Someone You Didn’t know
Madam Pomfrey had felt that James was unfit to attend school that day, so he was left to entertain himself. The first thing he did was say “goodbye” to Lily as she left him to go to her first class.
“I’ll see you after classes, and if you’re lucky I might actually visit you during my spare period,” said Lily tiredly as she got up from her oak chair she had spent the night on.
James almost wanted to chuckle at how she had to struggle to come up with the word “visit” when addressing it toward him.
“I’ll bring your homework up too, seeing as we unfortunately have the same classes together,” she added sarcastically.
“Why thank you for being so nice, Miss Evans,” replied James innocently as he batted his eye lashes frantically.
Lily rolled her emerald eyes at him, and James knew that a cruel comeback comment was on the edge of her tongue, but instead she mustered a, “It’s the least I could do.”
As she grasped the brass knob of the door, she turned to gaze at James and started, “Uhh, Potter…”
“Don’t worry about it,” cut in James, reading her mind. “This will stay between you and me.”
She smiled awkwardly and gratefully at the same time and then left.
The second thing he did was glance around for anybody else present in the Hospital Wing. He noticed that there was not a single soul, other than Madam Pomfrey in her office, and he let out a sigh of relief. He felt, for the first time in a long while, that he wanted to be alone. Of course, some company every so often wouldn’t be a bad thing, but he felt that today would be a perfect time to relax and reflect.
Just as James was making a third thing to do on his mental “to do” list, the doors of the Hospital Wing flung open and two sixth year boys led by a tall, grey-eyed teen walked in. James glanced at them and smiled as he sat up with a grin.
“Prongs,” started Remus Lupin as he sat on the edge of James’s bed, “why are you always in here?”
“I think the better question is how many times have you been in here?” questioned Sirius with one sarcastic eye brow raised as he sat down on the oak chair Lily had been sleeping on.
Peter snickered at Sirius’s comment as he sat on the other side of James. “That is a very good question, which I think should be answered.”
James shrugged as he replied, “What can I say? Maybe I’m looking to go into nursing.”
The three boys laughed at his witty comment. They had to admit, James Potter was a ring leader for a reason.
“How did you guys find out?” asked James curiously just as the three stopped laughing.
“Well, Professor McGonagall told us,” stated Remus. “She came into our common room just as we were about to head down to the Great Hall for breakfast.”
“What did she tell you?” inquired James.
“She came running in and said that you got shot by a centaur’s arrow when you were looking for Fang,” replied Peter right before he yawned.
“You could have let me in on the fun. Then, you probably wouldn’t have been shot,” added Sirius smartly as he pushed his dark hair back.
“Right, I was looking for Fang,” James muttered dreamily.
“That is the truth, right?” asked Sirius with a suspecting edge in his tone, and the two other boys glanced at James momentarily with questioning faces.
“Of course! What bloody else would I be doing?” challenged James confidently as a smirk drew across his face.
What the bloody hell was I doing? pondered James after the three Marauders had left for last minute breakfast and their respective first classes.
James leaned back on his fluffy pillow as his eyes glazed over with thoughts. A silver breakfast tray (which used to hold a fruit salad, orange juice, and oatmeal) lay empty on the bed side table to the right of him. Madam Promfrey had opened a small crack of a window but not wide enough to catch a draft. A refreshing breeze managed to squeeze itself into the room and brush against James’s face. He patted his stomach comfortingly and let his head automatically roll back as his thoughts overcame him.
I went to Hogsmeade through the secret passageway on the third floor. I avoided Sirius. I remember that. I visited Madam Rosmerta! Oh, right! I got the butterbeers so I could…
“Mr. Potter?” came a voice, and his eyes dazedly came open from sleep.
“Huh?” said James in surprise as his eyes widened immediately from seeing Madam Pomfrey gazing down at him.
She raised an eye brow unimpressively before she replied, “Mr. Potter, I’m sorry to disturb you, but I’ll be away for a few minutes. A second year Gryffindor student thought it would be amusing to ride around on his broom and crash into the Whomping Willow.”
James tried to stifle a chuckle but failed.
“I’m glad somebody finds it amusing,” Madam Pomfrey stated sarcastically. “Anyways, I’ll be tending to him and bringing him up later. I just thought I should inform you.”
“Yes, ma’am,” answered James politely, and she hurried out of the Hospital Wing doors with winter coat, scarf, and first-aid kit in hand.
James sat still for a few seconds, making sure that Madam Pomfrey was out of ear shot. Once he confirmed this, he whipped back his sheets and walked over towards the window. Sure enough, there were a few professors, spectators, and Madam Pomfrey coming to tend to the second year. The kid seemed to be slightly squeamish as he glanced at the large gash on his leg.
