We try to take it slow, but we're still losing control
We try to make it work, but it's feelings of the worst
And I'm crazy for trying to be your lady
I think I'm going crazy
Black Eyed Peas, Shut Up
Chapter Two: Flip-flops and Shocks
The next morning was Potions first thing. Lily caught James's eye and blushed furiously, remembering the owl she sent him last night. This rather surprised her. She NEVER blushed because of James Potter. Never. Ever. She hid her head slightly when she was forced to sit next to him during breakfast. It was either that or sit at the very end of the table, a place she didn't like very much. James grinned broadly at her as she sat down stiffly next to him.
"Good morning, m'dear." he said brightly. Lily sighed and rolled her eyes.
"How many times have I told you not to call me that?" she asked exasperatedly. James pretended to count off his fingers.
"I believe the record is three hundred and sixty-five." he said seriously.
"Wow, I thought it was much more than that." Rochelle said sarcastically. She, Nidale, and Lily were much happier that morning. The night before, they had all made a pact that in three years they would meet at King's Cross, no matter the circumstances.
"Schedules are here." Remus said as the 7th year's schedules were being passed down to them. Sirius glanced over it.
"Oh, would you look at that! We have a Hogsmeade trip in three weeks! Rochelle, would you like to accompany me?" Sirius said in mock surprise. Rochelle rolled her eyes.
"Give it up, Sirius. Besides, I have Quiddich practice early in the morning that day, I'm probably not going to be up to it." she said matter-of-factly. Rochelle was the keeper for Gryffindor. Sirius turned to James.
"Nice day to schedule a Quiddich practice, Mr. Captain." he said, sniggering. Silently, James agreed. He had been hoping he could get Lily to spend the day with him at Hogsmeade and already, he had messed that up. "Typical me.." he grumbled.
The seven of them, that is James, Lily, Sirius, Remus, Rochelle, Nidale, and Peter, headed down the stairs and into the halls of the dungeons.
"The first class of the year and we have Salandar..." Lily grumbled, refering to their potions master. He was old, fat, and Lily felt that he personally hated her. There had been numerous when Salandar would take points from Gryffindor because Lily had done small things like trip him by total accident and James would stand up for her and say that it was unfair and Gryffindor would end up loosing twice as many points as it started off with. Lily smiled to herself, thinking about this. She then snapped out of it, mentally hit herself on the head, and scolded herself for even thinking happy thoughts about James Potter. The thought of that sent a shiver down her spine. There were few seats left and in all of the clutter between the Gryffindors and the Slytherins (who they had potions with), Lily found herself sitting next to James, something she hadn't intended on doing.
"Well, if it isn't Miss Lily Evans actually sitting next to James Potter twice in one day!" James cried, dramatically put his hand on his chest in surprise.
"Ha ha." Lily said sarcastically. James smiled slyly at her.
"Oh, come on, you know you wanted to sit next to me." he said, grinning broadly again. Lily rolled her eyes, but for once, she didn't have a verbal reply. James smirked smugly at her, his hazel eyes full of warmth. She opened her mouth and was about to reply when Professor Salandar entered.
"Five points from Gryffindor for talking, Evans." he snapped, obviously taking her open mouth as a signal she was talking. James's jaw dropped in anger.
"She wasn't talking!" he said defensively. Lily could feel herself turning red from the embarrassment of having James Potter stick up for her.
"Ah, but Mr. Potter, you are. That's another five points from Gryffindor and if you have anything to say about it, Mr. Black, I don't mind taking another five points off." Salandar snapped, eyeing Sirius's open mouth, which was poised so you could tell he was about to say something. He shut it grudgingly and settled on simply glaring at the old man.
"Grouchy old git." James muttered angrily. Lily sighed.
"You didn't have to do that." she whispered so Salandar could not hear her. James shrugged.
"It's tradition." he murmered simply. Lily turned to look at the Professor and could help but let the smile that was creeping onto her face come out into the open.
"I'm not going to waste your time on speeches or lectures about N.E.W.T.'s," Salandar started. Everyone cheered, "I'm saving that for next term," everyone 'awwwww'ed, "Your first potion I want you to concoct takes two. So, boys, you can pick your partners."
James turned to Lily with a lopsided grin. Lily sighed again.
"Let's start." she said, deciding not to protest. She looked over and saw that Sirius had cornered Rochelle into being his partner and that Nidale was with her boyfriend, Brad. She turned back to look at James who had been watching her watch the people around her. He smiled weakly at her and Lily was surprised to feel herself returning the smile.
