Not Him | Jily

Chapter Nine

When Lily arrived at Potions the next day, she was surprised to see James already sitting at their desk, cockily smirking, his elbow propped up on the table and his hand twirling his quill around. He was snickering with Sirius, who stood by the desk talking low, and making glances towards the door. Once he saw Lily, he gave James a punch on the shoulder, raised his eyebrows towards her, then made for his own desk where Remus sat. James began running his free hand through his hair. Typical.

As Lily approached, she untucked her long hair from behind her ears and took her seat, then proceeded to rummage through her bag to pretend to look for something.

'Lost something, Evans?'

His smooth voice made her jump and she heard him heavily exhale through his nose and noticed through her hair that he was grinning and shaking his head at her. 'Didn't mean to scare you,' he joked.

'You didn't,' Lily replied, pretending that she had found whatever she was looking for, pulling out a textbook, a quill, and an ink pot from her bag. She subconsciously pushed one side of her hair behind her ear.

The bitterness in her voice was not hidden. The rumours about them dating had only become a more frequent piece of gossip after they had left the Great Hall together the previous morning at breakfast, and then proceeded to be late for their first class. For some reason, this was his fault.

Of course, really it was Lily's: but she wasn't about to admit anything of the sort.

'I'm getting the feeling that you're mad at me?' James murmured in her ear as Slughorn walked in and the class went quiet.

His warm breath against her bare skin sent an array of shivers down her spine, and she forced herself to think of anything except for her Amortentia.

'I don't know why you get that impression.'

'I don't know what this is about,' James honestly admitted. He racked his memory for anything in the past twenty-four hours that he could've done to cause this reaction. Though he couldn't find anything other than Sirius landing her a place in detention. 'Evans, if this is about Sirius-'

'Don't play dumb, Potter,' she fired back, and almost immediately felt bad for acting in the manner she was.

'Mr. Potter, if you please?' Professor Slughorn requested.

James shifted his gaze from Lily and to the Head of Slytherin House. 'Repeat the question, Sir?'

'More time listening, less time talking!' Professor Slughorn chuckled. James pointedly ignored the faces that turned to stare. 'Name the ingredients needed to brew Draught of the Living Dead.'

Without missing a beat, he answered: 'Infusion of Wormwood, powdered root of asphodel, sloth brain and sopophorous bean.'

Something that Lily had always struggled to grasp about James was how he managed to keep his grades so high, while never seeming to study, yet herself and Remus slaved away for hours to achieve their grades. Was she jealous? Maybe a little...or a lot.

She felt heat begin to creep up her neck and face in response to numerous stares from classmates that came from Professor Slughorn's comment, and she hoped James wouldn't notice her blush.

'Evans,' he whispered. 'Tell me what's up.'

Without sparing him a glance, Lily hissed back, 'I'm tired of people thinking we're dating. You need to stop it.'

James didn't answer for a minute, considering the accusation. Yesterday she had been confident he hadn't done anything to encourage the rumours, yet today she seemed sure it WAS his doing.