17 Going On 7

Chapter 5
Dating The Enemy

James rounded the corner, bound for the kitchens so he could get a snack. "Potter!" he heard a voice behind him, and turned around. Mel, Allie, and Chloe were running at him, panting. Finally, they came to a halt right in front of him, each one trying to catch their breath.

James narrowed his eyes. "Yes, ladies?"

"James Potter, I'm going to kick your ar-" started Chloe.

"Whoa!" interrupted James. "Wait - hold up. Why are you chasing me, now?"

"I cannot believe you did that, you stupid g-"

"Chloe! Chill out!" cried Melanie. She looked up at James, who was considerably taller than her. "James Potter, you idiot! You had the perfect chance to go to the ball with Lily, and you passed it up! Do you have any idea how long it took us to talk McGonagall into this?! And what do you do? Waste it! Everything we did! You just wasted it!"

James stared at the girls, confusion surfacing. "You arranged that?" he half-whispered.

"No dip, Sherlock!" cried Chloe. Allie just nodded silently in agreement.

"Why? You knew it would make Lily mad."

"James!" cried Allie exasperatedly. "Don't you get it? Lily is slowly but surely falling in love with you, and by the time of the dance, she's going to be absolutely heartbroken when you have another date."

"Oh, what, so now Alexis Jane Wilshire is predicting the future?" snorted James. "I have an idea. How about everybody stops trying to figure out what Lily is thinking and feeling and just leave her alone?"

"James, that is absolutely hypocritical!" cried Mel. "You've been chasing after poor Lily for years now! You can't expect us to leave her alone!"

"Oh, but I perfectly well can," James said, a tone of finalization in his voice. Then he spun around on his heel and continued his journey to the kitchens.

***

Lily stalked into the common room and slammed her books down on the table, looking around to see if James was there. It was empty. She plopped down on the couch, shut her eyes, and let out a groan of frustration.

"Wow, somebody's a bit grouchy?" Lily's eyes snapped open and she peered around for the source of the voice. James was leaning against a bookshelf, laughter in his eyes.

"Oh, shut up, James," Lily muttered.

"What's wrong with you?" he asked.

"Nothing." James walked over and sat down next to her on the couch. "So, where'd you come from?"

"My dorm," James stated, as if it was worldwide common knowledge.

"Oh. I just came from the library."

James nodded. "So, you got a date to the dance yet?"

Lily shut her eyes tight and shook her head. "You?"

"Yep, I do," he said, too proudly for Lily's liking. "I'm going with Eliza Jonston."

"What?!" cried Lily, her eyes flinging open again. "James, you know she's practically my rival! Why the hell did you do that?!"

James glared at Lily. "Maybe, I like her."

"Maybe, you're just trying to make me jealous," Lily snapped, glaring back at him.

"Maybe I am."

"Are you?"

"Maybe."

"Oh, I give up!" cried Lily, jumping up from the couch. "I thought you were finally maturing a bit, and here you go, asking out that evil psycho bitch just to get me angry at you! James, that is positively immature!"

James stood up calmly, still glaring at Lily. "Nobody said that I'm going with Eliza just so you'll hate me. Honestly, Lily, you already hate me. I'm going with Eliza because she asked me first."

Lily glared at him, shaking her head angrily. "James, that is by far one of the lowest things you've ever said or done. First off, you know I don't hate you. Secondly, if you really were a friend, you wouldn't go with somebody who constantly teases me. Not to give you another ego trip, but you know that there are plenty of pretty girls who would love to go with you. And lastly, I'm going to bed. Goodnight." She turned on her heel and stomped into her dorm, slamming the door behind her.

***

"Oh, James!" cooed a high-pitched voice from the doors to the Great Hall. Sirius, James, Remus, Peter, Lily, Mel, Allie, and Chloe all turned as one to see who on earth was calling James as if she were his mother.

Lily simply snorted with laughter when she saw that it was Eliza Jonston. "Oh, look, Potter, it's your wonderful girlfriend," Lily said icily, her voice dripping with sarcasm.

"She's not my girlfriend," James said sternly. "Just my date."

But it didn't seem that way, as Eliza quickly made her way to James. She sat down next to him and grinned at everybody but Lily. "Good morning, James!" she said dreamily.

"Er ... morning, Eliza..."

Sirius leaned across the table to James and whispered, "We're having a chat once this loony-bin-freak is gone."

James glared at Sirius, then looked over at Lily. She was positively red with anger. Then he looked back over to Eliza. "How are you?"

"Good!" Eliza said quickly. "And you?"

