"Girl Got Game"
By: Liebling
Updated On: 6 December 2006
Chapter Nine
"Tea Time With Tonks"
:-:
Maud, who had taken the bludger to the head, and myself, were told that we were going to be fine and perfectly capable to play in the first match of the season, much to the team's relief.
He also seemed to have forgiven me for the bloody nose and we were beginning to get on fine.
We were all suddenly doing much better, actually. The team that is.
Especially James, much to the relief of everyone. And by everyone, I mean the entire school. Before, he would snap at anyone who breathed his air, but now it was like he lit up the room when he crawled through the portrait hole.
The girls, having sensed the personality transplant in James, practically flocked to him before, during, and after classes. It was rather amusing watching him try to get rid of them all.
And after he smiled at me last week, that's when—er—my problems began.
Two problems, really. First and foremost I becoming a…a guy. A bloke. A dude. A man. Masculine…!
I had actively participated in belching contests at the lunch table the other day and could make a dirty joke about anything ranging from hags to hippogriffs at the drop of a hat.
Not good.
Secondly, I could not stop staring at James Potter's backside.
Incredibly not good.
Well, I mean of course his backside was just lovely; it was just the fact that I couldn't get my eyes off it when a girl would purposely drop her quill in class and James would bend down to retrieve it for her. It was that kind of not good.
Quite frankly I already knew all the rest of his physical features. I knew his untidy hair that looked like it had never heard the word comb in its life. I knew the easy hazel eyes that had started to sparkle more lately. And I knew his toned abs—a real treat that probably no other girl but me had been lucky enough to see in the locker room—that were to die for.
Immediately, I could tell that I was already doomed. I had fallen under the spell that is James Potter.
Which, in order to not totally blow my cover, I had to avoid him like the sodding plague so that my face wouldn't heat up the Gryffindor fireplace at Christmas time.
Which sucked major arse.
It was the morning of the Hufflepuff-Gryffindor match and it was when I was on my way down the Great Hall when I ran into a familiar face.
"Hey, Li, haven't seen you around much," said Nigel conversationally.
Suddenly, I felt rather guilty for ignoring him and Jo for the past couple of weeks. It hadn't been intentional of course; I had just been so swept up into helping the team and clearing things up with Danny and James (and staring at his editable bum).
I was about to apologise, but Nigel continued in a slightly more hushed tone.
"Listen, Li, I need your help,"
"Sure, what's up?" Hell, I'd probably help Lucifer if he asked me nicely. I'm a sucker with a huge soft spot.
"I want…" he trailed off.
There were many ways in which he could've finished that sentence:
"I want…you to help me with charms homework,"
"I want…your secret stash of French chocolate,"
"I want…a million galleons,"
But then the real reason why he had trailed off came up from behind me.
"Hullo, all," Jo interrupted us.
Nigel suddenly clammed up like a, uh, clam and the conversation died on the spot.
"Well I must be off," he said loudly, straightening slightly. "Jo," Nigel nodded and made sure she wasn't looking when he mouthed, "We'll talk later," at me before running off.
"Um…okay," I wore a bewildered look as he ran.
"Nigel has been rather distant lately, hasn't he?" Joanna commented rather wistfully as she watched him practically sprint down the corridor.
Again, I didn't really know because we hadn't spoken so much lately.
"I asked him about it yesterday and he said that he was looking for evidence in an outbreak of the long nose jimjoms in the Netherlands," she said.
Jimjoms? I thought. Weren't they supposed to be those fictional characters (even in the eyes of the magical world) that were near invisible and burrowed themselves inside the boogers of a nose that supposedly caused compulsive sneezing?
What the hell was Nigel on…?
"Let's…go get some food," I said slowly, still rather confused, walking down the hall, "I need to get ready for the match soon,"
Having no time to spare because I had woken up late, (to nobody's surprise, really), I had to deal with Sirius hounding me to eat faster or else we were going to be late.
Eventually the team got him to lay off once I started choking on my oatmeal.
The moment I put my spoon down I was practically dragged from the table and down to the pitch before the rest of the school filled the stands.
Then it was the usual, "Oh, I left my uniform back in the dorm," excuse so I could change in private…I had to really book it back down to the grounds to get to the locker room in time.
But that day I seemed incapable of getting from point A to point B without being interrupted by someone.
This particular someone had not been seen in a couple of weeks since he had been spying on me in the library.
