Chapter Seven: Heels Over Head
"They're baby flies," said James indignantly. "How can you not know this?"
Remus scoffed, "Maggots look nothing like flies! They're baby worms."
James and Remus had both turned up unnaturally early to French. This was so James could try to finish (start) his French homework before the lesson to avoid detention afterschool again. Angie had threatened to hide his glasses if he got another detention that month so James was counting down the days until October when he would be free to not do French homework once more.
It was bizarre that James had such an aversion to French homework, thought Remus, when it took him so little time to complete. It had only taken James about three minutes and had subsequently found himself deep in debate with Remus over what a maggot was.
"They're definitely worms."
"You're delusional. Everyone knows they're baby flies."
This debate continued along the same lines until they were joined by a mutual friend.
"What are you two blabbering on about?" asked Sirius, throwing himself in the chair beside Remus.
"You never come to French," said Remus sceptically.
"It's lovely to see you too," greeted Sirius.
"Enough of this," interrupted James, leaning across the table. "Is a maggot a baby worm," James shook his head as he said 'worm', "Or is it a baby fly?"
"Technically speaking, a maggot is the larva of a fly," replied Sirius.
James glared at Sirius, leant back in his chair, and said, "Oh, shut up, Black. No one likes a know-it-all."
"Why?" asked Sirius, grinning. "Were you stupid enough to think that maggots were worms?"
Remus went bright red in the face, causing James to perk up a little.
Seeing the three boys already seated at their table, Lily started.
"James, why are you here so early?" she asked suspiciously. "Sirius, why are you here at all?"
James gasped dramatically and cried, "It's like she doesn't think we're good students."
"Almost as if we're not revered for our good behaviour," said Sirius, wiping an imaginary tear from his eye.
Lily eyed them both suspiciously before reluctantly taking her seat beside James. When nothing out of the ordinary happened to her upon sitting down, she relaxed.
"Did you really think we were going to set a trap for you in your chair?" asked Sirius.
"I don't trust you or James," said Lily.
Sirius looked thoughtful for a second and then said, "Fair enough."
"Hang on a minute," exclaimed James. "Why did you only accuse Sirius and me? Why not Remus?"
"Because I'm a decent person," said Remus.
James scoffed, "You also thought that maggots were baby worms."
Remus blushed once more just as Sirius let out a roar of laughter.
"That was you?" spluttered Sirius, still laughing. "That's so embarrassing!" His voice had gone up in pitch from excitement.
His laughter became so manic that he was left vulnerable to attack. With a swift kick from Remus to his chair leg, Sirius was almost knocked over onto the floor.
Lily let out a bizarre shrill noise that James could only suppose was a laugh.
"You alright, Evans?" asked James. "Because that was not a normal human noise."
"That was me laughing, Potter," she retorted bluntly. "If you were funnier you'd have heard it before."
Lily felt quite pleased with her reply until she noticed that Remus and Sirius were both looking at her as though she were an exotic bird in a zoo.
"Fine!" she cried. "I don't usually laugh like that. It was a weird noise. Can we move past it?"
James shared a look with the other two boys before replying, "No, Evans. We are going to spend the rest of this lesson trying to get you to make that noise again."
In the space of the next hour, James, Sirius, and Remus had done all manner of things to make Lily Evans laugh.
James had shoved two pencils up his nose and hummed 'I Am the Walrus.'
Sirius had blown raspberries into the palm of his hand every time Professor Vector sat down.
Remus spilled some water onto Sirius' crotch.
And still Lily did not make the desired noise. Instead, she had fallen into a fit of hysterics, laughing fully and loudly at almost anything they did.
"I think we've given her the giggles," said Remus.
"Why's that?" asked James.
"Because she just laughed at Sirius touching his nose with his tongue," explained Remus.
By the end of the lesson, Lily's sides were sore from laughing so much.
"You lot are mental," she laughed, her voice weak.
"Hilarious though," corrected James.
"Yeah, whatever," said Lily, still smiling as she stood up and slung her bag over her shoulder. "See you around. And, Remus," she added. "I'll see you later?"