"I'm fine," James said. He looked over at the rest of the Marauders and Lily's friends to see that they were all glaring at him with an intent to kill. James glared back, then turned to Eliza and said sweetly, "How would you like to go eat somewhere else?"

Eliza gave James a bittersweet smile. "Sounds glorious."

James stood up, took Eliza's hand, and lead her to the other end of the table.

"That stupid git!" shrieked Mel, as soon as he was gone.

"What the hell is he thinking?!" cried Remus.

Lily shook her head. "Oh, I'll tell you what he's thinking," she said calmly. Then she told them exactly what had happened the night before.

Sirius had a sour look on his face when Lily was done. "Don't worry, Lils," he said shortly. "I'll get him for you. I'll just have to knock some sense into him, is all."

"Kick his arse!" cheered Allie.

"I'll kick more than his arse," offered Chloe, grinning.

***

Lily kicked the first layer of snow to fall on Hogwarts grounds that year. She kicked it and watched the powdery white cloud rise up in front of her and then mix back in with the soggy ground. Oh, how appropriate, she thought bitterly.

"Lily! Hey, Lily!"

She turned around, completely unsurprised to see Eliza running toward her. It wasn't as if she wasn't expecting it. "Oh, hello, Eliza," she said, her eyes remaining fascinated with the snow.

"Lily, we should talk. I mean, with me and James going out now and all -"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "Going out? Eliza, there is a big difference between going out and going to a dance together."

Lily watched with pleasure as Eliza's cheeks grew steadily redder. "Lily, you don't have to be such a bitch! I'm only trying to make things better for you! I know that you're, like, madly in love with James, and I don't want to ruin your friendship with him!"

"Oh, shut the hell up, Eliza!" Lily screamed back. "You know damn well that it's James who's after me! It's been like that forever, and you used to tease me about it, so don't you dare act all oblivious!"

"Lily, you don't have to be in denial," Eliza said calmly. "It's okay." She put her hand on Lily's shoulder and smiled that ever-famous bittersweet smile. "I'm just sorry I got him before you did."

Lily shrugged Eliza's hand off her shoulder and turned to face her. Lily's face was only inches away from Eliza's. "Rot in hell," she said bitterly, then she turned around and trudged off through the snow, but not before hearing Eliza and her friends burst into obnoxious laughter that was more than Marauder-worthy.

***

"Lil, what's wrong?" James asked, putting down his book and staring across the common room at Lily.

"Shut up, James," she muttered, continuing to stare hatefully into the fire.

"Lils, there is something wrong with you. Just tell me."

Lily turned around and glared at him. "James, you wouldn't care, because it involves your girlfriend, and God forbid she do anything wrong!"

James looked at Lily hurtfully. "Lil, I haven't been friends with her as long. I would stand up for you."

Lily shook her head. "Oh, forget it, James."

James shut his eyes to prevent himself from rolling them and then went back to reading his book. "Besides, she's not my girlfriend," he muttered, not even loud enough for Lily to hear it.

***

"So, what's up with miss pissy pants over there?" asked Sirius, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you think?" muttered Allie.

"Eliza?" Peter stated the obvious.

"Yeah. Word has it, she walked up to Lily yesterday and just started taunting her. I say we pound her arse!" cried Mel.

"Pound whose arse?"

"Ooh, hi, Eliza," said Chloe, managing a smile that said I-hate-you-so-bad-right-now-but-I-am-being-nice-for-the-hell-of-it. Chloe had some rather complicated looks sometimes.

"Have you seen James?" she asked politely.

"Yeah, shoved up your arse," muttered Lily, pretending to be busy with fixing her plate of breakfast.

"What was that, Lil?" asked Eliza.

Allie tried to stand up so she could have a better shot at hexing Eliza into the next universe, but Sirius held her down. "She said - shoved up your arse," Allie said through clenched teeth.

Eliza faked looking insulted. "Well, I sense some rather harsh feelings right now! It is simply too tense and too dramatic over here, so I am so moving!"

"Good!" cried Mel, unable to keep it in.

As Eliza stormed off, Remus said, "Nice job at holding it in, ladies. Next time maybe we could try actually holding it in?"

"Oh, how can you be nice to such a bitchy soul?!" cried Chloe.

"I couldn't have said it better myself," agreed Sirius.

"Nice job of making an insult sound poetic!" complimented Peter.

Chloe stood up and took a bow, then sat back down. "If we're going to help Lily and James, we need to be more discreet with our feelings," whispered Remus.

"I heard that!" cried Lily, but she didn't stand up or storm off. Sirius raised an eyebrow curiously, but other than that, nobody acknowledged it in any other way then mentally.