Again, I'm really sorry for putting a chapter between the two, but I really had to do it! :(
So anyway, hope this chapter's good enough.
Lily was writing in her diary. It was the Saturday after the full moon incident, and James had acted very cold towards her for the past five days. He had never acted like that towards her before, and she was so guilty about it that she felt like jumping into the Black Lake. Who cared if a Giant Squid lived there? All the better, really. She deserved to be splattered with ink.
She couldn't say that she wasn't angry at James either, but knew that he had a point. She tried to imagine how she would have acted in that situation: if someone snooped through your things and then yelled at you. Boy, she would have lost it, that's for sure. Then why was she so angry at James? He deserved to act that way towards her, but what he had done wasn't forgivable either. She actually threatened to tell Dumbledore about it, but dropped it as soon as she considered James' side of the situation. She trusted him enough to work this out for himself.
She tried not to think of the moment, but it kept on coming back to her. Every single sentence was permanently etched in her mind, as much as she tried to get rid of it. Every second, as sharp as a crystal, appeared before her eyes when she closed them; in class, in the corridors, her schoolwork was suffering considerably. Everyone tried to figure out what was wrong with her; Lily Evans never got a 'D' on a homework assignment before. Even the teachers were worried. She hadn't told Hestia, she hadn't told anyone. This, she needed to keep to herself.
She slammed the diary shut and groaned through her fingers. Why was it so hard to forget?
"JAMES POTTER!" Lily mimicked Evie's words, stomping down the stairs and glaring at him, as soon as she had recovered from her shock. He spun around, and was speechless, for a second.
"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT?" she screamed, losing her mind completely. He just stared at her, unable to take in the whole situation.
"Was what?" he began feebly. He didn't know what to say. She saw him come out from under the cloak. Saw him look as if he had been grinded to a pulp. What was she going to think? That he had disappeared in the middle of the night, without even telling her, appearing with an Invisibility Cloak wrapped around him and blood streaming all down his face? Good Lord, it sounded ridiculous even in his head.
"THAT!" she walked up to him and snatched the cloak. "WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"
"About what?" he asked, bewildered. There was absolutely no way she could know about Remus. Then what did she mean?
"HOW COULD YOU?" she screeched in his face, throwing the cloak across the room. He closed his eyes defensively. "YOU KNOW HOW DANGEROUS THAT IS! YOU AND PETER AND SIRIUS! HOW COULD YOU GO OFF WITH REMUS, WHEN HE'S IN THAT STATE? IT'S INEXCUSABLE! DUMBLEDORE SHOULD KNOW-"
"Wait, you know?" he asked, realizing what she had said and opening his eyes. He narrowed them at her. "How do you know?"
"NEVER MIND HOW I KNOW! I'M SMART, OKAY? I FIGURE THINGS OUT! AND YOU KNOW, EVIE'S RIGHT!" she yelled, without thinking. "YOU COULD GET BITTEN! THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING YOU COULD SAY-"
"Hey, you looked through my mail?" he asked incredulously. "But- that's- confidential!" he spluttered, oblivious to the uncrontollable anger flooding his heart.
"WHAT DID YOU SAY TO HER?" she ignored him. When she was angry, nothing could stand in her way. "SHE WAS JUST LOOKING OUT FOR YOU! YOU CAN'T BREAK RULES LIKE THAT, POTTER! AND IT'S NOT JUST FOR THE SCHOOL, BUT THE MINISTRY TOO!"
"TO HELL WITH THE MINISTRY!" he bellowed. He couldn't control that anger which he tried hard to suppress. He saw Lily cower a bit, and felt guilt clouding him. But his mind couldn't agree to that, all that existed inside him was just anger now. "TO HELL WITH THE RULES, THEY DON'T MATTER HERE!"
"RULES MATTER EVERYWHERE, POTTER!" Lily got hold of herself. For a second, she was shocked at James' sudden outburst, but then she still had to prove her point, right?
"NOT HERE! HERE, THEY DON'T! HERE, IT'S JUST A PERSON GOING THROUGH A LOT OF PAIN, WITH ONLY HIS FRIENDS TO HELP HIM! MAYBE YOU DON'T GET THAT, BUT THIS IS MY CHOICE, OKAY? IT'S MY PROBLEM, NOT YOURS!"
