Without Warning

CHAPTER THREE: The arrogant bullying toerag strikes again.

'I really can't believe it; I mean, of all the people he'd ask!' Grace Parker came careening up into the dormitory, followed closely behind by her twin Phoebe.

Lily looked up from the drawer she was folding her robes neatly into to see a rather flustered yet ecstatic-looking Grace flailing her arms madly around in the air, much to the disgust of her more quieter sister.

'It's not that big a deal, Grace. It's only a stupid dance,' Phoebe scowled, walking over to her trunk.

'Not that bigger deal?' Grace cried incredulously, 'Are you crazy? Of course it's that big a deal!'

Lily turned and exchanged a puzzled look to Indigo, who raised her eyebrows and shrugged.

'Who asked you to the Celebratory Ball, Grace?' Indigo asked casually.

'Oh, no one particularly special, just the head boy!' she squealed, producing an even deeper scowl from her twin.

'Frank Longbottom asked you to be his partner?' Indigo asked astonished.

'Whoa,' was all Lily could produce.

'I know! Isn't it wonderful!' Grace exclaimed.

'I'm having a shower,' muttered Phoebe, picking up her pyjamas, and heading towards the girls' bathroom.

'Wait for me! I need to wash my hair!' Grace ran over to her trunk, pulled out her apple shampoo and sashayed after her sister.

'That girl has way too much energy,' supplied Indigo as she and Lily both stood with their mouths open, eyes wide and staring at the now closed bathroom door.

'Good on her, I say. Oh, crap. I've left my spare quills down in the common room. I won't be a sec,' said Lily, opening the dormitory door and leaving Indigo still staring dumbstruck at the door.

As she lumped lazily down the stairs, Lily came into full view of the common room. She searched each table looking for her mislaid quills, when she saw them lying on a table off to the side. A table near enough to the window to see Hagrid's hut, yet close enough to the fire to keep warm. The same table she and Indigo had been battli over to have dibs on with the same group of boys since first year. Just her luck! Why did this always seem to happen to her?

She walked cautiously over to where the boys were whispering in a low rumbling manner. She noted that James wasn't joining in on their conversation, preferring to continuously bang his forehead on the table.

She put her most determined face on and kept walking. There was no way in Hell they - or him in particular - were going to intimidate Lily Evans.

She came to a halt in front of them, frowning slightly - they had yet to realise she was standing right there. She cleared her throat as Sirius looked up in alarm, followed by the rest. She noticed James' head was rather red - had he been banging it for long?

'Changed your mind, eh Evans? Back to give Jamsey here another go?' Sirius smirked, patting a confused looking James on the back.

'No, contrary to whaou may believe, Black, my whole world doesn't revolve around the head of Potter,' she shot back.

'No baby, of course not, that'd be impossible. Revolving around my whole body, well, now that's a different story,' grinned James.

Baby? Her eyes narrowed and she scowled, but refrained from resorting to drastic measures, such as banging his head against the table once and for all.

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'For your information, I just came to get these,' she said, snatching her quills up from the table, 'which I find far more fascinating and would rather 'revolve around' compared to any part of you, Potter.'

'Maybe if you came to the Celebratory Ball with me you'd feel different about that?' James said raising his eyebrows and smiling suggestively.

'Hmm, let me think ... NO!' She spun on the spot and stalked back off to her dormitory.

'Evans! C'mon Evans, come back! Come to that dance with me, Evans!'

Lily ignored Potter's stupid little pleas as laughter rang out through the common room. She slammed the dormitory door with a loud thud, fury emblazoned on her face.

'I just cannot, for the life of me, get over the fact that he is such an arrogant, bullying toerag! I really can't!' Lily exclaimed to Indigo while she was pacing their dormitory.

'Well, at least he summoned the courage to come and apologise in the first place, Lil," she said while sitting carefully down at the foot of her bed.

'What's that supposed to mean?' Lily turned quickly to face her best friend.

'It's just that, uh, well, you're not exactly the mellowest person to confront when you're in a bad mood ... fiery red head and all,' Indigo prayed that she wouldn't require stitches after saying that. 'Fiery Redhead' was definitely not one of Lily's favourite sayings.

She watched Lily carefully as she started pacing again, and then came to a halt at the window. Lily leaned her head against the cold pane of glass, closed her eyes and let out a deep sigh.

' I just don't get him. Sure, he's got talent when it comes to Quidditch, and in the classroom for that matter, but he just lacks everything when it comes to his social skills. He's acts so immature when he's running around with his friends, hexing anyone who pisses him off, and pranking Snape at any given chance. It's pathetic! And yet...' She trailed off and closed her eyes again. Why did she even care?

'And yet what, Lil?'

