The next day, unlike his compatriots, James is feeling rather melancholy. Looking at him, one would hardly think that he and his friends are teetering on the edge of greatness.
“Dumbledore won’t know what hit him,” boasts Sirius as they leave the common room that morning.
They have again decided to not leave anything to chance, and resume their split-up strategy to keep Filch and the prefects off of their trail. However, this act only fuel Lily Evans’s determination to catch them in whatever mischief it is they are in the process of committing.
It is the last period of the day, and James is in Potions class with Professor Slughorn. James, who is normally very adept in potions, has trouble concentrating on what he is doing. His mind is wondering when he is jarred from his thoughts by Professor Slughorn’s request for the students to turn in their assignments. James is not paying attention to his cauldron, so his potion has coagulated into some sort of concoction resembling green porridge.
James gives an exasperated sigh and bottles his failed potion. At least a failure is better then an incomplete, James thinks to himself.
When James turns in his potion, Professor Slughorn is almost at a loss for words. “W-What’s this m-boy? This potion give you a spot of trouble?”
“Yes, Professor.” James shrugs. “I’d like to take another shot at it if you don’t mind. Maybe if I got a little help from a study partner, I could figure out what I did wrong.”
“Yes-Yes. Of Course! I should have known that a perfectionist like you would not give up until you conquered this potion!” beams Professor Slughorn. “Perhaps Serverus Snape will be of some help to you?”
“I-If it’s all the same to you professor…” says James as he ruffles his already-disheveled hair. “I’d prefer Lily Evans Sir,” James says meekly, earning him a sly grin from Slughorn.
“Oh I see Potter,” says Professor Slughorn while giving James a knowing expression. “Miss Evans…”
“Yes, Professor?” says Lily from across the room, next to the dungeon door.
“Potter here is having some trouble with this latest potion. Could you help him figure out what he did wrong please?” asks Professor Slughorn.
Lily shoots James a deadly sneer before answering through gritted teeth. “Certainly, Professor.”
James gathers his things and hurries after Lily.
“Potter…” calls Slughorn.
Yes, Professor?” James looks back.
“Good Luck,” says Slughorn, followed with a coy wink, which causes James to blush slightly.
James runs down the crowded corridor after Lily. “Hey, Evans, wait up!” shouts James.
“What do you want?” quips Lily.
“What do you mean?” James asks with mock innocence. “Professor Slughorn asked you to help me figure out what went wrong with my potion.”
“You and I both know that you don’t need any help with your potion,” hisses Lily while quickening her pace.
“Yeah but… A-hey will you slow down a bit?” James says before grabbing Lily by the arm.
“Don’t touch me!” Lily raises her fist as if to hit him.
“Hey-hey, take it easy,” says James with his arms up in a defensive posture. “Look, I just wanted to say sorry about last night.”
“Sorry?” Lily leans in and whispers. “What is your game here, Potter?”
“I don’t know,” James quips blankly. “I know that you probably hate my very existence.”
“Hate? I think that you are a foul, conceited, smarmy prat!”
“O-kay, I probably deserve that, but anyway, somewhere along the line, I fell for ya. Don’t ask me how or why. I have no idea,” James leans in to be closer to Lily as numerous students traverse the hall. “And I think that you like me too.”
Lily blushes slightly before regaining her stern expression. “I don’t have time for your games, Potter!” chirps Lily as she pushes by James.
“This isn’t a game Lily… Oi Everyone!” James shouts, causing everyone in the hall to pause. “I want everyone here to know that I’M BARMY FOR LILY EVANS!”
Lily stops dead in her tracks and glares at James. James looks back at her, not entirely sure what to do next. Lily hears a few on-lookers snicker, which causes her to turn and run down the corridor. James sees her, and quickly gives chase.
“Lily… Lily… Wait up!”
James finally catches up to Lily in the library. He takes hold of her arm, and spins her around. “Evans, what’s wrong?”
“What’s wrong?” Lily whispers as Madam Pince scowls at them for having the audacity to speak, no matter how softly, in her library. “You just humiliated me in front of half the school, and the other half will no doubt know about it by the time dinner is over tonight!”
“What, I thought girls liked that sort of thing?”
“In ruddy romance novels, not when it’s happening to them!”
“Oh uh… Sorry about that,” stammers James “But admit it, last night when we kissed, you liked it.” James smirks.
