The Gryffindor/ Hufflepuff Quidditch match was just about to start as Lily and her two friends, Dorcas and Marlene, sauntered into the stands. The pitch looked as bright as ever despite the dismal, gray clouds that circled above the stadium. It seemed the anticipation of the first Quidditch match of the school year was enough to turn the dreary weather into a much warmer and more welcoming environment.
Though quite chilly outside, none of the crowd seemed to notice. The decibel of the chatter was proof of the intense excitement. Lily, however, was not ecstatic enough for Dorcas’ taste.
“Oh, come now, Lily! You mustn’t frown. Potter may see you!”
“I know, I know.” Lily shook her head and said, “It’s just that I’ve so much work to do! You know how much homework we have in Potions this upcoming week.”
“Oh, cheer up!” Dorcas patted Lily on the shoulder with unnecessary roughness. “You can finish that later. Right now you must focus on OAF!”
Lily sighed and looked back down onto the pitch. The teams began to enter the arena and Lily watched as James strolled with confidence to the center. He unexpectedly began to turn his head in all directions, searching for something in the stands. His head stopped moving as his eyes rested on Lily. He gave her a brilliant smile and then waved with confidence.
Lily was surprised to blush at this unexpected gesture. Confusion spilling over her, she merely titled her ginger head at James until she felt a sharp jab in her side. Lily turned toward Dorcas and mumbled through clenched teeth, “Will you stop doing that!”
“Quickly, please!” Dorcas slightly motioned toward the pitch.
Lily lifted her heavily gloved hand and waggled her fingers back at James with a slight smirk. “You happy now?”
“Lily, please! I’m not sure you understand how important OAF really is! James Potter has been horrible to you, to us, since the first day you met him and you seem to be losing your edge as we draw nearer to gaining his trust!”
Lily rolled her eyes as this comment. “Oh, don’t be so dramatic. We’ll be fine. I just can’t see how this can work in the first place. “
“We’ve been over this! Lily, you must focus yourself, and remember what Potter has done to you! Remember the goo?” Lily’s face contorted and then released again.
“Yes, yes, I remember.”
“No doubt Potter will strike again soon.” Dorcas looked at Lily knowingly.
“Dory, I highly doubt after our conversation today that Potter will really prank us again. Not to mention the avid hatred I showed him after the last one,” Lily replied.
“You never know,” Dorcas insisted.
The Quidditch match had begun and the team members were flying about the field. James had the Quaffle at this point. He quickly flew his broom around the pitch, dodging two Bludgers and the Hufflepuff Seeker. Lily had known how great James was as a Chaser. Who wouldn’t with him gloating about so much? She thought. But she had not realized just how talented he actually was. Lily found herself cheering extremely loudly as he neared the three shimmering gold hoops across the pitch. It seemed that even those glinting hoops were rooting for James, for each time James neared them, he scored.
After Gryffindor had many goals, and Hufflepuff had a few as well, the Gryffindor Seeker finally managed to snatch the Snitch within an hour of the game starting. Gryffindor had won.
Lily was much happier by the end of the game than anyone anticipated. On Dorcas’ orders, they raced down to the pitch to go and congratulate the team. When they reached the Gryffindor team, James was already surrounded by a group of girls of all ages and houses.
James looked up from one particularly small girl who Lily could only assume was a first year for she was asking for an autograph, and made eye contact with Lily.
James broke away from the gaggle of girls and waltzed over toward Lily. She smiled warmly at him and said, “I see you already have a flock of girls around you.” She glanced down at her watch. “And not even two minutes after the game has ended.”
“A flock of girls over a flock of birds I always say.” James smiled.
An awkward silence occurred between the pair. Lily tried to reconcile it. “Well, I’m off I suppose. I’ll see you in the Head’s room later?”
“Yeah,” James replied. “I’ll see you later.” Lily walked away from James and towards Dorcas and Marlene.
“Shall we head up to dinner?” Dorcas asked, her pale features contorted into a strange look.
“Yeah, let’s,” Lily responded. The trio went up to the Great Hall and sat down to supper.
“I wanted to talk to you about OAF, Dorcas,” Lily started.
“Oh, dear. What is it now?” Dorcas rolled her eyes and looked back at Lily
“Well, it just seems that James is different than before. I mean, he hasn’t pranked us for a while, and it doesn’t seem as if he will. So…” Lily looked back down at her food. “… I think we should call it all off.” Marlene sighed in relief.
“Arrrg!” Dorcas grumbled. “Lily, you’ve just got your head in the clouds right now. Just because you had one or two decent conversations with Potter doesn’t mean that he’s changed at all. It just means that he’s playing you like a violin!” At this moment James and his cronies arrived in the Great Hall.
