Author's notes: This fic was written simply because, after hours of looking on this blasted website, I discovered there is a severe lack of well-written, gratuitous snogging, James/Lily fics on FFnet and because I love doing Hogwarts L/J fics every now and then. It was supposed to be a one shot at first, but then it evolved into a two part thing. It has distracted from my chaptered fic, but it's beena very good distraction and I hope you'll agree. Thanks to my beta, AmethystPhoenix, for putting up with my extreme overuse of exclamation points.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
The Incident in the Library
The top two buttons of his shirt were undone.
This hadn't bothered her twenty minutes ago, when he had shown up at her table – freshly showered and changed after a gruelling Quidditch practise – and asked to sit with her because all the other spots in the library were taken.
She had noticed those two buttons, of course – what self-respecting female wouldn't acknowledge a partially open shirt on an attractive young male? She hadn't let it bother her, though, because she had a nasty Charms essay to finish by Monday and she was hardly halfway through it.
But now, twenty very difficult minutes later, it was bothering her.
In fact, nearly everything about James Potter had started bothering her and ruining her concentration these days.
Everything, from the way he propped his feet on the table during Prefect meetings, to the way he loosened his tie and unbuttoned those blasted buttons while he was relaxing in the common room, and to how extraordinarily broad and strong-looking his shoulders looked in his black Hogwarts sweater, drove her completely mad.
She'd even been transfixed by his messy hair and the way he ran his fingers through it! She used to despise that habit!
Now, she found it bearable, and worse – attractive, even!
How could one person be so completely and devastatingly distracting without even trying?
Like now, for instance. He was just sitting across from her, minding his own business and doing his homework. But it was so much more than that.
The fingers of one hand were in his hair, propping up his head as he leaned across his side of the table. His other hand was drumming on the table while he read a book, his hazel eyes darting across the pages. Occasionally, he would shift his shoulders in a way that would make her want to sigh with satisfaction or move just so that unbuttoned bit of cloth showed off even more chest.
And, boy, did she ever learn to appreciate Quidditch after catching a glimpse of James Potter's chest. She could stare all day at the one bit of exposed flesh, wondering if the rest of his chest was as smooth or as tan, wondering what it'd feel like to run her hands over his strong muscles…
Maybe she should just unbutton more of that damn shirt and find out. Maybe she should just leap across the table, thread her hands in Potter's hair and pull him down to her lips. He'd mutter her name in that delicious, low tone and –
Bloody buggering sodding hell!
Lily slammed her Charms book shut, flustered, and earned a shush from Madam Pince. She shuffled through her notes hastily.
She needed to finish her blasted essay! She hadn't listened at all during class because Potter had sat in front of her and he'd distracted her (again!) with his strong shoulders. She wouldn't have been able to see the chalkboard with his massive torso in front of her anyway, even if she had been paying attention.
Wasn't Potter aware that tall and incredibly good-looking boys were supposed to sit in the back of the class?
Lily stared and sighed at the three sentences that she'd written since Potter had sat down. He shifted again and she glanced up.
He was chewing very slowly on the bottom of his lip as he stared at a number chart for Arithmancy, and Lily watched, fascinated, wondering what it'd be like to feel –
She stood up quickly and rather nosily. Pince peered around rows of books to accompany her fierce glare with a shushing sound this time. Potter looked up at Lily lazily.
"I need a book," she informed him, flushing even more with his gaze on her.
He arched an eyebrow. Even that caused her to squirm.
"That's why we're in a library. So, you know…you can get books." He said it as though he was talking to a rather slow person.
"Right," she responded, her voice strangled. She could see down Potter's shirt from where she was standing
She was pathetic.
And a right pervert.
"Right…well, I'm going to get one then."
She turned and could not hurry away fast enough.
Once she had disappeared into one of the many shelves in the back of the library, James let out a long, frustrated sigh and fell face forward into his open Arithmancy book.
Sweet Jesus, did Lily Evans know how bloody distracting she was?
Most likely, she did and was using her…her womanly wiles to torture him into madness! He couldn't focus on anything – let alone complicated Arithmancy problems –when she was around, wearing a low cut shirt and trousers that hugged her hips far too well for his personal comfort.
And how was a man supposed to get his school work finished when a tempting vixen like that was sitting right across the table from him? Especially when said vixen couldn't wear a shirt that covered her stomach!
