Disclaimer: Sadly, I am still not JKRowling !
Chapter 3
"James, hey! James, wake up!"
Someone pulled the blanket off of the still half asleep James Potter. The cold rush of air finally awakened his senses and he blinked sleepily into the morning light.
"Mhhmm... Moony, stop it! It's too way too early!" Indeed it was.
"I know that, James! Hey, don't close your eyes again! This is not over yet!"
James felt something very cold and wet making contact with his face. Suddenly, he was wide awake and looking at Remus' tip of the wand, from which his friend hat splashed cold water mercilessly into James' face.
"Moony, you miserable mule! Stop it!"
Remus ceased to pour water at James still drowsy face and changed his tactic into poking his wand painfully into James' pyjama-clad chest.
"Then get out of bed and tell me why you are here!"
"Oww!", James complained while wiggling away from the piece of wood pressed to his upper body.
"I'm here because I wanted to get some bloody sleep!"
"No, tell me why you are getting your sleep here instead of your own bed in your own Common Room.
James only looked blankly into his friend's disgruntled face. It was simply too early and his brain didn't yet function at it's normal rate.
"Ahhh... That's what you are getting at!" Finally, James understood what Remus had meant.
He pulled the heavy curtains aside and lifted himself out of the comfortable four-poster bed. The dormitory was very cold that morning and you could feel that the warm summer nights were a thing of the past.
"Well, see... I just wanted to start this year as we started the last six years! Tradition, if you take my meaning! Didn't want to disappoint Sirius again! That's why I sneaked in last night after you lot went to bed." James slightly flinched from lying directly into his friend's face. Truth to be told, he had spend the night roaming the Hogwarts grounds and snatching some leftover food from the welcoming feast in the kitchen to avoid going to the Head Common Room were he belonged. At the end, he had decided to tiptoe into his old dorm in the Gryffindor Tower and fell asleep in the very same bed that had been his for almost six years.
"Yeah, right! You were afraid to spend the whole evening alone with Lily! Truly, James, get your butt out of this room and into your own before everybody else wakes up! Or do you want Lily to know that you fled from her?"
"Okay, okay! I'll go! But first let me snatch my robes! Great friend, you are!"
"You know that you'll thank me later!"
James was very glad that Peter, Sirius and Frank Longbottom, the fifth male seventh year Gryffindor, had a really deep sleep and he sincerely hoped that Lily wasn't an early riser like Remus was. Otherwise he would have some explaining to do.
After Remus had finally pushed James out of the dormitory, the latter made his way to his new home for that year. There was no need for James to go far because the Head Tower was, like the Gryffindor Tower, located on the seventh floor of the castle.
While walking down the seventh floor corridor, he made small talk with a suit of armour he was particularly fond of, a swordsman who had an impressive repertoire of swearwords and who most likely was possessed by a ghoul or spirit based on the fact that suits of armour generally didn't talk or rather swear back. But soon enough, James stood in front of the portrait which he knew to guard the Head Tower.
The entrance to the Head Common Room was carefully watched by the notorious portrait of Reginald Hartachus, a wizarding author of romantic poetry who, given his portrait, lived in the early 19th century. Reginald scribbled furiously on a very long piece of parchment and made no intention of laying aside his long and elegant swan's quill in order to pass James.
"Crrrm, crmmm...", James cleared his throat. Sill, Reginald paid him no attention.
"Umm... Hello? Could you let me in, please?", he asked cautiously.
As a result, Reginald finally looked graciously up from his writing. His face was distorted by displeasure.
"I'm not yet sûr et certain about that! I am very engaged by my création artistique! But, as I am an obliging fellow, I'll let you in if you listen to the first draft of my dernier poème! Oh, and of cause I need you to tell me the correct password, s'il te plaît!"
"Oh...ehmmm...Okay!", James nodded, a little bewildered. "Spill!" He thought that Reginald's faux french accent was rather hideous to listen to.
"Alright, mon brocard! But keep in mind, it is only the first stage of a procédure lourde that every piece of art has to undergo to be de première force!" Reginald unrolled his piece of parchment and began to read:
"Mon armour, you beautiful sight,
under the starry summer's night!
Oh, come, chérie, I'll hold you steady!
You and I, we both are ready!