Dorcas studied the group as they sat down across the Great Hall. Lily watched the pack as well, noticing James’ customary disheveled hair. Yet Lily couldn’t help but think that James had a way of making that hair seem extremely stylish. “I’m telling you, Lily, they have something up their sleeves.” Dorcas’ eyes narrowed slightly as she stared at James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter.
“Whatever you say, Dorcas. Whatever you say,” Lily replied, discreetly rolling her eyes. “I’m going up to the common room now to grab my things out of your dormitory, and then I’ll head off to the Head’s room.” Lily smiled at her friends and they said goodbye, stood up from the bench, and made her way to the Gryffindor common room.
Lily took the steps two at a time as the staircases slowly changed directions. She took a glance, as she always did, at the painting containing three mermaids, joyfully playing in a sky-blue pond beneath a just-as-aqua sky and some low hanging palm branches. She smiled and sped up as she raced up the staircases.
Finally reaching the Fat Lady, she mumbled “Oblivio”, the password, and made her way into the common room.
Lily quickly ran up to her friends’ dormitory and grabbed her overnight bag. She worked her way hurriedly down the stairs, perfectly content and humming some tune she could have sworn she heard on her parent’s radio before she had left for Hogwarts, but she was not sure. The Girl from Ipanema, she recalled the name of the song as she continued through the portrait hole.
Yet something was not right. She heard some voice in the distance mumble, “Avis.” But before Lily had time to react, a flock of birds began attacking her. The white-feathered menaces were jabbing their sharp, short beaks into Lily’s ginger hair and slim waist.
“Ouch!” Lily screeched, a small trail of blood beginning to run down the side of her face from a particularly sharp prod.
“Evanesco!” A female voice shouted from the staircase below her. The birds suddenly disappeared, leaving a sole feather to slowly float towards the ground as if it had not been attached to an attacking bird just moments before.
If it had not been for her anger, Lily knew that the hot tears that now threatened to spill out of her eyes would have already been rolling in twin streams. Her fury, however, was enough to keep her lamentable emotions in gear. Who she was angry at she did not know. But what she did know was that once she discovered the person who had done that to her, she would no longer hold out on her ferocity.
That same female voice that had shouted Evanesco now broke her train of though, “Lily! Oh, Lily, what happened?”
Lily looked up and saw Dorcas running towards her, her ebony locks trailing in a smooth motion as she rushed to Lily’s side.
“I saw Potter running down the stairs with a smirk, and then I heard your screaming. What in the world did he do to you?”
“Potter?” Lily had heard nothing but his name. “What do you mean Potter?”
“Lily,” Dorcas replied, “he was the only one who was anywhere near you. We all saw him leave the Great Hall just moments after you left. So I followed him, but couldn’t keep up. Why in the world would he set a flock of birds upon you?” It was a this moment that Lily realized that it was indeed James Potter who had once again ruined her day. Flock of birds, she thought, scrunching her eyes as if it would improve her thought process. Then she recalled that moment today at the Quidditch match “A flock of girls over a flock of birds…”. Lily’s eyes opened wide and a single tear managed to work its way out of her left eye.
She had forgotten that Dorcas was even standing next to her as the hot water drop slid down her cheek, stopping only for a moment at her chin, and then dropping off her face and onto the floor with a soft echo. With that tear left all of her sadness. She now only had anger. “Potter,” Lily growled softly.
“Lily, you all right?” Dorcas asked.
“I’m fine, Dorcas, fine.” Lily turned and faced her friend. “Now, what’s the next step in OAF?”
Dorcas stared at Lily’s face as her facial appearances gradually became darker and darker, even though a mischievous smile played on her lips. But Dorcas ignored he friend’s changing features and instead smiled back. “You must say yes to his next invitation.”
Lily said nothing in return, but instead began walking down the stairs towards the Head’s room. She noticed that Dorcas did not follow her, but she did not care. She was sure she could take it from here on out.
She made her way down the stairs until she reached the portrait of Winston Mathem, the artist who resided within the Head’s room’s entrance. Still, Winston’s canvas appeared blank, and Lily absentmindedly wondered if Winston ever painted anything with his paintbrush.
“Ah, Lily. Hmm, let me see…” Winston mumbled to himself, trying to think of a question for Lily as he tapped the end of his paintbrush upon his upper lip. “Oh, yes. What day was James born on?” Lily quickly glanced up at Winston.
“Sorry?”
“I asked you James’ birth date,” Winston replied, still chipper.
“Oh,” Lily replied. She had no idea the answer to this question, and therefore, knew she would not be able to get into. “Bother,” she mumbled to herself. “Now I’ll never get inside.” Winston glanced down at Lily sympathetically, but said nothing. Lily couldn’t help but feel that the fact that Winston believed she could have ever known James’ birth date was unfathomable. How in the world was she to know that?
