Disclaimer: I am not J.K Rowling, therefore I do not own Harry Potter.
(A/N Thank you so much to everyone for reviewing and reading and what not. This chapter is a lot less dark and (in my opinion) fairly lovey-dovey, although not extremely because obviously they haven't hooked up... but yes, enjoy ^_^)
Chapter 5: Changes and Denial
Throughout the rest of the first week, nothing very eventful happened. Quidditch tryouts were announced to begin on Thursday evening, so James and Raven were quite busy studying replacements. James in particular, being captain of the team. Raven began talking non-stop about Quidditch, and how she’d been researching some beaters’ moves that she couldn’t wait to try out. She was like this one night in the common room. Stephanie and Lily were trying to concentrate on an extremely nasty potions essay and were finding it difficult to do so with Raven’s incessant talking. All it took was an exchange of looks, and Raven suddenly found that although her lips were still moving, no sound was to be heard. She glared at her friends, who simply gave her a smug look in return. They only took the charm off her once they’d finished (and because they were tired of how she kept waving her wand in an attempt to curse them, but since she couldn’t speak the incantation nothing happened).
Lily began to tutor Timothy in transfiguration once again. She sometimes suspected that he purposely did badly in class, because he did fine when she taught him. He was always so happy and enthusiastic though, that she didn’t have the heart to confront him about it. It did feel like a bit of a waste of her Wednesday nights, and it didn’t help that the work load this year was worse than it ever had been. One of her dorm mates, Sarah, had already had to go to Madam Pomfrey for a calming solution. Lily knew she would continue to make frequent trips to the hospital wing, as she was a very high strung individual.
When Friday came along Lily thought the weekend couldn’t have arrived any sooner. She was tired of hearing mutters of ‘you’ll be next, pompous mudblood’ at first it had been unnerving, but it quickly got boring. The rumors had also grown so that now a majority of the school swore that Voldemort himself had broken in and cursed Darlene. The girl had woken up, but there still seemed to be something wrong with her, although Lily didn’t know what. Her parents had come and gone. Everything seemed to be under control. Lily wondered why Darlene wanted to stay. Wouldn’t she want to be as far away from this place as possible now? And how was it that the attackers hadn’t been caught yet? No one seemed to care as much as Lily did.
“What do you guys want to do today?” Stephanie asked. The three were sprawled on the armchairs closest to the fire in the common room. It was Saturday, and none of them felt very motivated to do anything at all.
“I have quidditch practice later. James wants us to get an early start. ‘We’ve got to adjust to the change in recruits,’ he says,” Raven told them, imitating James marvelously.
“What should we do then Steph?” Lily asked.
“I happen to know that Sirius, along with the other marauders, will be watching us practice this afternoon,” Raven said quickly.
“Maybe we should watch Raven play,” Stephanie suggested, to no one’s surprise.
Lily groaned. “Come on Steph, how interesting can quidditch be when there’s only one team playing?”
“Excuse me?” Raven was indignant. Quidditch was always interesting, in her mind.
Lily and Stephanie ignored her. “I wasn’t really planning on watching them play quidditch,” Stephanie said with a sly grin, blushing a bit.
So, about an hour later, Lily found herself sitting in the quidditch stands, watching seven red blurs. Stephanie had engaged Sirius in a lengthy discussion about something Lily didn’t quite care to follow. She now understood why James had been so good at speaking with authority during the prefect meeting earlier that week. He, of course, had developed it while being quidditch captain. She watched as he’d bellow orders to his team, and they followed his directions without question. There were two new players, one was a fifth year scrawny boy that was now seeker and the other was a square-faced dirty-blond haired fourth year girl, who Lily recognized as Kara, because she was often at Hagrid’s hut when Lily went down for a visit. They were both fairly good, they weren’t playing as well as the players they’d replace, but they hadn’t quite adjusted yet, Lily thought.