'And yet the times I've talked to him by himself, on the re occasion that I can stand being near him, he acts completely different. Like, like normal and mature.' Lily took another deep breath and let it out slowly.

'So what you're saying is you may be harbouring feelings for this arrogant, bullying toerag of a stud, otherwise known as James Potter?' Indigo suggested, yet again praying Lily wouldn't explode.

'Indigo,' Lily said warningly.

'What?! All the signs are pointed in that direction, whether you'll admit it or not.'

'Please!' Lily scoffed, 'James and I? That's one pairing that's never going to happen. You know the kind of guys I go for Ind. Potter is definitely not up my alley. He just infuriates me with his arrogance, and the fact he thinks him and his friends own the bloody key to the school. Then, he turns around when he thinks no one's looking and acts like the real James.'

'Is there a chance for you and the real James, then?'

'I...no. No, there's no way in Hell. The wounds run to deep in this war.' Lily scowled as she thought back to all the times Potter and his friends had done pranks on her, intentionally or not.

'All's fair in love and war, Lil,' Indigo said as she climbed into her bed, smiling to herself. She'd never noticed it before, not until now. It had never crossed her mind that Lily may just have a thing for her arch nemesis. Indigo grinned to herself as she closed her eyes and snuggled into her soft pillow.

This was going to be an interesting term.

Meanwhile, Lily, after drawing the curtains around her bed rather ferociously, was sitting in the dark pondering over what Indigo had just suggested. Was there a chance for her and the 'real' James Potter? Well, it was certainly worth pondering about, wasn't it (seeing as that's what she was doing at that very moment)? But she doubted that she'd ever get more of a glimpse of the 'real' James in the future. That's just how he was and how 'd always be; too afraid to show anything but arrogance, bullying, pride, impeccable personal hygiene, and incredible loyalty to his dear ones. Hang on, had she just complimented him? Oh god.

This was definitely going to be an interesting term.

'I think it's fair to say,' began James, as he walked into their dorm, 'that that didn't go exactly according to plan.'

'Aaaand the understatement of the year award goes to: James Potter!' exclaimed Peter, sounding peculiarly like a Muggle wrestling announcer. Sirius and Remus both snickered as they fell on top of their respective beds.

'Shut up, Pete,' sighed James.

'You know Prongs, he does have a point in a weird, twisted kind of way. That was the perfect opportunity; you had her by yourself and everything. But what'd you do? You decided to chat about which part of your anatomy you'd prefer her to rotate around.' Sirius grinned as James scowled.

'Like you've never done that before in your life, Padfoot.'

'Hey!'

'Well, she brought it up in the first place anyway,' James muttered running a hand through his tousled hair.

'You know what this calls for?' Sirius asked suddenly eyeing the others with a look of mischief in his eyes.

'Please tell me, because I'm dying to know,' Peter muttered sarcastically, earning a forceful glare from Sirius.

'Well, I was going to say a quick trip d to the kitchens, but obviously you don't take such a shining to your beloved chocolate frogs anymore, Pete,' Sirius smirked.

'Well, I uh...aw come on Sirius, you know I'd do anything for a chocolate frog,' whined Peter.

'Quit your whining then, and take those hideous slippers off before I come down with a violent case of nausea.'

This remark caused Peter to return the forceful glare that he had received just moments ago. He quickly whipped his slippers off and threw them beside the mess of robes and socks strewn across his bed.

'Right, now that that's settled, I'm feeling much better. Thank you, Wormtail,' grinned Sirius, earning a sarcastic nod and smile from Peter.

'I'm not hungry, Padfoot,' James said, pulling the curtains around his four-posted bed.

'But I'm starving!'

'You're always starving,' remarked Remus.

'Yeah, why is that? Do you think I have worms?'

'I think you just spend too much time staring at the legions of girls in the Great Hall instead of eating,' snickered Remus.

'Can you blame me? It's one out of only three chances a day to scope out all four houses at the same time,' explained Sirius with a grin.

'They should be so lucky,' said Remus, raising an eyebrow.

'They are. They're very lucky to have such handsome men in their presence.'

'Lily Evans doesn't seem to think so,' piped up Peter, walking back into the dorm from the bathroom. A pillow was swiftly thrown at him from inside the curtains of James' bed.

'Ow! That really hurt, James!' squealed Peter, rubbing his eye where the corner of the pillow had cked him.

'When will he learn?' Sirius asked, his arms and head raised towards the heavens above.

To Lily, Transfiguration Class could only be described in one way - a total waste of time. She concluded that it probably had something to do with the fact that she wasn't very good at it as well, but she also found it to be a complete and utter bore. Furthermore, the fact that James Potter seemed to be the exact opposite of her in this class and made a point of sitting right ide her was more of a reason for her to despise the class. Never mind that though - she'd get her own back in Charms. James was absolutely formidable at Charms. She grinned, remembering the most unfortunate 'accident' from Charms in the previous term, when James had missed his object and turned Professor Flitwick into a turnip. Good times.

