Happy New Year everybody! It's 2019!
Hope you enjoy!
Lily looked up, hearing her name and her red hair swiveled as she searched for the speaker.
"Evans!" Sirius Black stood at the door, books in one hand and grinning. He'd taken his black outer robes off and slung them over his shoulder casually. His stark white shirt contrasted his dark hair wonderfully.
"Allow me." Surprisingly, he opened the gigantic door with a wave of his wand.
Lily approached with a quizzical look. "Hi, Black." Since when did he approach her without his drooling sidekick?
"Such formalities?" he asked, sweeping her out into the tepid April air. "Really, it's been three years, now, you can call me Sirius." They started on the path that wrapped around to the side of school.
"What's up . . . Sirius?" Lily tried - it was hard maintaining a stoic face.
"Just thought we two Gryffindors could take a stroll down to class together."
"Ooo-kay . . ." She still wasn't sure where he was going with this. "And?"
"Look at today," he opened his arms to the forest and the beautiful sunshine. "Makes you think about skipping, eh?"
"I guess. I mean I heard from the Hufflepuffs that Care of Magical Creatures is supposed to be a real snooze today . . ."
The Groundskeeper had lent Kettleburn his immensely boring flobberworms for the week. (There wasn't a huge amount to know about flobberworms.)
Just then a giggling Mary McDonald and a furiously blushing Raven came into view as they rounded the corner of the castle. Lily wondered what was going on, but she did not want to be rude and leave Black's side.
"Oh really?" Sirius seemed to peak at the news of a boring lesson. "Well, have you ever ditched a class, Evans?"
"As a matter of fact I have," Lily said coolly. Her eyes gleaming dangerously. "It was when your mate nearly killed my best friend."
"Mhm, unfortunate that."
"Unfortunate!?" But from the courtyard to their left Potter and the others emerged. Two second year girls were discreetly trying to follow them, and Potter, taking the obvious advantage, made a show of stretching his arms.
Her red hot anger went unnoticed as Sirius was no longer paying attention to her once he spotted Potter.
Glancing about quickly, he said, " - Oi! Aren't those you're mates over there? Rona?"
"Raven."
"Same thing. Catch you later Evans!" He sprinted off.
Lily stared at his back, both furious and dumbfounded. "What in the . . ."
Another quip from Mary and a string of giggles made Lily leave her question and join them.
"What'd I miss this time?" she asked. Knowing Mary, she would have news to share.
"Not sure if you'd want to hear Lils," Mary gave her a sly look that Lily didn't much like.
"Why? What is it?" Lily asked warily.
"Ohhh," Raven moaned, "Hush Mary." She dipped her head to let her long black curls hide her face.
"C'mon Rave, it's just Lily," Mary pressed. "She's bound to find out sooner or later. Especially with you turning red every time he comes 'round," she teased.
This made Raven blush ever more. "Oh all right," came a mumble behind the curtain of lush hair along with something that sounded like, "shouldn't have told you…"
"Well go on then," Lily coaxed Mary, still wary but beginning to get an idea of what it was about.
"Well, Raven has a crush."
"Oh? Why wouldn't I -"
"On James Potter."
Lily halted and turned to her friend, hand on hip. "Really, Rave? What could you possibly see in him?" She asked, thinking that there was no way the affection was genuine.
Raven looked away. "I, well . . . you know. He's got that smile . . . a-and that hair . . ."
Lily deadpanned her. If that was all . . .
"Oh come off it Lily," Mary nudged her forcefully and resuming their pace, "leave the girl alone."
That's rich, Lily thought, considering the way Mary would dangle information over people until they begged her to share. "Just 'cause you're resistant to him, doesn't mean the rest of us are."
Lily looked to Mary in surprise. "Rest of us? What do you mean 'rest of us?'" She'd heard of people doting over Sirius - that was nothing new - but James Potter?
Mary's freckles were more prominent in the sun as they emerged from the shadow of the castle. She raised a dubious brow. "A lot of people have started to talk about him ever since he made the Quidditch team. He's really good - Not that you'd know, 'cause, you know, you never go to the games."
Lily wrinkled her nose. "But he's a bully." Did people really forget meanness so quickly?
"I even heard some fifth years talking about him in the bathroom. Fifth years! I mean where have you been?"
"Not grappling over James Potter," Lily promised. She shot a glance at the Marauders' backs.
Mary rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically.
"Why would anyone 'grapple' over Potter?" Alice asked. She smacked her lips as if the word tasted bad. Lily agreed wholeheartedly, nodding. She was glad at least one of her roommates saw what a toerag he was.
Mary looked at Alice like she was playing dumb.
"Gee, I don't know. Plays a mean round of Quidditch, is a total daredevil, looks pretty good, doesn't care about what anyone thinks, and is a huge flirt!"
Raven's eyes widened and nodded on her every word.
Lily looked between the two as if uncertain she believed them. "Yeah, but . . . but he's James Potter. I mean he's – he's a jerk!" she burst out. Her eyes widened. "No offense, Raven."
Raven shrugged, acknowledging she was hopelessly lost.
Mary grinned wickedly and wiggled her eyebrows. "What girl doesn't like a bit of a rebel?"
"He's insufferable!" Lily burst. "He thinks jinxing others will make people like him and that he's 'too cool' to do any actual schoolwork because he's smart enough to know it all. And! Let's be honest - he doesn't care about anyone other than his little group of friends. How can you really like someone like that?"
Mary shrugged. "Why not? We all have our flaws."
"But you don't even like him," Lily pointed out. "You starting going on about Marco de Amore last week."