"LIKE HELL IT'S NOT MY PROBLEM! I'M GOING TO TELL DUMBLEDORE, HE NEEDS TO KNOW, AND THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO ABOUT IT!"
"OH, COULD YOU STOP TATTLETALING, FOR ONCE?" James yelled exasperatedly. "SINCE WHEN HAS THIS BEEN ANY OF YOUR BUSINESS? IF WE'RE READY TO TAKE THE RISK, THEN JUST LET US!"
"I'M MAKING IT MY BUSINESS!" Lily screamed. Why couldn't James just listen to her? He was making her so frustrated. "AND, SPEAKING OF BUSINESS, SINCE WHEN HAS IT BEEN ANY OF YOURS TO KEEP A PICTURE OF ME?"
For a second, they both just stood there. James looked at her with wide eyes, and she took in what she had just said. Merlin. What would he think?
"You- you-" he stammered. "How do you-"
"Does it matter how I know?" she asked. They had stopped yelling now.
"Yeah, it does," he said angrily. "What have you been doing all night, reading my letters and searching my trunk? Since when have you become like the queen of the castle or something, that you have all the right to look at other people's things?"
"It's not like that!"
"It's exactly like that!" he pulled at his hair in frustration. He was completely aware of the blood that was staining his robes, but could feel no pain anymore. How could she? And they were just beginning to become friends. Just because they were living together didn't mean that she was allowed to do whatever she wanted. "You know what? Do whatever you want. It's all your business now, I don't care if you tell Dumbledore. Go ahead, I don't care."
Lily was speechless. She watched as James walked over to the sofa, retrieved his cloak, and walked up his stairwell without a word.
"JAMES POTTER, DON'T YOU WALK AWAY FROM ME!" she yelled, but he ignored her. She watched as his feet disappeared over the stairs, and just stood there, breaking the silence only by her heavy breathing.
She glanced at her watch. Quidditch tryouts were in an hour. She had always been a fan of Quidditch, but had never told James because he was such a big show-off for it. But this time, she was going to sit in the stands in a place where he could see her clearly. She owed him that, to let him know that she had always been watching him play.
She got up from her bed and walked downstairs slowly. James was in his bedroom with the rest of the Marauders. She was thankful for this, because she didn't want to be given the chance to be within ten feet of him. It was really painful, for some reason.
She walked all the way to the Great Hall, begging that Hestia would be waiting for her. She was found walking around alone a lot, lately.
"Lily-Petal!" Hestia shrieked, throwing her arms around her. "Where have you been? You're always leaving me alone with him," she directed her thumb over her shoulder. Lily moved her head and saw Amos Diggory standing with all his fangirls around him. She laughed. "He's horrible! Honestly, I know why you can't stand him, he's such a big fat flirt,"
"Tell me about it," Lily chuckled.
"Come on, Petal, to the Quidditch field it is," Hestia threw her arm around Lily's shoulder and forcefully dragged her over to the entrance. "We need to find a good seat, remember? Because you 'can't risk that Potter boy finding out that you're in love with Quidditch',"
"Actually, what the heck, right?" Lily shrugged as they stepped out of the castle. "Let him find out, who cares,"
"Really?" Hestia raised her eyebrows at her. "Is there something you want to tell me or-"
"No, nothing," Lily lied. "Everything's fine, I just don't feel like hiding it anymore,"
"Lily!" Hestia said incredulously.
"What?"
"If you really expect me to believe that, then you must be a dunce, dunce," she rolled her eyes. "I know it has something to do with you living with him,"
"I do not live with him!" Lily said firmly, and Hestia sniggered. She always did that when she mentioned them living together.
"Whatever you say, Petal," Hestia waved it off, and Lily huffed. "So are you going to tell me?"
"Well, to be blunt, we both kind of yelled at each other," Lily confessed. "And now he's angry at me."
"It's funny," Hestia said, staring into space. "Now he's angry at you and you're trying to get his attention,"
"I'm not trying to get his attention!"
"Again, whatever you say,"
"What do you think I should do?" Lily asked.
"I don't know!" Hestia laughed. "Just… roll with it, I guess. What are you going to do? He'll probably realize that he can't live without you, or that you're his everything, and that if he's angry at you then there's no chance-" she erupted in a fit of giggles as Lily smacked the back of her head.