He wasn't able to, that's for sure, even though he tried his damnedest to do so. But the minute he would get himself engrossed in a passage or an equation, she'd sigh or toss her hair over her shoulder, so the smell of her shampoo would float under his nose and then his concentration would be shot to hell.
What made it even worse – besides that she was doing this sort of thing on purpose – was that Lily still seemed to detest him. Sure, she was civil and just a bit nicer to him now – she had to be, considering they were Heads and had to spend an incredible amount of time together outside of class – but she still made it very clear that she didn't want to have anything more to do with him.
And James had gotten loads better since sixth year – he hadn't cursed Snape (or anyone else, for that matter) yet this year without a reason, he'd chewed Sirius out last week for being a prat, he'd started studying more, and he hadn't skived off Head Boy duties at all!
He'd even stopped asking her out and tried to stop messing up his hair on purpose!
But his efforts were fruitless. Lily would probably still choose Snape over him to snog in a dark broom cupboard any day. She hardly noticed James anymore.
James let out a long, pathetic sigh and raised his head out of his book. There was no use trying to continue his Arithmancy homework. His last vivid daydream – a rather dramatic one about scattering their homework onto the floor, pulling Lily out of her chair and into his lap, and snogging her senseless – had left him quite a bit muddled.
He gathered up his charts and put them, along with his book, into his bag. He then pulled out his Charms essay, unrolled the parchment, and stared long and hard at the title, which was all he had. He groaned miserably, considering about planting his face in the table and never surfacing again.
He hadn't paid attention at all in class on Friday because he and his mates had been passing notes and making rude drawings in their textbooks while Flitwick lectured. They couldn't help it – it was the only N.E.W.T. level class they all shared.
Muttering a curse under his breath, he stood.
It seemed he needed a book too.
"Stupid Potter…" Lily muttered, pulling a book off the shelf. She glanced at the cover briefly before slamming it back on the shelf as hard as she could without making a racket. It made her feel better to slam things – she wished she could do the same to Potter's face. "Those silly buttons…"
It was her luck that she was attracted to a boy who she had spent the last few years of her life loathing, especially considering he was actually a decent human being now and had no interest in her whatsoever.
He hadn't even asked her out once this year! She'd spent the entire last week of summer thinking of creative ways to refuse his sonnets and proclamations of undying love, and she hadn't used a single one. He'd barely acknowledged her in the Heads compartment on the train ride to Hogwarts and now, he ignored her except during Prefect meetings and in class.
Not that she didn't mind not being stalked by him any more, but that wasn't the point.
The point was that she was completely and madly attracted to him (to the point that she was going to push him up against a wall and snog him if he ever wore his shirt unbuttoned again in her presence), and he could care less!
What kind of cruel deity had invented this sort of torture? Was this her punishment for turning Potter down so many times in the past, to languish in the misery of her unrequited attraction?
Finally, she spotted the book she wanted. It wasn't hard to miss, hanging off the shelf in a way that would make Madam Pince scream in horror. She walked down the cramped aisle, reached up for it –
Only to have her hand brushed aside by the large, rough hand of one James Potter. She spun around, trying to ignore the tingles rushing through her body at their contact, only to be confronted with his strong chest inches away from her nose. She glanced up; he stared down at her, an amused look on his face.
"Need some help on your Charms essay too, I imagine?" he asked, pulling the book of the shelf.
"Yes, and if you'd kindly give that book back to me, I'll have all the help I need," she responded, crossing her arms over her chest and attempting to maintain her glare. It was hard to do, considering that bare expanse of skin she had been fantasying about was barely a quill's length away. She hated how cramped these back aisles were. "Give it back."
"Evans, we're going back to the same table…Why can't we just share the book?"
"Why do you even need the book anyway? You could actually see the chalkboard since some lummox" – she prodded him in the arm – "with humongous shoulders wasn't sitting in front of you and blocking the board…Besides, I'm not staying here."
Potter arched that eyebrow again and moved closer. Lily took a step back, right into the shelf.
"Why?" he asked, leaning on the shelf behind her with one hand, and blocking an exit.
"I'm too distracted in here. I was going to go back up to the common room and…"
"Since when has the common room, with all those snot-nosed first years, been less distracting than the library?" He let out a low chuckle that sent another wave of tingles down her body. "You're a terrible liar, Evans…what's really bothering you?"
