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Sorry this took a while, but here you go.
CHAPTER 10 'Lily's Plan'
"Hey, James, are you alright?" Remus was sitting next to James. He was lying in a bed in the Hospital Wing. Several bottles of Blood-Replenishing potion stood on the bedside table.
"Yeah, I'm fine," James said.
Remus shifted his weight in the hard wooden chair, trying to get comfortable.
"How's Sirius? He didn't go after Snape, did he?" James asked worriedly.
"No...he's pretty upset though, about you getting hurt."
"Well, he should be, he's an idiot. I told him to stop."
Remus looked at James. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course, Moony." James frowned.
"Not that I mind, but why are you of a sudden trying to be nice to Snape?"
James shrugged. "I just...I think it's time to grow up and stop doing all these stupid pranks."
"Are you afraid of what Snape said in Potions?"
"No!" James said heatedly. "I'm not afraid, I just realized that all this stuff I've been doing to Snape, yeah it seemed funny at the time, but it is that funny when Snape hates me so much, he hopes that I die?"
Remus stared at the bedspread and let James talk.
"I don't know. I just can't believe how stupid and arrogant I've been. Sirius and Peter, too. You're the only sensible one around here, Moony. You're always telling us to tone it down, and we never listened. I'm sorry."
"Don't worry about it, James. It's just something you had to realize on your own." Remus said.
"I guess. But maybe part of it was your voice, stuck in the back of my head, telling me to stop."
"Yeah, now we just have to convince Peter and Sirius." Remus winked.
"Hi, James!" Lily was suddenly there, and James smiled at her.
"Hi, Remus," Lily gave Remus a hug, then looked around for another chair.
"You can have mine, Lily, I have to go anyway. Homework, you know." Remus smiled. "Sirius will probably be in later. Make him feel as guilty as you can, James, and maybe he'll snap out of it."
Remus waved, and left. Lily took Remus' spot besides James.
"So, how are you feeling?" Lily asked in a concerned voice.
"I'm alright," James replied. "Physically, I mean. Mentally, I'm feeling a little betrayed at the moment. After I told Sirius to leave Snape alone, he went behind my back and played a prank anyway."
Lily frowned, contemplating what James had said. "You know, I've been meaning to ask, James...why are you all of a sudden concerned with Severus' wellbeing? You never cared before, no matter how many times I asked you to stop."
"I just...I think it's time to grow up, and stop all the nonsense." James said. "I thought you would be happy about it, at least, as you're always telling me to lay off Snape."
"I am, but..you're just so different lately."
"What do you mean?" James asked, although he knew exactly what she meant.
"Your personality is totally different. You don't make jokes anymore, you rarely laugh. You're more into lessons and homework. And just other little things."
"I thought you wanted me to change. In your own words, 'It's time to become a mature adult, James'. Remember? it was just last week after I started that food fight and you got hit in the face with that treacle tart."
"Yes, I wanted you to change, but totally!" Lily cried."Maybe stop playing so many pranks, and leave Severus alone, but not a complete personality change!"
James sighed. "I'm sorry I'm not living up to your expectations, Lily. If that's the way you feel, maybe we shouldn't be together." he was tired of his friends getting mad at him for being more mature.
Lily reached out, and grabbed James' hand.
"I didn't mean it like that," she said softly. 'It's just.. I miss the old James. Very much. The talking, joking, laughing James. I like him much better then this new, quiet, sober James."
James was quiet, feeling Lily's soft, warm hand inside his. He loved Lily more then anything, and maybe that's part of the reason he changed, but the thing that spiked his behavior change was Snape's words. After that, it seemed like Lily's voice, Remus' voice, to cool down, to lay off Snape, pierced through his mind instead of going in one ear and out the other like they normally did. James put his free hand on Lily's cheek, and admired her green eyes and red hair as he stared into her face.
"I'm sorry if you don't like it, but this is who I am now." James smiled sadly. "I don't feel like playing pranks anymore, especially after what happened with Snape and sectumsempra. Although I did deserve it, after everything we've done. I'm surprised he didn't break sooner."
"You didn't deserve that James," Lily said. "You're really a good person"
"I'm really not a good person." James contradicted "If you saw the way Snape looked at me, the hate in his eyes..."
"You were horrible to him," Lily agreed.