Feel that my love is true,
the only one pour moi is you!"
James exhaled slowly. "Honestly, I think it's quite...poetical?"
"That's all you have to say? Sorry, I can't interrupt mon déroulement de travail for that!"
"No, you've just... I'm quite... You simply left me speechless!" It was the second time for that morning that James had told a patent lie.
"Mais bien sûr, dear boy! Young people are always very moved by my work! I like to think that is because they have not yet passed the stage of youthful..."
"Bouncing Blubs!" James simply had to interrupt him. He really needed to be inside of his room before Lily woke up and to notice his absence.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Bouncing Bulbs! It's the password! Now, could you please open up?"
"Alright!" Finally the portrait of Reginald Heartachus swung open for the purpose of letting James climb through the round hole in the castle's brickwork. "Unrefined ruffian!", was what James heard Reginald calling after him.
The Head Tower really was quite nice, James though while standing in the middle of the round Common Room that he had to share with no other person but Lily. It reminded him greatly of the Gryffindor Tower, although that might be because both of it's inhabitants were Gryffindors. He wondered if the Common Room would be decorated differently if the Head Students were Ravenclaws or Hufflepuffs. He couldn't for the life of him picture a Slytherin being Head Boy or Girl. James was about to make his way to one of the impressive belfry windows to take a look at the grounds below when he heard something rustling in one of the comfortable looking red wing chairs in front of the fireplace. James inwardly gowned as Lily's head appeared from behind the backrest.
"Potter, where have you been all night?" Her green eyes seemed to pierced right through him.
"Evans! What are you doing up this early?"
"I couldn't sleep and decided to study a bit before breakfast!", Lily answered while crossing her arms irritatedly in front of her chest.
"Classes have not even started yet!" As always, she had him completely bewildered.
"I'm doing a bit of independent studying! By the way, I asked you a question first!"
"Well, I couldn't sleep as well and went to the owlery to send a letter to my family!" Lie number three for that morning.
Lily raised her eyebrows in question. "I've been sitting here for two and a half hours! That must have been quite a heavy letter for it to need that much time to send off!" James was sure that Lily knew he was lying.
"Yeah, well, maybe I lost track of time! That happens eventually, you know!", he said to fend her off.
"If you say so!" With that Lily turned her attention back to her book.
Again, she pretended that she didn't care. James couldn't accept it that time.
"What are you reading anyway – as an independent study?"
Lily took some time before answering his question.
"Oh, well, just some muggle stuff, you know?" Now he had her in the defensive position for she acted as if he had caught her with her hand in the cookie jar.
"Muggle stuff? Why would you do that?"
"It might not seem important to you, but I'd like to be thoroughly educated! It's a book about evolutionary biology, for your information!" Quite cross, Lily closed her book, making the covers loudly smash together .
"Don't get angry with me, I didn't mean it like that! I only thought with you being a muggleborn there wouldn't be much left to learn for you! So you are interested in biology?"
"Among other things!" Lily pursed her lips. "I want to keep up at least to some extent with the muggle curriculum. At times like these, you never know what might happen!"
"Don't you think that's a little too pessimistic?" James smiled to himself at her need to be perfectly prepared for every single possibility in life.
"No, I don't! If you'll excuse me, I think I'll go for a swim in the prefects' bathroom!" With that, Lily crawled out from under her blanket and rose to leave the Head Tower. "See you at the prefects' meeting tonight!"
"Yeah, see you!", James called, wishing he could take a swim with her.
The rest of the first day back at school passed uneventfully. Right after dinner Lily stood up from her house's table to leave early for the little assembly room on the third floor directly behind the charms corridor in which the prefects' meetings were held. She was the first to arrive but was glad for it because she wanted to go through her plans for that evening's meeting before the other 23 prefects appeared. 15 minutes before the meeting was to begin, she heard someone running in the corridor right outside of the prefects' meeting room. The footfalls were slowing down in direct reach of Lily's whereabouts. "Of cause!", she thought, as other than James Potter bolted trough the door thoroughly out of breath.
"Am I too late?", he puffed out.
Lily looked at him incredulously! "No, actually, you are too early! Nobody besides us has arrived yet!"
"Oh, thank Merlin!", exclaimed James and let himself sink on one of the hard wooden chairs arranged around the large oval table in the middle of the room.
