Summary: Lily hates James. James loves Lily. Lily has a secret which James has found out, and now she's afraid he'll tell. Begins with an excerpt from Order of the Phoenix, no longer in Harry's POV, but through Lily and James. Rated M for adult themes in later chapters and some language.
Disclaimer: I own nothing that you may in any way recognize. All of the characters save for a few of my own imagination belong to J.K. Rowling.
Author's Note: Thanks for all the reviews. Still revamping. I'm going to try and edit a chapter, and then submit a new one. Please you might want to reread the old ones again, just to see the changes I've made to the plot. Sorry for any disjointed confusion in the midst of all the reconstruction!
Chapter 9: Announcements and Rendezvous
Lily was confused, and tired. New dreams had started. Dreams that involved students taken out of the Great Hall, never to be seen again. These dreams weren't like her dreams of the werewolf Remus Lupin. They were more broken, and less coherent. Sometimes they slipped into places where she had never seen, and sometimes there was this bright bottle green light that stayed behind her eyes even when she was awake.
Sometimes she woke with the shakes, and sweat dribbling down her spine, completely unable to remember what she was dreaming about. The only thing she knew was that there was a deep sense of foreboding in her belly.
News from the Daily Prophet had gotten worse. The Dark Arts, and those who practiced them had always been a great threat. Just look at Grindelwald in Germany, whom Dumbledore had defeated only ten years before. But this stank of something worse that Grindelwald and his campaign for "The Greater Good."
The man known only as You-Know-Who, wouldn't be so easy to defeat. Lily knew it in her bones, and in her dreams.
Not only that, but the one time she'd seen Snape since going into the Whomping Willow, he'd given her a wide berth, moving closer to his Slytherin cronies. His face was hard and cold, and more far away than she'd ever seen it. Instinctively she had placed her hand over the love bite that had started to fade from her neck.
Cass had told her there'd been a lot of rumors about what had happened in the boys dormitory. A lot of students were speculating that the uncatchable Evans had been caught.
Lily hadn't even told Cass the whole story. She'd made up a reason for her leg—getting stuck between the staircases—and told her that James had been the one that had happened upon her, so late in the evening. Lily knew that Cassandra didn't believe her, but she accepted Lily's story all the same. Cassandra didn't need to know the details to know that Lily had been very shaken by whatever had happened. Shaken enough to end up with a love bite from one James Potter.
It was then that Cassandra took on the mission of keeping rumor at bay, by making up a few of her own. Just as suddenly as all of people's questionings of Lily had started, they stopped. And for that Lily was eternally grateful.
There was one lingering problem, and that was James Potter himself. Even since their meeting in his room, he had kept his distance. Every so often Lily would feel eyes on the back of her neck in class, and she would turn around to see him turn away. It both warmed her and confirmed her suspicion that he was guilty of what she'd always thought about him.
Days went by, and winter slowly melted into spring. The final match of the Quidditch season was one bright and clear Saturday morning, two weeks before spring holiday.
Lily walked into the Great Hall, feeling strangely relaxed. Her love bite had faded a while ago, and she hadn't had a nightmare in a few days. She sat down at the Gryffindor table next to a yawning Lane.
"Hello," Lily told her cheerfully. "Late night?" She waggled her eyebrows suggestively.
Lane laughed. "I wish. No, it was Cassandra."
"What'd Cassandra do?" Lily asked while leaning over to her right to grab the raspberry jam for her toast.
"You didn't hear her? Merlin, I though the whole Tower woke up. I kept waiting for McGonagal to walk in. Cassandra is awful at Silencing Charms apparently."
Lily frowned. "I didn't hear anything. Must have been a deep sleep or something. What was she doing?" Lily took a sip of her pumpkin juice.
"Shagging Sirius of course."
Lily spat her juice across the table, where luckily no one was sitting. "What? You must be joking."
Lane gave her an incredulous look, "You didn't know? They've been shagging for almost a month now."
"How can that be? I would have noticed in a minute if she'd been spending more time with him. Or bringing him to our room at night!"
"Oh, well, they aren't together, as in, in a relationship together. It's purely sex, or so she says. They used to go to his room, but James kicked them out. Probably because they're so bloody damn loud."
"Lane!" Lily stared at her. Lane rarely cursed.
"Well, you didn't have to hear it. If I hadn't thought I would have gotten detention I would have gone to John's rooms," she sighed.
"Well, wonderful. Why didn't Cass tell me?"
