Chapter Two
A light breeze kicked up a swirl of dust as Lily and James stood in the middle of the oddly deserted road, both gaping at the black dog in utter shock.
The talking black dog.
Lily shook her head and coughed when she inadvertently inhaled another lungful of dust. "There's no way. Did that dog-"
"-just talk?" James finished, his voice cracking as he eyed the dog disbelievingly. "I think so, but maybe we're experiencing a delusion." His nervous chuckle did little to ease her nerves - if that was what he had been trying to accomplish.
Lily eyed him sceptically. "A delusion?"
"Yeah," he said, nodding. "Like an after effect or a side effect of the impact or something. I mean, we hit our heads pretty hard." James tried to smile reassuringly at her, but looked more like he was trying to pass a goat.
"The very same delusion?" she reiterated, taking care to lace her tone with as much doubt and contempt as humanly possible.
James shrugged. "It's been known to happen."
"When?" Lily demanded, rounding on him. "When has anything remotely similar to this happened?" She was suddenly very irritated by the sight of his irrevocably messy hair, the way his glasses slid down his nose, and, you know, the whole situation in general. She resisted the urge to bare her teeth in a growl. "And why," she began anew, "would we share a joint delusion featuring a bloody talking dog?" She folded her arms over her chest and huffed. "Merlin, Potter, you're daft!"
Was she being unnecessarily harsh with him? Perhaps. But it wasn't every day that you fought over a book full of fairy tales with a seventeen year old boy and got sucked into the pages. Sweet Circe, it sounded even more ridiculous in her head than she cared to admit; she hated to think what it would sound like when she had to say it aloud.
"Oh, I'm daft now, am I?" He let out a rough laugh. "All right, then, Evans, if we're not suffering from a delusion, then what in the name of sanity is this?" He flailed his arms at their current surroundings.
It was irrational, the way James Potter could crawl under her skin and irritate her without actually doing or saying anything to offend her. And for once, it wasn't his charmingly messy appearance that was grating on her nerves or the general air of annoying self-confidence that surrounded him that made her want to tear her hair out. Oh no, it was much more than that. It was the look on his face and the tone of his voice - both were so full of challenge and very little, if any, restraint. For some reason that she couldn't even begin to explain, that, above all other things, including their very peculiar predicament, infuriated her.
"Well, Evans," James prompted. "I'm waiting."
Grinding her teeth, Lily threw her arms up in the air. "I have no bloody idea, Potter! Is that what you wanted to hear? That I haven't the foggiest as to where we are or how we got here or why, out of all the damned people on this ruddy planet, I'm stuck here with you! Because there it is! I. Don't. Know. Satisfied?"
"Hardly."
Lily let out a scream of frustration, threading her fingers through her hair. "You're insufferable! Did you know that?"
"I think I've heard you say it once or twice, yeah," James replied with such nonchalance that Lily aimed a kick at his shin. Naturally, she missed and only succeeded in upending some more dust and then choking on it. "Hey, now," he said as he waved away the dust, "I think that's really unnecessary!"
"You're unnecessary!" Lily shouted back without thinking. As soon as the words left her mouth, she cursed under her breath. She might as well have painted a target on herself, she was making it so easy for him.
"Very original, Evans," he commented dryly, placing a hand over his heart. "I am so wounded."
She shot him a very dark, very sharp look. "Shut it, will you?"
James smirked in his frustrating way. "I don't think I will. My heart's bleeding too profusely from your barbed remarks to stop."
Her temper flaring, Lily stalked towards James, but before she could cross even half of the distance, the black dog, who had, until now, been observing the scene in utmost delight, barked. The sudden loud and sharp sound made both Gryffindors jump at least a foot in the air in their surprise. Lily even stumbled back into James, who was quick to put her upright and step away.
"As amusing as it is to watch you two banter," the dog began, its tone liberally coated with unabashed mirth, "the princess really must be getting back to the castle. Tea time's already begun and as you very well know, Princess Lily, your sister is very -"
"Princess?" they exclaimed in unison; Lily's voice was full of shock whereas James' was saturated in ridicule.
The dog blinked at them. "Yes," he drawled, giving each a look that clearly questioned their intelligence. "Anyway, Princess, you mustn't tarry any longer. Your sister was in quite a strop when I left; I can't imagine what she'll be like once we make it back to the castle. And just look at the state of you - what in the devil are you wearing?"
