Summary: Set in James and Lily's fifth year - this is their story. I promise you it isn't the whole 'James has changed - let's get married' but it does stick to getting together in the 7th year.
We begin just after OWLs and James' pathetic attempts to charm Lily go from bad to worse and not without the help of a certain friend...whose name sounds like furious...but with an i instead of a u...and no o...
Categories: James/Lily Characters: None
Warnings: None
Challenges: Series: None
Chapters: 11
Completed: No
Word count: 30531
Read: 35906
Published: 11/07/05
Updated: 05/21/07
1. Not Just a Girl by There you are Peter
2. Nice Pyjamas by There you are Peter
3. Stormy Weather by There you are Peter
4. Lost in the Forest by There you are Peter
5. All Things Potter by There you are Peter
6. Strange and Beautiful by There you are Peter
7. Final Kisses by There you are Peter
8. Summer Fires by There you are Peter
9. One Perfect Day by There you are Peter
10. The Moment Fate Had Been Waiting For by There you are Peter
11. A Boy with Black Hair by There you are Peter
Not Just a Girl by There you are Peter
Lily sat in the deserted common room, curled up in the armchair by the fire, and stared over her book into the flames. Exams were over and the remains of the night’s celebrations were scattered around the room, waiting for the house elves to clear them away. She glanced at an empty butterbeer bottle that lay on the floor, glowing in the fire light, before turning a page in her book and continuing to read. After a few moments, she heard a familiar voice outside the portrait hole.
“Did you see his face?” the voice said, “I thought he was gonna wet himself!”
Through the portrait hole emerged four boys. The one who had spoken had dark hair that flopped over his eyes and was laughing with the others at what he had said. Behind him emerged a small boy who was staring avidly at the boy in front whilst laughing, almost too enthusiastically. Next to him was a taller boy with a pale face, carrying a book under his arm, who was chuckling quietly, and behind him followed the last boy. He was fairly tall with a thin face, hazel eyes and black hair that stuck up at the back. He now ran his hand through his hair as he turned to the fire and spotted Lily.
“All right Evans,” he said. Lily scowled at him and pretended to immerse herself in the book.
“Aw, she doesn’t want to play tonight,” said the boy with the dark hair. The small boy sniggered. Lily ignored them.
“Shut up Sirius,” said the black haired boy as he approached Lily. “I’ll be up in a minute.” Sirius shrugged and started to go up the stairs towards the boy’s dormitories with the other two following him.
“What are you reading?” said the boy reaching forward to take the book.
“Get off, Potter,” she said drawing it towards her and quickly tucking a strand of her red hair behind her ear.
The boy sat down in the armchair opposite her and began to watch her. Lily could feel his eyes burning into her face. She carried on pretending to read until she couldn’t bear it any more.
“What are you staring at?!” she snapped as she shut the book and looked straight at the boy, who appeared slightly taken aback.
“Oh…I was just thinking...um…I was going to say….” he said staring at the floor.
“What?”
“Well um…I…you see…”
“Come on!”
“Well…I wanted to say that…I err…think you…look comfortable there…,” he gabbled. Lily looked at him blankly.
“Is that it?!”
“No! Actually…what I really wanted to say was that…I’m sorry…”
Lily tried to hide her surprise. Was this James Potter “ apologising? Was he actually being nice? She stared at him.
“What for?” she said quietly.
“Well for being…for being a prat yesterday by the lake. I’m…sorry.”
Lily was still staring at the boy whose gaze was fixed on the floor.
“You were a prat, even if he did deserve it.”
As he looked up, Lily saw a grin flicker across his face. He sat up and leaned forward towards her.
“So…” he said slightly more confidently. “What are you doing up this late?”
“Just reading.” She took in his face. Suddenly she had an urge to reach up and try to flatten his hair.
“What?” he said anxiously, putting his hand to his head.
“Uh…nothing, nothing…um it’s late. I’m going to go to bed.”
“Wait “ before you go can I ask you something?”
Lily was curious “ he’d never been so normal before.
“Go on…” she said, smiling.
“Well … will you go out with me?”
The smile vanished.
“I knew it.” Lily got to her feet. “If you think that by apologising for one thing that you’ve done then I would go out with you then you’re even more stupid than you look! You’re so… so… urgh...” Furiously, she tossed her hair out of her face and, scooping up her book, made her way to the stairs. Behind her she heard footsteps and then felt a hand on her arm. She tried to pull away but James swung her round so that she was looking up at him, breathing hard.
“Look I don’t know what I’m supposed to do with you!” He was almost shouting himself.
“You’re supposed to give up!” said Lily trying to struggle free.
“I can’t give up on you, Evans.”
James had now grabbed her other arm and was holding her tightly. They stared at each other for a moment until James realised how strong his grip was and let her go. Lily stepped back and turned on her heel to walk up the stairs to the girl’s dormitories.
*
James wandered into the Great Hall and made his way over to the Gryffindor table where his friends sat. He landed dejectedly on the bench and, without speaking, began buttering a slice of toast.
“Didn’t go well, then?” inquired Sirius innocently, but smirking all the same. James glared at him. “Well I guess you just don’t have such a way with the ladies,” he said glancing down the table where three fourth year girls were watching him and giggling. “What did you say?” asked Remus, putting down his goblet of orange juice.
“Well,” said James slowly. “I tried to apologise…” Immediately Sirius started choking on his breakfast in a poor attempt at concealing his amusement, Remus looked at James almost sympathetically and Wormtail appeared to be torn between the three of them so contented himself with putting yet more food on his plate.
“What else was I supposed to do?!” he said angrily at Sirius, who had recovered and was now grinning at James.
“I dunno … but apologising?!” He started laughing again. James ignored him and turned to Remus who had been friends with Lily since they were made prefects. Remus looked at him intently.
“You know what she’s like,” he said.
“What “ confusing and bad tempered?!” snarled James.
“No she’s just…fiery,” said Remus quietly. “Maybe it’s the hair.” He turned back to reading the Daily Prophet.
James sighed to himself and looked down the table. She wasn’t sitting far away and he could see her easily. He watched her chatting happily to her friends, red hair clipped back on one side with a clip that matched her eyes exactly. Just as he was thinking about her eyes, she noticed him staring and quickly turned away. His heart sank.
“I’m not hungry,” he said to the others and left the Hall to walk up to the common room. He couldn’t get her out of her head. There was just something about her, something that drove him crazy, but attracted him all the same. Maybe Remus was right…maybe it was her ‘fieryness’; besides, at this rate he wasn’t likely to find out, since she would probably never speak to him again after the previous night.
James was sitting in Divination. Sirius was telling him about his latest dream so that James could analyse it, but he wasn’t listening. He was staring at the flash of red on the other side of the classroom and wishing that he could turn back time so that Lily would think he was sweet and charming and-
“Oi!”
His daydream was interrupted by Sirius batting him on the arm with his textbook. James looked at him.
“Seriously. You have got to get over her. She’s not interested!” said Sirius. James looked over at her again. She wasn’t doing much work either, but was trying to charm the window open.
“You’re probably right,” sighed James heavily, and he looked down at his book.
“Come on! You’re no fun since you got all obsessed!”
“Thanks, Padfoot…”
“Well what about that Eleanor Banks? She’s not bad.”
“She’s not Evans though, is she?”
“Well, no, but-“
“Excuse me, gentlemen, but I presume that because you are talking so much that you must have made some progress on your dream interpretation?” said Professor Armitage in her shrill attempt at discipline.
“Uh…” said James, frantically skipping through the pages of his book.
“Yeah, yeah we have actually, Professor,” said Sirius smirking, loud enough for the whole class to hear. Professor Armitage looked at him expectantly. “James was telling me that he dreamt about a certain girl with red hair and how much he liked her.” Some people began to snigger. James saw Lily turn round and stare at Sirius.
“And what does that mean?” said Professor Armitage who was apparently unaware that the rest of the class was listening.
“Well I reckon it means that she should go out with him or he should get over her. I mean, he’s not that bad really Lily and after last night he can’t get any worse.”
Professor Armitage suddenly realised that the whole class was now laughing and turned sternly on Sirius.
“Two rolls of parchment on the different meanings of colours in dreams and how they affect us,” she said as Sirius scowled. “For everyone!” The class groaned and began to pack their bags, muttering what were probably plots of Sirius’ death. James looked at Lily, and saw that she was staring at him with a strange expression on her face. Whilst Sirius had turned around to tell Remus and Wormtail something, James rushed over to her side.
“I only told him I apologised,” he whispered earnestly. Lily looked at him.
“Don’t bother. You know, last night I actually wondered if I’d got you wrong and that you were really a nice person inside.” She snorted. “I guess I was wrong.” She turned away.
“Evans, please,” he said “Please “ will you just give me a chance? There’s got to be something that will change your mind.”
“Until you prove that you’re not just some arrogant pig who shows off at every opportunity then I don’t want to be anywhere near you,” she yelled, and, with that, she picked up her bag and hurried out of the room, red hair swishing behind her.
James turned around to see his friends watching him.
“You,” he said pointing at Sirius. “If you ever do that again I will hex you into outer space.”
“All right, calm down,” said Sirius, glancing at the others. A smile played across his lips. “Come on, James, she’s just a girl.”
“SHE IS NOT JUST A GIRL!”
“Boys! What in the heavens is going on?” Professor Armitage shuffled into view. “You should be at lunch. Come along - chop chop!” And she hurried them out of the classroom.
Disclaimer - yeah none of it's mine...unfortunately...
A/N: Ok please, please review! I haven't been getting many and it's kinda discouraging so...just please do it - it'll only take a sec! Thank you xxx
Nice Pyjamas by There you are Peter
“Lily?”
“Hmm?” Lily turned, breaking her gaze from the window, to see Remus standing next to her.
“Oh hi,” she said “I was just…” her voice trailed away.
“Watching James?”
Lily turned back to the window. Sure enough, there was James, and the rest of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, racing around the pitch in the last of the summer light. She could see his untidy black hair standing out against his red robes as he swerved from a Bludger and shouted something to one of the beaters. She looked back at Remus. He had pulled up another armchair and settled himself on her left.
“He really likes you, you know,” he said quietly. Lily didn’t say anything. “After you left Divination yesterday he had a real go at Sirius. They haven’t spoken since.” There was another pause. “He said “ “ Remus’s voice was almost a whisper now, “ “ he said you weren’t just a girl.”
Lily swallowed. She couldn’t understand why she cared what James thought.
“Why……why would he say that…why would he say that and then act like a complete pig whenever he sees me?”
“I don’t know,” said Remus “But he meant what he said yesterday.” He sighed. “Come on Lil, he’s crazy about you! He always has been!”
“Yeah and he’s always been an egotistical, arrogant, if not kind of good looking, idiot!”
They both smiled.
“You won’t tell him I think he’s good looking will you? If his head swells up any more it might explode and that would be a waste of a pretty face!” Remus snorted and looked at Lily.
“I won’t tell “ I promise.” With that he stood up and made his way up towards the dormitories. Lily watched him walk away before turning back to the window.
James was weaving through the rest of the team, obviously trying to get the free so that the other Chaser could pass to him. He skidded to a halt halfwaydown the pitch, raised his hands and caught the Quaffle. Suddenly turning sharply to the right, he streaked down the pitch, wind blowing his black hair behind him, and aimed for the goalpoasts. He raised his arms triumphantly above him as he scored and Lily caught her breath while she watched him. She smiled as he flew a small circle around the Keeper before touching down with the rest of the team and making his way back to the changing rooms. As he disappeared from sight she realised what had just happened; she had been admiring James Potter. Shaking her head in disbelief, she turned away from the window, her mind full of thoughts she wasn’t sure she wanted.
*
James got changed slowly after Quidditch practice. He wasn’t too keen to get back to his friends; Sirius wasn’t talking to him, Remus was trying to get them to make up and Wormtail was just plain annoying. He didn’t want to go to the common room until he was sure his friends were in bed, so he decided to go to the library. None of them would be in there “ not even Remus. He wandered between the aisles of the books in search of a secluded table where he could sit and wallow in his misery until he had to leave and go to bed. As he emerged from the end of one of the aisles, he spotted a head bent over a table - a red head. His heart leapt.
James slipped into the empty seat next to Lily.
“Hi,” he whispered.
She glanced at him before deciding to ignore him.
“Come on, Evans, not you too!”
She carried on scribbling on her parchment. James groaned and put his head on the table. He sat like that for a few minutes, wishing that things were different, when he heard a voice.
“I saw you at Quidditch practise today,” muttered Lily. James looked up at her. Her green eyes were flashing as she blinked and her flaming hair framed her pale face so perfectly. He wanted more than anything to kiss her but knew that she would probably slap him so he simply said:
“Really?”
“Yeah…that dive was…impressive.”
James glowed inside; she was complimenting him! He tried to look offhand about it.
“Well, you know, not many people can do that “ only really talented players.” Immediately he realised that, although he was joking, Lily would take it as arrogance.
“I mean…thank you,” he mumbled before she could say anything.
He looked at her and… she smiled.
“You’re welcome,” she whispered.
“So…what…err….what’s all this?” he said, gesturing to the scattered parchment and quills.
“Actually, it’s that Divination we got, thanks to Sirius.”
“Oh,” James muttered. She had to bring that up. “I’m not talking to him you know… after what he said…” he murmured quietly.
“I know,” she said without taking her eyes of the parchment. “Remus told me.”
Apparently having a best friend who was close to the girl of your dreams wasn’t so bad after all. He was burning to find out what else Remus had told her about him, but didn’t want to blow his chances. He watched her as she scribbled away, pausing occasionally to look something up in a textbook. After a while she put down her quill and began to gather up her parchment.
“Uh…are you going to the common room?” he inquired as she stood up.
“Yeah,” she said, slinging her bag over her shoulder. He hesitated, wondering whether or not to ask if he could walk with her, when she turned.
“Well are you coming or are you just going to stand there and fidget?”
James grinned and then suddenly remembered to look cool. However it was too late; Lily had noticed.
“Don’t get too excited,” she said. “You’re only walking me along a few corridors.” But she was smiling all the same.
Together, they made their way out of the library and into the corridor where they could talk at a normal level.
“You know,” said Lily, as they passed a painting of a stag that was galloping around happily, “There really isn’t any point in ignoring Sirius.”
“Why not?”
“Because I was already mad with you.”
“Oh…sorry…”
They walked a little way in silence.
“Evans?” said James quietly. “Um…are you still mad with me?”
He watched her brush her hair away from her face as she looked up at him with those incredible eyes. For the second time that night he had to stop himself from trying to kiss her.
“No,” she said, still looking at him. “No, I don’t think I am.”
They arrived at the portrait hole and he muttered the password, standing aside to allow Lily to clamber through. He followed her into the common room where he saw Sirius, Remus and Peter sitting by the fire. Lily turned around.
“Go and say you’re sorry,” she whispered.
“No way!” he said, glancing at Sirius who was pretending not to have seen him.
“Just do it,” she said and with that she turned around and ran up the dormitory stairs.
James looked over at his friends again. Sirius was watching two girls in the corner who kept turning to glance at him, Wormtail was poring over some book and Remus was staring at James hopefully. He walked over to the fire and sat down in the spare armchair.
“Padfoot,” said James. Wormtail looked up from his book.
“Oh so you’re talking to me now are you?” said Sirius, looking away from the girls.
“Yeah, I wanted to say…,” James took a deep breath ; he seemed to be doing a lot of apologising at the moment. “I shouldn’t have yelled at you…sorry…”
“You should be,” said Sirius loudly. James watched him, trying to work out if he was joking or not. Wormtail shifted in the seat next to him and sniffed.
“Sirius…” muttered Remus warningly. James wondered if he had a conversation with Sirius similar to the one he, himself, had had with Lily.
“Yeah all right “ you’re forgiven,” said Sirius “But don’t go yelling at me cos of a girl again ok?”
James smiled and assured Sirius he wouldn’t. Now that he had his friend back and Lily was talking to him without running off as soon as possible, he was feeling much happier. He sat back in his chair and grinned.
“I’m guessing the grin isn’t cos you’re immensely happy we’re talking again,” said Sirius. “Could it be to do with a certain young lady?”
“How did you know?” said James still grinning. He proceeded to tell the three boys about the events of the last half an hour; Sirius laughed at every possible moment, Remus nodded wisely every now and then and Pettigrew hung on every word. When he’d finished he turned to Remus.
“I don’t know what you said to her but it worked,” said James happily. He sighed deeply and stared into the fire, reliving the events of the evening in his mind.
*
Lily sighed deeply and stared at the ceiling, reliving the events of the evening in her mind. For the second time that evening she couldn’t stop thinking about him. She had been trying to fool herself into thinking that it was just his looks “ that face, those eyes…his hair “ but however hard as she tried to deny it, she knew there was something else. For once James had managed to have a conversation with her without saying something completely stupid and ruining everything.
She rolled over onto her side and reached out for her watch. It was half past one and she still couldn’t sleep. Drawing back the hangings around her bed, she put on her slippers, picked up a book from the bedside table and wandered over to the stairs down to the common room.
As she neared the bottom of the stairs, she heard voices.
“I don’t see why we can’t do it tomorrow night. It’s much more fun.”
“Fun for you maybe. I don’t like having to run for my life.”
“Sssh! Have you got everything?”
“Yes, just give me the cloak.”
“Hang on.”
“Come on, come on, come on, this is boring.”
“Shut up Sirius.”
“Make me Potter.”
“If you insist!”
There was a bang which sounded like it could be a chair or table falling over. Lily moved down two steps.
“Stop it guys, someone might hear.”
She walked down the last few steps and entered the common room to see James and Sirius in some sort of wrestling match, Remus carrying a bag and some sort of cloak and Peter hovering around nervously.
“You’re right Remus “ someone might hear.”
Remus looked up at her, James and Sirius stopped fighting and Peter jumped about a foot in the air.
“What are you doing up so late boys?” she said looking around at them all.
“Um… what are you doing up so late?” said Sirius quickly. He walked up to her and tried to turn her around. “Come on, back to bed now.” He was attempting to push Lily back up the stairs but she was fighting to turn around.
“Leave Evans alone,” said James stepping forward.
“Thank you!” she muttered, tucking her hair behind her ears. She saw James smile. “Now, tell me what you’re up to.”
The boys looked at each other guiltily as Lily marched over to one of the armchairs and settled herself in it, arms folded.
“No one’s leaving until I know.”
