“Hey, Lily,” said James cheerfully, smiling as the redhead sat down on the empty seat beside him.
“Hi James,” she replied, gently laying down her book-bag on the floor. She smiled at him. “You have no idea how many scandals and discussions our working together has generated!”
James chuckled. “Oh yes, I do. Sirius and Remus are practically driving me insane over this,” he replied.
“So is Helen,” answered Lily, as she took out a spare piece of parchment and a quill. “I mean, they’re acting as if it were impossible for people who’ve had “ ehm “ disagreements in the past to be able to cooperate civilly with each other, without any romantic involvements.”
“Uh… yeah… I wonder why,” said James, though the only apparent lightness of Lily’s tone as she said this last part was not lost on him.
Lily grinned, now looking more confident. “I mean, it’s like they all either expect us to kill each other or to get married!”
James stared at her. “I didn’t see it this radically but, yeah, I guess you’re right…” He paused. “You don’t want to kill me, do you?”
The redhead laughed. “I want to kill you as much as you want to marry me…”
“Ain’t that a hoot,” muttered James. He really hoped she was joking, because, well… not that he felt ready for marriage, but, who knows, in the long run…
“So… did you bring the potion?” asked Lily.
James was glad for a change of subject at this point. “Yeah, here it is,” he replied, extracting it from his pocket.
The tiny vial contained a greenish liquid, which both were staring transfixed at. “Let me get this correctly,” said Lily. “Slughorn gave us this little potion, without telling us what it is. We have one month to figure out what it does, and how to counteract all of its components?”
“And,” added James, “once we do come up with an antidote to it, we actually have to make it, and we will be turning both samples in at the end of the month.”
“Sounds… interesting,” said Lily. “Okay, so… how do we start?”
“You’re the mastermind in Potions,” replied James as he stared at the liquid. “Anyway, I suppose we should begin with a chemical analysis of the concoction.”
“Okay.” She stopped for a moment. “But we should at least have a basic idea of what this thing might be, just so we don’t use it all up to test its reactions to different substances.”
“True,” answered James, slowly. “Well, it’s green: this implies there is probably some plant in there. Therefore, we should already exclude any potion not containing a high percentage of veggies.”
“I wouldn’t take that for granted, actually,” answered Lily. “If you’ve ever studied the chromatic scale when you were in kindergarten””
“I didn’t go to kindergarten,” answered James. “I mean… is kindergarten like primary school?”
Lily rolled her eyes. “I keep forgetting you come from a wizarding family. Anyway, no, kindergarten is before wizarding primary school. You go to kindergarten when you’re around four.”
“Ah,” answered James. “Then no, I didn’t go there.”
“Never mind,” muttered Lily. “Ever played with watercolours?”
James stared at her. “Huh?”
“Okay, whatever! In case you don’t know, if you mix yellow and blue you get green! Did you know that?” asked Lily impatiently.
“Oh, that? Yeah, sure. And if you put together red and blue you get purple, whereas red and yellow makes orange, and all the other shades are like in the middle. And if you blend every colour together you get grey. Yeah, I know that.” He paused. “What does my knowing how to blend colours have to do with anything?”
“James!” she yelled, frustrated. “I know you don’t listen to me, but do you at least listen to yourself?!” She took a deep breath. “Alright, James, let’s repeat what we just said. Blue and yellow put together become green, right?”
“Yeah,” answered James.
“And our potion is…?”
James stared at her for a moment before comprehension finally dawned on him. “Oh! You mean you think our potion is green because in it there’s something yellow and something blue?”
She smiled at him. “Good job, James!” she replied, giving the impression she was addressing a very bright child.
James blew a raspberry at her obvious sarcasm. “Fine. Then how the hell are you going to simplify our search when you’ve only just dismantled my theory? You’re the one who said we should try and ‘get a basic idea’ of what’s in this vial. How are you going to do that?”
“I’m not trying to dismantle your theory, James,” replied Lily. “I’m just saying we shouldn’t be excluding any possibility.”
”And yet you want to simplify our research… how?” asked James, raising an eyebrow.
“I don’t know,” muttered Lily. “Actually, I don’t know where to start. I mean, this thing could be anything!”
“Okay,” said James calmly. “Then we’ll write down every potion or ingredient we can think of that is green “ or blue and yellow combined,” he added hastily. “Then we’ll warm up the vial and see how it reacts. For instance, if this were made of Magnolicae leaves, it wouldn’t react to fire,” reasoned James.
“Magnolicae leaves?!” replied Lily, shocked. “How dare you even suggest Harry’s hands could be in here?!”
James stared at her a full moment at this, before bursting out laughing. “I wasn’t suggesting anything, I swear! You know how much I loved our child, Lily. Actually, I have to admit that after a month in his company I can’t help having it come to mind from time to time…”
Lily grinned. “I know, I was just joking.” She paused for a moment. “You won’t believe how much I miss looking after it… I was thinking of going to Hogsmeade to buy a little plant or something to care for…”
This time it was James who looked mock-hurt. “And you’re just going to replace our son like that? By buying any old plant?”
“Of course,” answered Lily.
“You are the most heartless person I’ve ever met.”
Lily smiled. “Oh I wouldn’t say that. Sirius was the one who called his ‘Turnip’.”
“Tru-ue,” chuckled James. He stared back at the vial. “I’m already bored. Why don’t we work on this later?”
“I have to study Charms and Defense Against the Dark Arts this afternoon,” said Lily thoughtfully.
