Chapter 4: Surprise!
Lily stared hopefully up at James, doubtful of his answer.
"Well, Lily, I-." James began, but was quickly interrupted.
For, at that moment, a loud scream sounded through the main hallway.
"I know that scream……..oh, God, what has he done?" James sighed, as Jenn and Remus burst out of the room they had been…..occupying.
"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Jenn questioned, her eyes wide with worry.
Lily momentarily ignored her friend, and instead chose to stare imploringly at James.
"What has who done?" Lily asked suspiciously.
All of a sudden, Remus's eyes lit up in realization.
"Oh, no…" He trailed off, giving James an exasperated look.
"Oh, yes…he's done it….how could he?" James appeared as if he was trying to make sense out of something.
"WHO?!" Jenn demanded, hands on hips.
The boys both looked at her speculatively, then at Lily, then turned their gazes onto each other.
"Should we tell them?" Remus asked, raising his eyebrows at James.
Jenn huffed, shooting Remus a deadly glare.
Ah, thought Lily, Remus hasn't seen Jenn's…impatient..side yet.
"Well, I don't know what you two could have possibly been doing in there earlier, but I'm pretty sure that you won't be doing it again anytime soon if you don't answer her right now." James gestured at Jenn, while flashing Remus an amused grin.
Remus eyed his girlfriend and Lily watched as a look of understanding crossed over his handsome features.
He then smiled nervously at Jenn. "I was going to tell you…it's just that…you might rat him out."
"Oooooohh, Jenn, BIG hint-it's a him! Now we have it down to like, what? About half of the people at this party? So close!" Lily crossed her arms and smiled sarcastically at Remus.
Remus shot a quick glare at Lily, but it was a look of utter sweetness and innocence that fell back upon Jenn.
"Jenny, if you really want to know, then I'll tell you."
Lily crossed her arms, her mouth dropping open. "You let him call you JENNY!? You hate being called that!"
"I don't hate being called that." Jenn protested.
Lily shot her a "we'll talk later" look and then shifted her gaze back onto James and Remus.
"So, are you guys going to tell us who you're talking about or what?" She questioned.
"All right, but it will remain just between us, ok?" James gestured between the 4 of them.
"Right." Lily agreed.
"OK, then." Remus nodded.
"So tell us!" Jenn ordered.
"To start off, it was Heather who screamed. I've spent at least half of the last 5 summers over at Sirius's house helping him provoke that scream. Anyway, for the past…I dunno…3 weeks, maybe, Sirius has been telling us all about how he planned to prank Heather during her engagement party." James explained.
"WHAT?! Why didn't you tell her?! This is a SPECIAL event in her life! It's a once in a lifetime experience-."
"Well, hopefully once in a lifetime-." Remus interjected.
"REMUS!" Jenn yelled, glaring at him.
"Sorry, but it's the truth."
"That's beside the point. The point is that you and James let Sirius ruin this whole experience for her!" Jenn argued, glaring at them.
"We did not! How were we supposed to know that he'd actually go through with it?! That same day he started going off about how he was going to drop out of school and become a monk! He's Sirius-you can't believe half of the things he says!" James protested.
Lily, momentarily distracted, asked, "Sirius Black-a monk?"
James rolled his eyes and shrugged. "Mya Lang dumped him that day. He gave us this whole spiel about how he had lost his touch with females, was destined to be alone for eternity, and was officially swearing off women. An hour later we found him making out with Gwendolyn Patil in the restricted section of the library-."
"ANYWAY, let's get off of our little "the crazy and seemingly senseless acts of Sirius Black" conversation and head back toward our chat about his sister. You know, Heather, the one that, prior to our conversation, was screaming her head off?!" Jenn interrupted angrily.
"Instead of chatting about her, why don't we just head on over to her room and find out what the heck Sirius did to her?" Lily offered.
"Good suggestion. Lead the way." James swept out his arm in front of Lily.
Lily and Jenn both stepped forward and began to lead the group down the hallway.
When the girls were far enough ahead of them that a private conversation could be guaranteed, a grinning James held out his hand to Remus and whispered, "I told you he'd do it, Moony. Pay up."
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
Lily cringed as Heather threw a particularly heavy looking book at Sirius.
