A/N::: COMPLETELY different from most Lily/James stories, very different from my previous one. I wanted a break from the usual predictable, 'storybook,' fairy tale LJ story…give it a bit of a spin.
Lily is…well…you'll see. James isn't much different from his usual egotistical ways, but the biggest difference?
He hates Lily Evans…HATES her...
Reviews are REALLY REALLY appreciated! Let me know what you think of this polar-opposite fic! Constructive criticisms are GREATLY appreciated as well…
Enjoy! :-D
"Why do you even bother talking to her, Moony?" James asked.
It was the end of September in their 7th year at Hogwarts.
"Because contrary to your belief, she is actually a pretty cool person," Remus replied.
"Yeah, whatever," James said simply, throwing a paper airplane across the common room to no one in particular.
"Just because she is a better chaser than you does not give you the right to hate her, Prongs," Sirius joked at him.
"Don't forget better at arithmancy," Peter piped in.
"And muggle studies," Remus said.
"And potions, definitely potions," Sirius said coolly, not looking up from his book.
"And she's been known to throw a better party than you once or twice in the past, Prongs," Remus added.
Sirius and Peter nodded in agreement.
"Wait, she's better than you in poker, too," Peter said thoughtfully.
"Yes, that she is. And let's not forget that she does look much better in a miniskirt than you, mate," Sirius said, finally looking up from the book he was reading.
"Alright, alright! I get it! She's cooler than me, got it," James said throwing his hands up in the air.
"Definitely," Remus said.
"Yes, and hotter," Sirius said swiftly taking off his new reading glasses.
"Yeah, she's like Tony Stark, and you're like Bruce Wayne. Both of you are really cool, but she's just so totally wayy cooler, and hotter, and richer, and-" Peter started saying.
"Are you calling Tony Stark hot, Wormtail?" Sirius said chuckling.
"What? No! I just mean that she's like more like Tony Stark with her coolness and everything, where, you know, James is kind of more like Bruce Wayne, because he's more like business and hiding, and he would want to conceal his true identity and everything, where Tony is just like 'hey everybody, I'm Ironman' and he's so totally awesome, and they're more-" Peter rambled.
"I think I got it Wormtail," James said loudly, sighing. He ran a hand through his hair and returned to the transfiguration essay he had been writing.
"Wormtail, I think you may have gotten it backwards, even though Stark is a lot cooler than Wayne, which would of course make him Evans, but then again she kind of hides behind a mask at times when Stark is all out in the open…" Sirius said thoughtfully, bringing a pen to his chin and tapping it lightly.
Peter thought for a slight moment. "Yeah, I guess I can see that. So if we take Stark's coolness and edge combined with Wayne's dual-personality and mask, we get Evans… and-"
"If we take Wayne's business-like manner and Stark's sarcastic humor as well as his openness about who he is then we get Prongsie!" Sirius said. He clapped his hands together as if he and Peter had just figured out a mystery.
Remus laughed a little, shook his head, and then turned to address James. "What's your problem with her? Besides the usual line of 'I just don't like her attitude'?" he asked.
James pondered his answer for a moment. "Well, I don't like her attitude. She thinks she's so much better than everyone else. She's an arrogant spoiled bitch. You guys are all right about the smart thing, though. She is smarter than me is some subjects, but I have to disagree about quidditch. I mean, I just think that she thinks she can get whatever she wants. Hey, it's a mutual hate-relationship, she hates me for the same reasons," James explained delicately.
"Prongs, if you would think about it a minute, observe her for a day or two, you would know that you have something she doesn't," Remus said putting away his paper and walking upstairs to the dorms.
James looked questioningly at Sirius. Sirius rolled his eyes and got up from the couch he was sitting on to sit at the desk in front of James.
"Look, mate, I know you loathe the girl, and I understand why. But, she doesn't have very many friends," Sirius explained.
"What? She has tons of friends, everyone loves her!" James said throwing his hands in the air in disbelief.
