“You’re lying,” were the first words to spring from my mouth.
Hollie shook her head and grinned, “Afraid not. He asked me before dinner tonight.”
Sirius’s voice echoed through my mind. “James is known for making rash decisions when he is depressed or angry.”
Rash, he said? Rash is an understatement! I was suddenly extremely angry. How dare James do this to Lily? To add to that, it’s just like Hollie to completely go along with it. I could tell she had been waiting to hurt me, and this was her chance. The only catch was this time she was hurting me through one of my best friends, through Lily.
“Hollie,” I said through clenched jaws as she beamed her lovely, triumphant smile, “You have no idea what kind of problems you have caused here.” Without planning, without thinking, I pulled my arm back and it shot into her face.
Hollie screamed and it took a moment for me to realize that I had hit her dead in the nose. I didn’t pause to take in the sight of the blood that was now erupting from her nose; I just turned on my heel and dashed out of the Great Hall. I had to find Sirius.
It didn’t take too long to find him, seeing as though he was in a loud argument with James near the library. I followed the sound of their voices, and there they were.
“James, you and Lily belong together,” Sirius was saying, “You should have seen her sitting in the Great Hall, she looked absolutely crushed!”
I marched up to them, immediately joining their conversation, “James Potter, what the hell were you thinking? Why did you even consider asking Hollie out when you’re in love with Lily?”
James stared at me. “How do you know about me asking Hollie?”
I let out a heavy sigh. “Let’s just say that Hollie Larson can’t resist a chance to gloat.” I couldn’t help, but grin when the image of Hollie and her bloody nose swam across my mind.
Sirius cast me a sideways glance. “Amelia, what did you do?”
I shrugged. “Nothing. I didn’t do anything.”
“Look you guys,” James said, “I know you’ve been trying to get Lily and I together. I mean, all those secret meetings with each other in the evening, it was kind of obvious that you were planning something. I’m really sorry that I screwed up your plans so much. Ever since third year, I thought I fancied Lily because she’s pretty and very well liked. I told myself, ‘James, it’s about time you got yourself a girlfriend’ so I looked at all the girls in the year and I picked her.” James sighed. “I pestered her and tried in vain to win her heart, but then this year, Amelia, you told me that I should be myself around her and so that’s what I did. That made me realize how big of a prat I was. I thought I knew Lily, but I was completely wrong. After all these years of nearly stalking her the most I knew was what that she was Muggleborn and still extremely smart. As I’ve gotten to know the real Lily this year, I’ve been realizing how wonderful she is. Not only is she beautiful, but also she’s also nice and funny and when I found out that she fancied me… I just couldn’t believe it! To tell the honest truth, I was scared. I didn’t want to mess up this new friendship, so I freaked and asked the first girl I ran into, which was Hollie. How was I supposed to know that Lily was coming down the stairs behind me at that exact moment to ask me out? Now because of my own stupidity, it’s all ruined. Now everyone knows how screwed up I really am.”
Sirius smiled grimly and put his arm around his best mate’s shoulders. “You’re not screwed up, Prongs. You just have… relationship issues.” James smiled gratefully at his friend.
“Look on the bright side,” I piped in, “if you go back to the Great Hall right now, I’m sure that you could just tell Hollie that it was a mistake and ask out Lily instead.”
James shook his head. “I could never do that. I told her I’d go with her, and however ‘relationshiply challenged’ I am, I can’t go back on my word.”
“Yeah, but it’s Hollie!” I pressed. “She’ll sob for awhile and bounce right back by hitting on the next attractive bloke who comes along.”
James looked at me like I knew nothing. “I’ll think about it.”
The three of us trudged to the Great Hall for supper. I dreaded the moment when Lily would look up from her silent vigil and see James, but she was no longer seated at the Gryffindor table. Assuming that she had finished eating and returned to the common room, I settled down with my two friends.
