Hey guys! I haven't written in a while so this comes as a sort of surprise. Another James/Lily fic with a kind of sub-plot to it. The setting is the last term of Lily's and James' sixth year at Hogwarts. Hope you like it and please leave a review!
Loves me, Loves me not
Chapter 1 – Of Butterbeer and Headaches
James Potter opened his eyes blearily and immediately regretted it.
The shafts of light pouring in from a window nearby burned his eyes and added to the heavy pounding that he was suddenly and painfully aware of in the thing resting on his neck. Groaning and half-blind, he stumbled out of bed and drew the curtains shut. Then he turned around and shuffled back to bed, where he lay motionless and sprawled on his back with his eyes clamped shut against the feelings of nausea and dizziness.
Then, after some time when he thought it was safe to try again, he cautiously opened his eyes. His eyelids seem to weigh a ton. Gingerly he tried to sit up and his head throbbed so much he almost threw up. Cursing Merlin and all his appendages, he took a look around the room and for the first time, he realized that it was not his bedroom in Gryffindor Tower. In fact, he'd never seen or been in this room before.
He stood up and walked around trying to find out where he was and how he ended up there. Dimly, he remembered Sirius suggesting they should throw a party to celebrate their win of the Quidditch Championship. Snatches of what had happened last night flitted through his brain but he couldn't remember much. Judging by the state he was in (his head gave another nasty throb as if to prove his point), Padfoot managed to smuggle in more booze than was actually planned.
"I'll have a talk with him" he muttered groggily "as soon as I get out of here"
As soon as he said that he saw a wooden door opposite him. Relieved, he made his way towards it but halfway there he stumbled and fell spectacularly on something large and covered in a blanket on the floor. That something, he realized after a while, was alive and groaning.
"Ugh..." he replied, his head now throwing shockwaves of pain, as he tried to figure out what was on the floor beneath him.
Slowly a face turned towards him and-
" Alice?!"
"James…?"
"What
are you ..no.. what are we doing here?"
"Good question."
There was a five-second lapse where they just stared at each other. Then their brains seemed to catch up and they realized the position they were in. Alice turned beetroot red and James was about to say something when the door burst open.
"Ha… there he is Professor." said a familiar voice.
"Scandalous… and a headboy too!" choked another, albeit dreadingly, familiar voice.
Lily Evans was standing in the doorway accompanied by none other than Professor McGonagall. James and Alice, whose face by now was such a deep shade of scarlet that even Gryffindor would be proud, sprang quickly apart.
McGonagall looked like she was about to spit fire while Lily's expression was unfathomable, almost as if she was having an internal struggle of emotions.
"Professor, it's not what-" started James but his Head of House was having none of it.
"Out!" she barked "and straight to my office! Then you'll tell me what this all seems to look like!."
Seeing that he was better off with his mouth shut, not just because it was a losing battle but also because his stomach seemed to be getting ready to expel its acidic contents, he walked out slowly of what he now realized to be the Room of Requirement. How he managed to get there from the common room was still a mystery. Alice followed meekly behind, her head bent down.
As they walked down the corridor he risked a glance at Lily. She was staring ahead, her face carefully adjusted so as not to show any emotion. But James knew better… her eyes betrayed her. There was definitely anger in there. Nothing new, he thought grimly. But there was also something else… Hurt? Disappointment?
He looked away and clenched his fists. Just when he was getting in her good books he had to get himself in this mess. It had taken him ages to gain a bit of her trust and now it looked like he had ruined everything in just a few moments. He'll have to talk to her as soon as McGonagall is finished with them.
She had to understand that it was an accident... she must… but who was he kidding?
His spirit fell down a couple more levels.
She will never believe him.
I really need to talk to Sirius about his 'great' ideas, he thought darkly.
At that moment he noticed that Alice was attempting to talk to Lily. He listened as they went down a flight of stairs.
"Lily please... you know me… I wouldn't do things like that… I just got carried away"
"You know… it's not the fact that you got drunk or that you actually spent time with Potter that's bugging me… it's the fact that you did it whilst knowing that it will hurt Frank. I thought you loved him." Lily surveyed Alice coldly.
Alice's eyes immediately filled with tears. "Nothing happened Lily! We've known each other six years… you know I'd never do things to hurt anyone… let alone him."
"Well how do you explain you and him locked up in there then? Out of the common room… at night… where you clearly spent the night…." Her voice trailed away leaving the sentence unfinished.
" I don't know!" said Alice, pleading. " I don't remember!"
"Hmph… convenient" said Lily looking at her. "You know… maybe I really don't know you at all."
Hurt by the injustice of those words and giving caution to the wind, Alice stopped and shouted "I bet if it wasn't James, you would not give a rat's ass about what happened… but hey... huh…I almost forgot… you don't care about James right Lily?"
Lily stopped in her tracks and looked around at her best friend. James, hooked by what was going on, actually took a step back upon seeing the look in Lily's eyes. She looked ready to murder.
She was about to say something undoubtedly unbefitting of a Headgirl when McGonagall said "That's enough! Alice you're already in trouble as it is without adding more and Evans you can go now… your duty is done."
Lily was about to protest but seemed to think better of it. She gave a little nod and walked away, head held high.
A couple of minutes later Alice and James, his mind still reeling from what had just happened, entered McGonagall's office to find that there was already someone else sitting there. Sirius was slumped on one of the chairs opposite the desk, chin touching his chest clearly fast asleep. Upon seeing this, wide-eyed McGonagall bent down so that she was level to Sirius' ear and shouted "I did not ask you to come to my office to have a mid-morning snooze, Black!"
Sirius woke up with a jump and looked wildly around. As soon as he saw James, Alice and the Professor, realization dawned on him and he sat up straighter in his chair. While a fuming McGonagall turned around to close the door, Sirius gave Alice a confused look and attempted to give James his trademark grin only to be met by a murderous stare. His face fell and he looked down at his feet.
What followed next was half an hour of berating and lecturing, which did nothing to improve their headaches, on how they had humiliated McGonagall and Gryffindor House. She shouted herself hoarse and described how they had acted irresponsibly for their age, how it was 'a shame to have sixth years including a head-boy (with a dark glance at James) involved in such preposterous activities" when they should be all role-models to other students. She saw disappointment in Alice, who was usually one of the quieter and most hard-working girls in their year, felt incredulity at Sirius who apparently was found by the caretaker half-naked with a Hogsmeade waitress near the lake on the grounds and more disappointment at James with a threat of taking back his HeadBoy-ship. When James, horrified, attempted to defend himself, his head of house said that it does not make the situation any better.
Finally after what seemed an eternity, they were free to go; each with two full weeks of detention to look forward to. Silently they made their way to their common room each of them lost in their own muddled and, alas, painful thoughts.
A/N: If anything seems confusing, you will find out about it later on in the chapters.