Everyone was looking at James.
“Why me?” said James, looking betrayed. “Fine,” he said sulkily. “We were going to try and sneak out.”
“Oh really?” said Lily sarcastically.
“Yes, really, because we wanted to…err…we wanted to…go and see…um,” James glanced out of the window. “Yeah we wanted to see who would go furthest into the Forbidden Forest.”
“Well that’s stupid. There are all sorts of things I there. There are Werewolves,” said Lily spookily. Sirius shot a look at Remus who had suddenly turned away. If they thought she was buying this story then they had another thing coming.
“All right then,” she said standing up. “Take me with you.”
“What?!” said James loudly.
“Shut up,” said Remus, glancing at the portrait hole.
“You can’t come,” whispered James. “Like you say, there are loads of dangerous things in there.”
“Well then it’s a good job I’ll have four strapping young men to protect me isn’t it?” she said approaching James.
“Four!?” laughed Sirius, glancing at Peter who scowled and scurried up to Remus.
“Fine,” said James. “Have my cloak so you don’t freeze.”
He took off his cloak and put his arms around her shoulders as he fixed it up at the front. Lily had a feeling he could have done this slightly faster than he actually did. When he removed his arms, she followed him to the portrait hole. They all piled out and began to walk down the corridor until Sirius stopped them and pulled out a piece of parchment. He muttered something Lily didn’t hear and then studied the parchment carefully. She shuffled up to him and looked over his shoulder.
The parchment was a map, a map of the whole of Hogwarts, and on it she could see five ink figures standing outside the portrait hole. Each figure had it’s own label and she gasped as she saw the tiny letters ‘Lily Evans’ floating next to what must be her and Sirius.
“Where did you get that!?” she said.
“Shut up!” growled Sirius. “You’ll wake up the whole damn castle.” He glanced behind him. “Hurry up, Filch is pretty close.”
They began to move down the corridor, staying close together.
“This is so stupid,” hissed Lily in James’ ear. “What if we get caught?”
“Scared Evans?” he said but she knew he was joking. “Don’t worry. I’ll be here to hold your hand.”
“Yeah, you wish,” she said, grinning.
“Would you two please shut up?!” whispered Sirius from behind them. “Wait!”
“What?”
“Get in here quick. McGonagall’s coming.”
Sirius flung open the door of the nearest classroom and threw himself in followed by Remus and Peter. James grabbed Lily round the waist and yanked her through the doorway as fast as he could. They crouched behind the door; Sirius breathing hard and staring at the map. Even though her heart was beating madly against her chest, she somehow felt safe crouching there next to James. After what seemed like an age he whispered:
“Right she’s gone “ but Filch is still hanging around. We can’t go down tonight without waiting here for hours.”
James smiled but Remus looked uneasy.
“Are you sure we can’t do it tonight?”
Lily laughed.
“Remus Lupin!” she said in mock horror. “I would have thought that you of all people would be put off by the appearance of two teachers in one go!”
He stood up.
“Well there’s more than one side to me you know Lil.” He glanced at Sirius who looked like he was trying not to laugh before sighing. “Let’s go back…”
It was only then that Lily realised that James still had his arm around her waist.
“Um…you can let go now…” she said, twisting to face him. He looked down at his arm, apparently unaware that it was still there, and he was about to take it away when she saw something mischievous flash in his eyes.
“Oh do I?” he said quietly.
“Well if you don’t then I might have to hex you.”
“I’d better let you go then hadn’t I?”
He slowly took his arm away and the two of them followed the others out of the classroom. They arrived back at the common room and James started to climb the dormitory stairs when Lily said:
“James you’re forgetting something.”
He turned round and walked back towards her looking expectant. She unfastened the clip at the front of his cloak and handed it back to him.
“Thank you,” she said as she looked up at him. James nodded his head and smiled.
“You’re welcome Evans.”
Lily picked up the book she’d left in the armchair earlier that night and walked over to the stairs.
“Oh and Evans,” said James from the other side of the room. She turned back to him.
“Nice pyjamas.”
Disclaimer: None of it's mine...
AN: The plot starts to kick in now but it gets way more exciting in the next chapter! I'll put it up asap!
Stormy Weather by There you are Peter
James, Sirius, Remus and Wormtail were sitting in their favourite spot down by the lake. James was trying to finish his Potions homework, but his mind kept wandering to a certain girl. He grinned for the hundredth time, as he remembered crouching in the dark with his arm tightly wrapped around her waist.
“James, mate, you’ve got to get over it,” said Sirius, who had caught him smiling.
“Yeah, yeah,” said James, looking back down at his parchment.
“Well, come on,” said Sirius in a bored fashion. “What are we gonna do tonight?”
“Nothing,” muttered Remus, who was lying with his eyes shut in the shade. “You guys are staying at the castle.”
“Oh come on!” Sirius said, incredulously. “You think I’m staying in bed while you go off to Hogsmeade!?”
“No! I don’t think that, because I’m not ‘going off to Hogsmeade’. I’m just going to stay in the Shrieking Shack.”
“Well, none of you are any fun nowadays what with being in love, being a werewolf and being…well being Pettigrew…”
Pettigrew scowled.
“Keep you’re voice down, you idiot!” said Remus as he glanced around. “Look…we’ll do it tonight at sundown.”
“Sundown?!” moaned Sirius. “Where’s your sense of adventure, Moony?”
“Sirius, it’s not a game,” sighed Remus who now sat up and looked out over the lake. “It can actually be dangerous.”
Sirius scowled.
“Fine,” said Remus, sighing. “You can come but we’re not leaving the Shack.”
Sirius lay down in the grass and pretended to poke at the earth with his wand but kept glancing at some girls sitting further down the bank from them. He flicked his hair out of his eyes and winked at them, making them turn and giggle together.
“Man I’m good,” he said, as he rolled onto his back.
James rolled up his homework, stuffed it into his bag and looked around.
“Might go and play some Quidditch tonight if there’s no one on the pitch,” he said, stretching and ruffling up his hair out of habit.
“What about the plan?” said Sirius, sitting up.
“I’ll finish way before that,” he yawned.
“Oh, James,” said Remus quietly.
“What?” he said, turning round to look at Remus. Then he saw her. “Evans!”
Lily was walking down towards the lake with two other girls. Looking round at him, she waved raised her hand in recognition but continued to talk to her friends. James gestured at her to come over and, reluctantly, she turned to the girls before leaving them and approaching the Marauders.
“Can I help you?” she said politely, looking at James. His stomach turned “ it was now or never. He got to his feet and took her by the arm to behind the tree.
“Potter?” she said. “Just what do you think you’re doing?”
“Getting out of the way of Sirius; I don’t want him to hear this,” said James, looking slightly embarrassed.
“What?” said Lily, as she looked up at him.
“Well…I know I’ve asked you before, but…”
“If you’re gonna ask me out -“
“No! I “ um…well, not really… I was just going to ask if you wanted to…to come and play some Quidditch with me this evening?” He looked at her hopefully.
Lily watched him carefully, taking in his expression. She blinked, and those green eyes flashed at him. He felt that familiar squeezing sensation in his stomach again.
“All right,” she said finally. “I’ll meet you at the pitch after dinner,” and, saying nothing else, she walked away to her friends on the other side of the lake. James watched her leave and then suddenly realised the reality of the situation. She had said yes! It may not be a proper date, but she had said yes to spending time with him “ alone. He allowed himself to punch the air before he returned to his friends on the other side of the tree, grinning.
*
Lily tried to eat her dinner fairly quickly that night but found that she wasn’t very hungry. She hadn’t told anyone about what she was going to do that evening and she didn’t even know why she’d agreed to it herself. There has just been something inside her saying ‘give him a chance’. She slipped out of dinner without drawing attention to herself and walked slowly out of the huge, oak doors to make her way down to the pitch. As she got closer, she could see James already there, flitting around on his broom. She reached the changing room and leant against the mossy wall, waiting for him to notice her. When he finally caught sight of her, he hovered in mid“air and shouted down to her: “So you came, then.”
“Why wouldn’t I?” she called. He gently floated down towards her and hovered a few feet away.
“Well… you’re Evans,” he grinned. “Coming up?”
She picked up the broom leaning against the wall and mounted it. Kicking off hard she shot up into the air, flew a tight circle and flipped backwards before waiting for James to join her.
“Hmm,” he said. “Not bad for a girl.”
“Oh, you’re gonna pay for that!”
They zoomed down the pitch, playing catch up, James swerving this way and that, trying to catch her out. When he suddenly turned around and started to fly back the way they’d just come, Lily managed to do a strange, yet impressive, roll and chased after him, not far from the tail of his broom. They carried on like this for what must have been an hour, until the sky grew dark well before it should have done due to a heavy summer thunderstorm. Touching back down on the ground, they tried to dodge the rain that fell thick and fast until they reached shelter in the stands. They collapsed on the seats, soaked to the skin, out of breath and exhausted. Lily laughed as she looked down at her drenched robes. James was wringing out his shirt and chuckling.
“That was fun,” gasped Lily shaking the hair out of her eyes.
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re better than you let on, you know. Why’ve you never tried out for the team?”
“Ah, I only play Chaser. I wouldn’t want to steal away your position now would I?”
“In your dreams,” he said, grinning. They sat together, listening to the rain beat down around them. It fell onto the grass and then splashed up in tiny silver fountains that gently sparkled in the dim light. As Lily admired the view, she noticed James watching her.
“Why do you always do that?”
“Do what?”
“Stare at me.”
“Oh.” He put his head down. Was he blushing? “Cos…um…” He turned away so that she couldn’t see his face.
“What?”
“Well you’re…”
James took a deep breath. “You’re…really pretty,” he stammered.
“Are you serious?” she said, shocked that he could be so sweet.
“Yeah…” He looked back at her. He was blushing “ furiously.
“Aw, Potter’s all embarrassed,” she teased.
“Shut up!” he said, but he was smiling all the same.
“I suppose we’d better be getting back up to the castle,” she said, glancing at her watch. “It’s almost half past nine and it’s getting pretty dark.”
*
“No!”
“What?” said Lily, as he stood up. He glanced at the sky; the moon was hidden behind the clouds for a moment.
“Um…sorry, but I’ve really got to go,” he said distractedly, and he began to walk away. She got to her feet and followed him.
“What?!” Lily sounded so astonished that James felt strangely guilty. “Why?”
“I’m really sorry, but there’s somewhere I have to be.” James looked at her regretfully. “And no, you can’t come.” By now she had to jog to keep up with him.
“Don’t you walk away! Where are you going?” she demanded.
“I can’t tell you, Evans! If I could, then I would, believe me!” He glanced at the sky again and began to run across the wet grass.
“Potter - stop being an idiot.”
“Just go back to the castle, Evans, and I’ll see you later.”
“Tell me where you’re going!”
“You wouldn’t believe me.”
“Try me!”
“Sorry, you’ve got to go! I can’t tell you now “ there’s no time!”
“If you’re ditching me to go off with those friends of yours then you’re really going to get it - ”
“EVANS! Please just get up to the castle. I promise I’ll explain in the morning.”
“NO!” she darted in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. Her hair had turned a deep red from the rain and was hanging in wet waves around her face. Her eyes were bright, wide and greener than James had ever seen them. She looked up into his face and shouted: “No! You are NOT going to go and be all arrogant and stupid again after being so nice for the past few days! You are NOT going to leave me just so you can break some rules with your friends. You can’t just run off without any explanation. You always have to do this, don’t you? You always have to ruin it! You always have to -”
Suddenly, without thinking, James scooped her slim body up in his arms and kissed her. His head was spinning as she clung desperately to him, running her hands through his wet hair and over his back. He did the same to her, holding her so close that he could feel her heart beating against his chest. When he finally let her go she was staring at him through the rain, breathing hard.
“Sorry,” he said breathlessly and, with a last look at her, he sprinted off. He heard her calling after him but he couldn’t turn back. He shouldn’t have kissed her; he’d probably only made everything worse. He had to keep going, he had to get there before it was too late. He reached the Whomping Willow and frantically dodged the branches to try to touch the knot that would open up the passage. Before he’d had a chance to get to it, he heard her voice behind him. Spinning round just in time, he saw a branch hurtling towards her.
“Get down!” he roared.
“Wha-” James grabbed her and flattened her to the ground. Scrambling up, he reached towards the trunk and hit the knot, opening up the passage.
“Go!” he said, and almost flung her through the hole, diving in after her. He landed at her side in the musty earth and suddenly, as he pushed himself up, felt a sharp pain in his leg. Lily had kicked him.
“What the hell do you think you’re playing at?!” she yelled. He sat up and wiped his wet face; now he really had blown it.
“I’m sorry…I got caught up in the moment…You shouldn’t have followed me here “ it’s not safe!”
“Don’t give me that!” she shouted. “You’re pathetic.” She was looking around the tunnel. “Where are we, anyway?”
James had to think quickly. If he got her there in time then he could explain and send her back before she got hurt.
“Come on!” he said as he got to his feet. “We don’t have much time.”
“I’m not going anywhere until-“
“Oh, come ON!”
He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her down the damp passage. Lily tried to twist away from his grip, but he was too strong. She gave up struggling after a while and decided to go back to arguing with him.
“I’m telling you, Potter, if this all turns out to be some sort of joke…”
“It’s not,” he said wearily. “Believe me, it’s not.”
After running for about ten minutes, they finally reached the hole that provided the entrance to the Shrieking Shack. James motioned to Lily to be quiet as they climbed into the dusty room. Despite her protests, he took her hand and led her through the hall and up the stairs to the room with the four poster bed. Seeing his friends standing there, he opened his mouth to explain, but Sirius beat him to it.
“James where’ve you been?!” said Sirius. Without pausing to let him answer he carried on. “Quick, you almost missed it and-” He stopped suddenly. “What the hell is SHE doing here?”
“He ran off-” cried Lily.
“She followed me!” yelled James. “I told you not to come!”
“Yeah, and then you completely contradicted yourself by dragging me up here and now I’m covered in mud and I’m cold and I-“
She froze mid sentence. Looking past James, she spotted Remus, who had doubled up and was making a strange sort of groaning noise. He raised his head and she saw that his eyes had turned yellow.
“Woah! What’s up with him?” said Lily loudly.
“Listen to me, Evans,” said James seriously, He turned round and put his hands on her shoulders, almost begging with her. “You have to get out of here. Please “ you have to go.”
“Why? What’s going on?” said Lily who now looked anxious and was trying to see around him. “Is he all right? James, what-”
“I can’t tell you now,” he said quickly. “But you have to-”
There was the sound of ripping and scuffling from behind him. Peter made a strange sort of whimper and Sirius yelled out to James.
“Get her out of here, Prongs!”
“James!” she said desperately. “What the hell is going on?!”
“JUST GO!” James shouted.
A deafening howl filled the room.
James knew then that he was too late. He spun round, his arms spread out to protect Lily, and saw Remus fully transformed. He was covered in thick, grey hair, his long snout snapping at James. Lily let out a muffled scream. The beast stepped forwards, a large paw outstretched, but his way was blocked by a large, snarling dog covered in shaggy black fur. Sirius and Pettigrew seemed to have disappeared.
The wolf stepped forward and, with a flick of its paw, batted the dog out of the way to advance on James and Lily. James, backing against the wall with Lily behind him, fumbled for his wand while Lily gripped his arm. The dog leapt on the beast from behind and sunk his teeth into the werewolf’s humped back, causing it to let out another terrifying howl. James jumped and dropped his wand, watching in horror as it rolled away under the bed. He made a dive for it, but soon realised that he had made a terrible mistake.
“LILY!” he roared. “RUN!”
But she was frozen against the wall; she couldn’t move. The werewolf had turned on her and was now only a few feet away, growling menacingly, teeth bared.
“Wand, Lily, WAND!”
Lily, still staring, transfixed, at the werewolf, stuck her hand into her robes and pulled out her wand. James could her see her shaking.
“Ex…Ex…Expelliarmus,” stammered Lily and a feeble ray of red light trailed from her wand. The werewolf stepped back as though someone had pushed it gently but this just infuriated it.
“No, no,” muttered James as he frantically scrabbled around under the bed for his wand. “Come ON!”
Lily screamed. He looked over and, horrified, saw that the wolf had slashed at her. Blood as red as her hair was running down her chalk white face and soaking her robes; she was trembling but still had her wand out and looked as though she was desperately trying to think of something to do. Suddenly, James’ hand found his wand. He snatched it up, whipped round and pointed it straight at the werewolf’s back.
“NOBODY TOUCHES LILY!”
A jet of red light shot out from the end of his wand and the werewolf stumbled backwards. James took his chance; he dashed towards Lily, grabbed her arm and pelted out of the room as fast as he could. They heard another howl as they sprinted down the stairs and through the hallway. He swung her round and she scrambled through the hole with him following her. She stopped to check he was there, but he panted “Keep running,” as he forced her along. “Don’t stop. Keep running.”
They sprinted down the earthy passage, stumbling over roots, until they came to the opening in the willow. He pushed her through, into the pouring rain, and followed her out, still pushing her until they were clearly out of the way of the tree’s flailing branches. As soon as they were safe, he rounded on her.
“Don’t you ever,” he shouted, “EVER, follow me again.”
Lily stared at him, shaking. He stared back and saw in those amazing eyes a look of terror and complete despair. She looked as if she was about to cry; his heart melted.
“Oh Lily, I’m so sorry,” he said, as he took her in his arms. “Are you all right?” He pushed her away to look at the gash on her cheek and then pulled her in again as he became flooded with guilt. “I’m so stupid…you could have…you could have…” he didn’t dare say it. “Thank God you’re ok, Lily.”
*
She suddenly drew back.
“What?” said James who was looking truly concerned.
“You called me Lily…”
The rain fell around them, making them wetter than ever, but neither of them had seemed to notice. After a while, James came to his senses.
“Come on,” he said quietly, putting his arm around her waist. “We need to get back to the castle.”
They walked through the rain in silence, Lily still shaking and James glancing nervously around every few minutes to check that there was no one watching them. On reaching the Entrance Hall, they hurried up to the common room before any teachers had a chance to catch them. As soon as they were both through the portrait hole and Lily had checked that the circular room was empty, she turned to him.
“What…what just happened?”
James steered her onto the sofa by the fire and shook out his hair, covering the floor with tiny droplets.
“Wait here,” he said gently. “I need to get something.”
