Chapter 4-Trials and Tribulations

I was sitting in the Heads common room with James as we did our homework when James looked up and stared at me.

"So Lily, you've got a thing for McKinnon eh'?" He asked.

I was a little surprised that he asked me that.

"What? No." I denied.

"Yeah, sure." James said going back to his work.

"Why would you expect me to tell you anyways? I barely even know you." I said.

James looked up and smiled. He shoved his books aside and leaned towards me.

"Well, how about we get to know each other then? I know the perfect game for it." James said.

"I guess." I said, slowly closing my book.

James explained how to play. One person says a word, and you say whatever first comes to mind.

"Ok, I'll start. Class?" James said.

"Charms. Color?" I asked.

"Maroon. Scary?" He said.

"Spiders. Scary?" I asked.

"McGonagall angry. Love?" He asked.

"No. Funny?" I said.

"McGonagall angry. Boyfriend?" He asked chuckling.

"Never. Boyfriend?" I asked.

"Oh you're so funny. Now seriously?" He said sarcastically.

"I was telling the truth, never." I said.

James sat up from his laying position on the couch and looked at me.

"You've never had a boyfriend?" He asked in disbelief.

"No." I said.

"Have you ever been with a boy?" He asked.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You know, like snogging and stuff?" He asked.

"No." I said.

"Are you serious?" He shouted.

"I'm Sirius!" We turned to see that Sirius was standing by the stair case.

He must have come in through James' window.

"What's going on in here?" Sirius asked.

"Lily has never been kissed!" James said.

Sirius raised his eyebrows and I crossed my arms in annoyance. Sirius let out a whistle of amazement.

"James! You don't just go around telling people!" I screamed at him.

"Well, sorry, but I'm having a hard time believing you." James said.

"Apparently I'm interrupting something. I'll just get my book and leave." Sirius said.

He picked up a book off the floor and proceeded to back out of the common room. I rounded on James again.

"Why is it so hard for you to believe me?" I said.

"I just can't believe that someone like you would have never kissed anyone." James said.

"Excuse me? Someone like me? Someone like me! What the bloody hell is that supposed to mean? You have no right to say that, you don't know anything about me!" I shouted.

"I didn't mean it like that, you're twisting my words. Besides, maybe I would know you if you wouldn't be so disclosed all of the time. Bloody hell Lily, I was trying to get to know you. I've BEEN trying to get to know you, especially since you smacked Sirius in the face!" James shouted.

James rolled his eyes and started to leave in the direction towards his room.

"Well where are you going? You started this!" I yelled to him.

"Forget it." He said.

He slammed his door shut and I went to my own room. There was no way I could continue studying now. I was so worked up over James. I decided to write a very long letter to Charlie explaining what happened and how James could be so frustrating. I went straight to the owlery and sent it to him.

The next morning I sat at breakfast with my friends. Unfortunately the Marauders minus James were there. Wow, I'm unlucky; this means James will join us when he makes his great descent. I was still aggravated with him.

When James came in there was only one extra seat anywhere near us and it just so happened to be in front of Sirius and right next to me. So, like I said, I'm inauspicious. James stood next to me for a moment as if he were contemplating if he really wanted to sit there or not, but he slowly sat down and ignored me.

When the mail came in, I was surprised to see Euripides among the other birds. I had just sent that letter to Charlie last night. Euripides landed gracefully in front of me and I opened the letter.

Lilykins,

I knew something must have happened to you, you had to have been pretty mad for me to feel it though. Anyways, don't let James Potter get to you so much. He's a guy, and us guys like to mess around you know. He was probably surprised that someone as beautiful as you could be so innocent and pure. But Lils, you were right; he doesn't know anything about you. You can't blame a guy for trying to get to know you. I think he must be pretty brave.-Just kidding. But you're not the easiest person to talk to sometimes. He just accidentally embarrassed you. Take it easy on him though, and don't be afraid to let people know the real you that I know and love. Keep writing me ok? Tell me more about these Marauders. Did they really do that prank with the dye?

Love Always,

Charlie

I sat for a moment rereading it.

I'm not that difficult to get to know.

Today in DADA was the day of our long awaited duel. Stigma looked like a little boy in a candy store. He had this excited face and his eyes were all shiny. It was kind of weird. Sarah said she thought it was adorable.

Stigma had cleared the room of tables and chairs and had everyone in the class stand against the walls. The rules were that you could use anything you knew that wasn't an unforgivable. I thought that was a little broad. Maybe a little too broad. I was afraid that Stigma might be underestimating the seventh year students.