"Dude, are you really that blind?" Sirius asked leaning back in his chair.
James gave him a clueless look, cocking his head to the side.
Sirius shook his head. "Maybe we should switch spectacles in the morning, might give you a better view of what Evans's life is really like," he said.
"Padfoot, what is so hard about having everything you ever wanted handed to you at the drop of a dime no matter what the hell it was?" James asked, leaning his elbows onto the table.
"I guess it depends on what it is," Sirius said before pushing his chair under the table and retreating upstairs.
Brii leaned her shoulder against the wall as she lazily brushed her teeth. It was 6:30am, entirely too early to be out of bed in her mind. After brushing for about 30 seconds, her roommate walked into the bathroom.
Neither of them were morning people.
Lily immediately ignored Brii and splashed water on her sleepy face. Brii had been brushing her teeth for a while now and seemed to have little intention of stopping within the next few minutes.
"Geez, Riddle, how long are you going to brush your damn teeth?" Lily asked her, looking at her through the mirror.
"Until you choke on your toothpaste and die so that I don't have to brush my teeth in the toilet and can actually use the sink to spit in," Brii said after spitting in the toilet. She gave Lily her most sardonic sarcastic smile and continuing to brush.
Lily sighed. "Yeah, well, here's to hoping," she said as she squeezed toothpaste onto her own toothbrush and began the same routine.
Brii cocked an eyebrow at her and spit once again in the toilet, this time flushing it and then grabbing the mouthwash on the sink.
"So what's the deal with this new bone of yours? Looked pretty heavy last night" she said to Lily before taking a swig of mouthwash.
Lily spat into the sink. "A friend of Severus. And, I'm just helping him with his NEWT project in Herbology, thank you. What about you? Oh! Wait! You just have fuck-overs with all of your bones. Any good deals last night?" Lily said sarcastically.
"Nah, none of them have any meat on them anymore. It's like they're all dried out, decomposed, dead. I need a good bet. A wildcard would be great, too," Brii said, turning on the water in the shower.
"No kidding. Want to go hunting after breakfast?" Lily asked.
Brii shrugged her shoulders as she stepped into the shower. "Sure, why not."
Lily and Brii walked into breakfast that morning still half asleep, then went their separate ways as they reached the table. Lily had to keep her reputation up by sitting with the other rich and popular girls and listen to them as they talked about which guy was the cutest and complained countless times about homework that, to Lily, was as easy as 2+2.
Lily endured this torture because she felt she had to. She liked being the nice girl, the girl everyone liked.
But it wasn't who she was.
She and Brii loathed each other, but they were also best friends. Lily would have probably gone insane if it wasn't for Brii. She was her outlet.
The girls Lily hung around with in her classes and at dinner weren't her real friends, and she knew it. One little thing could go wrong and they would drop her, hate her, judge her.
As Lily approached the table, she took a deep breath and perked up. Her 'friends' were all motioning her quickly to them, eager to tell her some gossip they had heard.
"Lily! Come on! Sit! We saved you a place!" Judy said patting the seat between her and Ally.
"Omg, We have sooo much to tell you! You wont believe who was talking about you in the Common Room last night!" Carrie said to her, who was sitting directly in front of her.
"Oh really? Who?" Lily said, mildly interested in the conversation and more intrigued by the eggs she was putting onto her plate.
"James Potter!" Judy squealed, putting her hand over her mouth.
"Oh, well, that's good I guess. What did he say?" Lily really didn't care what he said, she knew he hated her and she hated him as well. But, she would amuse the girls by asking questions.
"Oh, I don't know, we just heard your name and then Remus and Peter AND Sirius started talking about you too! I heard Remus say you were pretty. Maybe… Oh! Lily maybe, Remus or James has a crush on you!" Ally exclaimed.
"Ha, I doubt it," Lily said sipping her juice. With this she zoned out, letting Ally and Judy talk about how cute her and Remus or James would be as a couple. She glanced down the table at Brii who happened to be sitting beside James.