"Getting more and more difficult for you, is it?" Snape asked as I made it to the Entrance Hall.
"Sod off," I told him without looking but he matched my pace with unnerving ability and walked beside me.
"You really shouldn't be insulting me considering the status quo,"
"Why are you here?" I asked, finally sparing him a darting glance.
"Because I'm on my way to get a good seat in the stands so I can personally see the disaster of your match,"
I swelled with anger and snapped, "We're a great team, thank you, and we are going to win,"
He chuckled, "I wasn't referring to the game, Evans," Snape's smirk only increased as I let my confusion show, "Nice day," he commented casually and strolled off towards the stands.
Well this just sucked.
And, again, I did not have time to think about the meaning behind the words. Huffing and puffing, I threw the locker room doors open, hardly fazed by the guys running around without their trousers or shirts. However, that didn't stop me from being a good person and looking away.
"Two minutes, team!" Sirius shouted.
Maybe just a small peak since James was bending down to get his boots…
No.
You are stronger than this, Lily Evans! Look at something else! Look at…the dirt underneath your nails! Yes, that would do.
I grimaced. It had really been a while since I had buffered them…
"Earth to Evans!" Sirius shouted in my ear, catching me by surprise, "We've got a match to get to!"
I gave him an un-amused look, not exactly grateful for the earful.
"Let's boogie, team!" he shouted, ignoring my glare and clapping his hands.
We exited the locker rooms and passed the roaring loud elevated stands, waving and such.
There was one woman, however, a woman probably in her mid-twenties with long brown hair and rather tanned skin was bobbing her head to a tune that only she could hear and tapping her foot passively that wasn't seated with the rest of the school or professors.
"Andromeda!" exclaimed Sirius in surprise, nearly dropping his broom (which really said something about the significance of the person), "What are you doing here?"
"Can't a girl see her favourite disowned little cousin for the first match of the season without ulterior motives?" she asked innocently, pulling herself away from the stands.
I stared in confusion.
"D'aww, shucks, Andy, I'm your only disowned little cousin!" He laughed and was pulled into a bone-crushing hug by the woman.
Huh…?
"Sirius! Sirius! Sirius!" A girl who looked no older than four with a full head of pink ran out from behind Andromeda and wrapped her arms around the captain's legs.
Wait…pink? I did d a double take and sure enough, there was a little girl with bubblegum pink hair was latched on to Sirius' thighs. Odd. The Gryffindor captain obviously had some interesting relatives…
"REMY!" she cried out even more enthusiastically and dove at Remus who smiled, amused by the nickname.
"Hello, Nymphadora,"
The girl let go of Remus immediately so she could put her hands on her hips and huffed, "Don't call me that! I hate that name!"
"It's a lovely name!" her mother protested over from her conversation with Sirius.
"Who is this now?" I asked Jordan next to me in a low voice. After I had taken that bludger for him a week ago Jordan (the dear) practically hero-worshipped me and would go out of his way just for me. It was rather amusing really.
For example:
"Hey, somebody want to pass me the marmalade?"
Remus would move his hand a fraction of an inch towards the dish and then…
"I'VE GOT IT FOR YOU, LI," he would say in a determined voice, snatching the dish right from underneath Remus' nose and thrusting it under mine.
"Er, t-thank you, Jordan,"
But anyways, back to the present…
"Andromeda and Nymphadora Tonks," he answered immediately with a sense of duty, "Sirius' cousin Andromeda and her daughter, Nymphadora," he said, "Her and Sirius were both disowned by the Black family."
"That's horrible!" I gasped.
Jordan nodded fervently in agreement and added, "Their family is one of the most complicated and prominent pure blooded families currently living to date. Andromeda was disowned for marrying a muggle-born several years ago and Sirius ran away over the summer."
I nodded, still stunned, storing the information.
"But why does he seem so…happy all the time?" Or like he's high?
"I guess that's just Sirius for you," Jordan said simply.
I suddenly had a newfound respect for my Quidditch captain as I looked over my shoulder. Remus and Sirius were standing side-by-side with faces like they were trying very hard not to burst out into outlandish laughter as they looked down at the pink-haired girl.
"Call me Annie!" Nymphadora commanded them.
"But…I thought you wanted to be called Sarah?" Remus said, genuinely confused.
"Pfft," said Sirius, playing along, "That was so last month, Remus,"
He frowned, "I thought last month's name was Julie?"
