It looked like Sybill was right about the ‘Darkness closing in.’ I could see it closing in around me and preparing to kill an innocent girl who only wanted to dance on her roof.
Fear flooded through me. I couldn’t scream, however. You’d think a girl would be able to scream when she was falling helplessly from a roof, but whatever. I heard some little part of me yelling that she didn’t want to die. No one really knows fear until they fall from a roof. I guess this is what happens when you write stories about girls in graveyards.
Fortunately, Sybill’s prediction was inaccurate, and, to my relief, the darkness stopped closing in and I stopped falling.
There were two things that saved me. The first was that Hogwarts was not a normal castle and therefore did not have a normal roof. Instead of going in nice even slants, the roofs twisted and turned and are contorted into all sorts of strange shapes. I was lucky-or unlucky, depending on how you look at things- to fall on one of the strange contorted shapes that the Hogwarts founders decided to call a roof. I probably do not need to tell you that falling on a hard cement surface did not feel very good, in fact, it felt a bit like someone was attempting to cut my entire body in half with a plastic knife. I felt my hands unconsciously grasping all over the roof, trying to clutch onto anything that could possibly hold my poor body up. But the efforts of my hands were fruitless. I felt my body sliding down and off the demented architecture someone had the nerve to call a roof.
The Darkness started to close in again.
But fortunately, this time, it stopped quickly. I hit another roof-shaped-thing. This one hurt even worse: Imagine being cut open with a plastic spoon as opposed to a knife. I felt my body start to slide off again. This is where the second thing that saved me comes in; apparently, there was some sort of sharp metal stick poking right out of the roof. I have absolutely no idea why the builder decided to put a metal stick there, but perhaps it has some insane purpose such as catching falling girls from roofs. The horrible metal stick ripped right through my skin, forming a long, and painful cut from my thigh all the way up to my chest. In a way, it felt like I was being scratched by giant, rusty, eyebrow tweezers. In a normal situation I would’ve screamed over being attacked by eyebrow tweezers, but at the moment I thought I should probably focus on surviving.
As I slid down the roof I managed to grab hold of the metal piece that had scratched me. I stopped falling. I swear I almost cried in relief, except, like I said earlier, I was too busy focusing on survival. I had not gotten myself into a very good situation: I was hanging from a metal stick on the roof at midnight. Luck was definitely not with me tonight. My arms began to ache and scream and I knew it wasn’t going to be long before the Darkness started closing in again.
It was then that I realized that there was a window right by my leg. It just shows how stupid I was. I was composing in my head what my funeral was going to be like when I could’ve already been off this stupid roof.
I swung my foot back and kicked through the glass, hoping that no one was underneath it. I managed to swing and maneuver my body through the window and dropped down onto a hard stone floor. I vaguely realized I was right outside the Transfiguration room and was amused at the thought of McGonagall’s face when she saw the mess of broken glass I had made out of her corridor.
Obviously, I was in a quite a lot of pain at the moment, the eyebrow tweezers continued to scratch and pull at the horrible cut and my vision was beginning to get a bit blurry. I was also completely frozen in shock and unable to move.
But, believe it or not, that wasn’t the worst of it. The worst of it was that the last person that I would want to see at any moment”but particularly this one--was staring in shock right back at me.
I’m sure you can probably guess who that person was.
James Potter was standing right in front of me. But he wasn’t alone. His two sidekicks, Sirius and Peter, were standing right behind him staring at me as if I had just predicted that Armageddon would be happening in the next two seconds.
At that moment, my mouth and mind suddenly caught up with me, and I got all the hysterical screaming out that I was too afraid to do when I was falling from the roof. This probably wasn’t the smartest tactic. All three boys jumped up with stunned expressions on their faces, looking as if someone had just sprayed ice water all over them. The walls seemed to echo back the sound making it an endless scream that seemed to be coming from several people, instead of one very scared girl.
I could just imagine what I must have looked like at the moment: Completely soaked, a long, bloody scratch across my side, my torn pajamas sticking to the blood, and little flecks of dirt and rust encrusting around the edges of what had once been beautiful purple pajamas; shattered glass everywhere, and me, screaming hysterically. This really wasn’t my night.
