Chapter 4: Scheming

Frieda's POV

My best friend has been up in our dormitory crying nonstop since last night when James' owl came. We skipped all of our classes so that I could stay with her while she sobbed. I wish to kill James Potter. Ooh…my lip gloss is seriously shiny. Oh, but yeah. I need to kill James Potter.

But first…Remus Lupin! He's SO cute! Oh, swoon! And there's something that puts off that vibe you know? Animalistic…wild…mysterious….SO hot! And there he is! Oh, but he's with Black and Potter…No worries. Remus is worth a bit of annoyance. I didn't have to worry about that, though. James and Sirius walked away quickly when they saw me approaching: probably trying to get Remus and me some time alone.

"Hi, Remus!" I got right in his face and got assertive, just like Violet said men like.

"Er…hi, Felicia."

"My name is Frieda."

"Right, Frieda. Yeah, you're Violet's friend, right?"

"Yeah," I nodded, still standing in his path.

"Look, Fabiola, I need to get to class, so could you please move?"

"Sure, Remus! But, um, my name is Frieda."

"Yeah, um…see you later!"

"DEFINITELY!" I squealed. Wait…classes were over hours ago…

No matter! He was as good as mine!

Remus' POV

"Oh, Godric, they're after me too," I puffed when I caught up to Prongs and Padfoot. James was rushing to get back to the common room where Lily said she'd meet him to work on Transfiguration (he said he'd let Sirius and I copy later).

"What?" Sirius gasped. "Boy, does that girl bounce back fast!"

"No," I said, panting for breath. "The other one, the brunette one,"

"Oh, you mean Farrah?" James asked.

"Yeah, something like that." James looked at me curiously.

"Well? Do tell what happened, Moony."

"Oh, right! Well, she ran into me in the corridor and stuck her head in my face squealing, 'Hi, Remus!'" I did a bad impression of that girl's squealing and the other two laughed.

"Ha! Really? She probably thinks she's being assertive or something," Sirius chortled.

"I told her I needed to get to class so she'd move, and I'm pretty sure she believed me."

"Wow." James joked. "She's blinded by love!"

"Yeah, blind, and deaf…"

"I'm not sure if that made sense…" Sirius told me.

"I don't think it did, but I'm sort of freaking out right now."

"Gee, Moony. It looks like we're in deep with the Giggle Twins, huh?" James scoffed, not amused.

I sighed and we kept jogging across the courtyard. It was only then that I realized I had a pounding headache. Get a hold of yourself, Remus! It's no wonder you have a headache after running into that Fanny girl! But the headache worsened and my mouth started to feel uncomfortably dry. I moved my tongue around a bit, hoping—disgustingly—to find some saliva I could swallow to make the dryness go away, but there was none to be found. Suddenly my legs started cramping up just like they do…Oh…Like they do right before I go through the transformation. Crap. I'd forgotten. Tonight was a full moon.

I expressed my concerns with Padfoot and Prongs and I swear Prongs looked like he was about to cry when he said, "But what about Lily? I said she was to meet me in the common room tonight at…" he checked his watch quickly. "…Nine o'clock. I have to be there, Remus!"

"Drat. Can't you just ditch the chick?" Sirius said like the gentlemanly fellow he was.

"No, Sirius, I cannot just, as you so brutally put it, 'ditch the chick'," James said scathingly.

"Jeez, mate, don't go all "witches rights" on me, okay? But I mean, she's just a girl."

"NO, SHE'S NOT JUST A GIRL! YOU KNOW THAT!"

"ALL RIGHT, ALL RIGHT!" I shouted over their childish bickering. "Look, James you don't have to come. It'll just be Sirius and I."

"What about Peter?" James asked.

"Oh, he disappeared mysteriously until later."*

James looked curious but didn't ask about it. "Okaaaay…?"

"Are you sure I don't have to go, though? I mean, you'll be okay with just Pads?"

"Yeah, Moony, we've only ever gone as at least the three of us."

"No," I grimaced in pain. "I'll be…fine. Just…stay with…Lily."

"Remus, get to the tree, you're already in really deep pain, I can tell," Sirius said worriedly.

"Okay, let's…go," I agreed.

"Good luck with Lily, Prongs," Pads told Prongs.

"Thanks mate. I'll see you tomorrow, Remus," James told me.

"Yeah…see you…tomorrow." I walked off with Sirius, clutching my head, in the direction of the ominous-looking Whomping Willow.

Lily's POV

Mmm. He was late. Tsk, tsk! I thought sarcastically. Suddenly, the portrait hole opened up with a loud whump! "I'M HERE, I'M HERE! DON'T WORRY, LILY, I DIDN'T FORGET! I DIDN'T FORGET!" I laughed, a bit embarrassed.

"Oh, trust me, I didn't think you forgot, James," I told him, still giggling.

"Yeah, 'cause I didn't!" he said proudly.

"Where are Remus and Sirius? I thought they'd be with you, they always are."

"Oh, um…Remus had to take care of his time of the month and Sirius went to help him." He said strangely.

"Um…right. Whatever that's supposed to mean."