Lily remembered the first time she’d ridden a broomstick during flying lessons in first year. It hadn’t been pretty. During the first lesson, she’d floated in mid-air, clutching onto her broom awkwardly while James flew around her in circles. Lily would get dizzy, trying to watch him and he’d laugh at her. Eventually he’d taken pity on her and given her a sort of private tutorial while Madam Hooch was busy coaching the other students. He was a good teacher, by the end of the term she was one of the best in the class. She never went out for quidditch though, the thought of having more to concentrate on then simply flying was intimidating.
“Lily? Earth to Lily!!”
“Sorry, what?” Lily asked Stephanie, who had obviously been trying to get her attention for awhile.
“They’re done, let’s go meet Raven on the field!”
Yes, because it’s Raven you want to see, nothing to with Sirius being down there as well, Lily thought, but followed Stephanie out onto the quidditch pitch. Raven grinned as they made their way towards her and the rest of the team.
“Ah, you’ve decided to grace me with your presence!” she laughed. Raven was always in a very happy mood after quidditch practice. Lily always ruled it off as lightheadedness from being up in the air for such a long time.
“You?” Lily muttered once she was right beside Raven, “Stephanie’s been drooling after Sirius all afternoon. I say we threaten him into going out with her. I can’t take the obsessive flirting anymore!”
Raven grinned. “Yes, but then we’d have them snogging in front of us all the time,” she whispered back in a mock wise type of voice.
“What’re you two whispering about?” James asked curiously.
“My perfect flying today,” Raven said innocently. “Lily was just saying how graceful I was,” she added snobbily.
“Ah yes, you had all the grace of a hippo my dear lady,” Sirius said, having over heard.
Raven muttered something Lily couldn’t hear before saying, “Si-i-irius.” He gave her a curious look and she grinned. “Your robes are on fire,” she continued sweetly.
Everyone looked at Sirius to see that the hem of his robes was covered in orange flame that was growing larger by the second. Stephanie and James were the first to react, both shooting water out of their wands at the flames. James was grinning, but Stephanie looked furious.
“That wasn’t funny, Raven!” she exclaimed shrilly. Lily and Raven were laughing too hard to respond. Sirius’s reaction had been priceless when he’d seen that he was on fire. His eyes had widened in shock and he’d done a weird sort of jumpy movement, a pirouette of some sort. It was especially funny since he was usually so at ease and laid back most of the time. They’d never seen him move so quickly, except for that time James had got fed up with him one time in charms and bewitched a desk to chase him around the room.
Sirius wasn’t about to let Raven show him up like that. “If you weren’t a girl... so help me...” he threatened, glaring at her.
“What? You’d curse me? Go on Black, I dare you,” Raven said in a dangerous voice.
Sirius looked like he was considering taking out his wand and challenging her to a duel. Lily, sensing trouble, quickly intervened. “Let’s just drop it,” she said in a calm voice. “You’re even now.”
Lily was sure Sirius was about to retort something, but James stepped in. “Come on Padfoot, you called her a hippo. Did you honestly think she’d take that lying down?”
“I suppose not, she is rather touchy though,” Sirius said, talking about Raven as though she wasn’t there. Lily felt Raven tense, but she put a hand on her friend’s wand arm to prevent her from hexing Sirius into oblivion.
There was an uncomfortable silence and the rest of the team, that wasn’t involved, started to edge towards the changing rooms, they obviously thought they were being rather subtle, but they weren’t.
“Supper’s bound to begin soon,” Peter commented, breaking the silence. “Let’s head up to the castle.”
“Is that all you ever think about, Peter?” asked Remus, exasperated, but he looked relieved that some of the tension had been lifted.
“I’m just hungry!” Peter protested in a whiney voice.
“Alright, we’ll meet you at the castle, eh, Prongs?” Sirius said to James, who nodded. “Right, will you accompany me?” he added to Stephanie in a fake gentlemen’s voice, offering her his arm. She giggled and blushed. Taking it, they began to walk up to the castle, Remus and Peter following along behind them.
Lily and Raven exchanged brief disgusted looks. “I’ll wait for you,” Lily said to Raven, who then went off to the changing rooms. She expected James to follow along, but he stayed where he was.