Lily thought he might be going back outside and back to the Whomping Willow, but he quickly walked up to the boys dormitories. She drew her knees up to her chin and shivered, trying to take in what had happened that night. Everything had been normal, and then…then…she touched the cut on her cheek and felt it sting sharply.
“Don’t touch it,” said James quietly as he emerged, carrying a blanket and a bar of chocolate. Taking his wand out of his pocket, he muttered an incantation and hot steam shot out of the tip. He ran his wand over her bloodstained robes until she was dry before doing the same to himself.
“Sit up,” he said, and Lily let him wrap her in one of the blankets. He came round to kneel in front of her and put his hand on her chin, lifting her face to the light of fire.
“It’s all right,” he murmured. “You won’t be turning into a werewolf today.” He grinned at her but she could only manage a weak smile.
“Sorry,” he said and turned back to examining the cut. “It’s not deep “ I should be able to fix ““
“Shouldn’t I go to the Hospital Wing?” she said pulling away from him. Lily wasn’t sure that she trusted him entirely after the evening’s events.
“And tell them you were out of the castle after hours when you got attacked by Remus, who happens to be a dangerous werewolf, but it was actually all right cos James and his friends, who are all unregistered Animagi, were there to protect you?” he said sarcastically. Lily sat back against the sofa.
“Ok…do it,” she said, though somewhat reluctantly.
He took her face again and traced the cut with the end of his wand, muttering something under his breath. Lily felt the odd sensation of someone pouring hot water onto her face. After he had traced the wound three times, James touched the place where it had been.
“Better?”
Lily nodded.
“Take this,” he said, handing her a piece of chocolate. James sat down next to her and sighed. “I suppose you’ll want an explanation now, then.”
“Well I think I deserve one,” she said dryly. Lily was feeling much better now that she was dry and had taken a few bites of the chocolate.
“Yeah…yeah, you do,” said James slowly. “Well…you’ve probably noticed that Remus is a bit…different from the rest of us.”
“Just a bit,” she muttered.
“We go down to the Willow when there’s a full moon,” he said quietly. “He can’t hurt anyone there. Sirius, Peter and I are all right cos he doesn’t attack other animals and ““
“So you’re all Animagi?” she interrupted.
“Yeah…it took three years to learn…but, you know, don’t spread it around…it’s not strictly legal.”
Lily smiled slightly and moved a little closer to James. There was a pause and the two of them sat, listening to the rain beat against the window pain.
“I…I’m sorry I didn’t…listen,” she said quietly.
“Don’t be,” murmured James. “It was my fault for leaving you like that.”
“Yeah, you were a prat,” she said. James chuckled and, after an apprehensive look at her, tentatively put his arm around her.
“It’s a good thing I’m still a bit cold,” whispered Lily as she leaned against him. She could feel his heart beating and was reminded of a particularly unexpected but enjoyable moment earlier that evening. James pulled her in closer and she rested her head on his shoulders and shut her eyes. She wanted to stay awake until the others came back; she wanted to make sure Remus was all right. Sitting in the warmth of the fire, lulled by the rhythm of James’ breathing, she fell asleep.
Disclaimer: None if it's mine...
AN: Aaah what excitement...don't worry I know they don't get together until their seventh year...stick with it - I just finished writing chapter 7 but I really love chapter 6. Oooh I can't wait to get that one up lol. This chapter took me ages to get accepted so please, please review cos I worked hard on this one ...
Lost in the Forest by There you are Peter
Something shifted against James’ side, stirring him from sleep. Slowly, he opened his eyes and, yawning, looked down. Lily Evans, the girl of his dreams, was cuddled against him; her red hair was fanned out over his shoulder and she was breathing deeply, clearly still sleeping. James smiled to himself and glanced out of the window at the pink and orange sky. It looked as though dawn was just breaking and they should probably be back in the dormitories before anyone -especially his friends- came down to the common room and saw them.
He shifted gently on the sofa in an attempt to wake her up as pleasantly as possible. Lily turned her head towards him and blearily opened her eyes.
“What time is it?” she mumbled quietly.
“I’m not sure,” he whispered. “It’s almost dawn though. We should go up to the dormitories.”
She nodded and slowly pushed herself away from him to stand up. James’ robes were warm from where she had been leaning on him. Lily rubbed her eyes, put a hand to her hair in attempt to flatten it (not that she needed to) and straightened her robes.
“Thanks for last night,” she said.
“Oh...no problem,” James replied.
“I mean it. You saved my life,” she muttered shyly.
“It’s my fault that you had to be saved in the first place.”
They both looked away awkwardly. Lily hovered at the foot of the stairs, clearly trying to ask James something.
“Are you going to Hogsmeade tomorrow?”
“Yeah, probably.”
“Well…I might see you there then…anyway…good night…I mean good morning.”
James chuckled.
“Morning Evans.”
Lily smiled and turned away to walk up the stairs. At that moment, the portrait hole swung open and Remus, Sirius and Peter tramped in. Remus caught sight of James and immediately rushed over to him.
“Is she all right?” he gasped.
Lily turned around and said:
“If you mean me ““
“Oh, thank God,” cried Remus, rushing over to her and giving her a swift hug. “I’m sorry…I wasn’t in control…oh…I should have told you before…I’m sorry…are you hurt…are you sure you’re all right?”
“Yes I’m fine!” said Lily as she batted Remus away, who was now trying to check her for any sign of a bump or scratch. “James fixed me last night.”
“James!” snarled Sirius from the corner. He was cradling his left arm; James could see that his robes were ripped and bloodstained. He didn’t look happy at all.
“You idiot, Prongs,” he shouted. “You could have got her killed!”
“Shut up, Sirius, you’ll have the whole castle up.”
“I don’t care! What the hell were you playing at?! What could you have possibly been doing that was so important that you forgot to turn up before dark?!”
James glanced at Lily before looking back at Sirius and saying:
“Nothing, I err…just lost track of time.”
“Well thanks to you ‘losing track of time’ I’ve got this,” he held his injured arm up to James. “And Remus has got bite marks on his back from when I had to stop him from killing you and her!”
“She has a name, Sirius,” said James warningly.
“Boys,” interrupted Lily. “Sorry to stop this little chat but …what happened last night was my fault…”
“Well that figures,” muttered Sirius under his breath.
“What was that?!” said James loudly, taking a step closer to his friend.
“James…”
Lily looked at him pleadingly and reluctantly, he backed off.
“I made James late cause…” she tailed off. “But…I followed him…even when he told me to go…it was my fault…”
There was an awkward silence in the common room, interrupted only by Wormtail shuffling against the wall.
“What’s the time?” said Remus quietly.
“Half five,” mumbled Sirius.
“Let’s go to bed…Lil I’m sorry,” Remus said and he climbed the stairs to the dormitory, followed by Pettigrew and Sirius, who was glaring at both of them. James hung back, knowing that Lily might not like what he wanted to tell her.
“Um…Evans?” he said apprehensively.
“What happened to Lily?”
James shrugged and looked at the ground.
“I…um…I don’t think we should tell them about…about what we did last night…”
Lily looked up at him, confused.
“Not that it wasn’t…you know,” he said hastily. “It’s just that…well you saw how Sirius was…I don’t want them to be any madder at me.”
He ran his hand through his hair and waited for her to speak.
“Well, Potter,” she said coldly. “I wasn’t exactly planning on telling the whole of Hogwarts.”
“No but they blame me for what happened.”
“So what they think of you is more important than what you feel?” she said angrily, green eyes flashing.
“No Evans, come on, you know how I feel. It’s just-”
“Don’t give me excuses, Potter. I know you care about your image more than you do about the people around you.”
“That’s not true! Of course I care about you! Didn’t I prove that last night?” James said exasperatedly.
“If you cared about me then you wouldn’t have left me like that… with no explanation! It was like…it was like you didn’t think I was worth it.”
“Of course you’re worth it! Come on, I-”
“I don’t want to hear it,” she said as she turned back to the stairs. “Let me know when you get over yourself.”
*
Lily was one of the last people at breakfast the next day because she had got up late after the events of the previous night. It had taken her a while to drop off to sleep; she was so angry with James but then so…attracted to him. He was big-headed and arrogant and inconsiderate, but she still fell for his charm, his sweetness, his looks…Lily was so deep in thought over her cornflakes that she didn’t notice the four boys sit down next to her.
“All right Lil?” Remus said as he settled himself on the bench and picked up a croissant.
“Yep,” said Lily cheerily, ignoring the others. “Sleep well?”
“Mmm,” he replied, with his mouth full of food. Swallowing, he said: “Has the post come yet?”
“Oh err…yeah,” said Lily and she passed him the newspaper that had been delivered. “This came for you.”
“Why do you bother with that?” said Sirius grumpily from Lily’s left. He was staring moodily across the table. “Nothing ever happens.”
Remus shrugged and began to read, leaving the rest of them in silence.
“Let’s do something tomorrow at Hogsmeade,” said Sirius, suddenly.
“Like what?”
James spoke for the first time and Lily looked at him; he looked thoroughly miserable and his hair was all over the place. Trying to ignore the strange sensation in her stomach, she went back to her cornflakes.
“Like anything that will be more interesting than just wandering around.”
“The Shrieking Shack?” squeaked Peter from the far side of the table. Sirius looked at him blankly.
“Yeah cos we’ve never been there before (!)” he said, casting Peter a weary look.
Peter shrank back to his slouched position.
“Come on. We’ve got to do something before the end of term.”
Silence fell again.
“Well...”said Lily slowly, ignoring James and talking directly to Sirius. “If you wanted to do something because it’s the end of term then you could always just have a party…”
Sirius looked at her and Lily felt uneasy.
“I know it’s not very…’rebellious’,” she said quickly. “But it would be fun and…you could get the whole house down and…yeah…” She tailed off as a strange look fell over Sirius’ face.
“Lily Evans…you are a GENIUS!” he cried. “Oh, I could kiss you but James would probably kill me.” Lily laughed slightly and didn’t look at James. “Oh this is gonna be so good,” Sirius said and with that he left the table and dashed out of the hall.
The rest of them sat in silence; Remus reading the paper, Pettigrew stuffing his face with toast, Lily finishing her cereal and James watching her miserably. She was trying desperately hard not to look at him and she was all too aware that he would follow her out of the hall for a ‘chat’.
Putting down her spoon, she quickly got up from the bench and muttered goodbye to Remus. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see James get up and follow her on the other side of the table. She sped up “ so did he; they were almost racing to leave the hall. Lily, being on the side furthest away from the doors had a disadvantage and as she tried to round the end of the table, he stepped in front of her, blocking her way.
“Move, Potter,” she growled.
“No,” he said simply.
“So shall we stand here all weekend?” said Lily putting her hands on her hips.
“If that’s what it takes.”
He stared down at her, his dark hair flopping down over one of his eyes. Once again, she was so tempted to reach up and push it away and she felt that familiar jolt in her stomach. Trying to ignore it she said:
“Fine. I’ll talk to you. But not here “ the common room.”
“No, they’ll be people there.”
“There’ll be people everywhere…it’s the weekend…”
“Look will you just come with me?” James said quietly. Lily looked at him suspiciously.
“All right…but don’t take me to anywhere I might die…”
*
James led Lily past the crowds of people, who were outside enjoying the grounds before they had to go home for the summer, and walked down, beyond the lake, to the Forbidden Forest. At the edge he stopped and waited for her.
“I thought we were going somewhere I wasn’t going to die,” said Lily nervously.
“You won’t die,” he said seriously “And if anything likely to kill you comes our way then you’ve always got me to protect you.”
Lily looked less than enthusiastic at this.
“Come on,” he said eagerly. “We’re not going very far inside.”
Reluctantly she stepped forward and, after James had looked around to check no one had seen them, they began to make their way through the trees. A strange green glow surrounded them as the sunlight fell through the leaves and onto the path ahead. James looked back and noticed Lily peering through the trunks apprehensively.
“There’s nothing bad this close to the edge of the Forest,” he said reassuringly. “I promise.”
They turned off the dusty path and continued down a narrower one, until they came to a small clearing where the floor was covered in moss. On the far side of the clearing was a cluster of tree stumps and James now made his way over to sit down on one.
“Come on,” he said.
Lily went and sat down beside him and stared around.
“Where did you find this place?!”
“It was ages ago,” James said wearily. “When we were looking for somewhere for Remus to transform.”
“Oh,” she said sitting down.
“I wanted to talk to you,” said James awkwardly.
“Yeah I’d worked that one out already,” she said sarcastically. “And, Potter, I’m warning you “ if you’re going to say that you’re sorry and expect me to instantly fall in love with you then you’re wrong. I’ve already fallen for that once…”
“Well I was going to say that I was sorry…but I guess I’m not allowed now.”
“Feel free…all I’m saying is that it won’t necessarily change anything. I’ll probably still think that you’re too full of yourself to realise why I don’t like you.”
“Maybe I am. Maybe you need to tell me.”
“You want to know why I don’t like you?” asked Lily.
“Yep.”
“Ok.” She took a deep breath. “It’s pretty simple. I don’t like you because…” Her green eyes flashed in his direction. “Because…” She trailed off.
“You don’t know do you!?”
She glared at him.
“So what if I don’t?” said Lily, fiercely. “Am I allowed to just dislike you?”
“Well you are but I think it’s pretty stupid seeing as I know that you secretly do like me.”
“Oh grow up! Why would I possibly be interested in you?!”
“I don’t know, but you’ve been acting pretty keen this past week!”
“Oh yeah it’s been so much fun (!) I really enjoyed almost BEING KILLED!”
“Oh come on! That wasn’t my fault! If you hadn’t followed me-“
“So it’s my fault?”
“NO! That’s not what I’m saying!”
“Well what are you saying, Potter?”
She was staring straight at him with those incredible eyes. Her hair was fanned out across her shoulders.
“I’m saying…”
He looked into those eyes. “I’m saying…I’m saying that I don’t know what I’m doing…I don’t know how to…how to win you over…I don’t know if I’m ever going to get it right…but…I do know that I want to…get it right, that is, and…well I am trying here so could you just…I don’t know “ bear that in mind?”
He looked down, embarrassed by giving so much away.
“All right, Potter,” she said coolly, “I’ll bear it in mind.” With that, she got up and walked out of the clearing. He sank his head into his hands and sighed despairingly. If only he could turn back time and arrange for that night of Quidditch to happen on some other night. He sat like that for a few minutes, thinking about all the mistakes he’d made, when he heard a small cough from somewhere to his right.
“Yeah um…I don’t know my way out of here so could you just…”
Lily looked at the ground as he stood up and began to lead her out of the Forest.
Disclaimer: Tis not mine.
AN: Ok I hate this chapter cos nothing really happens, but it means we are getting closer to my favourite chapters so far: 6 and 9! Bear with any chapters that might be a bit slow because it really does get better. Please review! Thank you xxx
All Things Potter by There you are Peter
Lily rolled over and pulled the sheets up to her head. The bright summer sunlight was streaming onto the covers through a crack in the curtain, making the possibility of going back to sleep unlikely. It would have been impossible anyway due to the fact that the rest of Lily’s dorm was up and about, getting ready for the last Hogsmeade trip of the year and talking at the tops of their voices.
“Lil, wake up “ it’s a beautiful daaay!” sang Neala, ripping open the hangings around Lily’s bed.
“Go away,” she mumbled into the pillow. “I’m sleeping.”
“Oh get up!” said Neala, poking the lump that she presumed was Lily.
“I’m not going,” said Lily, rolling away from her.
“Yes you are,” gabbled Neala. “We’re gonna go and have breakfast and then we’re gonna go to Honeydukes cos I promised I’d bring home some chocolate frogs for Elliot cos Mum said he was asking for some and then we’ll see if there’s anything going on in the Three Broomsticks. Ooh! And then we’ll go to Zonko’s cos I know Sirius said he was going and ““
“Neala, I’m really not going.”
“What?”
Neala sank onto the bed and pulled Lily towards her. “Why not? It’s gonna be fun “ the last girl’s day out before the holidays!”
“No thanks.”
“‘No thanks’ isn’t an option “ now get up!”
“I don’t want to go!”
Neala sighed.
“Look why not? What’s happened?”
Lily lowered the covers from her chin and pushed her hair out of her face.
“Potter.”
“Oh,” said Neala understandingly. There was an awkward silence. “Lil, can’t you just forget about him? I mean…he’s not really worth it…and come on, we’re not going to let him spoil our day are we?”
“No, I’m not in the mood,” she said, slumping back down into bed.
“Oh yeah?” Neala’s cheerfulness returned. “Well I am, Lil, and you’re coming whether you like it or not cos it’s no fun without you.”
Neala tugged back the covers and dragged Lily out of bed.
“Neala!” said Lily, pulling down her nighty.
“Right, brush your hair, get dressed - I want you in the common room in fifteen minutes!”
*
“OI! Sleeping Beauty! Get up!”
“Piss off, Sirius,” grumbled James, as the curtains around his bed were flung open and the covers were ripped off his bed.
“Nah, it’s more fun to torment you,” said Sirius, as he jumped onto James’ legs and made him groan in pain. “So “ I’m guessing you really screwed up with Evans…”
James said nothing.
“I’ll be taking that as a “yes”,” Sirius said, grinning. “Oh, you never learn… anyway, get up and get ready “ I wanna get out of here!”
Reluctantly, James swung his legs out of bed and stretched. He got up and walked over to the window; the grounds were glowing orange in the sunlight and the lake was sparkling already.
“Well hello.”
A familiar voice made him turn around.
“James “ put some clothes on.”
Neala, who was standing in the doorway, threw a t-shirt from the chair at her side. James caught it and walked towards her. Neala and James, just like Lily and Remus, had only become friends in the fifth year. Although Neala was very pretty, James only had eyes for Lily. Sirius though, being a ladies man, had taken a liking to her and she didn’t seem to mind.
“Um, Nell …what are you doing in here?”
“Well, I wanted to tell you in the nicest possible way that Lily would appreciate it if you stayed away from her today.”
James’ heart sank.
“Did she actually say that?” he said, leaning against the door frame.
“No,” said Neala, brushing her fair hair out of her eyes. “I did. She’s in a stress cos of you again and I don’t want you ruining the last day out.”
“I didn’t mean to upset her,” he said, pulling on his t-shirt. “I just don’t know what the hell I’m doing with her.”
“Doing what with who, my friend?” said Sirius wandering out of the bathroom. “Oh…we have company…all right Neala?” He winked at her.