"Yeah, I'll be there," Remus called after her.
Sirius and James both turned to Remus, questioning looks on their faces.
Had the Reverend Macdonald really thought about it, he might not have offered his tiny little living room up for the meeting. So desperate to please, he had not considered the obvious problem that would arise from trying to fit a large group of people into a tiny space. But then again, nobody knew just how many people would show up.
Over thirty people were crammed into the Macdonald's living space, some seated on the ugly orange sofas, most loitered about eating tiny sandwiches and custard creams.
"There are so many people here," whispered Hestia to her boyfriend.
"That's a good thing," replied Fabian, giving her hand a squeeze. "All these people want to help save the farm."
Hestia nodded slowly, still not convinced.
"It's just," she said, "I don't think we brought enough food."
"Well, the meeting won't be long. People can grab something to eat afterwards."
"I need to make tea," announced Hestia suddenly, letting go of Fabian's hand and standing up.
"You can't make tea for everyone! There won't be enough mugs."
"The tea is for me, Fabian," she cried as though it were obvious. "I need tea. All these people are stressing me out."
Lily was far less concerned with the amount of people who had turned up and far more concerned about two particular guests. Dorcas and Colin to be specific.
"Where's Mary?" asked Polly. "She was here a minute ago."
"She went to get the sausage rolls out," said Janine. "They better be good, she's been bragging about how amazing her sausage rolls are ever since she found the recipe."
"I need the loo," said Lily. "Cas, come with me."
Dorcas had just stuffed an entire custard cream in her mouth.
"Why?" she asked, spitting biscuit crumbs everywhere.
Grabbing her wrist, Lily dragged Dorcas up the stairs and into the Macdonald's bathroom. There was a lovely view of the village green from the window.
"What's wrong? Are you pregnant?" asked Dorcas once Lily had locked the door behind them.
"What?" cried Lily, incredulous. "No! I just wanted to make sure that you're okay."
"Why wouldn't I be okay?"
"Well, because Colin's here. I know you haven't spoken to him since the whole… incident, and you never take it particularly well when you see him. Remember when you spotted him across the canteen and you broke that can of coke in half?"
Dorcas sighed, "Lily, I'd just drunk a load of coke. I was filled with sugary energy. That can did not stand a chance."
"That really wasn't my point."
"I'm fine, Lily," said Dorcas, forcing an unnaturally wide smile. "I've been preparing for this. My last lesson was cancelled so I spent my entire afternoon eating biscuits and listening to 'Love Will Keep Us Together' on repeat."
"Oh, Cas, really?" asked Lily, wincing. "You couldn't have chosen a better song?"
"Don't judge me, Lily. I know you listen to your mum's Cliff Richard records," said Dorcas.
Lily's eyes widened.
"That is classified information that does not leave this room," she whispered.
"Fine. Can we leave this bathroom now? It's disturbing me. I mean, who has a toilet lid cover? Why is it so fluffy?"
"I don't know, Cas," said Lily, unlocking the door. "Why don't you ask Mary?"
"I've always meant to, but I'm worried she'll be offended. What if it belonged to her dead mum?"
"Yeah," Lily snorted. "I'm sure that a fluffy pink toilet lid cover is her favourite family heirloom."
"Oh, shut up, Lily. By the way, where's Severus?"
"Trying to get his head out of his own arse probably," said Lily in a light-hearted tone. "Let's go find Mary."
"I still don't understand why we're here," said Peter, looking around the Macdonald's living room at all the people.
"Don't ask me," said Remus. "The three of you weren't actually invited."
Peter and Remus were sat between James and Sirius on the smallest sofa out of the three in the room. Remus had complained that they should have left the sofa for other people, given that three out of the four boys had little to no interest in what this meeting was actually about. James, however, had sat down during Remus' speech and Peter and Sirius had followed suit.
"Come on! As if they won't be happy we're here. It's more support, isn't it?" said James.
"Support for what exactly?" asked Peter.
"Erm…" stammered James. "That farm thing?"
"Lucky guess," muttered Remus.
