L'Amour Commence by Pinkerton
Chapter Notes: Sorry, I seem to be addicted to cliff-hangers lately. Enjoy. :)
Sitting in the common room an hour later, they were all unknowingly thinking of the same thing. Lily, however, held a book up in front her face as a cover. I know�”I’ll go to Professor McGonagall. She’ll do something about it. She won’t let that hopeless git become Head Boy�”
“Hey Lil?” came Anne’s voice from the armchair across from her. “What are you reading?”
“Wha…?” she said, caught off guard. “Well actually�”er�”I was just thinking….”
Jen grinned in a way that made her strongly resemble Sirius. “Oh. So that’s why you’re holding it upside down.”
Lily flushed and threw the book onto the coffee table. Anne lunged towards her alarmingly. “Admit it. You can’t stop thinking about-“
But they did not find out what she couldn’t stop thinking about. For at that very moment, a loud BANG echoed around the common room. The girls whirled around to locate the source of the commotion.
Three of the Marauders were standing in the corner, laughing as they observed the scene of chaos before them. Seven of what could only be called ‘creatures’ were running around in front of them. Lily realized with horror that they were first years, although each one of them had a different colored fish head sprouting from their neck. They were going around in circles, flapping their arms desperately. The expression in Lily’s green eyes turned from shock to keen fury. She sprang up from her chair and was over to the corner in a flash. The Marauder’s laughter died out somewhat as she stood before them, arms crossed. Peter gave a quiet squeak of fear.
“What,” she said in a deadly voice, “is the meaning of this?”
“It means the spell works,” said Sirius as he marked something on a piece of parchment in his hands. She snatched it from him and tore it cleanly in two.
“Oy!” he yelped. “The enchantment was on there-“
“Where’s the countercurse?” she demanded. He looked unsure. “Er�”we haven’t really invented it yet…” Her eyes practically shot sparks.
“Honestly, Lily, it was only a little spell,” said James, grinning. First he rescues a first year, then he gives one a fish head? She turned disbelieving eyes on him.
“A little spell? A LITTLE SPELL?” she screamed. “YOU HAVE JUST PERFORMED A HOMEMADE CURSE ON SEVEN FIRST YEARS, AND THAT IS WHAT YOU CALL A LITTLE SPELL?” He held his hands up in a “don’t look at me” manner. “My God, Potter, YOU-ARE-HEAD-BOY!” She jabbed him in the chest with her finger. “I want you three to take these students to the Hospital Wing, now!”
“Look, we’re not done with�””
“NOW!”
“ALL RIGHT!”
James, Sirius, and Peter reluctantly pushed the fish-headed first years through the portrait hole. Lily stood there looking after them, fuming. When she turned back to her friends, they were both looking at her with a mixture of awe and fear.
“Blimey,” whispered Jen. “You don’t waste time, do you?”
She rolled her eyes and looked away. “I’m going to the library.” And without further ado, she also swept out through the portrait hole.
The halls were relatively quiet, although a few students were finally making their way back from the Great Hall. The last of the evening sunlight filtered through the castle windows. Lily went down the long hallway that led to the Library and Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom. The sun-tinted walls were a peaceful shade of orange. At the end she saw the large wooden doors. Unthinkingly, she pulled on the handle. It swung open. She felt a little bit of suspicion…weren’t the doors usually locked at seven? ‘Oh well’, she told herself. ‘Maybe someone needed to return a book or something.’ She walked in and the door snapped shut behind her.
The library was one of her favorite places in Hogwarts. One day, after she had finished school, she would come lock herself in here and read every single book. All frustration with Potter and the Marauders vanished. She walked in between the shelves, running her fingers across the spines of the books…
“Oh hello, Lily.”
She whirled around, her heart in her throat. A boy was sitting in the corner behind her, smiling. She let out a sigh of relief. It was Remus.
“Hello,” she said, walking over to him. “What are you doing here?”
He looked out the window he was facing. “I come to the library a lot to just think. It’s nice and peaceful here.”
“Me too.” She smiled as well and sat down next to him.
He looked at her and laughed. “Well, to tell you the truth, I came here to get away from James and Sirius. They told me they were going to conduct an ‘experiment’ on some first years.”
Her expression hardened. Remus noticed. “I take it the experiment worked, then?”