'That's weird' Lily thought as she caught Brii's eye. Brii smirked at her and the other three girls as they loudly chatted away. Lily shook her head slightly, then brought herself back to reality as she noticed another set of eyes mocking her.
A shudder went down her spine. The cold, mocking gaze that she was receiving from James Potter was one she had never gotten before. Trying to breathe, her chest shook as she wavered in her chair. Never had she felt such hatred. Breaking the stare, she gulped down the rest of her orange juice and turned back to the chatting girls.
As Brii walked away from Lily, she saw James Potter sitting alone at the end of the Gryffindor table. She walked towards him, intending to sit with him, as there was no one else at the table worth sitting with. She didn't hate Potter, it's just, well, Brii never really had a non-sarcastic conversation with anyone.
James was picking at his food when she said down beside him. He looked up, expecting to see one of the Marauders, but instead surprisingly found Brii Riddle sitting beside him.
"Morning, Potter"
"Hullo, Riddle. You're up early"
"Yeah, well, when there are redheads that snore and talk in their sleep in your dorm, you really don't get much sleep at all in the first place. So, technically, I am up late," Brii stated.
James pondered this. "Hmm, I like the logic there" he said biting his toast.
"So where is the rest of your magnificent posse?" she asked as she began eating.
"Sleeping, sleep-walking, and sleep-talking. So I guess we have the same problem."
"I'm going to take a wild guess that Black is the one talking, Lupin is walking, and I have to say it is hard to believe that Pettigrew has no bad sleeping habit."
"He drools…. Really badly," James said thoughtfully.
"Ah, that would make sense."
After a minute of silence, James said, "I don't know how you do it."
Brii frowned. "Do what?"
"Put up with her. I mean, I know you hate her, but you put up with her. Like hang with her and everything. I just, I don't understand," James said about Lily.
"Have you ever heard one of our conversations?" Brii asked him.
"No."
"Then, you know that I don't just put up with her. This morning I told her to choke and die. We hate each other. Honestly, though, I think if she didn't have me to vent on, then she wouldn't be able to handle that much estrogen, I mean look at those girls. What. The. Fuck."
James chuckled as he looked at the scene before him. Lily looked like she was just hoping for an emergency to happen to get her out of the situation. Brii caught her eye and smirked at her. As Lily caught James's eye, he gave her the best death glare he could muster. He was not looking forward to the next year of working with her.
"I don't tell her what she wants to hear. We don't lie to each other. We tell it like it is. Blunt. Nothing held back. And we can do that because we don't expect any less from each other. We arent tied together and bound by a fake friendship. We fight atleast three times a day, and don't have to apologize. We don't have to worry about stepping over some fake boundary line. I mean, I hate her, I don't truly wish she would die because then I really wouldn't have anyone to be blunt with and argue with, but I still hate her. She's two people. One when she's with them and in the so-called public, and one when she's behind closed doors. And the only person that knows that girl is me. I don't put up with her. I don't hang with her. We arent buddy-buddy. We don't remember each others' birthday or buy Christmas presents. We're roommates," Brii explained.
James thought about this for a minute. "You guys are totally fucking weird."
"No shit Sherlock," Brii said sarcastically. Looking up she noticed three people walking towards the table.
"And that would be my que to leave," Brii said quietly, shoving two pieces of toast onto a cloth and standing up.
"Riddle," Remus said as he approached the table.
"Lupin,"
"Associating with scum this morning, Prongs?" Sirius said eyeing Brii. They hated each other almost as much as Lily and James hated each other.
"No idea what you're on about Sirius. I was just talking to Riddle."
"You know, I don't know how you can stand to talk to her when you hate Evans. They're basically one in the same," Sirius explained as he sat down.
He had hit a nerve in Brii. She went to grab the knife on the table when James grabbed her hand, holding her back.