"Hormones...." she thought to herself, mentally shaking her head in disgust.
They started to add in their ingredients to their cauldron, working in silence. James was afraid he would say something wrong and Lily was afraid Salandar would take more points off if she talked too much. There were times when Lily would glance up at James to see him staring at her and her emerald green eyes and his warm hazel eyes would meet and Lily's stomach would do a back flip.
"Pass me the gillyweed, James?" Lily asked without thinking.
"AHA!" James shouted. Professor Salandar and most of the class looked at him warily.
"Sorry.." he muttered.
"Aha!" he whispered in Lily's ear. She raised her eyebrows.
"Aha what?" she inquired, returning to the potion.
"You called me James, not Potter!" he whispered gleefully. Lily turned red for the third time that day.
"No, I didn't!" she lied. James rolled his eyes.
"You're a terrible liar, love. We both know you called me James." James said smugly. Lily frowned.
"First of all, don't call me love. Second of all, what does it matter what I call you?" she said stiffly. James smiled evilly at her.
"You don't hate me as much anymore." he said triumphately. Lily sighed.
"That may be true, but don't get any ideas, lover boy." she snapped. She turned back to the potion and James paused for a second, trying to tame his desire to jump for joy, before he joined her.
Lily felt rather awkward around James that day. When he smiled at her, her stomach would do a big backflip and she'd giggle like a moron. She told herself it must be indigestion or something like that, but that annoying little voice in her said "I don't think so. Heh, heh, heh." She tried to ignore that annoying voice but it kept on coming back. It was during Charms that she figured she had gone mad. She was deep in thought when someone's voice broke her thoughts.
"Lily? Lily! LILY!"
She came back into focus to see James waving his hand in front of her eyes.
"Hmm?" she said groggily.
"C'mon, Professor Dumbledore wants to see us. We're going to miss a bit of lunch." James explained. Lily stood up and she and James walked out of the empty Charms classroom. Apparently, everyone had already left for lunch.
James looked over at Lily to see her staring at him for once. Lily was actually surprised to feel herself watching James Potter's movements.
"You seem kind of distant." James said as they turned another corner. Lily shrugged.
"I've got a lot--"
"On your mind?" James said, basically reading Lily's mind. She nodded.
"I have, too." James continued, "What's been on your mind?"
It was obvious to Lily he was trying to make conversation and she decided to just go along with it.
"Everything. I've been thinking mostly about Nidale and Rochelle and some, erm, other things." Lily said carefully. She was not about to tell James exactly what she had been thinking about, which happened to be him. James, though, was still curious.
"If you ever need us, the Marauders and I can always help you. If you don't feel like hanging out with the other girls or something." James said cautiously. Lily didn't say anything. That was too much to think about, even for the smartest witch of the 7th years. They soon arrived at the stone gargoyle, saving Lily from having to reply to James's offer. She looked over uneasily at him.
"D'you know the password?" she asked uncertainly.
"Uhh..Flitwick told me it was either licorice wand," he paused and the gargoyle didn't move, "or sugar quills."
This time, the gargoyle sprang to life and revealed a spiraling staircase. The two of them jumped on and were brought up to Professor Dumbledore's office.
"Ready?" Lily asked, half joking. James smiled and nodded. "There goes my stomach again.." Lily thought as her stomach did an odd series of flipflops. She smiled weakly and pushed open the doors of Dumbledore's office. Dumbledore was at his desk, reading a muggle book Lily recognized as The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. He put it down when they entered and gestured to the two fold-up chairs in front of his desk. They both sat down quickly.
"Now, I've called you here to tell you both that the school was recently broke into over the summer by two death eaters," Dumbledore started. James got a quick glance of Lily's shocked face before feeling his own jaw drop, "We are ninety-five percent sure we increased the safety enough to keep the Death Eaters at bay, but there is still that five percent that says we're not entirely sure. You might be wondering why I told you this. What I want you to do is to alert the prefects to stick together on patrols and look extra hard. But, I would rather you not tell them why. It would spread through the school like wild fire."
Lily and James both nodded.
"Now, I am aware that your first prefect meeting is this Saturday. Get the alert out as soon as possible. That is all. You may go to lunch now." Dumbledore finished.
Lily and James got up from their seats and walked silently out the door.
"I cannot believe death eaters got into the school!" Lily whispered urgently. James nodded in agreement.
