Title: Stupid Love Stories
Author: InkQuillz/Mikayla
Spoiler Warning: None.
Chapter/s: 3/?
Genre: Romance
Rating: PG
Summary: When Lily unwittingly falls into a trap set by a group of mischievous Gryffindor girls, all she can think of is surviving the summer without James Potter ruining her holiday. Unfortunately, fate has other plans.
Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter characters. I wish I did... :P
Author's note: Please review if you like the story, or if you have any comments at all to make about it. I've gotten quite a few alerts on this story though which is great. I'd love to hear some thoughts though! ;)
The dinner party was an interesting affair, Dorcas and Marlene made inappropriate jokes to one another and to Sirius, who seemed more interested in talking to James, not that they had noticed that fact. Though Black made a great deal of smiling at them, or quirking a brow at James in a silent question of 'what on earth is happening?' and the pair of them would smirk or burst into laughter. Their nonverbal communication finally riled Dorcas up enough for her to turn her back completely on the boys and attempt to address only her three friends. It only served to amuse Sirius more, who by the end of the first course was speaking in 'code' to James, the only words of which were understandable were 'girls' and 'Dorcas'.
"You two really are children!" Marlene exclaimed angrily, picking up her glass of wine, which as they were all seventeen or near enough to it that the adults of the group had decided a few glasses of alcohol would be fine, Lily had really wished they hadn't. The drink only seemed to fuel James and Sirius' ridiculousness and Dorcas' legendarily fiery anger.
"We aren't the ones who turned up tonight wearing tea-towels." Sirius fired back, eyeing their bare legs and high heels. Marlene glared and Dorcas rolled her eyes.
"You're just jealous we didn't dress this way for your benefit." She replied smartly, tossing her hair to the side, so it whipped around her.
"You didn't? For who's then, my dad's mates? Hoping to bag yourself a fifty year old husband?" James inquired, sipping from his own wine glass. Sirius burst into another fit of laughter.
Through all of this, Lily and Mary had kept to themselves; they ate and drank in almost silence. Answering only in monosyllabic whispers for the odd question or two that was directed at them. Once dinner was finished; James and Sirius had expired all jokes directed at their attire and poor attempts at flirting or winning them over and were not interested in examining Lily. She could feel both sets of eyes on her but would not give them the satisfaction of looking up.
Finally Mrs Potter stood up and James shot up too, shocking the four girls and causing Dorcas and Marlene to burst into a new fit of giggles but if James had noticed he did a good job of pretending he hadn't. Instead, he turned and followed his mother back toward the house.
"Please tell me he isn't helping her to the loo." Dorcas scoffed, causing even Lily to look up and glare at him.
"Of course he's not." Sirius snapped and stood up, "Grow up."
"Oooh." The two Gryffindor's called after Sirius' retreating figure. "He's a fine one to talk." Marlene retorted with a pout on her lips.
"He's right. Grow up." Lily hissed, nudging Dorcas sharply. "She's sick; I hardly think making fun of her puts you on the high ground." Mary nodded her agreement. Before they could utter another sound, James had returned and was clearing the table. He started with the adults and worked his way down. Despite the fact Lily knew he had turned seventeen in March, he did it all by hand, placing each plate on top of one another, after having first waved his wand over them to remove the leftover food.
"I'll help." Lily offered, surprising even herself. A James Potter who was caring and considerate was a James Potter she could get along with after all. She rounded up the last of the plates, she who would not be seventeen until September was forced to do it the muggle way. As the pair of them made their way towards the house, she heard Marlene's wolf whistle and rolled her eyes.
"I'm sorry about them." She found herself saying, usually apologising would be the last thing she'd think of doing.
"Yeah, doesn't bother me anyway." He replied, when Lily looked to him, he was watching her with a frown before he turned back to the house, having realised he'd been caught staring.
Her first impression of the interior was just the same as her views of the exterior. She was impressed, the house was beautifully decorated and the large kitchen was so expensively decked out that she could tell that it was a focal point of the home. Her mother had always said the kitchen was the most important part of the house, it was a social place and if Mrs Potter was anything at all like Lily's mother, she could imagine this kitchen in constant use.
