Disclaimer: Me no live in Scotland...me live in US. Me think big different between the two. Me come up that me no owner. Me sad...
Headache Roses
Lily Evans was sitting on her bed in her dorm quietly finishing up an essay when she felt a headache start to form. She doesn't usually have headaches, but when they occurred they lasted for days and no potion could cure them. During her seven year of Hogwarts, she'd only gotten four monstrous headaches. Her head would start pounding so much that she couldn't keep her eyes open and the lights felt like drills drilling into her head. Three of the four headaches happened in the last two years. Sixth and so far what has been her seventh year. And all three headaches were when a certain black haired boy was into mischief. Usually this said boy was always up to no good, but when Lily had enough of him, a headache would appear.
James wasn't anywhere near Lily at this time as she was in her dorm and the rest of Hogwarts were on a Hogsmead trip. She didn't go as she had to finish an essay that was due tomorrow.
Lily groaned as the headache worsened. Even though potions never helped, she always went to see Madam Pomfrey. Every time she went; she hoped that the headache would disappear with a potion. Not one potion has worked but she still hopes.
She walked the deserted corridors to the Hospital Wing and upon entering she called out,
"Madam Pomfrey?" There wasn't an answer so Lily walked over to her office and knocked on the door.
"Just a minute!" Lily heard from the other side. The nurse opened the door and upon seeing Lily said,
"Another one?"
"Yeah," she sighed.
"I'll go get something. Stay here." She walked over to a cupboard and pulled out a vial filled with a bright green liquid.
"It isn't healthy to take potions if they don't work," Pomfrey advised handing the bottle. She took it and drank the liquid. The potion tasted vile as it slid down Lily's throat. She swallowed and answered,
"I know, but I keep on hoping that it will work each time. It might not make my headache go away but it does make me feel better knowing I have something in my system."
"Well, at least the headaches are spread out otherwise I wouldn't allow you to take them. Now, go rest."
Lily walked over to the vacant bed the nurse had pointed at and laid down. She closed her eyes, the pain of her headache the only thing she felt. Apparently the potion didn't work. After awhile, Lily fell asleep.
When she woke up hours later, the headache had worsened. Lily clutched her head as it pounded and closed her eyes.
"Lily, dear, you don't look so good." Lily heard Pomfrey say.
"My head is pounding!" Lily moaned. The headaches had never gotten this bad.
"Well, you don't have a fever but you do look slightly paler then usual." Lily still had her eyes shut. The pain of the headache plus the throbbing made it hard to keep them open.
Even though Lily's eyes were closed, she could still notice how bright it was in the room.
"Could you please turn off the lights? It's really bright in here and it isn't helping my head." With a flick of her wand, Poppy had the lights off, the curtain near the windows that allowed sun light to stream through and the curtain surrounding Lily's bed closed.
"Thank you. Do you know when everyone will be back from Hogsmead?"
"They should be here shortly. Now, get some more rest. Sleep is what you need now." Lily didn't need to be told twice. She tried to go back to sleep though it was hard as the throbbing was making it difficult to do so. After about half an hour, Lily finally got to sleep.
When Lily woke up, she could tell it was night time as there wasn't any sunlight showing behind the curtains. Her headache wasn't pounding but it still hurt a lot. She pulled out her wand and whispered 'Lumos' and looked around, seeing she was the only patient in the room. Though, what caught her eye was the vase of red, white and pink roses sitting on her bedside table. She knew those weren't there when she was awake last time.
The colour arrangement reminded Lily of Valentine's Day. It was May and Valentine's Day had already long past. Upon closer exspection, she found a note reading:
I saw these flowers and thought of you. Hope they make you feel better
There was in indication from who the flowers were from. Though, the handwriting looked vaguely familiar. Obvious they were from a male but who would be so nice as to bring her flowers? She didn't know anyone that liked her besides Potter. But he was too inconsiderate to think of something like this.
She smelled the flowers and the aurora the flowers gave off was astonishing. Usually Lily didn't think flowers gave off sweet scent but theses roses must have been charmed to give off such a wonderful scent. Apparently who ever could have sent the flowers really cared for her. She fell back asleep trying to think of some one who could have done it.