“Morning, Sirius,” said Neala, biting her lip.
“May I say that you are looking particularly spectacular today?” he said, taking her hand and bowing deeply.
“Well, I don’t have a problem with you saying that.”
“Well I’m glad you don’t because it’s only the truth.”
“Well I’m glad that ““
“Ok, sorry to interrupt this little… whatever this is…but we were talking about Lily?” said James, trying to smooth down his hair.
“Oh yeah,” said Neala, struggling against Sirius who was now trying to pull her into some sort of tango. “Well basically…wait a sec, Sirius… I just think you should keep out of her-“
James never found out what Neala thought, though, because Sirius had grabbed her by the waist and was now spinning her around the dormitory.
*
“You know,” said Neala, peering into the window of a shop on her right. “I dunno if that’s just how he is…I mean, I know he’s flirty, but…have you ever seen him dance with anyone else?”
“Um…no,” said Lily, distractedly. She was checking the street for any sign of James and his gang.
“Oh…I hope we bump into him…”
“Mmm,” said Lily, craning her neck over the crowds. “Err… I mean, I don’t…”
“No, I know you don’t…where do you think they’ll be?”
“Hopefully, wherever we don’t go,” she said, giving up her search and falling into step with Neala.
“What happened with you two, anyway?”
“Urgh…well he took me into the Forest and basically told me he was clueless…bit pointless really…”
“What was?”
Lily jumped and span around. Sirius was standing behind her, grinning, with a large package in his arms.
“Sirius!” squeaked Neala.
“Neala, my darling, you look radiant,” he said.
“Thanks.”
Neala giggled.
“Um…yeah,” Lily muttered, glancing sideways at Neala who was smiling at Sirius and playing with her hair. “What’s with the package?”
Sirius tore his eyes of Neala to look at Lily.
“Oh…just some supplies for the party…” he said casually.
“A party?!” Neala squealed.
“Oh, yeah,” said Sirius. “We’re having a party for the end of term…speaking of which, I haven’t got a date yet…”
Lily groaned and turned around, leaving Sirius and Neala to ask each other out. She began to wander through the crowds of students who were buying gifts to take home to their parents at the end of term. It was hot in the sun but all the shops had their awnings out and people were sitting outside the Three Broomsticks enjoying the readily available Pumpkin juice. Lily saw Remus sitting at one of the tables and, looking back over her shoulder to check that Neala was still happily chatting to Sirius (she was), made her way over to him.
“Hey,” she said, sitting down on the little wooden stool.
Remus looked at her wearily.
“Hi,” he said, taking a sip of his juice and looking away.
“What’s up?” said Lily, leaning in towards him.
“Sorry…I’m just tired after…you know…”
“Oh yeah,” said Lily quietly. “Yeah, I guess you would be…”
They sat in silence, watching the people go past with their shopping and chattering happily about their plans for the summer. Lily always hated leaving Hogwarts for the summer, mainly because she had to spend it with her unbearable sister, Petunia. The holidays meant 6 weeks of being called a ‘freak’ and resisting the temptation to prove to Petunia that she really could turn people into frogs. Lily looked back at Remus.
“Why are you by yourself, anyway?”
“Oh, the others wandered off…I think Peter had to stay behind and have remedial potions or something…”
Lily snorted.
“Where’s Neala?” said Remus, looking around.
“Oh, Sirius is chatting her up…” said Lily, smiling. This time Remus snorted.
“Lils, I’m going to miss you this summer,” he said shyly, looking down into his drink.
“I’ll miss you, too,” Lily said, quietly.
At that moment, Neala and Sirius came over to the table and settled themselves on the remaining stools.
“Well, my friends,” said Sirius chirpily, grabbing Remus’ Pumpkin juice and taking a swig. “I have my supplies for the party, I have my date for the party,” he winked at Neala. “And now all I need is the people.” He swivelled towards Lily and looked at her expectantly.
“What?” said Lily.
“Well, are you coming?”
“Of course I’m coming,” said Lily impatiently. “Why wouldn’t I?”
“I don’t know,” Sirius said slowly. “I just thought you might want to avoid…someone.”
“If you mean Potter, I couldn’t care less. I’ve told him to stay away from me…even he’s not too stupid to work out what that means.”
“Oh, all right,” said Sirius, in an offhand voice.
“What are you getting at?” she said suspiciously.
“Oh, nothing, nothing…” said Sirius quietly, but his smile told Lily that he wasn’t giving her the whole story.
*
James sat on a patch of grass beneath one of the tall oak trees at the top of hill. He looked out to his left and saw, in the distance, the Shrieking Shack. In the daylight, it was hard to imagine what had nearly happened only a few nights ago. He shook his head, trying to get rid of his thoughts. But then again that had never worked before. He could see her face, her hair, her eyes looking up at him. He sighed and pushed himself up from the tree.
He wandered down the green hill and into the lanes of Hogsmeade; they were quieter now because most of the students had gone back up to the castle. James was planning to find Sirius to do the same and him sitting at a table outside the Three Broomsticks. However, he wasn’t alone. Sitting around the same table was Neala, Remus and, judging by the unmistakable red hair that was glinting gold in the evening sunlight, Lily. He swallowed and approached the group.
“Hi,” he said breezily, trying not to look at Lily. “I was going to head back up to the castle if anyone wanted to come…”
“Yeah,” said Remus, pushing himself up heavily from the chair. “I will.”
“I think I’ll stay for a bit longer…” said Sirius, glancing sideways at Neala.
“Oh, um, yeah…yeah me too,” she said, quickly. They both stared at Lily.
“Lily, are you going too?” said Sirius, deliberately. Lily looked straight back at him. “Are you?” He moved his leg.
“Ouch!” said Lily, loudly. “Yes, all right, I’m going “ I got the hint the first time, thanks, there was no need to cripple me.
Sirius grinned and immediately turned towards Neala.
The others began to walk back down the lane towards the gates of Hogwarts, with Remus in the middle, separating Lily and James. James looked up at the castle as they walked along in the warmth of the summer evening. Its many towers and turrets were silhouetted against the sky that was glowing orange, making him realise how much he would miss it when the time came to go home. Still, he would have Sirius to stay…he never liked spending any time at home if he could avoid it.
They arrived back at Hogwarts and entered through the massive doors. James made for the staircase to go up to the common room before dinner but Remus turned off into the Great Hall.
“Sorry,” he said, looking back over his shoulder at James. “I’m hungry.”
James watched him enter the hall and then turned back around, expecting to see Lily. However, she had already begun to make her way up the stairs. He leapt up after her, avoiding the people coming down for dinner, and caught up with her on the first landing.
“Evans, come on,” he said quietly, as he drew level with her. He stood in front of her so that she was trapped between him and a suit of armour. “Look, can we at least be civil?” The eyes flashed.
“Why?” she said, stonily.
“Because I don’t want to have to pretend to ignore you every time I see you. Can we just…you know…be normal?”
*
She looked up at him and saw his black hair flopping into his eyes. Something fizzed in her stomach and she swallowed, hard, in an attempt to get rid of it. She wanted, more than anything, to be cruel and ignore him for the rest of her time at Hogwarts, but a part of her couldn’t bear to see him miserable any more. She swallowed again.
“Fine,” she said, quickly. “But don’t do anything stupid. We’re just being civil…nothing more.”
“Yeah,” James nodded, looking pleased. “Yeah…I promise not to screw up this time…”
“You’d better not…” she said, warningly, and they began to walk together down the corridor. James kept glancing at her “ a habit she was getting used to, and her mind wandered back to the night they had kissed. Immediately, she stopped herself. That familiar fizzing feeling had returned and she didn’t want it to. Clenching her fists, she forced herself to think of something else. I think I’ll have a bath, she thought as they arrived at the portrait hole. James let her in first.
“Thanks,” she said, when they were inside. “I’ll, err, probably see you at dinner then…”
“Yeah,” said James. “Yeah, see you at dinner…”
Lily turned away from him and made her way up the dormitory stairs, hoping that a bath would clear her mind of all things Potter…
Disclaimer: Tisn't mine...
AN: So we are one step close to Chapter 6! This chapter was fun to write so hopefully it's fun to read. I'm trying not to make James and Lily go back and forth too much but don't worry - no matter what you read in the next few chapters, they do NOT get together until the 7th year. Please review xxLivsxx
Strange and Beautiful by There you are Peter
AN: If you would like to read the original version of this (I suggest you do because it is better) then search Livs on HarryPotterFanFiction.com. Then come back and read this to tell me which you like better. Anyway - enjoy:
I've been watching your world from afar,
I've been trying to be where you are,
And I've been secretly falling apart,
I'll see.
To me, you're strange and you're beautiful,
You'd be so perfect with me but you just can't see,
You turn every head but you don't see me.
I'll put a spell on you,
You'll fall asleep and I'll put a spell on you.
And when I wake you,
I'll be the first thing you see, lyricstop
And you'll realise that you love me.
Sometimes, the last thing you want comes in first,
Sometimes, the frist thing you want never comes,
And I know, the waiting is all you can do,
Sometimes...
I'll put a spell on you,
You'll fall asleep,
I'll put a spell on you,
And when I wake you,
I'll be the first thing you see,
And you'll realise that you love me...
The last few days at Hogwarts passed uneventfully for Lily. Posters had gone up in the Gryffindor common room, advertising the party that was taking place after the Leaving Feast. Sirius was mysteriously busy and kept disappearing for hours at a time, much to Neala’s disappointment.
Now that the fifth year had done their OWLs, lessons were particularly easy. The teachers, even McGonagall, were allowing them to spend their lessons lazily chatting to one another and occasionally practicing the odd spell. It was in Charms, when Professor Flitwick had told his students to ‘amuse themselves’ while he spent the lesson cleaning his office, that Lily sat with Neala, discussing plans for the summer.
“I won’t be able to get away soon enough!” Lily complained. “Shame we can’t use magic outside of school yet…I’d love to Bat Bogey Hex her…”
At that moment, the door swung open and Sirius casually walked into the classroom, apparently unnoticed by Flitwick. He grinned at Neala as he passed her desk and took a seat behind them with the rest of the Marauders. Neala swivelled in her seat to face him.
“Where’ve you been?” she said, tucking her hair behind her ear.
“Just…preparing,” Sirius said, winking. “You’re beauty outstands me every time I see you.”
Lily sighed and looked away from the sickening couple to her right. She was getting fed up of those two breaking into speeches declaring their undying love.
“It’s enough to make you sick,” she said to Remus, tilting her head towards Sirius.
“Tell me about it,” he said.
Lily picked up her quill and began doodling on the corner of his parchment.
“Have you got a date for the party yet?” he asked, after a few moments.
“We’re meant to have dates?” she said, looking up at him.
Sirius leaned over and joined in the conversation. Lily was very aware that James was listening closely, even though his back was turned to them.
“Yepp,” said Sirius. “Can’t get in without a date.”
“Well…uh,” Lily stammered. “What if I don’t want a date?”
“Then you can’t come to the party. Rules are rules, Lily.”
Lily looked at him, looked at Remus, looked back to Sirius and then over at James, who was staying unusually still through all this.
“I get it,” she said, slowly. “This is when you tell me the only person without a date is Potter and so you may as well go together-”
James turned around.
“Evans,” he said quickly. “I swear to you “ I am not involved in any of this.”
She looked into his eyes and felt her stomach squeeze, before looking back at Sirius.
“Well,” she said impatiently. “Was it a plot?”
Sirius watched her warily and then shrugged.
“It was worth a try,” he said and turned back to Neala. James was still looking at her anxiously.
“I believe you…but that was a pretty poor plan, I must say,” she said raising her voice so Sirius could hear.
The bell rang and they began to pack away their things. Lily had a feeling that the others were rushing off on purpose so that she and James had to walk together. Apparently he had noticed too.
“Uh,” said James, nervously. “That wasn’t me either…”
Lily smiled with the knowledge that, if she ever told anyone about these strange feelings she had been having, then they probably wouldn’t disapprove. Together, they made their way out of the classroom.
*
James and his friends made their way back to the common room after their last lesson in fifth year. Sirius seemed to be buzzing, obviously looking forward to the party later, but the other two were subdued. Peter wasn’t “ he was just quiet as usual. They made their way through the portrait hole and were greeted by the comforting sight of the common room. A few people were milling about, apparently collecting items they had left lying around over the year. The boys made their way up to the dormitory to pack.
“You know,” said Sirius, who was babbling rapidly. “If it wasn’t for this party, I’d be pretty damn miserable. James, how soon can I come to yours? Hey, you know what we could do?! We could invite Neala over and you could invite Lily and we could have another party, oh and you two would come as well, obviously. We could use your garden “ we could have a marquee!” He gesticulated wildly above his head, trying to convey the scale of his scheme.
“Uh, Sirius, mate, are you sure you haven’t been drinking coffee?” said James, grinning at his friend.
But Sirius wasn’t listening. He had tried to summon all his things from the room and make them fly into his trunk. However, they had all hit him and he had been pushed back onto his bed.
“Well that worked (!)” said Sirius sarcastically and he began throwing his things into his trunks, though still muttering excitedly.
James turned his back on his friend and began to pack away all the things around his bed. As he did so, he heard a knock on the door. Sirius ran frantically towards it and wrenched it open.
“LILY!” he yelled.
James walked quickly over to the door and pushed Sirius out of the way.
“What’s his problem?” said Lily, looking half puzzled and half amused.
“Um…too much coffee…” said James looking round at him. “Or something like that…” They both watched Sirius sing merrily to himself as he tried to rescue a sock from under his bed.
“Anyway,” she said, shyly. “I just wanted to return this.” She held out the blanket that James had given her the night they had kissed. He felt fireworks go off inside him with the memory but tried to look unconcerned.
“Oh, err, thanks,” he said quietly.
“Well, I’ll see you at the feast then.”
“Yeah…see you.”
James watched her leave, red hair dancing on her shoulders as she walked.
*
Dumbledore clapped his hands for quiet and the chattering of the students faded into muttering and finally silence. The headmaster stood up and surveyed the school.
“Speeches are like after dinner mints “ they are for after dinner,” he said, a slight smile on his face. “Let’s eat.”
The table in front of Lily suddenly became laden with all kinds of wonderful food. To her left, Neala was helping herself to shepherd’s pie and carrots and to her right, Remus had selected a large steak and was now tucking in hungrily. Peter, who was sitting opposite her, was spooning mashed potato onto his plate eagerly and James was quietly wrapping spaghetti round his fork. Lily served herself some roast chicken and potatoes and began to eat.
“Where’s Sirius?” said Neala to no one in particular, pausing from eating.
Everyone glanced up and down the table.
“Dunno,” said James. “Maybe he was so excited about the party he accidentally locked himself in the trunk.”
Remus, Peter and Lily sniggered but Neala looked concerned.
“Do you think he’s all right?” she said, craning her neck as if expecting to be able to see him. The others laughed again. Lily looked around at them all and realised how much she’d miss them over the summer. She looked at Neala and felt a slight pang of sadness when she thought about not seeing her best friend for eight weeks. The same happened as she glanced at Remus’ smiling face but she was surprised to find that it also happened when she looked at James. His eyes met hers, as though he could feel her looking at him, and she quickly went back to eating.
When everyone had finished their food, Dumbledore stood up once more.
“Now that everyone is a little fuller I would like to say a few words.” His face became more serious. “This year has been a good year…” He paused. “But none of us can be certain of the future…none of us can know what…some people…may decide to do. However, although we do not know the minds of others we can be prepared for their actions. Hold on to those you love and let them keep you strong. Good night.”
“Well,” said Remus, a slight crease between his eyebrows. “I guess that means that it’s going to get worse.” He sighed.
“What do you mean?” asked Neala, as they got up from the table with the rest of the students, all of whom were muttering together as they left.
“You heard what he said… ‘no one knows what some people might do’... give you three guesses as to who that is.”
“You mean…him?”
Remus nodded.
“But,” said Neala, who looked slightly panicked. “like Professor Dumbledore said…it’s been a good year. Nothing really bad’s happened…I mean they caught a few of his…you know…and that Ministry worker got killed…but he’s not murdering anyone or anything!”
“Not that we know of,” said James darkly. “Who knows what he’s up to…?”
“You mean he’s been doing things in secret?” said Neala as they climbed the stairs. “How?”
“I don’t know,” said James “I’m not a dark wizard.”
The five of them walked along the corridor in silence and Lily thought over what Dumbledore had said…none of us can be certain of the future… hold on to those you love… did that mean that the people she loved were at risk?
They approached the portrait hole and, after Peter had said the password, it swung open and they entered.
All thoughts of dark wizards and murder flew out of Lily’s head as they were greeted by a wave of celebration. The common room walls had been decked with banners that were enchanted to look like they were standing in a large garden. Looking around, Lily could see a fountain with sparkling water shooting out of the top, trees whose leaves swayed in the warm breeze coming through the windows and real butterflies that flew in and out of the hangings. Lily put out her hand to touch one of the walls and had almost expected to fall straight through into the garden but her fingertips only brushed the canvas. The ceiling was covered in magical balloons that were a pearly blue colour and seemed to glow, casting a pale light over the Gryffindors below them. Tables had been set up around the room bearing various items of food and drink and faint music was coming from some sort of gramophone in the corner. She laughed incredulously.
“This is amazing!” she exclaimed, turning round to face the others who were all gazing around the room. “Who did it?”
“That would be me,” said Sirius from behind her. Neala squealed and, rushing forwards, flung her arms around his neck. He kissed her on the cheek and grinned. “Did I miss anything at the feast?”
The memory of Dumbledore’s speech returned to Lily and she saw that the others looked uneasy too.
“Nope,” said James quickly. “Nothing at all…anyway, this place looks great!” He clapped his friend on the back.
“Yeah, it took me bloody ages,” said Sirius, sweeping his hair back. “I couldn’t get the butterflies to go back through the banners…they kept flying into the walls and killing themselves.”
At that point someone shouted something and turned up the music. The people in the centre of the room began to dance as an upbeat song came on and Sirius and Neala bounced off to join them.
*
James sat on the step and watched her and Remus talking animatedly by one of the tables. The party was quieter now as some of the younger ones had gone to bed but there was still a large crowd of people dancing away. He sighed and ran a hand through his hair. The summer was going to be long.
“Hey,” said Neala quietly, appearing next to him. “Can I sit?”
“Sure,” he said and patted the step next to him. She sat down and giggled.