"Well, I'd tell you but then I'd have to kill you," he told me, grinning. "And I love you too much, so please don't let it come to that," he pretended to beg. I laughed, but took him seriously and didn't ask any more questions about the Marauders.

After about an hour, when the homework—even Potions and Herbology, which wasn't due until next week—was finished, we started just goofing off, both of us enjoying each other's company too much for either of us to leave. We played Exploding Snap and fourteen rounds of Wizard Chess, me ahead of him by four games. We talked while we played, and on our fifteenth game of Wizard Chess, I asked him, "So, did Violet get the owl?"

"Yes," he chuckled darkly.

"Do you know how she's getting along?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure anyone who cares to listen can hear her overdramatic sobs."

"Oh," I laughed.

"Oh, and her friend Franny fancies Remus," he guffawed.

"Oh, no! How's Remus taking it?"

"Actually, pretty hard, by what he's told me."

Towards the end of our conversation about Violet, I remembered something. "Isn't Violet's friend named 'Frieda'?"

"I don't know! Let's just call her Giggle Twin #2 and leave her at that!" he laughed loudly, and I laughed with him.

After our seventeenth game of Wizard Chess ended, and the overall odds stood ten to seven, I discovered something interesting: could what I had said earlier really ring true? Could I actually love James? And as a friend…or more? To try to smother some of my curiosity, and because I suddenly wanted to, I found myself snogging the one and only James Potter. And loving it. When we broke apart, everyone in the room was staring, and James looked like he could run to China and back with all the enthusiasm in his grinning expression. And I found myself smiling, too.

Unfortunately, neither of us could know 'til later, that there was someone watching us. Probably one of the worst people who could've been watching us. She'd watched us through all the gossiping about the letters, every game of Exploding Snap and Wizard Chess, and every moment of our kiss. That someone had every right to be angry and no right at the same time. But no matter what rights she did or didn't have, Violet Brown was watching James and I just the same.

Violet's POV

"We have to get back at her! ASAP!" I yelled at Frieda that night.

"What? Why?" she thought for a second. "And…get back at who…?"

"LILY FREAKING EVANS!" I screamed at the top of my lungs. No doubt everyone from here to the Black Lake could hear us now.

"Calm down, Vi! What happened?"

"YOU WOULDN'T TELL ME TO BE CALM IF YOU'D HEARD WHAT JAMES AND LILY SAID ABOUT US AND IF YOU'D HAVE SEEN THEM SNOGGING THEIR BLOODY HEARTS OUT!"

"W-what?" asked Frieda confusedly.

"YOU HEARD ME, FRIEDA DUNHAM!"

"Oh, Godric, I'm sorry, Violet. Wait, they were talking about us?"

"Yes! They all think we're bloody idiots, the lot of them!"

"Really? Wait, even Remus?"

"Especially Remus, he hates your bloody guts!" A tear ran down her cheek. "And no, I will not say I'm sorry for that, because I'm only telling the truth."

She sobbed, and I yelled at her, like every good friend would, "GET A GRIP!" That made her sob louder, forcing me to give her my last calming potion that Professor Slughorn had given me.

"Oh, thanks, Violet. I feel so much better."

"Yeah, Frieda, good. We need to take care of my problems!" She looked at me, blinked, and then went over to her bedside table with the mirror on it to reapply her sparkly Pumpkin-flavored lip gloss.

"So what'll we do?" Frieda asked with her lips puckered.

"Well…she's allergic to gillyweed…remember that time in our second year when their class did the experiment with gillyweed? And Evans was so sick that she stayed in the Hospital Wing for a week and a half? Her lips were the size of two overgrown caterpillars! James will never want to be with her when she looks like that!"

"You're so right!" Frieda said beaming. "Probably."

"Of course I'm right! So will we do this or not?"

"Yeah! Let's do it! … Exactly how will we do this?" I sighed. Sometimes, Frieda could be so naïve.

At midnight that night, I was out of bed in my quietest black clothing and bed slippers. "Frieda!" I hissed. "FRIEDA!" I finally blew a whistle in her ear that I'd stolen from the Quidditch pitch at one of James' games. "Come on!" I whispered, once Frieda was awake and I'd made sure the rest of the dorm wasn't. "We need to get down to Slughorn's office!"

"Yeah…" Frieda slurred sleepily.

"Come…come on…" I rolled my eyes, dragging her out of bed.

We made it to Slughorn's store cupboards without a hitch: that should have been my clue that everything was about to go wrong. "There!" I exclaimed in a silent whisper. "We're almost to…"

"Good evening, ladies," Who else but Lucius Malfoy would have rounds tonight? "What would we be doing out of bed at…" he checked his watch. "Half-past twelve?"

"Well, er, you see, Lucius, um…" I babbled.

"We were…um…we needed to…I mean…" Frieda muttered, noncommittal. I glared at her.

"I needed to check Frieda out of the hospital wing…Madam Pomfrey said she'd be all right…" I made up on the spot.

"Really? Madam Pomfrey allowed the both of you to check out of the hospital wing…at midnight?" he said scathingly.

"Er. Yes. She had…dragonpox."

