Chapter 7
Lily and Natalie both noticed something different about Chelsea the next morning at breakfast.
Lily tentatively asked her, "Chels? What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Chelsea muttered. She cast a glance at the door and immediately looked down at her breakfast, staring at her sausage as if it were the most interesting thing in the world.
Both Lily and Natalie looked curiously at the door and saw James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter walking into the Great Hall. Natalie sighed, "Marauder troubles," and went back to her food, but Lily stared at the boys. All of them except for Peter seemed to have been hurt or injured in the middle of the night; James had a cut on his cheek, Sirius had a bruise on his arm, and Remus was limping, with a small bruise on his forehead. Lily sighed. Marauder troubles. She knew that it would have to be Remus that was troubling Chelsea – they were the closest of the group and she normally didn't avoid him. She saw Remus glance at Chelsea sadly and sit down with the rest of the Marauders. She moved back to next to her friend and quietly asked, "Chelsea, what's happened? Where were you yesterday?"
"I don't wanna talk about it, okay?" Chelsea got up and walked out of the Great Hall, leaving her uneaten breakfast sitting at the table.
Lily walked over to the Marauders and squeezed herself in between James and Remus. "Hi, Remus."
Remus eyed Lily skeptically. She didn't come to their spot of the table to talk to him a lot; normally it was James. Suspecting this had something to do with Chelsea, he said, "Hey, Lily… what's up?"
"What's wrong with Chels?"
"I-I – er…"
"Listen, I understand if you don't want to tell me, but can you make her feel better? She's feeling really down for some reason."
"Yeah – yeah, I'll try…"
Lily got up and left, and James asked, "What happened, Moony?"
"Uh – nothing. Seriously. Nothing happened. I'm fine."
"Yeah, yeah, cut the crap and tell what's going on," said Sirius impatiently.
"Well – me – me and Chelsea – uh – wekissedlastnight." He said the last part in a hurry.
"Wait – what? Say that last bit again." James said.
"We – er – kissed?"
"Congratulations, Moony! You kissed a girl!!" exclaimed Sirius.
"Wait, you kissed Chelsea??? I thought you liked Lily!!" said Peter confusedly.
"No, you idiot, I like Chelsea. JAMES likes Lily," said Remus, rolling his eyes.
"Wait, then why is Chelsea mad at you?" asked James. "She seriously doesn't like you back?"
"No, of course she likes me back! I told her we couldn't be together."
"What? That relationship lasted shorter than my shortest relationship!! And that was six hours!!"
"Shut up, Sirius. You aren't helping," said James. "Why can't you be together?"
"You know… 'furry little problem'…"
"She gave up on you because you're a WEREWOLF????"
"Keep your voice down!!!!!! No, she doesn't know that I'm a werewolf, - but she won't like me when she finds out!!"
"That's bullshit, Moony. Tell her the truth. She deserves to know the truth, and she deserves to hear it from you."
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Remus left the Great Hall a little bit early and went to the Gryffindor common room to find Chelsea sitting in a sofa next to the fire, sobbing into a pillow, not noticing that Remus had just walked in. He resisted the urge to take her in his arms and sat down next to her and quietly asked, "Chels?"
Chelsea lifted her tearstained face from the pillow and stared at Remus sadly. She didn't say anything, so Remus said, "I'm sorry."
She still stared at him, looking deep into his eyes, as if searching for a hidden meaning as to why she and the man she loved couldn't be together. She let one word escape her lips as she asked, "Why?"
"I – Chelsea, I'm not NORMAL. You can't be happy with me! I – you deserve something better than me."
Chelsea asked, "What do you mean, you're not NORMAL? Why aren't you normal? What makes you DIFFERENT?" Her normally sparkling blue eyes had turned icy. "You're just like any other boy in the school! And why can't I be happy with you? What makes you think that you're not good enough for me??" Chelsea started to cry again.
"Chels… I – I'm a werewolf. You know how I told you that my grandma is really sick and I have to visit her once every month? I don't really go to her. I transform and roam around in the Forbidden Forest as a werewolf until dawn."
"That's where you went last night? You looked at the full moon and went to the forest to transform?"
"Yeah. See why you can't be with me, Chels? I'm dangerous. If I don't take precautions, I could hurt you, or attack you."
"But – but, even in the werewolf's body, you would still recognize me, right? You would know not to attack me?"
"That's not true. I lose all of my human instinct as a werewolf. I see a human – I attack. I can't stop myself."
Chelsea and Remus stayed silent for a few minutes, and then Chelsea said, "Remus, I don't care. I want to be with you, and being a werewolf won't change that. I love you, as you are, werewolf or not."
"But… but –"
"No buts. I want to be with you, Remus!"
On an impulse, Remus decided to be lenient. After all, who wouldn't want to love somebody who loved them back? "Chels…" Remus put his arms around Chelsea and kissed her cheek. "I need you to understand that I can't be with you on full moon nights."
"Yeeeeesssss…"
"And that I am potentially dangerous on full moons."