Professor Stigma decided that because there were so many to duel, we would go in rounds. He was going to choose random pairs of students to duel. The winner would go to one side of the room while the losers went to the other. After the class was divided into winners and losers, he would choose two winners to duel each other. When one of them lost, the winner would stand and duel another winner from the first round. Each winner would remain standing, until the last person was the ultimate winner.

Professor Stigma's random choice of duelers turned out to be Gryffindor against Slytherin and same gender. It annoyed me immensely; did he think that a girl was no match against a boy?

Leah did well on her first round of the duel; she won with a stunning spell. Ashley surprised all of us to be quite a vigorous dueler when she went against Bellatrix Black. However, Bellatrix confounded her and disarmed her. Tiffany had disarmed her opponent quickly with the disarming spell. Sarah got hit with a babbling charm and couldn't pronounce any spells, so she lost. Peter was the only Marauder that didn't win his duel. Though Peter did go against Lestrange, and though I hate to say it, Lestrange was one of the best Slytherin I had seen.

Lestrange went on to beat Remus and some of his fellow Slytherin in the second round. He was beaten by Leah. Leah was then faced against Severous Snape who beat her with a borderline dark curse that I was all too familiar with. It was quite popular at Drumstrang. I made a mental note to keep an eye on him. Sirius was picked to go against Snape and he looked excited about it. The only people left were James, and Bellatrix and I.

While Stigma was counting to begin, Severous shot a disarming spell at Sirius on the second count. Professor Stigma said that he would count that as a win because your opponents would never follow rules or wait until you were ready. Sirius was outraged at both Snape and Stigma. He stomped to the other side of the room to join Remus and Peter. If it wasn't for the murderous look on his face, it would have been quite comical to see Sirius, a seventh year, stomp across the room like a small kid throwing a temper tantrum.

James was called to duel with Snape next and as soon as he reached the center of the room Snape tried to disarm him, but James must have expected it because he blocked it with a look of ease. Professor Stigma jumped out of the way as they immediately started to duel. All duel formalities forgotten. It was a very interesting duel. Both boys were running around the classroom and rolling on the floor to dodge curses. James was one of the best duelers I had ever seen for his age. He never gave up. If he was hit, he always got back up and defended himself. Though in this case, I think he was more concerned about defending his pride. I knew from stories from the girls that the Marauders had never got on with Snape. James had gashes on him that looked pretty bad, but he gave as much as he was given. After twenty minutes, he finally defeated Snape. The remaining Marauders all cheered louder than anyone else in the room. Professor Stigma tried to send Severous to the infirmary and suggested James to go as well. Both refused, James wanted to continue and I suspect that Snape didn't want James to have the satisfaction of injuring him so much that he needed to go to the medical wing. It was all in the way he looked at him.

Professor Stigma called Bellatrix to duel James and she looked pleased. They started to duel and the curses were starting to get bad. I don't think they were dueling just for this class and the sake of a review. It seemed like it was over a personal reason or some past conflict. They were so engrossed that they ignored Stigma's shout's to stop, and he looked too fearful to stop them himself. James and Bellatrix' spells were flying all over the place so that people had to try and dodge them. Some were unsuccessful and had to be taken to the hospital wing. James was starting to get clumsy after a while though. He looked like he was perplexed and confused. He kept shaking his head and then I noticed Bellatrix never broke eye contact with him. I looked around the room and Remus caught my eye, it was like he too recognized what was going on.

Suddenly, James fell clutching his head. Bellatrix started laughing. She was actually laughing! James was still on the ground and Bellatrix started to say a spell that I immediately recognized. As soon as I heard her start to say it, I jumped in front of James and put up a shield charm. Her spell bounced off and I quickly aimed a shield charm at the rest of the class. It hit the shield and started to come back for me as I muttered my own spell. My spell hit hers and they both dissolved. She turned to look at me and crinkled her eyebrows.

"Mudblood." A voice echoed inside my head, followed by laughter.

She had invaded my mind, proving I was right in what I had thought I'd seen before. Bellatrix was a Legilimens. I shot a disarming spell at her.

"That was a nasty curse you almost hit James with." I said to her mind.

She paused in the middle of her spell to smile at me. Then she continued to fire spells at me with intensity. We were firing and dodging spells while we were talking in each others mind.

"So, the mudblood is a Legillimens. That's pretty dark magic for a precious Gryffindor. I'm a bit disappointed in you though, so much glorious knowledge from such a wonderful school and you refuse to use it." Bellatrix thought.

"Don't pretend to know me Bellatrix; your presumptions about my magic could get you in trouble." I said.

