Chapter 9 Once Again Saved
James came out of the Hospital Ward on Friday, and as soon as he entered the Common room, they started the party. They were having a late celebration of Gryffindor's victory. James was surprised to see Lily partying with the rest of them; she was a quiet girl who usually went up to her room to read or do her homework during loud gatherings. That night, she was partying and having fun with her friends. After a while, she and James went off to do rounds.
"So you're feeling better?" she asked.
James smiled. "Yup, good as new," he said.
"Good. That's good."
The rest of the time they talked about how the Quidditch match went ("Did you see that dive that Malfoy took? It was pathetic!" James' exclaimed), about school ("Really, McGonagall gives out way too much homework!" Lily whined) and their families.
"My mom's a lawyer, that's a Muggle that tries to help people not go to jail or pay whatever fine when they break the law," she said. "My dad's a dentist. And my sister is a pain in the arse. She thinks I'm some sort of freak because I'm a witch. She's going to be marrying this man, if you want to call him that. He's the size of a baby whale and eats like a pig! He's rude too," said Lily.
"I can tell you just love him!" said James, sarcastically.
Lily laughed. "I love my parents and I loved my sister. She stopped loving me the day I got my letter and has deepened her hatred for me every day," said Lily.
James smiled. "Who could hate you?"
"Apparently, my sister and most Slytherins," she said.
"Slytherins don't count," said James.
Lily grinned. "What about you?" she asked. "What's your family like?"
James thought for a moment. "Well, I'm an only child, but two years ago, Sirius ran away from home, and came to live with us. So he's sort of like my brother. My parents are ex-Aurors. They retired about 5 years ago after my grandfather fell ill," said James. "He died a year later."
"Oh, I'm so sorry James. I know exactly how you feel. My Gramps died a few years ago also," she said.
James smiled. "My grandfather was an Auror also. Harry Potter was his name. I had always wanted to call my first child after him," said James.
Lily smiled. "That's cool."
"Yeah, and I'm going to follow in my grandfather's and my parent's footsteps. I'm going to be an Auror when I get out of Hogwarts," said James.
"I also want to be an Auror," she said.
James looked at her. "Really? I always thought you were going to be a teacher or something," he said.
"Well, I did until our 4th year when I decided I wanted to help defeat You-Know-Who -- do you mind if I say Voldemort?"
"Not at all. We shouldn't let him cow us."
"I won't. He had killed my parents' best friends, and I wanted to get him back for it," said Lily.
James smiled. "Maybe you will some day."
---
When Lily and James got back to the Head's Dorm, they realized that they had forgotten to stop the party. It was midnight and everybody was supposed to be in bed. Lily was just about to leave when James stopped her. He knew eventually it was going to get stopped.
"Wait! Let's just stay here! We'll have a party of our own!" James whined, wanting to be alone with the red-head.
"Well maybe not a party, but we should work on some of our plans for social events," said Lily.
"A planning party!" said James.
Lily laughed. "Fine. A planning party."
James jumped up from the couch. "Be right back, and don't leave," he said, then rushed out of the room.
Lily took out her quills and a scroll to write down their plans. After ten minutes of waiting, she decided to go up to her room quickly and change into nightwear. She donned a pair of warm trousers and a big t-shirt. She went back in the Common room and James still wasn't back yet. Lily decided to start writing. She pulled a blank scroll and tried an idea she had read in Witch Weekly. You were to stop thinking about everything and just let your hand write everything. It should tell you your heart's desires. Lily didn't think it was true, but tried it anyway. She dipped her quill in ink and put it on the paper. She closed her eyes and felt her hand start to write.
A few minutes went by and Lily opened her eyes to see a paper full of words. She started reading it. After reading the paper, she was concerned. She had written things such as "James is sexy" and "I want James" but mostly his name had been scribbled everywhere. She couldn't believe it. Was her heart's desire to be with James?
"Get a grip on yourself! He's only a friend."
"But you just wrote his name about 50 times!"
"He's supposed to be back by now, that's the only reason."
"You're worried about him."
"Because he's my friend."
"No, because Lily Evans, you are in love with James Potter!"
"NO!" she yelled out loud. She kept having arguments in her head. It was getting quite annoying. She took the scroll and threw it in the fire.
"Whatcha doing?" asked James, coming in with butterbeer and firewhiskey.
"Nothing," Lily said, quickly. Lily went to sit down and James looked into the fire. He saw a paper with his name written everywhere, burning, and wondered if that was bad luck.. Fortunately voodoo was not considered a genuine form of witchcraft.
"Here, try some firewhiskey," said James, pushing a bottle towards Lily.
"Is it good?" she asked, watching James take a sip.
James nodded. "Yup, it was the first time I stole it from my parents' liquor cabinet and it is now."
"Okay," she said. She took a sip and gasped. "Bloody hell, this is strong stuff," said Lily.
"What, you can't take it?" said James in an I-dare-you-to-out-drink-me sort of voice.
"No, I can," said Lily taking a giant gulp full. James gasped as Lily finished the entire bottle in one sip. She winced at the strong taste and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand . "Told yeah so," she said, hiccuping.
They got to work on the plan. "Okay, so I know this is cheesy and all, and it's not really original, but for Valentine's Day, let's have a masquerade ball. Couples can go together but for some who don't have a boyfriend or girlfriend, well they can come alone. Then, even if a Slytherin would ask you to dance, you won't know till the end of the night when everybody unmasks!" said James.