"It's real, you know!" Frieda exclaimed.

"Right. Well, considering the fact that you're Periwinkle's little sister," Lucius said to me,

"I'll let you both off on a warning. But one last time, and I promise, there will be detentions from both of you and Gryffindor's points will go down. Drastically."

"Yes, sir."

"Good. Now, make yourselves scarce."

We scurried away from the scene, wiping our brows from the tension. "Ew, ew, ew!" Frieda squealed. "I'm sweaty!" she pouted.

"Oh, shut up. We got the gillyweed without getting expelled—yet—and that's what matters!" I hissed through my teeth. "COME ON!" I took her clammy arm and we ran into the common room and upstairs to the dorm.

"Oh, good. Sleep," Frieda said hopefully.

"No." I told her.

"What?" she said, whining.

"We need to figure out a plan."

"Fine. But then can we go to bed?"

"Yes, then you can go to bed," I told her, growling.

"So what'll we do?" asked Frieda, suppressing a yawn.

We thought. Or at least, I thought, and she put on a full face of makeup despite the fact we were going to bed soon and it was almost one o'clock in the morning.

"I'VE GOT IT!" I yelled suddenly. One of our roommates tossed in her sleep and I quieted down, but shared my idea with Frieda. "Okay, so…tomorrow morning at breakfast, we find where she's sitting. We pretend we want to talk to her, and when we sit down next to her, I 'accidently' spill her juice, replacing her goblet with mine: the goblet of juice with the gillyweed extracts in it! It's genius!"

"Hmm. I guess so," Freida said, holding her eye open as she put on eyeliner. I smacked her on the back of the head and she dropped the pencil.

"You can go to bed now, Frieda."

"Oh, thank you!" She hugged me, getting into bed. As soon as she closed her eyes, I startled giggling under my breath. When I had smacked her, the pencil had slipped and she now had a straight green line going from her eyebrow down to her eyelashes. Ha! I wasn't going to tell her in the morning!

James' POV

That night, I had a dream. It happened right after I'd fallen asleep, thinking of what had happened that evening with Lily…

"What did you do that for?" I asked her after she was done kissing me. "I was curious."

"Curious?" I questioned her.

"Curious to see if I loved you." My brain went fuzzy and the long tunnel I'd been going through suddenly didn't just have a light at the end, it was light itself. The tunnel was the light Lily brought to my life. And it was the most beautiful tunnel I'd ever seen, ever been in.

"Well, you already know how I feel," I told her, whispering. "Do you know how you feel?"

"I know we're a bit more than just friends," she told me, sounding remorseful.

"So…?"

"So, should we…should we try for a—a relationship?"

"Wow. Did those words just come out of your mouth?"

"I know, right? I'm confused, too. But um, you should know that the first time you kissed me…that was my first kiss…" Wow, really? I was Lily Evans' first kiss? "And…I liked it. Meaning, when I kissed you…I um…"

"You wanted me to…like it? And you wondered if I wanted…you know, a relationship."

"Yes." We just stared at each other, faces red as Muggle stop signs, until Lily got too shy and looked away. "So what do you say?" she asked quietly, blushing and looking at my hand, which gripped hers. In response, I kissed her. My Godric. Lily Evans was now my girlfriend.

Just thinking about what went down tonight made every nerve in my body tingle in excitement. She's my girlfriend! We're together! A package deal! I screamed at myself.

But that was before I fell asleep. Sometime around one o'clock came the dream.

It was just Lily and I at the Gryffindor table, eating. I couldn't tell what meal it was to tell what time of day it was, but I was alone with her, and I suddenly didn't care. I had my hand in hers, and we were just looking at each other, occasionally eating a bite of something or taking a sip of whatever was in our goblets. At one point, Lily took a sip out of her goblet and her eyes glazed over. "J-James," she whispered as she let go of my hand slowly. Then she fell backwards out of her seat, convulsing.

"LILY!" I called to her. I had no idea what was wrong; all this had just started with a sip of bloody juice! Well, I didn't know what it was, really. I leapt over the table and to her side, gripping her hand again. "What is it, love? What do you need?" I was suddenly crying.

"What's happening?" I called to no one in particular. I did the only rational thing I could think of, and picked her up in my arms and ran with her in the general direction that I knew the Hospital Wing to be. The only problem was, there was nothing in existence besides the table, the food, me, and the girl I loved, who was seemingly dying in my arms. I looked around wildly. Suddenly, Violet appeared out of nowhere. "Violet!" I called to her. "You have to help me, she's…I think she's dying!"

"Don't worry…" she said quietly, almost seductively. "She'll be fine. Maybe." She cackled, and vanished, but the maniacal laughter could still be heard as I cried over the suddenly still body of Lily Evans.

*I really don't like Peter Pettigrew (WHO DOES?) so he's not in this story.

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harry Potter, and I guess that's okay with me…I can still enjoy it.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter was SOOO much fun to write, I LOVED it! I hope you enjoyed reading it just as much! This is where the plot thickens, and I left it on a sort of cliffhanger…. AWESOME! Let's see where it leads…

-Hailey (Potternerd1997)