Lane dug into her eggs benedict, "Dunno. You've been a little distant though haven't you? Ever since you fell into the stairs." Lane's last line was heavy with double meaning. Lily blushed a little bit.
Just then Dumbledore stood up and waved his wand. A dais appeared in front of the professors's table. Dumbledore smiled as the students of Hogwarts turned to look at him. Lily couldn't remember Dumbledore ever addressing them during breakfast.
"Good morning students of Hogwarts. I know you are all eagerly awaiting the final game of Quidditch between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw." Dumbledore paused as many hooted. Lily noted that James and Sirius stood up and hooted at Dumbledore, James already dressed in his Quidditch robes.
"But first," Dumbledore told them, his tone growing more serious, "I have an announcement."
"For those of you who have kept in touch with parents, as well as the daily news, you are well aware of the dangers that are growing with each passing day." A sound of general uncomfortability became audible as students shifted in their seats.
"For those of you who don't know, a man who goes by the name of Voldemort, Lord Voldemort to some, has been gaining power among some members of society. Coupled with his rise in power have been a vast number of deaths, many to those who are muggle-born, and more recently to muggle parents of those who are muggle-born at this school." The room had become deathly silent. Everyone remembered the week before when halfblood Zanna Twinert had wept openly in the Great Hall after finding out about the death of her mother.
"In order to give added protection to students, it has been decided that we will cancel the spring holidays." He held up his hand as students began to mutter.
"Listen to me. We will still have a break, however, you will have it here within Hogwarts. This will prevent having to use the train, and those with muggle parents having to become vulnerable twice in one week. There will be no classes during this week, and it is highly advisable to those with upcoming OWL's and NEWT's, that you use this time to study, just as I advise you to if you were at home. If anyone has serious objections, and truly needs to go home, we will try to arrange a Floo Network usage to ensure that you may get to your homes."
Dumbledore smiled at them all, "Now, let us tuck in, and remove ourselves quickly to the Quidditch pitch." He waved away the dais and sat down.
---
The quidditch game was quite the success. Ravenclaw's defense hadn't been their best this season, and the only reason they'd made it to the final game with Gryffindor was the fact that Slytherin's team was in shambles due to a major "rebuilding" season.
Of course, Gryffindor owed it all to James Potter, their star seeker who had caught the snitch in record time. Because of this, Gryffindor had spent the weekend partying. By the time Monday rolled around everyone was so tired that the halls were completely empty.
Lily, as a Prefect, was patrolling the halls on Monday evening. She yawned, covering it with her hand. Her nights had become less and less restful.
"Lily?"
Lily turned towards the voice, her hand still over her mouth. "'Lo Remus," she told him as another yawn overtook her.
"Can we talk?" The tall youth looked a little sheepish. Lily smiled at him.
"Certainly." These past months Lily hadn't avoided Remus, despite what had happened in the Shack. Quite the opposite, he had removed himself from her.
They started walking together in step with each other. Lily waited for what Remus had to say. He ran a hand through his hair. Must get it from James," Lily thought wryly.
"Look, the thing is, I'm really very sorry about what happened. Sirius... he thought it would be a grand joke on Snape. Bloody stupid, Sirius can be, though he's one of my best mates. Cassandra is good for him, she seems to have cured him of it a little." Remus paused and Lily waited for him to continue.
"I appreciate that you've been discreet about what happened. I've heard Cassandra's rumor about you getting caught between the staircase, and it's a wonder people believe it, but that's that then."
"And Lily, I wanted you to know, that I value your friendship. I... I don't want what happened to change things between us. And yeah. That's it I suppose."
Lily turned to Remus and she gave him a hug. Remus seemed startled, and then awkwardly he hugged her back.
"You are a good person Remus. I know you would never hurt me on purpose, and I know that what you do... when, it's that time, well, you can't control that. Some people may be prejudiced against you for what you can't help, but not me." Lily smiled slightly, "I'm a mudblood remember, us misfits have to stick together right?"
Remus blanched at the word mudblood, "You shouldn't call yourself that Lily."
"Probably so," Lily told him. They walked together in silence, until they reached the portrait into Gryffindor Tower.
As Lily was about to recite the password Remus touched her arm and said, "You know, Lily, James isn't that bad. He's a handful, and he's a little pompous at times... but you shouldn't judge him too harshly. At least not until you really get to know him. He's not as adolescent as he was." Remus gave her a crooked smile.
Lily sighed then told him, "Alright, I'll keep that in mind." With that she told the fat lady the password, mandragora, and went into the tower.