"SIRIUS BLACK, THIS IS THE LOWEST, MOST CARELESS, MOST HORRIBLE THING THAT YOU HAVE EVER DONE!!!!!" Heather screamed, picking up one of the bridesmaids' purses and swinging it at her brother's head.
Luckily, Sirius managed to duck his head in time, the purse barely skimming his hair.
"Heath, it was just a joke…" He explained, his voice hopeful, yet nervous.
"SIRIUS, YOU SET OFF 6 FILIBUSTER FIREWORKS IN MY CLOSET! YOU KNOW, THE PLACE WHERE I KEEP MY WEDDING DRESS!" Heather's voice was dangerously high and menacing, as she picked up her once heavenly, but now charred wedding dress, which was had been burnt to the point of deterioration in some parts, and in other spots had been turned coal black.
"Hey, c'mon Heath, don't worry about it. Think of the bright side….you could start a new trend!" Sirius suggested lamely in a bright voice.
"Oh, yes, it can be the "Thank God I Remembered to Stop, Drop, and Roll" look." Heather seethed sarcastically, glaring furiously at her brother.
"I'm really sorry, Heather." He murmured quietly.
At that moment, Lily chose to spoke up. "Um, Heather? Not to be rude or anything, but why don't you just restore it with a spell?"
Heather turned to Lily, and her expression changed from furious to disappointed. "Madam Malkin made it with a non-repairable fabric. She gave me a choice between a couple of dress or marital robes designs, and it was between this one and another which wasn't quite as expensive, but WAS repairable. I had already fallen in love with this one, though. It was just so beautiful….and I vowed to take really good care of it so that it would be in perfect condition for the wedding. Everything would've been perfect."
Lily watched as Sirius bit his lip and looked down, obviously regretting his prank.
Finally, the groom-to-be spoke up. "Heather, don't worry. It'll still be perfect. All of the wedding decorations and necessities could burn up and it'd still be perfect. You want to know why? It's because none of that stuff matters. The only thing that matters to me is the fact that the most beautiful, intelligent, amazing woman in the entire wizarding world is in love with me…and in 2 weeks we'll be married, and I'll get to spend the rest of my life with her."
Heather, who was already in emotional distress, finally broke down and let a few tears slip as she gazed lovingly at Zach.
"I love you." She murmured, walking over and embracing him.
"I love you, too." Zach bent down and gently kissed his fiancé.
"And it will be perfect…..as long as we lock him up in some type of cage when the ceremony starts." Heather gestured towards Sirius, then pressed her forehead to Zach's as the two of them laughed.
Sirius was about to protest, but Jenn kicked him the shins before he could utter so much as a word in his defense.
Meanwhile, Mandy, who had already been consoling Heather when Lily, Jenn, James, and Remus had arrived, nudged Lily, then whispered, "Awwww…"
Lily giggled. "I know, they're so cute."
"I want to get married!" Mandy exclaimed, the expression on her face clearly revealing that she was indeed pouting.
"I don't think Miguel is ready for that kind of commitment. In fact, I doubt he even knows how to say 'commitment'." Lily smirked at her best friend, who promptly swatted her arm.
"No fair! That was totally unprovoked." Mandy protested.
"Who ever said that I have to be provoked into teasing you?" Lily asked, a mock-bewildered expression on her face.
"Oh, well if we're going for the whole 'unsolicited attack' approach, then I guess you won't mind me telling James about your little crush on him…" Mandy grinned, raising her eyebrows.
"You wouldn't…" Lily narrowed her eyes.
"Oh, I would…" Mandy nodded her head for emphasis.
"No, you wouldn't."
"Why exactly wouldn't I?"
"You wouldn't because you don't want Sirius knowing that you think he's cute."
"LILY!"
"If I've told you once, I've told you a million times, Mand. NEVER TRY TO BLACKMAIL ME."
"Eh, it was worth a try. It could've worked."
"No, it wouldn't have."
"You almost bought it for a second there."
"Yeah, sure, keep tellin' yourself that, McQueen."
"Eww, don't get all haughty on me, Evans."
Finally, Jenn's voice broke through their bantering.
"ENOUGH. I think those two could use a little privacy." Jenn gestured at Heather and Zach, who were….er….passionately kissing in the middle of the room.
"Oh, and you'd know all there is to know about needing privacy, now wouldn't ya, Jenn?" Lily grinned.
Jenn's mouth dropped opened and she glared at Lily, but then saw the confused look Mandy was shooting her and recovered.
