Hi all,
Sorry that this is a day late, and sorry that I defended myself so vigorously in the last update in terms of the Lily/James, Prude/Prick comments. I re-read it and decided I was a little snappish, and I totally didn't mean to be, so sorry. I think I must have frightened off a few reviewers as well because the story has now had over 2,200 hits and yet the review count is still in the 40's. I'm so sorry everyone! I assure you I'm not a b*tch, just very defensive...
Anyway, aside from all that I have not much else to say other than that I'm moving house over the next three weeks so if there are tiny delays in updates please bear with me, I'll be doing my best I promise. All should be under control by the 25th April. And hopefully there will be NO delays, but just in case... yeah.
Happy Easter to those who celebrate it! And I hope you all enjoy this chapter :)
AND A HUGE THANK YOU TO THE LOYAL READERS WHO HAVE STUCK WITH ME FROM THE START, AND WHO CONTINUE TO REVIEW EVERY WEEK. YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!
-Nashi217
An Office Rumor
Chapter Four: Lily
Lily found herself thoroughly enjoying working at the Ministry of Magic over the next few weeks, despite the unpleasantness that was James Potter. She enjoyed working with almost all of the people in the department, and had struck up a few tentative friendships, which made life far easier.
Emmeline Vance, although fairly quiet, was always very helpful and enjoyed talking to Lily about charm-work, and had been ecstatic to hear that Lily had gotten one of the best marks in charms that Hogwarts had ever seen. Lily wasn't quite sure how this information had gotten out (as she was reluctant to talk about her marks for fear of seeming arrogant) but was pleased to hear that Emmeline had been top of her year as well, and as a result, the two could often be found with their heads buried together at lunch, discussing magical theory and how charms might benefit them in the workplace.
Lily also rather liked Dorcas Meadowes, who was far more outspoken than Vance, but was also one of the funniest people that Lily had ever met. She was carefree, honest and very welcoming.
Benjy Fenwick was an enthusiastic kind of guy, and Lily found herself being strongly reminded of a child in an adult's body whenever she was around him. However, his kindness and genuine interest in Lily meant that she liked him right away, and she would often approach him whenever she had more administrative problems in the office.
Moody continued to be as intimidating as ever. Lily grew to like him, but found working with him a challenge as she often became flustered around him, and would find herself blushing profusely. Potter seemed to always find this quite amusing and would hide a smirk beneath his hand as Lily would grow more red, thinking about James.
Actually, James was the only thing about work that she didn't like. The rest of her time was challenging, interesting, tense, tiring but immensely satisfying. James Potter… was not. He was irritating, frustrating, confusing, embarrassing and worst of all…. He always seemed to be there! His desk was opposite hers in the office, although they were separated by a considerable amount of floor space, which was part of a sort of walk way around the office. Yet, as there was nothing but space and air between them, whenever she'd look up, he'd be there. Five or so meters away, facing her, and more often than not, looking at her. She began to get used to the shade of brown that his eyes were, and the messy way that his hair stood up on his head. She saw it so many times a day that it began not to bother her. Yet it was hard to ignore the rest of him. Every morning when they'd arrive at work, he'd call out "Alright Evans?" and every evening he'd try to ask her out. It got to the point where he'd simply have to say, "Hey Evans…" before she would turn to him and retort, "Potter, the answer is still no." To which James would only smirk and reply with, "Well… you never know."
As most people had left the office by the time James would ask her out, most of the department didn't witness these acts, (for which Lily was very grateful) but the tension between the two was so obvious that they became the unofficial source of entertainment for the team during work hours. Dorcas in particular, who enjoyed a good laugh, had readily jumped at the opportunity for amusement when James' obsession had become apparent. Having been friends with James for years now, she found his predicament hilarious and Lily's reactions even more so.
Lily and James, it was fair to say, were both relatively oblivious to their surroundings. They each continued along their own paths quite happily. James- relishing in the fact that Lily had been thrown back into his life, and trying desperately to sort out his thoughts and emotions, and Lily- quietly frustrated and agitated with the fact that somehow, James Potter had made his way back into her life to torment her once more.
