Chapter Twenty - In Which Lily and James Have a Conversation
Back in the common room area, Josey took a seat in an armchair.
James’s eyes were closed, and he appeared to be sleeping, his long form stretched out on the couch. Nikeia walked over, drawing her wand.
“What are you doing?” asked Josey.
“Paying him back.”
“What?”
Nikeia whispered, “Augamenti,” and held her wand over James’s head. Water flew from the tip of her wand and covered his face.
He woke, spluttering and rising to a sitting position.
“What in Merlin’s name was that for?” he cried, shaking his head.
Nikeia smiled, satisfied, and took a seat in the other armchair. Josey looked on with wide eyes
.
Nikeia did not respond to James’s question, so he turned to Josey. She just shrugged, though a smile was in the corners of her lips.
James wiped the last bit of water from his face, and glared at Nikeia. “I don’t think that was quite fair.”
“No, you’re right,” admitted Nikeia. “Fair would have been dumping you in the Black Lake.”
James threw up his arms in frustration. “Oh, really? Well, just talking to her wasn’t helping any; that-” he gestured to the washroom door- “was the only thing that I could think of that might work!”
Nikeia raised her eyebrow at him. “There must have been something else, James.”
“Well, then why didn’t you figure it out and do it?” James asked, still frustrated. Nikeia, again, didn’t respond, though she did look a bit embarrassed.
James let the subject drop, knowing she really meant no harm, and lay back on the couch.
“Thank you,” Nikeia muttered.
James opened his eyes again to look at her, and smiled with one side of his mouth.
The sat in silence for awhile, until finally Lily stepped from the bathroom. Her hair was curly from just being toweled dried, and her face had a just-scrubbed look to it. She was wearing a t-shirt and pajama pants, having walked to her room and gotten a change of clothes. She smiled self-consciously, and walked over to the desk. As she clasped the bracelet around her wrist, she rubbed in tenderly.
“When did they get that for you?” asked James.
“When I started here. It was their parting gift.” Lily walked over to the couch and took a seat at James’s feet. She pulled her legs up, and hugged them to her.
Nikeia got out of her chair, and stood behind Lily. She ran her fingers through the long red hair, then started braiding it.
“You haven’t done that for a long time,” muttered Lily, smiling.
“Well, we haven’t shared rooms for a while,” responded Nikeia, tugging the hair teasingly. Lily raised one hand, as if saying “Very true.”
“I’ve often wondered what you girls do to spend time together,” pondered James, closing his eyes again.
The girls giggled, and Josey said, “Talk about the Marauders, listen to Lily yell about ‘that toerag Potter’, argue over teachers, braid hair, discuss the latest fashions, listen to Lily complain about a group of guys, giggle a lot, have pillow fights, listen to Lily-”
“Complain about me,” finished James, pretending to be exasperated. “I get the picture.”
The girls laughed, and Lily nudged James’s leg with her foot.
“At least I know that you couldn’t stop thinking about me,” he said, a smirk on his lips.
Lily kicked his leg this time, though she was smiling. He didn’t open his eyes to look at her, but he, too, smiled.
“Yeah, we’ve had quite a few talks about you, James,” chuckled Nikeia as she finished the braid and tied it off with a band that she had around her wrist.
“Keep talking about me; I like knowing that you do.” His bald manner made them laugh again. Josey took the pillow from behind her and threw it at James’s head.
He just put the pillow behind his head, still smirking.
Nikeia yawned, and reached over to embrace Lily from behind. “All right, I’m tired. Going to bed.”
Josey also yawned, and stood. She, too, hugged Lily. Holding Lily’s face between her small hands, she said, “It’ll be all right, Lil. We’re here for you.”
Lily’s eyes watered slightly, and she pulled both friends to her. They embraced again, eyes wet when they separated.
“Come see us tomorrow. We’ll have a girl’s night,” called Nikeia as the two Gryffindors walked from the common room, waving over their shoulders.
When they had gone, James had opened his eyes and was looking at Lily.
She looked back at him, smiling faintly.
“While a cold bath wasn’t exactly what I wanted”ever, really”it did help. Thanks, I guess.”
James chuckled, and sat up. “It maybe was a bit over-much, but… What’s the point of being a Marauder, right?”
Lily laughed, and pulled the blanket from the back of the couch around her shoulders. After a moment’s pause, she asked, “What was your favorite prank?”