Lily’s face flushes bright red. “I-I have studying to do,” says Lily as she takes a seat at a nearby table. James stands and watches her for a moment as she pulls out her books and begins reading.
“Mind if I share this table?” asks James, taking a seat across from her before she even has a chance to answer.
“It’s a free library,” snaps Lily without looking up from her book.
Several hours later, Lily has moved onto her third book while James sits, watching her contently with his book turned to the same page it was on when he first opened it.
“Quit it!” quips Lily from behind her book.
“Quit what?”
“That- That! You’ve been staring at me for hours now. Quit it!”
“Go out with me on the next Hogsmeade trip.”
“What?” Lily sputters before pausing for a second as she actually gives his proposition some thought. “No! You can have you pick of any twit in this school, why are you all of a sudden so interested in me?”
“I’ve actually given it some thought.”
“Oh really?” says Lily, who adjusts herself in her seat. “And what have you come up with?”
“We’re forbidden fruit.”
“What?”
“You know from the story about Adam and Eve…”
“I know what forbidden fruit means, but what does it have to do with us?”
“You see, we like each other because we are each other’s forbidden fruit. You always want what you can’t have. Because we hate each other so much, we can never have each other. So, we desire what we can’t have… each other.”
“That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard,” blurts Lily, trying to hide the fact that she actually thinks it makes sense, in a warped sort of way.
James reaches across the table and takes Lily’s hands within his, causing her to blush. “Come on, Evans. Take a risk for once in your life. You might find that you’ll like it.”
Lily feels a shiver run down her spine. Her knees suddenly feel weak and she knows that they would have given out if she were standing. ”Is this what it’s was like to be smitten?” she wonders. Lily looks out a nearby window. The sun has set. She has no idea that they were in the library for so long.
Lily glances back at James, who was, again, watching her contently. His hands still entwined with hers. She looks down at them, and can’t tell which hand belonged to whom. They seem perfectly suited to fit together.
“Lily…” says James, jarring her from her musings. “Will you go out with me?”
Lily thinks about it for a moment. For the first time since the odd interaction started, she actually gives it real consideration. Having decided, she looks into James’s eyes. “Ye…”
Lily hears a loud pop followed by a flash of red light from outside the library window. She turns her attention back to James. Their eyes meet, but the glint in James’s eyes quickly fades, and he shamefully looks away. Then Lily understands. She comes to a sobering realisation.
“You were a decoy…” Lily whispers to herself. She pulls her hands away from James’s grasp, and repeats herself with increased fervor. “YOU WERE A DECOY!” Lily yells, while shooting James a death stare. He suddenly finds it very difficult to look at her.
“LOOK AT ME YOU SON-OF-A-BITCH!” Lily commands to which James cannot oblige.
James dares to steal a glance at her; only to find that she is now towering over him and the hatred in her eyes is burning as bright as her scarlet hair.
“Oh I have to admit it, you out did yourself this time, Potter,” Lily hisses. “Intentionally failing your Potions assignment so that you could get Slughorn to pair us up. The scene in the corridor. The speech about forbidden fruit… All of it just to keep me occupied so that your three cronies could pull off this stunt without having to worry about me raining on their parade.”
James just sits hunched over in his seat. He can’t say anything. He can only muster a disgraceful nod.
“Well congratulations, Potter. You did it.” Lily continues her tirade. “You thought of everything… BRAVO!” Lily claps, but her eyes are welling up with tears. “I b-bet t-that you and your f-friends are going to have a right old laugh at m-my expense,” Lily chokes as she bursts into tears. She hastily gathers her things and runs out of the library.
“L-Lily!” James calls out to her. He quickly gathers his things and chases after her for the second time that day.
James finds Lily hiding behind one of the tapestries in the corridor outside of the library. He pulls it back to reveal the sobbing girl who quickly starts to lash out at him. Her hands furiously fly at James, hitting him in the face and chest.
“Let me go, Potter!” Lily screams. The hallway is full of students, but James and Lily are oblivious to them as they rush to see what the commotion is outside.
“L-Lil… I’m.” James tries to restrain the hysterical girl. He is finally able to grab a hold of her wrists, and pin her against the wall. “LILY, I’M SORRY!”