“It’s been fun tonight,” she said, smiling.
“Mmm,” said James, still watching Lily.
“Or not…” Neala said as she followed his gaze. A look of understanding dawned on her face but quickly turned to concern. “James, you’re gonna be miserable for the rest of your life if you don’t forget about her you know…”
He looked down at Neala.
“I can’t, Nell,” he said miserably. “There’s something about her.” Lily was laughing at something Remus had said and James suddenly felt jealous.
“Wait…” he said as a thought crossed his mind. “She doesn’t like Moony does she?”
“What?!” shrieked Neala. “Come on…that’s like...do you like me, James?”
James was taken aback by this question.
“Well, yeah, but not like that, just as a““
“Exactly,” she said. “Just as a friend.”
They sat in silence for a moment until a slow song filled the room. Sirius made his way through the crowd and came over to them looking sincere.
“Neala, would you care to dance?” he said, bowing to her. She smiled.
“How could I resist?” she said, as he pulled her to her feet and they made their way into the middle of the room.
James was left alone on the step listening to the slow music. He watched Remus and Lily hug and she kissed him on the cheek before he walked away from her and made his way up to the boy’s dormitories. Lily turned towards the table.
She was alone. So was he. James stood up and, running a hand through his hair, made his way over to her.
“Hi,” he said quietly.
She turned around and saw him.
“Hi,” she replied. They looked at each other for a moment. “Good party.”
“Yeah,” said James, distracted by her face which, to him, had never looked more beautiful. She looked back expectantly, as though waiting for something. He smiled at her. This was his chance…
“Lily…” he said quietly. “There’s something that I want to say…”
“Yes?” she said, patiently.
“I know in the past I’ve been stupid and I’ve done things that …well, that I shouldn’t have done…”
He paused as she continued to watch him.
“But… after what Professor Dumbledore said today…about…holding on to those you love…and about letting them keep you strong…I wanted to…well…Lily…”
He took a deep breath.
“Without you I’m not strong…without you I’m nothing…”
She looked at him for a moment.
“Do you mean that?” she whispered.
“Yes,” said James, staring deep into her eyes. “I mean that.”
She reached up and put her arms around his neck. He didn’t look away from those emerald eyes as he slid his hands around her waist. As they kissed, the world around James dissolved…
AN: So here it is...I had to edit it slightly to get it accepted but just yell if you want to see the original version. I hope you liked reading it as much as i liked writing it. Livs xx
AN AGAIN: Ok so if you want to see the original then it is on HPFF under the name of Livs...I suggest you read both then you can tell me which one you like most. That would be cool. All my love xxLivsxx
Final Kisses by There you are Peter
“Oh my god!” shrieked Neala. “We have ten minutes!”
Lily opened her bleary eyes slightly and saw her friend frantically rip back the covers. Neala leapt out of bed and rushed into the bathroom, picking up clothes and calling out to Lily as she went.
“Lily,” she shouted. “We have ten minutes to finish packing and get to breakfast. Now would be a really good time to get up.”
Lily smiled and sat up.
“Yeah,” she croaked, groggily. “I’m awake.”
She put a hand to her hair and groaned inwardly as she remembered the late night. Then she grinned as she remembered why it had been late and swung her legs out of bed. She glanced in the mirror next to her bed and groaned again at the sight of herself. Neala skidded out of the bathroom as Lily picked up her hairbrush.
“Have you seen the top I was wearing last night?” she asked, as she searched through a pile of discarded clothes at the foot of her bed. Lily paused from attacking her hair and glanced down.
“Oh yeah,” she said, going back to brushing. “It’s right here.” She nudged it with her foot.
Neala ran over to where she was standing and picked up her top, brushing it down and folding it as she hurried back over to her trunk. Lily yawned.
“Well,” said Neala, pausing in her packing and turning to Lily, hands on her hips. “Someone was up late.”
Lily carried on brushing her hair whilst watching her friend in the mirror.
“Oh, go on!” said Neala. “What happened?!”
Lily said nothing.
“It wasn’t James?!”
“Neala,” she said, putting down her brush, calmly, and walking away to get dressed. “We’re going to be late if you don’t hurry up.”
Neala squealed and hurried off to keep packing.
*
“You two took your time,” said Sirius, smiling, as the girls settled themselves on the benches at the table. “You are looking delightful, Neala.”
Neala giggled and reached across him for the cornflakes. James grinned as Lily sat down next to him and elbowed his side gently to make him slide up the bench so that there was room for her.
“Sleep well?” he asked, as he poured himself some orange juice.
“Mm,” said Lily, buttering a slice of toast. “Bit tired…”
“And why is that, Lily?” said Sirius, leaning towards her. “What could you possibly have been doing last night?”
Lily looked at James.
“I didn’t tell him!” he said, at once, hands raised in defense. “He saw us!”
Lily took a bite of toast and didn’t answer Sirius, who was now laughing at the pair of them.
“Anyway,” said James, calmly. “The party was good.”
“Yeah, you seemed to be having fun,” said Sirius, starting to laugh again. Neala giggled again.
“That’s what I heard, too,” she said, grinning. “Apparently, there was a lot of…friendliness going on.”
Lily glared at her but said nothing.
“Well, I was in bed,” said Remus, from over the top of the newspaper. “But I think I can guess what everyone’s talking about.”
“What?” squeaked Peter, from Remus’ left. “What’s everyone talking about?”
They all stared at him. Sirius, sighing exasperatedly, decided to ignore him.
“Well, does this mean you two are going out?” he said, eagerly, almost putting his elbow in the butter as he leant forward.
James looked down at Lily, who had been quietly eating her toast throughout the conversation. They hadn’t got round to much talking last night so he didn’t actually know the answer to Sirius’ question. After a moment, Lily swallowed.
“Sirius,” she said. “I would appreciate if you didn’t discuss my love life before I have. It’s very unnerving.”
James laughed. At least that meant she was planning on talking about it.
“Anyway,” he said, stretching happily. “What are we going to do for the summer?”
“What do you mean?” asked Neala, pausing from eating her cornflakes and looking at him.
“Well, we have to have a thing,” said James, looking round at them all. “A gathering of some sort.”
“A PARTY!” yelled Sirius. Several first years sitting near them stared at him.
“Yeah,” said James, sarcastically. “A party with six people...”
“Well, a party sounds better than ‘a gathering of some sort’,” said Sirius, haughtily. “You sound like Moony.”
Remus didn’t stop reading the paper but James saw a smile flicker across his face.
“Fine,” said James. “When?”
“As soon as possible,” said Sirius, quickly. “You can’t leave me with my parents for more than a week or I’ll die.”
“Um,” said Neala, putting down her spoon. “I’m away for the rest of July. We’re going to visit my Great Aunt Hettie in Florence.”
“Wow,” muttered Sirius. “She sounds fun…”
“Shut up,” said Neala, playfully. “She is, actually. She has this little Crup called Alfie and he-”
“Sounds lovely, Neala,” said Sirius, waving at her distractedly. “Back to the party.”
“Well,” James said, as Neala flicked a spoonful of cornflakes into Sirius’ lap. “What about the first weekend of August?”
He looked round at them and they all nodded apart from Sirius who was now standing up and trying to clean his robes. The rest of breakfast was filled with talks of what they could do on that distant weekend.
*
“Find a carriage,” shrieked Professor McGonagall, wafting students absent-mindedly towards the train. “Hurry up, hurry up.”
The Marauders, Lily and Neala all piled onto the scarlet Hogwarts Express, which was sparkling in the sunlight as it stood at the small Hogsmeade station. They dragged their trunks down the train, searching for an empty compartment.
“Nope…nope…nope,” said Sirius, looking left and right. At the next carriage, he suddenly stopped, causing a domino effect behind him. Neala hadn’t stopped in time and walked into Sirius’ back. James had tripped over her stationary trunk, causing Lily to fall on top of him and kick Remus who dropped his luggage onto Peter’s foot who fell over backwards. Only Sirius remained standing. He turned round and saw them all lying on the floor.
“Um,” he said, slowly. “What are you all doing on the floor?”
James was helping up Lily and Neala who had each taken one of his hands while the others got up and smoothed down their robes.
“Just fancied a rest,” he said, sarcastically. “Why did you stop?”
“Well,” said Sirius, a smile creeping over his face. “I’ve found an empty carriage…almost empty, that is.”
He slid open the door and stepped in, allowing them all to follow him. Sitting next to the window was a skinny boy with long, black, greasy hair. He looked up when they walked and Lily recognised him as Severus Snape, a Slytherin boy in their year.
“Well, well, well,” said Sirius, putting down his trunk. “If it isn’t Snivellus. Having fun, Snivelly?”
Snape glared at him through black, beady eyes.
“What do you want?” he said, quickly, his oily voice matching his personality.
“This compartment,” Sirius said politely. “So if you wouldn’t mind leaving…I hear the corridor floor’s comfy nowadays.” He looked round at them all, grinning. Snape didn’t move.
“Oi,” said Sirius, smile gone. “If you don’t move, James will jinx you. Won’t you, Padfoot?”
Lily looked at James. He was standing between her and Sirius, hesitating, wand still safely inside his robes.
“Come on, James!” said Sirius, eagerly. “One for the road!”
James took a step forwards but Lily grabbed his arm, holding him back.
“Don’t,” she whispered, looking up into his brown eyes.
Sirius didn’t seem to have noticed her doing this as he was too busy glaring at Snape and apparently deciding what spell to cast on him. James was staring down at her and she felt the familiar urge to smooth down his hair rising up somewhere inside her. Suddenly, James turned back towards Sirius and Snape.
“Get out,” he said. “Or I’ll make you.”
Snape didn’t move.
“Move,” said James through gritted teeth.
Lily felt a sinking feeling in her stomach; she thought he’d changed from the stupid sixteen year old who hexed people just because he could. She glanced at Snape and was about to suggest finding another carriage when Lily saw his eyes flare. He looked back at James.
“What are you doing with that Mudblood, Potter?”
The room froze. Lily felt Remus’ hand on the small of her back.
“What did you just say?” said James, advancing on him, wand now out and ready.
“Don’t bother,” muttered Lily, urgently. “He’s not worth it.”
James was now a foot away from him, breathing hard. Snape was smiling maliciously.
“Well?” he said. “Are you going to do what it says?”
James pointed his wand at Snape’s chest. His hand was shaking.
“Get...out.”
Snape smirked and stood up; he was much shorter than James. He pulled his trunk down from the luggage holder and edged his way past them all to get the door. As he passed Lily, he looked into her eyes.
“Have a good summer…Mudblood.”
James and Sirius shouted, in no uncertain terms, for him to shut up and get out and Remus pushed him roughly out of the compartment door and slammed it behind him. Lily sighed and dragged her trunk into the centre of the small room.
“Why, Lily, why?” said Sirius, putting his wand back into his robes.
“It’s what he wants,” she said, feeling slightly annoyed and tucking her hair behind her ear before settling herself where Snape had just been sitting. “He knows he can’t get into trouble for saying things like that but he knows that he can get you lot into trouble for jinxing him. What’s the point?” James looked at her guiltily. “Do you see where I’m coming from? It’s a waste of time.”
“But,” said Sirius, sitting down opposite her and looking completely bewildered. “But…you heard what he called you…how can you just…let him go?”
Lily didn’t answer. The rest of the group began stowing their luggage away and taking seats in the compartment. James hesitated before sitting down. Lily looked up at him and saw his questioning expression. She was still feeling slightly bristled but shrugged and he took a seat next to her. She felt something flicker in her stomach and her annoyance slipped suddenly away. He looked down at her and grinned apologetically; she knew he had felt something too. It felt strange, not hating James. Strange, but good.
“I don’t really want to go home,” said Neala, placing herself next to Sirius. He put his arm round her and she leant against him.
“It’s all right for you,” he said, darkly. “You don’t have a family full of Dark Art worshippers and people who cut off the heads of house elves and think all Muggle- borns are the scum of the earth and collect implements of torture and would probably use them if they got half the chance…”
There was silence as the train pulled away from the station.
“Are they really that bad?” said Neala, twisting to look at him.
“Yes,” said Sirius, who quickly broke her gaze and stared out of the window at the now speeding countryside. Neala knew not to push it any further.
“Well,” said Lily, trying to fill an awkward silence. “I have my lovely sister to look forward to…”
Neala laughed.
“I remember you telling me about the time when she thought that you could set fire to her with one look,” she said, grinning.
“Yeah,” said Lily, smirking. “Wish I could…”
The girls continued to chatter, with James occasionally chipping in and Peter listening. Remus read and Sirius stared quietly out of the window until the food trolley arrived.
“Want anything?” said James, nudging Lily.
“No, I’m all right, thanks.”
James and the rest of the boys stood up to purchase their lunch and Neala took the opportunity to interrogate Lily.
“Tell me exactly what happened!” she said, leaning forwards.
“I don’t want to talk about it,” said Lily. “We haven’t even been able to talk about it ourselves yet and-”
“But you did kiss?” Neala hissed. At that moment James turned around and returned to his seat. Neala sat back, glaring at Lily.
*
James pushed his robes into his trunk and shut it as the train pulled into platform nine and three quarters. He turned round and saw that Lily had just done the same. He caught his breath as he saw her in Muggle clothing rather than robes. Her red hair fell elegantly onto her shoulders and looked perfect against the green sweater that showed of her figure beautifully. She looked up at him and he quickly turned away to drag his trunk out of the compartment.
The students tumbled out of the train, calling goodbyes to people around them and craning their necks to see their families. Lily dropped her trunk next to James and waved at the woman and young girl, both with brown hair, who were standing a little further down the platform.
“Is that Petunia?” asked James, nodding his head in the browned hair girl’s direction.
“Mmm,” said Lily, quietly. James could tell that she wasn’t looking forward to going home. In fact, he thought as he looked round at his friends, no one seemed to be that happy. Neala had her arms around Sirius’ neck who was muttering in her ear. Peter was sitting on his trunk, dejectedly waiting for someone to come and pick him up. Lupin was hovering near James, obviously wanting to say goodbye to Lily.
“Think Remus wants you,” he said, looking over Lily’s shoulder at his friend.
“Oh,” she said and slowly walked over to him. James watched him put down his trunk and take Lily’s hands. He said something and Lily laughed, head back, before kissing him on the cheek and swiftly hugging him.
“See you lot in August,” called Remus. They all called out farewells as he walked down the platform to meet a tall man with a beard who looked exactly like an older version of Remus. Lily returned to stand in front of James.
“I guess I should go too,” she said, looking at the ground. James nodded. They stood in awkward silence, both nervously examining their shoes. James felt, rather than saw, Lily look up at him.
“Oh,” she said, after a moment. “This is stupid.”
She put her soft hands to his face and stood on tiptoe to kiss him. He snaked his arms around her waist and pulled her closer so that he could feel her body against his. Somewhere, he heard Sirius wolf whistle. Slowly, she pulled away from him, looking flushed.
“I hope your mum didn’t see that,” he said, smiling. Lily laughed and looked up at him with those eyes. Suddenly, she reached out a hand and put it to his head in an attempt to flatten his hair.
“You don’t know how long I’ve wanted to do that,” she whispered. “Bye, Potter.”
“Bye, Evans.”
After kissing her quickly on the head, he let go of her and saw Neala rush up to her, looking delighted. Sirius approached him.
“Get in there, mate,” he said, punching him lightly on the arm.
“Shut up,” said James, grinning.
Lily, having said goodbye to Neala, picked up her trunk and, with one last look back at the group, walked down the platform with her mother and sister until she was out of sight.
Neala came up to James, smiling.
“Nice one,” she said, happily. “See you in August.”
They hugged and James looked away as she and Sirius shared a final kiss. They watched her blonde head bob away down the platform and James caught sight of his parents, talking to another wizard they must know through work.
“See you in a week, mate,” said James, turning to Sirius. “You need a lift home?”
“Nah,” said Sirius, shrugging. “I can walk.”
“All right. Don’t go evil while I’m away.”
Sirius laughed.
“I’ll try,” he said. “See you.”
With a wave in Peter’s direction, James picked up his trunk and made his way through the fast dispersing crowd to his parents.
“Hello, Son,” said his father, taking his trunk from him and ruffling James’ hair. “Good term?”
James grinned.
“Yeah, pretty good,” he replied. A flash of red caught his eye and he saw Lily turn the corner of the car park and out of sight.
AN: Woo! So I finally got round to putting this up.
It's so odd because my writing style now (I'm halfway through chapter 15) is so different and the characters are so much more real and I feel like I know them better so I really don't like this chapter any more. Lol. But, hey, it gets better.
Anyway, hope you liked it and please review. Thanks xxLivsxx
Summer Fires by There you are Peter
Author's Notes:
So, what with one thing and another (exams, my life changing, the mnff queue dying, summer holidays, raving bla bla bla) I haven'y updated for a while but now I'm ready get back on the bandwagon and get some more chapters up here. Currently working on chapter 21 and this is only chapter 8 so I feel a bit of a catch-up coming on...
Anyway, in this chapter, James and Lily are re-united for their summer weekend of fun with Neala and the Marauders...this one leads up to a lot of...drama, shall we say...
“You know what sucks?”
“What?”
“Not being able to do magic.”
“This is true.”
James and Sirius had flopped in the shade of the large, gnarled willow tree that stood at the bottom of the Potter’s garden. Encased behind the cool, green, leafy curtains, they were completely hidden from the view of anyone looking out of the house. They were also provided with the most relief they could get from the intense heat of the summer sun. Everything which had once been green was now turning slightly yellow as it dried and shrivelled under the sweltering rays; even the powerful cooling charm that Mrs Potter had placed over the house could keep out the stuffy air. For the two teenage boys, the days spent without magic and extra company were dragging by slowly.
“I actually can’t breathe,” said Sirius, lying on his back and keeping as still as possible in the long, dry grass that grew around the tree.
“Mm,” grunted James, who was trying to think of cold things to take his mind off the heat. “If only we could conjure up some snow or something…”
“Snow?” said Sirius, as though trying to remember what winter was like. “Remind me what that’s like again…”
“Boys?”
The voice of Mrs Potter drifted through the sheets of leaves, the only ones that seemed to still be alive as the tree stood right on the bank of a fairy-tale stream that flowed across the end of James’ garden and cut it off from the woods on the other side. James tilted his head and opened his eyes to see his mother’s face, framed by her long brown hair, poking through their barrier to the hot, outside world.