It wasn’t long before Micky and Haylie joined us. They were giggling to each other as they plopped down across from us.
“What are you laughing about?” I questioned, eyeing them suspiciously.
“You mean you haven’t heard?” Haylie asked, looking shocked. I shook my head and Micky looked scandalized.
Sirius’s eyes narrowed. “What is going on, you two?”
“Fine, I guess I’ll have to tell you,” Micky said and immediately launched into her tale. “Lily got into a fight… with Hollie Larson, the Ravenclaw transfer.”
My mouth fell open, and James’s face turned pale. “What?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper.
Haylie nodded, “We were on our way down here and we saw it all.”
“They were standing in the corridor just above the Entrance Hall when we arrived. Lily seemed calm and cool, she knows how to keep her head in a fight, but Hollie was shrieking her head off,” Micky explained.
“Why?” I asked, “Why would Hollie be screaming at Lily?”
“Apparently Lily got one of her friends to do her dirty work. What that is, we have no idea,” Haylie said.
My stomach dropped. They may not know what Hollie was talking about, but I did. Hollie, in her anger against me for hitting her, went after Lily. After all, I did punch her because of what she did to my redheaded friend. It was the perfect excuse.
“But in the process of this ‘dirty work’ Hollie got punched in the face,” Micky added, “you should have seen her face… her nose looked broken for sure.”
Sirius’s head immediately whipped around to glare at me. “Is that what you were grinning to yourself about before? Because you punched Hollie?”
An excited shout came from Haylie as she slammed her fist down on the table. “You mean you’re the one who hit her, Amelia? That’s brilliant! Way to go!”
James sighed heavily and laid his head on the table in frustration. “Amelia, what the hell were you thinking?”
I glared at him. “Hey, I was defending Lily. Plus, you didn’t hear the way Hollie was talking about it. ‘Aww, your friend looks so sad! I wonder what is wrong with her.’” I mimicked Hollie’s fake tone of sadness and then moved on to squealing happily, “’Hey, you’re going to the ball with Sirius! I’m going with James!’ You can’t blame me for hitting the girl after the way she played it out.”
Haylie was obviously bored of this and decided to keep the story flowing, “Anyways, Hollie was screaming about being hit by Amelia and Lily just ignored her. Lily then told Hollie that she shouldn’t be the one throwing the hissy fit; she won James, and stalked off. She probably went up to the common room.”
“Hollie obviously didn’t like that, because she followed Lily saying that Lily was just jealous. Lily turned back around and told Hollie that she had no reason to be jealous because Lily already had a date and then she left for good,” Micky finished. “I wonder what Lily was talking about though… last time I checked she didn’t have a date or anything. I don’t think anyone even asked her.”
I sighed. It was so cruel of Hollie to be picking on Lily. My mind burned in anger at the injustice of it all. Hollie finally gets what she has wanted since our first night here, a Marauder to ask her out, and so she has to parade around like she is the best, throwing it in the “loser’s” face. “Lily told me that she had been asked to the ball by several guys, but she was waiting for someone.” I cast a glance at James, who seemed to slump in his seat at my words. “She must have decided that it wasn’t worth the wait and said yes to someone.”
“Smart girl, that Lily,” Sirius commented with a tone of sadness in his voice. “Even in disappointment, she manages to keep her head high and not let it get to her.”
These words, obviously meant to comfort James, didn’t seem to do anything but make the situation worse. James got up from the table. “This is all my fault. Sorry guys, but I just need to be alone right now.”
Haylie and Micky, who didn’t have the slightest idea what was going on, gaped at his retreating figure.
“What’s with him?” Micky questioned, turning to Sirius and me.
I shrugged. “Probably just upset that Lily found someone else.”
“But he asked Hollie out… doesn’t that mean that he’s not into Lily anymore?” Haylie asked.
Sirius shook his head. “It’s complicated.”