Maybe Hestia was right… she would just have to 'roll with it'. What could she do, anyway? Other than flirt with him and make him realize how much he needed her. Ha! As if she would ever do that.
"Shut up," she laughed. "But I guess you have a point…"
"Look!" Hestia pointed to the stands. "How about over there? That way we'll be in front of his eyes at all times."
"I don't want to be in front of his eyes at all times!" Lily said exasperatedly. "I just… want him to know that I don't hate Quidditch as much as he thinks I do,"
"Oh, shut up, come with me," Hestia silenced her and pulled her across the field. Lily sighed. There was really no arguing with Hestia.
"Ah, fine," she said. They climbed the steps and seated themselves right in front of the hoops.
"There!" Hestia collapsed on a seat. "Perfect, we're in clear view."
"Yeah, perfect," Lily rolled her eyes.
"Oh, stop being such a drag, Lily," Hestia pulled her down next to her. "Lighten up a bit!"
"I wish," Lily snorted, staring out into the field. No one had really arrived yet, and she was tapping her foot to the floor in impatience. Couldn't they hurry up a bit?
The Marauders were in James' bedroom, an hour before the tryouts begun. All of them were quite depressed, for some reason.
"It's Gloomsville in here," James sighed.
"Tell me about it," Remus buried his face in his hands. "Why did Gregory have to steal my chocolates?"
"You're sad because some idiot stole your chocolates?" Sirius asked incredulously. "Really? Some of us have more important issues, Moony, if you could be kind enough to stop whining about your chocolates!" he emphasized the last word with a snort.
"Like being sad over McGonagall turning you down for the thousandth time is worth it, Padfoot?" Remus rolled his eyes.
"But… how could she?" Sirius sniffled. "I thought she loved roses… she told me so last year… and she just th- threw them away!" Sirius broke down in fake tears and Remus smacked him upright.
"Stop it, James looks like he's actually about to cry, no triggering it with your fake nonsense, Padfoot!"
"Oh, he's just upset over McGonagall giving him a 'D' in his assignment," Sirius waved it off.
"I yelled at Lily," James said quietly. 'Real bad. Now I think she's never going to talk to me again,"
"You what?" Remus said, surprised.
"Good on you, mate," Sirius said encouragingly. "She really had that coming to her. Really, I wonder how you held it in for all these years. That's it, Prongs, let it all out…" he yelped with pain as Remus jabbed him sharply in the stomach.
"I know she knew my secret, James… that's all okay with me… but you never told us you yelled at her!"
"Yeah, well," James shrugged. "She read Evie's letter and found my picture of her…"
"Ouch," Sirius grimaced.
"I know, right?" James sighed.
"No I mean… ouch, that hurt, Moony!" Sirius jabbed Remus back in the stomach. "You ruined my precious- OW!" he yelled, earning another one from Remus, who was massaging his stomach gently.
"Shut up, Sirius," he hushed. "Let him talk."
James sighed. He couldn't tell anything to his friends anymore. Or, more accurately, he couldn't tell anything to Sirius anymore, he just took things too lightly. Nonetheless, he went on.
"She knows about what we do on full moon nights…" he continued. "I don't think I can do it anymore,"
"Why not?" Sirius questioned, poking Remus back in the stomach. "I mean, she hasn't told anyone this whole week, right? You're safe, Prongs… she wouldn't do that to you."
"He's right, you know," Remus said, jabbing Sirius back. "I mean, I can't say I approve of it myself, but… she's not going to tell anyone anytime soon, James. I think she's trying hard to get- aaah!" James looked at him with a raised eyebrow and Remus tried to extend his sudden outburst of pain into a word. "Aah- on your good side, I've been watching her," he looked distastefully at Sirius, who was shaking in silent sniggers.
"Okay," James stood up. "But I'm still angry at her." Remus just shook his head.
"Fine, come on, you'll be late for Quidditch." He said. James walked on ahead of them and Remus and Sirius had their silent poking fight, trying hard not to yelp in pain as James jabbered on about 'What am I going to do?' or 'I don't think I can do this,' or 'I hope she doesn't hate me,'.
They walked all the way over to the Quidditch pitch in silence, occasionally nodding or saying 'of course,' or 'it's not your fault' at James' complaints, continuing to jab each other painfully, going unnoticed by James.
