Disclaimer: I don't own anything, nor do I claim to. I do not own any characters or the song on which this story is based.
It's in His Kiss
"Can we check out that new shop in Hogsmeade this weekend?" Lily asked her best friend Alice as they gathered their stuff at the end of potions class. "I still have to buy my mom a Christmas present."
"Oh, Lily, I'm sorry. Didn't I tell you? Frank asked me to go to Hogsmeade with him this weekend."
"Oh Alice, that's great! Well, I'll just hang out with Marlene and Vivian then," Lily said of the other two girls in their dorm, shrugging her shoulders.
"Er…"
"What?"
"They sort of both already have dates."
"Oh, you've got to be kidding me. Fine then, I guess I'll go to Hogsmeade by myself. How pathetic is that? I knew I should have gotten my mom's present last trip."
"Lily, it's only October. There's still one more Hogsmeade trip before Christmas. You could wait until then."
"No, because by then everything good will be gone," Lily said exasperated, rolling her eyes that her friend would even suggest such a thing.
"Well, you could always go with Potter. It's not like he's not dying to take you."
"Bite your tongue. Even going alone is better than going with him."
"Okay, well don't say I didn't try to help."
"If you call that helping, then you need a serious lesson in—" But what Alice needed a lesson in she would never find out, for just as Lily was exiting the Potions classroom behind her friend, she tripped over thin air and her books went flying everywhere. She sighed loudly.
"You go on ahead," she said to Alice.
"Are you sure?"
"Yes. I wouldn't want you to be late meeting Frank because I'm a klutz. Just save me a seat in the Great Hall, okay?"
"Of course. See you Lily!" Alice called over her shoulder.
Lily muttered to herself as she bent down to pick up her books.
"Need some help with that, Lily?"
Lily's whole body tensed as she recognized the voice, and she looked up to see James Potter leaning nonchalantly against the wall beside the doorway with an infuriating smirk on his gorgeous face. Oh yes, Lily knew that he was gorgeous all right. She wasn't blind after all, and no girl in school could deny that he was attractive with his hazel eyes, finely chiseled facial features, toned body, and even his messy hair. The problem was that he knew it.
"Not from you, Potter."
He laughed, serving only to make her more irritated. "You can leave now. I've already declined your help." She finished putting the last book in her book bag and stood up, brushing the dust of her knees and flinging her bag over her shoulder in the process.
"So, Lily, I hear that you have no one to go to Hogsmeade with."
Lily groaned. Of course he knew. He knew everything she didn't want him to know and ignored everything else.
"What, do you listen to other people's private conversations now? Somehow that doesn't surprise me. You're just the type."
"Maybe people shouldn't have conversations in Potions class if they're so private."
She rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I don't have time to argue with you. So if that's all, I would appreciate it if you would leave so I can go in the opposite direction."
"Well I was going to offer you my services as an escort for the Hogsmeade weekend—"
"Was? Oh good. That means that you've changed your mind."
"My dear Lily, I could still be persuaded into being your date."
"If you ever mention me, you, and date in the same sentence again, you won't live to have another date…with anyone."
"Okay, then. Come with me to Hogsmeade and I'll be your…companion."
Lily scoffed. "No matter which way you slice it, Potter, I'd rather go to Hogsmeade alone than suffer through spending more time with you than necessary. Now if you don't mind," she said as she moved to pass him. He, however, wiped the smirk off his face and moved to block her path.
"Lily, please? Consider it."
"Why should I?" she challenged.
"Because I'm so devastatingly handsome and you secretly harbour passionate feelings about me?"
She looked unimpressed. "Try again."
"Because you need someone to carry your bags?"
"Wrong answer. Now step aside before I move you myself."
"No, wait. Lily please just go with me this once, and if you have a rotten time, I'll stop bothering you."
She sighed. "Why do you want to go out with me so badly anyway? Do you have something to prove?"