“You could say that,” growled Lily. “They basically gave seven first years fish heads.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Oh. Sirius told me if it worked he was going to try it on you.” She looked at him incredulously. “In that case, I’m glad I sent them to the Hospital Wing. Or else Jen and Anne and I might be stuck with fish heads for the next few days…they hadn’t even found a countercurse!”
“You sent them to the Hospital Wing?” She nodded. “I admire your courage. I’m sure I couldn’t have brought myself to do that.”
“Well,” she mumbled, blushing slightly, “I’m glad I did it, I like my head the way it is.” He chuckled.
“Maybe Anne would have gone to the infirmary with a fish head, but not you and Jennifer.” He clarified after catching sight of her expression. “Sirius has fancied Jen for quite a while now, he wouldn’t have let James or Peter do anything to her.” She giggled and he smiled again. “You didn’t know?”
“Now I do,” she said, still giggling. “I won’t tell anyone if you don’t want me to though.”
Remus shrugged and looked back out the window. “It’s obvious anyway, you don’t need to bother keeping it a secret.”
“But what about me? I’m sure Sirius would quite enjoy giving me a fish head.”
He turned to look at her. “James.”
“Er…” she said, confused. “What? Wouldn’t that just be the cherry on top of Potter’s sundae, giving me a fish head?”
Remus shook his head. “You don’t understand. He’s in love with you, Lily.”
She stared at him, nonplussed. “Wait�”what?”
“He’s in love with you. Been that way ever since third year. Yes, I know what you’re going to say, he’s always been rather fond of pranking you. But I think he’s just not sure how to express it.”
Lily had not said anything. Her mind was still echoing those three words…’He loves you’… I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or not. Wait, what am I saying, of course it’s a bad thing! Embarrassing me in front of his stupid friends, conducting experiments on students as if they were guinea pigs…
She looked back at Remus. “How do you know?”
“Well, considering I’ve been friends with him since first year…”
“Oh.” She realized the rudeness of her question. “Sorry, I should have realized�””
He cut her off. “No, it’s all right. I understand.”
There was a long silence as they stared out the window at the now dark grounds. Then another question sprang to her mind. “How do people like you get to be friends with people like Potter and Black?”
He did not look at her as he answered. His speech was slow, as if he was weighing each word.
“It always amazed me you could never tell. Your ability to see the good in others has always astounded me, and yet with James and Sirius…well, putting it lightly, you’ve always had a certain enmity for them. James in particular. I suppose it doesn’t come as a surprise that your perception of their qualities is a little clouded by prejudice, especially taking into account their horrible behavior the last couple years. But once you get to know them…when you were friends with them, like I am, you’d come to realize just how valuable their loyalty and support really is. That is why I’m friends with James and Sirius.”
They sat for a long while in silence. Lily pondered his words. She was embarrassed, but rather pleased about what Remus called her “ability to see the good in others”. So then, why was it she had never tried to see the good in James Potter? Was it because his attitude had so completely disgusted her at first that she couldn’t get over it? She remembered Jenifer’s words on the train…
“It sounds like you just want an excuse not to like James, and you’re too frosty to admit it.”
She felt a twinge of shame. Had she really been that icy and unforgiving toward him? She hadn’t meant to. The irresponsible things he did sometimes were just too much.
She didn’t even see as Remus got up slowly and walked away. After several seconds, she looked around and noticed he wasn’t there. She got up and ran after him.
“Remus, I think you’re right,” she confessed as they walked towards the library doors. “I don’t know about Sirius, but…you’re completely right about James. I was just so intent on hating him that I didn’t even notice he was actually being rather civil.” She went on in this vein for a while as they walked back to Gryffindor tower. Remus just smiled to himself.
When they finally reached the portrait hole, it was very dark and Lily supposed they were technically out of bed after-hours. She climbed through and he followed. Sure enough, the common room was empty and the fire had burned to red coals.
“Remus,” said Lily, turning to him all of a sudden. He looked at her. “I just wanted to say thanks for talking to me. I needed it.” And in a sudden rush of friendly gratitude towards him, she wrapped her arms around him in a huge hug. He was caught off guard, and just patted her back awkwardly. She was vaguely aware of someone whistling as they came through the portrait hole. Each of them looked towards the doorway. Lily felt like a stick of lead had been dropped into her stomach.
It was James Potter.