I only stopped when I felt strong hands grip me tight and shake me slightly, while another pair of hands clasped right over my mouth, attempting to quiet me.
“Lily, Lily! Please shut up, you’re going to wake everyone,” I heard someone hiss at me. I was beginning to feel faint, so I decided to stop screaming. Actually, I felt very faint and leaned back slightly on whoever happened to be behind me. I felt the hand come off my mouth”which was a good thing, it tasted terrible”and I suddenly lost all the strength and dignity that I had been so valiantly trying to preserve, completely falling against the person behind me. I looked up to messy hair and a scared face staring right down back at me, apparently I was lying against James Potter. I looked down to see that Sirius Black had been the one with his disgusting tasting hands on my mouth, Peter standing behind him. Sirius should wash his hands.
Normally I would have been revolted to be lying in James Potter’s arms, but at the moment I was barely keeping consciousness. A deep cut, a fall from a roof, and hysterical screaming can do that to a person.
“What the heck happened to you, Lily?” James whispered frantically down at me. “Oh, never mind,” he said, shaking his head. Apparently, it had just clicked into his head that I was probably not in the best state to answer questions. He lifted me off the ground and into his revolting arms. Who did this guy think he was?
“What are you doing, Potter?” I managed to gasp out at him.
“What does it look like I’m doing?” he asked, walking quickly up the stairs. Sirius finally seemed to have gotten his voice back.
“Did you just fall from the roof?” Sirius asked in complete shock.
“No, I just enjoy breaking through windows,” I said sarcastically. Sirius ignored this comment.
“What were you doing on the roof?” But at this point I was unable to answer the question as James had just climbed a particularly steep step and jostled against the horrible cut. I yelped.
“Sorry.” James muttered. He was going pretty fast now; I was actually pretty surprised that he could carry me while practically running up the stairs. I could barely manage to walk up the stairs with my book bag. Not that I was impressed.
He finally stopped galloping up the stairs and stopped on a landing.
“Prongs? What the heck are you doing?” Someone came out of the shadows; I noticed that it was Remus Lupin. The competitive part of me vaguely realized that they must have been preparing some prank or another before they had run into my beautiful presence.
Remus gasped as he came close enough to see me lying, shocked, in Potter’s arms.
“What did you do to her?” Remus whispered rather loudly.
“What? I didn’t do anything to her, she did it to herself!” I wanted to correct him and say that in actuality it was Francois and the rain ganging up on me and forcing me off the roof, but didn’t get the chance as the King of the Gorilla People opened his large mouth again.
“Can you please just fix her?” he asked, pointing at the cut.
“No!” I yelled. They started making hushing noises. “Just take me to the hospital wing!”
“Yeah, and tell Madame Pomfrey that you flew through the window and ended up like this?! She’ll think we did this to you.” I glared at James.
“Good, you deserve punishment.” But apparently they all chose to ignore me as Potter set me on the ground and Remus leaned over me. I wondered why Potter just didn’t do the spell himself, but then assumed that, of course, he would not have the mental capacity to do such a thing. I was about to protest, but realized that that was quite hopeless as Remus took out his wand. I shut my eyes and again started to plan out my funeral. Let’s just say that I didn’t really trust a teenage boy to fix me as opposed to the esteemed Madame Pomfrey.
There was a flash of light and for a moment it felt like the cut was being banged with a sledgehammer, but then the momentary pain stopped and my skin felt normal again. I sighed and tentatively opened my eyes, praying that I wouldn’t see a tentacle or something where my leg had been. But thankfully, my leg was still a leg. I probably should have thanked Remus, but my politeness, has never, nor will ever, be extended to the Gorilla People.
Potter’s look of concern was then replaced by curiosity. I knew that this couldn’t be good for me.
“So Evans, now that we’ve got that cleared up, why don’t you tell us what you were doing crashing through that window.”
“How about, not.” I replied nastily.
“C’mon Lily! It’s the least you could do for the guy that just saved your life!”