Bellatrix smiled. Something about her seemed familiar. Her smile seemed familiar. She tried to use another vicious curse. As soon as she sent it, I muttered my spell and this time it hit her curse making it disappear and it kept shooting toward Bellatrix hitting her in the chest. Bellatrix fell over on the ground muttering incoherent words. I flicked my wand and she stopped, paralyzed on the ground. I walked over, picked up her wand and threw it to Professor Stigma. He didn't even make to catch it as it hit the floor by his feet. Everyone looked shocked. I turned back to Bellatrix and flicked my wand, removing my spell. Nobody made to move. James was still in the same spot, only he was looking straight at me. Nobody was saying anything, and suddenly Severous Snape broke the silence.

"Well done." He said leaning against the wall.

That was all he said. People started clapping apprehensively as some Slytherins helped Bellatrix off of the ground. She shoved them away and shot me a glare. She stomped out of the room with the Slytherins following her, one stopping to pick up her wand. Snape was the last Slytherin in the room. He nodded at me before he too exited. The bell rang just after and everyone left the room talking about the duel.

I looked over to James who was standing next to me. Our friends were coming towards us.

"Are you ok?" I asked him.

He nodded. We all left the class room together.

"Where did you learn to duel like that?" Sirius asked me.

"Sirius, where do you think she learned? She's from Drumstrang!" Leah said hitting Sirius on the head.

Sarah chuckled.

"Ouch." Sirius said rubbing his head.

Ashley rolled her eyes. Remus hadn't said a word. Peter was talking about how James had beat Snape like he was some kind of a hero. James ignored him.

On Saturday I went down to the Quidditch pitch with Tiffany for the chaser trials. I sat in the stands with the rest of the team watching everyone tryout. Tiffany was the oldest chaser so she was helping with the try-outs by flying with them and playing against them. There wasn't anyone who was really any good and James was so frustrated that he had thrown his clipboard. After the last person had tried out, Tiffany called down to James.

"Hey! James! Why don't you let Lily have a go?" Tiffany said.

"Does she play Quidditch?" He asked.

"I dunno. We were just going to fly a bit after practice." Tiffany said.

"Guess it couldn't hurt, I don't think she could be worse even if she had never played a day in her life!" James said.

"Oy! Lily!" She shouted to me.

I walked down to the field where James was standing.

"I'm putting in Sirius as keeper so it'll be easier. You know how the game works?" He asked.

"Yeah, I think so." I said sarcastically.

I mounted my broom and kicked off to join Tiffany in the air.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Ready." I said.

James blew the whistle and we flew towards the hoops. Tiffany passed the Quaffle to me and I shot at Sirius so fast he didn't even see me coming. James blew his whistle in some pattern that must have had some meaning because the rest of the team flew to the field. He said something to them and they all flew back into the air. Matt and Joe flew to the hoops. Joe tossed Sirius his club and James and Lisa were going to play against me and Tiffany.

James passed to Lisa but I shot forward and stole it in the air. I passed to Tiffany, but she had to dodge a bludger from Joe so she passed it back. Sirius hit a bludger toward me but I was way too fast. I rolled and faked right while the Quaffle flew through the left ring.

James blew the whistle and the team all flew to the ground, I followed.

"Where the bloody hell did you learn to play like that?" James asked as soon as I had landed.

His eyes were big and his mouth was wide open.

"Beginner's luck?" I said.

"That was no beginner's luck. I couldn't hit her James, and she just scored on McKinnon! Nobody scored on him all last year!" Sirius said.

"Er, ok, I played chaser for Drumstrang." I said.

James still had his mouth wide open in shock. Sirius started laughing as he waved a hand in front of James face. James quickly closed his mouth and swatted at Sirius' hand.

"I told you they had the best Quidditch players!" Joe said happily.

"Looks like Gryffindor are going to have the best players. Nice job Evans." Matt said.

"All in favor of Evans as the new chaser?" James asked.

Everyone raised their hands except Tiffany.

"Well, I dunno- Just kidding! Relax James!" Tiffany joked.

James looked like he was going to hex her when she protested.

"It's unanimous then. Welcome to the Gryffindor Quidditch team Evans." James said smiling.

After try-outs everyone headed back to the castle. I went to the Head Dormitories and I was walking through the common room on my way to take a shower when I heard James call my name. I turned around to look at him.

"Ah, Evans, listen. About the other night, I'm sorry. I was just a bit surprised, and it's really none of my business I guess…so…friends?" He said.

James shifted his weight from foot to foot in nervousness.

"Friends." I said.

James sighed in relief.

"Excellent! Now, where in the bloody hell did you learn some of those moves?" He asked.

I chuckled and we began to talk about Quidditch plays as James actually took notes.