"I'VE CHANGED MY MIND," the girl decided suddenly, making sure that her declaration was heard, "My name is…Abercrombie!"
Good grief.
"Abercrombie…?" Sirius repeated slowly.
"No wait!" she quickly backtracked, "I meant Franklin!"
Sweet Merlin, why do girls purposely go looking for male-sounding names? Charlie, Danny, Jo and Franklin. Merlin help us all, humanity is being mashed into one crazy cross-gender society.
…with me leading the way.
"She's going to give herself an identity crisis with all of these names at this rate," I said in disbelief.
"She's known for being a bit eccentric," Jordan chuckled as I stared, "And with her metamorphagus powers no one's quite sure what she really looks like. Not even her mum."
I looked back at the unusually pink-haired Nymphadora and my fellow Quidditch players.
"Do you wanna come to my tea party?" she asked Remus eagerly, eyes wide and hopeful.
He laughed nervously, "I'm afraid I have to manage the team at the moment—"
The innocently pink hair that sat on top of her head suddenly sparked to life and turned a demonic snake-curling red. "I SAID DO YOU WANT TO COME TO MY TEA PARTY?" Nymphadora yelled, drawing the attention of, I don't know, half the stands. It was really a question, in my opinion, and I really didn't think Remus had a say in the matter.
"O-okay," Remus said, smiling rather fixatedly and flushing scarlet under everyone's laughter. Merlin knows I was barely containing myself, "I'll—er—I'll come," and still hunched over, Remus allowed himself to be dragged away by the short and oddly imposing little girl...I almost felt sorry for the poor bloke as he slumped after a skipping Nymphadora.
Again, almost. Once my sides weren't in stitches I might find the time to pity him.
"Good luck, guys," Remus waved apologetically.
And we never heard from him again.
Ha ha, just kidding. After we mounted our brooms, I could see him in the commentator's box, indeed, drinking what I suspected to be tea with Nymphadora as her mother chatted amicably with Professor Dumbledore.
With James playing the official lead chaser once again, I didn't mind so much being banished to the left wing. We rotated, anyways.
Madam Hooch threw the ball into the air and was immediately taken by James and Victor and I followed him down the length of the pitch.
Victor ducked twenty feet below James' broom and came up on his left and was thrown a very precise pass. At the same time, I had rotated above James by ten feet, in the lead and closest to the goals. Victor chucked me the quaffle and I immediately feigned right before sending it sailing into the centre hoop.
The crowd cheered and the three of us slapped our fists together and grinned widely at the first goal of the season.
The Hufflepuffs, not to be deterred by anything, took the quaffle given to them by the referee and the game continued.
Their chasers had gotten all the way to the goals and their attempt at scoring was blocked by Maud who passed me the quaffle immediately and James, Victor, and me were back down the pitch again.
James signalled for us to take a bit of a higher root up near the seekers who had to dodge us as we flew by in a whirl. I threw Victor the ball and he threw it to James. The three of us realised that we weren't close enough to the goals to score and I flew down closer to the goal posts and further from my chasers, setting myself wide open for a pass from James. He saw me and understood what I had in mind and I hoped that he didn't strain his shoulder as he hurled me the quaffle.
The pass was short by about ten feet and stolen by a Hufflepuff chaser. I sent a slightly annoyed glance at James and told him to pay attention but it looked like he personally jerked his broom away from my direction.
Except he hadn't.
I had seen him purposely lean far to the right, his hands in the correct positions and the signals said that he should've turned right, but the fact of the matter was that he was forced left.
By now, Hufflepuff had the quaffle due to the bad pass and I was frozen in air, hardly noticing anything other than James and the broom that had suddenly barrel-rolled.
I heard the commentator laugh, "And it looks like Potter is out there showing off for the ladies…"
The female half of the stadium giggled.
"James, what are you doing?" Victor yelled. He was too high up to see that there was something wrong with his broom.
"Quit showing off and get the quaffle back!" Joseph Daniels snapped as he flew by, chasing a bludger.
James said nothing but I felt my stomach lurch as he was nearly thrown into the air.
I caught Sirius' eye as he flew over.
"Something's wrong with his broom!" I shouted to him. The neighbouring players began to catch on.
It looked like he was about to answer, but a rogue bludger heading for Maud had him gritting his teeth and flying after it, "Go to the ref and call a time out!" he told me in a slur.