"Fiiiinnnnnnneeeee…"
"And that we can give dating a try."
Chelsea squealed and threw her arms around Remus. She pushed her lips onto his and kissed him soundly. They sat there on the sofa, kissing, until Lily and Natalie walked in, followed by James, Sirius, and Peter. "Busy, Moony?" said James, clearing his throat.
"Mr. Potter and Mr. Black, WOULD YOU PLEASE PAY ATTENTION?!?!?! And Mr. Potter – get Black down this INSTANT."
"Sorry, Professor McGonagall, won't happen again!!" said James and Sirius, who had been throwing small spells at each other in the back of the classroom. Unfortunately, she noticed when Sirius drifted out of his chair lazily and was suspended by his ankle in midair. Sure enough, Sirius fell in a heap on top of his desk. "Ow."
The bell rang, and all of the students hurried out of Professor McGonagall's classroom. Winter vacation had finally started. James and the other Marauders were some of the first people to leave the room. James spotted Lily coming behind them and pushed the other boys in front of him, whimpering, "Hide me!" He wasn't fast enough.
"Oh, FINE example to set for the other students, dangling Sirius in midair for everyone to see!" Lily reprimanded.
"What, Lily, it was just a joke! It was practically break anyways! And I was paying attention, anyways – I just LOOKED preoccupied with other things. I seriously was paying attention."
"Then what was McGonagall talking about at the end of class?"
"Uh… something about a –" Remus poked James in the back and hissed "Christmas Ball."
James smiled and said "The Christmas ball. Yeah."
"Oh." Lily looked stunned for a moment. "You were paying attention, then."
"See what you get for underestimating me? HA!" smirked James.
Lily huffed and stalked off with Natalie and Chelsea.
"A ball?!" asked James incredulously. "Why?"
"Dunno – Dumbledore's let the holidays get to him?" said Remus.
"Well, do we hafta go?" asked James. He was well known for not being fond of balls – he always went with a different girl, but by the end of the night, he always just sat in a corner by himself, punch-drunk and staring at Lily.
Sirius smiled. "We don't – but you do. Serves you right for becoming Head Boy. Says in the rules that the Head's attendance is mandatory."
James smirked. "And since when do I pay attention to rules?"
"Since now – when McGonagall said that you would be stripped of your position if you don't show up." Said Remus.
"So? I don't give a damn – being Head Boy is stupid, anyways," said James.
"Really?" asked Remus. "You would be happy if you were sent back to our dorm and weren't sleeping just a few feet away from Evans?"
"What? No! Dammit."
"Sorry, mate – HORRIBLE way to spend Christmas night, but we'll tell you everything that you missed the next morning!" said Sirius sympathetically, but he had a trace of a smirk on his face.
"I can't ditch," said Remus glumly. "I expect that Chelsea'll want me to take her, right?"
James still looked down, but then he perked up and asked, "The rules don't happen to say that the Head Boy and Head Girl have to go together, do they?" He was obviously trying to hide extreme excitement at the prospect of going to the ball with Lily.
"No, sorry, mate. Obviously people who drafted these stupid rules couldn't save single guys the embarrassment… but you both do have to take the floor for the first dance of the night, if that makes you feel any better," said Remus. "Hey, Padfoot, what about Ashley?" Sirius's latest fling had been with another Gryffindor seventh year, but he was already getting bored of her.
"What about her?" Sirius asked in a bored tone. In his mind, he had been thinking about Natalie. She and Ashley had been friends, but once Natalie had found Sirius and Ashley snogging in an empty classroom, her friendship with the girl had decreased rapidly, not to mention she was giving Sirius the cold shoulder as well.
"Aren't you gonna take her? Or is she not willing enough to get into bed with you?" asked Remus, grinning.
"No. I was thinking of dumping her anyways – she's boring," said Sirius nonchalantly, looking at a spot behind James's left ear. Not dropping his gaze, he said, "Not to mention she has the I.Q. of dirt."
Looking bemused, James said, "Since when do you care if a girl has brains?"
"Since now, okay?" Sirius barked.
Remus followed Sirius's gaze, and sighed. He walked up to Sirius and asked, "So, when are you planning to ask Coleman?"
That got Sirius's attention. "What? What do you mean? Natalie? I'm not asking her! No! I – I don't know what you're talking about!"
Remus rolled his eyes. "Yeah – I would believe you if I didn't know that you were a really bad liar. Ask her! She might say yes."
"I dunno, man – I've been hinting at it for ages, but she never seems to take the bait! And ever since Ashley, she hasn't talked to me!"
"Sirius – you never give up at anything. Especially not a girl. C'mon. Ask her. She'll accept. There's no way she wouldn't."
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"Never. I will NEVER say yes to that prat of a ladies man. Ever." For the past half an hour, Natalie had been boring Lily and Chelsea with how if he asked her to the ball, she wouldn't say yes. "Not after that thing he pulled with Ashley. Never ever. NEVER. "
"OKAY, Nat, we GET it already."
"Good. Cuz I will NEV-"
"WE GET IT, NAT!"