Narrative POV while James is at Hogsmead
"Prongs! Let's go to Zinko's! I need some more Dungbombs!" Sirius shouted to James, but he wasn't paying attention. He was standing in front of a floral shop, staring at a vase of roses in the window still.
"Prongs! What you are you doing, mate?" Sirius walked up to James and stood beside him.
"Do you think Lily would like these?" James asked.
"Like what? Flowers? Probably, but if she finds out they're from you, she'd most likely throw them out the window," he said. "But first she'd set them on fire." He added as an after thought. James smacked him over the head.
"I won't tell her it's from me then. I'll leave them anonymous." James walked into the shop, grabbed the first vase he saw and paid for them.
"Prongs, don't they look a bit Valentineish?" Sirius asked as James walked out of the shop.
"So? It's the thought that counts, right?" He leaned his head down and sniffed the flowers. He started gagging.
"Ug! Did some one put a Dungbomb in here? These have got to be the worst smelling flowers ever!" James held out the vase, not wanting the flowers near him.
"Really? Let me smell!" He grabbed the flowers and took a whiff. His face twisted up contortedly.
"Mate, if you give these to Evans, she would probably die from the stench!" He handed the plants back to James.
"I don't want them!"
"You bought them! Take them!"
"Padfoot, Prongs, what are you guys fighting about this time?" Remus asked, walking towards the two teenagers.
"Prongs, here, thought he'd be a nice guy and buy Evans flowers but the flowers he bought smell like Dungbombs!" He handed the roses over to Remus. Remus sniffed the plants and immediately pushed the flowers away.
"Prongs, what did you do to them?!" Remus had his nose plugged.
"Nothing! I saw the flowers in the window, went in and bought them! I haven't done a thing to them!"
"Well, you certainly can't give these flowers to Lily if they're going to smell like this. Here, I know a charm that will make them smell a whole lot better."
He pulled out his wand and pointed it to the flowers.
"Fragro corymbus." (A/N made that up...) He sniffed the flowers and smiled.
"Better. You can smell them now without gagging." Sirius shook his head.
"No sooner does Padfoot and Evans get married, will I smell those flowers!" James smacked him over the head again. He took the flowers from Remus and smelled them. The sweet scent of the flowers was breathtaking. The flowers were a hundred percent better. No one would ever guess that these flowers once smelled horrendous. His face lit up.
"Moony, you're the best!"
"Yeah, yeah. Now, how are you going to get them to Lily?" James frowned. He had forgotten that part.
"Crap. Um, yeah, got any suggestions?"
"We sneak into the girl's dormitories when no one is around and place the flowers on Lily's bed!"
"Padfoot, there is so many flaws in that plan. One, guys aren't allowed in the girl's dormitories and second, why the heck would we place them on her bed? Wouldn't it make sense to put them in a vase on a stand near her bed?" James asked.
"Well, it sounded like a good idea in my head."
"You think every thing sounds good in your head! Remember that one time when we were going to make that one hard potion that I forget the name of and we needed some ingredients from Professor Slughorn's stash? You thought it'd be a good idea to have Peter run around the potion room as a rat, scaring the teacher. Slughorn was so scared he almost killed him had we not arrived in time!" Peter squeaked, remembering the event.
"But we were able to get the bloody ingredients!" Sirius pointed out.
"Yeah and when you guys attempted to make it without my help, you guys ended up in the infirmary for a week," Remus reminded them.
"But we still were able to get the ingredients with my plan," Sirius mumbled.
"Padfoot, shut up. We don't have time to decide if your plans are amazing or not. We need to figure out how to get the flowers to Lily!"
"What if we were to place the flowers in a vase and leave them in the common room table so Lily can find them," Peter suggested.
"But then anyone could take them."
"We'd address the flowers to Lily, Padfoot," Remus said.
"I got it!" Sirius face lit up. "We use the map to find where Lily is and then we use Prongs's cloak and place them where she would find them!"
"Padfoot, once again, that is a stu-a good idea." James quickly pulled the map from his pocket. He unfolded it, and looked for Lily.
After a few seconds of looking, he found her.
"Why is she in the Hospital Wing?!" James shouted.
"She probably has another headache," Remus suggested.
"Another headache? As in, she gets them often?"
"Prongs, you really are thick headed. Lily often gets headaches and mostly because of you."
