A/N: Another one shot! Yay! Anyway, this was inspired by the Danish band Volbeat featuring Johan Olsen 'the Garden's Tale.' I'm totally hooked on that song even though I'm not really a big fan of their other songs. So read the story – I think it's really good so I hope you do too. The ending will hopefully shock you. Only then the story will make sense. On with it then …
The Garden's Tale
He looked around the garden as memories came back to him. He had been here before – actually more than once. He had played with the neighbour's children here. He knew that if he crawled through the bushes on his right, he would see his parent's house on the hill. He also knew that if he walked down the path on his left, he would get closer to old man Jacobs' house. No one wanted to walk closer to old man Jacobs' house.
Most citizens in the village feared old man Jacobs because of his angry attitude. The rest of the citizens just left him alone, which was what Jacobs preferred. The children of the village used to dare each other to approach his home. Back then the record was entering through the front gate and walking into the front garden. Before they reached the stairs up to the front door they had always turned around. For all he knew the record hadn't been broken yet.
He turned his head away from the path and forgot those memories for a while. Then something strange happened. The green leaves on the trees slowly fell of. As they hit the ground they turned brown, red or orange. Time fast forwarded right in front of him. He looked at his hands but he remained his seventeen-year old self. Soon all the leaves were on the ground until a strong wind threw them into the air. He took a step back to get a look at what was happening. The leaves spun around each other, gathering them all, to some kind of picture. From what he could see it looked like a human's head. The leaves suddenly formed a long hair on the head, from which he guessed it was a girl. A thought suddenly hit him. "Lily," he spoke quietly.
As soon as he said the name, all leaves fell to the ground as if nothing had happened. Time kept going right in front of him. Soon it turned winter and all the beautiful flowers withered before his eyes. He fell to his knees and looked up into the grey sky. What was happening? A sense of longing and loneliness hit him. The name he had spoken before replayed in his head, which made the feeling of longing spread throughout his body.
The sky started changing again. He looked down at the garden again to see what was going on. Time was rewinding now. The flowers blossomed and the leaves flew up into the air and onto the trees and finally got their green colour back. "James?" A familiar voice suddenly asked behind him. He stood back up and turned around. A girl around his own age stood before him. Her emerald green eyes looked worried and her long red hair moved in the wind. "Are you all right?" She asked.
James nodded. Once again, this seemed familiar. He had been here before. With her. He remembered how she had visited this summer with her best friend Reilly. He knew, she hadn't been too keen on coming, but Reilly had persuaded her to do so, because Reilly wanted to see her boyfriend, who happened to be living with James and his parents that summer. "What are you doing here, Lily?" he asked her, though he remembered the answer.
"I just went for a walk," she answered. "You look worried."
"It's nothing special," he heard himself say. He took a step closer to her and admired the light green dress she was wearing. She looked amazing. Seeing her in that dress was a memory he would treasure forever. He blushed, when he remembered what would happen next. "Look Lily," he spoke again, but this time in a lower voice. "There's something I have been meaning to ask you." He looked into her eyes and knew that she was listening. He continued, "I realize I have been a pain over the past six years, so I have decided I won't be when we get back to Hogwarts. It is our final year there, so I want you to enjoy it. Having said that, I want to ask you one last time if you want to go on a date with me some time. If you say no, then I promise I will leave you alone." He took a deep breath when he finished.
The worried expression didn't disappear. "You have changed," she stated. He nodded, knowing she was right. He had grown up. "But have you changed for the better?"
"Hopefully," he answered with a weak smile.
Before he knew it, she closed the gap between them and kissed him on the lips. Even though he had been here before, the kiss still shocked him. Nevertheless he kissed her back. He deepened the kiss and ran a hand through her hair. He knew what would happen next. The two of them would walk back to his parent's house but they wouldn't officially be a couple before they returned to Hogwarts. He didn't regret it – it was definitely worth the wait.
However, this wasn't what going to happen this time. She suddenly broke the kiss and walked out of his embrace. She turned and walked away from him without saying a word. He called her name and tried to run after her, but his legs wouldn't move. Her green dress disappeared between the green bushes and was no where to be found. A wind blew past him. The top of the trees moved slowly back and forth as the wind blew passed them as well. It was almost like a song escaped the leaves. The words, "Hoping the angels would carry her home" were all he was able to catch.
He moved into a glade between the trees and looked up at the leaves. The longing filled his body again and his head was screaming her name once again.
The scenery changed. He was no longer in the garden, but instead he was standing in front of his parent's house. The house looked old and left behind. It was nothing like he remembered. The house looked like no one had lived in it for the longest time. He looked down on the stairs leading up to the front porch. A lifeless body was lying on the stairs. He swallowed hard before walking closer. A tear escaped his eye when he saw, who it was. He hardly recognized her, but he knew it was her. Her red hair had fated and she was no longer wearing the beautiful green dress. Instead she was dressed in a white silk dress.
He fell to his knees and took her body in his arms. She was cold. Her eyes were shot, holding her beautiful eyes captured. He hugged her close, hoping it would warm her up but nothing happened. He buried his face in her hair, which caught the tears from his eyes.
He picked her up and got on his feet. He turned and walked away from the house with her in his arms. He was alone now. Alone with his only friend, but that house wasn't going to take her away from him. He walked through the bushes and into the garden again. It looked nothing like the garden he had just been standing in. Everything had turned to stone. He no longer recognized it, and it didn't bring any memories to him this time.