"Wouldn't want to miss this for the world, would I?" He smiled his toothy smile at her.
Before Lily would answer, someone else entered the meeting room. As her bad fate willed, it was Severus Snape, Lily's former childhood friend and seventh year prefect.
"What a coincidence!", Lily thought. She herself tented to avoid every accidental meeting with Severus and she could very well imagine what might happen if he and James came together in a small enclosed space. The scenario wasn't pretty. The two boys deeply hated each other for reasons unknown to Lily.
"Lily, I am glad to find you alone! I wanted to congratulate you...!", began Severus.
"Pitty, Snape, that she isn't alone! I've arrived here before you!" James disrupted him from his seat in the middle of the room.
Snape, however, could only look at his rival confoundedly. Although he and Lily weren't friends anymore, she felt herself sympathize with the lanky and gaunt looking boy frozen solid in the doorway. She wished he would have cared enough to at least wash his long black and straggly hair before going into public. It would have given him a slightly better start position in the combat Lily knew was to come. With his ragged black clothes, prominent nose and odd behaviour, he laid himself open enough for attacks by his many tormentors as it was.
"Potter!", Severus spat out. "This is the prefects' meeting room! You have no business here!" Lily noticed her old friend's black eyes immediately turning icecold as his gaze turned from her towards the now standing James.
"Funny, you mentioned that! Thing is, I'm the new Head Boy! If you'd be so kind to leave and close the door behind you, Lily and I need some alone time! Otherwise I might try to take some points from you! Poor Slytherin, running a deficit on the first day of school!", James answered nastily while making his way to stand directly next to Lily and putting his arm around her shoulder.
Before Lily could grasp what was happening, Severus had already left the room with his clock waving behind him.
"Severus! Severus, wait!" Lily, called after him and chased him to the door. Yet, the corridor was empty and Severus nowhere to be seen.
She turned around to face James, who was still standing in the middle of the room, looking quite smug. Stupid, bullying, arrogant Dugbog!
"That was totally uncalled for, Potter!" Lily had a hard time controlling her temper. James, too, looked angry now.
"Sorry, I didn't know that you and Snivelly suddenly were best buddies again!"
"We aren't! But that doesn't mean that you have to be a complete prick every time he crosses your path! You are Head Boy, for god's sake! He is one of your prefects! Get over your own ego and snap out of it!"
"Fine, whatever!"
Their argument came to an end by the first group of Hufflepuff prefects entering the meeting room.
Lily tried to calm herself down and forget about what had just happened. She greeted the prefects with her best fake smile.
After the the initial bad start, the meeting went on just fine. However, Lily noticed a particular mean looking group of Slytherin prefects staring spitefully at her for no evident reason. Severus never came back after he had left. Lily really hoped that James hadn't scared him away for good.
It was true that she and Severus weren't friends anymore, but still, he had come to her parents' funeral in spring and she gave him great credit for that. He had stayed in the background and didn't talk to her or any of anyone, actually, but it had felt good that at least one person had come to support her. Most of the others who came to the funeral were Petunia's friends or family of her fiancé Vernon. Apart from a hand full of distant relatives to whom she had no relationship, Lily was on her own and felt very lonely on that rainy grey day in March. Therefore, the restrained and silent presence of Severus had mean a lot to her for she knew that he must have had some trouble leaving the school in the middle of the term.
After Lily and James had ended the meeting, she stayed behind to pack her things together while everyone else gushed out of he room. James, too, left as quickly as he could. They were still mad at each other.
"Stupid little mudblood whore! Only an old simpleton like Dumbledore would make someone like her Head Girl!" Lily raised her head from her shoulder back. She thought that it had to be Dolohov's voice talking, a six year Slytherin prefect.
"Well, trust me, we'll deal with that!", answered the voice that she recognized as Avery's, one of Severus friends and classmates.
Lily waited for them to leave the corridor before she herself made her way back to the Head Tower. As she was almost there, she decided against returning to her room and to Potter, whom she presumed to be in the Head Common Room. She turned around and made her way back to the kitchens. The sick feeling in her stomach that resulted from the overheard conversation needed soothing by some hot cocoa.
I hope you enjoyed chapter 3! Let me know what you think and review!
Yours, Julia