“You did not save my life, Potter!” I yelled at him. They all started hushing me again and the King of the Gorilla People put his evil hand against my mouth. I glared at him. He took it off.
Well, I decided that that was about enough excitement for one day and attempted to stand, but Potter beat me to it. He lifted me into his arms again. Why does this guy think he has the right to do that?
“Potter, put me down! I am quite able to walk by myself now!”
“No. I don’t think I will.” I attempted to struggle, much to the amusement of all of them, but Potter just held tight. Why does he have to be so damn strong?
“Let go of me, now!” I hissed at him. His three henchman were laughing hysterically on the ground, but Potter continued to smile at me. He started walking again.
“POTTER! LET GO OF ME!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. Ha, that got their attention.
They all groaned and started running as fast as they could up the stairs, swearing under their breath. But did Potter let go of me? No, of course not. I thought that if I got him angry enough, he’d just drop me and I’d be free to go on with my happy life. But of course not. He just has to be so freakishly strong.
They finally stopped running and swearing when we crashed through some tapestry into what apparently was a secret passageway. I thought maybe they’d all get really angry at me, like normal people would, and they would finally set me free. I should have remembered that the Gorilla People- or Marauders as they like to call themselves- are not normal people. So, of course, they all naturally start laughing and exclaiming how exciting their lives were. Guys are so weird.
“Wow, Evans. You sure gave us a scare,” Potter said, looking at me proudly.
“Well, I do my best,” I responded sarcastically. “Now can you please, please, put me down!”
“My answer’s still ‘no’ Evans.” I glared at him and tried to escape, yet again, from his over eager arms. But he just grinned at me.
“I may, however, be willing to bargain with you,” he said smoothly. I considered.
“What do you want?” I spat out at him, with as much anger as I could from the position in his arms.
“A kiss.”
“No,” I said firmly, “absolutely not.”
“Well then, it looks like you’re going to be in this position for a while.” All four of them continued through the passage and onto a staircase somewhere. Can you believe this guy? My thinking was really quite sensible; there was no way he was going to be able to carry me all the way to Gryffindor Tower. I mean, I know he’s strong, but even he couldn’t do that.
I was right. Five minutes later I thought I would finally get away from him.
“Lily, I’m sorry darling, but I can carry you no longer.” I was ecstatic. But then, do you know what he did? He simply handed me off to that horrible creature named Sirius Black. I could’ve screamed in frustration.
“Black, put me down!”
“Sorry, Evans, but no-can-do. You don’t get put down until you kiss Prongs here.”
“Never,” I told him angrily. He just grinned at me. I attempted to escape squirming to the best of my squirming ability. But apparently Black is strong too. Five minutes later, he handed me off to Remus.
I thought that maybe, just maybe, I’d be able to escape from this guy. He didn’t appear to have super human strength like the other two. Once again, I was wrong.
“Would you PLEASE just put me down!” I spat out at Remus angrily.
“Sorry Lily.” Honestly, what gives him the right to call me Lily? I then realized who they were going to pass me off to next: Peter Pettigrew, the obnoxious, perverted, little rat of a boy. Obviously, there was no way I was going to do this. Just as Remus was about to hand me off, I started yelling again.
“NO! Fine, fine, I’ll do it.” I told them grudgingly. All four of the Marauders grinned their evil little grins.
“Marvelous,” said James, smirking like the demented hyena he was. “Do you swear?”
“What?”
“Swear that you’ll kiss me if Remus puts you down.” I glare at him.
“I swear,” I muttered. James grinned and took me from Remus’s arms.
“Potter. Put. Me. Down.”
“Sorry, Lily, but seeing as it’s you we’re talking about here, there’s a huge chance that you’ll run away if I let go of you.” I sighed. He was right. He grinned at me, closed his eyes, and puckered his lips.
Disgusting.
I took a deep breath and looked apprehensively at this new and horrible challenge. It was either this or be carried in Pettigrew’s sweaty, disgusting arms. I leaned in a little bit, trying to make myself do it, but then pulled back again. James peeked one eye open. He looked faintly annoyed that he still hadn’t been kissed.