The actual work that Lily found herself doing was interesting as well. The aurors' main goal at that point in time, during the war, was to sort out who was a Death Eater, who was an imperiused Death Eater, and most importantly, where they were hiding. The team had various strategies for uncovering this information, and everyone had a different job to do. Lily's role was (at this point in time) to essentially be Emmeline Vance's assistant. Vance was working on uncovering who of the known Death Eaters were imperiused and who were not. Moody was all for the "catch first, question later" attitude, but had been told by "the powers that be" that a more subtle approach was needed. Lily was under the impression that Dumbledore's hand had, had a part in that decision and she was grateful for it. Due to Emmeline's excellent history in charm work and curse deflection, she had been put in charge of this particular operation, and Lily had been all too eager to help.
Dorcas and Benjy were working on the surveillance side of things, trying to uncover where the Death Eater hide-out was. Unfortunately at the moment they didn't seem to be having much luck. Every time they'd start to get a lead, something else would come up, proving it false. If truth be told, Lily was secretly happy that they hadn't been very lucky so far. That's not to say that she was in any way a supporter of Voldemort, but more that she was worried about what would happen when they did find it. Moody had announced just the other day that when they did know its whereabouts, the entire team would be called in to assist with a full-scale attack and capture. Lily was not afraid to fight, after all she was a Gryffindor, but she had never been in a situation like that before, and needless to say, the thought of it made her a little… uneasy.
James, as head of the team, over-saw everything and was also in charge of the most complicated, dangerous and important part of their attack. He was leading the search to find all the Death Eaters. His job was to discover who they were, where they worked, who they associated with and what their plans might be. He just basically had to ferret them out. If James hadn't gotten on Lily's nerves so much, she might have even said that she was impressed by this, but as the situation stood… she decidedly wasn't. James had acquired that position because he worked hard (first and foremost) but also because he was completely and utterly passionate about the cause. Moody could see all of these things and had appointed him accordingly. The bonus was that James would also always be a Marauder at heart, which meant that he had a sort of daring recklessness about him that meant he would go to almost any measures to get the job done.
He was also quite well connected.
Lily was reminded by this one day when an unexpected visitor came into the office. She remembered Sirius Black from school as being one of James' cronies, and although James had gone to almost any means to talk to her at school, she'd barely ever spoken to Black unless it was by default. It therefore came as a surprise to her when one day, a shadow was cast over her desk, and a deep, rumbling voice simply stated, "Lily Evans." She had looked up to see Sirius Black's handsome, rugged features staring down at her with a look of slightly puzzled amusement written across them. Her mouth had dropped open. "S-Sirius Black." She had responded, shocked.
"Indeed." He continued. He studied her for a moment before cocking his head to one side as he watched her, and then continued. "This is interesting." He had said.
"What is?" Lily asked him.
"Well you see Evans, I asked Miss Meadowes over there, where I might find a good friend of mine, James, and I was told that his new desk space was in this vicinity. And yet… here you are." A shadow of a smirk crossed his face. "And you are decidedly not my friend James." Lily scowled, before Sirius continued. "You may remember him from Hogwarts actually. A few years your senior, messy hair, quidditch player… total git?" Lily couldn't help but smile at Black's last description of James- as she heartily agreed with it, but as she saw James enter the office over the other side of the room, she merely met Sirius' gaze and said, "Yes I vaguely recall someone like that. And James Potter sits there." She pointed at the desk opposite her before returning to her work. Sirius had chuckled quietly to himself, nodding and tipping an imaginary hat to her before turning to James' desk just in time to see the man himself striding towards it. "Prongs!" Sirius called jovially, in a tone that suggested that it was a huge surprise to see him there, and with his arms extended as though to embrace James. Potter grinned at him and messed up his already messy hair. "Padfoot! How smashing to see you dear fellow!" Sirius' bellows of laughter echoed through the office and many people looked up to see what the fuss was about. Upon seeing James and Sirius standing together, most of them went right back to their work as though this was a common occurrence. Lily, who'd never seen Sirius in the office before, continued to watch the pair, whilst pretending to do her work.