He walked over to a great oak tree and put her down under it. Some of the stone disappeared and grass and flowers around her started to blossom. However, it made no smile blossom on his face. The tears had left a trail on his cheeks. He knew what he had to do, though he tried to deny it. He stood up and looked at her for a second. More seemed to blossom around her. She would continue to have that effect on the forest.
He walked away from her but more tears escaped his eyes. They found the trail on his cheeks and slowly made their way down them. He stood on a hill and looked down on the forest. His shadow disappeared with him, and he hoped the angels would carry her home, like the forest had sung.
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James woke up and quickly sat up in his bed. He was out of breath and his hands were sweaty. As he tried to catch his breath he looked around him. He was in his dormitory at Hogwarts. Peter Pettigrew was sleeping in the bed next to him, Remus Lupin was getting dressed and Sirius Black was looking at James with a grin.
"Are you all right, Prongs?" Sirius asked him. James looked at him but didn't answer. Was it real? Or had he been dreaming? He didn't have time to answer any of those questions. He jumped quickly jumped out of bed, grabbed his glasses from the bedside table, put them on, and walked fast to the door. He had slept in pyjamas pants and no shirt. "Oi! Where are you going?" he heard Sirius call after him. He didn't answer but hurried out of the door without changing into his school robes.
He ran down into the Gryffindor common room and quickly looked around. Then he saw her. She was in her school uniform and talking to Reilly. Her red hair was hanging loosely over her shoulders. She turned and looked at him with a smile. He hurried over to her and pulled her into a close hug. "James?" she asked in confusion but hugged him back.
"Are you all right, Lily?" he asked her and pulled away to look into her eyes. They looked worried but full of love.
"Isn't that my line?" she asked him.
"Probably," he answered after he had thought about what he had just asked her. He let out a sigh to calm himself. She noticed this and smiled warmly at him. "I had a dream where I lost you," he explained quietly as he kept holding on to her.
She tilted her head slightly and her smile grew wider, which filled him with warmth. "I'm fine," she said. She didn't try to make fun of him but instead she calmed him with those words. "I'm still here." He nodded with a smile. He leaned down and placed a kiss on her lips. She kissed him back and now he was certain it had just been a dream.
"Aww," a familiar voice said. Lily and James broke apart and turned their heads. Sirius was smiling brightly at them. "Aren't you two the sweetest thing?" Reilly hit him in the side of his stomach with her elbow to make him keep his mouth shut. This only made him grin even wider as he placed an arm around her shoulders, pulling her into a sideways hug. "I'm telling you, Rei," he continued to say. "If James can walk around without a shirt then I can too." Both Lily and Reilly laughed at the comment but James only raised his eyebrows and shook his head slightly.
"You better get dressed, James," Lily said quickly.
"Yeah," James agreed with a nod. "We can't have people hiding in their common rooms all day because they're afraid of seeing Padfoot without a shirt."
"You're so jealous of me, Prongs," Sirius said while trying to hide a grin. "You're afraid Lily will break up with you and come running to me because I'm better looking."
"That'll never happen," James replied with a satisfied smile. "By then Reilly will have beaten you up for saying that. Then who will be the better looking one?"
Sirius turned his head and looked at Reilly, who raised her eyebrows at him. "You know I was kidding, Rei," he said nervously. "You're the only one, who matters to me." Lily and James laughed at him for suddenly getting weak.
"Good save," Reilly said and kissed him on the cheek. "I'm starving." Sirius face lit up again and the two of them walked out of the common room to go get breakfast in the Great Hall.
"You know," James said to Lily once they were alone in the common room. "You're the only one, who matters to me."
"Nice try," Lily said. "But that doesn't work when Sirius already used that one." She raised her eyebrows but he knew she was kidding.
"Here's another one for you then," James said with a smile. "I love you." He looked into her emerald green eyes, and she looked back into his hazel eyes. She bit her lip, which he had noticed she always did when she was nervous about something. He leaned down and kissed her again, but this time the kiss was more passionate.
"You better go and get dressed before the first years starts coming down from their dormitories," Lily whispered with a smile when they broke apart. He kissed her quickly again, returned the smile then hurried up to his dormitory again. As he walked up the stairs he wasn't able to wipe the smile off. He loved her and she wasn't going to leave him all of a sudden like she had in his dream.
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A/N: There you have it. I hope you enjoyed it. This story just came to me all of a sudden, and I spend my time writing this instead of my English essay. I hope you're happy people. Oh well the day is not over yet – I still have time to write that essay. Take care!
Volbeat - The Garden's Tale
Time keeps painting my darling
Ripped all the flowers in the garden
Oh baby come home, you angels bring her home
Imens står solen over højen
Han mindes den sommer hvor hun strålede
Forsvandt i haven grøn, og træernes sang hun fandt
Time keeps painting my darling
And the garden keeps on singing the old song
Oh baby still I am waiting in the light
Hoping the angels would carry you home
Den sang tog mørket i sin pote
Den bar hans kvinde i dens kolde favn
Og lagde hende for hans dør i silkekjole
Hoping the angels would carry her home
Leaving it all with my only friend
Her beauty was lifeless on the stair
Oh baby I'll carry you away into the garden's tale
But everything (had) died and turned to stones
I laid her down under the old oak
Seeing it all blossom forever more
Time keeps on painting my darling
And the garden keeps on singing the old song
Oh baby now I know you're in the light
Painting it all with your colourful songs
Imens står solen over højen
Hans skygge kastes ud i haven grøn
Forsvandt for evigt og uden en note
Hoping the angels will carry will carry her home
Time keeps painting my darling
Ripped all the flowers in the garden
Oh baby you're home, you angels where are you.