"Why?"
"Because you are a headache. Anyway, lets go. We're about to go back and we need to deliver them without anyone noticing."
The Marauders walked back to Hogwarts using the trapdoor in Honeydukes. James was on his way to the Hospital Wing when he saw that others weren't following him.
"Why aren't you coming?"
"This is something you need to do by yourself."
"Moony, why are you always the smart one?"
"Well, someone in this group has to be. Padfoot is too stupid and it'd give the teachers to much of a shock, Wormtail is too scared and you are too much of a show off."
"Hey! What do you mean that I'm stupid?"
"Get over it, Padfoot. Let's leave Prongs to his business."
Sirius laughed. "Ha! You said Prongs had to do his business!" Remus sighed.
"This is exactly why you aren't the smart one." Remus looked over toward James.
"Good luck." James nodded.
"Thanks."
"What do you mean, I'm not the smart one? I can be smart if I want to be!" James could still hear Sirius and Remus argue as they walked around the corner and out of sight.
James ran his hand threw his hair. He had a mission to do. He walked to the Hospital wing's door. He was about to take out his cloak when he decided against it. He wanted to do this properly. He opened the door and found Lily's bed immediately. She was sleeping. That was good, James thought. That way she wouldn't know it was from him and throw them out.
He walked over her bed and stared at her sleeping form. Even in sleep, James thought she was the most beautiful thing in the world.
James heisently touched Lily's cheek. It was warm and soft. He softly ran his fingers across her face. He pulled some of her red hair back behind her ears.
He laid the flowers on her bedside table. As he turned to leave, he heard Madam Pomfrey.
"What are you doing here, Mr. Potter?"
"I just came to give Lily these flowers?" He motioned to the flowers. The nurse stared at him. Everyone in the school knew about James and Lily relationship or lack thereof. Before she had time to respond, James spoke.
"There's a note but I didn't sign it. Could you please tell her they were from me though? After she had time to admire them?" The nurse couldn't refuse him.
"I will, Mr. Potter. Don't worry about it."
"Thank you." He looked over towards Lily again. "May I do one last thing before I leave?"
"Be quick. I don't want you to wake her up." She walked to her office again but looked through the window to see James bend down and give Lily a kiss on the check. Madam Pomfrey smiled.
Back to Lily after she feel asleep from seeing the flowers
When Lily opened her eyes, she could tell that her headache was much better then it had been earlier. Sunlight was pouring through the window indicating that it was morning.
Lily rubbed sleep from her eyes. She looked around for the nurse when her eyes came across the flowers. She smiled. So it wasn't a dream. She was still looking at the flowers when she heard the nurse.
"Oh, good. You're up. How are you feeling, dear?"
Lily looked away from the beautiful flowers to look at the nurse.
"My head is a lot better." She turned towards the flowers. "I think they helped." She nodded. "Yes, they helped a lot."
"Well, you have Mr. Potter to thank for that."
Lily looked up. It took her a moment to respond.
"What?"
"Mr. Potter was the one you gave you those flowers. He was here while you where sleeping. He was really sweet while he was visiting you."
Lily couldn't believe it. James Potter, the same James Potter that caused her headaches was the one who gave her flowers? No, it couldn't be. She refused to believe it.
"It can't be. No, it wasn't him. Stop joking." Lily shook her head.
"Dear, does it look like I'm joking?" Lily looked into her eyes. No, she wasn't the kind to joke around.
"What did you mean he was sweet while he was here?" Lily could never see him as sweet.
"Well, he was looking at you sleep for a while. I think he even touch your face. I do know though, that he kissed you on the cheek before he left. He looked very sincere." Lily touched her cheek. He had kissed her? What surprised Lily the most was that she didn't care if he had kissed her. She smiled.
"Since my headache is gone, may I leave?"
"Certainly." Lily jumped out of bed, grabbed the vase of flowers and headed to look for James. She needed to return his kiss.
A/N: What inspired this story is ever sense April 6th, 2007 I've had a headache that has never gone away. Doctors don't know anything and medication doesn't work. Just how the potion doesn't work for Lily. Anyway, I thought it would be nice if anyone would do something sweet like James and send me flowers. I kind of envy Lily now...no one has ever sent me flowers...