A/N: Hee hee! Sorry for the wait on this chappie, ppl, I kinda had no idea what to write, and that's why you get a cliffy on this chap, so I have a running idea in my head for the next chapter and you don't have to wait even longer for the next one!!
3
Chapter 8: The Run-In
Ah, DADA class, thought Harry as he sat in his desk in the classroom as his professor/godfather rambled on about the theory behind doing a shield charm without speaking the incantation. Harry wasn't paying attention in the least, and Professor Jack seemed to notice. Besides that, his godfather had seemed to enjoy picking on him in class lately.
"Jameson!" he said, while still looking at the diagram of a shield charm on the blackboard. He turned around after Harry had bolted upright in his seat at his alias name being called out so sharply. Harry saw a glint of humour in his eyes, and he fought back a smirk as Professor Jack tried to glare at him vehemently. "Perhaps you would like to show us a non-verbal shield charm?"
Harry actually did smirk this time. "Sure, Professor," he said, emphasizing his godfather's title. He stood up from his desk, swaggered to the middle of the room, and yelled the incantation in his head (once again, how does one yell in one's head?): Protego! he thought, and a yellowish glow erupted in front of him. A perfectly formed shield charm. But Professor Jack, who seemed to derive pleasure from bantering spells back and forth in front of the class, said "Well, let's test it, shall we?" and he cast his own non-verbal charm. Harry, of course, had his shield up and the spell was absorbed into the yellow glow of the shield. Harry immediately put down his shield and thought Levicorpus, a little spell that the Marauders had let him in on. Professor Jack was instantly flipped upside down and hung from the air as if by his ankle. The class erupted in laughter, especially the Marauders, who knew exactly what spell he had used.
Professor Jack crossed his arms and tried to look menacing as the blood rushed to his head, making his face redder than a beetroot. The class continued to laugh loudly and rambunctiously.
"Detention tonight, I think, Griffin," he said, forgetting to use Harry's alias surname, and the class went quiet as Harry released his teacher from the invisible ankle hold. The tone rang, signalling the end of the DADA session and also the end of classes for the day. The students left the room and headed up to their respective common rooms. Harry made sure to hang back to the back of the pack leaving the classroom, and when all the other leaving students had their backs turned, he looked up at the teacher's desk and winked at the professor.
As the Marauders sat at the supper table that evening eating and joking about various topics, Lily Evans, wearing her new clothes and her vivid red hair curled and pinned halfway back, joined them. She sat down next to Griffin, as close to him as possible without being totally obvious. "What the hell did that Hamilton man think he was doing?" she said, pasting an offended expression on her delicately painted face. "Giving you detention just because you outsmarted him? I mean, that's bloody bull!" she said forcefully to Griffin.
Griffin, who knew perfectly well that his detention was going to be a talk between him and his godfather, and maybe his two best friends, tried to act offended and irritated as Lily did. "Yeah, I guess that was pretty dodgy," he said, not really pulling off his angry act. Lily caught on to that.
"What, you don't think it was unfair?" she asked, with a hint of incredulity in her voice.
"Well, I guess he had a good reason to. I kinda humiliated him in front of his class with his own spell," said Griffin.
Lily looked politely confused, and so did the Marauders (only their look of confusedness was more like their jaws were on the floor). "His own spell? What do you mean?" she asked. He looked at James, who gave him a look that clearly said MAKE SOMETHING UP! James and the others had told him how they had gotten that spell and it wasn't a very rule-following story.
Griffin thought quickly. "Oh, you know, I've had almost a dozen detentions with him this term, and he's a pretty light-hearted guy. He's also easily distracted, and he got to teaching me some cool spells he had made up near the end of the detentions."
Lily smiled at Griffin, and her heart melted when he smiled back. She excused herself from the table and smirked at James' grumpy and almost hurt look.
Back at the table, James was indeed being very grumpy.
"Hey, James, what's the matter?" asked Sirius. James just looked at him moodily and left the table.
Sirius looked at Remus. "What was that?" he said.
Remus rolled his eyes. "Well, he's obviously upset about something. What do you think, Griffin? Griffin?" But 'Griffin' was already gone. He couldn't bear to see his dad in such an upset state, detention be damned.
Harry found James in his bed in Gryffindor Tower. He was sulkily reading a Quidditch magazine and flipping the pages with such animosity that some of them almost tore out.
"What's up with you lately?" asked Harry, bluntly.
James looked. Harry thought his eyes looked red, but it could have been a trick of the light. "Now, is that anyway to talk to your father?"
"No. I just want to know why you're so mad, and besides, I can talk to you however I want, we're currently the same age." Harry was getting lippy now; he wanted an answer. He was late for his "detention".
James looked at him again. "Do you not see it? It's Lily," he said, his voice rising slightly.
Harry didn't really pick up on the clues James was giving out that he was angry about her. "I know, isn't it bloody brilliant that she's talking to me? And I mean actually talking to me, not just like 'Hi, Griffin' in the hallways. You know, I really love talking to my mom again. It was great enough being able to talk to you again, but now I have both of my parents to talk to," said Harry to his shoes. He was never good at emotional displays.
James was not moved by Harry's unusual display of emotion. "Ha! You're funny! You think she wants to talk to you just because she thinks you're nice or some bull like that? You are so blinded that you can't even see that she is totally falling for you!"
Harry looked up at James with a look on his face that spelt both disgust and hurt. "You are a sick man," he said, his voice quavering, and with that he stomped out of the room.
James stared after his turned back and wondered if he should have controlled his temper. He had just turned back to his magazine, this time with less animosity and more thoughtfulness when Harry stormed back into the room, obviously holding back tears, and grabbed a green notebook from under his own bed with a torn cover and a heart on the front with some name in it that James was too deep in thought to notice. As Harry left the room, he slammed the door as hard as he could.
Harry raced down the corridor that lead to the stairs to the DADA classroom. He was in such a hurry to get to Sirius, and to talk to Hermione, who always had some common sense and a consoling word in her mouth, that he wasn't watching where he was going and ran into a certain red-head.
Lily fell over backwards and dropped every book she was carrying, which was a considerable amount. Harry, whose eyes were red and swollen still, hurriedly leaned down to help her with her books. He saw from the cover of one that it was a muggle magazine, and the cover story was "How to get a Guy" and it listed some tips right on the front.
1. Get his attention. Change up your normal routine! Curl your hair, get some new clothes!
2. Make sure he knows you're interested.
3. Show concern for him, and make sure he feels special with you.
4. See inside for more tips on HOW TO GET A GUY!
Harry looked at this title for a while, and realized that James was right. Lily had a crush on him. That was so wrong on so many levels.
He handed the magazine to Lily, without looking at her. He did look at her when he was helping her up, and that's when she saw his red and swollen eyes.
She was, of course, immediately concerned. "Oh my God, Griffin, what's the matter?" she asked.
Harry looked at her, smiled half-heartedly and said "Maybe ask me again sometime, alright?" and then he put the last book on the stack in her arms, said "Good night," and began to walk away, but not before Lily and grabbed his head and kissed him on the cheek before walking hurriedly away.
