Unuseful disclaimer: We do not own HP (surprise!) just Cathleen and the other OC's. JK is welcome to them thought, over a large part of profit of course (rubbing hands together).
The update took a bit longer this time, sorry to the people who reviewed. Do you guys realize we got only four reviews for last chapter? If at least all the people who had us on their favorites/alerts reviewed, we would have 5 or 6 reviews per chapter!
That added to the end of term tests our teachers bombarded us with slowed us down a lot.
On with chapter nine!
By the way, we decided to follow Sharada87's advice and use quotation marks when people talk, so it slowed us down too as we went back and changed all the chappies to match this one.
Cathleen POV
Cathleen made her way to the clearing where they had Care of Magical Creatures feeling as thought she would burst. Sirius had actually apologized to her! A few weeks ago, that would have been unthinkable. Had he really changed? Maybe she should give him a chance?
She shook her head. No. She really liked him, but she knew that his girlfriends never lasted more than a week and she didn't want that to happen to her.
"Cathleen? You okay?"
She turned toward Sirius and smiled at him. Merlin, he really is handsome.
" Yeah. I was just thinking about your prank," she lied.
"Oh. Did you see McGonnagall? She was red enough to become our official Griffyndor mascot. I mean, I'm a Marauder, but I don't want to be sent to Azkaban because I murdered a teacher..."
"And did you notice that Dumbledore found the show extremely amusing?"
Sirius guffawed.
"No, I didn't. I was to busy exiting the hall I suppose."
"Now now, quiet down everybody," said professor Kettleburn, striding into the clearing, followed by...
"Thestrals" breathed out Sirius.
"You can see them?" asked Cathleen.
"You too?"
They both glanced at each other uneasily.
"See what?" asked James loudly, squinting in the direction of the professor who dumped a juicy and enormous raw steak on the ground.
"See what?" he repeated, looking at the steak. "Bloody shit! What's eating the meat?"
"Mister Potter!" shouted professor Kettleburn, sounding scandalized. "Keep a civil tongue in your mouth! Those are Thestrals! Now, who can see them?"
Cathleen, Sirius, Remus, and two or three other students raised shaky hands.
"Err... Professor?" asked Yasmeen Jalmerl, a 7th year Ravenclaw, hesitantly. "Aren't those supposed to be... dangerous?"
There was a stir in the watching students as they eyed the disappearing steaks direction.
"I think not, miss Jalmerl, and I don't see why you should be afraid as they have been pulling the school carriages for the last few years. Don't tell me you actually thought those carriages moved all by themselves?"
Cathleen couldn't choke back a giggle at the student's bemused expressions.
"I'd say they did." she whispered to Sirius, who let out a bark of laughter.
Lily POV
"So Lily, do you regret not taking CMC?"
Lily turned toward James, frowning.
"Not taking what?"
"CMC. Care of Magical Creatures."
Lily rolled her eyes.
"You guys are just so annoying sometimes. Can't you call things by their name?"
James chuckled and absentmindedly rumpled his hair, throwing a look at the lake. They were sitting propped up against a weeping willow and basking in what looked to be one of the last warm days of the year.
A group of students was feeding dry bread to the giant squid and tickling its tentacles while the ones in class enviously stared out of the windows, much to the teachers growing exasperation. James grinned as a sudden idea came to him. Uh oh. Not a good sign.
"So Lilyflower, doesn't it look like the perfect day to teach you how to fly?"
"W...what? But Potter, I don't know how to fly, what if I fall off?"
"You won't fall off because I'll be holding you, and as for not knowing how to fly... well, now is the moment to learn!"
"Potter, I am not getting on a broom with you!"
"Oh, you want to get on one alone? And I'm called James Potter, not Potter Potter "
"I don't want to get on a broom at all Potter!" Lily glanced at his face. "And stop looking like that! It's no. There are faster and more practical ways than brooms to get around."
"Please Lilykins?"
Lily faltered.
"All right..."
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I should never have agreed. Brooms are jerky, and frankly uncomfortable. Merlin, I'm not even moving yet and I think I'm going to fall.
Or throw up.
On Potter.
Then he might let me get down.
What is that idiot saying now?
"So, ready to enjoy the ride?"
Yeah, alright. Prepare to be covered in vomit James.
"Err... Lily? You look a bit green. And for the giant's squid sake, relax!" James looked at her doubtfully. "Maybe I should climb up with you..."
Without waiting for an answer, he easily climbed up behind Lily and reached around her to catch the broom handle, ending with both arms around her waist.
Normally this is where I'd push him off if I wasn't so bloody scared of falling.