The referee was all the way on the other side of the pitch monitoring what she deemed some suspicious behaviour near the goalposts and I cursed, not wanting to leave James.
"Jesus, what the hell is Potter doing up there?" the commentator asked to no one in particular…unless he really was talking to the son of God which I deemed unlikely.
The girls had stopped giggling everyone was suddenly focused solely on James whose broom had bucked up from underneath him that strangely reminded me of a demented cartwheel. He went toppling over the front of his broom and barely caught it in the nick of time with the very tips of his fingers.
"Christ—!" this seemed to be an awfully religious commentator… "—someone's bewitched Potter's broom!"
With a split-second to decide, I watched as the broom lurched once again, this time succeeding in ridding itself of James and the crowd screaming and gasping in fear, anger, and anxiousness.
He didn't shout or cry out as he dropped ten feet…fifteen feet…twenty feet or even thirty feet.
Maybe he was too stunned to do anything, or maybe he knew that he'd have a teammate catch him.
Granted, it would've been more romantic if I were in the "damsel in distress" situation and James had valiantly risked life and limb to save me and not the other way around…
I had dived after him and grabbed both of his elbows and locked my knees around my broomstick and crossed my ankles tightly. The action caused me to be flipped upside-down, my thighs and calves pinching the wood painfully and the blood rushing to my head, making my face just as red as my hair. It wasn't exactly comfortable, but the important thing was that James was, indeed, not a colourful pancake at the bottom of the pitch.
"Good Lord, I thought we were about to be short one Gryffindor!" That commentator really didn't do much to calm my nerves. It was a lucky thing that I had built up so much arm muscle during the pre-season and could hold on to him.
The last time I remembered hearing the score, it was ten to zero in favour of Gryffindor, but I knew for a fact that Hufflepuff had scored numerous times once James' broom had gone haywire and our team had been distracted. His broom had landed somewhere in the stands but I couldn't support his weight much longer hanging upside-down, let alone steer him to his broom; we were approaching the ground much too rapidly for my taste…
Luckily a streak of scarlet flew right in front of me and I could see Jordan racing after a glint of gold.
I could hear the crowds cheering so loudly that it seemed like one consistent lion's roar.
"…barely lasted five minutes! This must be some kind of record, folks…" the commentator said into the microphone but I could barely hear him. My eyes were focused on the one and only James Potter whose thin wire glasses reflected the sun and for some reason I couldn't help but think of him differently every time I looked at him.
The Gryffindor team was already surrounding us, Sirius looking both pained and relieved and the rest just confused.
We landed and I let him go, forcing myself to think about going to the victory party in the Gryffindor common room with the rest of the team.
And totally not stare at James' rump.
Of course not.
…well, alright, maybe just a little.
"Hey, Evans!" Sirius called across the room to where I was sitting quietly reading my book and doing a bit of homework. By now it was the last week of November and I had succeeded in not getting drunk at any Gryffindor parties. God knows what I would say when I was absolutely pissed…
I had (for the second time in two months!) been declared a Gryffindor hero for saving James and the atmosphere suddenly seemed to lighten considerably between my classmates and me. Quidditch practices were light-hearted and enjoyable and classes were…well, you know, normal. Boring.
The slightly scary thing is that we never figured out what happened to his broom. Professor Dumbledore himself had gone over it and found that there wasn't a thing out of place and it showed no signs of having ever been cursed in the first place. This, needless to say, put most of the Gryffindors on edge.
James had personally thanked me for catching him (and politely did not mention how I nearly dropped him) and even given me a "man-hug". Not like the usual sentimental hugs girls liked to give. A "man-hug" involves much back thumping, sideways grins, and handshaking.
"You're good with charms, right?" Sirius asked.
"Yes..." I said suspiciously, closing my book on my Herbology essay, "Why?"
"We need you're expertise with a little...project of ours," his friends snickered which only upped my suspicion/curiosity.
"All right," I said a little warily, sitting on the couch, being extra careful not to look James in the eye.
…or the rear.
"I'll bite," I said, "What's up?"
"We need to make a tracking device,"
I faltered. It was like a phrase right out of a spy movie…
"My I ask why exactly?" I asked sounding rather alarmed.
"Well, we need a type of tracking device that can show us when a person is in a certain area with their name being labelled."
