The Benches In The Corner

[Lily Evans]

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[Lily Evans]

Lily is just going to hang out here in the corner. Usually nobody bothers her here, it's nice and out of the way, and she can sit sideways and stretch her legs along the bench while her back rests against the stone wall that the space for the bench has been carved into. Her uniform skirt is tucked neatly in around her legs and a book sits propped open in her lap. It may be the start of the year, but Lily likes to get ahead rather than fall behind immediately.

[James Potter]

Usually no one bothers her, but don't worry. She won't have to be lonely and quiet for too long, James is here to solve that problem for her, because he is considerate. A wide smile stretched across his face as he made his way through the Great Hall. Originally he had been heading toward the Gryffindor table to join the others, but the sight of the lovely fiery redhead made him change course. He stopped beside her, leaning casually against the stone wall just beside where the bench was tucked in. "Evans! Had a good summer?" He crossed his arms lazily, his still increasing height giving him a looming stance over her. He'd worked hard to prepare for Quidditch season over the summer, and he knew it had definitely paid off. It looked like Lily had spent some time outside as well, and he couldn't help noticing a new sprinkling of freckles across her cheeks and nose.

[Lily Evans]

Lily is drawn out of her book, knowing what she will find even before she looks up to the sight of James Potter leaning against the wall. His arms are crossed over his chest in a way that could not insist she admire his Quidditch-player-tone more, unless of course he was to wear a sign that reads 'look at my muscles' and flashes in neon colours. Her chin tilts back so that she is looking squarely into his face, nonplussed. "Potter. Yes, it was lovely. Thank you for stopping by to chat. Goodbye."
It's not going to work. It never works. But Lily has to try, doesn't she? Her eyes fall back to the page, although she doesn't bother trying to read because even if she hasn't learned that it's impossible to brush Potter off without a shouting match and maybe even a hex or two, she has learned that she won't get anything productive done until he is gone.

[James Potter]

James tilted his head a little, a smile stretching across his lips. "Come on, Evans. More than that! We've much to catch up on. You do anything fun?" He couldn't help staring at her little freckles, and her eyelashes and the way they twitched a little while she pretended to read. He knew she was pretending. He knew he had her attention, even if she liked to pretend otherwise. James Potter knew better than that. "Don't tell me you hid inside and read books all summer long."

[Lily Evans]

"Of course not, it was all nude beaches and seedy nightclubs, but I suppose my owl went astray so you never got the invite to join me," Lily deadpans, still flicking her eyes vaguely over her page. She bites her lip to hold back a tiny grin even though it would be hidden to him while he stands above her. It's time, Lily thinks, that she tried something different in this never-ending struggle between them. This is the year for her, she thinks. The year she will be free of James Potter forever, or kill them both trying.

[James Potter]

Killing them both doesn't sound like a good option, but neither does the other. Surely she doesn't truly want to be rid of him. James can't help smirking at her answer. "Oh, you've gone a bit wild over the summer then? Should be a fun time at the Gryffindor house parties this year, yeah?" James laughed softly. "Unfortunate I didn't get your owl. You must think I had ignored you, not responding to your many owls you must have sent. I can however assure you that no such thing would have happened." He nodded, as if he had to pacify her, as if she were truly worried. He wanted to sit down, but he had her legs so strategically placed along the bench, and he didn't want to simply reach over and move them out of the way. That would surely end poorly for him, she might throw a mallet at his face or something ridiculous like that. Unfortunately, he had to remain standing, looking down at her and wishing she'd look at him again.

[Lily Evans]

Those are the two options that exist in Lily's head. Finally, she looks up at the boy smirking down at her. She snaps her fingers and makes a face as if she's just had a lightbulb moment. "Oh, that's right, silly me. I just realised, I wasn't describing my summer at all, I was talking about things that could only happen in your dreams." She arches an eyebrow. She can't help feeling a little bit disappointed that her tactics don't seem to be working so far; Potter doesn't seem deterred, or even affected in the least by her words. Maybe she'll just have to adopt more drastic measures of conveying her feelings, like a good solid mallet to the face. Surely that would scare anybody off....