“I’ve brought you two some Pumpkin juice,” she said, emerging with a tray bearing to two tall glasses of orange liquid and ice.
“Oh, Mrs P,” said Sirius, lazily. “What a star…”
“That’s very kind of you to say, Sirius,” she said, smiling. Sirius had the useful ability to charm any woman, any age, though James wasn’t sure what he saw in his mum. “Are you two having fun?”
She wandered over to James and ruffled his hair affectionately.
“Mum. Stop it. Way too hot,” he said, shaking his head as though trying to rid himself of an irritating fly. “Seriously. Get off. TOO HOT!”
She chuckled.
“He always was grouchy in the sun,” she said, conversationally, to Sirius. “Even when he was a baby. We’ve got pictures of him sitting in the neighbour’s paddling pool in nothing but his little sun hat looking like he was under a cheering charm gone wrong!”
James groaned and closed his eyes again.
“He hasn’t changed a bit,” said Sirius, in his best motherly tone. Mrs Potter chortled appreciatively and turned to leave.
“Oh, Mrs P,” called Sirius after her retreating back. “You can ruffle my hair any time.”
Mrs Potter giggled girlishly and picked her way back through the hanging leaves, muttering something that sounded like ‘charming boy…too handsome for his good…witty, too…’
“Sirius,” said James.
“Yeah?”
“Don’t hit on my mum.”
*
Lily sighed for what felt like the hundredth as Petunia shot her yet another look of distaste; she’d been at it all holiday but Lily wasn’t going to be forced out of her own garden by her jealous sister, especially when the weather was so sweltering. It seemed to her that Petunia, despite being the eldest, felt that she had always been second place to Lily.
It might have been true “ Petunia was quiet and plain with mouse brown hair and a slightly pinched look whereas Lily’s large, green eyes, vividly red hair and matching personality had always attracted the most attention. Maybe if Petunia had tried harder to be happy and conversational, like Lily, then she would appear more appealing and the sisters would have been best of friends but she had resigned herself to stony silence in the presence of most people and if she did speak it would be about some terribly dull subject that no one wanted to hear about anyway.
Lily had always tried to get on with her as best she could but since she had been accepted into Hogwarts, Petunia had become spiteful and, at times, cruel about her sister’s ‘talents’ and over the years Lily’s temper had grown shorter and quicker. By now, on this hot summer afternoon, Lily’s patience was wearing very thin. Was it really too much to ask to sit in the garden and read?
From her deckchair under the tree, Lily saw Petunia shoot her yet another glare.
“Oh, give it a rest,” she said, hotly, as the bright sun filtered through the leaves around her. Petunia made a loud tutting sound and fixed a superior look upon her face as though she had no idea what Lily was talking about. “I’m not doing anything!”
“Neither am I,” said Petunia, crisply.
“Urgh! Why don’t you just-”
“Lily?”
The voice of the her mother drifted out of the kitchen window.
“What?!” called Lily, stroppily. The heat always made her more grouchy.
“Are you two arguing?”
“Well, no, but my darling sister seems to have a problem with my existence-”
“She’s sitting there,” called Petunia, shrilly. “Like she’s the greatest thing since sliced-”
“I’m just trying to sit outside!”
“Only because you want to threaten me!”
“Threaten you?! I’d be doing more than threatening you if I could! Just because I’m a-”
“GIRLS!”
Mrs Evans appeared at the kitchen door, apron over her floral summer dress, looking flustered.
“Would you PLEASE keep your voices down!” she hissed. “The whole neighbourhood does NOT need our family business broadcast through their gardens! Petunia, if you have a problem with Lily then you can go inside!”
“Why me?! Why can’t Lily-”
“Oh, shut up!” yelled Lily. “I’m going!”
She pushed herself out of her chair and felt the boling heat of the sun hit the back of her head as she walked out of the shade of the tree.
“Lily!” said her mother, sternly, as Lily passed her. “Stop making a scene-”
“Mum. I’m fed up with her-”
“Just stop it,” said Mrs Evans, sharply. “I’m fed up with you. This is my holiday too and I will not spend it trying to keep you two from killing each other.” She stopped suddenly and took a deep breath. Lily rolled her eyes as she saw he mother’s lips silently counting to ten. When she had finished, she looked at Lily seriously but tried to force a smile. “You have to see it from her point of view.”
Lily groaned. She had lost count of the times she had been told to look at things from the point of view of the boring, jealous, insecure girl that was her sister.
“Yeah,” said Lily moodily. “So I’ve heard.”
“Lily! How dare-”
“Look, Mum,” said Lily, angrily, brushing her hair out of her face. “She’s making my life miserable! The sooner I get out of here the better. I’m going to pack.”
*
“Oh, morning, love,” said Mrs Potter, as James wandered, bleary eyed, into the kitchen where Sirius and his mother were sitting at the table. “We were just having a chat about the girls.”
“Huh?” said James, grabbing a slice of toast from the rack on the sideboard. He tended to be a little slower in the morning.
“The girls “ Sirius says you’re quite enamoured with one of them.”
“Did he?” said James, grumpily. “That was nice of him…”
Mrs Potter made a clicking noise with her teeth and Sirius grinned proudly. James plonked himself down opposite his mother and began buttering his toast carelessly, spraying crumbs over the wooden table.
“What time is everyone arriving, James?” asked Mrs Potter, peering at the boys over her cup of tea.
“Uh,” said James. He rubbed his forehead.
“All four of them are arriving between two and half past,” said Sirius, brightly. Mrs Potter beamed at him.
“Oh, good. Well, I’ve set up one of the spare rooms for the girls and I thought-”
“Abigail, has the paper arrived?”
Mr Potter rushed into the kitchen, deep blue robes flapping wildly behind him.
“Oh, morning, boys,” he said, glancing at them. “I thought we had guests today?”
“Yes,” chirped Sirius. “All four of them are arriv-”
“Sorry, Sirius, no time to chat,” said Mr Potter, rushing round the room, apparently looking for something. “Has that cooling charm still not worked?”
“No, I tried again this morning but-”
“Has the paper still not arrived?!”
“No, I said-”
“Look, I’ve got to rush. There’s a meeting at nine with Benjamin Perkiss to increase security at “ oh, look! There’s the paper!”
Mr Potter hurried to the window and allowed the post owl to fly into the kitchen. It landed on Sirius’ plate and began hopping around in an attempt to get the jam off its feet.
“Oh, George,” said Mrs Potter, wearily. “Not on the table.”
“Sorry, sorry,” he gabbled. “Must dash.”
Tucking the paper under his arm, he skirted the table and took a pinch of the Floo powder that stood in a pot on the mantelpiece. He was about to fling it into the fire, when Mrs Potter let out a shriek.
“George! Your wand!”
She snatched it up from the table where he had left it when fetching the paper.
“Oh,” he said, looking dazed. “Thank you, dear.”
He briefly pecked her on the cheek before dropping the powder into the flames.
“Oh, that’s hot,” said Mr Potter, wincing. “Try and get that charm working, dear.”
“Yes, George,” said Mrs Potter, as the flames turned a brilliant, emerald green. “Oh, and take this for your lunch!” She thrust a banana into one of the pockets of his briefcase.
“Thanks, love. The Ministry of Magic,” said Mr Potter, stepping into the flames with his nose in the paper. James watched him spin for a moment before he vanished and the flames returned to their dull, hot, orange glow.
*
“Mum,” said Lily, as Mrs Evans wound down the blinds of the living room window. “Stop it.”
“Sorry, sorry,” she said, nervously, as she turned to face her daughter. “I just don’t really want any of the neighbours to see…well…what ever is going to happen…”
“Urgh, you’re as bad as Petunia,” muttered Lily. “Nothing bad is going to happen. This is just how they get around. Like a car…but a bit quicker…and without having to drive…and without having wheels…or fuel…or an engine…ok, so it’s nothing like a car but it’s not dangerous or anything…”
“I’m just a bit worried about…”
Her mother paused and dropped her voice.
“About people appearing in my fireplace-“
“Oh yeah!” said Lily. “The fire!”
James’ father was fairly influential at the Ministry, although his job remained a mystery to her, and he had managed to arrange a temporary connection to the Floo network from Lily’s home. She got down on her knees and felt along the side of the metal grill to find the switch that would turn on their pathetic, electric fire. Lily now fully appreciated why wizards couldn’t understand Muggle methods.
“Oh, Lily, really,” said Mrs Potter, as the small orange flames sputtered into life. “It’s August…”
“Sorry, Mum, but-”
Lily fell backwards as the flames suddenly turned bright, vivid green. Mrs Evans let out a gasp and collapsed into the nearest armchair, her hands gripping the arms tightly. Lily scrabbled across the floor as the revolving figure of Neala, blonde hair fanning out around her, appeared in the fireplace. As she stepped into the room, Lily got to her feet.
“Neala!”
She rushed forwards and flung her arms around her friend, who grinned and returned the greeting.
“Oh, you’re so brown!” said Lily, eyeing her friend enviously.
“Thanks. Turns out Great Aunt Hettie’s wasn’t so bad after all. Oh, and the ice cream there! It was to die for, Lily!”
“Well, at least one of has a good time…it’s been so hot here and-”
The flames turned green again and Lily, looking around her best friend, saw the figure of a small, blonde boy step onto the rug. He looked remarkably like the girl standing before her but shorter and with little curls that covered his whole head.
“Oh yeah,” said Neala, looking round at the boy miserably. “Mum told me to bring him…apparently, I’m not capable of getting here alone…”
“Right,” said Lily. She stepped around Neala and crouched down in front of the small boy. “Hello. You must be Elliot,” she said, smiling. “Neala’s told me all about you.”
The boy sniffed.
“Urgh, don’t tell me you think he’s cute,” said Neala, sounding disgusted.
“Are you a Muggle?” said Elliot, abruptly. He was staring round the room.
“Elliot, don’t be rude!” hissed Neala.
“Um, well, no,” said Lily, who was taken aback at this. “Strictly speaking, I’m only Muggleborn-”
“Have you got a wand?” he said, sniffing again.
“Um,” said Lily, glancing at Neala. “Yeah, I’m a witch-”
“Lily?”
Lily span round and saw her mother, now standing timidly in front of one of the windows.
“Oh yeah,” she said, looking back at the siblings. “Mum “ this is Neala…oh and um…her brother…Elliot.”
Elliot ignored this introduction and made his way over to television, proceeding to press all the buttons dotted around the screen.
“Elliot,” hissed Neala. “Stop it!”
The young boy looked up at her, scowled, and stomped back over to the fireplace, looking disgruntled. They all stood awkwardly in the hot, stuffy room. Lily was aware, for the first time, how uncomfortable her mother must feel. When she first arrived at Hogwarts, Lily felt as though she belonged, even though everyone else seemed to know every single detail of the magical world and she knew nothing. Her mother, not having a single magical bone in her body, must feel completely out of place.
“Well,” said Lily. “I suppose we should get going…”
“Yeah,” Neala agreed. “I should probably send the monkey-boy home.” She jerked her thumb in Elliot’s direction. “Come on, get in the fire…”
While Neala busied herself at the fireplace, Lily turned to her mother.
“See?” she muttered. “Wasn’t that bad, was it?”
Her mother laughed weakly.
“So,” said Mrs Evans, brushing Lily’s shoulder with her hand. “You’ll be back on Monday afternoon?”
“Yes.”
“And you’ll be getting home by…fire travel?”
Lily laughed.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m coming home by Floo.”
“Right,” her mother said, frowning. “Well, uh, be good and take care…and have fun.”
“Ready, Lily?” said a voice from behind her. Lily turned round and saw Neala standing by the emerald green flames.
“Bye, Mum,” said Lily, quickly. “See you on Monday.”
Lily walked over to the fireplace and smiled at her friend.
“Let’s go.”
*
The four boys sat around the table, each drinking Pumpkin juice in a desperate attempt to cool down. The sun, streaming through the open windows, was illuminating the golden specs of dust that floated around James’ head.
“I’m dying,” said Sirius, suddenly. “This summer is killing me. I am going to die.”
“Happens to us all one day,” said Remus, leaning back in his chair, eyes shut.
“Can’t we turn the fire off?” asked Peter, whose round face was shining with sweat.
“Nope,” said James, simply. “We need to wait for the girls.” He ran a hand through his hair, took a sip of juice and then lowered his head onto the table. “It’s too HOT!”
They sat in sticky silence, each of them occasionally lifting a glass to their lips. James could hear his mother singing somewhere upstairs. He was slightly nervous about seeing Lily again. What if she’d changed her mind and still hated him? They hadn’t really said much in their letters apart from what they’d been up to. Plus, James had found it far too hot to think of anything worth saying to her. He opened his eyes slightly and blinked as he saw a bright green glow falling on the floor to his right.
He looked up. There was a brief moment when he saw a figure with a blonde halo spinning in the fire before that same figure had leapt over the hearth and flung her arms around his best friend, knocking his a glass of pumpkin juice to the floor. Neala and Sirius were locked in a tight embrace when he saw her; a flash of red revolving above the emerald flames.
She stepped out of the fire, hair beautifully ruffled, looking completely perfect. He stood up and walked towards her, grinning. Even if she’d changed her mind, he certainly hadn’t.
“Hello,” she said, smiling.
“Hey.”
“So, how are you?” she said, tossing her hair out of her face. “Summer been go-”
James put a hand around her waist and pulled her closer.
“Shut up, Evans.”
One Perfect Day by There you are Peter
Author's Notes:
Ok, so third time lucky with getting this chapter up. It's been a while, I know...
So the Marauders, Lily and Neala are all reunited at James' in the height of a summer drought. Everything's perfect and thing couldn't get any better. But then, the discovery of a dark secret hints at everything, I mean, everything, that's to come. Little do they know that they just heard the first about the very thing that will kill them...
“He’s definitely got more good looking,” said Neala, dreamily, as she flopped backwards onto Lily’s bed. “I didn’t think that was humanly possible!”
“Neala,” said Lily, seriously, as she neatly folded the last of her clothes into the drawer which seemed to emit a delicate lavender fragrance every time she opened it. “It’s been less than a month.”
“I know, but…” she sighed, happily. “This weekend is going to be so much fun!”
“I hope it doesn’t rain…” Lily remarked, absent-mindedly, and nudged her suitcase under the bed.
“It won’t rain! There’s a drought on, in case you hadn’t noticed,” said Neala. “And anyway, if it rains we’ll get to spend all our time in this house. It’s really nice, isn’t it?”
“Mm,” replied Lily, joining her on the bed.
“It’s sort of posh but homely…”
Neala traced the pattern on the bedstead with her finger.
“Well, it’s nicer than mine,” said Lily. She crossed the room to the large window, framed by long drapes. Looking out, she could a long, gently sloping lawn, enclosed on all sides by an ivy covered wall and bordered by beds of various flowers, mainly roses. She didn’t know how far the garden stretched on for because the thick curtain of an old willow tree obscured any sight of the end and Lily liked the feeling that they were shut off from everyone else in their own little world.
Two, twisted apple trees, whose trunks were covered in moss, stood about halfway down the lawn and held, between them, a canvas hammock in which Sirius now lay. The other boys were grouped around him; James was trying to vacate the hammock by rocking it and causing his friend to grip the edges in order to prevent him from falling to the dry ground. Remus was leaning against a tree and laughing at them whilst Peter had collapsed on the lawn, his eyes closed and face red. Lily grinned.
“Come on,” she said, happily. “Let’s get outside.”
*
James was sitting on the bank of the stream beyond the willow tree at the end of the garden, his feet dangling in the cool water, listening to Lily and Remus’ arguing about the morality of memory charms; they’d been at it for about twenty minutes.
“Ok,” said Remus, wearily. “Look at this way: what’s more important? A Muggle not remembering five minutes of their life or our whole world being exposed?”
“That’s just stupid,” said Lily, who was standing in the stream, barefoot. “Our whole world would not get exposed. The point is, we don’t have the right to wipe someone’s memory-someone who is completely defenceless against magic, as well- just because they saw something we didn’t want them to!”
“But we have to! I mean, think how messed up the world-both worlds, that is “ would be if they knew-”
“If we didn’t want them to know then we should be more careful!”
“Yeah, but-”
“Don’t say ‘yeah ,but’. If you want to say ‘yeah, but’ you may as well say no.”
“Fine. No. We are careful but there are some occasions when they find us.”
“ They don’t do it on purpose! It’s not their fault!”
“I have nothing against Muggles, I was just sayin-”
“Guys,” said Sirius, lazily, from his blanket on the bank. “Shut up. It’s too hot to be arguing about…whatever it was you were arguing about…”
Remus and Lily both shot him a stern look.
“Oh, come on,” whined Sirius, propping himself up on his elbows. “I’m bored.”
No one answered him; Neala and James were involved in an amusing game of Wizard Chess with an ancient travel set that Neala had brought with her. It was so old that all the pieces groaned about various aches and pains every time they were made to move and the two friends found it much more interesting to try to push the pieces to their places, causing them to turn round and begin shouting insults about ‘lack of respect’ and ‘undignified behaviour’ at the players. Lily and Remus had called a ceasefire to their argument and returned to their previous activity of trying to build a minature dam in the stream. Peter was asleep on a rug under the willow tree.
Sirius sighed huffily.
“I want to DO something,” he called, trying, in vain, to attract some attention. They ignored him. “Let’s have a duelling tournament.”
“No magic,” muttered Remus, who was now holding a large stone in place while Lily tried to stick it there with home-mixed mud.
“I know, I know…”
He turned onto his front and lay, face down, on the tartan blanket. James poked a bishop in attempt to hurry the game along but it turned round and started shouting at him. Neala picked it up and stuffed it into her pocket where it could be still be heard protesting.
“That’s cheating,” said James, lazily, his head propped up on his hand.
“Well, he was being slow,” Neala responded, peering at the board whilst thinking on her next move.
“It’s not fair now, though.”
“Fine, take one of mine.”
James reached forward and took the queen who had lost one of her arms and was bent double, leaning on her sceptre.
“That’s not fair!” said Neala, trying to grab it pack off him. The queen protested weakly.
“You took my bishop!”
“He was a bishop! That’s my queen! I’ve only got one!”
“Yeah, and now I’ve only got one bishop!”
“Well, that’s not actually true seeing as I’m about to make my pawn take it.”
“Ok, give me back my bishop.”
“If you give me back my queen.”
“Fine, then.”
“Fine.”