I breathed a sigh of relief. This didn't sound too potentially dangerous.
"Like a moving map then?"
I think I might've hit a little close to home because the Marauders all glanced at each other.
"Yes," said Remus slowly, "Very much like a map,"
"Okay," I said, "What do you need me to do?"
"We need you to find a way to make this parchment, which we've already outlined the finer aspects the castle and grounds—"
"You're making a map of Hogwarts?" I gasped, my surprise clearly evident.
"Shhh!" the all chorused, looking around to see if anyone had overheard.
"Don't go around shouting it," Sirius hissed.
"Alright, alright, yeeesh," I rolled my eyes.
Remus continued, "We need you to find a way to link this parchment to the school itself so that it can display the students, teachers, animals and such and what they're doing at that exact moment in the exact place."
I bit my lip thoughtfully and resisted the urge to twirl my hair like Snape said I did when I was either bored or thoughtful, "I'm sure that there's a type of locater spell that you could establish between the castle and the parchment,"
Sirius rolled his eyes, "We've already figured that,"
I glared, "If you'd let me finish," I snapped, "You would know that I was trying to say that I have an idea." All eyes and ears were on me. "It would take a lot of work," I sighed, "But if you used the trouvenour tracking charm on every corner of the common room, for example, and if you connected it to the map with a simple spell-connector or tying charm like the juxtaponner spell so that the room's contents is reflected on the parchment…" I trailed off, "You would be able to watch the entire room on the map from the comfort of anywhere in the castle. So to do all of Hogwarts…" Again, I trailed off.
"It would take a lot of work," James finished, sighing.
I nodded, "Lots and lots of work,"
"This actually makes sense," Remus murmured to himself thoughtfully, "And then I suppose we'd have to supply it with something so that it can run on it's own magic…"
"Brilliant job, mate!" Sirius cheered ecstatically, scribbling notes down, "We would have never figured that one out!"
I shrugged offhandedly, "No problem," What can I say? Charms are my forte.
"What can we do to repay you?"
Again, I said, "It was no problem." (But feel free to kiss up to me for as long as you'd like) "You guys don't owe me anything," Quite frankly I didn't even want to think about what the Marauders would try to give me to get out of a debt.
"Oooh, but we insist, Li," smirked Sirius, saddling over my side of the coach, "C'mon, there's got to be something we can do! Not only did you help us out with our project but you got James off his big arse into his Quidditch mode!"
"And saved his —er—big arse on the Quidditch pitch," Remus added.
"I would just like to say that my arse is in no way shape or form on the large side, thank you," James' response was muffled by the couch cushions that he was burying his face in tiredly.
Well as a matter of fact I can't help but agree; it was just very flattering muscular curve—oh dear, I really am sensing a series of serious potential problems with this…
For the most part, I tried to prevent my being alone with James as much as I could, (which was in no way amusing) but occasionally it was unavoidable. Especially when he was trying to apologise for being, well, an arse.
He had confronted me after lessons one day.
"Hey, if you ever need help in Transfiguration, let me know, alright?" he said, "I really owe you for…you know, everything." Hm, he could've been referring to several numerous things. One: I helped him resolve things with Danielle. Two: I got him to play Quidditch again. Three: I totally saved him from dying. Or four: all of the above. "Even though I explicitly told you not to do anything or get involved in anyway. But thanks. Just don't do it again." Option one, then. Of course…
But he looked so cute when he was trying to apologise even though he really sucked at it. It took most of my will power not to jump at the opportunity of him and me in a library alone for tutoring, but I knew that I would do something stupid like giggle or bat my eyelashes or something that would totally not be man-ish.
James scratched his head, which really only ruffled his hair even more, "And I'm sorry I wasn't exactly the nicest bloke on the block before. Nothing personal, you know?" he said.
I wanted to give him a "man-hug", but alas, man-hugs were reserved for more severe occasions, "Don't worry about it, man," I said, thumping him on the back. "S'no big deal,"
He breathed a sigh of relief, "Thanks, mate,"
Yeah, as in soul mate.
"Don't think about it so much, James,"
As much as I would love to say that our witty and charming conversation continued, it didn't. My bag suddenly split, sending all of my supplies across the ground and I cursed.
"I'll meet you back at the tower in a bit, James," I really just loved the sound of his name.
"See you, then," he waved.
Not a minute later, when he had retreated down the corridor, I heard:
"Pssst, Li!"