"No, I—"
"Is it because I'm a challenge?"
"No, that's not it!"
"Because I don't want to be another name on the list of girls you've dated once and dumped. Girls know what they're getting into when they agree to go out with you, Potter, and it may be good enough for them, but I—"
"I love you."
That effectively silenced Lily, and she stood there, mouth gaping, for a few minutes. But then she realized that this was probably exactly what he wanted: to shock her into shutting up. She was becoming more riled up and she wanted to scream at him, but she didn't think it was a good idea to show any emotion around him. She took a few cleansing breaths and managed to say, "You're kidding me, right?"
He shook his head.
"You can't possibly love me, Potter. If you loved me, you would have respected my wishes a long time ago and left me alone."
"Don't you see, Lily? It's because I love you that I can't leave you alone. You're sexy as hell when you're yelling at me, and besides, it's the only time you talk to me. I'll take what I can get. I never said that I dealt with my feelings well, but I know what they are."
"You don't love me. You love the idea of me. You love yourself so much that you can't stand the fact that I keep saying no to you. You're so arrogant that it drives you crazy that I'm the only girl who won't go out with you."
"Lily, what can I do to make you believe that I'm being honest about this? What will it take to make you understand that I really do love you?"
Lily was about to tell him that it was a lost cause, that she would never believe that so he should just give up, when a familiar song popped into her head.
Does he love me, I wanna knowHow can I tell if he loves me so?
Is it in his eyes?
Oh no, you'll be deceived
Is it in his eyes?
Oh no, you'll make believe
If you wanna know if he loves you so
It's in his kiss
That's where it is
Making up her mind in a split second, she smirked and sauntered over to him, coming close enough to raise her hands and rest them on his shoulders. She brought her mouth tantalizingly close to his and whispered on his lips so he could feel her breath, "You want to prove it to me?"
Not moving away, she looked up into his eyes. She could see that they were glazed over and she briefly thought that if he wasn't so repulsive, she'd do this more often. She liked the control she had over him.
Finally, she touched her lips to his. It wasn't so bad, really, despite the fact that he wasn't responding. He tasted quite nice actually, and his lips were extremely soft. She didn't feel anything though. There was no spark, so he must not love her after all. Oh well, no real loss. Now she could go and maybe he would leave her in peace.
She broke the kiss and made to move away, but it was at that moment that he finally overcame his shock and quickly took control of the situation. He reached his hands up to the sides of her face and crashed his lips onto hers. He kissed her fervently, feverishly, and she quickly became helpless in his arms. She felt like her body was on fire, and she unwittingly moved toward him, trying to get closer. Their bodies were flush against each other, and she felt his hands in her hair. He moved his lips down her jaw and to her neck, leaving a blazing trail of heat in their wake. She moaned, and then suddenly he pulled back, breathing deeply.
She felt the loss acutely, and all she wanted was to taste him again. He held her gaze, and she didn't know what her eyes were telling him, but she had a pretty good idea that it wasn't anything she'd be telling him in any other situation.
And then his lips were on hers again, this time brushing hers with soft, languid kisses that made her shiver down to the bone. Her mind was pleasantly numb, and when he pulled back again, she kept her eyes closed, not wanting the moment to end. Her heart fluttered when she felt his hand on her face, caressing her cheek and tucking her newly mussed hair behind her ear.
She opened her eyes and stepped back from him. She took a few deep breaths while smoothing out her robes and bending over to pick up her book bag, which had been dropped at some point during their embrace. She looked at him for several minutes, as if challenging him to make an arrogant remark. But he met her gaze dead on and said nothing. His eyes spoke volumes, though, and she knew what had to be done.
"Okay, Potter. I'll go to Hogsmeade with you."
His grin was wider than she'd ever seen it, and she felt proud knowing that only she could make him smile like that. "If you're going to go out with me, don't you think maybe you should start calling me James?"
"Don't push it."