(Disclaimer: I own nothing.)
Chapter One
Finally, she put her legs over the sides of her four-poster bed and stood up. She wandered into the dark of the castle and down the steps. Next, to the boy's dormitory where she counted the fifth bed from the door. Quiet as a cat, she tiptoed to it and slid the curtain open.
"James, James, are you awake?" There was a moan from the figure before her and the twelve-year-old boy turned over and sat up while grabbing for his glasses on the mantle before his bed.
"Lily? That you? Whassumatter?" he asked with a sleepy and slurred voice. She took a deep breath.
"James, I'm ready to talk now." At this, he looked at her, his emotions shown clearly. They were of wonder, relief, and worry.
"Alright." Like always for these midnight talks, he took her hand and led her down to the common room where the fire burned with a fierce and comforting glow all at once. Right as she stepped into the large area, she felt a calming feeling erupt through her. Things would be right soon.
Still holding James' hand, she sat on the floor beside him and stared into the fire. He kept quiet letting her speak when she felt it was right and the silence was relaxed. She took many deep breaths trying to calm her nerves and pushing down her urge to break down and cry. Lily wasn't one to cry, she wasn't one to shed emotion before someone else, to her, she was trying to be brave.
James just sat beside her holding Lily's hand lightly but firmly as for reassurance. He wondered what it was she had to tell. The way she had been acting lately was beginning to worry him. They had been great friends since their first year, but recently, she had been avoiding him, and the rest of her other friends. Sometimes in class, she'd have her head in her arms and would be trembling, but when he asked if she was all right, she always nodded her head in assent. He knew she never liked to cry outright in front of others, he admired her strong will.
"James, something – something happened, exactly a week ago." She swallowed and turned to look at him. Her chin was wobbling with her attempts to stop her crying. He could tell there were tears in her eyes by how brightly they shined in the firelight. Usually bright green, he now saw an outline of copper and gold sparkling to life in them.
Sitting closer to her, he rubbed her back comfortingly and said softly, "You know you can tell me anything." She nodded and sniffed involuntarily.
"It – I was – I mean, do you remember the day when I was called to Professor Dumbledore's office?" He nodded slowly.
He and Sirius had set off an array of dung bombs in the dungeons making the caretaker burst into an unruly temper. Lily had walked up to them when Professor Greggors had tapped her shoulder telling her to follow him to the headmaster's office. Now that he remembered it, he hadn't noticed the unusual look of sorrow in the peppy professor's eyes.
It was then that he looked at her out of worried pale blue eyes. "Lily, what's happened?"
"James, my – my parents were – they," she cut herself off while pulling herself into a quivering ball.
"Lily, please, tell me what happened," he said in a whisper, but his tone was urgent. She looked up at him with a tear-stained face.
"My parents are gone, James." He shut his eyes and turned away in pain. How he hated to hear those words, it was the same with many other students of Hogwarts. While they were safe at school, there were those few students whose parents perished before the wizards who have gone to the dark side. Many of his friends had this unfortunate incident happen to their families.
He turned to look at Lily who was crying before him not trying to make the effort to control herself any longer. He pulled her into a hug and rubbed her back.
"Lily, I – I'm so sorry," he told her, not knowing what to say. She cried into his nightshirt and he felt the wetness touch his skin. His heart broke for her and her loss, and they sat there most of the night until he helped her back into the girls' dormitory where she fell immediately asleep when her head hit the pillow.
Walking slowly, he went back to his dorm and back to his bed where he sat up holding his pillow to him. There was a rustle on the bed to his right and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the curtain of the other bunk slide open.
"James?" he heard Sirius whisper into the dark.
He replied with a soft "Yes?" The other boy shifted uneasily.
"Er – it happened again, didn't it? Lily's…they -," he broke off leaving the sentence incomplete, but it didn't need to be completed. James took his glasses off and replaced them onto the spot they had been in earlier that night.
"Yeah, it happened again." He heard Sirius make an unwilling sound of anguish before the other boy closed the curtain again. James couldn't sleep well that night, but at about dawn, he fell into deep slumber hearing Peter's snores from the bed across from his.
~*~
The next day, Lily sat up and found that it wasn't quite morning yet. Looking out the window beside her bed, she found the mist was still afloat above the ground and the sun's light shone through the fog. Assorted shades of reds, oranges, and yellows littered the sky while specks of ivory hovered in the azure blue of the sky.
She felt much better after her midnight talk with James, she always did. Climbing back onto her bed, she tried to get some sleep.
After what seemed a minute, she was awoken by a scream from the bed next to hers. Jumping up in alarm, she opened her curtain to see Hallie sitting up screaming her head off in a mad rage.
The other girls sat up and opened their curtains yelling simultaneously, "Shut her up!" and then with mutters of 'get Sirius for always ruining my sleep,' they went back to their beds. Lily grinned and ran over to clamp her hand over the other girl's mouth. The screams were muffled but didn't stop until she was out of breath.
When the wild screeches were over, Hallie took Lily's hand off her mouth and smiled. "Thanks, Lily." It was only then that Lily saw the mess on the girl's hair and nightshirt.
"Oh, dear, what happened to you?"
Hallie stated, as if it was obvious, "Sirius Black, I know it is. You had better start digging his grave because it's going to be filled by the end of the day." With that she stood up and made a display of jumps, hand movements, and noises to let out her anger. With a slightly labored breath, she said, "Ok, I'm fine, really I am." Lily was trying to cover a laugh behind her hand. "Lily, go ahead, laugh." And Lily did; she laughed and laughed until she was bent over clutching her sides. When she looked up, Hallie was looking at her calmly. "Finished?"