Sirius groaned loudly, causing Peter, James, and Remus (and a few other people nearby) to turn and look at him.
"You okay?" said James, who found it difficult to actually see Sirius' face as they were both squashed on opposite ends of the tiny sofa.
"Look," said Sirius. "It doesn't matter what this thing is about. What matters is that it's going to be entertaining."
"Oh, really? What on earth would make you think that?" said Remus.
"Well, because if it's not, then we'll make it entertaining," said Sirius, grinning.
Peter still didn't understand, and was going to ask Sirius to elaborate, but there was a call for silence from across the room. Standing in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, Fabian Prewett addressed the room.
"Hi," he said, smiling, glancing from face to face. "First thing's first, I'd like to thank you all for coming."
The Mulcibers had the third biggest house in Sowsworth. Easily. They were incredibly proud of this and told almost anyone who would listen. Of course, they, much like the rest of the Richies, did not say they actually lived in Sowsworth. Because technically, if you stretched the truth an awful lot, they lived on the outskirts of Sowsworth. That's what they would say to their co-workers in London. Sowsworth was a farming village filled with the working class. The outskirts of Sowsworth were perfectly kept streets with big gates and bigger houses. The people who lived here most certainly did not work on farms or in village shops. These people commuted to London and that made them a much better sort of people. Well, that's what they thought anyway.
The Mulcibers were the second most pompous family in the outskirts of Sowsworth. This was something to do with a distant uncle having attended Eton and not much to do with the quality of person the family was prone to producing.
The Mulcibers were the first to offer up their house for guests. They did this to display the impressive size of their house.
This was why, when four young Richies decided to get together to complain about the Locals planning on trying to save the Prewett farm, they gathered in the large space which was the Mulciber's living room.
"So what's this farm bullshit?" asked Mulciber, who was lying on a velvet sofa.
"I don't know," said Avery. "Why don't you ask Snape? It's his grotty little girlfriend that's doing it."
Snape's head snapped up from the newspaper in his lap.
"She's not my girlfriend," he said sourly.
"Evans is going out with Pritchard," commented Rosier. Avery looked at him questioningly. "What? I only know because my sister's friends with her, isn't she? You know Janine never shuts up."
"A bit like you then," said Avery.
"Oh, leave him alone," snapped Mulciber. "It's not his fault his sister's an idiot. Severus, where are you going?"
Severus stopped dead. He had just stood up suddenly and begun to make his way towards the hallway where his coat was hanging.
"Nowhere," said Severus. It then occurred to him that, aside from going somewhere, there was no reason for him to be standing. "Well, actually I was going to go home. My mum wanted me home early."
Mulciber waved his hand lazily and said, "Ignore that woman, Severus. She's a complete pushover anyway."
Severus clenched his jaw, but he did not argue. He sat down once more and realised that he could have said he was going to the loo.
"I mean," Mulciber continued. "It's not as if your grotty father didn't run the bitch. That's what locals do. They slap their wives and fuck their pets."
Severus imagined lunging at Mulciber and tearing at his throat. But Mulciber's uncle worked in a law firm so he forced a laugh instead.
"Besides, I reckon you just want to go to that meeting," said Mulciber, his tone harsh. "To support your little grot of a girlfriend."
"Of course not," replied Severus.
"Yeah, you're right. You wouldn't betray your friends, would you, Severus?"
"Never."
Mulciber smiled to himself.
"Not like Janine," said Avery, smirking at Rosier.
"She's there as an act of protest or some shit," defended Rosier.
"What does that mean?"
"I don't know. It's just what she said."
In the Macdonald's living room, everyone was listening intently to a young woman with dark skin who looked as if she had come straight from work, standing barefoot and holding a pair of heels in her right hand.
"The thing is," said the woman. "They're always gonna use the same argument. They're gonna say that it's their right to buy whatever someone else can't afford. That's what they believe."
"Obviously," muttered Janine, taking another sausage roll from the plate she was holding.
Polly giggled.