“Thanks for helping me stop a duel back there,” Lily said appreciatively. She no longer felt threatened in James’s presence. They’d had an excellent conversation, walking back from the prefects meeting at the beginning of the week. Most of it had involved making fun of Gary, which made Lily considerably happy. She was sure James knew that he and her had once gone out (it hadn’t been a very well kept secret), but he hadn’t made fun of her lack of judgement. Nor did he say she’d be better off with him. She felt relieved now, because he’d obviously gotten over fancying her, and that’s what she wanted. At least, she was fairly certain it was.
James shrugged. “I thought Madam Pomfrey would kill them for being deformed again so soon,” he replied with a smile.
“You’re right, I wasn’t even thinking about that,” Lily mused. “They really don’t get along, do they?”
James rolled his eyes. “Sirius doesn’t mean half the things he says to Raven. He’s just upset that she doesn’t him at all appealing.”
“How do you know?” Lily asked curiously.
“He reminds me of someone I know who used to feel the exact same way,” James replied calmly, with a little shrug.
Oh god, does he mean himself? Lily thought, panicked. The way he used to be with me?
“I see...” was all she could manage. Lamely, in her opinion.
Some of his teammates exited the change rooms, bidding him a good night. “I’d better get changed,” he said, and started to walk away.
“If you hurry, Raven and I will wait for you,” Lily called out impulsively.
“I knew you would. You’re far too nice to leave me to walk to the castle all by my lonesome self!” He said cheekily.
Lily laughed in spite of herself. “Just hurry up,” she said and he ran off.
~*~
James, Raven and Lily all entered the Great Hall, laughing and talking happily. They joined the rest of the marauders and Stephanie. Lily was vaguely aware of students heads turning to stare at them. She could tell what they were thinking; Lily and James? Sitting together? When it’s not a feast? Was she under the Imperius curse, or what? But, frankly, Lily didn’t care. She was having to much fun to be bothered with what other people thought.
Stephanie seemed to be thinking along the same lines as Lily. She was sitting as close to Sirius as possible without being right on his lap. He was looking fairly bored with her now, and wasn’t paying her much attention. Lily caught him give Raven a sneer, and immediately looked at her friend, afraid of her reaction. But Raven merely grinned at him in a way that said he could sneer at her all he wanted, she wasn’t going to respond. I guess we’re really growing up, Lily thought, remembering a time when Raven would have responded with a snide remark which would cause the two to be at each other’s throats for the whole meal, if not for longer.
“Sirius, you really should have tried out for quidditch,” Stephanie said brightly, trying to get his focus back onto her. Lily saw Raven roll her eyes and had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing. But Stephanie didn’t stop there. “I think you would’ve been brilliant,” she added.
James grimaced and responded before Sirius could. “No way. He’s a bloody horror on a broomstick,” he said.
“Thanks for that mate,” Sirius replied sarcastically.
James shrugged. “You know it’s true. I mean, even Lily is better than you,” he said with an apologetic smile to Lily. She scowled at him, but in truth she didn’t really care.
“No one could be as bad as Lily,” Stephanie said. “I’m sure you aren’t as bad as he says.”
Lily raised her eyebrows at Stephanie. She was so lucky to have such a supportive friend who always took her side. Oh wait, where had that friend gone? At least Raven still defended her...
“I agree. No one could be as bad as Lily.”
....Or not, Lily thought as Raven agreed with Stephanie. She hadn’t thought she was such a terrible flier. She could stay on, couldn’t she? Wasn’t that good enough?
“I’m going to get one of those flying motorcycles when I graduate, so it doesn’t even matter,” Sirius huffed. The conversation turned to the best kind of flying motorcycles. Lily was surprised that Remus knew a lot of little facts about the different companies and such, he didn’t seem to be that kind of guy. More the gentle soul type who liked to garden, or something. He was looking a bit pale, but he usually did sometime during each month. Lily found it odd that he went to visit his mother or some other relative once a month.
“I’m going to start on homework,” Lily groaned to the others and went up the dormitory stairs to get her books. Raven and Stephanie followed, knowing that if they didn’t do their homework when Lily did, they’d never get it done.
“You are the biggest flirt,” Raven said to Stephanie when they entered their dorm.
“I know, but I think he may ask me out soon!” Stephanie exclaimed excitedly. Then she frowned. “That is if you don’t chase him away with curses.”
