Disclaimer: Just playing around... not mine.
A Year To Remember
Chapter 4
~ Encountering The (Un) Known ~
Next morning, Lily woke up thinking about James. Cheerfully, she got out of bed, and began making a cup of coffee. But then she remembered what had caused her and James to get together, and that was the news of Stacy's death. Stacy, Imogene, Alice and Lily were the very best of friends; all four of them were in Gryffindor, though surprisingly enough, they would have done extremely well in Ravenclaw.
James, also woke up thinking about Lily, although he didn't need his coffee fix for the morning, he just plain needed his 'Lily fix'. Even though she only agreed to go out with him yesterday, it felt as though they had been apart for years. That wasn't true because she had attempted to avoid him for the past six years, but didn't really succeed.
Back at Lily's house, an hour passed before Ali and Gen arrived, a little breathless from the sensation of apparating, but nevertheless, they were there. Now Lily could finally begin preparations for Stacy and her family's funeral.
The three friends, once four, contacted the ministry with a date and time for the ceremony. Halfway through writing the letter, the doorbell rang. Lily instantly rose, but Ali told her to sit down while she got it instead.
"James? What are you doing here? Don't answer that," she said, just as he was about to open his mouth to answer. "LILY!" she called up the stairs, "YOU HAVE A VISITOR!!" Lily rose again, Imogene, not wanting to be left behind, rose as well and followed her to the front door.
As Lily neared the door, her mouth fell open, slyly; she gave James a small wink and began ranting. "POTTER! WHO THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE! FIRST YOU MOVE NEXT DOOR TO ME, BREAK IN AND STEAL ALL MY CHOCOLATES AND THEN YOU COME WALTZING OVER HERE LIKE YOU OWN THE PLACE! YOU BETTER HAVE A GOOD REASON FOR COMING HERE OR I WILL HEX YOU INTO OBLIVION!" Lily took a deep breath before continuing, "YOU HAVE FIVE SECONDS TO GET OUT OF HERE, FIVE, FOUR, THR–"
"LILY!" James interrupted, speaking at last, "I wasn't here for you," Lily automatically quietened to hear what he had to say, the others looking at her curiously. "I've actually come here to ask all three of you to the Marauder's Back to School Party tomorrow night, and no, I didn't choose to invite you, my parents did," he added to answer the unasked question.
Lily looked as if she were ready to disagree immediately so Imogene said, "Sure, we'll be there, what time?" James' eyes lit up, "Er…6pm…and…er"
"Do we bring dates?" Alice asked, thinking about Frank.
"Yes, but no muggles that don't know bout our world, it would be kind of hard to explain the magic…Actually, speaking of dates, Lily–"
"NO JAMES!" she shouted before he had a chance to ask. Her two best friends stared at her, realising she had said his first name, she blushed a deep crimson.
"Lils, give him a break, it's his party after all tomorrow," Alice said.
"NO! Tell him to give me a break. And don't call me Lils!" with that, Lily stomped back upstairs, eyes full of laughter that only James could see.
"Don't worry James; we'll make her dance at least once with you tomorrow night. Could you tell Sirius for me that he's going to it with me? Whether he likes it or not!? I would tell him myself, but I kinda need to stay with Lily," Imogene said
"Sure, oh, and can you tell Lily that the theme is 'Muggle Costumes' for me, she kinda ran away too quickly."
"COOL!!! Yeah, we'll tell her," the girls said in unison, before looking at each other in amazement and laughing.
James shook his head at the two girls, "I swear you two are twins in everyway but blood!'
"I think we've heard that –"
"– Once –"
"– Or twice –"
"– or maybe a million times!"
James laughed at their antics. "Well, I gotta go, thanks you two."
"Bye!" they said in unison before laughing again.
"Bye!" he said, walking back to his own house, now knowing that he had at least once dance tomorrow night to tell her how great an actress she was to pull this whole thing off.
As soon as they other two went back upstairs, they bullied Lily into coming shopping with them for a new costume for the party, Lily reluctantly agreed. And so within half and hour, the three were on the streets of muggle London ready to try on costumes and dresses galore. After visiting fifteen shops, trying on twenty dresses each, and wasting three hours shopping, they finally made their way to Diagon Alley. There, they decided to visit Fortescue's Ice-cream Parlour. After eating their ice-creams (Lily – Raspberry and White Choc, Alice – Cookies and Cream, and Imogene – Boysenberry), they thought they should finish their shopping for school, seeing as they hadn't had a chance to all summer. After a quick stop at Gringotts, the trio made their way to Madam Malkin's for new robes, (Lily's were getting a bit short), the Apothecary and Eelop's for new potion supplies and owl treats. Then followed by Flourish and Blotts l
Upon entering the bookshop, the three separated with plans to meet up within the hour, Ali headed off to the Herbology section, Gen off to the Care of Magical Creatures and Lily to the Charm section that adjoined the Transfiguration one. Once there, they each picked a book and proceeded to read, it was only when Lily heard a cough behind her half and hour later that she looked up. To her delight, it was her boyfriend. Jumping up, she leapt into his arms and laughed.
"Shhh Lily, someone might see us," he whispered, trying not to laugh himself. Lily reluctantly got off him down and sat back down in her armchair.
"I'm guessing my friends have tried setting us up again haven't they?" Lily asked.
"Yeah they have," he agreed.
"And you do know that I'm going to have to reject you at least four times for it to be considered normal." James nodded.
"As long as you end up dancing with me, I'm fine with it."
"I can't wait to see their faces on September first." James laughed.