There was a cake baking in the oven, its smell wafted through the room and she was surprised they could not smell it at the bottom of the garden. There were two finished pies on the island counter in the centre and Sirius was in the process of removing ice cream from the large fridge-freezer by the door.
Just as Lily was placing her load on the counter beside the sink, Mrs Potter entered.
"Good boy, I have the bowls out..." She began looking around oblivious to the shared look James and Sirius shared.
"Yeah, it's ok. I've got them, mum." Sirius replied with a bright smile and as soon as Mrs Potter had turned her back to see how well her cake was doing, he waved his wand and two large glass bowls flew in from wherever she had left them. James shook his head and muttered a spell that begun cleaning the plates.
"Is there anything I can do?" Lily asked suddenly, realising that she'd been forgotten as the boys had stepped into the role of domestics.
Mrs Potter looked up, clearly shocked to find someone else there.
"This is Lily, mum." James supplied. "You can help me, if you like?" He asked finally. Lily nodded, after smiling at Mrs Potter. "Just put these plates in that cupboard up there... Can you reach?"
After affirming that she could in fact reach the cupboard; Lily put away everything that James had washed. They had completed their job in time to help Sirius bring the desserts out. Lily sat down with a smile on her face as she observed her lemon meringue pie, which Mrs Potter had told her twice that she'd made herself. Marlene watched her with a smirk but said nothing about it, in fact the group kept quiet for the most part, the occasional inquiry about the rest of the summer, about the last year of Hogwarts and about the future in general kept the general mood amiable and by the end of the night it had seemed as though the earlier grudges has been forgotten.
Once dinner was through and the party had dissolved into small collections of gents, ladies and the six 'children', they had drunk and spoke of causal stuff. Lily had even taken it upon herself to ask James various questions and had more than once admired the house. The girls had been given the tour of the property, much to Marlene and Dorcas' pleasure, it included the bedrooms that James and Sirius occupied. Lily had tried to hide her surprise to find Sirius had his own room, to which was decorated with his name on the door: both rooms professed their Gryffindor house pride, James' room had one scarlet wall, the other three walls painted in cream were loaded with posters, Quidditch pictures and even a large lion.
It was in this room, the group had settled on. James and Sirius sat on his bed, Dorcas on James desk with Marlene on the stool in front of it. Lily and Mary had sat together on the floor, their backs against the wall with the painted lion. They'd remained there a good two hours before Mrs McKinnon had come up to call them home.
-JL-
"It was a good night." Mary mumbled sleepily to Lily the next morning.
The house was quiet; everyone else was asleep except the pretty blonde and the red head, they slept on the camp beds beside one another and were able to whisper to one another without waking the others up.
"It was... I'm surprised."
"James is alright." Mary said with a smile.
Lily's only reply was to smile and turn on her back to stare up at the ceiling.
"Marley thinks you fancy him." Mary continued, stifling a yawn as she did so.
"Marley thinks a lot of things." Lily sighed. The truth was on her face, as she had admitted countless times that she thought James was good looking, she had always denied liking him; she could no longer do so with honesty. The James Potter who was a Quidditch captain and chaser and school heart throb and an arrogant bully, was not the James she had seen last night. James had been kind, thoughtful and she knew even he could not be as good an actor as he was to fool her into thinking it. The simple love he had shown for his mum and the concern that was written over his face each and every time he looked her way or her name cropped up was proof enough for that.
"I won't tell them." Mary said and reached over to hold Lily's hand. Lily grinned and clasped the smaller hand in her own.
"Thank you." She replied.
"You do though, don't you? You like him."
"I think so..."
AN: Reviews are loved. Thanks so much to everyone who has put this story on alert of fav'd it or even reviewed. It makes my day, it really does! xD I hope you enjoy this instalment. I know it's going a bit cheesy but I need some fluff in my life right now.
What'll happen next then? No idea, next chapter soon!
Thanks, Mikayla. x
