"Excuse me, sir!"
Lily strode across the hall to a third year that was snickering and fiddling with something in his pocket. She liked finding any excuse to exercise her new found power; it made her feel important, and although Lily Evans was a small, rather quiet girl, she enjoyed having a bit of power. The boy turned around and gave her an anxious glance.
"Would you mind showing me what's in your pocket?" Lily asked with a tone of supreme authority. Behind her, James Potter rolled his eyes.
The boy begrudgingly turned out his pocket, revealing a dung bomb in his hand.
"A-ha!" Lily exclaimed, sounding very unlike herself and more like a professor who took their job a bit too seriously. "I see, I see. Well, in case you didn't know, we" - she motioned to herself and James- "are Head Boy and Girl. And I'm afraid we're going to have to confiscate that illegal object, if you please."
She extended her hand. The boy, seemingly trying not to laugh, handed Lily the dung bomb.
"Can I go now?" he asked.
Lily opened her mouth, but James spoke before her. "Yeah, yeah, go ahead."
As the boy was walking away, James turned to Lily. "Evans- what was that?"
"What was what?"
"'I'm afraid we're going to have to confiscate that illegal object, if you please," James mocked. "You sounded like you worked for the Ministry of Magic!"
"I was just doing my job, Potter," Lily replied firmly.
"Okay, McGonagall,” James said quietly.
“Hey! What did you say?”
“Nothing!” James said innocently.
"You called me 'McGonagall'!"
"No I didn't," James lied. "But let's just say that if you show up in the Great Hall tomorrow with little glasses hanging off your nose and your hair in a tight bun, I'm going to have to do something."
Lily couldn't help but laugh. James laughed with her.
She was noticing that the more time she spent with James, the more she got to like him. She didn't know what had happened over the summer to change him so greatly, but he was almost like an entirely new person; the type of person that she could be good friends with.
***
“So...” Sirius said with his eyebrows raised one night as the Marauders met up with him. He had just finished patrolling corridors with Lily. “Anything interesting happen tonight?”
James laughed. “No, Padfoot, unfortunately not.”
“It’s got to, eventually, you know.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Come on, Prongs! You know... you and Rena broke up over the summer, so you're a free man. Plus, all that time together, all alone...”
“She’s got a boyfriend, Padfoot,” Remus reminded him.
James’ teeth clenched in his mouth.
“Lighten up, Moony! She’ll come around!” Sirius said. “Look, Prongs, why don’t you grab your cloak, and we’ll--”
"My cloak!" James slapped his hand to his head, interrupting Sirius.
"What, forgotten it from last night?" Peter asked.
"Yeah! I threw it behind the statue when we heard Filch coming, remember?"
Sirius grinned widely. "Yeah, well, that was a pretty close call..."
"Shh!" Remus silenced him, glancing around the hall.
“I’ll be right back, let me grab it before curfew,” James told his friends, and he disappeared around a corner. How could he have forgotten his cloak? It was only five minutes to curfew, and he did not want another detention.
He checked his watch and ducked into a less- traveled corridor. Filch would most likely be starting to make his rounds in a minute or so. He was about to approach the statue of the one-eyed witch when he heard a voice in an empty classroom.
He heard a giggling voice of a female, but he couldn’t tell whose. He did recognize, however, a male’s. How couldn’t he? Every time he spoke, James's blood boiled.
“I've really been wanting to talk with you," Aaron Anderson said.
James figured that he was talking to Lily, and he felt a surge of jealousy. Maybe he was breaking up with her, he thought hopefully; but his tone didn’t sound apprehensive or resentful.
“Yeah? About what?” the female voice said, but it wasn’t Lily’s; James was shocked to hear that it was Rena's.
“Well,” Aaron said casually. “I’ve noticed you a lot lately.”
James' ears became glued to the door. How was it possible that his ex- girlfriend and Lily's boyfriend were alone together in an empty classroom?
“Noticed?” Rena repeated shyly. It was fake. James knew from experience that Rena was not a shy girl.
“Yeah. I like you a lot, Rena.”
James simply could not believe what he was hearing. Aaron was going out with Lily! He thought it simply couldn't be him, but there was just no mistaking Aaron's voice.
“But I thought you were going out with Lily Evans?” Rena asked apprehensively.
Aaron laughed. “Well, that’s sort of over, you know what I mean? She’s nice, but.... it’s just not working out, I guess. We both feel that way.”
James felt like kicking open the door and hexing Aaron into oblivion. How could he be talking that way? He must be insane!
“So you like me, now?” Rena asked, sounding rather happy.
“Yeah.” James heard Aaron get up from where he was sitting. Then, James didn’t hear anything at all. He knew what must have been happening, though.
He turned around and stomped back towards Gryffindor Tower. His heart was pounding in his ears. All he could think was that Aaron Anderson, the lucky bastard, had absolutely lost his mind. Lily was perfect, and she was his. If James hadn't heard it with his own ears, he would have never believed that he would throw that all away for some girl that James had dumped because she was really nothing more than a pretty face.
James wondered if Lily even knew. Had Aaron broken up with her? He doubted it. He had been with Lily for the entire afternoon and there didn't seem to be anything different about her.
He had to tell her. He knew it. But how could he? She would never believe him. And even if she did, what, did he think she was going to suddenly declare her love for him?
“Where’s your invisibility cloak?” Sirius asked as James stalked right past him, got into bed without changing, and closed the curtains around his bed.
All Right, Evans? by anglophile
Chapter Notes: Here's Chapter 11, as promised... please please please review, as there's a lot to comment on (you'll find out why)...