Lily stood up from the bench and said, “I’m full.”
“You didn’t eat anything,” Julianne reminded, pointing her fork at Lily’s full plate.
“So? I’m full.”
“No, you are not.” Julianne stood up as well and pointed her fork at Lily. “You will sit down until every single pea is gone from your plate!”
“Wait, who are you again?”
Julianne rolled her eyes. “I am concerned for your health!”
Lily’s eyes revolved around their sockets. Julianne shouted, “I am the Keeper and you must obey me! You cannot resist my power!”
“Dun, dun, dun,” Maya and Amy chanted together.
Lily grumbled something about not being hungry and slumped down back to her seat. She grabbed her fork and scraped all the peas off her plate and onto the floor. Then she gave Julianne one last hard stare before running away from the table.
As if on cue, several Slytherins got up from the table and followed her at a fair distance to not draw suspicion. Unfortunately for Lily, one no noticed.
Every level Lily descended, she looked over her shoulder just in time to see a student’s head or a flash of silver and green.
Wow, they’re really spying on me, aren’t they, she asked herself.
Lily hid behind the wings of a Pegasus statue and stayed still. She heard several pairs of feet slowing down and stopping.
“Where’d she go?” a voice asked.
“I think she went that way.” The students ran off in the other direction. Lily stepped out from behind the stone wing and ran down the stairs.
She was about to enter the classroom and slam the door behind her when she heard Professor Madres talking in a low voice to someone.
“Don’t lie to me, Potter. It was you!”
“I told you! I have no idea what you are talking about! Whatever I did, if I did anything, I certainly don’t deserve to be hung by my wrists again!”
Lily groaned. What did Potter do now?
“You and your little friends thought it would be very funny and decided to cause a rockslide in the school!”
Silence tensed in the professor, James, and Lily. Lily clapped her hand over her mouth. It wasn’t James! She wasn’t exactly sure which Slytherin did cause the stairway to crumble, but Potter was probably doing some other prank in the school.
“That… was… NOT… me! That was someone else!”
“Like Mr. Black?”
“It wasn’t him either! How many times do I have to tell you? I HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH IT! What the bloody hell would I want to vandalize Hogwarts for?”
“Don’t you raise you’re voice at me, Potter!”
“Let go of me you-!”
Before Lily had time to react, the door was banged open and Professor Madres was holding James by the scruff of the neck. James’s eyes widened with shock as he saw Lily standing there, but Professor Madres’ eyes glared with hatred for the redhead.
“I will be back in a moment, Evans,” he pronounced. “Come with me, Potter.”
It really didn’t look as if James had a choice. The teacher had his neck firmly held in his hand as he pushed James to a cell door several rooms away.
“Professor Madres! You cannot do this!” Lily almost smacked her head onto the wall when she realized that she was the one shouting this.
The teacher stopped and turned his head. “Why not? This boy is guilty of an unsolved crime right here in this school!”
“You have no evidence of that!”
“I don’t need evidence, miss,” he shot curtly.
“Yes you do!” Lily roared. Why was she doing this? Couldn’t Potter get himself out of this?
You are a kind soul and you don’t wish others pain, Lily soothed herself, even if it is James Potter.
“Students are innocent are proven guilty, and that includes the Marauders as well!”
Lily ran up and pulled James away from Professor Madres. She had enough of the prejudice teacher. Lily dragged James by the sleeve of the robe back into the classroom.
She led him down the steps and let go of him.
“Er… thank you, Lil-… Evans.”
“Your welcome.” Lily set her bag on the table two rows in front of James. As she set “Complicated Concoctions” on the floor, she felt it again. It was the feeling that he was watching her. She felt had felt it for seven years now, but this time it felt somewhat different…
She turned her head and looked at James over he shoulder. He looked down at the table and sat down, burying his head in his book. Lily moved her chair and sat down as well. Professor Madres had not begun to return yet.
“Who caused that rock fall?”
“What did you say?” Lily asked. She turned around and saw two, curious, hazel eyes peeping out from the top of the book.