"Wow! That's a lot of people," James exclaimed, widening his eyes at the enormous crowd of people who had turned up for the tryouts.
"They're mostly girls, or didn't you notice?" Remus rolled his eyes, trying hard to keep a steady voice, which was practically impossible, seeing as Sirius was seizing his chance to retaliate on Remus' stomach.
"No, look, there are a couple of guys over there," James pointed.
"They must be gay, then," Sirius snorted.
"Ha ha, really funny," James said.
"Who says with you?" Sirius grinned, and James looked at him disgustedly. Remus and Sirius both withdrew their hands as soon as James turned around and tried to act as if they were carefully observing the yellowing grass or the fluffy clouds. Sirius actually whistled, and pretended to fix a nonexistent tie, ruining the effect completely.
"Okay, what is wrong with you two?" James narrowed his eyes. Remus and Sirius immediately broke into a list of excuses, and James was finding it hard to listen to one of them while the other was speaking at the same time.
"Wrong with us?"
"Who said there was anything wrong with us?"
"Ha! We were listening to you the whole time, Prongs!"
"Yeah! What makes you think there was anything wrong with us?"
"We're innocent little angels, God forbid I should do anything so tactless such as have a Poking War with my friend here, while my dear little companion is clearly in distress?"
"How right you are, what wretches we would be, to ignore our whining friend for some silly old game which would leave deep red marks on our respective bellies?"
"Hey, stop it!" James held his hand up, and they both shut their mouths. "Forget it; we have to get on with the tryouts."
"Yeah. Stop it, Moony," Sirius narrowed his eyes at him, leaying heavy emphasis on 'stop it'.
"Fine," Remus rolled his eyes. "I'll get to the stands, you two have fun with your tryouts," he waved goodbye to both of them and they turned around. Remus seized his chance and poked Sirius in the ribs just as he was walking away.
"Ow!" Sirius yelped.
"HA! I WIN!" Remus yelled, punching the air with his fist while earning several stares from the surrounding crowd. He withdrew his hand slowly, turning red in the face, and Sirius gave him a death glare. James just looked quizzically between the two of them.
"This is not over, Moony," Sirius hissed, and Remus just mocked him, raising and pressing his fingers together. And before Sirius got the chance to poke him back, he ran across the field, straight up into the stands, sniggering to himself.
"That traitorous little-" Sirius shook his head with gritted teeth, but then stopped as he saw the look on James' face. "Um… traitorous little McGonagall who rejected me yet again?" he said hopefully. James just turned away from him and faced the crowd of people. The remaining few members of the Quidditch team were standing behind him, waiting for him to say something.
"Okay, first out," he yelled, so that everyone could hear him. "Everyone who's not in Gryffindor, just leave!" a gang of Ravenclaw girls looked at him dejectedly and walked away.
"Why, Prongs?" Sirius whined in his ear.
"Shut up, Padfoot," James whispered back. "Secondly," he yelled, "Anyone who can't even sit on a broom straight, get out of here, I can't waste my time with people like you!" More than half the crowd narrowed their eyes at him and walked off the pitch. He grinned. A perfect way to start tryouts, now there were only a group of sixth and fifth year girls, and fourth year boys left.
"Okay, all of you!" he yelled slightly softer, now that there were much less people, "Get on your brooms and take two rounds of the Quidditch pitch. And if you have any tricks or something you want to show me, then go ahead, okay?"
They obliged. They all picked up their broomsticks, and took off. James just stood there, folding his arms and watching them. He grinned occasionally, whenever he saw one of them do a spectacular trick which he had never learnt in his life. They touched down, and he smiled brightly at them.
"Wow!" he rubbed his hands together. "Looks like all of you can fly pretty well, good job!" they all smiled at him, and he continued, "Well, how about we try for the Keeper first? So, mount your brooms and let's go to the hoops, okay? I mean, only the people who are trying for the Keeper," he added, and most of the people kept their brooms down. He mounted his broom and kicked off into the air, speeding towards the hoops. He pulled the handle back to a halt, and turned sharply to face the others who were behind him. "All right, Chasers, line up here, please," two sixth year girls took their places in front of the hoops, one of them clutching the bug, round Quaffle. Even though he was the third Chaser, he needed to choose, so he didn't budge from his spot.