“You can kiss me now, you know.”
“I know, Potter, shut up.” He shut his eyes again. After one more glance at Peter, my resolve was set. I slowly leaned in, counting to three in my head. One. C’mon Lily, you can do this. Two, almost time now. Three. I pushed my lips against his as fast as possible, pushed myself out of his arms when he wasn’t expecting it, and started racing as fast as I could down the first hallway I found. I heard laughs behind me.
“C’mon Evans, you can do better than that!” I heard Potter shout behind me. “Come back!” Ha! As if I would go back there! I quickly resolved never to tell anyone about this; not even Guinevere, to whom I confided everything. I would take this horrible and nasty secret to the grave.
I finally managed to get back to my dorm room. It was two o’ clock in the morning.
Tomorrow was not going to be fun.
***
After a horrible and very unrestful night’s sleep, I awoke to someone jumping on my bed.
“Oh LIL-EEEEEEY!!!” a loud and obnoxious voice yelled in my ear. “Time to get up! We gotta get down to breakfast in twenty minutes!” Great. This was just my luck. Apparently my long half hour shower was completely out of the question.
“I don’t want to get up.” I mumbled, pulling the covers up on me further. Those wonderfully warmed and comfortable covers were very rudely pulled off me a second later, however.
“Lily get up!” That same obnoxious person was now tugging at my feet. After only about five hours of sleep, I was not in the mood to fight back and was pulled completely off the bed. I finally gathered the courage to open my eyes to see very bright light and a too-happy-for-this-time-of-day face looking down at me.
“C’mon Lily, you’ve only got fifteen minutes now!” Guinevere yelled cheerfully down at me.
“WHAT?” I shrieked, finally processing the information and struggling out of my tangled sheets.
“We. Need. To. Be. Downstairs. In. Fifteen. Minutes,” she said slowly and clearly. I hate it when she does that. I raced to the bathroom where Clarissa and Valerie were applying their make-up. I raced into the shower, throwing my pajamas over the curtain.
“Nice to see you too, Lily!” Valerie called out.
I ignored them both as they laughed and tried to take the fastest shower in the history of the world. Piling soap and shampoo on at the same time I raced out, grabbed a towel and ran out of the bathroom. My friends laughed at the sight of me running around in nothing but a towel and trying to find all my clothes, which was rather difficult as they were all in a messy pile in my trunk. I pulled on Hogwarts robes and started yanking a brush through my hair.
“Where are my contacts?” I yelled, panicked. I started throwing everything out of my trunk in search for those stupid contraptions.
“Lily, you would know where your contacts were if you had unpacked last night like we told you too!” Clarissa yelled at me as we both searched through all my junk on the floor.
“I think I left them at home!” I groaned. Why did stuff like this always happen to me? I reluctantly pulled out my glasses case. I hadn’t worn glasses since second year, but what choice did I have?
“LILY!” Clarissa yelled at me, pointing at my glasses with a look on her face resembling the expression someone would wear if she found out that she was supposed to live on slugs for the rest of her life. No, I am not exaggerating.
“Lily you CANNOT wear those!”
“Why not?” I asked, astonished.
“They’re hideous Lily!” I stared at them; they were my pink ones with the fake jewels. What was so wrong about that?
“They are not hideous, Clarissa!” I yelled back at her. I attempted to put them on, but Clarissa yanked them out of my hands. And do you know what she did next? She broke them. She just plain snapped them in half. What kind of best friend would do that to a person? Now, snapping them in half wouldn’t be that bad, I could simply spell them together, but she didn’t just snap them in half; she threw them out the window to some place where they would never be found again.
“CLARISSA!” I screamed at her. “WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR?”
“I was being a good friend by not allowing you to disgrace yourself in public. You should be thanking me!” Thanking her? I couldn’t even see four feet in front of me and she wanted me to thank her?!
Seventh year was obviously destined to be unlucky.
Cinderella Was a Redhead by NeLLyRaE
Chapter Notes: Sorry this took forever, please review!