Ways to Say "No"
A Collection of Fragments and One Shots
Two
Lily shivered and pulled her school robes tighter around herself to try and keep the chilly air from reaching her. She was doing her weekly rounds of the castle with a Ravenclaw prefect David Something or other. She couldn't be bothered trying to remember his last name, she was too busy keeping her teeth from chattering.
Lily was so deep in her own mind that she hadn't realized that David Something had stopped walking, and had put an arm out in front of her so she'd do the same. She walked into his arm, much to his annoyance.
She glanced around, not seeing anything unusual, and then asked, "What is it, David?"
His brows were furrowed in confusion. "I just thought I heard something, is all."
"Oh…" Lily said, glancing at her watch. At this rate, she'd be out in the corridors all night and catch her death. She very nearly groaned out loud when David did not continue walking, but rather stood staring very intently into a corner.
"I'm sure there's nothing there, David. Let's just go." She was about ready to just stun the boy and levitate him along behind her because she was sick of waiting for him to finish staring into dark corners.
"Do you see that," he whispered so quietly she could hardly hear him. She gazed into the corner and nearly laughed out loud when she saw what had David so freaked out.
There, in the darkened corner, was a foot. She was almost positive that it was James Potter's foot. She recognized the plain black uniform shoe as his shoe because of its one defining characteristic: a large scuff on the outside of the shoe from when Sirius Black had tossed it out of the window in Gryffindor Tower a week before.
"Relax, David. It's just Potter, and since his cloak is ill fitting, I'm assuming Black or Lupin is under there with him."
"Should we write them up?" David asked uncertainly, watching as the offending foot disappeared completely under the invisibility cloak.
"No, it's not really worth it," Lily said, turning to leave the corridor.
"Are you sure," David asked. Lily couldn't help but wonder how this dense boy made it into Ravenclaw. He was starting to sound an awful lot like a Hufflepuff. She nodded her head and began walking away again.
"I'm so touched. I knew you loved me, Evans, I just didn't know how much."
Lily stopped dead in her tracks and turned towards the voice. "Oh yes, Potter. I just made that great sacrifice on your behalf because I'm desperately in love with you."
"You know, Lily, sarcasm just doesn't suit you," Remus Lupin spoke up from under the cloak. So she had been right, James wasn't alone.
Lily chuckled, she couldn't agree more. "Oh, I know. What are you two doing, anyway?" She asked, her tone back to normal.
"Lily, I really think we should write them up…" She rolled her eyes. And people thought she was a stick in the mud.
"We were just out for a stroll. It's lovely out, yeah?" James said, finally removing the cloak. Lily couldn't help but giggle when she saw the disaster his hair had become from being under the cloak.
She watched James move his hand immediately to his hair and attempt to flatten it. After a second he simply shrugged and said, "Well, it's alright. I imagine you'll love me no matter how my hair looks. Right, Love?"
She ignored him and said to Remus, "Aren't you guys freezing? I can't hardly stand to be out here anymore. I'm of the mindset 'don't patrol and say we did.'"
"I don't think your mate shares your views on that, Evans," James said, nodding his head to the now red faced David. "Alright there?" He asked, giving him an odd look.
David nodded his head and said to Lily, "We ought to get going, if we're not going to punish them."
"Since you're obviously deeply in love with me," James started, ignoring that David had even spoken, but Lily cut him off.
"Is that what you think, Potter? That I'm deeply in love with you?"
"Of course. Why else would you put your reputation as Gryffindor Prefect Extraordinaire on the line to save me an hour of detention?"
"Because, I'm almost certain that whatever it is that you're on your way to do is going to land you much more than an hour's worth of detention. The way I see it, I'm saving myself the paperwork, and you'll still get what you've got coming."
"Now, just so we're clear," James said, "I've got a date coming, right?"
Oh, Merlin. She was surrounded by dense boys. "Actually I was thinking more along the lines of you spending hours frolicking through the Dark Forest looking for some rare mushroom or another."
"Yes, well just as long as we're together," he winked and gave her a cheeky smile, which she returned.
"Oh, we will be. Right in here," she said, tapping her heart with a very fake sappy look on her face before she turned to leave. "See you later," she called as she turned the corner with David to finish their prefect duties, trying very hard not to laugh as she heard Remus mutter, "Filtch better watch out when that one graduates. He'll give him a run for his job. He's got the disposition for it."
A/N: Thank you for all of your reviews on chapter one! I appreciate the positive response :). I'll be updating this fairly regularly because most of these are already written. I just tweak them a little bit here and there to make them acceptable for public viewing. Enjoy :)