Hello again, I'm back with another update, hopefully you didn't think I took too long to post…I really hate it when authors take ages to put up the next chapter…but anyway, moving on. I was so happy with the response I got from the last chapter! I asked for three reviews and I got ten! To some of you that may not seem to be too much of a big deal, but I was so happy! So thank you if you reviewed, favourited, subscribed e.c.t. it means a lot to me to see that people out there are actually reading and enjoying my work :)
Right, so back to this the chapter. I quite like this one, I had fun writing it. There isn't very much talk between the girls, most of it is looking at Lily and James. I hope that's not a bad thing…uh-oh… I'm nervous now!
Annnnd I only just realised last night that I never leave a Disclaimer on any of my stories (Whoopsies…). But if you hadn't already noticed that I can't possibly be the great JKR, I think you need you head testing for wrackspurt activity in the space between your ears where your brain should be…
OK…well enjoy the chapter!
Thanks to Lily's head start and knack of being able to stay hidden when she didn't want to be found, it took James a couple of minutes to finally find her.
She was standing, still as a statue, staring into one of the shop windows, not really seeing what was in front of her. I know she hates me… but it still hurts to think that my older Sister despises my very existence… were the thoughts running through her head. Why did things have to go so wrong?
"Lily!" James called in relief, jogging over to her. The airport was so big that she could have gone anywhere, but thankfully she hadn't run too far.
She abruptly whirled around to face him. Her face was tearstained and her green eyes were bloodshot, somehow making them seem brighter. There was a hopeless expression spread across her beautiful features that looked strongly out of place.
She had yelled, snapped and snarled viciously at him. He had seen her laughing with her friends and smiling happily, but he had never seen her cry before. She was always very careful not to let her hard mask slip, it allowed her to seem vulnerable, and that was simply not an option for her.
"What, James?" she demanded, trying to be her normal tough self, but failed miserably, only managing to allow another few tears cascade silently down her cheeks, before she caught them quickly, refusing to let them fall.
"Are you alright?" he asked carefully, before mentally kicking himself. Of course she's not OK you idiot!
"Yes, fine!" she squeaked, attempting to laugh.
"You're not, Lily, I know you're not. I haven't stalked you for the last few years and picked up nothing," James said, in hope that'd it'd lighten up the tense atmosphere.
Lily giggled quietly and wiped the stray tears, angrily, off of her face with her jumper sleeve. "Tuney hates me," she whimpered quietly.
"Is 'Tuney', your Sister?" he wondered gently.
"Yes," she sniffled, "She calls me a freak because I'm a witch." Why on earth am I telling him this? This is Potter! They guy who has single-handedly managed to make your school life living hell!
"That's horrible! You're not a freak!" he protested, disgusted that somebody as lovely and amazing as Lily could not only be rejected in wizard prejudiced pure-blood society, but by her own Sister too. How did she manage to cope? How did she manage to put all of her problems on hold to help the terrified first years why they get homesick because of being away from their families for so long in the year? How did she manage to pretend that everything was OK in her life, not clueing anybody in on the harshness of her own situation? Lily Evans was an exceptional witch, and she deserved a lot more credit for all of the effort that she put into everything she did than she got already; James suddenly wished more than anything she got given the title of Head girl next year. Nobody was more worthy of that position than her.
"She's hated me since I got my Hogwarts acceptance letter," Lily explained sadly, "She was jealous because she couldn't do magic like me. So when she refused to accept that she envied me, she turned to insulting me instead; all because I'm different to her."
"You are not a freak, Lily. Don't pay any attention to her," James ordered, starting to get angry. What kind of person is horrible to their younger Sister, calling her names, through jealousy?
"She's my Sister! And she's banned me from having anything to do with her wedding! I'm not even allowed to be there!" she sobbed, a few more fresh tears rolling down her face, only this time she left them, obviously sensing defeat.
"It's alright. She's not worth hurting over," he assured, lifting a hand forwards to pat her arm, before quickly snapping it back, so not to give her the chance to get angry or push him away.