Their chests were actually touching now and his lips – his perfect, tantalising lips – were two inches away. That bare skin she wanted so badly was even closer, even more tempting. The temperature in the aisle seemed to have risen several degrees since he'd entered, causing the fiery anticipation that had ignited her stomach to burn hotter.
"You're the one bothering me, all right?" she burst out savagely. "You're distracting me!"
"Me?" he stared at her in disbelief. "What have I done?"
"Oh, like you don't know," Lily snapped. Her desperation and their closeness got the better of her and she actually told him the truth.
She was a moron.
"What do you think you're playing at, coming into the library all freshly showered with your damp hair and your white shirt and asking to sit with me with your fingers in your hair and your shirt unbuttoned like it always is? How am I not supposed to get distracted by that?"
Potter's eyebrows had risen into his hairline and he was gaping at her in stunned silence. Flushing in complete embarrassment, Lily looked away, waiting for him to say something or to start laughing.
"Um…Because you hate me?" he responded unsurely.
"The only time I hate you is when you leave you stupid shirt unbuttoned like it is now!" she said before she could stop herself. "Because then I have to sit there and stare at your stupid neck and your stupid chest and…oh, why can't you just button the bloody shirt?"
Lily reached up and grabbed him by the collar, intending to button that gap closed herself. She fumbled with the second button for a moment and then, somehow, her hands had dipped under his collar, grabbed him by the neck, and pulled him down to her waiting lips.
His response was nearly immediate. The arm not balancing against the shelf wrapped around her waist and yanked her closer to him, up against that fantastic chest. She could feel the Charms book they had been arguing over digging into the small of her back. Then his lips went into action, pressing hard and demanding against hers, and she became putty in his arms.
There was nothing gentle about this kiss, nothing sweet and reassuring the way the first kiss should be between two people. But it was exactly how Lily had imagined it in all of her daydreams and wild fantasies – hot, heavy, and completely out of control.
And she loved it.
Just as it was beginning to deepen, James ripped his lips away unexpectedly and then tried to pull away from her. She would have none of that, however, and kept her hands firmly planted on the back of his neck. She yanked him toward her, knocking their foreheads together.
Lily actually whimpered and it wasn't because of the pain pulsing from her forehead.
"Evans!" Potter said between gasps. His chest was rising and failing, and with every word his lips brushed against hers, they were that close. "What…What're you doing?"
"Acting on impulse," she said, her own breathing ragged. "Your buttons have been driving me mad for weeks."
"I've gathered that," he responded. "But…talk about mixed messages! You loathe me and now you're grabbing me and kissing me and – hold on…What the hell did you mean that I was distracting you?"
She stared at him, confused. His eyes were narrowed and heated, and he looked…frustrated? A slim measure of hope joined the other emotions wrestling for dominance in her belly.
"I suppose you do it on purpose, wearing those low shirts and those fantastic Muggle jeans just so I'll look at you. And then you sit there and let your shirt ride up your side and try to act all innocent about it and – oh, sod it all!"
James pushed her into the shelf, his body flush with hers, and kissed her hard.
This was even better than the first one. Lily wanted more and more of him, faster than he could give. Their teeth knocked together as it expanded it a hot, open-mouth kiss; he sucked on her bottom lip and she let out a breathy little moan. His glasses bit into the bridge of her nose and his weight was nearly suffocating, but it all felt so fucking good.
One of his hands threaded into her hair – she heard the distant sound of a book dropping to the floor – and loosened it from her ponytail, while his other kept her pressed firmly against him. Her hands were on a singular mission – unbuttoning the rest of his shirt. She wasn't doing a very good job of it, fumbling and bumbling and unbuttoning out of order, but with each undone button came a rush of satisfaction.
She was halfway down his shirt when they broke apart again, her lungs burning and his chest heaving. He buried his face in the crook of her neck, as if he needed her physical support. He was panting and his hot breath fanned her skin. One of her hands left his shirt and buried it in his hair; it was still damp from his shower.
And then, her oxygen-depleted brain thought it best to ruin this stunningly intimate moment by making her blurt out, "But…I thought you…I thought you didn't fancy me any more?"
Potter slowly lifted his head up and her hand fell from his hair to his shoulder. He stared at her, his hazel eyes burning with hard disbelief.