I nearly jumped out of my skin and dropped my books as I spun around.
"Li!" the voice whispered loudly.
"Uh…?" Hearing voices never seemed to bode well in my books.
"Li, over here!" It was Nigel's voice I realised, relieved. I looked around the corridor, but it was deserted.
"Here?" I moved towards the painting of the drunken monks.
"No, over here!" he hissed.
"Erm—here?" I tried, moving closer to the corner.
"Oh for the love of Merlin," he muttered and suddenly a hand reached to grab and drag me behind the statue of the one-eyed witch and I yelped in surprise.
"Li, I need your help," Nigel said immediately.
I was slightly put off by the close proximity and leant back, "Okay…" I said hesitantly.
"Li," said Nigel quietly, "Er—I need a guy's advice,"
I bit back a snort of amusement.
"O-okay," I said, trying not to appear as though I wanted to laugh, "Why ask me?"
"Because you seem to handle Agnes better than most of the guys in the school, so…"
My smile dropped clear off my face, "For the love of Merlin, please tell me that you're not in love with Agnes!"
Judging by the repulsive face he made, I assumed not.
"Merlin, no!" he sputtered, "I mean Jo!"
"JO?" I shouted, but he clamped his hand over my mouth.
"Yes, Jo," he hissed, "And I wanted to know what you do that makes Agnes go after you like that,"
I made a horrified face, "I don't want her to go after me!"
"Well, yes, but how do you do it?"
I sputtered indigently, "I don't do anything!" And if I did, I would appreciate it if someone told me ASAP, "Just—just ask her out!" I said it as though it were obvious…which it rather was. But come on, did I look like the Love Doctor here?
Nigel groaned, "But I can't just ask her out!" he said, "I mean, how do I ask her if she wants to go get some food or something?"
I gave him a bewildered look, "Look, it's not that hard. I asked her sit with me at breakfast this morning,"
Which, evidently, was not the best thing to say because, as platonic and normal as eating breakfast with a friend may be, Nigel reacted rather…erratic. Like an erupting volcano is erratic.
"YOU DID WHAT?" he shouted, grabbing the front of my robes.
"As friends, you dimwit!" I wheezed, kicking my air born legs. "Like we always do!" Good gravy, possessive much?
"Oh," his face loosened, as did his grip on my robes and he let me drop, "Right, sorry. Lost myself for a second there," he chuckled nervously.
I matched his chuckling sarcastically, "You reckon so?" I rubbed my neck.
But he went right back to the problem at hand, "But I don't know what to say!" It was strange watching the normally passive and collective Nigel lose his cool over something so trivial. But then again, I never really realised how much courage a boy had to pluck up before asking out a girl.
Luckily, I would never be doomed to such a position.
We both suddenly heard voices drift out of the classroom I had just exited with James minutes before. I immediately recognised them to be dull tone of Professor Binns and—dun dun DUUN—Joanna Channon.
"Look, here she comes," I said, motioning to the girl who had just exited the classroom and was walking down the hallway, "Just say, 'Hey, want to get a bite to eat?' She'll say 'okay', strike up a conversation and voila, a date," Not hard, right? But you can always expect a simple-minded boy to blunder up a simple plan.
Nigel made a desperate look between the apple of his eye and me, "I…I can't," he whispered, "Could you do it for me?" he asked hopefully.
"I hope you're not serious," I said flatly.
He stayed silent and I groaned.
"Look, she hasn't gotten to far off yet," I said, motioning to the girl half way down the hall, "I'll go get her for yo—" I was suddenly pulled back behind the statue and hushed hurriedly by Nigel.
We stood in awkward silence as he waited for her to turn the corner and for the Professor to drift into his room.
"You just lost an opportunity to get her alone!" I scolded him. "Women travel in herds! There are little to few nomads!"
"I know, I know!" he groaned in frustration, "Quick, let's go find her again."
Two hours later and Jo was still nowhere near our radar. She must've taken an unknown passage after she turned that corner.
It wasn't until an hour before dinnertime when we made progress. We were just outside the library when I had peered inside.
"Look, there, I think I've spotted her," I whispered urgently, tugging at his sleeve.
"Where?" Nigel craned his neck.
"There," I pointed between the shelves, "Next to that short kid,"
"Which kid?"
"The short one!"
"There're two!"
"The one next to Jo!"