James seemed slightly taken aback at the odd question, but appeared to ponder the idea. “Let’s see… favorite to do, or favorite reaction from a prank?”
Lily shrugged.
“They’re very different things,” James assured. “Dungbombs are always easy and fun, but they’ve gotten to be too easy. The water glass one always makes me laugh, though.”
He was alluding to a prank that happened quite a few times a year, where the goblets at dinner suddenly shrank when lips touched them, therefore becoming too small for their contents. Juice or water spilled down the front of the students, and a few choice words usually followed this instance. After a few times of the prank happening, people learned to test their own goblets after they saw it happen to one person. When their goblet shrank, they filled it anyway and went on with their meal, as the goblets only shrank once.
Lily rolled her eyes. She had fallen prey to that prank a few times. “How did you do that, by the way?”
James winked at her, and said, “If I told you, I’d be giving away a Marauder secret.”
“Then let me guess; you go into the kitchen, charm the house elves, and cast the spell right before dinner. It could only be a Shrinking Charm that has been modified to be activated by touch.”
James’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly. “I already know you’re smart; no need to show off.”
Lily laughed, a slight bush coming onto her cheeks.
“But, yes, you’re right,” James admitted. “The house elves love having us in the kitchen. We don’t really even have to charm them that much; they laugh right along with us when they find out what we want to do.”
“Really?”
He nodded. “Yeah. Most of them have great senses of humor.”
“So, is that your favorite prank?”
James shook his head. “It’s my favorite to do again and again, but I think the enchantment to the Slytherins ranks the best.”
Lily made an expression that told James she begrudgingly agreed. “It was quite impressive.”
“Took us quite a while to come with that one. Tried it small-scale on the professors last year, but we always planned to use it on the Slytherins.”
“I see.” She paused, and then asked, “What are you planning on doing after school? Where are you going to live?”
James sighed mightily. “I’m taking the required classes to become an Auror. Thought that would be a fun thing to do. Of course, professional Quidditch was an idea.”
“Of course,” sighed Lily.
“But… I didn’t think I would enjoy playing Quidditch for a job. It seemed like it would take the fun out of it. Not all of it, of course, and I’ll definitely continue to play, but…”
Lily nodded, understanding.
James answered her second question: “I could live at home. I got a letter from the manager of my parents’ affairs. They left it to me, so it’s mine.”
“It was a gorgeous house. I didn’t get to see all of it, but…”
“It is a nice manor. But, I don’t know if I would actually want to live there. I think it would seem too big and empty with just me. Though-” here, he cast Lily a flirtatious look- “I could always invite someone to live with me…”
Lily just raised her eyebrow, though she was smiling faintly. “I’m sure Sirius would join you again.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said, also smiling. “But, actually, Sirius is looking for his own apartment. His uncle has hinted that he would leave him money. Sirius hasn’t gotten it yet, but he’s sure his uncle will come through. Family tensions and all that.”
Lily nodded slowly.
James noticed her confusion. “You know, Sirius becoming a Gryffindor when his whole family were Slytherins didn’t sit well with them, of course. His uncle Alphard always liked him, I suppose. He was the first one to write, anyway, after Sirius ran away last summer.” He was silent for a moment, then returned Lily’s earlier nudge. “What about you?” He posed the question quietly, gently.
She looked down at her knees, her brow furrowing. “I’m not sure. Someone mentioned to me at the visitation that they were my parents’ lawyer. They said that some money would be set aside for me from the sale of the house and the rest of the estate. I suppose I will have to work with that. I can’t go home, since there’s not really any home to go to.”
“What are the other girls planning on doing?”
She shrugged again. “We haven’t actually talked about it too much.”
James nodded, then asked, “But what about a job?”
“Well, my classes are rather basic, so I could enter a few different fields.” She shifted on the couch, looking slightly sheepish. “I have thought about being an Auror, too.”
James nodded. “You’d make a nice one.”
She smiled at him. “I guess, as far as the intelligent bit goes. But it can be violent at times, especially now.”
“Don’t worry; I’ll protect you,” James said, pinning her with a look that she admitted made her heart flutter. She smiled back, and chuckled giddily.
“Still, what with You-Know-Who around, it’s a dangerous job.”
James gave her a look. “You don’t actually say that, do you?”
“Say what?”
“’You-Know-Who’?”
She looked embarrassed again. “I guess I don’t usually. The girls say it, so I just I’ve picked it up from them.”