When Lily saw him retract his hand, she made up her mind and stepped forwards, effectively burying herself in his warm chest, letting out an inaudible sigh of comfort. I don't like him! Of course I don't! But can I help the fact that I need a hug and he's there to give me one? Damn, this feels nice!
James's eyes widened in surprise at her sudden movement, before he got hold on himself and put his Quidditch-toned arms around her shaking frame.
"She's sorry you know," James told her after a few seconds of comfortable silence, running his hands gently through her hair, soothing her.
"Who?" Lily replied, her voice all muffled due to the fact that she was half hidden in James's embrace. Not that either of them minded though.
"Carla. You should have seen her face when she realised what she'd said."
"Yeah, I know. Carls' and me are always arguing and screaming at each other. We both have such quick tempers it's bound to happen. Last year it got so bad that Mel was forced to put a silencing charm on our dorm so that we didn't keep the whole of Gryffindor tower awake at night. I don't usually end up crying though. I'm sorry, I guess I'm just overtired," she admitted, lifting her head up slightly to look at James.
He smelt absolutely amazing, like a perfect mix of honey, freshly mown grass and pine trees. It was completely intoxicating- in the best possible way. But Lily couldn't shake the feeling that she'd smelt the same scent before somewhere. But after a few more seconds, she reluctantly stepped away from him, smiling shyly.
"Are you ready to go back?" he asked cautiously, trying to shake off the tingling feeling that her presence had left behind on his body. Every nerve seemed like it was on fire and it was taking a lot of restraint so not to grab her, push her up against the shop window and snog her senseless.
"Yeah," Lily agreed. "Oh Merlin, I shouldn't have reacted like that," she said beginning to walk back towards where they'd left the others.
"Don't worry, its fine. You were upset. We get it," James promised her.
She smiled gratefully up at him as they turned the corner and almost bumped straight into Sirius, who seemed to have been pacing up and down for a while, muttering things that made no sense to anybody but himself, and sending Remus half-mad.
"Oh, Lilyflower!" Sirius cried. "Are you OK? Are you hurt? Oh, sweetie! Don't ever give me such a scare ever again! You gave us all such a fright! I've been frantic with worry! Frantic, I tell you!" He pulled her into a back-breaking hug before yanking her back by her shoulders and checking over her face and hair, then dragging her back into a fierce hug and petting her hair protectively in a very – strangely accurate – motherly fashion.
"OK, Padfoot. Don't scare the nice lady. She's probably not used to your strange personality," Remus sighed at his friend; but Sirius didn't listen at all and carried on fussing over Lily.
Mel just looked at Sirius trying to comb Lily's hair with his fingers, whilst cooing paternally, before she just couldn't hold it in any longer. She burst out into hysterical laughter at the redhead's shocked expression.
James joined in laughing when Lily came to her senses and tried to prise Sirius off of her. She was unsuccessful, but it was genuinely hilarious to watch.
After a few seconds of Lily trying to remove Sirius from her, she sighed and leant forwards towards him. For one awful moment, James thought she was going to kiss him. But, thankfully, at the last second she moved to whisper something quietly in his ear, so nobody else could hear what she was saying.
A few seconds later Sirius's eyes went wide before he retracted his arms to look at Lily properly. She nodded solemnly her expression careful, her red curls bouncing delicately.
"Really?" Sirius demanded incredulously.
"Yes," Lily replied simply.
"Are you sure?"
"Of course I'm sure!"
"Really?"
"Yes! Now, don't be a twat and abuse this information," she ordered firmly.
"Yes ma'am," Sirius grinned stepping away from her, much to her obvious relief.
"Um…Lils?" Carla asks timidly. "I'm soo sorry I said those things. I shouldn't even be thinking that, no mind about yelling it to your face. I was very, very wrong and I'm sorry. Will you forgive me?" she finished, looking up at Lily with her big eyes.
"Sure, Carla, just don't ever say anything like that again, OK?" Lily forgave easily, emitting a sigh of relief at one less problem to deal with. She couldn't have spent the whole holiday ignoring Carla when they were sharing a villa.
"Thank you, Lily!" Carla cried, launching herself at her friend to give her a hug.
"You're welcome, Carls. Let's just forget it, yeah?"