A lump forms in James’s throat as he sees the hatred burning in her eyes. James has no qualms bending the rules, or even outright breaking them when the mood strikes him, but when he started toying with the rules of the heart, James realizes that he has crossed the line. For the first time in his life, he feels ashamed for something that he has done.
“Lily, You have no idea how sorry I am,” James pleads, only to get a punch in the eye before restraining her again. “Alright, will you please calm down and let me explain myself?”
Lily has no interest in hearing what James has to say. She continues to struggle in James’s grip.
“L-Lily Please!” James presses himself against her body, making it impossible for the smaller girl to struggle any more. “Look, yes I admit that it was my job to keep you distracted. You were getting too close, and we couldn’t take the risk of you catching us. We all agreed that we had to do something to keep you distracted, but I didn’t want to do it,” says James apologetically. “Whether you believe me or not, everything that I said in the library was the truth. I’m really sorry that I hurt you, and if I had the chance to do over this entire day and fix it, I would.”
“Stop it, James “ just stop it!” Lily shouts through tear-soaked eyes. “You can’t treat people this way. You can’t play with people’s emotions like a cat with a ball of yarn. How do I know that this isn’t another one of your games?”
The corridor is now empty. Everyone is outside the castle. James hears the popping noises from outside increase in intensity. James looks down at the sobbing girl, her vibrant red hair covering her face. “Come with me outside,” James says soothingly. “Come with me outside, and let me prove you that I’m not the smarmy prat you think I am.”
Lily looks up into his eyes and sees that he is sincere “ probably for the first time since they had met. She obliges him with a nod, and he lets her out from her spot against the wall. The two teens walk in silence. Lily holds herself trying to suppress the shiver that her nerves are sending her body. When they finally reach the courtyard of the castle, Lily looks up in amazement at the elaborate fireworks display in the skies above Hogwarts.
James reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small mirror. He looks into the mirror and after a few moments, his reflection turns into an image of Sirius.
“Whoa! Who decked ya mate?”
“Long story,” says James before taking a quick glance at Lily. “Everyone is here. Set it off!”
“It’s about bloody time,” barks Sirius before disappearing from the mirror.
Lily looks at James quizzically before being startled by a shriek that echoes throughout the castle. She, as well as the other spectators, turn their attention towards the source of the sound at the top of the Astronomy Tower.
That same sound echoes again as a series of firework explosions forms the shape of a giant phoenix. The fiery bird flaps its wings, and begins flying through the skies above the school. The phoenix streaks across the darkened sky leaving a fiery trail in its wake. Lily watches, with a growing smile on her face, as the phoenix blazes a message across the sky. Students and faculty alike start to cheer, realizing what the message is before the phoenix is finished writing the last word.
Lily looks at James and gives his hand a squeeze. She isn’t ready to forgive him for what he did that day, no matter how well intentioned, but she at least understands the reason behind the sneaking around he and his friends were doing over the past few days. Lily turns to look back at the emblazoned message in the sky.
Happy Birthday Professor Dumbledore!
James searches the crowd and eventually finds Professor Dumbledore surrounded by a crowd of students wishing him a Happy Birthday. James and Dumbledore’s eyes meet. Dumbledore gives James a pleasant and knowing smile, while lightly clapping his hands in James’s direction.
His triumphant comrades “ Sirius, Remus, and Peter, who were basking in the glory of their achievement, soon join James. However, the moment is bittersweet for James, who has paid a great price for it. Perhaps a greater price than he was expecting.
James looks longingly at Lily whose tear-wracked face is now replaced with that of wonderment as she watches the fireworks exploding overhead. Flashes of blue, green, yellow, and red lights from the fireworks periodically illuminate her face, silhouetted in the darkness. She glances over at James, and their eyes meet. James can still see the hurt in her eyes, but she acquits him with half a smile. They were not on very good terms to begin with, but James is now determined to win over her trust. James knows that he has a difficult task ahead of him, but he resolves that this girl is worth all of the effort and more.
A Marauder's Tale by NctnlBst
Chapter Notes: Here it is, the last chapter, and the thing that you probably have been waiting for since you read the summary. The one thing that I want to say before you read this last chapter, but without giving too much away, is to take a quick look at the previous chapters. No where in this story do I refer to it as a "Prank" I always call it a "Stunt". After reading this chapter, I think that you will know why. Enjoy!
And of course, where would I be without my beta reader Kask. Thank You.