"Yes, but how do you know if it was him?" asked Lily. Hallie glared.
"Who is the boy I hate most?" And then she started to walk off and slid on the slimy substance at the foot of her bed. She fell flat on her rump. "Sirius Black!" she exclaimed while getting up.
"You said his name as if you're swearing," giggled Lily. When on her feet, Hallie still looked as if she was trying to balance on ice. She fell to her rear end once again.
"Because whenever something bad happens, it's always him that's the cause, and his name is a swear word in my vocabulary." Lily strolled over to help her friend up but landed on her backside beside her. Hallie looked at her and broke into a fit of laughter. At this time, the others of the dormitory were getting up to get dressed.
Lydia sat up in her bed that was across from Hallie's and smirked to Lily. "Was it Sirius again?"
With a noise of agitation, Hallie said, "Damn right it was Sirius Black! He had the nerve to put honey on my beautiful sleeping gown! Honey! This is a quality nightdress! And what does that slimy git do to it?" Still fuming, she grabbed Lydia's bedpost and stood to walk to the showers.
From beside Lydia's bed, Gwen yelled after her, "It's not Sirius that's slimy at the moment, Hallie!" Lily, Lydia and Gwen laughed after the other girl who chose to ignore the comment.
~*~
Sirius climbed out of bed and shook James, Remus, and Peter awake. "Come on!" Peter followed somewhat warily while James had an identical look of mischief that was upon Sirius' face. Remus, however, stood beside his bed with his hands on his hips.
"What did you do?"
Sirius, with a face of mock innocence held his hands up. "Do? What do you mean? I'm an innocent babe!" Remus rolled his eyes and dropped his arms to his sides while following the other three.
With the look a child gives a new toy, Sirius opened the girls' dormitory door a crack and let the others look above his head. After about a few minutes, there was a piercing scream. He put his hands to his ears to block out the noise, as did his three best friends. Starting to laugh, he watched the event as if watching a very interesting play.
James suddenly stepped away bent over holding his stomach, laughing like a wild man. It was then that there was a yell of, "Sirius Black!" as if the two words were a swearing phrase. The four boys ran away to the common room laughing in pure mirth.
At last, when they were quite done, they sat gasping for breaths. "I don't know why you do that to her, it's torture!" said Peter looking at the boy with wide eyes.
Sirius grinned his famous grin of wickedness. "She's an annoying git, that's why. She stole my entire stash of filibuster fireworks! I've been saving those since two years ago!"
James retorted with, "And you even sent flames to her bed for her. Then she goes around stealing your stash of fireworks…the nerve!"
~*~
The four girls went down to the Great Hall together and sat at their regular seats. The grand mass of owls flew through the window and into the room while giving their letters to the recipients. One letter dropped into Hallie's lap, as did one into Lily's. She opened it and read it's contents. Sighing, she folded it up and put it into an inside pocket of her robe. She looked up beside her to where Lily's face noticeably fell. With a pondering look still upon her face, Lily turned to look at her with a forced smile.
Hallie gave her best friend a look that meant, 'We need to talk later.' Lily just nodded and began eating her food quietly; Hallie did so as well.
Lydia and Gwen looked to each other with eyebrows raised. "What're you guys thinking about?" asked Lydia smiling at them. Hallie looked to Lily then to the other two girls.
Her expression changed to one of mischief. Gwen muffled a soft groan and rolled her eyes heavenward at the familiar evil look. "I'm just thinking of ways of torture." And she left it at that. Lydia blinked letting her smile fade as she looked behind the other girl.
Four boys were gathered there. James took a seat next to Lily with a smile. She smiled back.
Hallie, noticing Lydia's faded smile and Gwen's wicked grin, she put her head into her arms. She heard a thump beside her that meant someone took a seat. "That seat was saved," she told the person in a muffled voice. The boy laughed.
"Of course it was, Honey, it was saved for me." Gwen, Remus, Lily, James, Peter, and Lydia burst out into a fit of giggles and laughter. At those words, Hallie straightened and glared at Sirius with daggers in her eyes. She took her goblet of pumpkin juice and her expression changed to an angel's smile. He looked thoroughly bewildered.
"Thirsty?" She poured it over his head and rubbed it into his hair with her hand. About to turn away, she said, "Oh, and thanks for the present, it was…sweet." She raised her hand; about to smack him upside his head but someone caught her hand. "What the -," but she shut her mouth at who was standing there. It was Professor Jenkins, the transfiguration teacher, she was especially known as the strictest teacher of the school, but she was fair.
"Detention, Miss Forester, meet me after classes today in my office, you should know where it is from past visits, am I correct?" With a defiant look up on her face, Hallie took her hand away from the teacher.
"But, Professor, it wasn't -," she got cut off.
"I want no excuses, be at my office after classes, an extra day will be assigned if late." And before she marched away, the professor said, "Oh, and Miss Forester, I think you should keep your pumpkin juice in your goblet and not on your hand or in Mr. Black's hair next time." While rubbing her hand on her robe, Professor Jenkins walked off leaving Hallie scowling after her.
"Why that little –"
"Don't say it, Hallie," said Sirius with a smirk. She rounded on him with her hands balled up into fists at her side.
"Sirius Black you!" she exclaimed loudly. The boy looked at her in wonder as did the others around them. "Your name is such a filthy thing that it should be used properly; in my vocabulary, it's used the same as if saying 'damn you, you filthy b-," but she stopped at the look Lydia was giving her. Sirius smirked. She smacked him upside the head leaving him looking at her with shock.
"That hurt!"
"Good, now I've earned my detention."