James, Sirius, and I spent the rest of the meal in relative silence. I could tell that all our minds were on the same thing; we were all trying to sort through the varied events of the day. It started out in Hogsmeade with everything being wonderful and then the whole social world turning into a muddled mess. James was going to the ball with Hollie after all the planning Sirius and I did, and Lily is forced to go with someone else she probably doesn’t even care for.
Micky and Haylie, on the other hand, couldn’t stop chattering. It seemed as though the fight between Lily and Hollie was a major gossip point, and the two couldn’t stop dissecting every little detail about the situation.
Later that night, I sat on my bed in the dormitory, running the day’s events through my mind for what seemed like the millionth time. I knew that nothing more could be done about it, but Hollie’s triumphant face still loomed in the back of my mind. My heart ached for me to find a clever way to get her back for hurting my closest friend, but I knew that wasn’t the best option. Last time I tried that, Sirius and I ended up in a fight and I didn’t feel the joy of revenge I expected. No, there was nothing that could be done about Hollie Larson.
I heard a creak and the door slowly opened. Glancing over, I was relieved to find that it was Lily standing in the doorway. I motioned for her to join me, and she softly made her way over to my bed and plopped herself down.
“Some day, huh?” she asked, letting out a heavy sigh.
I nodded. “Yeah.”
“I suppose Micky and Haylie told you about the fight?”
“You know Micky and Haylie, always spreading around the latest gossip,” I said, “at least they haven’t told the whole school that I was the one to break Hollie’s nose, but I’m sure that one will get around eventually.”
Lily looked at me sharply. “That was you?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t help it. I’m sorry it caused you trouble and all, but she was being really rude. Typical Hollie, trying to gloat and show off all the time.” I smiled bitterly, wishing Hollie wasn’t so good at being nasty.
“It’s alright. At least I didn’t let her get to me during the argument, and I’m really fortunate to have accepted David Anders just minutes before, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have been as well off as I was,” Lily shrugged.
“So this David Anders is the one that you’re going to the ball with then?” I asked, wondering who this boy was.
Lily nodded, “Yes, he’s a sixth year Hufflepuff. I don’t really know him well, but he’s friends with Amos Diggory, who seems alright, so I’m sure it’ll be fine.”
“So he’s in Amos’s group of friends,” I mused, “which one is he?”
“The big curly blonde one,” was her reply.
“Oh yeah, I’ve seen him around. He looks alright,” I commented, remembering catching glimpses of the tall Hufflepuff in the hallways. He towered over everyone, and I just pictured Lily in her gown looking tiny compared to him.
Lily let out a grumble as she leaned back and lay on the bed, red hair streaming over the crimson blankets and green eyes scanning the ceiling. “This whole ball idea was stupid. When this is all over, I’m telling Professor Dumbledore never to have another one of these unless he can help it.”
I considered this, “People seem to be really into it though, I’m not sure they’d be too happy if you told him that.”
“Yeah, but these things create way too much drama. It’s better to avoid that stuff whenever possible,” Lily argued.
“Well, we are living in a school of confined magical teenagers. I think drama is inevitable.”
“All we need is a ball to bring it all to the surface,” Lily countered with a small grin on her face.
I giggled at how true this statement was, “Well, just one more week until it’s all over.”
Lily sighed wistfully, “One more week.”
A Girl Like You by Lady Alanna
Chapter Notes: Sorry about the cliffhanger in the last chapter. I meant to get this one up faster so you wouldn't be on the edge for a long time, but things got a little complicated. This is just a filler chapter in which several things are settled, but the next chapter is the Ball, so there's something to look forward to. :) Thanks so much to everyone who's been reviewing, you guys are great, and thanks to Kate for her great beta services.
Chapter Endnotes: It didn't all end in the best of ways, but that's what makes it interesting!! Like I said before, next chapter is the Ball so I'll hopefully be getting that to you right when this one gets up. Don't forget to be awesome and leave reviews because I love hearing what you all have to say!! ;)