"All right, let's-"his next words caught in his throat, when he noticed Lily sitting with Hestia in the stands. He saw her looking at him, guilt fogging her eyes, and felt angry, but mostly surprised. She actually liked Quidditch. Why didn't she tell him? Or maybe, she was doing this only because she wanted his attention? Wanted his attention. He almost grinned at the thought, but caught himself. He couldn't forgive her, just because of this. He tore his eyes away from her and faced the crowd. "Um…?" he asked. He forgot what he had just said.
"You said, 'All right, let's'," a third year girl spoke up.
"Yeah, right," James said hastily, blushing slightly. "So let's get on with this, I'll be watching from over here,"
The tryouts took nearly half the day, choosing was incredibly difficult for James. He didn't know that there were so many good Quidditch players in Gryffindor! Last year, there weren't near as many talented people who showed up for the tryouts. Nevertheless, in the end, he decided with a sixth year boy for the Beater along with Sirius, who was already there, of course, and a fourth year boy for Keeper.
"All right, team, we meet up here three days a week for practice," he ordered, once the tryouts were over and they were all standing in the light evening sun, panting from over five hours of flying. "Sytherin isn't going to beat us again! It's my last year at Hogwarts, and we're going to make it count. Got it?"
"Yeah," everyone mumbled.
"Okay, then meet you guys back here Monday," he said. "I've already booked the field," Everyone nodded, and walked away, a few muttering 'Bye, James,', but Sirius walked over to him instead.
"Great tryouts, Prongs," he smiled. "But why did you make ol' Snotnose the Beater? Boo hoo, Gideon was so much better-"
"Ha ha, Snotnose, Padfoot?" James raised an eyebrow.
"I've been watching him," Sirius wrinkled his nose. "What's his real name, you reckon?"
"Actually, I really have no idea," James rubbed his chin in astonishment. "I'll ask him,"
"No, no , no!" Sirius said. "You're supposed to say, 'don't know, don't care,'. Honestly, Prongs, haven't I taught you anything?"
"I'd rather not be taught by you, to tell you the truth, Padfoot," James made a face.
"And what is that supposed to mean?" Sirius asked. "I mean, hey! It's my fault Lily-Flower was looking at you so desperately back there! Now if you hadn't yelled at her, then-"
"You were watching me?" James rolled his eyes.
"Why would I not?" Sirius winked. "It's so much fun to watch you squirm,"
"Shut up or I'll hex you, Padfoot," James pretended to threaten him.
"Yeah, I'm so scared," Sirius said sarcastically, and then grinned. "Hey! How 'bout we prank McGonagall's office tonight?" he added in a whisper. "I want to get her back for turning me down."
"You do realize you're asking the Head Boy whether you could prank a teacher's office, right?" James asked seriously, and Sirius looked down at the ground dejectedly.
"Aww…!" he moaned.
"Let's do it," James grinned widely, and Sirius looked at him with tearful eyes. "Okay, first of all, never look at me like that again," he grimaced, and Sirius laughed.
"Right, I forgot," he said. "That's Lily-Flower's job,"
"Yep,"
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Sirius said excitedly. "Let's go!"
'"Wait!" James stopped him. "What about Moony?"
"Forget it, Moony wouldn't go that far," Sirius snorted. "And don't you dare ask me if it's okay to bring Wormtail along!"
"I wasn't going to!" James laughed.
"Good. Come on!" They ran up to the castle in the dark, quietly tiptoing through the empty corridors in their dirty Quidditch robes.
"Don't you think we ought to change first?" James asked, seeing as they were leaving a trail of dirt all along the floor.
"Hey, where's your nerve, Prongs?" Sirius grinned. "It's like I don't even know you anymore."
"But Filch-"
"Forget Filch! You're hanging around with Lily-Flower too much, don't be a big fat coward and come on!"
"Says the guy who's afraid of cats," James rolled his eyes.
"Hey! Mrs. Norris is creepy, okay?" Sirius shuddered.
"Look, there's her office," James pointed. "Is she in there?"
"Nope, saw her in the Great Hall," Sirius beckoned him towards the door. "Okay, pranking caps on, what're we going to do to it?"
"I don't know! I thought you had an idea,"
"How would I, you big buffoon, I just asked you,"
"Fine! How about we do something to her desk? She really loves it."