"No-one's going to know what hit them!"
"Jamie, we're going to have to plan this you know."
"What did you have in mind?"
"Where's Lily? Have you seen her Ali?" asked Imogene. The pair were standing outside Flourish and Blotts looking for their missing friend. "She said she'd only be an hour at max, and it's been more than an hour already."
"No Gen, I've told you already I haven't see– WAIT! There she is!"
Lily came walking out of the bookshop, followed by James only metres behind. "Uh oh" whispered Alice. Only seconds later, Lily 'noticed' that James was behind her.
"DO YOU HAVE TO FOLLOW ME EVERYWHERE? LEAVE ME ALONE POTTER!" James quickly backed off so to not make a scene in a very busy Diagon Alley. "Girls, lets go!" All three of them quickly walked off to the Leaky Cauldron.
"What did he do Lily?" asked Alice as soon as they'd made it to the brick wall. Lily turned to look at her friend,
"What do you mean Alice?" she asked dreamily, Imogene giggled as it was so obvious.
'Hmmm, let me think?!" she laughed. Lily snapped out of her trance and looked at Alice.
"Well he was obviously stalking me, he followed us into the bookshop and started looking at the same section as me! I didn't even know that idiot could read!" Imogene laughed at the look on Alice's face.
"He wasn't stalking, gosh Lily! Give the guy a chance," said Alice.
'Nope, don't feel like it. Besides, when did you start defending Potter anyway?" said Lily, sticking her nose up into the air.
"Excuse me, what would you like to order?" interrupted a waitress once they'd sat down at the very full pub. All three of them jumped at the intruder before realising who it was.
"When did you start working here, Mary?" Lily asked her fellow classmate.
"Start of the hols. Now do you mind ordering so I can make some money today," snapped Mary.
Alice, Imogene and Lily looked at each other raising their eyebrows. "Erm I'll have a butterbeer," ordered Lily, breaking the silence,
"Me, too," said Alice.
"Make it three" said Imogene.
After Mary left, Lily said, "Well look who's in a grumpy mood today." The other two laughed knowing that Mary was nearly always in a grumpy mood.
"Here you go," Mary said before slamming the three drinks down and walking away. Lily merely raised her eyebrows at the other two before taking a sip.
"Tastes normal," she said, noticing their expression. Realising that this was not it, she turned around and followed their gazes, "Oh no, not again," she whispered.
"Guess he was stalking you Lils," Imogene said apoplectically while Alice nodded in agreement.
"Would you like me to say 'I told you so'? And DON'T call me Lils!"
"No, and very sorry, I forgot."
Lily scowled at Imogene before turning around to look at James. She sighed, which unfortunately, Alice and Imogene noticed and exchanged glances before looking at Lily's expression again.
"What are you two looking at?" Lily asked after a minute or two.
"You like him."
"What? No, duh, I hate him!"
"Yeah we know you hate him, which is why you like him!"
"Yeah, WHAT!"
"LILY LIKES JAMES!" Imogene said in a sing song voice. Lily just plain scowled at her friend, neither denying nor agreeing with the comment.
Unfortunately, James heard this comment, which was an absolute miracle, seeing as it was a full pub, and walked over to their table with Sirius, Remus and Peter by his side.
"I heard that Lils," James said smartly.
"DON'T CALL ME LILS!" Lily yelled. James flinched and mumbled that he 'forgot about that'. "Besides, it's not true as I have told everyone so many times that it's impossible to count, I do NOT like you POTTER!!"
&&&
Meanwhile, Sirius was talking to his girlfriend Imogene on the other side of the table.
"So Siri, would you mind explaining to me why Peter wasn't with you at James' house for the past week but then shows up with you the day before the party?"
"Well Gen, Wormtail here was, erm, Wormy, where were you?" Sirius asked his buddy while Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius.
"I was, er, at my aunties house in, er, France." He said nervously. Imogene thought she saw something in his eyes, but whatever it was, she ignored it.
"Oh, okay, did you have a good time?" she asked.
"Er, kind of. My auntie and uncle were really nice, as usual, but my cousins were terrible," he said, obviously making it up on the spot.
"Right, anyway, what do you think we should do about Lily?"
"What do you mean?" asked Sirius. Remus actually started to pay attention to the conversation and said:
"Isn't it obvious Padfoot, the party!"
"Oh yeah, sorry, stupid moment," he said, Remus rolled his eyes at Imogene, "Well, have you guys got any ideas for setting her up with him?"
"Alice and I have promised James that we would get him at least one dance with him, so chances are they'd get together, unless…"
"What is it Gen?" asked Sirius.
"We could always–"
&&&
Mary made her way over to Lily, Ali and Gen's table to collect their empty glasses, as soon as she saw the Marauder's her eyes widened in excitement. "How can I help you boys?" she said in a sugary sweet voice.
"Nothing, we're just passing through with these lovely ladies," Sirius said in a pompous manner. Imogene laughed at his antics. Mary just plain scowled; she was certainly nothaving a good day today.
The girls grabbed their bags and moved towards the door leading to Muggle London. Lily decided she'd be sneaky and jumped into an available fireplace and said clearly, "Evan's residence". After a few seconds, everyone realised she'd disappeared so they bean looking for her. Ali, seeing a green fireplace indicating someone had left, whispered to Imogene and pointed. They too followed their friend after topping up the floo powder.
The remaining Marauders, with nothing better to do, grabbed all of their bags and followed the girls. What they weren't prepared for was the welcoming at the other end. Lily was not happy!