Lily opened and closed her mouth several times, still completely flabbergasted by the fact a dog was talking to her. A dog was holding an actual, intelligent conversation with her. Even after living in the wizarding world and encountering all sorts of strange and mystical creatures, talking to a dog was just plain weird.
Much to her surprise, James began to roar with laughter. Both Lily and the dog turned to look at him with equal looks of disbelief on their faces, though, there was a certain note of superiority on the dog's face.
"Why are you laughing?" Lily questioned crossly. Really, there was nothing funny about their bizarre situation.
"Why aren't you laughing?" James fired back through his chuckles. "Newsflash, Evans, in case you haven't noticed, you're talking to a dog!"
She pursed her lips as she tried to think of a response.
"And you," the dog barked, training its silver eyes on James, "Mr Potter, are talking to Her Royal Highness, the Princess Lily of Westerflower, and should take care to mind your tongue lest you wish to have it removed!"
Though he had never been particularly intimidated by dogs, James had also never met a dog that could talk; that was the equivalent of meeting a talking lion - while it had been one of James' childhood goals, he knew it was ultimately impossible. But he also thought that the existence of another realm - and a fairy tale realm at that - was impossible, and look how wrong he was.
Sometimes, he really hated magic.
"Erm - okay?"
Besides him, Lily's expression turned incredibly, almost unbearably, smug. Until now, she had been the only person capable of robbing James of speech - and even that talent was waning as the years went on. (Somehow, it seemed, he had built up a resistance to her Silencing Charms). As regretful as she was that she hadn't been the one to put him down, it was still nice to see him silenced.
And by a dog at that.
The dog, too, beamed with self-pride as he swung his gaze back to Lily, who, despite the fact she knew he could talk, was still caught off-guard. "Unless you want to suffer the wrath of Princess Petunia, I suggest that we make haste."
Lily's eyes nearly bugged out of her head. "My sister's a princess?"
The dog tilted his head to the side. "Of course she is." His eyes narrowed in concern. "Are you sure you're all right, Princess? Not only are you dressed oddly, but you're keeping company with the help and you keep asking the most bizarre questions."
"The help?" James asked, outraged. "What do you mean 'the help'?"
"I meant precisely what I said, Mr Potter, just as I always do," the dog sniffed haughtily. James flinched; he had heard that haughtiness before, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. "You are a stable boy, are you not?"
It was Lily's turn to laugh now, and laugh did she. Her whole body shook as she tossed her head back, several thick locks of her hair spilling over her shoulder. "A stable boy?" she sputtered breathlessly, all but pointing her finger at him in taunting. "You're a stable boy?" She covered her face in an attempt to quiet her snort; it didn't work. She raked her fingers through her hair, effectively pushing it away from her face. "Oh, that is rich!"
James gritted his teeth and ignored her, though, admittedly, it was tough as Lily's laugh was boisterously obnoxious. Usually, he found her laugh endearing, but in this moment, he was less inclined to feel attracted to it. Or her, for that matter. Especially when she snorted like that. Where was she raised, in a pig sty?
Thankfully, the dog leapt to his rescue, however inadvertent the rescue may have been. "Honestly, Your Majesty, pull yourself together! We've got to go. Now." To emphasis his point, the dog latched onto the hem of her sleeve and tugged.
Lily squeaked in surprise when she lurched forwards. "Hey!" she exclaimed, fruitlessly digging her heels into the ground. The dog continued to pull her as easily as a sack of potatoes. "Where are you taking me?"
"Dak ut te cassle."
"What?"
The dog spit out the sleeve. "Back to the castle. Where else would I take you?" He gave an extravagant roll of his eyes then seized her sleeve between his teeth, tugging her along.
She fought against the incessant tugging, her stomach twisting with unease. "But what about Ja - I mean, Mr Potter?" Lily asked, glancing over her shoulder at him. He stood a few feet away, his panic evident in his face.
Annoyed, the dog released her sleeve to glare up at her. "What about him?"
She didn't flinch under the dog's weighty stare. "We can't just -" she cut herself off, a peculiar feeling settling in her stomach. In any other circumstance, she would have been glad for a chance to escape James' company; while she didn't exactly hate him anymore, he still managed to ruffle her feathers in ways that no one else in the world could. But this wasn't like any circumstance she had ever been in before, and James was, unfortunately, the only thing she knew in this world.
Clearing her throat, she looked over at James again and declared, with all the authority she could muster, "We can't leave him here. I won't allow it." She tried to ignore the startled glint in his eyes at the force, the near-absolute conviction, in her voice.