James put out his hand, still holding the feebly struggling queen. Neala did the same, holding the bishop who was now red in the face from all his shouting.
“On three,” said James. “One, two, th-”
Neala had tried to grab the queen but James had been ready for this; he drew back his arm and, in her distraction, reached forward with the other hand for the bishop. Neala managed to hang onto it and they began fighting each other in an attempt to regain the pieces.
It was when James gave a sharp yank on Neala’s right hand that she fell forward, sending the chess board and all its pieces flying into the sparkling blue water of the stream below them. The board landed a little upstream of the dam and was quickly forced into it by the current, knocking it down. Lily hadn’t noticed this as she had been too preoccupied with the fact that she had been pelted with chess pieces which had splashed her unlike Remus who was staring at their ruined masterpiece.
“James!” yelled Lily.
“It wasn’t me! It was Neala’s fault! She fell on the board-”
“Because you were fighting with me!” interrupted Neala, waving her hands around wildly.
“Lily!” said Remus, reaching out for her arm.
“What?” she asked and spun around to see the crushed dam. “You broke our dam!”
“Uh oh,” said Sirius, who had been watching ever since he heard the splashing.
“It wasn’t me!” said James. He held up his hands only to receive a faceful of water. “Lily!”
“It was Remus!” she said, pointing to the boy next to her who was laughing hysterically. “But it was a good idea!”
She bent down and scooped up the water, flinging it towards James. It hit him in the shoulder, soaking through his t-shirt.
“Ok, you asked for it!”
He got to his feet.
“Neala! Back me up, here,” he said, offering her his hand. She took it, stood up, kicked off her shoes and together they scrambled down the bank and landed in the water.
“Ooh, it’s really warm!” said Neala, gazing down at it. “I thought it would be-”
But they never found out what she thought it would be because Sirius had also jumped in the stream, splashing Lily, and showering Neala with water.
“SIRIUS!”
“What?” he asked, innocently. Lily splashed him. “OI!”
“Well, you got me too! JAMES!”
James had splashed her, scooping up water in his empty pumpkin juice glass.
“Peter!” yelled Sirius, in the direction of the willow tree. A grunt told them that he was awake. “Bring us those empty glasses, would you? MOONY!”
Remus was laughing, water running down his arms. A moment later, the small, round figure of Peter appeared, looking flustered.
“Down here!” called Remus.
Peter looked down at them and began to clamber, awkwardly, down towards them. James glanced to his left; Neala and Lily had wandered further downstream, shrieking and giggling as they splashed each other. He grinned.
“I got two,” he said, stepping cautiously onto the stone nearest the bank, trying to avoid the water. “Is that en-”
It seemed to happen in slow motion “ Peter put out his foot to step onto the rock but, distracted by passing the glasses to Sirius, had misjudged the distance and slipped, crashing down into the water and spraying all of the boys with glittering droplets.
They erupted into fits of hysteria at the sight of Peter, sitting waist deep in the water, looking as though he’d just received the biggest shock of his life. James could barely breathe he was laughing so much and Remus had collapsed against the bank for support, tears now rolling down his cheeks. Sirius shook his head, sending yet more water over the friends. James looked over at Lily who was standing in the middle of the stream, one arm on Neala to keep her balance, water flowing around her bare ankles. At that moment, with her head tossed back so that her hair hung loosely across her shoulders, her emerald eyes glittering in the golden, evening sunlight and her face lit with laughter, James fully appreciated just how beautiful she was.
*
Lily had never felt happier as she walked up the lawn with her hand in James’, their fingers interlocked The afternoon had melted away into a warm, summer evening and everything was quiet except for the voices of her friends and the faint sound of the stream, tripping over stones.
The six teenagers were met by Mrs Potter halfway up the garden.
“Right,” she said, as they reached her. “Girls, you can go and get yourselves ready for supper. Boys, wash your hands and come and lay the table. Oh, and will one of you finish off the potato salad because I need to carve the chicken…”
They followed her into the house and the boys grudgingly trudged into the kitchen. James gave Lily’s hand a quick squeeze and smiled at her before letting go to follow his friends.
Neala, who was singing something quietly under her breath, began to climb the stairs, staring at the family photographs that lined the walls. Lily followed her. They reached the first landing and she turned right to go to the bedroom that they were sleeping in but soon became aware that Neala was not doing the same. Looking round, she saw Neala ambling down the corridor in the wrong direction.
“Neala, this one’s our room,” she said and opened the door.
“I know,” replied Neala, who had stopped and was now facing a dark green door with a round, golden handle. She reached out her hand.
“What are you doing?!” whispered Lily, casting a nervous glance at the stairs. She could hear the boys moving around in the hall.
“Exploring,” said Neala, shrugging, and she promptly opened the door and disappeared through it.
“Neala,” hissed Lily. She looked around quickly before closing the bedroom door and hurrying along the darkened corridor after her friend. “Neala, you can’t go in-”
Lily stopped abruptly as she looked around the room. They appeared to have found some sort of study; every possible surface was strewn with paper, files, folders, photographs and newspaper cuttings. One of the walls was completely covered with photographs of what looked like prisoners and various, oddly shaped artefacts lined the window sill. The desk in the far corner was almost buried under books and stacks of paper and the handsome, albeit slightly worn, leather chair, had been pushed away from it roughly as though the person sitting in it had left in a rush.
“Woah,” said Neala, staring around the room. She took a step further in but Lily, who was still standing in the doorway, quickly grabbed her arm.
“Neala, we really shouldn’t be in here,” she whispered, uncertainly.
“Oh, no one’s going to find out…hey, look…”
She pulled one of the pictures down off the wall.
“Neala,” hissed Lily, urgently. “Put that back right now!”
“No, look,” said Neala, quietly, her bright blue eyes scanning the few lines of information at the bottom of the photograph. “Look at the name here…”
She thrust the picture under Lily’s nose. Lily peered at it, the writing at the bottom was scrawled hastily but it was just clear enough to read the words: Bellatrix Black: wanted for the murder of two Muggles and one Ministry Auror “ July 4th
“What’s your point?” said Lily, passing it back to her.
“The name “ Black? Sirius? The way he always says his family are a bunch of Dark Art worshippers?” she whispered, flapping the photograph around. “Maybe he wasn’t exaggerating!”
“It’s possible…” said Lily, trying to get her round what Neala was suggesting. “But…those murders happened a month ago…why wouldn’t he have told us?”
“Would you tell us?” asked Neala. Lily couldn’t help but feel that Neala was being slightly melodramatic but it was odd all the same. “And what’s this doing in James’ dad’s study?”
Lily shook her head.
“I don’t know…”
She wandered towards the desk.
“Look at this…”
Lily had caught sight of a piece if paper with the words ‘Suspected Death Eaters “ August 1st’ written at the top.
“What are Death Eaters?” asked Neala, who had been reading over her shoulder.
“I’m not sure…” muttered Lily. “But they don’t sound very nice…”
Below the title was a list of names and various crimes they were accused of.
“That’s horrible,” murmured Neala. “Murder, use of Imperius curse, murder, murder, use of Cruciatus curse-”
“How come we’ve never heard about all this?” whispered Lily, staring awe struck at the paper. “Why hasn’t it been in the Prophet?”
“Maybe they don’t want to scare people. Or maybe…maybe “ well, it doesn’t look like they’ve caught many of these people, does it?” Neala waved her hands vaguely at the wall of photos. “They’re all wanted for something or other…”
“Maybe the Ministry doesn’t wanted to look bad…” said Lily, more to herself than to Neala.
A cry from downstairs made them jump. Lily dropped the paper and Neala hastened over to the wall to fix the photograph back up.
“Girls! Suppertime!”
“Quick,” said Neala, as Lily picked up the paper and placed it back on the desk.
The girls hurried out of the room and Neala quietly closed the door behind them. They didn’t say anything as they made their way downstairs because Mrs Potter was waiting for them at the bottom, absent mindedly clearing dust off the banister with her wand.
“Ah, good, you heard me,” she said, stowing her wand away and beckoning to them to follow her. “Now, we’re eating in the garden room seeing as it’s such a lovely evening.”
They followed her down the hall and she opened a door opposite the kitchen. Lily stepped into the large, white walled room and smiled; the French doors had been flung open so that the room was warm and airy, allowing the whit linen curtains to flutter lightly in the breeze. The boys, apart from James who was lighting the candles, were already sitting around the table, looking hungry. Neala pushed gently past Lily and skipped round the table to sit next to Sirius who kissed her on the cheek as she sat down.
James finished lighting the candles and walked over to Lily; taking her hand, he led her to the table and, smiling, pulled out her chair. Lily smiled back and sat down between him and Remus. She looked around at her friends, all of whom were chatting happily amongst themselves. James leant in towards her and whispered in her ear.
“You look beautiful.”
Lily laughed and looked into his hazel eyes. Everything she’d seen in that mysterious room went straight out of he mind; happiness seemed to flood her body all the way down to her fingertips. It all just seemed so perfect “ the weather, the setting, the company. She threw her arms around him.
“Thank you,” she whispered, snuggling into his neck.
“You’re welcome.”
*
James leant back in his chair, full of chicken, salad and home-made apple crumble, listening to the quiet voices of his friends around him. To his right sat Lily who was talking animatedly with Remus about something or other and Neala and Sirius, on the other side of the table, were trying to teach Peter how to balance a spoon on his nose.
The sky outside had now grown a deep, star strewn, navy blue and so the only real light was from the moon and the warm glow of the candles placed around the room. He looked at Lily; her pale face was illuminated and her eyes flickered like the flames as she folded her napkin, listening to Remus. After a while, the chatter died down and they sat there, each of them just enjoying the moment. James was about to suggest clearing the table when Neala began to speak.
“James,” she said, slowly. “What’s that room on the first floor?”
“What?” asked James, who had not been expected such a random question.
“That green door…the one at the end of the first floor corridor?”
“Oh, it’s my dad’s study,” he replied, reaching out to pick up Lily’s plate but noticing that the girls were exchanging odd looks. “Why?” he said, suspicion creeping into his voice.
“Oh, Lily and I were just wondering,” Neala said, trying to sound casual.
“What’s all this?” asked Sirius, sitting up straighter and yawning. He had been making moulds of his fingertips in the hot wax.
“Nothing,” said Lily, quickly.
“That means it is something.”
Sirius looked at her from across the table, eyes narrowed.
“No, really,” said Neala, looking slightly uncomfortable. “We just saw the door and wondered.”
“Nell, why-”
Before James could go any further, Mrs Potter burst in.
“It’s getting late, you lot,” she said and immediately began gathering up the plates. “You should really think about getting to bed soon.”
No one seemed to respond to this.
“Come on,” she said, briskly. “Up you get.”
“Ah, Mum,” replied James, lazily. “You have no power without Dad.”
Mrs Potter looked at her son disapprovingly.
“Where is Dad, anyway?” asked James, getting to his feet and stretching.
“Well, he’s not home yet,” she said while she picked up a fork that had fallen on the floor. “He must have been held up at work.”
With that, she pulled out her wand, flicked it in the direction of the plates and levitated them out of the room.
“Bed within the hour!” she called as she followed the floating crockery.
James turned back to his friends; Peter and Remus were talking quietly whilst Sirius and Neala had found another way to keep themselves amused. James looked for Lily and saw her standing just outside the French doors, looking up at the sky.
“Come and see the stars,” she called, gently.
As the others stood up to follow her, James walked around the edge of the table and stepped outside, stopping just behind her. He slipped his arms around her waist and squeezed her gently; she sighed and put her head back on his shoulder, looking at him for a moment and smiling before gazing back up at the sky.
“It just goes on and on, doesn’t it?” she whispered.
“Mm.”
He bent forward and kissed her lightly on the forehead, breathing in her familiar scent, and making her sigh again. Then, he looked up at the inky blue sky, dotted with white, twinkling lights; to him, it had never looked more beautiful.
The Moment Fate Had Been Waiting For by There you are Peter
Author's Notes:
James makes his first (or is it his final?) mistake and Lily can't take it any more. Has he ruined any chance or is this just a minor setback in their romance? It all comes out in this chapter...
(This is the PENULTIMATE chapter in Learning to Love which is so, SO exciting!)
Lily woke up in a bed that wasn’t her own. She didn’t immediately open her eyes but tried to remember where she was. After a few moments of waiting in darkness, the light outside pressing on her eyelids, she realised what was going on and smiled slightly before noticing that there was a scuffling, whispering noise outside the door. The creak of old hinges followed and she opened her eyes to see the summer sunlight filtering through the thin curtains and diluting the dimness in the room. Lily didn’t turn around to face the door and the source of the hushed voices that broke the silence in the room.
“I told you they wouldn’t be awake.”
“Nah, she’ll be happy to see me.”
“I wouldn’t be so sure…”
“Don’t wake them up!”
“Why not?”
“Lily’s going to kill you…”
Lily turned towards them slowly.
“Well, you’re lucky that Lily’s already awake,” she said, quietly.
The four boys were crowded in the doorway, peering into the room. James, whose hair was ruffled more than usual, was wearing a baggy, black Tornados t-shirt and tracksuit bottoms. He grinned sheepishly at her.
“Morning,” he said, happily, stepping nimbly over Neala, who was stirring on the mattress on the floor, and arriving at the edge of Lily’s bed. “Sleep well?”
“Yeah, not too bad,” she replied, rolling onto her back and stretching. “You?”
“Great,” he said. “Can I join you in there?”
Lily was taken aback. She eyed him warily.
“No,” said James, quickly, trying to ignore the sniggers from Sirius behind him, “I didn’t mean…not to…just to “ oh, shut up!” he said, as Sirius collapsed into hysterics in the doorway. “I only meant that it’s cold out here!”
Lily grinned.
“I know what you mean,” she said. “Get in…but no funny business.”
It was James’ turn to grin. He carefully peeled back the covers and slipped in next to her, depressing the mattress slightly. Lily could feel the comforting warmth of his body through the thin t-shirt as he raised his arm for her to move closer. She tentively rested her head on his chest and yawned.
Neala had woken up and was sitting up, rubbing her face and looking confused.
“Why is everyone in here?” she asked, groggily.
“We just wanted to wake you up with a greeting from your favourite people,” said Sirius, cheerfully. He flopped onto her legs, making her sit up suddenly and groan.
“Why couldn’t you have been the sensitive and romantic one?” she said, grouchily, putting her hand to her forehead. Sirius laughed.
“James? Sensitive and romantic?” he asked, smiling. “Nah, he just wants to get into Lily’s knickers…”
Lily felt James’ chest vibrate as he chuckled gently, his hand lightly stroking her hair. Remus stepped into the room, over Neala, and made his way over to the bed where he settled himself on Lily’s feet. Peter was still hovering in the doorway, looking anxious.
“Oi, Wormtail,” said Sirius, wriggling on Neala’s legs and making her squirm, “get in or get lost.”
Peter, who was wearing a pair of red, tartan pyjamas that were about six sizes too small, nervously shut the door, glancing out into the corridor as he did so. He edged his way over to the chair in the corner and perched, awkwardly, watching the others.
“So,” said Lily, shifting her head slightly so she could see James’ face, “what are we doing today?”
“Well, I thought that after breakfast we could go down to the village and see if there’s anything going on “”
“There won’t be,” interrupted Sirius, dully.
“I’m sure it’ll be great,” Neala said, punching him gently from her position of being propped up on her elbows.
“Don’t punch me!” he said, grabbing her hand.
“I’ll punch you if I want -”
“Oi, I said don’t punch me-”
“And I said, I’ll punch you if I-”
Before she could finish, Sirius began tickling her mercilessly, causing Neala to shriek loudly with laughter.
“Don’t get any ideas,” said Lily. James just squeezed her a little tighter and Lily’s insides glowed.
Neala was still thrashing around in her bed and screaming under Sirius’ playful attack. It was then that Mrs Potter’s head appeared round the door, already dressed. Her eyes fell upon the scene and widened in shock at the sight of Sirius sitting on top of Neala and her son in the same bed as Lily.
“Boys!” she shouted. “Get out of the girls’ room at once! What do you think you’re doing?!”
Sirius quickly got off Neala, looking as though he was trying to conceal a grin, and James, with a swift and subtle kiss on Lily’s head, carefully detached himself from the twisted sheets. They traipsed out, followed by Remus and Peter who had squeaked in distress when he had heard Mrs Potter’s horrified tones.
“Honestly, coming into the girls’ room in the morning and…invading! I don’t know…” she muttered, as the left the room. “Sorry, girls, breakfast will be in twenty minutes…”
The door swung shut and they heard James’ mother mumbling away and she wandered down the corridor. The girls glanced at each other and grinned.
*
“Pass the jam,” said Peter, thickly, spraying crumbs all over the table. Lily looked at him with disgust as James reached across the table for the jar. Remus was quietly chewing his toast and Neala had dived onto the floor after dropping her knife.
“Juice! Juice! Who wants the juice?!” called Sirius, trying to carry six glasses at once and successfully spilling a fair amount of orange juice over the table and the food upon it as he put them down. “Whoops! Sorry about that…”
There was a mad flurry of movement as the group lifted plates, napkins, glasses and cutlery out of the way of the seeping yellow liquid. Sirius tried to rectify the situation by wiping it up with a tea towel but only succeeded in covering the cloth with butter. Lily groaned, toast rack in one hand, and pushed Sirius back down into his chair, taking over. Mrs Potter entered the kitchen, the breakfast table was completely back in order.
“Morning, Mum,” said James, happily. He noticed that her makeup didn’t seem to have been removed since the previous night and she had dark shadows under her eyes. A few stray strands of hair were trailing down her neck, fallen from their pinned position. He glanced at his friends who were all happily and obliviously eating. “Are you all right?”
“Oh,” she said, surprised, “yes, yes…um…I’ve just been waiting for your dad…I think he must have been held up…at the office…”
“All night?” asked James, suspiciously.
“Yes…he works very hard…”she said, distractedly. “Look, love, don’t fret…get back to your breakfast…”
His mother wandered out of the kitchen, twisting her hands. James shrugged and focused on his breakfast, listening to Lily ask Sirius what there was in the village.
“Well,” he said, in mock contemplation, “there’s a post box…a few rocks…bit of a grass…old lady on a bicycle, if you’re lucky…”
At that moment, a sudden unfamiliar wave of heat hit the back of James’ neck. He turned swiftly in his seat to see the fireplace illuminated by brilliant green flames and the figure of a tall, thin man in deep blue robes that fanned out as he revolved on the hearth. Stepping quickly out of the fireplace, the individual looked around distractedly.