"Now," she continued. "It's none of our places to turn this into a political debate. They see what they see and we see what we see. If we're going to do this then we're going to have to do it by their rules. There's no asking politely or begging or any of that rubbish. What we need to do is make sure that the Prewetts can afford to keep that farm." James leaned forwards in his seat, unwillingly captivated by what she was saying. "Lily Evans," she gestured across the room to Lily who waved to the room when they turned to look at her, "Thinks we should start with a few simple fund raising activities to get the ball rolling, and I couldn't agree more."
Kenneth cheered. An awkward silence followed this before a few people let out nervous laughs.
The woman gave Kenneth a polite smile before finishing, "Anyway, I think what we should do is take a ten minute tea break, get some ideas flowing, and then maybe we can start voting on what we should do."
A large percentage of the room clapped and a few started talking and moving around, so the young woman smiled to herself and walked over to ask Fabian how she'd done.
James turned to the boys beside him.
"What about a Christmas fair?" he asked.
"What?" said Sirius.
"To raise money," explained James.
"Are we taking an interest?" questioned Peter.
"Why not," said James. "That girl was very persuasive. I liked what she had to say."
"Yeah, she's clever." said Peter. "She's McKinnon's older sister Marlene and she's probably the smartest person to ever live in Sowsworth."
"It's true," said Remus. "She got into uni and everything. Didn't even drop out."
"Sirius used to fancy her," said Peter.
Remus laughed.
"What's so funny about that?" demanded Sirius, glaring at Remus.
"She's so out of your league it's unbelievable is what's funny," said Remus.
"What makes you say that?"
"She's too smart and too good looking. Besides, she's about five years older than us."
"Right," said James, finding this detour in the conversation rather dull. "But what does everyone think of a Christmas fair? Or a Christmas disco? Is Christmas too late? How long until the farm's lost?"
Remus furrowed his brow in thought for a moment before answering, "About six months. Are you really this interested?"
Polly Davies was not a big talker. If she found the need to speak it was always in a small voice. Nobody could tell you much about Polly beyond that. This was possibly due to the fact that, speaking so quietly and rarely, she never had much opportunity to tell anybody anything about herself.
This might have been why she had attached herself to Lily, Dorcas, Mary, and Janine, who spent more time speaking than sleeping. Sometimes they even spoke when they had food in their mouths, which made Polly feel a little queasy. But she liked listening to them. She liked their jokes and she liked how they never pressured her to fill a silence. Which is why she was sad that it had to come to an end.
If somebody asked her why Janine was her best friend she would not have an answer that extended beyond what Janine had always told her. Janine would say that they were best friends because Mary, Dorcas, and Lily were always going off with each other.
It was because of this that when Janine told Polly what she intended to do at the meeting, Polly promised she would side with Janine after the split that would inevitably follow. She also promised to help, which is why she did something so very un-Polly; she stood up in the middle of the tea break and called the room's attention to her.
"Hello," said Polly, quietly at first. Nobody noticed a thing. "Excuse me!" she said again, much louder this time. Slowly, heads turned towards her. "Hi. Erm, Janine wants to say something."
Janine uncrossed her legs and stood, smiling at the room. All eyes were now on her. She could feel Lily frowning at her curiously.
"Ladies and gentlemen," said Janine. "I would just like inform you that I do not agree with your cause."
Fabian made a noise of indignation, spitting biscuit everywhere. Embarrassed, Hestia handed her boyfriend a handkerchief.
"I admire your perseverance and everything," adde Janine. "But I don't think you're doing the right thing. Property belongs to people who can afford to own it. That's the whole point of capitalism."
Lily rolled her eyes so hard she thought she might have strained them.
"So, I'm just here to announce that I will be opposing this whole 'Save the Farm' thing. Also, I think that it's pretty pathetic for the Prewett family to be happy to accept this charity. I know I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I took what belongs to other people."
With that, she walked out, Polly in tow. She would have liked it to be a dramatic and swift exit, but she had to manoeuvre herself around people's legs and the odd piece of furniture. Finally, after an incredibly awkward thirty seconds, the front door slammed behind the two girls.
"That hypocritical bitch!" cried Mary in outrage. Everyone turned to see the short brunette brandishing an empty plate. "She ate all the sausage rolls! Wouldn't take what belongs to other people my arse."