"The jokes seemed so funny at the time, but now... " James sighed again.
"How about .." Lily started, a smile on her face. "If you play one more joke before you hang up the towel? So I can get a taste of the old James again?"
"On who?" James asked, surprised that Lily was actually egging him on to play a prank.
"How about Sirius?" Lily suggested. "Since you specifically asked him not to do something and he did it anyway."
"I think Sirius is dealing with enough right now," James said. He couldn't imagine how his best mate felt right now. He was probably so guilty. James hoped he wouldn't do anything stupid to get back at Snape.
"How about we play it on the whole school?" Lily said, suddenly coming up with a brilliant idea.
"What are you going on about?" James said, sitting up now, slightly interested.
"I'll help you play a prank on everyone. A harmless one, very old school."
"What is it?" James asked warily.
"We can go into the kitchens, and switch the salt with the sugar."
James stared at Lily "That's actually a pretty good idea. I can't believe I never thought of it."
"So, you want to do it?"
"What do I get in return?" James said playfully.
"How about more of this?" Lily said, and kissed him on the lips.
"I get that anyway," James said once him and Lily broke apart.
"But if you agree... you can kiss me all you want, anytime."
"I guess thats fair," James said, and pulled Lily down on the bed next to him.
"What are you doing?" Lily laughed.
"I'm kissing you. You said anytime," James kissed her, but had to turn away because he was laughing so much.
"Whats the matter?" Lily asked.
"I don't know. I don't know why I'm laughing." James said.
Madam Pomfrey suddenly came over, noticing the laughter. "What exactly are you doing in Mr. Potter's bed, Miss Evans?" she asked sternly.
"Nothing, just trying to help him 'get well soon,'" Lily said innocently.
James tried to stifle a laugh, but he couldn't hold it in.
"May I ask you to leave, Miss Evans? You are getting my patient all riled up." Madam Pomfrey said, clearly annoyed.
"She sure is," James agreed as Lily hopped off the bed.
"I'll see you later, James" Lily winked. "Don't forget what I said!" Lily skipped out the door, waving behind her.
Madam Pomfrey tutted, then turned to James. "You should be well enough to leave tonight, Mr. Potter, if you take two more doses of the Blood-Replenishing potion. The wound is pretty much healed up, it's just your blood loss I'm concerned about..."
James nodded; he wanted to get out of here as soon as possible. Lily had filled him with the desire to prank again.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Later on, Sirius visited James, looking very guilty.
"So are you feeling better?" he asked, not meeting James' eyes.
"Yes, mostly," James said.
"Listen, I'm really sorry," Sirius blurted out, plopping onto a chair. "I was so stupid, not listening to you. I can't believe Snape cursed you."
"Don't worry, we all do stupid things," James said. "Some more then others."
Sirius managed a small smile. "Are you calling me stupid, Prongs?"
"Yes. Next time, listen to me, instead of doing the opposite of what I say, and everything will work out."
"You're going to be okay, though, right?" Sirius said with a worried expression replacing the smile. "No lasting damage?"
"No, I'm going to be fine. I'll be out tonight, in fact."
"So.." Sirius started, but it seemed as if he were afraid to continue.
"What?" James prodded, feeling like he knew what was coming.
"Well, does this mean no more pranks, ever? Cause I don't know if I can live with that." Sirius said.
"Maybe we can pull a prank every now and then, but lay off Snape, okay? It bothers Lily."
Sirius looked enormously relieved. "Great, I thought you were going to stay the same boring James forever!"
"Boring?" James questioned, but Sirius ignored him.
"So what's the next prank?" Sirius asked eagerly.
James gave him an exasperated look. "Sirius, are you being serious? I'm here laying injured in bed, due to a prank you pulled, and all you're thinking about is my next prank? Are you obsessed, or what?"
"Sorry," Sirius said, looking guilty again.
"I'm just kidding," James rolled his eyes, and punched Sirius. "I'll see you later, Padfoot. You better go before old Madam PomPom comes back."
"All right, see you later then." Sirius said, getting up.
"And don't feel too bad, Sirius," James said. "I've had worse happen to me."
Sirius nodded before leaving, trying to let James words sink in, but was unable to get rid of the heaviness of guilt that covered him like a thick quilt.