"You know, Sirius said Cathleen didn't even flinch once even when he flew straight for the wall."
"That's because she had her eyes closed."
"Oh." James considered that and grinned. "She did open them after a while, thought?"
"Well... Yeah, a bit, at least that's what she told me"
"And wouldn't you consider opening your eyes a bit sooner than that? Don't tell me my Flower is scared?"
Lily started, turned around and glared at him.
"How the hell did you know I had my eyes closed?"
"Well" James replied with a huge grin, "If they were open you would have already shouted or gasped before we got this high."
"I don't..." Lily frowned. Wait a minute. "This high?"
She glanced downward and shrieked. The treetops seemed to be miles away and the ground was even farther away. She could see the whole school from that high up and it was beautiful.
Beautiful?
No.
Scary.
The broom wobbled slightly Lily whimpered.
"Please Potter, let me down and I swear I'll let you curse Snape all you want and never give you detention."
"Nope. Relax Lily, you're stiff as a board! Do you really think I'll let you drop?"
Lily was surprised at how caring and a bit sad at the fact that she didn't trust him his voice sounded. She closed her mouth on the ironic comeback she was about to blurt out and shivered.
"I would never let you down," he said even lower, letting go of the unmoving broom and tightening his arms around her. Lily felt suddenly secure even thought she was higher than she had ever been and almost comfortable. She sighted and James grinned as he felt her relax slightly.
"Better, he said in a soothing voice. "Don't be scared of falling because it won't happen as long as I'm with you."
Lily turned around and hesitantly looked at him, realizing a fraction of a second too late that as a result her face ended up only a few inches from his.
He has really warm eyes, sort of chocolate or light hazel, I could almost read his thoughts in them. They're so deep... Merlin, I think I should look away... Lily blinked and automatically looked down, before remembering where she was and grabbing hold of the broom with a startled cry.
"Steady there Lily!" said James, keeping her from losing her balance before catching on to the handle once again. "I think that's enough for today..." his voice was strangely veiled and he sounded somewhat disappointed or troubled, she couldn't really tell. He sighted, leaned forward, and the broom (Which Lily was starting to hate less and less) slowly floated back down to the ground.
Lily was left with a lot of things to ponder on.
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September 19th, midday, in the Great Hall
THERE'LL BE AN AUTUMN BALL!!! Oh Merlin, I can't believe it! If I wasn't scared James would curse them afterwards, I would kiss the current Head Boy and Girl!
Oh Merlin Merlin Merlin that is just so great! For the moment, only us prefects know, but we'll tell the rest of the school as soon as we decide on the theme and it's going to cause a total uproar!
In fact the rest of the school will know only after we chose our outfits (That wasn't my idea and I find it a bit mean for the others).
I wonder who'll go with who?
"Heya Lily"
"Oh, hi Cathleen! How was CMC? err... I mean Care of Magical Creatures?"
Cathleen dropped beside Lily with a sight.
"Not so bad, I mean, we did Thestrals so it wasn't too boring... especially not with Sirius there... What did you do during those two hours?"
"I had Runes during the second and during the first...Well" Lily blushed "James took me flying."
Cathleen whistled. "James? This is getting serious."
Lily opened her mouth. "...
"Oh no you don't!" shouted Cathleen, shoving a piece of tart in Lily's mouth and missing.
"FOOD FIGHT!" shouted Anna-Maria.
Sirius, who had just received the flying piece of tart in the face, picked up a huge pot of noodles and emptied it over James head, who immediately retaliated by flinging soup in a wide arc and drenching half a dozen students who leaped on the occasion to jump in the brawl.
Soon chicken, cakes, pasties, ice creams, beans, and every other kind of food imaginable were flying thick and fast while McGonnagall, the only one who would have been able (or willing) to stop everyone at the first sight of the disturbance, was attempting to swallow a particularly large piece of fudge that had hit her square in the face.
The uproar was about to mutate in a general inter-house competition when McGonnagall finally managed to clear her mouth.
"Lupin! Detention for throwing food at your professors! Willows, same! Don't think I'm deaf! Merlin himself must have heard you shout. The rest of you clean up everything and I want the Hall to be spotless when you're done!"
What do you want the theme for the ball to be? Please give us ideas! Reviews are still and always will be greatly appreciated, constructive ones even more:-)
IMPORTANT: We'll be going to Greece for the whole summer so this is probably the last chapter until the end of August... and guess what would make us very happy when we come back? Reviews!
Don't be too angry! (lol...)
I'm so happy because we'll be having a ball at our school too on the fifth of July! Yay!
Thanks to all reviewers and hope everyone enjoyed the story.
Love!
Sandcat
