lily evans (![]() ![]() @ 2011-03-31 00:02:00 |
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Entry tags: | !incomplete, james potter, lily evans |
Characters: Lily Evans & James Potter
Setting: Thursday, September 30, evening, fourth floor corridor, en route to Hogsmeade...in theory.
Content: SFW, for now NSFW for some pretty heavy snogging ;)
Summary: Lily and James have their first "date"...sort of.
The concept of lying to oneself was an interesting one, Lily had always thought. If you knew the truth, really knew it in your heart, then how could you convince yourself otherwise? It simply had never made sense to her...at least, not until she decided to offer James Potter a blank slate.
Ever since the day he had stolen her wand, Lily had been at war with herself. Part of her, the part she didn't like to acknowledge was probably her heart, was pointing out that James didn't seem that bad these days, and it looked like he genuinely cared for her, and she ought to trust the judgment of her friends, who all said he was worth her time. The other part, though, was stubbornly insisting on playing her a mental film on loop whenever she was in his presence: Everything Awful James Potter Has Ever Done (the highlights). It made interacting with the boy very confusing, because he would do or say something unexpectedly sweet and Lily would be touched for a moment, and then she would remind herself of the time he stole all of the Gryffindor girls' underwear and hid it around the castle. She consistently tried to ignore her memories of the past so she could analyse if he had actually changed, but the harder she tried, the more vividly she recalled these past incidents. If Lily were honest with herself, she probably was attracted to him a bit. Yes, he was handsome, and charming, and clearly taken with her, and so she couldn't help herself. But she was fully convinced that that was the extent of her feelings towards him.
At this moment, though, her feelings towards James weren't particularly relevant. She had agreed to go on "a proper date" with him today in exchange for his aid in getting out of the castle for Sunday brunch with the girls. The brunch had been lovely, and Lily was glad she had done it, but she probably would have been looking at her date a different way had that been the end of things. It had wound up being James' friends who showed them the way out of the castle because Lily had had a row with James over Merwyn Spinnet, of all people. She had been sure his influence on her life had ended with fourth year, when she had gotten over her little crush through "out of sight, out of mind" over the summer. All it took was a compliment from him and a positive response from Lily to set James off, though, and Lily had predictably snapped right back, but then, for probably the first time when arguing with James, she had felt guilty. Once it was clear that she had upset him, it actually took Lily several seconds to identify what she was feeling. She had apologized and tried to make things right, and it had seemed to placate James, but she had seen distinctly less of him in the week between that confrontation and today than was ordinary.
These events had allowed Lily to convince herself that the reason she felt just a little nervous for this evening was just lingering guilt, hanging on too long because she was such a bleeding heart. As always, when she was nervous, Lily focused her energy into her appearance, trying on multiple outfits before making a choice, and actually tying up her hair for a change so she couldn't play with it. If Lily were really just suffering the effects of lingering guilt and not any attraction to James, she would have been worried that James would take this as a sign that she was interested in him, but this thought never crossed her mind, nor did it even occur to her that she should have this worry.
Really, at this moment, Lily was living proof that it was, in fact, possible to lie to yourself. Of course, as is usually the case, she wasn't letting herself realise this. Instead, she was leaning against the wall of the corridor, fingering the hem of her left sleeve, and idly studying the painting on the opposite wall. It was fairly abstract and extremely busy, and the only conclusion Lily had managed to reach about it when James arrived was that it was ugly.