"Let it go Riddle," James said softly, taking the knife from her hand slowly. "Let it go."
Brii grabbed her bag and threw it on her shoulder before shooting a death glare at Sirius. Briskly, she turned and left the Great Hall, heading outside.
James sat back down and shook his head. "Dude, when are you going to learn to shut your mouth? She could kill you."
"It's true. I heard she was the one that hung that 4th year Slytherin from the Astronomy Tower last year by his balls," Peter said in his usual gossipy mood.
"Eww, thanks, Pete. Didn't know if I had heard that one yet," Remus said wincing and hitting Peter on the back.
"Really? You haven't heard about it?" Peter slouched lower to the table to explain in a low tone, "The kid was smarting off at her about her family or something, saying that she was no better than her brother and was a disgrace to be in Gryffindor. She cursed him and then when she turned to leave he cursed her. Tried to use the Cruciatus curse on her, he did! But of course he was a dumb fourth year and didn't do anything but shock her a bit. So she turned and drug him up to the Astronomy tower. He hung there for almost 8 hours…"
"What? I was convinced Prongs here had done it as a prank and not let me in on the fun. Hmm, well, thanks for the lookin' out Pete, but I think I can handle a little competition," Sirius said leaning back in his chair.
"Whatever you say Padfoot. Your funeral," James said shaking his head.
"Ok, guys. I'll see you in Transfiguration," Sirius said getting up and leaving the Great Hall.
"Hunting without me?" Lily said as she approached Brii who was already lying beside the lake, basking in the sun.
"Thought I may could call the good ones first, leave you with the poor blokes that wouldn't know what to do if you, or any girl for that matter, approached them," Brii said.
"Of course, but then again all the good ones are my leftovers anyway. I'm sure you wont mind cleaning up after me," Lily said sitting down on the grass beside Brii.
Brii made a gagging noise, "Just let me know of any one-nighters you've had that I don't happen to know about before I go in for the kill, ok?"
"As long as you let me know about yours also."
"Deal."
The girls sat on the grass near the lake gazing at the various people that happened to be outside that morning. It was a beautiful day, so there were a lot more people on the lawn than usual, a great day for hunting.
"So I tried to kill Black a few minutes ago," Brii said.
Lily raised an eyebrow at her, but said nothing.
"Yea. Asked Potter why he got along with me and not you. Apparently we are the same person to him," Brii explained.
"Ah," Lily said with a nod. "And you didn't slit his throat because…"
"Potter took my knife. Bastard," Brii added under her breath.
"Bastard," Lily said.
At that time, the person they were both wishing to be dead walked out of the castle. He slowly walked, hand in pockets, out towards the lake, not responding to any of the 'hey''s and 'hello's' he was receiving. Instead he briskly walked straight to the waters edge and started undressing.
Both girls sat up from their present resting position to get a better look at the toned quidditch player. Upon seeing each other sit up, they each tried to play it off as if they were not looking at him.
Sirius loosened his tie while knocking his shoes to the edge of the lake, designating that spot as where he would put his pile of clothes. Taking the tie off, he started unbuttoning his shirt, revealing his toned arms and tank that he would soon also take off. Sirius was not thick with muscle, but instead was lean and toned. His stomach muscles clenched when he turned and stretched from side to side, making every girl that watched him anxious. The veins in his arms pulsed with energy as he dove into the lake for a swim. Coming up for air, he smoothed his long black hair back and then started a lap around the lake.
"Well, well, well. Looks like someone's all hot and bothered this morning," Brii said.
"Wouldn't have anything to do with a recent encounter with Death and It's evil siren would it?" Lily said dully, not taking her eyes off of the swimmer.
"I doubt even this evil siren could make him that anxious. Uncomfortable, maybe, but never to the point of disheveled incompetence," Brii exclaimed slowly in a monotonous, sarcastic tone.
Lily cocked an eyebrow and started grinning. Seeing Lily turn towards her, Brii slowly turned and looked at the now grinning-widely face of Lily.