"And as always, I was right," said Sirius, leaning back into the sofa. "This has been very entertaining."
Fabian was fuming and had stormed into the kitchen. Hestia followed him, lingering in the doorway.
"Are you okay?" she asked.
"I'm fine."
"Do you wanna kick something?"
"Yeah," he admitted. "I wish I was at home. I wouldn't feel bad about kicking the kitchen cupboards at home."
Hestia watched him, a concerned expression on her face.
"You know nobody else agrees with that girl. Everybody else is here to support you."
"Yeah, I know," he sighed, running his hands through his hair. "But is that a good thing? Am I actually just taking handouts?"
"You're asking for help to protect your family. That's not a bad thing. It takes a lot to ask for help, y'know," said Hestia. He let out a groan. "It's true!" she cried. "I'm pretty sure Shakespeare said something along the lines of 'the bravest thing is to ask for help' or something like that."
"Shakespeare said that?"
"I said it was something like," she defended. "It wasn't a direct quote."
Fabian chuckled and wandered over to her.
"Doeth asketh for help and thou wilst be brave," he recited, pulling her into a hug.
"No, that's just nonsense."
Lily was trying to calm down Mary, who was ranting about Janine.
"She can't just come into my house and eat all the sausage rolls!" she cried. "It's just not on. God, Janine is such a bitch!"
"Yeah, what else is new," said Dorcas.
Dorcas took a sudden sharp breath. Lily followed Dorcas' eyeline and saw Colin walking over towards them.
"Mare," said Colin, addressing his sister. "What the fuck is wrong with your friend? She's ruined everything."
Dorcas chewed on her top lip as she stared straight at the floor.
"She hasn't ruined everything," said Lily. "All she's done is caused a scene. What we need to do is just carry on as if nothing's happened. Let's face it, Janine and Polly weren't going to add much to the meeting anyway."
Colin nodded slowly and backed away.
"Fine," he said. "I'll go find Marlene."
Mary followed her brother. As soon as they were both out of earshot, Dorcas made a small high-pitched noise and buried her head in Lily's neck.
"You, okay, Cas?" asked Lily soothingly, patting her friend's head.
Dorcas groaned, "Oh, Lily, he's not even good looking is he?"
"Sorry?"
"He's not even good looking. He actually looks a bit like Mary. I've been all torn up over some bloke who looks like Mary," she said into Lily's shoulder.
"Well, y'know, he is her brother," said Lily, giving Kenneth a thumbs up over Dorcas' head, the fifth one she had had to give him in the past four minutes.
"What was that?" asked Dorcas, lifting up her head.
"Oh, I'm just making sure he knows I'm alright," answered Lily. "He keeps looking at me like I might die of sadness any second."
"You're okay about the whole Janine thing?" said Dorcas, disbelievingly.
"Is it really bad if I'm more upset that Severus didn't even turn up? I mean, I know things haven't been good between us lately, but he said he'd come. I supposed that doesn't mean anything from him these days though."
"Lily, you're doing it again," sighed Dorcas.
"Sorry."
"Just talk to him."
"I will," said Lily. "But, can I just say, at least Janine said what she thought. I mean, she said it in a really awful way, but at least she was honest. Severus can't even do that."
Once everything had settled down, Fabian took the floor.
"Right," he said, laughing nervously. "Should we get back to business? Has anyone got any ideas?"
Dorcas raised her hand.
"Go on, Cas," said Fabian.
"Speak slower than you usually do," said Hestia, before Dorcas could open her mouth. "I have to take notes." She gestured to the notepad she was holding.
Dorcas tried to speak three more times and was told to repeat herself each time so Hestia could write it down.
Because of this wildly entertaining exchange, Lily didn't notice someone sneak into the meeting and stand beside her.
"Sorry I'm late. What have I missed?" asked Severus.
Lily started.
"Sev! I thought you weren't coming."
"Rubbish. I said I would. I just had to finish of some homework."
"Oh, okay. Cool," said Lily, a small smile forming on her lips.