[James Potter]

You're forgetting option 3: fall madly, deeply in love with him. And then make a baby that will one day save the wizarding world. James will however be sure to stay far away if she is working on potions things with either knives or mallets in her hands. "Oh? Well, you're the one who says I'm having dreams like that, not me." He chuckled, readjusting his stance a little, hoping maybe moving a little would make her look at him. She had such glorious eyes. "Care to describe to me the wonders and happy times of your real summer rather than dive into my apparent dreams? I'll go first if you're nervous." He paused for a second, then continued when she gave no response. "Mum, dad, Sirius and I went to the shore for a couple different weekends, and I got to spend a week with my grandparents touring through Ireland. Now your turn."

[Lily Evans]

Nope, that option does not exist in the drop down box. Please try again later. >.>
Lily simply shrugs, no longer willing to comment on his apparent dreams. She does not want to take the risk of delving too deeply into that train-wreck of a conversation, nor does she want to think anymore on the concept of James Potter's dreams, and the ways in which they might feature her. She does keep watching him as he moves, because she is never quite sure she knows what he will do next. "That's nice." Her expression is completely flat and she looks away again, watching people across the room and wishing she could spot someone she was good enough friends with to make a break for. "Why do you need to know about my summer, though? What does it matter?" In truth, Lily did not have the most wonderful summer, but she's not about to open up to bloody Potter about how awful it was, her first summer without Sev to keep her company.

[James Potter]

James of course notices that her eyes remained on him as he adjusted how he stood, and stored that little observation away for future use as well. He shrugged slightly at her question. "I just thought you might like to share, as summer activities are usually what people talk about when coming back to school. If you prefer another topic though, by all means choose and I'm sure it would be just as good." He looked up, following her gaze around the hall for a moment. "As long as we don't talk about what Edgar Bones is doing over there at the Hufflepuff table." James can't seem to tear his eyes away, watching in horror as the boy picked his nose, very deeply and obviously, and flicked it across the table into a girl's hair. She didn't seem to notice. "Ew." He looked away, his eyes settling on Lily again.

[Lily Evans]

"No I would not like to share," Lily snaps, glaring back at James, although his continuing to speak successfully heads her off before she can work up to any real heat in her words. "What?" She follows his line of sight to the Hufflepuff table and she blanches. "That's disgusting!" Lily jumps up, about to head over there and very loudly tell Edgar Bones exactly what she thinks of his nasty little trick when something else occurs to her. That girl has no idea what has happened to her. It would be just as cruel to embarrass her, really. Lily chews her lip, weighing up the importance of sparing someone's feelings, and teaching someone a well-deserved lesson. Finally, she takes her wand out and aims, concentrating hard. A flick of her wrist later, Edgar Bones is making a horrified face and pawing at something between his eyes and Lily knows she has succeeded in returning his, erm, belongings to him.

[James Potter]

James stepped back a bit as Lily jumped up, having learned a little lesson or two about being too close when Lily goes all fiery. However, as he realizes her concentration is aimed at Edgar and not himself, he relaxes, and looks between them to see what she's thinking. He slides carefully to stand a little closer to her, pretending he has to move to get a better view of the Hufflepuff table, despite the fact that he's perfectly tall enough to see over all the seated people between here and there. Watching the little internal battle in her eyes and managing not to jump back as she whips out her wand, a smirk crosses his face when he sees what she finally decided to do about the situation. Not even bothering to keep it to himself, he breaks out in full laughter, turning to look at her, absolutely gleeful about what he just witnessed. "Brilliant!!" James is completely entranced. Lily Evans just flung bogies at someone. Of course, it was in retaliation of the boy's own bogie flinging, but he couldn't get over it. "What happened to you this summer? You just flung bogies at someone, Evans." He hardly realized he said it out loud, and his voice betrayed his awe with the situation, an excited smile still on his face not likely to leave any time soon.

[Lily Evans]

The furious concentration on Lily's face twitches. She smiles. A half-second later, her expression is tightly under control once more and despite her best efforts, a tiny bit on the self-righteous side. Smooth and controlled, she returns her wand to her pocket, retrieves her book from where it had tumbled to the stone floor in her earlier haste, and seats herself back on the bench as if she has done nothing worth drawing any attention to. She sits properly this time, crossing one leg over the other and resting her book -now closed- on her lap. It is only then that she truly processes everything James has said, and her cheeks flush a little. Was she really so very different? Lily shrugs, clinging to her sense of justification. "I didn't just fling bogies at anyone. What Edgar did was mean, not to mention completely foul, and he deserved to be pulled up on it. But if I'd gone over there to dock points and tell him off, then that girl would've known what he did and it would just upset her. This way, he got the consequences of his own actions, and she got the bogies out of her hair without her having to be embarrassed," Lily explains. "Oh, and five points from Hufflepuff," she adds as an afterthought.