“Dad!” cried James.
“Abigail!” he called. “Abigail, has the paper arrived?!”
There was a loud shuffling somewhere outside in the hall and the door swung open.
“Oh, George!” gushed Mrs Potter, rushing in and showering her husband with kisses. “I was so worried! Where were you?! Why didn’t you send an owl?!” Her tone suddenly changed. “Yes, actually, why didn’t you send an owl?!” She reached up and swiftly hit him around the back of the head.
“Ouch, Abigail-”
“For all I know, you could have been dead and you didn’t think to tell me where-”
“Abigail,” interrupted Mr Potter, who was looking very place. “Have you seen the paper?!”
“The paper?! The paper?! What on earth would I want with the paper?!” she cried. “What I want is an explanation! Now, are you going to tell me what happened that cause you stay out all night without telling me where you were?!”
Mr Potter glanced around the room, looking surprised, as though he had only just noticed that the teenagers, who had all stopped eating, were there.
“In the drawing room,” he said, ushering his wife out of the kitchen as she muttered angrily.
The group was left sitting in confused and slightly awkward silence. Peter looking petrified and had frozen, his toast halfway to his mouth.
“Um,” said James, running a hand through his hair, “sorry about that…”
“James?” asked Lily, slowly. “What exactly is it that your dad does?” She glanced at Neala.
“Um,” said James, who had become aware of the stuffy summer air in the kitchen, tried to concentrate, “he works for the Ministry. Auror department, I think…”
“Oh,” said Lily. Neala coughed loudly.
“So it could have something to do with that Lord Voldemort?” she asked, glancing at Lily.
“Who?” asked James, still a little bemused. “That guy in the papers?”
“Yeah.”
“I, er, I don’t know. Why?”
“Oh, no reason. It’s just that Lily and I-”
“Wouldn’t anyone like more juice?” asked Lily, loudly, thrusting the jug into the centre of the table.
There was a pause. The only sound was Peter, who had gone back to his breakfast, eating his toast loudly. He didn’t seem to be aware that anything out of the ordinary had happened.
“Nell…” said James, slowly, “Lily…are you going to tell us what this big secret you’re obviously trying to hide is?”
“What secret?’ asked Lily, quickly, avoiding his gaze. “I don’t know about any secret. No more juice, anyone? Right, well if we’re all finished why don’t we go to the village?”
She pushed back her chair and took her plate over to the sink. James exchanged suspicious looks with the others but they followed her lead and were soon out in the hall, front door open, ready to leave. As they began to spill out into the drive there was a loud cough from Remus.
“Um,” he said, quietly, “I have a feeling we’ve forgotten something…” He jerked his head towards the kitchen door.
James doubled back and looked into the large room. Peter was still sitting at the table in the middle of the kitchen, finishing off the toast and jam, blissfully unaware that he was now alone.
“Oi,” said James, loudly. Peter jumped and stared around wildly, noticing that there was no longer anyone there. He looked up at James. “Now would be a good time for you to come with us seeing as we’re the only friends you’ve got…”
Peter laughed nervously and wiped his hands on his shorts.
“That wasn’t a joke.”
*
“And one of these…” said Neala, picking up a postcard of a green meadow with a solitary cow in the centre. “Oh, and these…” She had moved onto the magazine racks. “Hm, what’s this one about?” She thrust a pregnancy magazine under Lily’s nose.
“Um, that’s about giving birth,” she said, quietly, putting it back on the shelf for her. “And keep your voice down. The shopkeeper’s giving us funny looks.”
“Sorry,” whispered Neala, dramatically. “What about this one?”
“Cars,” said Lily, simply.
“Cars?!” said Neala, loudly, forgetting her attempt at being inconspicuous. “I’ve never seen the point of them when you can apparate. Or fly.”
“Shut. Up,” hissed Lily, through gritted teeth, but Neala had already moved onto a new magazine.
“This one?”
She was holding a thin magazine with a picture of a very voluptuous blonde on the front. She wasn’t wearing very much.
“Um, Neala,” said Lily, quickly, stuffing the magazine back onto the shelf, “I think that now would be a good time to pay…”
They left the small post office and were about to cross over the green to meet the boys when Neala let out an ‘ooh’ of interest. She was staring into the window of an old fashioned bicycle shop where the latest vehicles were displayed in the front. Lily sighed exasperatedly. She thought that taking Muggle Studies would have calmed Neala down but apparently there was nothing like witnessing the Muggle world first hand. She looked across the green for the boys and saw them standing next to a glass bus shelter but there were two more people than there should have been. She squinted in their direction and saw two girls, one blonde, one brunette, standing with the boys. James was leaning against the shelter and laughing, running a hand through his hair. Something in Lily’s stomach dropped a little. Don’t be stupid, she thought, he’s just talking and you’re just jealous. She took Neala’s arm and gently dragged her away from the bicycle shop window as they began to cross the green.
“Lily,” said Neala, excitedly, “can we ask James if he has any bi-cy-cles at his house?”
“Sure,” replied Lily, chewing her lip.
They reached the group and Lily let go of Neala, stepping forward slightly.
“Hi, guys,” she said, trying to sound casual.
“Oh, hey,” James said, looking a little taken aback to see her there. “Get what you needed?”
“Yeah,” she replied. There was a short silence while she waited to be introduced.
“Oh, sorry,” said James, quickly. “This is Elly and Becky.” He gestured to the girls who smiled coyly at her. “This is Lily.”
Lily nodded at them.
“Oh, and that’s Neala, Sirius’ girlfriend.”
Neala, who generally turned plenty of heads wherever she went and was far prettier than either of the Muggle girls, was gabbling to Sirius about the bicycle shop. He seemed perfectly happy to let them know that he was dating this girl unlike James who had managed to conceal the fact Lily had anything to do with him. He had returned to talking to the girls and Lily was left on the outside without another thought. Peter was slumped in the bus shelter, picking at his arm, and Remus was looking out over the village. She wandered past him.
“All right, Lil?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m great, thanks,” she answered, tossing her hair out of her face and folding her arms as she sat down next to Peter.
It was unbearably hot under the glass of the bus shelter but Lily sat there for ten minutes until James decided he was ready to leave. He sidled up to her.
“You ready to go home for lunch?” he asked, rolling his sleeves up.
“Yes, actually, I’ve been ready for ages,” she said, getting up and beginning to walk down the country lane. The others followed, ambling along in the early afternoon sunshine.
“Oh, you always get grouchy when you’re hungry,” said James, chuckling, moving towards her and trying to drape his arm over her shoulder. She shrugged him off. “See?”
“James, I’m not in the mood,” she muttered, stepping away from him. James sighed and fell back to walk with Sirius and Neala. Lily spent the rest of the walk staring at the dusty road beneath her feet and staying silent, not that anyone tried to talk to her; they were pretty good at recognising when something was wrong.
They arrived back at the house and Lily immediately busied herself with laying the table and preparing lunch, not joining in with the boys’ playful tea-towel fight and their lazy discussion over what to drink and what potato filling to have.
“What do you want, Lily?” called James from the other side of the kitchen.
“Oh, anything,” she replied, without looking at him. She did see, however, out of the corner of her eye, James shrug before turning back to pour a glass of pumpkin juice. When they sat down to lunch, she ate her jacket potato and didn’t contribute much to the aggravated discussion of Severus Snape and how much they would all like him to crawl away somewhere and die. Lily was aware that James was watching her, realising that she was, genuinely, upset. His eyes upon her made her feel stupid and naïve despite the fact that she normally revelled in being the object of his gaze. She knew that she was being pretty unreasonable but the fact that he had put his own image in front of her had not only made her angry but it had hurt her too. Maybe it was that she wasn’t used to him putting others, including himself, before her but in the village, when she’d been ignored and the two girls had received James’ attention, Lily had felt lost.
Once she had finished her lunch, she picked up her plate and put it next to the sink, excusing herself to go to the bathroom. The others barely registered what she said, far too involved in their rant about Snape and how much they loathed him.
As she left the kitchen, she heard the scrape of a chair followed by quick footsteps and the kitchen door swung open.
“Lily,” called James, finding her at the foot of the stairs, “what’s going on?”
“Oh,” she said, looking away, “I just don’t feel very well.” She began to climb the first few steps but James grabbed her arm and stopped her.
“No,” he said, seriously, “tell me what I’ve done.”
She sighed exasperatedly and pulled her arm out of his grasp, continuing up the stairs. He leapt after her, taking two steps for every one that she took.
“Lily,” he said again as she reached her bedroom door. “Lily, tell me.” He took her arm again.
“Fine. You want to know?”
“Yes!”
“Well, I didn’t really appreciate being completely ignored in front of those girls in the village.”
*
James looked at her, blankly. When did he ignore her?
“Um…I’m sorry?” he tried, tentatively.
She looked at him and he saw those green eyes flick with hurt and then anger. She opened the door to the bedroom and stormed in.
“Lily,” he said, quickly, dashing after her, “what-”
“I can’t work out who you are! One minute you’re everything and then…you completely blanked me for those girls!”
“Ok, look,” he said, slowly, ready to begin attempting to rectify the situation, “those girls “ we were just talking. It doesn’t mean anything-”
“Doesn’t mean anything?!” She was almost shouting now. “That’s exactly the problem! How do I know what means anything?! What about ‘without you I’m nothing’? Does that not mean anything?!”
“Lily, I told you that I meant that and I still do,” he said, looking into her eyes and trying to take her hand. She pulled back.
“How do I know?” she yelled. “How do I know if anything you’ve ever said is true?! I knew this would happen, I knew that you’d say anything-”
“Lily, no, it’s not like that, it’s-”
“SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP! EVERY TIME YOU OPEN YOUR MOUTH YOU START SPROUTING LIES AND SAYING THINGS THAT YOU DON’T EVEN MEAN AND I’M SICK OF IT, JAMES! TODAY, YOU TREATED ME LIKE I WAS SOMETHING YOU COULD JUST DISPOSE WHEN YOU FELT LIKE IT, WHEN IT SUITED YOU AND YOUR STUPID IMAGE! IF IT WERE TRUE, IF IT WERE ALL TRUE, THEN YOU’D NEVER HAVE DONE THAT, NEVER! IT’S ALL BEEN LIES, HASN’T IT?! AND DO YOU KNOW SOMETHING?! IT HURTS, JAMES. IT HURTS. I DON’T WANT IT ANY MORE. I GAVE YOU A CHANCE BUT YOU’RE STILL THE SAME ARROGANT, TWO FACED CONCEITED LIAR I MET IN FIRST YEAR AND I HATED YOU THEN AND I HATE YOU EVEN MORE BECAUSE YOU’VE JUST LIED AND LIED AND-”
Her voice broke. James didn’t want to see her cry, he didn’t want the hurt that she was shouting about to materialise in front of him along with his guilt.
“Just…just…just…”
Lily looked away from him; hair falling in front of her face like one of those heavy velvet theatre curtains. James ran a hand through his hair.
“Lily, I…I never lied…”
She drew a sharp breath and James saw something fall from behind that curtain. It dropped to the ground and made a tiny puddle on the bare floorboards. He stared at it.
That was the moment he understood how much he had hurt her. That was the moment he understood that he could never stand to see her like this again. That was the moment he understood that he would do anything, anything, to prevent her from ever feeling so much pain. That was the moment James Potter understood that he was in love with Lily Evans.
That was the moment fate had been waiting for.
A Boy with Black Hair by There you are Peter
Author's Notes:
So THIRD TIME LUCKY.
James and Lily deal with the aftermath of their revelations and some heavy realisations hit them...
James was sitting under the tree, staring into the stream. Everything in his world seemed distorted “ three hours ago, he was having the time of his life. Now, the person he cared about above anything else hated him and it was all his fault. Nothing seemed to make sense. He sat, watching the water, trying to get his head around everything.
His thoughts were disturbed when he realised he wasn’t alone.
“Hey,” said Neala, twisting her hand nervously. He looked at her bleakly. “They…uh…the others feel kind of um…well…they thought it would be better if I…uh…”
“Has she really gone?” he asked, quietly.
“Yeah,” muttered Neala. “About twenty minutes ago.”
She scuffed her toes in the dusty ground.
“James, are you all right?”
He stared into the stream. Neala sighed heavily and sat down next to him. James, who didn’t know if he wanted her there or not, continued to stare into the water.
“I don’t know what to say,” she said, eventually.
“How much did you hear?” asked James.
“Pretty much all that Lily said…well…all she was shouting…”
“Oh.”
“I, err, didn’t realise you two were so serious…”
James thought about this for a moment. Had he known how serious they were? No. It was like everybody said: you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone. Well, Lily was gone. For good. It was only now, now she’d been hurt, that James realised exactly how much he cared about her.
“I’m so stupid!” he yelled suddenly, throwing a stone violently into the running water. He dropped his head into his hands.
“James...” Neala said, quietly. “I don’t know…maybe…maybe when she’s had a chance to calm down?”
“Mm,” said James, but he knew she was wrong. They sat in silence for a moment.
“There’s something else…” she murmured. “I should probably leave too.”
James looked at her.
“Why?” he asked.
“Well…I just think…Lily might see it as kind of…traitorous…sorry…”
“Nell,” said James, running a hand through his hair. “It’s my problem not yours,” he said. “Just do what…whatever.”
“Well, it’s not long ‘til we’re back at school…and we’ll see each other every day then…”
“Urgh,” groaned James.
“What?”
“School…it’s not gonna be fun having to see her again…and you’ll be split…”
“Oh yeah,” said Neala, sounding depressed. “I hadn’t thought of that…”
There was a pause.
“Do you think,” said Neala, slowly. “do you think that if we hadn’t come here then none of this would have happened?”
James considered this.
“I don’t know,” he said, finally. “I don’t think I’d have realised-”
He stopped himself quickly. It wouldn’t have been a good move to let anyone know that he was in love…it might have been a good move to let Lily know that though. Idiot.
“Realised what?” asked Neala, turning to look at him.
“Realised that…err,” he said, desperately scrabbling for an answer. His eyes fell upon the rays of sun that were filtering through the trees. “Realised that friends distract you from the sun.”
Neala laughed and put her head on his shoulder. James felt the weight in his stomach lessen very slightly as he knew that there was still someone around who cared about him.
“Well,” she said. “That’s one good thing that’s come out of this weekend.”
James sat still and tried to contemplate his situation. No matter what the girl at his side said the facts were still the same: Lily hated him. Neala was leaving. It was hot. However, there was a small glimmer of hope for James. Seeing Lily would be hard, but then again, it wasn’t like they’d never argued before. Maybe going back to school was just him being given yet another chance, only this time, he was not going to mess it up.
Lily was the one. He couldn’t help wondering that if she had known that then she wouldn’t have left. It didn’t matter now anyway because James knew that no matter what happened from here on in, he would never give up until Lily knew that he loved her.
*
Lily, much to her mother’s surprise, arrived home a day earlier than planned. Petunia almost had a heart attack when Lily appeared in the fireplace while she was watching television. Without replying to her mother’s urgent questions or Petunia’s wild insults, she went straight up to the bathroom, locked the door, sat on the edge of the bath and burst into tears. Lily may have been strong but she was also human; her anger had fully dissipated leaving only self pity and a hollow feeling of loneliness. Going back to school and having to face him was going to be so hard, not just because everything would be awkward but because, despite the way he had treated her, Lily still had feelings for James.
“No,” whispered Lily to herself, wiping the tears from her cheeks. “No. You do not like him. You never did.”
She got up and walked to the sink to look in the mirror. Her eyes, unlike most people, did not go read and puffy when she cried but became extremely large. However, nobody knew this because Lily never let anyone see her cry. Apart from James. He’d seen her cry just half an hour ago. Damn.
She smoothed her hair slightly, gave her eyes one final wipe, sniffed and quietly crossed the landing to her bedroom. As she entered the room, she saw that Remus’ owl, Flamel, was perched on the ledge of the open window. She approached the handsome, brown bird who twitched his head when she stroked his back with one finger. She took the scroll of parchment that was attached to Flamel’s leg and, after the owl had flown off, sat down on her bed to read it. She unrolled it, recognising the familiar writing of Remus.
Dear Lils,
I wanted to talk to you but Neala said you weren’t really in the mood for company before you left, so I thought I’d give you something to read for when you arrived home. That is, if you’ve gone home .For all I know you could be wandering the streets but I reckon you’ve got more sense than that.
If you are at home and reading this then I hope you’re ok and not sitting in your room crying. Mind you, I’ve never seen you cry in all the years I’ve known you so that’s unlikely. If you are crying then please don’t because the thought of that makes me sad. Sirius suggested that I turn up at your house sometime but I reckon your mum would freak out a bit so I thought a letter would be better. Plus, sometimes you can’t say what you need to face to face.
Anyway, here’s the real reason I wrote: this is probably the last thing you want to hear right now but I think that you need to know: James really cares about you, Lily. He would never, ever hurt you intentionally. And I’m not saying this as an excuse, but he’s never had a girlfriend before. It’s not like he’s short of admirers though “ he could have been through the whole of Hogwarts by now. And he’s never given upon you, even when you’ve ignored him or yelled at him or even that one time when you slapped him. Surely that shows you how much you mean to him.
I haven’t spoken to him yet because he disappeared right after you said you were leaving. I think Neala’s gone to find him.
Lily, if there’s any way you two can make it up then do because when you two are together there is something about you. You just…click. Write back if you want to talk otherwise I’ll see you on the train “ I’ll be saving you a seat.
Your true friend,
Remus x
Lily sniffed again and tried to blink back the tears. It wasn’t because she was upset but because she was so touched that she had a friend who cared about her. He always knew what to say; that was why they had become friends. Lily was angry on their very first prefect duty because James had been following her around all day but somehow, Remus knew just how to distract her.
She re -read the last bit of the letter.
You both just…click.
What did that mean? That was another thing about Remus. Part of his charm was to be quiet and cryptic so Lily could never work out what he was really trying to tell her. Sometimes that was a good thing though because she could just trust that he was wise enough to know what he was on about and so therefore everything was ok but now it was not good…not good at all because she had to forget about James completely. Too much time had been wasted on him anyway. After folding up the piece of parchment and putting it on the bedside table, she got out her sketchbook and quickly lost herself in the detailed sketches of a girl with green eyes and a boy with black hair.
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