"That was boring," said Sirius.
The meeting had finished at last. Sirius had already stood up to leave, but other people seemed too deep in conversation to realise they were allowed to go. Either that or they actually enjoyed each other's company. The latter seemed unlikely to Sirius, but, he supposed, boring people often like talking to other boring people.
"Can we just go now?" he asked, fidgeting impatiently.
"I thought you said it was entertaining," said Remus, standing up.
"You did say that," agreed Peter.
"Yeah, but then it got boring again really quickly."
"I think James liked it," said Peter.
"Well, it's over now so we can go," complained Sirius.
"Not so fast," said James
The other three boys, who had started pulling their jackets on, looked at James questioningly. James was too busy staring at Severus Snape. Severus was talking to Lily about something (James was not a particularly good at lip-reading) as the pair leaned against the stairs.
"I've spotted something of interest," announced James.
"I don't get it," said Peter. "What's interesting about Snape?"
"I think you mean 'The Football Thief'," corrected James. "That twat is the reason my football is dead."
"Technically that was Sirius' fault," said Remus.
"Oi!" cried Sirius. "I was trying to save it from that greasy bastard's clutches."
"Right," said James, in agreement. "Which is why we need to take our revenge."
"How are we supposed to do that?" asked Remus.
Lily was now pointing up the stairs. Nodding and moving past her, Severus began to climb them. James waited to see if Lily followed him. Fortunately, she did not. Instead, Lily pulled on her coat and followed Dorcas out of the front door, along with a large portion of the other guests.
"Follow me," muttered James, tearing off after Severus up the stairs.
Sirius, Remus, and Peter followed James without question (but most certainly not without curiosity and concern).
A moment after the four boys had all convened at the top of the stairs, Severus left a room on the left.
"What are you doing here?" yelped Severus, glancing down to make sure he'd done up his flies properly.
"We just wanted to see what you were doing," said James, bearing his teeth in a threatening mock-grin. "We thought you might have gotten lost."
"I was going to the loo," sneered Severus. "In an actual toilet like a normal person, not on somebody else's jacket."
Without a second's hesitation, James sprang forwards, managing to wrap his arms around Severus' waist, picking him up off the ground.
"What the hell are you doing?" cried Severus, whacking James around the head.
Remus' eyes widened, but he stayed in the hallway with Peter as Sirius followed James (who was still carrying Severus) into the Macdonald's bathroom.
"Put me down!"
"Open the window for me, Sirius," said James.
The event that followed Sirius opening the window happened very fast. It began with James sitting Severus on the window ledge, Severus almost falling out of the window and clutching onto the frame for support, James grabbing Severus by the ankles, and Severus then falling backwards.
This all resulted in Severus Snape hanging out of the window of a second floor window, held up only by James Potter's hold on his ankles. Quite reasonably, Severus let out a yelp and stream of cuss words.
With all the ruckus going on, it would have been a miracle if the straggle of people walking across the green, away from the Macdonald's house, had not heard and turned their heads to investigate.
As soon as Lily spotted what was going on, she wanted to swear, but could not think of a word obscene enough to accurately express her feelings about this. What she could do was run as fast as she could back towards the Macdonald's house.
"What are you doing?" she screamed.
James looked down and tensed a little when he saw it was Lily.
"Shit," he muttered before saying, a lot louder and with a lot more confidence, "All right there, Evans?"
"Leave him alone," she demanded, her voice shaking with fury.
She looked up at James as though he were excrement she had found on the bottom of her shoe.
A crowd was beginning to gather behind Lily (the people who had been with Lily on the green but not felt the need to run to Severus' rescue). Kenneth tried to put a comforting hand on Lily's shoulder, but she jerked away it away.
"I mean it," said Lily. "You get him down."
"Or what, Evans?" asked James, a flair of charm in his voice.
"Or I'll tell Angie on you."
"Oh, Evans," James sighed. "Don't make me drop Snivellus on you."
Severus was still cussing, although he had become less and less coherent due to the blood rushing to his head.
"His name is Severus!" she cried. "Now get him down before you kill him."