[James Potter]

James nodded, his eyebrows raising a little as he listened to her. Casually, he sat down on the bench next to her, though he made sure it wasn't too close. One step at a time. "Of course, of course. Though, five points for bogies?" He laughed. "I'd hate to see if something truly terrible were done." He winked slightly, shaking his head before she could be upset by it. "A joke, Evans. It was indeed rude." A little smirk crossed his face, and he turned to look away from her, his gaze pointless and wandering across the faces of the Great Hall. "You get it now, though. A bit of justice in much the same ways Padfoot and I see it. You get what you dish out, be that a faceful of bogies or otherwise." He kept his voice and expression nonchalant, hoping she'd see his point without an explosion, though he prepared himself for a speech about how it wasn't the same at all regardless.

[Lily Evans]

Lily almost smiles at James' joke. Almost. It makes her think that maybe there's a chance that he will grow up and start understanding her position a little better. And then, of course, he speaks again. Lily frowns, internally berating herself for allowing herself to believe something so stupid as Potter maturing. "I get it. You don't," she says, her voice betraying her disappointment. She paves over it with anger; it's always easier to show anger and Lily has learned from experience that when she goes on the offensive, people tend to find less chinks in her armour to capitalize on. "How is what you do justice, Potter? Tell me! If you believed you get what you dish out, you'd have no problem with me hanging you upside down in front of the whole year and having you de-pantsed, would you?"

[James Potter]

James's shoulders slumped. What he had feared had happened, of course. "Now, Evans. That wouldn't be fair. They'd all be jealous of what they saw and we can't have that at all. And we didn't do that just to do it, and you bloody well know it. You know why we did that, because he's a dirty little Slytherin who doesn't know how to talk to people properly or show respect to those he ought to, and because," he faded out, always leery about mentioning the name-caling incident. "I was just trying to make you see that I don't do it to be a bully, Evans. I don't do it out of cruelty like they do."

[Lily Evans]

Lily throws back her head and laughs bitterly, his point completely lost on her. "Respect? You of all people are going to talk to me about respect? That's the funniest joke you've ever told, Potter. You and him - you had each other pegged the second you met and neither of you have given each other a single chance since. And if you can honestly sit there and look me in the eyes while you tell me that you and Sirius ganging up on him just because he was there isn't cruel then I feel sorry for you."
She bites her lip to keep the rest of her words at bay; she doesn't know why, but she has always been far more disappointed in Potter whenever he has a go at Sev. It's a deep-seated, almost subconscious expectation that James should know better, should be able to rise above, and every time it seems as if he dashes her faith in his Gryffindor courage and honour. What has never even subconsciously entered into her thoughts, though, is the question: why is it only Potter's failings that disappoint her so much? Why is it always him...?

[James Potter]

Hurt made its way into his eyes at her words, and he couldn't be arsed to hide it. He never did with her. "Has he ever once shown that he deserved it? If he proved me wrong, Evans, then I would have changed my mind. I make my mind up quick about people, and I'll even be bold enough to say that I'm usually right. I won't apologize for it, because I don't regret it. It's happened. But it's also in the past, Evans. Don't you have anything more recent to hate me for? I'd really prefer not to fling bogies on you, but if thats what it takes..." He lifted an eyebrow as if truly waiting for an answer from her. His face went serious again. "Have a nice afternoon sitting here feeling sorry for me." With that he got up to go have a seat nearby at the Gryffindor table more or less by himself, to get a little something to eat before the other Marauders showed up and offered competition for the best bits of food within reach.