James felt bad seeing Sirius so guilty, but really, he should be feeling guilty. But it really didn't matter because he would heal up fine.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
James entered the common room that night finding it empty except for his Marauders and Lily.
"We didn't go to dinner because we figured you would just come back to your dorm after you left the hospital wing," Lily explained, then pulled him into a kiss.
The other three boys looked away pointedly, until Peter cleared his throat and said "So when can we go after Snivellus?"
James stared at him. "We're not 'going after' anyone."
"Why not?" Peter whined. "We have to get back at him for what he did."
James suddenly pulled away from Lily and grabbed Peter's collar. Peter squeaked. "We were the ones that started ALL of this, when we first started taunting Snape. If I were Snape, I would have gotten back much sooner then this. So leave him alone!"
Lily looked at James admiringly, and Remus had a small smile on his face, but Sirius was staring at the carpet, brooding.
"But he's a filthy Death Eater! He's worthless, he's just a greasy-haired..."
James hit Peter, not hard enough to draw blood or break a nose, but just hard enough so Peter understood that James was serious.
"Hey... James, calm down." Remus slipped between his two friends. "Peter gets it..don't you?"
Peter nodded quietly, rubbing his face, and there were tears shining in his eyes.
James sat down in one of the nearby chairs, and put his head in his hands for a minute. He looked back up at Peter. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have done that. It's just..you guys aren't listening to me. I know you don't like how I've been acting lately, but after Snape said what he said to me in Potions, it kind of opened my eyes to what we were doing. I saw how horrible it was when everyone was kicking Snape in the corridor, and I realized that theses aren't harmless pranks anymore, it's not even emotional hurt. It's actual physical hurt. And I don't want to be remembered for that when I leave Hogwarts; the guy who abused Snape."
The others were listening quietly to James, watching him.
"I'm going to bed. You all should go eat some dinner. I'll be fine here. Just remember what I said, and lay off Snape. No more pranks that are going to cause harm or pain." James stood, and headed up the stairs to his dormitory.
The others stared after him, following him with their eyes, and Peter sniffled. After a moment's hesitation, Lily followed James up the dark stairwell.
"Uh, Lily, where are you going? That's the boys' dorm," Remus called after her.
"Don't get your undies in a bunch, Remus, I'll be right back," Lily responded.
James was lying on his four-poster, staring at the ceiling. He looked up when Lily entered, and said, "Lily you're not supposed to be in here."
"I wanted to talk to you." Lily sat beside James, and he sat up. "You shouldn't have hit Peter."
"You think I don't know that?"
"But I know that you wanted to get your point across, and you probably did. I just feel bad for poor Peter."
"I didn't hit him that hard," James said, trying to defend himself.
"Whatever," Lily said, nudging closer to James. "But I really wanted to ask you about the prank. When do you want to pull it?"
"Uh, I haven't even thought about it," James said, very much aware of Lily's warm body next to his.
"How about we do it tomorrow?" Lily asked.
"That's fine," James still couldn't believe that Lily wanted to play a prank.
"This is kind of romantic... sneaking around together, playing a prank... like spys."
"If you say so, Lily."
"I do." Lily kissed James deeply, enjoying the tingling sensation coursing through her body.
There was a sharp knock on the door, then Remus' voice. "Uh, well I don't want to interrupt anything, but as a prefect.. I have to make sure there's no ...ahh... nothing... going on in the dorm rooms."
James sighed. "There's nothing going on, Moony, now go to dinner."
"Well, we were going to wait for Lily.."
Lily sat up, and got off the bed.
"Don't leave," James pleaded. Her presence was comforting to him.
"If I don't, he's going to be out there whining about rules, and you'll never get any peace. I'll see you later." Lily kissed James quickly again. "Besides," she said loudly. "Remus is just jealous because he doesn't have a girl he can kiss."
Lily opened the door and Remus was standing there, looking uncomfortable. James heard him say,"That's not true! I'm not jealous! I'm just trying to do my duty as a prefect."
Lily winked at James, and closed the door behind her.
James sank back into the soft blankets. He was actually pretty excited about the prank tomorrow, and the fact that he was going to be doing it with Lily.
Please review! The prank will come next chapter! Hope you guys aren't too mad that you waited this long for no prank! But I promise, it will be in the next chapter!
Dementors