Lily sounded close to hysterical, but James just smiled.
"Okay, Evans, how about this," he said. "I'll get him down, if you go out with me. Go on, just one date with me and I'll never hurt Snivellus again."
Lily let out a cold, harsh laugh of disbelief, yelling, "Are you completely out of your head? I wouldn't go out with you even if you weren't holding my best friend upside down out of a window. I'd honestly rather shag a fish!"
Behind James, Sirius barked with laughter.
"Cheers, mate," muttered James over his shoulder.
"Bad luck, James," said Sirius.
Remus shifted uncomfortably in the hallway, while Peter tried to get as good a view of the scene as possible without actually entering the bathroom.
From under the window, Lily shouted up once more, "Let him down!"
"Fine, Evans, keep your hair on," said James, trying to keep his voice as unchanged as possible. "I'll need some help though. I can't pull him back up by his ankles."
Before Lily could ask, Kenneth had rushed forwards. He pulled a bin from round the corner and placed it under Severus. Then, with Dorcas keeping it steady for him, Kenneth balanced on the bin and supported Severus under his arms. As James slowly lowered Severus, eventually letting go of him completely, Fabian and Benjy helped Kenneth support Severus. It took about two minutes to get Severus standing once more.
Lily breathed a sigh of relief. Then, Severus fell over.
"Are you okay?" she asked, rushing to his side, crouching over him.
In reply, he raised a middle finger at the window he had just been passed through.
"You're just lucky Evans was here to protect you," said James smugly, calling down.
"I don't need her to protect me," spat Severus. "I don't need any help." His face had gone red with embarrassment. At least twenty people were staring at him. "Especially not from grots like you!" He spoke to the crowd at large, but Lily flinched as though he had slapped her around the face.
"Fine," said Lily coldly. "I'll leave you to sort yourself out from now on."
James watched the scene unfold from above. Severus looked apologetic at first, but when Lily's expression did not soften, he scrambled to his feet and stormed off. Lily crouched on the ground for a few moments before Kenneth offered her his hand. Slowly, the crowd dispersed. Kenneth and Lily were among them.
Just then, Mary entered the bathroom.
"What's been going on? I've been trying to nap," she said. James whipped around and saw Mary was in her pyjamas already. "Why are you four still in my house?"
The boys all exchanged awkward glances before leaving. Remus apologised at least three times as they left.
The curtains were closed and Lily was alone in her room, waiting for Kenneth to bring back chocolate. She wanted to do something. She wanted to kick Severus. She wanted to go for a run. She wanted to punch a wall. She wanted to cry again. She wanted Severus to tell her everything was going to be okay. She wanted her dad. She wanted to run away.
She had asked Kenneth once what he would do if she asked him to run away with her. Of course he'd said that he would, but that didn't mean anything really. Kenneth was always saying and doing the sorts of things that good boyfriends should do which was lovely, obviously, but it made it difficult to know when he was being honest and when he was just being kind.
Lily let out a sigh and flung her curtains open to let in the last light of day, bored of being miserable.
There was a knock at the door, but it was far too early for Kenneth to be back.
"Who is it?" asked Lily, wiping any possible trace of tears from her eyes.
She'd stopped crying a good ten minutes ago, but she wanted to be sure.
"Me," came the reply.
It was Dorcas' voice.
"Come in."
Bursting in with a beaming smile, Dorcas shut the door and threw herself onto Lily's bed. She was holding a plastic bag.
"Why are you smiling like that?" asked Lily, reluctantly matching Dorcas' smile herself.
"I brought you a present," said Dorcas.
From the plastic bag she was clutching, Dorcas produced a single.
"What's this?"
"Just what you need. Here, I'll put it on for you."
Springing off the bed with more energy than Lily could even imagine having at that moment in time, Dorcas ran over to Lily's record player.
"It better not be what I think it is," said Lily.
"Why?" asked Dorcas, putting the single on.
Within seconds, Love Will Keep Us Together was blasting around Lily's room. The two girls' eyes met and they began to laugh.