“You know, Lily, the whole point of this is to get to know James better as the other Head.” Lily did not reply to Winston’s comment, but only leaned against the wall.
A moment later, Winston’s head looked up from his blank canvas, smock askew, and said, “Ah, Mr. Potter, perhaps we can give you a try. When is Lily’s birth date?”
James, without flinching, replied, “January 30.”
Lily turned around quickly and titled her chin up slightly so that she could look James in the eye. “Now why would you know a thing like that?”
James shrugged in reply, but then his eyes grew wide. “Lily! What happened to you?” He lifted his arm and wiped his hand across Lily’s left temple, cleaning up some of the blood.
“Oh,” Lily’s rage filtered into her body as she recalled why she had rushed back to the Head’s room. “Nothing, really, just a slight spill down the stairs after a bird flew at me. I’m perfectly fine though.” The honest truth was that Lily’s head hurt a lot, but she would never let Potter know that. Nor would she hint to him that she knew it was him who had set a flock of wild birds upon her. For once, Lily did not care if anyone knew that she was correct; she could only focus on getting James back for what he did to her, starting with getting him to ask her out.
The pair heard a cough behind them and they turned around. Winston stood open, obviously waiting for them to enter.
“Oh, sorry,” Lily muttered, walking through the portrait hole.
“And, no, it’s not all right. Sit down and I’ll get a towel.” James pushed Lily toward the scarlet couch that sat in front of the fireplace and Lily moved accordingly. A moment late James arrived with two towels, one damp and one dry.
He sat down next to Lily and began to softly dab the side of her face. Lily winced in pain as he hit the spot where the vicious bird had prodded her.
“Sorry,” James apologized, now moving the cloth over her face with even more gentleness than before.
“Don’t worry about it,” Lily replied. He face grew hot and red as she remembered the birds. She did not understand why James had done that. The only explanation she could come up with was that he had not changed. She had been wrong. Tears stung her eyes again, but this time, they were an effect of the pain James was creating. She knew he was trying to be gentle, but it honestly was not working very well.
“I’m sorry, Lily,” James apologized once more. He did feel bad, and Lily felt sympathy for making him feel sorry, but she could not forgive him for doing this to her in the first place. Why won’t he just admit it? Lily wondered to herself. What is he trying to hide?
Yet James’ face showed no guilt, just sorrow; sincere sorrow for what had happened to her. But Lily’s head began to hurt even more and she wished James would just ask her out so she could say yes and pay him back the pain he had dealt her.
When James had finished, Lily feigned interest in him by asking him questions about this and that, sometimes mentioning details from her own day. She was trying much harder than she ever thought she would, her experience with the birds earlier continued to push her to all extremes to return James the favor.
As their conversation continued, Lily could tell James was getting nervous about something. She knew that he was trying to prepare himself to ask her the question she was waiting for; the question she usually dreaded.
And finally, it happened. James looked Lily in the eye and began, “Lily…”
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Lily lay in her bed, wondering what exactly she had just done when she heard a door slam. She sat up in bed abruptly, arching her slender neck and plunging her right ear into the impenetrable dark to attempt to listen better. She then heard a curse from a male voice, and then nothing. Lying back done and glancing at her tableside clock, she wondered where exactly James Potter was headed to at 2 o’clock in the morning.
________________________
Remus and Sirius were sitting on Sirius’ bed playing Wizard’s Chess as James came running into their dormitory.
Remus noticed his flustered composition and asked, “James? What’s wrong?” James did not answer, but instead a small smile crept up the right side of his face toward a bruise on his temple. “James?” Remus tried again, “What’s the matter? You get into a fight?”
For the first time since his entrance, James looked at his friends. “I was sitting with Lily, cleaning up the blood on her face, and then I just did it! I asked her out.”
“Blood? James, what did you do?” Remus’ eyes grew wide.
“No! That’s not the point! I asked her out!” James’ smile grew even larger.
”What else is new?” Sirius and Remus shared an amused glance. Remus then looked at James’ face and noticed that it was different than he had ever seen it before. The usual laugh lines that surrounded James’ mouth had dissolved into a much more confused smirk as James bit his lip. “James, why are you telling us this?”
James’ eyes shot up and he looked at his friend’s faces. “She said yes.”
OAF: Operation April Fools by The REAL Weasley Twins
Chapter Notes: I hope you enjoy it. :)
Chapter Endnotes: Whew! On to Chapter 5! I hope you all enjoyed this one. It was odd for me, for I wrote the beginning and the end of this chapter before actually writing the middle. I do wish that you enjoyed it though. :)