The dog was hardly impressed, but nodded his large head anyway. "As you wish, Your Majesty. Now, please could you hurry? Princess Petunia is going to have all of our guts for garters, namely mine."
The carriage ride was not unlike the one from Hogsmeade Station to Hogwarts, but there were a considerate amount of mercilessly bumps that jostled the carriage and its travellers so violently, Lily thought she would vomit. It didn't help that this carriage was decidedly smaller than what she was used to and that she was wedged in between James and a talking dog.
Lily tried not to dwell on what lay ahead of them. She might not have been all that fond of his company, but she knew that she had to stick with James, no matter what. He was the only thing in a ridiculous world that she knew, even if she didn't know him very well at all. For some reason, she frowned at the thought, but quickly brushed it off as wistful thinking brought on by their predicament.
As a little girl, Lily had always wanted to be a princess; it was the reason why her parents had given her the book of fairy tales in the first place. She had been captivated by the idea of other worlds filled with dragons and magic and castles and daringly handsome princes, and while she knew that some of those things existed in the world in which she lived, it wasn't the same here.
Now that she was a princess, the idea wasn't nearly as enchanting as it had been when she was young. In fact, it was downright terrifying. Had she entered the situation willingly, she supposed she would have viewed this as an experience opposed to a complete disaster, but she hadn't. And now, she was stuck in a fantasy world called Westerflower with a boy that she didn't quite hate, but didn't quite like either.
She was thrown rather unceremoniously from her thoughts when the carriage hit a particularly large bump and the entire carriage lurched to the side, sending her right into James' lap. Her forehead knocked against his chin and his elbow dug into her ribcage; the black dog laughed joyfully. Grumbling, they started to disentangled their limbs and by the time they got themselves sorted, they had arrived at the castle gates.
Pushing his glasses up his nose, James gazed out the window and whistled in awe. "Whoa," he said, his astonishment clear in both his voice and his face.
"You stole the word right out of my mouth," Lily muttered as she, too, gazed at the castle. From a distance, it had appeared beautiful, but it was only up close that she was able to see the castle for the truly magnificent thing that it was. Not taking her eyes off the tall ivory towers covered with ivy, she asked, with poorly concealed awe, "I live here?"
Behind them, the dog let out a long sigh. "Of course you live here, Princess," he said languidly. "You've lived at Westerhaven Palace for your entire life. Well," the dog added as an afterthought, "except for the winters when your family goes to Summermarsh. Honestly, how many times are we going to do this today?"
But Lily ignored the dog. Instead, she nudged James in the side with her elbow. "Did you hear that, Potter?" she taunted giddily. "I've got two castles! Two!" She gave a squeak of delight before settling back into her seat.
The carriage pulled up to the gates, where two guards armed with pikes stood on alert.
"Out," the dog said suddenly.
"We don't get to go to the castle?" Lily asked, her eyebrows knitting together. But I'm the princess! she wanted to say, but didn't. "But I thought this was my home!"
"You do," the dog said before jerking his head in James' direction. "He doesn't. If anyone of importance finds out that a stable boy was riding in the Royal Carriage, heads will roll. So," he looked pointedly at James, "out."
"But what about the guards?" James questioned, his hand already on the gold encrusted handle.
"I said if anyone of importance finds out." The dog shook his head. "Good Lord, does no one listen to me?"
As the dog grumbled to himself, James cast Lily a look not unlike a look a solider might give his lover before departing for war. It made Lily's breath catch in her throat, though she wasn't quite sure why. Before she had a chance to decipher the odd sensation, he opened the door and jumped down.
When James looked up at her, Lily could see the tension and the hesitancy in his eyes. "I'll see you."
Lily nodded, not trusting her own voice. Call her crazy, but she was almost…worried. Like she would never see him again. She was worried that she wouldn't ever see James Potter again. It was silly, she knew - it wasn't like there were any threats in Westerflower (that she knew of), but still…
The worry dissipated and was replaced by anger as soon as she saw the wry smile on his mouth. Colour rushed to her face as he twiddled his fingers in farewell, his hazel eyes glinting behind his glasses. "Goodbye, Princess!" He dropped his hand down to his side and grinned.
She flipped him off as the carriage bounced towards the castle, leaving a laughing James in its wake.
A/N: Okay, so I realize that this chapter is fairly short - as are the next few - but I promise they get lengthier as the story progresses. Also, I wanted to say a massive thank you to everyone who read, reviewed, and added this story to their alert lists. It means ever so much to me, and I'm lucky to have you as readers. If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to drop me a line.