"You're right," said Lily, through her manic laughter which would no doubt be a mere giggle if she wasn't so emotional at that moment in time. "This is exactly what I needed."
Dorcas was very quick to leave Lily's house once Kenneth had returned, assuming that they had some very important kissing business to attend to and thinking it best to leave them to it.
She had fully intended to go straight home and devour the packet of biscuits she had brought with her to cheer Lily up, but had forgotten to give her. However, on the way, she stumbled across James Potter on a bench.
He was staring straight ahead which made her think that he probably hadn't noticed her.
"Hello," she greeted awkwardly.
James turned his face towards her slowly, looking only mildly dazed by her appearance.
"Hi," he said weakly.
A long stretch of silence followed, broken when Dorcas raised her plastic bag, causing a rustle.
"What's that?" he asked.
"I'll show you," she said, sitting down beside him. "Do you want a Bourbon?"
She held up the packet of chocolate biscuits.
"I'm not gonna lie, Meadowes, I would fucking love a Bourbon," replied James.
She fumbled with the packaging for a while, but couldn't quite manage to get it open.
"Let me try," he offered.
"Thanks," she said, handing him the packet. Her face fell when she saw him open it with his teeth. "That is disgusting."
"Sorry. You'll still want them back though, won't you?"
"Of course."
"Good," he said with a laugh.
They passed the packet of Bourbons between them for a few minutes, staring forwards, not speaking. The sun was setting over a distant field. A sudden chill settled in.
"Where are your friends?" asked Dorcas, rubbing her bare legs to keep them warm. "Sirius and that lot?"
"Dinner I think," said James absent-mindedly.
"Oh," she said. "I find it pretty weird that you all hang out together, y'know?"
"Really? Why?" he asked.
"Well," said Dorcas. "Sirius, Remus, and Pettigrew aren't people you'd ever picture hanging out."
"It feels normal to me," said James. "But I suppose I've known them for a lot less time."
"I suppose so."
Another awkward silence threatened to arise, so James asked, "What else is in your bag?"
Dorcas started laughing, which confused James, but he assumed all would be revealed soon enough.
"It's a single," she said.
"What is it?"
"It was to cheer Lily up."
James' expression went stony for a second, but he smiled once more when Dorcas pulled the single out of her plastic bag.
"Captain and Tennille?" James scoffed. "Why are you listening to that rubbish?"
"It's not rubbish," said Dorcas. "It's a very catchy tune and it teaches us a valuable lesson."
"What does it teach us exactly?"
"That love keeps us together. I listen to it when I get sad over a boy."
She stuffed the record back into the bag along with the empty Bourbon wrapper.
"How does that help? Surely it's just depressing," said James.
"It reminds me that however sad I am, I'll get over it. Because whatever I had with the boy couldn't have been love."
"Because love would have kept you together?" he asked jokingly.
"Exactly," she said excitedly, under the impression that he had understood and was not simply making a joke.
"Oh," said James. "Well, I suppose that makes sense in a weird way. Are you cold?"
He had just noticed the goosebumps all over her legs.
"A little," she admitted.
Before she even noticed he was taking it off, Dorcas was offered James' jacket.
"I think I'm still in denial that summer is over," she joked, draping it over her legs. "Thanks by the way. It's good to know you can be nice sometimes."
"Cheers."
"But you're also a complete prick and if you ever hurt Lily again I will hurt you back. Physically."
"I won't," he said quickly. "I really won't."
"Good."
They sat in silence for a while longer, but the sun had set completely now and the air was growing colder. James stood up, sadly noticing that his arse had grown sore from sitting on the hard wooden bench for so long. He told Dorcas this. She glanced at his arse before remembering that you can't identify a sore arse through trousers, especially not in the dark. You can, however, identify a nice arse, and James Potter had a very nice arse.
"I'm gonna go see if dinner's ready," he told her. "I'll see you around, yeah?"
"Sounds good."
As he walked away she felt her face turn slightly pink. Dorcas had a funny feeling in her stomach and she was quite certain it was because of James. She also felt numbness in her legs which he was to blame for, having taken his jacket with him and leaving her legs exposed to the cold once more.