"What has the world come to?" (A/N that reminds me of a joke a friend told me where this dark skinned guy goes, 'What has the world come to when the world's best rapper is a white guy?' and the guy is talking about Eminem. Just a random little tid bid.) James questioned sadly. Lily was about to enter the Great Hall when she noticed James had stopped.
"Are you hungry?" James asked randomly. Lily shrugged.
"Not really." she said sincerely.
"Me neither." James said, stuffing his hands in his pockets. The two of them walked into the Great Hall together (gasp!). They sat, not with their friends, but at the end of the table, conversing in dark whispers about what Dumbledore told them.
"Would you look at that! Lily Evans and James Potter actually having a civilized conversation!" Sirius said, laughing to himself, looking down the table at Lily and James.
"She sooo likes him." Rochelle said sadly. Remus raised his eyebrows.
"What makes you say that?" he asked uncertainly.
"She's always talking about him, her knees start to quiver when he looks at her, and they've been spending a whole lot of time together. She's smitten, but she won't admit it." Rochelle said simply.
"Well, technically, they have to spend time together. They're the Heads." Peter pointed out. Nidale rolled her eyes.
"Don't mind Rochelle, she's been saying Lily and James were meant to be for about three years now." she said exasperatedly. Rochelle glared at her.
"Well they are." she said forcefully.
"Yeah, and I'm going to marry George Clooney." Nidale said sarcastically.
"Who?" Sirius and Rochelle said together. They were both purebloods and had not the faintest idea who George Clooney was, opposed to Nidale, who was muggleborn.
"Do you think they could get into Hogwarts again?" Lily questioned. She and James, completely unaware that a certain five people were talking about them at that very moment, had been talking about all of the startling information they just recieved. James shrugged.
"Honestly, I don't know. I just want to know why they even broke in in the first place. Over the summer? It's not like anyone stays here over the summer break." James pointed out. Lily sighed.
"As if I don't already have enough on my mind..." she grumbled. James smiled warmly at her and (big surprise!) her stomach did another series of flip-flops.
"Well, we should get to our classes, I'd probably wind up in detention if I'm late for divination again." Lily said nervously. James nodded and separated from her.
Lily walked over to Rochelle and Nidale, who were both grinning evilly.
"Hello, Mrs. Potter!" they both chorused. Lily whacked them with her bookbag.
"Shut up!" she scolded, going red.
"Lily's going red!" Rochelle and Nidale said in unsion in a sing-song voice.
"Shut up!" Lily repeated, more forcefully this time. She always got touchy like this when her friends accused her of liking James. It just ticked her off. A whole lot.
"Come on, we all know you have the hots for James Potter!" Rochelle said, rolling her eyes, "There's even a rumour going around that you guys are going out!"
"Fist of all, I do NOT have the hots for James Potter and second of all we are most certainly NOT going out!" Lily cried, crossing her arms. Nidale rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, sure, Lils." she said sarcastically.
James was getting a similar treatment from his friends.
"So, lover boy, how is dear Lilykins doing?" Sirius asked slyly as he, James, Remus, and Peter walked up to Muggle Studies.
"Sirius, would you quit calling her that? It sounds wrong in so many ways." Remus said, shaking his head in disgust. Sirius shrugged and turned to look at James.
"So, how is she doing?" Sirius repeated. James smiled in a distant way.
"She's wonderful, as usual. I can't wait for tonight, it's our first patrol!" he said excitedly.
"You know, Rochelle thinks that Lily might like you." Remus said, remembering their conversation at lunch. A humongous grin broke out on James's handsome face.
"Why'd she think that?" he asked, trying to hide his joy.
"Well, she said that Lily is always talking about you, that her knees start to quiver when you look at her, and she's been spending a lot of time with you." Remus said knowledgeably. James turned so that he was facing the wall oppisite of him and bellowed,
"WHA-HOOO!"
He then started to a little victory dance before he realized that his friends had kept on walking and were now about ten feet in front of him. He ran to catch up with them, a bit short of breath.
"Technically, the last one doesn't count because she has to spend time with me, since we're both Heads." James pointed out.
"That's what I said." Peter said, obviously glad someone was agreeing with him.
"Yeah, but she didn't have to sit with only you during lunch time." Sirius said, eyebrows raised.
"Well, we were just discussing something Dumbledore told us." James said, trying to act nonchalant. He was trying his best to make sure he didn't let slip what Dumbledore had told him and Lily. Sirius didn't inquire about this, he just smirked all the way through Muggle Studies.