"Did I miss something?" Mandy asked suspiciously.
"I don't know. Ask Jenn. She was the one making out with Remus in one of the parlors."
Mandy and Jenn unanimously gasped.
"LILY!" Jenn exclaimed, while Mandy burst into laughter.
Lily was about to respond when Zach spoke up. "Um…can you guys….you know…..BEAT IT?"
"Yes, sir." Mandy saluted him as Jenn dragged her and Lily out of the room.
Before closing the door however, Mandy peeked her head in one last time and added with a playful smirk, "Oh, and enjoy yourselves!"
* * * * * * * * * * * *
It was almost 8:00 by the time the girls made their way back to the table Sarah had led them to over 2 hours ago. However, Sarah and Violet were missing from the group. While Violet was sitting and flirting with Joe, who it looked like she was once again on again with, Sarah was nowhere to be seen. She and Mandy had split up on their search for Jenn earlier, and no one had seen her since.
Lily found Sarah's whereabouts as the focus of her thoughts, while Jenn and Mandy chatted about Jenn's secret relationship with Remus. Normally, she'd be quite interested in her friend's love life, but for some reason she had a bad feeling about Sarah's absence.
"Um….guys, I think I'm going to go see if I can find Sarah, k?" Lily stood up and walked off, not waiting for their permission.
Nearly a half an hour later, Lily was ready to give up. She'd searched at least half of the tables already, and was too exhausted from all of the walking she'd had to do to continue her search.
Luckily for her, at that moment she spotted Sarah's head peeking out of the gate to the fence that enclosed Jenn's humongous backyard.
Lily smiled in relief and began to walk toward the gate. However, just before she came into Sarah's line of vision, she felt a hand on her shoulder.
She quickly turned around to find James Potter grinning at her.
"Hey." He greeted.
"James Potter? Nah, it couldn't be." She shook her head.
James looked confused. "It's me."
Lily grinned, "Oh, of course it is. It just seemed so uncommon for us to bump into each other without, you know, literally bumping into each other."
James grinned back at her. "What can I say? I just couldn't keep attempting to kill you after you so bravely asked ME to be YOUR date, now could I?"
Lily's grin faltered. "Oh, so that's what he wants to talk about," she thought to herself. At that realization, she felt her palms begin to get a little sweaty. "What if he's going to turn me down?! Oh, I'll just die," the voice inside Lily's head exclaimed.
"Anyway, I just wanted to tell you that-."
"LILY!" James was cut off as Sarah Blanton finally took notice of her friend and ran over to her.
"Sarah!" Lily greeted.
"I have something VERY important to…um….show you!" Sarah smiled excitedly at Lily, hardly able to contain herself.
"Well, can it wait a minute or two, because I was just about to tell Lily that-."
James was not able to finish his sentence however, because Sarah had ignored him completely and tugged Lily over toward the gate.
"Close your eyes." Sarah ordered when they reached their destination.
Lily decided to play along with Sarah's antics since she seemed so excited.
She heard the creaking of the gate door, which could only mean that Sarah was opening it.
"OK…OPEN THEM!" Sarah yelled gleefully.
Lily's mouth dropped open and she gasped at the sight before her eyes.
"Surprise, Lil." Robbie Smith greeted, stepping forward and embracing her.
"Um-uh………………hi." Lily forced her mouth into a weak smile.
When Robbie released her, she quickly turned around to at least LOOK AT the expression on James's face. She felt the need to at least give him an apologetic glance.
It was too late, however. He was already gone.
Author's*Note-Heh, heh, heh….you guys didn't honestly think that I wouldn't throw another obstacle in there, did you? I think I at least had a few of you thinking that in this chapter James would say yes to Lily…turns out that he didn't get to give her any kind of answer! So, what do you guys think? What will James say to Lily the next time they talk?? Is he mad? Is he jealous? Is he…happy? Hmmm….so many possible reactions…and does Lily still want to go to the dance with him?? Or does she want to attend it with her boyfriend now?? Yeah, that's probably the biggest question: Is Lily still in love with Robbie??
Anyway, I hope you guys liked this chapter. REVIEW!!!!
Disclaimer: I own the plot and my OC's…
P.S.-I will try to get the next chapter up VERY soon..this one would've been out sooner, it's just that I've been EXTREMELY busy this week. Sorry for the delay…..