“Well, don’t say it. He’s just a lunatic who doesn’t deserve a special name,” James opined fiercely, punching the couch cushion. “Especially after what he did to you.”
Lily looked up sharply. “What? What are you talking about? What did he do to me?”
James froze, realizing that she had not yet heard his idea. He hesitated, stammered a few times, then got out: “I think it was Stacey that killed your parents.”
“What?” she whispered, shocked.
“I think she was sent to your parents’. Some sore of initiation act to become a Death Eater. It wouldn’t have been difficult for her to get the address, and she could have gotten out of the building somehow. There are passageways out to Hogsmeade.”
Lily was silent, her eyes still showing her shock.
“The others don’t agree with me, and neither does Dumbledore. I’m not asking for you to, but that’s my opinion.”
“She must’ve been around school this past week…” She paused. “Though, I haven’t seen her, but I haven’t seen much else…”
James was shaking his head. “She hasn’t been in school. No one’s really questioned it more than once. McGonagall didn’t really know what to say when someone asked in Transfiguration. Snape has been a bit downcast, though.”
Lily’s eyes began to water, and she muttered, “I can’t believe she’d do something like that though.”
“I understand. I can’t either. But… her desire for power and greatness…” His voice trailed off, denoting his amazement at the depth of her need. “Becoming a Death Eater was the first option she found. She took it.”
She sighed again, but she lapsed into silence. They remained quiet for a few moments.
Then, James remembered a question he had wanted to ask, which was brought back to the front of his mind. “What was with your sister asking about someone else? In the garden at your house?”
Lily cast her mind back to the visitation.
James added: “You introduced all of us, and Petunia asked about another person. ‘The one that…’ was all she said.”
Lily’s brow relaxed slightly. “Oh, that person.” She looked down at her knees again. “Well, there was a boy we met when we were younger. He knew I was a witch; he had watched us playing and saw me fly off the swing set a couple times. It was my favorite thing to do. Petunia didn’t like him. I’m assuming it was because he came between us, in a sense.” She started fiddling with the yarn of the blanket. “He, um, also attends Hogwarts-”
“Snape,” James said, bluntly, looking hard at Lily.
She looked up, a slightly worried expression present in her eyebrows again. She nodded.
“You know we were good friends, once upon a time. We could talk about assignments, and discuss potion procedures. Then he started hanging out more and more with those Slytherins”Avery, Mulciber, all them…”
James sneered.
“I didn’t like it, but he wouldn’t change that much for me. So…” She sighed. “How much does he know about Remus?”
James shifted uncomfortably this time. “It was a joke we played once. Last year. It could’ve ended badly, but… Well, it didn’t.”
Lily continued to look at him.
He sighed, and realized he could tell her. “He tried following us one night. He was suspicious of where we went on the full moon nights. He saw Remus, but we managed to get him out before he got hurt. He’s never liked us since.”
“Because you saved his life?”
James nodded slowly.
They sat in silence for a while, listening to the faint crackling of the fire.
Finally, Lily murmured, “James?”
“Hmm?”
“I’m sorry.”
He looked at her, having closed his eyes again. “What?”
“For not being there for you the past week. You’re going through the same thing, and I just sat there.”
James sat up, and moved closer to her. He put his hands on her shoulders, and made her look at him.
“Lily, you did nothing wrong. You weren’t being selfish. I think being quiet was the best way for both of us.”
He moved his hands to her face, rubbing his thumb against her cheek. “I’ve got you now. That’s what matters.”
He closed the distance and gently kissed her lips. She responded softly, and pressed her forehead against his.
“Perhaps,” James started slowly, “I’ll have you for a while longer…”
She giggled, then kissed his nose.
“As strange as it is to say it, I think I’d like that.”
He smiled broadly.
“Though, you will have to do certain things…” she intoned, slowly.
He pulled his forehead from hers, and raised his eyebrows.
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
“Studying.”
He laughed once.
“As long as you help me.”
She returned the laugh and smile. “I don’t know if you can be helped.”
“Oh, shut up,” he muttered, right before kissing her again.
A Few Detentions and A Story by LaneTechFreshie
Chapter Notes: James brings Lily back to the land of the living, and spends the evening talking with her.
This is a brand new chapter as of 2010/2011. I felt that I didn’t have enough conversations between my characters, so I took the first opportunity I could to create one between James and Lily.