Lily entered her dorm dazedly, still shocked at the thought, at the mere possibility, of finally being able to break her father's obsessive control. She was having an even harder time coming to terms with the idea that she was suddenly involved in an elaborate scheme with none other than James Potter—a Marauder, who also happened to be captain of the Quidditch team and the Dueling team and possibly one of the hottest guys in school. Not that she'd noticed…much.
It was outrageous.
She really hadn't expected such an outcome when she'd gotten out of bed this morning.
"Where the hell have you been?" A voice snapped her out of her reverie the moment she shut her dorm's door.
Surprised, Lily spun round and looked at her friend, confused by her anger before realisation dawned. "Oh, I'm sorry!" Lily cried, remembering she had been on her way to meet Jennifer before bumping into James. "I got a letter from my dad and then I bumped into James Potter and–"
"James Potter?" Jennifer asked disbelievingly, briefly snapping out of her mood. "Was there bloodshed?—Have you come back to find help to hide the body?" she joked, amusement overtaking her face.
"Yes, James Potter, and no, there was no bloodshed – I'm not that bad around him!" Lily cried defensively.
Jennifer snorted, but Lily chose to ignore her, and instead, brightly said "He's going to help me with my father!"
"Help you?" Jennifer parroted, too shocked by the pronouncement to do anything but repeat the statement.
"Yeah, can you believe that?! After everything that's happened between us, he's going to help me!" Lily said excitedly, a huge smile spreading across her face as the idea of it really began to sink in.
"No!" Jennifer exclaimed, her voice suddenly sharp again, shocking Lily into silence. "I can't believe it, it's not like asking to borrow a quill Lily – helping heal the deep-seated issued between you and your father is a task of mammoth proportions and it's not something someone does just out of the kindness of their hearts – especially not James Potter! Why would he even care?!"
"Because…because despite everything, despite his being annoying and childish I still think he's a genuine and kind person who saw I needed help," Lily responded, trying to put into words what exactly had happened between them, still not entirely sure how their relationship had changed herself.
Jennifer scoffed disbelievingly again.
"Stop," Lily commanded. "He was really nice today. I actually think we've finally found some common ground – we… we made a connection! He has similar problems to mine. I think he really understands how I feel about this – better than anyone else around here does anyway."
Hurt flashed across Jennifer's face before she sarcastically said, "Oh yeah, all that from one chance encounter? That must have been one hell of a conversation!"
"You don't understand, you weren't there…"
"I suppose he's getting absolutely nothing out of helping you either," Jennifer continued, as if Lily hadn't spoken. "He's just that nice?!"
"Of course he's getting something out of it – it's not just one sided!" Lily cried indignantly. "What do you think I am some kind of damsel? I'm going to help him with a problem he's having in return, it's only fair!"
"Oh Lily, no! Don't you see what he's doing? He's buttering you up and promising to help you, when really he's going to drop you the second you've fulfilled your end of the deal and he's gotten what he wanted!"
"You don't even know what we agreed to!"
"Don't get involved with him!" Jennifer exclaimed, ignoring Lily.
Lily stood in silent bewilderment before questioning, completely bemused, "Why not?"
"Why not!? Why not!?" Jennifer repeated incredulously, before bursting out, "What has he done to you?!" She grabbed Lily's face and looked into her eyes trying to see if she was under the influence of a potion or spell, but finding nothing she quickly released Lily's shocked face in complete astonishment. "You know so much better than this, Lily! He's a terrible womanizer; he's been with almost every girl in the school and has treated every single one of them poorly!"
"Oh, don't be so bloody melodramatic, he's not that bad. I know he's left a lot of broken hearts behind him, but I'm not exactly an innocent either, and I know we argue worse than anyone else in this school but that's only because our personalities clash. I've never thought he was even remotely cruel or malicious!" Lily replied, confused by the picture her friend was painting when she compared it with the boy she'd just had a conversation with. She'd thought many things about James Potter, but malicious and insincere were definitely not among them.
In fact, she was disconcerted to discover she was finding it hard to pull up any reasons for hating him. Maybe she'd hit her head harder than she'd thought…
"Of course you don't think he's bad, he's beautiful and smart and extremely adept at talking his way into a girl's knickers. He probably would have said anything to get you to meet him again so he could finally work his charms on you!"
"His charms?" Lily asked, trying to choke down a sudden burst of laughter at her friend's absurdity before becoming cross. "How stupid do you think I am? Do you think I can't make decisions for myself?! I'm not the naive, lost little girl that my father and, apparently, you seem to think I am! Furthermore, if I want to talk to James Potter, Severus Snape or Voldemort himself then I bloody well will, and you can't stop me!"
"Oh, stop being ridiculous, Lily! It's not that I think you're weak or naive, but surely you heard about what he did to Mary Keen, I'm just trying to protect you!"
"I don't need you to protect me," Lily told her firmly, but she paused before releasing her next angry retort and took a moment to consider her friend words anyway. She wasn't stupid, she did remember the Mary Keen scandal but she had found that girl's story hard to believe from the beginning. This, however, was her best friend telling her that James was untrustworthy and altogether evil, so how could she ignore that? Her opinion was hard to disregard.
"You shouldn't see him again, Lily!" Jennifer stressed urgently. "James Potter is not going to bring anything good to your life!"