"Yes please," she smiled, stepping out of the hug.
Lily then turned to walk back over to the chair she had been occupying earlier, and fell down into it, and as if by example, the others all followed and sat around in that area.
Lily and Remus both pulled out books, James turned to watch Lily and Mel did the same to Remus, although she was a lot more subtle about it. Sirius and Carla just sat there fidgeting.
A few seconds passed before they heard the inevitable, "Lily, I'm bored!" and "Moony, I'm bored!" Once they'd realised what that they'd said practically the same things at the exact same time, they turned and stared at each other.
"And what exactly do you expect me to about it?" Remus and Lily both replied from behind their books.
"That's kind of creepy," James and Mel pointed out.
"You can talk!" Sirius and Carla exclaimed.
Lily and Remus both sighed in exasperation, closing their books after folding the page they'd been reading and giving their friends – identical – disapproving looks.
Sirius, James, Carla and Mel glanced at each other before suddenly bursting out laughing – perfectly in sync.
Lily merely rolled her eyes and pulled her IPod out of her handbag, which caught James's attention right away.
"What's that?" he asked curiously.
"It's a Muggle music playing devise," she explained as simply as possible.
"Wait…so there are real life people inside there? They must be really tiny!" James says in astonishment. "Isn't it a bit cruel to trap people inside there though?"
"James, there aren't people inside there. Some people have…recorded themselves performing, and it is transferred onto here," she tried again, crossing her fingers that he'd get the idea so that she wouldn't have to go into finer specifics on how it worked, because, honestly, she didn't know that much about the physics of it herself. It played music and that was all she needed – and wanted – to know.
"Wow! So where does the music come out of?" he pressed again, scooting his chair closer to hers to get a better look at the mysterious music-playing object in her hand.
"Out of these," Lily answered, showing him the white buds. "They're called headphones; you put them in your ears. They stop anybody but you hearing the music."
"That's amazing!" James exclaimed in awe.
"Do you want a go?" Lily suggested, taking in his child-like wonder towards an object that – to her – was something completely normal.
"Yes, please!" he grinned enthusiastically.
Lily passed him the IPod, watched him messing about with the headphones, trying to figure out how best to wedge them in, before carefully putting them in for him. She lifted the IPod out of his hands and pressed the play button.
James's reaction was very funny. As soon as the music started blasting out into his ears, he jumped about a foot in the air in surprise, his mouth gaping wide open in honest shock.
"THIS IS SOO COOL!" he practically shouted, gaining himself a few strange looks from the surrounding people.
Lily laughed at him and turned the volume down a bit so that he could hear her properly.
"You don't need to shout, we can hear you perfectly fine," she told him, smiling.
He beamed charmingly and took the IPod off of her and managed to fathom out how to turn the volume back up.
Lily smiled to herself and went back to reading her book. She was less likely to het pestered now that James was busy with something to do other than to stare at her.
Mel had sat down in the seat next to Carla, opposite Remus; she had the diary that she'd bought specially for the summer holidays, out on her knee. Lily was sure that she had plenty to write about, because is the sudden arrival of the Marauders.
Sirius was fast asleep – and snoring rather loudly – with his head lolled back against the wall behind him, his mouth dropped open.
But Carla seemed just as fidgety as before.
Lily finally snapped when her friend started clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth. She turned to give her a meaningful look.
"What?" Carla demanded defensively.
"Find something to do," Lily ordered.
"I haven't got anything to do!" she whined.
Lily groaned before pulling a bulging, heavy-looking folder from her bag, and passed it to her friend.
Carla gasped excitedly at the sight of it and took the faded, lime green collection of various pieces of parchment out of Lily's outstretched hands, "Are you sure?"
"Sure, why not. Just…please sit quietly," she sighed.
"Of course! Thanks Lils!"
Sitting back in her chair, Lily watched Carla's face light up as she began to read. Lily had been writing her own romance novel for about the last three years. But she had refused to allow anybody to read it until she was sure that it was close to perfect as she could get. It wasn't yet, but some constructive criticism would be very useful; and if it kept Carla quiet, it was worth it.
And then finally it was momentarily silent in their area.