"Prongs my dear friend, how goes it?"
"Quite splendidly Padfoot old sport, and for you?"
"Oh wonderful!" They grinned like school boys and clapped each other on the back. "Moony said to tell you that he still has your shoes at his place from the other night." James nodded and waved away the information for later.
"Any news Sirius?" he asked, regarding his friend with serious eyes.
"Ah, there's always news Prongs. Somewhere, something is always happening." And he pulled out several pieces of parchment from within his cloak to give to James, who flipped through them with a grim, but eager smile on his face. Lily watched him with fascination.
"And uh… speaking of things happening…" Sirius nodded ever-so-slightly in Lily's direction and Lily felt her face grow red. James looked up at her at exactly the same time that her eyes flickered to his face and he grinned upon catching her eye. "Oh yes Padfoot, things definitely do happen everywhere. Don't you remember Lily Evans?" he asked a little louder, indicating Lily with his hand. She ducked her head.
"Oh yes." Sirius said as though he'd only just noticed her.
"Evans, this is Sirius Black. He's one of the people who so kindly helps me in my work." Sirius walked over to Lily and, smirking, lifted her hand to his lips and kissed it gently. Lily scowled and blushed anew. Sirius turned back to James. "Oh come now Prongs, I'm not just one of your people, I'm the only one worth mentioning!" James grinned and shrugged before turning to Lily to explain. "Sirius works for the Daily Prophet. He runs the column 'Black in Town'?" Lily nodded in acknowledgement. That column was well known for it's wit and daring. The journalist (previously unknown by Lily) was famous for making various anti-Voldemort comments each week. James continued, "Well you see, with all the drabble that this one here writes," Sirius looked at him in indignation. "He often gets sent some lovely owls from Voldemort supporters telling him exactly where he can jam his quill. Mostly they're harmless, but we monitor them anyway, because sometimes Death Eaters get just a little too outspoken in their fan mail." Sirius grinned at James and turned back to Lily.
"We look for patterns, repeated owls from the same parts of town, etc… you'd be surprised at how many of them we've been able to pin this way." Lily looked at them both.
"Yes, but surely none of the inner-circle would waste time sending you Howlers when there are muggle-borns to kill?" she asked them. James studied her, a curious look on his face. "No. But the ones that do have time to send mail usually leave us a nice little trail to follow." Sirius nodded grimly while Lily let "Hansel and Gretel" play through her head.
"Of course, by 'us', Prongs means 'him'." He added. James shrugged.
"Can't have everyone else risking their necks can we Padfoot? And certainly not you- your female readers would murder me!" Sirius, who'd been looking at James in friendly exasperation at the idea of him taking everything on himself, smiled impishly, and then shrugged as though it meant nothing. Their conversation turned to quidditch and Lily was left sitting there thinking about how James took it upon himself to undertake the most dangerous part of the job just to keep others out of trouble. This act of kindness placed a small seed of confusion in Lily's mid-section somewhere, and try as she might, she couldn't remove it.
A loud, jubilant shout brought her back to her senses and she looked at the two young men before her, beaming at each other in glee. Sirius had just presented James with top-box tickets for the upcoming quidditch match and Lily rolled her eyes. Of course, she thought. James' connections would have to come in handy in other ways as well.
She began to pack up her things and prepare for the floo home when Dorcas Meadowes spoke to her.
"Hey Evans, a few of us are heading down to Hogsmeade for a few drinks after work tonight, it's sort of a monthly tradition… would you like to join us? You're a part of the team now too." Her warm smile was not missed by Lily, and the red-head tentatively bit her lip as she considered the idea. Emmeline Vance smiled at her and Benjy nodded enthusiastically. James stared determinedly at his hands, folded in his lap.
"Sure." Lily said after a pause.
After all, what did she have to lose?