Brii's face faltered. "Oh, no! I'm not doing it."
"Oh, I beg to differ. You are," Lily said still grinning widely at Brii.
"You are insane. There is absolutely no way you are getting me to seduce that, that, ugh! There isn't even a name for what he is!" Brii said sitting up.
"Look at him, Brii," Lily continued to lean back on her forearms, thinking of the best adjectives to describe Sirius, "He's sexy"
"He's delusional."
"Seductive without even meaning to be."
"Incompetent."
"Brilliant."
"Disgusting."
"A wild, shag-a-delic, unruly, scruffy, untamed beast that you know would be a magnificent fuck," Lily exclaimed with a glint of triumph in her eyes.
Brii had stood up by now. She turned and glanced back at the lake where the so-called 'beast' swam around the edge of the lake farthest from them, then glancing back at Lily, she allowed herself to fall backwards on the ground again.
"I hate you," Brii said, lying on her back looking at the blue sky.
"I'm pretty sure I knew this already. So, do we have a bet?" Lily asked smiling like a mad-woman.
"Terms?" Brii sat up asking.
"Seduce him without talking or touching. AND no other engagements until the bet has ended."
"I'm sorry, I have a hearing problem… What did you just say?" Brii asked, not believing what she had just heard Lily say.
"Well, obviously the two of you hate each other already, so talking to him randomly about sex is going to send him warnings that something is going on. He's pretty smart, and likely to catch on to you touching him when normally you would try to avoid him at all costs or heave at the thought of touching him. Therefore, the only way to approach and tame the beast is to use psychology and hormones. You would be surprised how many hormones fly during arguments," Lily said coolly.
Something caught Brii's eye as she started to respond, and at this, mischief danced in her eyes. Pulling her legs up into her chest and resting her arms out on her knees comfortably, Brii replied, "Oh really?"
Lily raised an eyebrow at Brii's new tone of voice.
"So you're saying that during arguments there is a very good chance of the two said people to anonymously become attracted to one another and then resolve the conflict by realizing their own innermost sexual desires and acting on them. Did I get that correct?" Brii asked.
"Yes, I'm pretty sure that's what I'm getting at. Do you disagree?"
"No, it makes logical sense that two people would have sex after an argument. I mean think about it: arguments usually happen over passionate issues and lead into heated debates. Passion and heat make people more attractive to each other, and attraction can lead to anything. What I am confused about is this: why the hell have you not hooked up with Potter when all you two ever do is argue?"
Lily looked at Brii, bewildered. "Are you insane? I think he would kill me before he thought about sleeping with me!"
"So you're saying that you have thought about it before while you were arguing."
"No! Why would I even think about doing anything remotely close to standing within four feet of Potter when we absolutely loathe each other?"
"Hm, I don't know. Maybe because he's a brilliant, sexy, filthy, unruly, disheveled, shag-a-delic beast in need of taming?" Brii suggested with a crooked smile.
"You bitch. You wouldn't!"
"Oh, I would. Same terms as me. No touching, No talking, No other engagements."
"And the time?" Lily asked, her head now buried in her hands.
"Halloween."
"One month…"
Brii nodded.
"You expect me to seduce Potter in ONE MONTH?" Lily nearly shouted in disbelief.
"Oh come on Evans! It's Potter! He cant be too hard to get in bed!"
Lily thought about this for a long minute as she stood up, "I guess we'll find out. I expect you'll have Black in bed by tonight."
"Well seeing as I'm not going to be getting any other action for the next month, I better have him in there by the end of the week," Brii said standing up as well.
"Touché. Do we have a deal then?" Lily extended her hand.
Triumphantly, Brii lit up with a look of arrogance that would have rivaled Potter's after a quidditch match, "We have a deal" she said shaking Lily's hand.
A/N::: Let me know what you think guys! Reviews are GREATLY appreciated! Good, bad, or just plain ugly…lol