Real Not Real

THE CLASSROOM COMPLEX, PART 4

<Classroom #2<>

Lily was painfully aware of being seated beside James Potter, her nemesis, who was acting almost normal, on two desks in what she thought was an otherwise empty classroom.

"Apologizing, while unsettling and weirdly nice, is not going to fix our situation. I have made the observation that you are clearly more human than I thought possible--"

"Excuse me?"

"Exactly. That's only slightly helpful in our current conundrum. Thoughts?"

"Would you speak in English?"

Lily blinked at him and sighed.

"I'm so sorry. I get really wordy when I'm nervous."

"Lily Evans, the twig who has the ability to hurl chairs and threaten people to death but also has a wide vocabulary when nervous?"

"I'm full of contradictions. They say it's the ginger hair."

James' expression clearly looked like he thought she was adorable. She scowled and hit his arm.

"Stop that," she ordered.

"What?"

"You--stop it! You think I'm adorable!"

"You are cute when you're nervous," James admitted with a half grin. Wait! Since when did she start calling him James? Stop it, Evans! Cease and desist!

"Listen, we have a problem, which includes the loss of our Head positions. We need to get along, and Marlene--you know, Marlene McKinnon? Provided me with a disturbing yet completely logical solution--sorry, sorry, I mean she gave me an idea that I think you'll enjoy and I'll hate. Thoughts?"

"Um, that sounds scary."

"It is a bit disturbing but I have to live with it..."

The teacher's desk made a loud squeaking noise. Lily ignored it, raking her fingers through her auburn hair.

"You're scaring me, Evans."

"Why don't we..." Reluctance stained her voice. "Why don't we pretend to be dating in order to show the staff that we can put aside our differences?"

Pause.

"P-Potter?"

"If that's what you think we should do, sure I guess." He pushed his glasses up his nose. She was shocked by the unhappy tone of his voice.

"I thought you'd be ecstatic! Isn't this what you've always wanted?" she regretted her bitter tone the next moment."

"I always wanted it to be real, though."

There was an awkward pause. As she stared at the floor, she was suddenly conscious of how much taller James was than her.

"I guess, what does fake dating include?"

"Holding hands? Going on dates? Kissing? Interacting?" Lily threw out there, wincing on kissing.

"Wait, kissing?"

"Do I have to sacrifice all my Hogsmeade's dates for you?" Lily exclaimed, making eye contact with James.

He had hazel eyes.

No! Bad Lily! Call him Potter!

"Oh Merlin no," James said in a horrified voice.

Lily grinned. "I thought you'd be slavering with excitement."

"I don't even know what that word means and I don't think I want to. No, lovely Evans, I might not survive every visit with you."

Lily groaned and buried her face in her hands. "I guess every once in awhile I'll sacrifice my Hogsmeade visit for the sake of pretenses."

"Okay, we'll both pretend I understand that. I'll strike you a deal: you'll go with me every once in awhile and we can go on friendly terms."

Lily snorted. James shot her a wounded look.

"Look, you either outright flirt with people, you're a total (pardon my French) asshole to them; or you're politely cordial with them. You aren't 'friends' with anyone but the Marauders."

The teacher's desk coughed loudly, Lily wondered if it was sick. The desks were normally pretty quiet, but hey, it was Hogwarts. It wasn't like there was anyone hiding under it.

"You'd be surprised. After all, I'm not being any of the above right now, huh?"

Another pause.

"Compromise accepted, now I'm not going to be late for class. " She hopped off the desk and wiggled her fingers sarcastically at him. "Catch ya later, Potter."

"Now that we're dating, shouldn't that be James?" he called after her retreating back. Without bothering to look over her shoulder, she shook her head.

"Nah, I prefer the surname. Wouldn't want to get too friendly, now would we?" With that, she shut the classroom door behind her and strode down the hall, reflecting on the very, very weird day she was having.

A/N: HAHAHAHAHA

Let us all take a moment to reflect that, not only has RNR not reached 30 votes--

What was it I said yesterday?

"Sooo, here's my deal: when RNR hits 30 votes, I'll give you the next update?"

--but also, the other thing I said...

"However, I'm about to start school, and I can't update every other day."

Oh.

Oh yeahhhh.

I broke both of those.

Oh well. I'm just too much of risk taker for you lot to handle.

Reminder!

This is a romantic comedy, bear in mind, and I'm planning on having way more comedy at first, and towards the end will come to romance. Sound good?

Hope you enjoyed the stunning conclusion of THE CLASSROOM COMPLEX.

Vote for me, my darlings.

~Ava