Lily Evans and the Familiar Stranger

I stare at him blankly. Obviously, James had really tried to make a fool out of himself this time, imagine changing his eye colour to match mine just to insult me, the nerve of him!

"Look, James," I snap. "I don't know how you got into the girls' dormitories but I suggest you get out before one of my room mates comes in here."

His bright green eyes are still flashing behind his glasses. "I told you, I'm not James. I don't know why I told you my real name but I did."

"So you're telling me that everybody thinks you're James but your real name is Harry?" I ask. Why is he trying to ruin my life all the time? It was bad enough that he has pretending that he fancied me so no boy would ever go out with me because they knew what James was capable of. But now he's trying to convince me that he's a different person with eyes that have the same colour as mine and that his real name is Harry! God, I hate him.

"The real James is downstairs, I am a relative of his," this so-called Harry replies.

"I don't believe you," I answer truthfully. "You look too much to be James for you not to be James."

"If I was James then why haven't I asked you out yet?" he asks.

"I don't know, you've probably used a different technique," I retort. Why won't he just leave me alone? I'm using all my self-control not to slap him, he should be very grateful!

"Do you know how I got here?" he asks. What is this? Try-to-drive-Lily-Evans-insane-by-asking-her-millions-of-questions game? Whatever he's playing at, I'm most certainly not taking part in it!

"No. There's no reason why I should understand what you do and how your disgustingly mad brain works," I insult. That insult was pretty weak but I haven't thought of many insults to throw at him recently, I used most of them up when we had our battle of the century yesterday when I finally popped when he asked me out for about the ten thousandth time. Well, technically I insulted him about a million times and he just smirked at me as though I was flirting with him.

He waves a red book in front of my face. "Do you recognize this?"

I didn't at first but then I did, it was my diary! "How...?" I'm sure that I left my diary in my drawer not too long ago. I check and there it is! "You don't have it," I scoff at him, "it's in my drawer."

"30^th October," he recites, "Diary entry number: 25. I hate James Potter! I hate James Potter! I hate James Potter! I hate James Potter! I hate James Potter! I hate James Potter! I hate James Potter! I hate James Potter! I hate..."

"How the hell did you know where my diary was?" I shout.

"I found it," he replies plainly.

"You found it!" I repeat what he said only I shout it. "There's no way you could've found it! It's been in a drawer the whole time!"

"That's not where I found it," he retorts.

"Then where did you find it?" I ask, "Did Lilly help you "find it" for you?"

"No, I found it in the library," he answers.

"The library!" I shout, "how convenient! You just happened to find my diary in the library, didn't you, James?"

"I told you, I'm not James!" he shouts, he has been very calm with me until now.

"You liar!" I shout back.

He looks at me with sincerity. "Look, Lily, I'm not James. I'm really not, a lot of people say I look like him and one person despises me for it--"

"Understandable," I comment.

"--But I'm not him." He carries on pretending that I hadn't commented about it at all. "Would the real James would have gone this far without messing his hair up even more than it is?"

I smile, I don't believe him but I'll pretend I believe him for now. "I guess so."

He smiles back. "I have to talk to Dumbledore."

I open the door to see if the coast is clear. After all, I wouldn't want anyone to think that I'd actually done anything with him in my dorm. I run down all the staircases apart from the one that leads straight into the common room.

I gasp when I see how crowded the common room has become; obviously everyone else has some back from the Halloween feast. I wasn't really hungry so I went to the dormitories to do some homework and fill in my diary. But the biggest shock of all came next. Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew and James Potter were all sitting in front of the fireplace joking around... well, Sirius and James were joking around, Peter was watching and Remus was reading.

Uh oh, James spots me. "Hey, Evans!" he shouts, he thinks he's being real mature talking to me in that "voice" but he's just proving that he's the biggest prat in the Universe. "I forgive you for what you said to me yesterday so will you go out with me?"

"I don't care if you forgive me or not, Potter," I snap. Whoa! I haven't called him Potter since Snape's pants were... well; I think you know what happened.

"Yeah, sure you don't," he says as if he knows everything.

"By the way," I tell him. "Alice tells me that you've been nominated for the 'most conceited jerk Hogwarts has ever seen' award, don't worry, you have my vote!"

"Thanks, baby," James replies.

Baby?!?! I run down the staircase and walk straight to James. I am so tempted to strangle him at this very moment but I manage to keep self-control. "What did you call me?"

"Baby," he answers ruffling his jet-black hair. "I know you like it."

I most certainly do not!!!! I sometimes wonder if he's an escaped madman from Azkaban. "Oh, gee," I begin, my voice is dripping with sarcasm, "why am I always the last person to know these things?"

"Because I know you well, gorgeous." James ruffles his hair again.

Gorgeous?!?! And I thought being called baby was bad! "Listen, I am not pretty or a child."

"Of course you are, it's that you are so vile I thought that if I called you something nice that you'd go out with me." James smirks.

I hate him!!! "Well, I don't want to go with you."

"Sure you don't," he says sarcastically.

I glare at him. As always he looks frightened.

I leave but then a thought stops me and I look back. He still looks too smug about this little insult of his. Maybe what I say might scrape that smirk off, I know I'm usually too sensible for this but James has gotten too big for his boots recently. "Hey, Sirius!" I shout.

Sirius stops whispering in Remus's ear and looks at me. "Yes?"

"Will you go out with me?" He looks too stunned to answer. "I'll give you some time to think about what I just said."

I'm genius! James's smirk has certainly gone. I walk from the common room and up to the dormitory. When I open the door realisation dawns on me.

"Well?" Harry asks.

It really isn't James; he's downstairs trying to figure out why I asked Sirius out! I fall backwards, I want to stop myself but I just can't. Everything goes pitch black.

***