'Miss Evans?' McGonagall had her eyebrows raised with an expectant look etched upon her face. Uh-oh. The rest of the class turned in their seats to face her. A few people snickered. She looked at Indigo for some help, only to realise that she'd been paying even less attention than Lily herself had. Damn!

'Uhh,' stammered Lily, 'sorry Professor, could you please repeat the question?'

McGonagall pursed her lips together in a rather pissed off manner and then sighed heavily.

'Miss Evans, when will you learn that the only way for you to succeed in this class is to pay attention?'

'Isn't that the way to succeed in any class Professor?' Sirius asked with a grin.nt color="Black">

Lily and McGonagall both rolled their eyes at the same time. The last thing either of them wanted was Black joining in on their little 'conversation'. However, Lily did fell a little surge of gratitude towards Sirius for delaying the throttling. God, that couldn't be a good thing.

'Thank you, Mr Black. Miss Evans, what I was asking you to do was to demonstrate the Mirroright transfiguration.'

'The, the Mirroright transfiguration?' Lily squeaked.

'Yes Miss Evans, you've been learning it all week - unless of course, you haven't been paying attention, which I'm thinking is very likely at this point,' she said. Muttering to herself, McGonagall huffed slightly and turned back to her desk to where she started rifling through some papers.

'The transfiguration from a lamp shade to a mirror,' muttered someone beside her. She turned her head slightly to identify the person to whom the voice belonge Potter?

'I know what it means,' Lily hissed back.

'Well then, what's the hold up?' James grinned.

'I, I just don't know the incantation,' Lily answered through gritted teeth. Jeez, why was she even telling him this? He'd just laugh and throw it back in her face. She awaited for him to retort with some smart arse remark.

'One swish, two flicks, and say Thirorrim,' muttered James again, keeping his eyes to the front.

Lily stared at him. Surely he wasn't helping her? Surely he didn't want her to succeed? But then again, he could be lying. This could be a trick to make her look like an utter prat in front of McGonagall and the whole class. Although she already did, so why did it matter? Fine, if this was a prank, she'd beat him at his own game.

She stood up, stealing a look at James to see him smiling with an expectant twinkle in his eyes. Clearing her throat, she swished her wand and flicked it twice while announcing 'Thirorrim!' clearly for the whole class to hear.

Slowly, the lampshade in front of her twitched. She thought it would eventually shake of the table and smash on the ground, but to her amazement, it started getting flatter. The cream calico material of the shade disappeared, and its place laid a very beautifully constructed creamy coloured looking glass. She stared at it for second longer before raising her eyes to the rest of the class and to a blinking McGonagall.

'V-Very good Evans. 10 points to Gryffindor.'

Lily sat back down in her seat and stared at the very astonished-looking red head in the reflection lying on her desk in front of her. She smiled slightly at her surprised green eyes.

'Well done,' came that same voice from beside her again.

'Er, thanks,' was all Lily could muster as she smiled very slightly at James. He had helped her. He'd never helped her before in his life. On the contrary, he usually made her life a living Hell. Surely this time a smart remark was about to surface. She waited and held her breath.

'You're welcome,' he smiled and then turned back to his notes.

Well that wa first, she thought to herself.

As the end of class finished, Lily packed up her things and headed towards the door to meet Indigo and the others. Someone tapped her on the shoulder. She turned quickly to identify the perpetrator only to realise it was Potter again. Oh for the love of Merlin please don't let him start harassing her about dates to Hogsmeade again.

Lily raised her eyebrows in question at James' gesture, 'Yes Potter?'

'You know, you owe me for getting you out of a sticky situation back in there, Evans,' he said smoothly with a grin.

'Yeah well that's got to be a first for you, Potter. From what I recall, you seem to frequently get me in to 'sticky' situations,' she retorted, remembering how hard she'd had to scrub to get the tar out of her hair.

'Yeah ... well, I've told you I'm sorry about that. Its just a coincidence. Anyway, those 10 points you won technically belong to me.'

'In your dreams, Potter.' Why did he always have to turn their conversations into a complete pain in the neck? Hang on, since when were they having conversations anyway? Urgh, she couldn't bare talking to His Arrogancy a moment longer, and turned on heel to march out of the classroom.

'Evans! I'll call it even if you come to the Celebratory Ball with me! Hey, Evans, come back! You owe me one!'

Lily scoffed at his words and kept walking to catch up with Indigo and the others, leaving James once again watching the back of her walking away at an alarming rate.

'You can keep running from your feelings, Lily, but you'll never be able to hide them forever,' James smiled to himself. He had definitely seen her blush.