James yawned and stretched. His arm was still a bit stiff, but it was not as painful as it was last night or this morning. Deciding he had nothing better to do, James was about to head back towards his bed when the side of his eye caught something. Turning, his hazel eyes fell on the edge of a small, black, upright piano squished neatly into the very right corner at the end of the room. It seemed to be hidden from every single person’s view by a small, pale blue coloured curtain pulled in front of it.
James walked over toward it and noticed that certain items such as a toppled piano chair, a few worn out boxes, and a small, tarnished desk were crammed in the corner with the piano as if a person hastily threw everything there in an attempt to do a fast clean-up. Glancing around, James made sure not a soul was in ear shot before he moved over the boxes and desk to the side. Grasping the chair, he flipped it over onto its proper side and sat down on it to notice that it wobbled dangerously from his weight. He blew to clear the dust from the dirty keys.
Placing his foot on the pedal and right hand on middle C, he moved his fingers up the piano from C to E, then G and C again until the end. Taking his hand off the piano momentarily, he sighed as he listened to the notes ring and echo off the walls. After a few brief moments, he played a small tune with his right hand, with which he paused at the end of the last note. Then, he added his left hand, and his right hand continued to play the melody.
The song held a sentimental tone as the left hand played cords at certain parts and the right hand continued on with the melancholy tune. The room filled with music, something it hadn’t experienced in a very long time, and James was immersed in the sound.
A piano. He hadn’t played on a piano for the longest time. Obviously, he had one at home (a grand piano), but he had not played on it for years. He had learnt on his own to play, for he had nothing else to do with his time before going to Hogwarts. None of the Marauders ever knew because he had never really cared or thought much about playing the piano once at Hogwarts. Many things had come up…
James continued to play as the number of notes on his left hand increased and the momentum sped up. His right hand continued to play along with his left, and he had not noticed that someone had entered the room in uttermost curiosity.
Dropping her book bag off by James’s bed, the girl slowly made her way to the corner of the room where the sound of the piano was coming from. For a moment, she was in shock to see James Potter fluently playing the piano as if he had done it all his life.
Lily Evans brushed her crimson hair behind her shoulder as she calmly sat on the left of him and immediately started playing a melody to match his. James was slightly surprised but continued playing as Lily continued to play.
The duet they played together was beautiful and meaningful. It contained a romantic rhythm that was different and sweet all at the same time. It seemed to reflect the joyous surprise they both held for each other at that exact moment. It was if they were speaking to each other with words that did not exist.
James Potter finished with one last, longing cord, and Lily finished off the piece with a trill ornament at the end.
“I didn’t know you played,” said Lily softly once they both took their hands off the piano, and James let go of the pedal.
She was still trying to grasp her head around James Potter as a sensitive piano player. It just didn’t seem possible that the most laid-back, pranking, arrogant student in all of Hogwarts was playing such an emotional instrument. It just didn’t add up or make sense.
“I didn’t know you played,” answered James with a grin coming across his face.
“I didn’t know you had the same sheet music,” Lily said with a tone of slight surprise.
“I remember when I was little, I would always play both parts, but I would always become frustrated at the fact that I could never hear the whole song. My parents never played, so I never found out what the real song sounded like…until now.”
“Funny,” Lily started with her lips curving into an ironic smile, “me too.”
“Oh, could I ask you a favor?” asked James, and Lily glanced up at him from her homework.
After their little “duet”, James returned to his bed, for he knew that Madam Pomfrey would be coming back any second, and Lily took her seat in the oak chair. Lily had handed him his homework, and the both of them worked in silence until James had just broken it.
“It depends,” stated Lily as she continued to scribble away at her piece of parchment she was working on for Charms.
James smiled. He knew that she thought he was going to ask her out again.
“Could you,” James started as he ripped off the edge of a piece of spare parchment and started scratching away at it, “give this to somebody?” He folded it up neatly in half and gave it to Lily.
“What is it?” questioned Lily suspiciously as she grasped it carefully and cautiously.
“It’s something,” replied James mysteriously as he gazed at the note.
“I’m not being used to hand a prank to some poor first year, am I?”
James laughed before replying, “It possibly could be.”
Lily frowned at him.
“I’m just kidding!” exclaimed James jokingly, but Lily still seemed unconvinced as she raised her eye brow. “Could you give this note to Audrey Filendale? She’s a fourth year in Ravenclaw.”
“OK,” answered Lily still unsure whether to trust James with his word or not. “We’ll see.”
“Thanks, Evans,” answered James with a grin, and he returned once again to his Charms homework.
Lily Evans was indeed puzzled. Why James Potter would want to purposefully prank this poor fourth year girl was beyond her comprehension. The question rolled around in her head as she would occasionally glance at the bespectacled teen sitting pleasantly in the bed before her.
When Lily would eventually leave, she would find the answer to her question. She would unravel the note from her book bag, and it would reveal to her that James Potter was not an open book, charming, popular prankster like she initially thought, but a complex character hidden behind his layers of conceited confidence.