Lily walked towards Care of Magical Creatures, as depressed as she usually had been for the past week. Sirius and Lupin walked on either side of her a few steps up. Behind her, James and Peter followed. Lily gritted her teeth again, remembering that James had stole a peek at her letter, her private letter. She would never forgive him for that.
She shot a dangerous look at James. But he didn’t see. He was staring at the ground, amazingly fascinated by his untied shoelace.
Ever since James revealed to Peter and Remus (to Lily’s surprise, Sirius didn’t seemed as shocked as the others) that there were Death Eaters at Hogwarts, they were her guardians. At least one of them stood outside the girl’s bathroom doors when she went inside. They sat around her while she was eating. She was never alone. It was peevish, but comforting. At least she was protected.
Since the Marauders had discovered her secret, Lily had to confront her friends about it, too. Amy had nightmares that night, and Maya carried her miniature crystal ball wherever she went. Julianne just held her new boyfriend’s hand, tightly. Remus comforted her as best he could.
But she would still never forgive that bigheaded jerk.
Snape passed by and James lifted his head. The other Marauder’s noticed him to. James whipped out his wand and sent a small, red spark chasing after him. It snapped Snape’s ear and he let out a sharp holler. He swatted at the red spark, brutally.
The spark flew away, but u-turned back. It grabbed a bunch of Snape’s greasy black hair and tugged forcefully on it (yes, this is a red spark). Snape fell down and the spark grabbed one of his dirty shoes and pulled it up towards the ceiling. Snape was lifted off the ground, feet up.
Snape held his robes up, trying to cover his graying underpants. All his parchments papers, quills, and inkbottles cascaded from his pockets. The students eagerly stopped in their footsteps to see a nasty Slytherin get taunted.
“James! Stop it!” Lily ordered. “You’re Head Boy! You should be able to control yourself!” But her voice caught in her throat when she saw an envelope slip out of Snape’s pocket.
She bent down and picked it up. Her blood ran cold and her throat closed when she saw the address. It was labeled to her parents, in her own handwriting. The envelope had been ripped open, and the letter read.
Lily looked back up at Snape. She tried to say something, but failed to. She only managed to shake her head.
“I knew you couldn’t be trusted, you mudblood,” Snape snarled.
James jerked his wand and Snape went flying across the hall. He smashed into the wall and slid to the ground. The red spark gave one, final electric shock to his forehead before exploding itself with a small “squeak.”
Sirius took out his and pointed it at his enemy’s forehead.
“You can go on to class, guys,” he said. “It’s only takes half a monkey to flip this slimeball over.”
James took Lily’s arm and guided her up the stairs.
“Let go of me, Potter!” Lily demanded. She shoved his hand off of her arm. “You think you’re helping but your just making my problem a heck of a lot worse!”
“You think I’m trying to help while not sacrificing anything?” James asked her.
“What do you have to lose?” Lily shouted. “Your life is a wonderland, isn’t it? You have a marvelous time pulling immature pranks on innocent people and you mess up your future with high hopes that it’ll all turn well. Well, I’ll tell you this, Potter: Playing the role of Head Boy is the only lucky toss of a coin you’ll ever get!”
James glanced again at the floor. Lily scoffed heartlessly and stomped through the main doors and out to the outdoor classroom.
He closely stalked her and added quietly, “Fine, I’m a big headed jerk. But, who cares? No one really cares about my head or my attitude. Except for a select few Slytherins… and you.”
Lily’s hair shook and she sped up. So did James, but he always remained half a step behind her.
“And none of your insults hurt me. After all, I’m not human to you. I have no parents who aren't in danger either.”
Lily’s pace weakened and she stopped so abruptly, that James’ nose almost bumped into her head.
She whipped around and dropped her bag. “Oh my gosh, I am so sorry! I’ve been so preoccupied with my own parents that I haven’t really cared about anything else.” She gave him a quick, reassuring hug and picked her bag back up. “Thanks for reading the letter and for being such a butthead about it. I would have never locked it all inside.”
She brought the letter out form her pocket and slipped it into his hands. “Hold on to it. It’s safer with you than me.”
She hurriedly walked down the small slope and disappeared inside the Care of Magical Creatures classroom and left James there, smiling.
Julianne, Amy, Maya, and Alice rushed past James and met up with Lily. James seated himself on the dirt and rested his head on the ground.
He was happy. Several passerbies looked down on James. It’s wasn’t every day that you saw someone lying on their back on the mud and dirt and worms and grass and dead ants and where other people’s shoes have been.
Three familiar heads peered over James.
“What are you doing?” Peter asked.
“I don’t suck, do I?” was James irrelevant response.
“No…?”Sirius replied. “Are you O.K.? You look much happier than usual.”
“It’s actually quite scary from this position,” Remus added. “Look at him, he’s smiling like a maniac. Stop it, James, you’re scaring little Peter over here.”
“He looks just like his did in third year,” Sirius recalled, “when we blew up the boys bathroom. Doesn’t he?”
“Oh, yeah, and Snape happen to be in it?”
“Yup, that was fun.”
“We blew up the bathroom?” Peter scratched his head.
“Don’t ruin my mood, Wormtail.” James got up and wiped the mud and dirt and worms and grass and dead ants off his back and stared dreamily at his next class, hardly waiting to sit across from her.
Author's Note: Finally! I haven't updated in ages!!! I'm really sorry about not sending in chapters sooner, but I just took the CTP4s (I'm gonna fail) and my mom forced me to study study study study study. It's all over now, so I'M FREE!!!
Would all you respected reader/reviewers please pay tribute for all the innocent and dead ants by spending 10 seconds of your lives by thinking about the ants. Please leave reviews with you're best wishes and hopes for the future generation of ants. R.I.P. ANTS.