Sighing contentedly, Lily re-opened her book and carried on from where she left off. She tried desperately not to let her thought wander towards a messy black-haired boy that was situated to the right of her, and the feeling of how his lips had brushed against her own that morning several days ago. How his hand had rested firmly on her waist through her robes, his fingers running – gently – through her hair and the way that she felt recently when she was near him. But as you can probably guess, even trying was worth a failed attempt…
James flicked through Lily's IPod, learning more still about her, what kind of music she was into, what got listened to the most on her playlist, and he had even found some pictures hidden onto it. There were ones of – what James presumed to be – her family, friends and moments at Hogwarts. It was clear that each of those pictures meant something special to her, and he was determined to use this summer to prove that he wasn't as arrogant and obnoxious as she though he was…
Remus managed to win the raging battle going on inside his head, and kept his eyes firmly on the page of his book, and didn't look up to watch the stunningly-beautiful brunette girl sat opposite him. He was a monster, she deserved better than him. He couldn't give her everything she deserved and more, and that hurt so much it was unbearable. Not being able to express how you felt to someone you truly cared about was nothing short of antagonizing…
Mel wrote furiously in her diary, telling it everything that she would never say out loud. How she truly felt about the boy sitting across from her, her excitement for the upcoming trip and the hope that the girls would be seeing a lot more of the three handsome Marauders than initially thought. Whilst secretly wishing that he could just open his eyes a little bit more, and see that she was falling for him, too quickly to be called healthy…
Carla eagerly drank in the secret talent of one of her best friends, savouring every sentence of Lily's brilliant writing skills. Carla had finally found a book that wasn't dull enough to put her to sleep, and that in itself was a miracle and the highest of compliments for the author. But subconsciously an experience a few weeks back played – as if on repeat – through her mind. She hadn't been drunk – of course not! Lily would have killed her! But then why did she act the way she did? And why did those smouldering grey eyes manage to turn her into an emotional wreck with just one casual glance…?
And Sirius, well…Sirius dreamed about good-quality hair products, old slippers that as a dog he could just sink his teeth right into, food (especially Mrs Potter's goodbye feast last night…damn that treacle tart…), Snivellus with clean hair and a certain night in a broom cupboard with a drop-dead gorgeous blonde witch, and the fact that he might not have been soo drunk as he made out to have been at the time…
Me-Merlin, what am I going to do with Sirius *shakes head in denial*.
Sirius- Give me a cuddle?
Me-Nope.
Sirius-Meanie!
Me-I am not!
Sirius-Are too!
Me-Not!
Sirius-Too!
Me- FINE! I'll give you a cuddle for Merlin's sake!
Sirius-YAY!
*Sirius dives on me and I squeal*
James- WHAT IS GOING ON HERE?
Sirius- Nothing Jamiepoo!
Me-James! He's squishing me!
James- Sirius Orion Black! Get away from my girlfriend right now!
Sirius- You're no fun. *grumbles and releases me* Happy?
James- Very. *kisses me*
Sirius-...Ok, I'm gonna go find some food…or maybe I can find Carla on the way to the kitchens…*walks off*
Me-*detaching myself from James* OK, then…well…I uh…what was I going to say? Um…OH YEAH! Tell me what you think about the chapter! What was bad? What was good? (James-ME!) What needs to me improved? (Sirius-JAMES!James-HEY!) Let me know your opinions!
But anyways, REVIEW pleeease! I'm going to try and update in another two weeks. That should give me enough time. But I'd really like to see if we could get the review count up to… 25. I think 14 days for eight reviews should be fine, right? OK, well…GO REVIEW! And if you do review, I'll ask SIRIUS to give you a BIG HUG! See that's how great I truly am! Come on! Think about it, a few measly words for a hug from SIRUS BLACK! I know what I'd be doing right about now if I were you! So stop reading my gibberish and drop a line for me!
But WAIT, before you go I have a question… How do you guys react to being on an aeroplane? Are you completely fine and calm, do you throw up or panic…? I personally feel a bit sick as we rise, but then I just fall asleep as soon as we're in the air. But my mum hates it and she practically hyperventilates! What about you?
Xxxx