Lily woke up suddenly to the sound of a shutting door. When she opened her eyes, she saw Ophelia standing before her.
"Oh, sorry Lil! I was trying to be quiet."
Lily checked the time. "It's all right, I have to go patrol in a minute anyway. I can't believe I just napped for an hour, I never nap." She rubbed her eyes. She still felt tired.
Ophelia sat down next to her. "You've had a rough day. Are you okay, by the way?"
"I'll be fine," Lily said, for what felt like the hundredth time that day. At that moment, Alice walked in.
“Hey...” she said quietly. “Are you okay?”
Lily laughed. One hundred and one. “Yeah, fine. What were you guys doing out and about anyway?”
Alice and Ophelia looked at each other.
“Well, I was sending a letter to Frank...” Alice said apprehensively.
Lily sighed. “Guys, it’s okay. You don’t have to pretend not to have love lives just because mine is down the tubes.”
There was a pause.
“All right then, because there’s something I’ve been dying to tell you...” Ophelia said quickly. “I’m with Remus.”
Lily gasped. “No way!”
“Yeah, she is,” Alice said. “Sirius and I had to give them a little push, but it finally happened.”
“Finally? That’s an understatement!” Lily said, grabbing Ophelia’s arm. “You know, Ophelia, I never knew why you were so shy about this boy for all this time. How long have you liked him now?”
“Probably almost as long as he’s liked her,” Alice smiled.
Lily couldn’t help, through all her heart ache, to have a grin plastered across her face. “Ophelia, that’s wonderful. Seriously wonderful news.”
Oh well, Lily thought. At least someone in this room is happy.
“Oh!” she suddenly said. “I’m late for patrol!”
Lily got up quickly, but wished she could just stay in her room all night.
“Good luck, Lily,” Alice said.
Lily opened the door. “Thanks. I’m going to need it.”
*****
James looked at the clock on the wall. It was 9:03. Lily was three minutes late for their nightly patrol, something that she had simply never been before.
James knew that she didn't want to see him, and it killed him. She was probably still so hurt over the awful day she had had. He watched as in the halls and in every class, people whispered about her. He wished he could make her feel better. More than anything, he wanted to ask her if she was all right.
9:05. But who was he kidding? She had asked him to leave her alone. Even now that Aaron was out of the picture, she hated James. In a few weeks time, he would probably never see her again. So all he had to do was finish the end of the year with some dignity, and get over her. Finally.
9:06. James watched as Lily strode in, looking like she was trying not to cry. He ignored this and gave her an awkward smile. "Hi".
"Hi", she replied blankly. They both looked down.
"Um..." James began. Patrolling had never been this difficult. "Which wing do you want to start with?"
"Doesn't matter", she said, looking at her feet.
"All right. Let's go this way then." James began walking to the left and noticed that Lily was walking a few steps behind him. He wasn't planning on saying anything. They would fulfill their duties, get the job done efficiently, and then go to bed.
Walking throughout the school quietly was strange. He and Lily had always enjoyed friendly conversations, so James didn't think that he had ever heard the school this silent ever before. It was eerie. The shadows created by the torches were as spooky as ever, and every little sound of a floorboard creaking or the swish of Mrs. Norris's tail sounded threatening. James was eager to end the patrol, so he was glad when ten o'clock rolled around and he was able to say goodnight.
"I guess we're done here, Lily" he said, and they both turned on their heels to start to make their way back.
"Yeah," Lily said. Then she stopped. She had an extremely odd expression on her face, and James waited for what seemed like minutes for her to say something. "Wait. You just called me 'Lily'." She sounded quietly shocked.
"That's your name."
"But you never call me Lily, you always call me Evans."
James gave a small laugh and frowned. "I have. You've just never listened." Without looking at Lily again, he continued walking.
"James!"
He turned around slowly to face her. He carefully avoided her eyes, looking down and scratching the back of his neck. “Yeah?”
She seemed to be at a loss for words for a moment. Then she spoke. "I'm just so sorry. That's all. I'm sorry. I honestly don't know what else to say."
He looked at her quietly. She looked so... sad. That was the only way to put it. James really did believe her, too; he had never seen her look that way before. But he didn't know what it meant. He was trying to move past wishful thinking, but it was hard to avoid in his brain at that moment. He kept looking at her, hoping she would speak again.
BOOM.
Before she could think of something else to say, a loud crash had erupted from the floor above. It sounded distant.
"Did you hear that?" she asked nervously.
"Yeah... what was it?" he replied. Both of their voices were very different now.
BOOM. This time, it sounded closer.
“Should we call for a teacher?” Lily suggested, now a little scared.
BOOM.
It was too late. James was already walking slowly towards the stairs, his wand out.
"Wait, what are you doing?" she asked him.
"I'm going to see what's making the noise. By the time we call a teacher they could have gotten away."
“’They‘?” she repeated apprehensively.
BOOM.
"It's probably just a bunch of stupid third years trying to wake up the school or something," James said. Somehow, he didn't even believe the words out of his own mouth.
“You stay here,” he told her.
“No, if you're going, I'm going with you," she replied firmly. She whipped out her wand.
James thought it over for a second. “All right, but keep your wand out.”
He began to walk slowly up the stairs, and she followed closely behind him. What was going on? They could still hear the rumble from above.
James led her up and up, and with each step the sound grew stronger. They walked until they were in a dark corridor that students didn’t normally frequent; there were no classrooms here, only a long stretch of cold, gray walls lit dimly by torches.
"Seriously, what is going on, there's no one here James," Lily said. She sounded panicked.
And then suddenly, they didn’t hear anything at all. The noise stopped. Ironically, the silence was even more disturbing than the booming crash had been, and James wanted to leave.
“James, where are we?”
“I don’t even know,” he replied. He moved a bit closer to her, as if ready to defend her if anything suddenly popped out at them. “Let's go get a teacher, shall we? I mean, we don't know our way around here. We must be at least ten stories up, but I don’t know, it doesn’t look like any students have ever come here-”
“Well done, Potter.”
A voice that didn’t belong to either James or Lily had spoken, and it was cold, empty, and eerie. James knew that voice.
Someone had stepped out from within the shadows. James had to squint to see her, but she was a girl. She seemed to blend into the darkness that surrounded her, her hair and dark eyes that glinted with menace merged into the shadows.
“Bellatrix,” James said.
All Right, Evans? by anglophile
Chapter Notes: Here's chapter 16, pretty quickly if I do say so myself! As always, read and review please!