[Lily Evans]

Lily sighs noisily and shoves her hair behind her ear, all the bluster and fight deserting her until she is left without anything but loneliness to cling to, and the first prickles of regret. The hurt on Potter's face is a sharp reminder to Lily that dislike for someone is no reason to discount their feelings, no reason not to live by the standards she sets with everybody else. She chews her lip, a strange sadness welling in her as she thinks carefully about what she wants to say, and then slowly follows James to their house table. She positions herself across the table from him and kneels on the bench, resting her hands against the smooth, ancient wood and leaning in close enough that their conversation is still private.
"I know you didn't put words in his mouth, Potter, and what Sev said is all his own doing. Yes, the end of last year might have been a few months ago now, and it's all ancient history for you, and you're all very proud of yourselves. Lovely for you," she says, keeping her voice quiet and low as much to keep it steady as to remain private. She presses her lips tightly together a moment, forcing control. "It was a bit less of a picnic for me, so you'll have to excuse me if I don't thank you for the part you played in it all." She stands up again, tucking her hair back once more and turning away. She takes a few steps, pauses, and looks back. "And for the record, I don't hate anyone. Except perhaps Voldemort."

[James Potter]

James glances up, admittedly surprised to see Lily there. He even goes so far as to set his fork down so that she could talk uninterrupted by his eating. James had the immediate desire to say that he understood it must not have been 'a picnic' for her, but it wasn't completely forgotten. It was all he could think about when he saw that Snivellus, how he'd hurt Lily and how she'd cried but tried to make sure that no one saw it. Instead, he was taken off his guard as she turned around to add a bit more before she left. His heart soared. She did not hate him, even if it seemed that she held immense dislike for him. It wasn't hate, and she'd even wanted him to know that. Slowly, slowly, James held onto the hope that she was coming around, that she would see he wasn't so bad and would understand how he cared about her. James shook his head. Merlin's beard what was happening in there, a bloody soap opera? He put the brownie that was on his plate back onto the tray of them, deciding that it must be an excess of chocolate or sweets making his mind go all wonky. That wasn't acceptable at all. Instead, he grabbed another piece of steak, hoping that would counter the effects. Regardless, he couldn't get his mind off Lily for the rest of his meal, and even as he made his way back toward the common room afterward, he hoped he would run into her.

[Lily Evans]

Lily is actually quite surprised. There must be a first time for everything, because she is certain that this has never happened before; Potter remaining silent and letting her say her piece without challenge. It seems like he's actually really listening to her. There's no continued gross-boy chewing, no wisecracks about looking down her top of she's not careful, nothing but full and polite attention. It takes all of Lily's willpower to keep walking away without looking back, she's so sure he is going to stop her that she can't quite believe she's still walking away. She chews on her lip, face pulled into a thoughtful frown as she tries to figure out what just happened and why she's not completely furious.

[Krasimir Svetkova]

Kras happily pulls his new friend all the way downstairs to the Great Hall where they end up at some benches off to the side. He plops right on down to sit on a bench and finally lets go of Reed's hand. "I love coming in here to just sit. Hardly anyone ever comes over here so sometimes I do just to people watch. Is it weird? It's weird. Oh god, I know it's weird. You can just say it's weird now and get it over with." For the first time since they started talking Kras actually looks slightly flustered, and he huffs in annoyance at himself. Maybe he should have just showed Reed his favorite spot to sit outside. Then again that was near the lake so he could people watch too. Wow, he was odd. Or a creeper? Oh god, he was a creeper. Yet not, cause it wasn't like he watched people with evil intentions - he just liked to watch people go about their lives. Nothing wrong with that. Right? Right.

[Reed Dawson]

Reed giggles at Kras' little outburst and sat down next to his friend. "It's not weird. My mom...well she's kind of in a profession of people watching I guess you could say. It can be fun sometimes. I guess. I've never really done it because...well I don't get out all that much." Reed was looking down at his lap, afraid to look at Krasimir, who just held his hand so casually. Reed only ever held hands with Jenna, and she was his best friend.

[Krasimir Svetkova]

Kras has no idea Reed is currently struggling over the fact that he held his hand so casually - after all, Kras was just a people person and had never really thought it weird to just hold someone's hand. He liked physical contact. Sometimes he'd hug his friends just for the heck of it. "Wow, I'd love to be able to have a job that involves people watching." He laughs. Though, in a way, he does cause he'll works at that primary school back in his home town over the summers, and he'll most likely end up being a teacher there after graduating. So he'll always get to work around people and watch the kids grow up. It'll be fun. "And I'm sure you'll never get to people watch if you're in your dorm all the time. When you're at home for the summer do you stay inside all the time too? You know...it's not technically healthy to be so secluded all the time. Interaction with others is pretty important. Then again, I guess some people can exist just fine without. Me, I don't think I could make it." He laughed lightly.

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