"Sure," Mary shrugged in acknowledgement, "But Marco is unattainable. He's up there with Julius, Jasmine, and Blatazar. The lot of them are above the regular social standards of us 'mere mortals,'" she said dramatically. It was a tight-knit group she was talking about; highly intelligent, wealthy, and radiating nobility, the group was primarily Ravenclaw with one Slytherin (Jay P. Baltazar) mixed in. It was rather known they didn't converse very much with others.
"Well . . . even still," Lily said. "I always imagined myself . . . I don't know, with someone gentlemanly. Romantic. Potter even looks like a rascal."
Mary waggled her eyebrows. "And all the better for it." Raven looked at Mary, blushing all the more, showing she agreed.
Ignoring the exchange, Lily hmmmed in disagreement.
Thinking of her future, she said, "I think I'd prefer someone who cares. Who really makes an effort to be romantic, y'know? Someone daring, but clever. Who really stood up for what they believed in."
They had almost reached Hagrid's hut now, but Mary stopped short and looked Lily squarely in the eyes. "What do you call the frost-tipped lilies he sent you on your birthday?"
Lily shifted uncomfortably. "Weren't we talking about Raven's crush?"
Mary gave a look that signified she wasn't going to drop the topic. Alice was looking to the side, bored.
"Well we never found out if it was him," Lily said stiffly. "And besides - they landed on my head. Definitely not romantic."
"And that wouldn't be something he would do?" Mary said. "Besides, we all saw that smirk he gave you afterwards."
"It's true," Raven piped.
"Oh," Lily waved the comment away. "We all know Potter was just messing with me. He does stuff like that all the time."
Mary's eyebrows practically disappeared into her hairline. "Well isn't the luck in the world rotten," she said dryly. "One of the blind few is one he's besotted with."
Lily gave her a dubious look. "Hardly," she said. She thought it might be a lie, though.
Mary linked arms with Alice and pulled her ahead of the group.
"It's true, you know," Raven glumly said. She hoisted the bag on her shoulder.
Lily looked at Raven with alarm. She hadn't even thought about how Raven was taking this turn in the conversation, about James like Lily when she finally admitted a crush. "Rave . . ."
Raven smiled, shaking her head to signify that it was okay. Lily was saw there was no resentment in her eyes and was relieved.
They continued to close the distance to Hagrid's and Mary fairly skipped, calling over her shoulder, "All the rest of us can only hope that one day, his little crush on you will just . . . disappear. Then maybe one of us will have a chance."
Lily sighed, exasperated, and ran her hand over the strap on her bag.
"Come on, Rave," she sighed, "Professor Kettleburn is waiting."
Twenty minutes later, Lily sighed during the indeed boring flobberworm lecture and started looking around. She chewed her lip, mind drifting and caught someone staring at her. He tore his gaze away from her lips and a turned a soft shade of pink.
Potter? Embarrassed?
Lily wanted to make sure he knew that she knew that he was watching her, so she made a face. James started, not having realized he'd been caught, and winked in reply. Lily rolled her eyes and turned back to the front. For the rest of Kettleburn's lesson, Lily could feel Potter's eyes burning holes in the back of her. The lesson was totally lost on her as she could only feel his presence. From the glimpses she caught he seemed deep in thought. Confused and . . . almost troubled? At one point he turned a nasty shade of green. Honestly, he looked awful.
Class ended and Mary and Raven headed in the direction of the greenhouses to ask Professor Sprout a question about their homework. Lily made an excuse to Alice to go ahead. She packed her bag slowly and than when the boys exited hurried to follow. She lulled behind the two Marauders of interest, barely close enough to hear so she wouldn't be suspected of eavesdropping.
Unfortunately for her, this proved out of her favor, catching only snatches of their conversation as they trudged up the hill. Potter kept running a frustrated hand through his hair.
". . . telling you Sirius, I don't know what to do . . . Can't bloody concentrate. . . s'getting worse . . . don't think it's just temporary this time . . . Three years, so it can't be . . . and . . . doesn't even notice . . . thinks I'm not serious . . . What if you and Remus were wrong . . . and . . . stay that way . . . forever?"
What?
Lily's mind raced a thousand thoughts a second, racking her brain as she trudged up the hill.
By now she was struggling to keep up as they mounted the hill, weighed down by her book bag. Stupid boys and their long legs, she silently cursed. She took a few sprints forward so she could tune back into their conversation, closer this time. When she joined them discreetly, Sirius was speaking.
"Look James, with your head in the clouds, you may not have realized that . . . er, you're not exactly the only person who's noticed."
From her side angle, Lily could just make out the sharp look Potter gave Black.
Again, she started to lag behind and tried to catch up. Unfortunately they were in the steeper part of the hill, nearing the castle. The two Gryffindors strutted towards the doors and Lily began panting with effort. She started losing bits of their discussion again.
"Who?" Potter asked with a steely voice of determination. "Who else's noticed? I practically . . ."
Sirius shifted uncomfortably and avoided looking in is best friend's direction. "-well," he said, ". . . s'not like . . . exactly spoken for . . . I-I'm just saying mate . . . People, people are turning their heads . . . Spirited personality an' all . . ."
"Who Sirius?" Potter had never looked so serious. "I want names. Now."
My, my, Potter is certainly getting defensive. Lily was dying to know what about. They were turning into the corridor now, and it wouldn't be long until other students separated Lily from the boys.
"Well . . ." Hesitating, Sirius finally gave Potter a pained look, and some sort of recognition dawned on his friend.
James stopped short and gaped open-mouthed at Black with a look of betrayal written on his face. Sirius turned away with the same pained expression.
"Sirius, how could you? You know. You know what she means to me!"
She?
"Look, James, I'm sorry, alright? But I - I can't help it, mate - I mean - you know what it's like! I-I'm sure we can work som-"
Potter didn't bother waiting for him to finish. He turned around and walked on, leaving Sirius looking guilty behind.
What was going on? Lily had a sinking feeling she might know what.