Lily was writing this all down. "Dumbledore will go for it," she said. "He's all for that 'inter-house' friendship thing."
James nodded. "And we should have another Hogsmeade trip next weekend," Lily nodded.
"We'll tell McGonagall in the morning," said Lily. "Well, goodnight, I'm off to bed."
----
"Lily!" said a voice behind her. She turned around and saw Zach Corner, a light browned-haired 7th year Hufflepuff , running after her. They had patrolled together quite often last year.
"Hullo," she said.
"Hullo, um... would you like to go to Hogsmeade with me?" he asked.
"Um, okay," said Lily. She only realized what she had done after he left. "Damn!" she cursed, smacking her head on the wall.
"Why did I agree?"
"Because you want to make James jealous."
"I do not!"
"Yes you do and you know it in your heart. How do I know? I am your heart!"
"Well this is my brain and I tell you to leave me alone."
"Ah, but I cannot. I'm there when you feel those butterflies in your stomach and I start to beat faster when James comes closer."
"Shut up!"
"NO!"
"YES LEAVE ME ALONE!" Lily argued once more with herself before turning her thoughts to her next class.
----
The second week of November arrived and Lily was getting ready for her date with Zach.
"Tell me again why you're going out with him?" asked Kay, sitting on her bed, watching Lily fumble with her makeup.
"I'm not really sure, to tell you the truth. It just slipped out of my mouth before my brain could take in the question," said Lily.
"Here, let me help you," said Kay, walking towards Lily. She added a bit of eyeshadow and some lip gloss. "There you go! Now remember, if you snog him, tell us if it was good."
"I won't be snogging him, and where is the other part of "us"?" asked Lily.
"Frank and Alice are already on their date! Soon they'll have to do more than snogging, they've gone out for so long," said Kay.
"O...kay," said Lily, not quite sure she wanted to know what Kay meant. "You sure you don't want to come?"
"Homework! Sorry!" said Kay.
----
"So Lily, do you like Quidditch?" Zach said, walking with Lily in Hogsmeade.
Lily loved Quidditch when James was playing, but she didn't want to reveal that. "A little," she said, shrugging.
Zach started talking about the Quidditch World Cup a few years back. Lily was bored and looked around. She wished it had been James she was with. At least he didn't drone on and on about something. He would say it then get over it. Lily held back a groan as she realized what she just thought.
"So, were do you want to go?" asked Lily, cutting Zach's speech short.
"Um, here follow me," he said, grabbing her hand and pulling her into an alley. She realized she didn't feel the spark or the butterflies in her stomach. Before she knew what was happening, Zach had pinned Lily against the wall and was trying to kiss her.
---
"So James, where are we heading?" asked Remus. James, Remus and Sirius had decided to go into Hogsmead to buy some "supplies", while Peter had detention for not doing his homework for the 5th time that week.
"Well I thought we could go into Zonko's first," said James. Then he heard his name being called, ever so softly.
---
Lily was pinned up against the wall. Zach was too strong for her. His body was pressed tightly against hers. Then she heard it.
"...We could go into Zonko's first," said a voice she knew very well.
"James," she tried to say, but Zach was so heavy it was heard to breath. She gathered all her strength and was able to say "James, help!" in an almost whisper.
She heard James say "Lily," and saw him coming into the alley. James's face was red and took out his wand. He threw a spell on Zach, and he went flying. Lily fell to the ground, clutching her chest with tears rolling down her face.
James threw another spell at Zach, who then ran away with a toad's head in the place of his own. James rushed over to Lily and kneeled down next to her.
"Are you all right?"
Lily cried some more. "I... I'm so...sorry," she said, tears streaming down her cheeks.
"For what?" asked James, puzzled at why she was the one that was sorry.
"For having you come to my rescue all the time! It's not fair to you or me! I should be able to take care of myself," she said.
James took her hand and a spark ran though her. "Lily, don't be sorry. Every now and then, people need to be helped," he said. After Lily's breath returned to normal and she had stopped crying, she got up.
"James, thank you for saving me," she said. She realized her hand was still in his and quickly took her hand away.
"You're welcome."
She smiled shyly. "You must think I'm some silly damsel in distress, right?" she asked.
"No, I don't. I think your having a rough year with all the stuff going on and all the time you almost died," he said.
"Well, since we're all pouring the contents of our soul out, I think I should bring to light that I think Mrs. Potter was a total babe when she was younger and that if I would have been Mr. Potter, I would have tried to make love to her all night long!" said Sirius, in a casual tone. Lily, James and Remus looked at Sirius. Sirius laughed uncomfortably. "Oh, I should have guessed that the soul pouring was just for the two love birds over there," Sirius said, pointing to Lily and James.
Lily blushed furiously and James smiled. "So mates, do you think Lily could hang with us?" asked James. "I doubt she wants to go back and see frog boy."
"On one condition," said Remus.
"What?" asked Lily, puzzled.
"You let us play a prank on the Slytherins," he said.
Lily grinned maliciously "As long as I get to prank Zach Corner also, I'm in," she said, loving the look of surprise on all three faces of the Marauders.
Author's note: Lol! I just love all the stupid things Sirius says! He's fun to write about. I hope you liked this chapter. I liked it. Please Review! From now on, I've decided to post 2 chapters. Not all the time, but for a while.
A/N 2: Being Re-typed.