James stared at her. “No, you don’t. We’re in the same class, remember, Lily? And Professor Baxter was absent Monday, which means we have no homework.”
“I know we don’t have anything new,” she muttered, blushing slightly, “but Defense isn’t really my subject and I was thinking of revising the Patronus Charm… I only got a distinct shape once…”
“Defense isn’t your subject?” repeated James incredulously. “You always get O’s in it!”
“I’m not you, James,” replied Lily forcefully. “It takes me more than a few seconds and a quick swirl of the wand to get the grades I have.” She paused, wanting to phrase what she had to say next in the nicest possible way. “I earn my grades, James. I work hard for them.” Okay, so maybe she hadn’t succeeded…
James stared at her oddly. “Meaning I don’t? You don’t think I deserve the grades I have? That I don’t work to achieve my goals?” His expression was difficult to read. “Is this what you’re saying?”
“No,” she answered quickly. “I’m just saying that it comes easier for some people rather than others””
“So you think I’m smarter than you?” asked James, surprised.
“I didn’t say that either,” muttered Lily.
James stared at her. “Oh yeah? Then what are you saying?”
Lily huffed angrily. “Fine. You want the truth, James? Yeah, you’re right. I do think you’re smarter than me. I know you are.” She paused. “And it kills me. It kills me because no matter how hard I study or how much I practice, it only takes you two seconds and you’re already miles ahead of me in everything.”
“You’re jealous of me?” asked James, more and more shocked.
“It’s not about being jealous, James! You don’t know what it’s like to be like me…” she trailed off.
He grinned. “What? Stunningly pretty and incredibly smart? Nah, I have a pretty good idea.”
“I’m not kidding, James.” She dropped her gaze to the floor. “I mean what I am. My parents, my family… what they are.”
“They’re Muggles and you’re a witch… what’s your point?” asked James.
“My point is that I’m not a witch! I mean, I am, but not like you!”
“Well, yeah, but that would be because I’m a wizard…”
Lily slammed her hand on the table angrily. “I was right, James, you see?! You haven’t grown up at all! Why can’t you just take me seriously for once?”
“Because you’re not saying anything I need to be serious about,” he replied, staring intently into her eyes. “Everything you might hear concerning your parents or where you come from is just bullshit, and you know it.”
“Yes, I do,” said Lily. “But it’s like I need to prove it to everyone! I mean, I feel like… like people don’t want me here. They don’t think I can make it. And I have to prove them wrong! I have to show everyone I’m as good as anybody else in this school! It’s easy for you or Sirius or Remus or Helen! You guys all come from wizarding families!”
“You feel you have to prove something to the world? And you think Sirius doesn’t?” He let out a low whistle. “And then you say I’m egocentric.”
Lily’s jaw dropped. “Excuse me? I have to wake up every day to people who tell me I’m not good enough, people who call me a Mudblood, and my own sister who hasn’t spoken to me in almost seven years because she thinks I’m a freak and you say I’m egocentric?!”
“Whoa, whoa, slow down!” said James. He looked sympathetic this time. “Your sister doesn’t speak to you?”
“Not ever since I got my letter,” replied Lily sadly. “And we used to be best friends.”
“I’m sorry, Lily, I didn’t know that.”
“That’s because I never told you,” pointed out the redhead. “Because I can’t talk to you. You always take everything like it’s a joke or something!”
“That’s how I am… that’s how I deal with stuff,” replied James. “Look, Lily, what do you think if we… this afternoon, how about we get together? I could help you out with your patronus and we could talk,” he said, emphasising the last word. “I mean, we’ve been yelling at each other for the past six years but we’ve never had any real conversations… we know nothing about each other, really.”
“I know you’re an arrogant nark,” said Lily, but she was smiling as she said this. “Conversations are slippery things. They can be dangerous.”
“I’m in it if you are,” answered the wizard.
Lily’s face broke into another, happy smile. James had to admit he felt quite proud of himself. “A conversation, you say? Between you and me?”
“Yeah,” replied James. “How about it?”
“I’d like that.”
“Cool,” said James. “Me too.”
“Heard that, Moony?” asked Sirius quietly, as he grinned at his friend. The two of them were huddled under James’s Invisibility Cloak, and were staring proudly at its owner and Lily. They’d only just walked into the library to hear this final exchange. “They’re meeting together this afternoon to talk… and it won’t be about the potion…” He grinned smugly. “Looks like you bet on the wrong party.”
The two Marauders had not meant to spy or eavesdrop on their conversation. But, after staring at the Marauder’s Map for almost an hour and seeing their dots always still at the same table, they’d grown suspicious: the fact that none of them had left implied they were probably not arguing or yelling at each other, and since Sirius thought it very unlikely that they’d spent the whole hour focusing entirely on the potion (when neither had ever gotten up to gather reference books), he’d convinced Remus to go check on them, just in case he’d won his bet before even he’d expected.
“We’ll just wait and see, Padfoot,” replied Remus, as the two of them began making their way out of the room as quietly as possible. After all, there was no more to see: Lily had already stood up, while James was gathering his books and exiting himself. “We’ll see…”
A Cauldronful of Lessons by Hallie Black
Chapter Notes: Do you love me or what? Huh? Of course, it did take months of silence from me, but now, at a day’s distance, I’m submitting not one but TWO chapters, of TWO different fics! And guess what? I have not one, but TWO new stories almost ready! How’d you like that?
Hopefully you’ve liked these new chapters… well, you know what to do by now, don’t you? It starts with an R- and ends with “EVIEW!! Yes, people! Review!! Pretty please?