“Who caused the rock fall?” James repeated.
Lily was stunned. “Wh-Why are you asking me that?”
“Because you were there.”
“What?” Lily mouth dropped. How could he have known? Had he been watching? “I wasn’t there when it happened!”
“You went down that hallway.”
“Only because you turned a toilet paper roll into a dog!”
“No I didn’t!”
Lily ended the conversation with a sigh and returning to staring at the chalkboard.
James stood up and moved up to the desk in front of Lily. He took a wooden chair and spun it around so it faced her. He sat down and rested his chin on the tabletop.
“This conversation is finished, Potter!” she snapped. She opened her book and pretending to be interesting in how to make a potion that will cure toe warts.
“Which is why I’m starting a new one,” James announced cheerfully. Lily stared. His voice sounded too out-of-place in the dark dungeon. “You haven’t shown me the plans for the school.”
“Oh…” Lily slowly closed her book and got several pieces of parchment. She set them in front of James, cautiously, and James surveyed it.
After reading the list, he asked, “You really think that we should have a Christmas party?”
“It’s not a “Christmas Party,” it’s a Christmas celebration,” Lily corrected. She swiped the papers from James hands. “And I’m not going with you as your date.” She stuffed the plans into her bag.
“I wasn’t going to ask-”
“Yet!” Lily finished for him. “Why else would you have brought it up? To ask me out again?”
“Maybe…”
Lily groaned and thrust her head up to the cobwebbed ceiling and then brought her head on the table.
“Not to the party! That’s too far away! I just wanted to know if I could get you a butterbeer at the next Hogsmeade visit?”
“No. I can get my own.”
“How about a cake or something.”
“No. It’s not my birthday.”
“What about a-”
“NO! What number is that?”
James seemed to be counting in his head. “What number of what: how many times you have refused me, or how many times I’ve asked you out?”
James couldn’t see because Lily’s head was still squished against the desk, but she rolled her eyes.
“2, 997 and a half times!” declared a proud Sirius. He was practically skipping into the classroom. He was so proud of himself for keeping track of all the attempts James had made to persuade Lily to go out with him. “Plus those last three with make it an even 3,000 and a 1/2!”
~
“A half?” James asked Sirius when he plopped down in the seat next to him.
“Well, in our 4th year, you never really got all the words out because little Snape just happened to walk by.” He said “little Snape” with more amount of disgust as usual.
James laughed. “Oh, yeah. I remember that. I began to try out my Love Spell on him…”
“But it didn’t really work. You hit Wormtail instead.”
“Oh…”
“Then we had to keep him locked up in the dungeons or else he would have-”
“That’s not funny! Why do you pick on Snape all the time? What in the world has he done to you?” Lily had lifted her head and she was glaring at James.
Sirius fell off his chair. “What the…? You’re still standing up for that bloody git?”
“…Yes?”
“After what he did to you?”
There was a pause and James started to work out everything in his head. “What do you mean?” Lily asked in an unusually high voice. Her voice was tight as well.
James suddenly bolted out of his seat, standing straight up. “What did Snape do, Lily?” he demanded.
Lily shook her head very slightly and fiddled with her hands under the table. “Nothing.”
James grabbed Lily’s arm. “What did he do?”
“Stop it! Let go of me!”
James kept his firm, but gentle, grip on Lily’s arm. “What did Snape do? Did it have anything to do you the destroyed staircase?”
Lily didn’t answer. She just looked down.
James let go of her and faced Padfoot.
“Will you tell me, then? I really don’t enjoy picking out the details and figuring stuff out on my own.”
“Nope, mate. You can try asking Lily again.”
Before James could open his mouth again, Snape entered the room. Furiously, James had his wand pointed at Snape’s forehead before he had reached the first desk.
“Spill it out, Snivellus!” he snarled. “What happened, you slimy git?”
Author's Note: lalalalalala- DIE SNIVELLUS DIE *cough cough* I mean, please explain yourself, Mr. Snape, before I blow you into oblivion.