"Whatever gave you the mad idea that I didn't?"
"You haven't asked me yet, you ignore me, you…you…" She trailed off as her heart started a mad tattoo against her chest. "You still fancy me?"
"Of course I do…I haven't asked you out yet this year because the last time I did you said you'd rather be fed to a starved Chimera. Do you know how discouraging hearing that is?" She winced, remembering that particular moment had also involved a shoe being thrown at his head. "And, anyway, when did you suddenly decide that you wanted me to ask you out? When I…I stopped asking you?"
She nodded, flushing to the roots of her hair.
"Well, that…and when you stopped being such a prat to everyone and when you got a sense of responsibility and when you – "
"Evans," he said in a low voice. "Shut up."
Then his lips were on hers again and she was lost in the hot, heavy sensation that was kissing James Potter. Her fingers were immediately back at work on those buttons and the last few were undone in a matter of moments. She slid her hands under his opened shirt, touching hot skin, feeling the firm muscle she had fantasised about for weeks, catching her fingers in the fine hair just above the lip of his trousers –
He groaned, a wonderful rumbling sound, and muttered her name against her lips. Without any hesitation, she moved her hands up to his wonderful shoulders and slid that shirt right off them. He had to loosen his hold on her for one agonising moment so she could remove his shirt fully, but the loss of contact was made up just seconds later when his bare chest was pressed up against her and he was trailing wet kisses down her neck.
It was then that Lily's rational side decided to make an appearance and started sounding the mental alarm bells. She was full-on snogging James Potter in the library where anyone could see or hear them, he had just pulled her shirt over her head, he was running his hands up her sides, and they were going way too fast – but it was far too good to be real –
"POTTER! EVANS! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"
Lily's eyes snapped open and she pulled away from Potter. She stared, horrified, at the end of the row where Madam Pince stood, looking like a wraith sent from the very depths of hell.
"Oh, shit…" Potter whispered, not sounding at all as horrifically mortified as she thought he should. She pushed him away from her, catching him by surprise and sending him flying into the aisle across the way, and began to frantically look for her shirt.
"YOU TWO SHOULD KNOW BETTER! THIS IS A LIBRARY, NOT A DEN OF DEBAUCHERY!" Pince roared as she advanced, her shrill voice reaching all the way to tops of the high, vaulted ceilings. "IN ALL MY YEARS, I'VE NEVER SEEN SUCH IMMORAL, DEPRAVED – "
"Potter, where the hell did you put my shirt?"
She was a slag, a horrible, terrible slag. She would go down as one of the biggest sluts in Hogwarts history, caught snogging shirtless in the library with a boy she wasn't even dating! And now she was going to have to run around the castle without her shirt because Potter had misplaced it!
Oh, what would her mother say when she found out that she had raised such an immoral child?
"I don't know where I put your bloody shirt – oh, here," Potter said, thrusting his shirt at her. Lily could've kissed him again. "Just put it on – I'm not to let you run around the school in just your – "
"JUST YOU WAIT UNTIL PROFESSOR MCGONAGALL HEARS ABOUT THIS, YOU HORRIBLE CHILDREN!"
Madam Pince pulled out her wand. Lily barely had time to put one arm in a sleeve before Potter grabbed her hand and cried, "Run!"
They sprinted the opposite way down the aisle; Pince shrieked a curse and suddenly, books were flying off the shelves at them, smacking them repeatedly over the head and trying to slow them down. The books followed them as they exited the aisle (knocking some innocent gawkers in the head) and as they ran through the library.
There was laughter and a shocking amount of catcalls as they ran by tables filled with fellow students. But nothing, however, could drown out the sound of Pince's rage.
"GET OUT!" she screamed. "OUT – OUT – OUT!"
"We're going, you miserable old hag!" Potter yelled, turning as they reached the door. He and Lily ducked as their bags and books went flying over their head. "Go snog Flich's cat, why don't you?"
An ink bottle whizzed by Potter's ear and shattered all over the door. Lily tugged his hand and pulled him into the corridor.
" – BANNED, THE BOTH OF YOU FOR THE REST OF YOUR NATURAL BORN LIVES – "
He paused one last time to lean around the doorframe and shout, "I never liked the bloody library anyway!"
And then they ran like hell.
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