“Me? I would never!” Raven said innocently. “So Lily, getting pretty comfortable with James, aren’t you? Admit it, I was right, he’s not such a terrible person after all, is he?”
Lily rolled her eyes at her beaming friend. “He’s fine at the moment, but we’ll see,” she said.
“Yes, we’ll see mini James and Lily Potters running around!” she said triumphantly.
Lily gave her a disbelieving and slightly disgusted look. “Ew Raven. I wouldn’t put the world through such horror,” she said and grabbed her bag.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Raven replied with an annoyingly smug look on her face. She skipped out of the dormitory, Stephanie and a slightly disgruntled Lily, following.
When she entered the common room, Lily was surprised to see all four marauders sitting at a table, pulling out books, parchment, quills and ink. They were about to do homework? On a Saturday night? What happened to the usual scribbling down of nonsense on Sunday evening?
Raven and Lily went towards an empty table on the opposite side of the common room, but Stephanie gave them a look and made for the table closest to the marauders. Raven and Lily exchanged bored looks before following her. Lily was half way through a chapter she had been assigned to read in Ancient Runes, when a voice called her. She looked up, annoyed that someone was disrupting her.
“Hi,” Timothy said, his grey eyes sparkling.
“Hello Timothy,” Lily responded. He continued to stand there, staring at her so she added, “How are things?”
“Um, fine. I’m just having difficulty with this question, I was wondering if, er, you could possibly help me out...” Timothy said nervously.
“Sure,” Lily replied with a smile on her face that was only a little bit forced. “What’s the question?”
“We’re studying animagi in transfiguration and we’re supposed to give a detailed explanation of the registration process,” he said.
Lily frowned and rubbed her forehead, trying to remember the details of animagus registration Professor McGonagall had taught back in third year. She motioned for Timothy to sit in the spare chair, and he did so.
“Here, take notes,” she said, offering him some parchment, a quill and her ink glass. She began to describe what she knew in short sentences, so Timothy could jot what she said down.
“A tally is kept of how many times the witch or wizard turns into their animagus form...” Lily was saying, but she was interrupted.
“Hey, Lily,” James said, pushing his chair back from his table so that he was now beside her. “I need to know that symbol thing, for Ancient Runes. It’s missing from my notes.”
“In a minute,” Lily said tiredly. “I’m helping Timothy at the moment.”
“Oh, with what?” James asked, looking at Timothy as though he just noticed him. Which, Lily thought, he probably had.
“Animagus registration,” Timothy said promptly.
“I know all about that. Let’s see what you have down so far,” and with that he took Timothy’s parchment and began to scan it. “That’s pretty good. Here, let’s give Lily a break and I’ll finish telling you about it,” he said, making room for Timothy at his table and beckoning the third year over.
“That’s really not necessary,” Lily protested. Timothy was eyeing James warily, and she knew the young boy was feeling intimidated.
“It’s no trouble,” James said. “Just pull your chair up here Timothy, I haven’t got all day.”
Timothy did as he was told. Lily gave James a thankful look, and he responded with a grin before starting to recite things to Timothy who scribbled them down a lot faster than he had been doing with Lily. She turned back to the Ancient Runes work she’d started earlier, but found it hard to concentrate. James Potter was helping out a younger student. She couldn’t remember it having ever happened before. She listened to him patiently correct one of Timothy’s mistakes, and couldn’t help smiling to herself. Maybe, just maybe, Raven had been right all along. Perhaps James had been human deep down through all those years and he was just letting it show this year. Sure, he was still a bit arrogant, but it always made her laugh when he’d say something cocky. She remembered the start of term prank; it’d been played on all of the houses, not just on the Slytherins like the previous years.
She looked him over, then realizing what she was doing, quickly looked back at her book. If this kept up, Stephanie wasn’t going to be the only person smitten with a marauder.
(A/N Congratulations on getting through it all! I know the chapter title sucks. I couldn't really think of one that went with it and wasn't more than like 500 words hehe. Anyways, I hope the chapter itself has lived up to your expectations. Thanks for reading!)