"Oh," she replied a little pathetically, feeling her heart inexplicably sink.
"Yeah," added in Catreena, a horrible girl who shared their dorm and who had entered just as Jennifer had released her last sentence. "What would he want with you anyway, especially when he has the choice between the finest calibre girls in the school? You're out of your league, Evans."
Normally, Lily ignored Catreena, but in this case she couldn't help the small tug her heart gave as it sunk even further.
--
The next morning at breakfast, Lily received a note attached to a beautiful and slightly familiar owl. When she opened it, she discovered the letter was from James and he was requesting she meet him later after curfew.
Lily felt Jennifer's curious gaze on the side of her face, but she pretended not to notice and hastily stuffed the message into her robe pocket.
Lily hesitated. She knew she shouldn't go and meet James, but she suddenly found herself magnetised towards the boy, and so she had decided within seconds to go and meet him despite her reservations.
She told herself she was going because it would be rude not to turn up. When she got there, though, she was just going to tell him what she thought of boys like him, that was all. It certainly wasn't because she wanted to talk to him again.
She had never been one of those silly girls who fell for a boy's line just because he smiled at her, and she wasn't going to become one now, not over James Potter.
She would confront him with her knowledge and coolly tell him that she did not appreciate being played.
--
So later that evening, at the appointed time, she snuck up to the tower room he had designated and waited by an open window for James to turn up.
About ten minutes later there was a swishing noise, much like the one made when a wizard took off his cloak, and Lily spun around quickly, raising her wand in the process and flinging a spell in the direction of the noise.
A bright shield erupted moments before her spell hit the shadowy figure now standing in the doorway.
"Goodness, Evans, spook much?" said James, eyes wide.
"Sorry," she mumbled. "You surprised me and you never can be too careful."
"True. Nice reflexes, by the way," he complimented, as he watched her put her wand away.
"So, what are we doing here?" she asked him suspiciously, ignoring his comment but secretly pleased that she'd impressed such an accomplished dueler. "Why the cloak and dagger routine?"
"Well, there are some obvious obstacles in our plans that need to be overcome, and we need to figure them out in private. The walls have ears in this place, and unless we're extremely clever and discreet, our plan will be around the school before we can even put it into action."
"Yeah, before that…" Lily interrupted, frowning at him.
"Yes?" he prompted, when she didn't finish.
She decided not to beat around the bush. "I've heard… people say that…say that I shouldn't trust you, that I'm stupid for trusting you. They say I should stay away from you," Lily admitted, looking him directly in the eye.
James looked shocked at her abrupt announcement, but did not hesitate before saying sharply, "No, your 'friends' are wrong." He stopped mid- sentence before bursting out with, "Why can't people mind their own fucking business?!"
Hearing Lily's shocked intake of air, he turned to face her and let go of the hair he was gripping. "Please Lily, don't listen to them. Get to know me yourself and make up your own mind about me. Ignore what you've heard or what you're friends think they know – because they don't know – they don't know me or my friends – they just listen to the rubbish that those silly little girls- who have nothing better to do with their time than gossip- make up in their own heads to fill their own empty little lives!"
Lily just stood in a shocked stupor, stunned at his outburst. It didn't matter though, because it appeared that he didn't really need her input for this conversation anyway.
"I bet I haven't been with half the girls or pulled half the stunts your friends think they know about!"
"I'll be the first one to admit I'm not a fucking saint - I've never claimed to be. I've been in fights where I've done damage to property and to people. I'm not a virgin and I haven't been for a while- I like women and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. I drink alcohol and I sneak out of school to drink it, and I got a tattoo of a phoenix when I turned seventeen… I'm no innocent!"
"But if you ask, I'll tell you – I'm a lot of things, but I'm not a liar. So when you hear something, promise to ask me yourself, and not your friends, and we'll get along fine. I promise I'll tell you the truth no matter how gruesome it may be. I've made mistakes but I'm not ashamed of anything I've done."
Lily, who was taken completely by surprise by his intensity, found she could do nothing but nod numbly.
"I'm sorry," she finally managed to say. "I didn't mean to upset you, but she was my only source of information. She's my friend, and I don't really know you at all…"
"I understand," he admitted grudgingly, after taking a deep breath. "And at least you had the common decency to come discuss it with me instead of blindly believing and coming in here screaming at me – I -- appreciate the attitude and the honesty," he said seriously.
"Okay," she replied quietly.
"What was that?" James asked, stunned.
"I said; okay."
"Okay? Soyou're going to let it go, just like that?" he asked, surprised when she didn't say anything else.
"Just like that," was Lily's firm response. "I'm choosing to trust my instincts and believe you. If this is going to work, we each need to give each other clean slates and you've done nothing to show me I can't trust you so far… but James, please don't prove me wrong."
"Okay," was his simple reply.
"So, now that we have that out of the way, we need to talk about your plan."
--
AN
This chap covered issues that I thought needed to be addressed – If I hadn't I'm sure some of you reviewers out there would have been asking questions
Patience my pretties
Look on the bright side though, I've been spoiling you! There have been many updates this week, no?
I have all the way up to chap 10 written and the 6 chaps after that are already under construction - Keep that in mind…
REVIEW and the updates will come
P.s. I want to thank Izabella Pheonix who pointed out that the end of chap 2 was a little too O/C and a little sudden - I went back and I changed it!