my own and hand it in with only my name on it. I don't care if you fail and have to retake a class, but I'm not going to work with a good-for-nothing prick who doesn't take other people's feelings into account before he opens his big fat mouth."

Lily shoved the table as she stood up straight, sending it straight into James's chest. She grabbed her bag and stomped toward the doors of the library, ignoring the shocked look on the librarian's face and fuming so much she wouldn't have been surprised if her ears were giving off smoke.

James sat there for a minute, the wind knocked out of him, holding his injured hand. He didn't know if he was more shocked by her outburst, or by the fact that she cursed. He had never, ever known Lily Evans to curse before in his life. She was always telling people off for it; and for her to curse at him like that...Standing up so suddenly his chair fell over, James ran after Lily as she neared the exit.

Getting in front of her to block her way, James crossed his arms and sent a glare right back at Lily, who was positively glowing with anger. He knew she had blown this thing up out of proportion, but right then he didn't even really care. Not when he knew he was the cause of her gorgeous eyes to glow so brightly.

Even though they were glaring at him in anger rather than gazing at him with love.

"Get out of my way," Lily growled menacingly. James had the sudden image of her bowling him over with her heavy school bag in her mad rush to get out of the library.

Shaking his head, James took a deep breath and held out a hand.

"I know you think I'm a dimwitted prick, and you're right." James hesitated for only an instant. "I'm sorry." There, the words were out. He had never before ever said them to her after a row. "I didn't mean anything by commenting on your habit of staying up late to read on Fridays. It was a stupid thing to say, especially since I think it's a right cute habit--" he saw her eyes narrow "--and I'm sorry I spoke before I thought. I didn't mean to stay out so late last night that I overslept, but I did. And I'm sorry. But believe me when I swear that we weren't out late for a lark," James said. Some of the tension drained from her shoulders. "I don't even really understand what we were quarreling about, so, can we just shake hands and pretend I didn't show up late and that none of this ever happened?"

Lily was touched by his apology (apologies, she corrected herself), but a few "sorrys" didn't completely heal the wound he had created. She wasn't exactly certain why his words hurt her so much, but they did.

"Apology accepted," Lily said softly, ignoring his outstretched hand, which was obviously waiting to be shaken. She stepped around him, their shoulders brushing for an instant, and opened the door. She tried to overlook the disappointment in his eyes when his arm dropped to his side, hand un-shaken.

"Listen," he said. Lily paused, her back to him. "We just have to suck it up and work on this project together without biting each others' heads off. The least--the least we can be is civil." He seemed to regret their quarrel.

"I will if you will," Lily responded. "Sorry about your hand."

"It's okay," James said awkwardly.

Lily cleared her throat.

"I--I have some other things to do, but maybe we can work on our assignment tonight after dinner." And with that she swept out through the door.

"Sure," James whispered softly to her back as she made her way down the empty corridor. "Sure."