"Fine… whatever. What about you and James, Lily?"
"Oh, I don't know, Nat. I don't really think that anything's happening… "
"He'll ask you! I swear, he will!!!!" called Chelsea from across Lily's room.
"Yeah, right…"
"He will, Lily! Don't give up hope yet! There's still three weeks – anything can happen!!!!!!"
Anything could happen… so time progressed.
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Lily stood outside of Sir Cadogan's portrait impatiently, waiting for James so they could do their daily rounds. She saw a glimpse of his black hair around the corner before it disappeared in a flash. Sighing, she started to talk loudly to herself. "WHERE is that idiot; he was SUPPOSED to be here TEN MINUTES AGO… I don't want to keep WAITING here. And of COURSE if he was here, then he wouldn't be HIDING under that stupid INVISIBILITY CLOAK, because then I wouldn't be able to SEE HIM, WOULD I?????"
"I get it already!!!!!" James stepped out from behind Lily, tucking his cloak into his regular school uniform. "Jeez, Evans, can't take a joke, can you? There's nobody in the stupid hallways anyway!"
"Oh, shut up, James. C'mon, let's go." Lily tugged on James's hand and started walking down the corridor.
A while after the two started patrolling the corridors, James heard some sort of strangled moan coming from one of the darker corridors. "Did you hear that, Lily?"
"What?"
"Shh. Listen." After a moment, the same sort of moan sounded, only this time louder. "There it is again!"
"Oh, I wonder what that is…" Lily walked forward and the sound came again, this time at it's loudest.
James thrust his chest out and strutted in front of Lily, saying in a loud voice, "Don't worry, Lily, I'll protect you!"
Lily rolled her eyes and muttered to herself, "As if." She swiftly sidestepped James, wand held aloft and at the ready. "Puhleeze, Potter. Move." She strode forward into the darkness. James looked disgruntled and went after her. After a few seconds, he heard Lily scoff and say, "Alice. Frank. Get a room." James stepped into the light to see his friend Frank Longbottom and his girlfriend, Alice Stevens, hurry out of the corridor. Lily stepped out a minute later, an amused look on her face. "What was that about 'protecting me' Potter?"
"Oh, shut up."
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"So, Lily, will you go to the ball with me?" James was standing in front of his mirror in the Head's Dorm, practicing his "speech" to Lily. "She has to say yes… no way she can refuse." Tucking a perfectly sculpted white lily into his back pocket (A/N: Do robes have front/back pockets?) and running his hands through his hair, he walked out of the dorm to find Lily.
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"Lily! Hey, LILY!"
Lily turned around to see Daniel Pratt, a Ravenclaw 7th year, hurrying towards her. "Hey, Danny!"
"Could – could I talk to you for a second?"
"Sure – bye Alice, I'll see you later." Lily's friend walked away and she followed Daniel to a more deserted part of the busy, student filled corridor. "What's up, Dan?"
"I was wondering… er… do you already have a date to the Christmas ball?"
"Date to the Christmas…?" Lily trailed off, remembering that she indeed didn't have a date to the ball. "Uh… no, not yet. Why?"
"Well, I- I was kinda wondering, um, ifuwoudgowime?"
"Sorry?"
"Would you… uh… go with me? As-as my date?"
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James was looking for Lily when he saw another Gryffindor walking his way in the corridor. "Hey, Alice – have you seen Lily anywhere?"
"Lily? Yeah, I was just walking with her – she's in that corridor, she was talking to Daniel just a minute ago."
"Thanks, Alice – Tell Frank I said hello."
"Sure, James." James started to walk away. "Oh, and James?"
James turned around. "Yeah?"
"I hope Lily says yes."
James looked stunned for a moment, then beamed and said, "Thanks, Alice."
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James spotted Lily walking away in the other direction as he crossed into the main corridor, and hurried to catch up to her. "Lily!"
Lily turned around and smiled at the sight of James rushing up to her. "Yes, James?"
James remembered what he had practiced. Short, straight, and to the point. No dawdling. Just ask her straight up. Taking a deep breath, he said, "Hey. I know you probably don't want me to, but… " He pulled out the lily from his pocket, "… will you go to the Christmas ball with me?"
Lily looked stunned for a moment, and her eyes filled up with tears.
"Lily? Are you all right?"
"James… oh, James, I'm so sorry, I've just said yes to Daniel!" With that, Lily let out a strangled sob, turned around, and ran into another hallway, leaving James standing alone.
Just then, James heard a yell from behind him. He whirled around and came face to face with Peter and Sirius.
"We found you, Prongs!" exclaimed Peter. "Moony says he might be able to bewitch the map to – what's wrong?"
Sirius eyed the white flower in James's hand, and then the heartbroken look on James's face. It didn't take him long to put two and two together and say sympathetically, "She said no, huh?"
James's look of sadness turned to confusion, and then to one of pure anger. "Fuck off. Just fuck off and leave me alone. "
A/N – hope you enjoyed!!!! R&R PLEEEZE!!!!!!