"The blonde or the brunette short kid?"
"THAT SHORT KID!" I snapped.
We both turned our heads at the sound of a startled cry to see The Short Kid running out the door and down the hall away from us.
"Great, now we've lost her," Nigel groaned.
"Why are you shouting?" said the usual dreamy voice of Joanna from behind.
We both jumped a foot in the air. Good grief, three months at this school and I think I had already lost three years off my life expectancy.
"All right, Li?" she said politely.
"Fine," Just another heart attack, no worries.
"Nigel?"
"Erhummerrum…."
Oh my giddy aunt, he was a lost cause.
"Nigel," she continued like she wasn't fazed at all, "I was wondering if you would you like to get a bite to eat with me down in the kitchens before dinner?"
"Eh..uh…ah…erherumm…"
"Say yes, you tit-head," I hissed. I was really beginning to think that I've been spending too much time with those Marauders. They're horrible on the vocabulary development but I think my insults have really progressed.
"YES!" he shouted out at last.
Good grief…I was surprised that Joanna didn't start running down the corridor with that kind of response she received.
Jo and I shared a knowing look that said: "Yeah, I knew he wouldn't get around to asking either,"
Boys.
With a sigh of relief, I watched a stunned Nigel be lead around the corner behind a rather slightly amused Joanna. Once they had left my sight completely, I allowed myself to chuckle and then gathered up my supplies to return to the Gryffindor tower.
Barely two steps into the common room, I heard Peter cry, "There he is!" and before I knew it, I was completely ambushed by my once-respected Quidditch captain.
"There's the man of the hour!" he said, pulling me underneath his armpit (which smelt like dung) and gave me an old fashioned noogie. What was I? Five?
My bags had been dropped by the entrance to the tower and I was being dragged back out by Sirius. Quite frankly I was not in the mood for his behaviour. I was tired, spent over two hours helping a love-sick Nigel ask out Joanna (which he failed miserably at), dinner was soon and I was hungry.
"Black, get your bloody paws off of me," I growled dangerously.
I don't know why he stopped his ranting to laugh at me, but it only aggravated me further. He had practically dragged me up a flight of stairs saying things like, "Merlin are you gonna be thanking us by the end of the night!" and "Our best work yet, I'd say,"
"Granted it's a bit of short notice but—"
I was practically digging my nails up his ribcage. Didn't he feel anything?
"So we had to clear the place a bit before we got everything set up—"
"Sirius, what are you talking about?" I managed to get out at last and realised that we had arrived at the astronomy tower.
"Our debt is about to be repaid, my dear chaser!" he declared, shoving me into a room. "Good luck, mate. Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" Sirius gave a mysterious wink and tapped his nose knowingly.
Huh…? I looked into the, what I had originally thought to be empty, Astronomy tower and felt my stomach fill with ice.
"Hi, Li!" chirped Agnes, ignoring my jaw dropping.
They had set me up on a date!
:-:
-:TBC:-
A/N:
Ooh, :cringes: bad idea on the Marauder's part, eh?
Lily, Lily, Lily...you just seem to keep digging yourself deeper and deeper. *hands Lily shovel* Keep my readers entertained! Aren't you all surprised by how quickly I updated!? I bet at least half of you had to double check and see if your eyes weren't deceiving you. (Which is not necessarily a good thing in the eyes of an author…)
And I really couldn't help bringing Tonks in like that XD I can only imagine what she was like as a child. Must've given her mother hell.
It seems like half of the story takes place in Hogsmead more than it does in Hogwarts…hmm…Anyways, Chapter ten is well underway and I'm hoping to be at Chapter Thirteen by the end of the year so0o0o send my your reviews and help motivate me!
Lil Enchantress: Shucks, your reviews make me feel guilty…But there are much better L/J fics out there. "Obsessive Lily Disorder", "A Walk in Your Shoes", "Kissing the Enemy", and "Absolute Shocker" are among some of the best. I personally suggest my British bum-chum Cath, Procrastinatorstarting-2moro, and all of her fics. She's the queen of comedy; I swear on my entire stock of French chocolate she'll make you laugh out loud.
Chapter Ten:
"Trouble With Charlie"
90 percent finished
12 pages
Due: 13/15 December
Involves:
Another Lily/Snape confrontation
The Ravenclaw/Slytherin Quidditch match
France
The name Evangelista
And the types of situations French Chocolate can get you in
