Chapter nine: The price of chivalry
"WHAT?!" James asked, his mouth agape.
Emily glared at him as hard as she could. Honestly! It wasn't as if she were asking for the moon. she wasn't even asking for the cloak really. She simply wanted to use it during the day. James wasn't putting it to any use then any way so what was the harm?
"No way. I'm not giving up this cloak for anyone!"
"I didn't say anything about giving it up did I? I just need to borrow it in order to..."
She had to find away to tie the cloak in to the lessons somehow. But how...
"...To track your progress. I'll have to be there for at least the first few days to make sure you don't make a complete fool of yourself." Yes, that made sense. Apparently it made sense to James too. He now looked as if he were deliberating the matter quite carefully.
"So, if I give you the cloak, you'll be there to...er...help me along. Not that I need it mind you," he added quickly.
Emily rolled her eyes.
"I'm sure you don't," she said facisiously
James appeared not to have heard her, apparently still deep in thought.
"And what if I refuse to give it to you?" he said throwing a cautious glance at the diary.
"Well, that depends. After all, Lily will be missing her diary, and she's going to begin looking for it somewhere, if that somewhere just happens to be here..." Emily gave James her favorite I've-won-and-you-know-it smile.
"All right, all right. You win," James said exasperatedly, throwing himself back into the chair.
"I know," Emily said with a light smile.
"So this means I'll have to be on my best behavior for the next few days, right?" James asked with a less-than-enthusiastic sigh.
"Right. You do remember what I've told you don't you?" It had been a while since the beginning of the lesson. She could only hope he wasn't as thick as he seemed to be...
"I think so," James said with his brow furrowed slightly. Oh come on, Emily thought to herself. He held the salvation of chivalry in his hands. He had to remember. "First of all, call her by her first name."
Good. One down.
"Second, be silently present, but not too demanding. Let her come to me."
That was two. Half-way there.
"Third...is this one really necessary?"
And he was doing so well.
"Of course it is! This rule goes down to the very roots of chivalry! It's possibly the most important of all!" Emily said in a very dignified voice. Rule number three had been her personal favorite.
"But what does being civil to my enemies have to do with Lily going out with me?"
Still a beginner, he didn't understand yet. So Emily explained it to him...again. (Honestly. You'd think after three repetitions he'd get it).
"I've told you chivalry is not a technique you can turn on and off whenever you wish. It has to become a way of life. Besides, you can bet that she'll be looking at how you're treating everyone else. It gives her an excuse not to like you if you start shooting your mouth off...or whatever it is you do."
Emily made the speech much quicker this time than she had at the beginning of the night. She could only hope that this time she'd drilled it in permanently.
"Well, it's not exactly as easy as it sounds. You don't know some of the people I have to deal with," James stood up from his chair and began pacing again.
"Every one has to live with people they don't particularly like. The point is not to let them get the better of you. If you sink to their level they've won."
Emily said though she felt silently guilty. Some where between theblack mail, the lectures, and the death glares (not to mention shoes) she'd thrown at Sirius in the three days she had been there, she couldn't help but feel that she wasn't exactly practicing what she preached. Still it was all in the name of chivalry and that was what was important, right?
"Oh, you just wait until you see the Slytherins. It's a bit hard to be civil to your enemies when they're hexing you with your back turned," James said with a cynical and almost twisted smile. She was really beginning to wonder about him.
"That may be, but the rule still applies."
James took in a long breath but flopped on the chair in clear defeat. "Now," Emily continued, "anything else?"
"Nope, that's it," James said quickly, a hopeful look on his face.
"Oh, no. You're not getting off that easily. Come on, number four," Emily said crossing her arms. If he was going to be a gentleman, he had to do it properly.
"GiveLily'sdiaryback," he muttered very quickly with his head down. "But wasn't the entire point of this lessons to get her to like me? She'll hate me if she finds out that I took it."
Emily rolled her eyes again. Like most boys, James didn't get it.
"First of all these lessons are for you to learn to behave in a chivalrous manner, if they're properly put into practice they should go much farther than getting you a date," Emily said indignently.
"And second. It's better to be honest from the beginning than to be caught latter and have to explain yourself."
James looked at Emily very hesitantly for a moment then, finally, he conceded.
"Allright. I'll find a way to give it back to her." Emily gave him a satisfied smile
"And I have a feeling that this chivalry thing is going to be more than I bargained for," James said cynically as he picked Lily's diary almost lovingly up from its place on Emily's bed.
"If all goes well, then it should," Emily said in a dignified voice. This experiment was going to work, even if it cost her her life (or something more valuable)
"So this means that for the next few days I not only have to be on my best behavior around Lilly but everyone else as well?"
"That's right," Emily said happily. He was catching on faster than she thought. She just might not have to give up her worthless life after all.
"Why do I get the feeling the others aren't going to like that?"
She knew that by the "others" he meant Sirius.
Remus would probably see James's new attitude as an improvement. And Peter would think that James was brilliant no matter what his outlook on life was. But Sirius was another matter entirely.
"'Evening ladies." Speak of the devil.