"No-wait- I've got an idea… how about instead of her office, we do something to her? Come inside, we need to take cover."
"Um… why?"
"We can't talk out in the open!"
"So where-"
But Sirius had already darted inside the room and dived under McGonagall's desk.
"You've got to be joking." James laughed, but Sirius had already pulled him under.
"I say, it's getting awfully cramped in here," he frowned.
"Thanks a lot, Pads," James said in a muffled voice.
"So listen!" Sirius quieted him. "I was going through Hestia's fashion magazines, I found them on her desk-"
"Fashion magazines?"
"Yeah, you know- Lily-Flower gave them to her on her birthday. Muggle ones."
"I see," James said, apparently confused.
"I was looking at the swimsuit models… boy, you wouldn't believe what muggles can do-"
"NO DETAILS, PADFOOT!" James nearly yelled, and Sirius just grinned.
"Did I mention what I was doing while looking at them?"
"EW, PADFOOT, GROSS!" James yelled as loud as he could. "JUST GET ON WITH IT!"
"Well, I just thought swimsuits would look great on dear old Minnie,"
That's when James caught sight of a picture of McGonagall, which had fallen on the floor beside her desk.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he grinned.
"Way ahead of you," Sirius crawled out from underneath the desk and ran all the way to the door. "I'll get the magazine, you get the picture, we meet at the Room of Requirement. Okay?"
"Got it." James grabbed the picture and ran out of the room, all the way up to the seventh floor. He walked in front of the wall three times until a door appeared, and threw it open. Inside, he found thousands and thousands of magazines, piled up all the way to the ceiling, a lone desk in the middle of them. He grinned. Their diabolical plan was going well.
He waited for about fifteen minutes until Sirius came along, Hestia's magazine in his hand.
"There really was no need, Pads," he shrugged. Sirius' jaw dropped.
"Wow," he breathed.
"Hurry up, we'll be late for dinner," James slammed the picture down on the desk. Sirius walked over, flipping through the magazine.
"Here it is!" he said happily. "This one here, don't you think it'd look great on her?"
"I guess," James said uncertainly. They spent the next hour or so working on their masterpiece. Once they were done, they duplicated the picture into hundreds.
"Would you look at that," Sirius said, admiring his piece of work.
"I'd rather not," Jame turned away.
In the end, they had Hestia's magazine, almost exactly the same, except now the swimsuit model was wearing McGonagall's deep green robes. And then they had hundreds of pictures of McGonagall, all dressed in a bright red bikini, altered so that she was swaying her hips and running her hands through her hair instead of just smiling at the camera.
"I was thinking, how about all over the Great Hall tomorrow morning?" Sirius asked excitedly.
"Works for me,"
"And we could put a Permanent Sticking Charm on them."
"Perfect," James grinned. "We'll do it tonight, once everyone's gone to bed. Okay?"
"Fine." The both of them walked out of the Room of Requirement, laughing and fantasizing about how McGonagall would react once she saw the pictures. James bid goodbye to Sirius, who had gone to put the magazine back, when he entered the Heads' dorm, since he had to go and change robes. Lily was nowhere to be seen, undoubtedly downstairs at dinner. He changed robes quickly, and bounded down the steps; he was starving. He met Remus in the Great Hall, talking to Sirius, Lily and Hestia sitting opposite to them. He slid into the seat beside Remus, who looked at him in a disappointed way.
"I can't believe you guys didn't call me!" he moaned, and Sirius thumped him on the back.
"Call you for what?" Lily narrowed your eyes.
"Oh, so you're doing that again?" James asked coldly, and they all just stared at him.
"I-um-" Lily stammered.
"Just don't," James sighed. "Anyway, sorry, Remus, we thought you wouldn't be up for it."
"Hey, I'm not Wormtail!" Remus rolled his eyes.
"So you agree he's a doofus?" Sirius asked hopefully.
"He's not a doofus, Sirius, he just messes things up," Remus corrected. "A lot." He added.
"See? You can help us put them up, though," Sirius said, trying to comfort him.
"Put what up?" Lily asked curiously.
"Okay, I'm done eating," James said even though he hadn't touched a thing. "See you guys later, okay? I'm going up to bed."
"But Prongs!" Sirius whined. "We need you!" But James had already walked out of the Great Hall. He walked all the way up to the seventh floor, and collapsed on the comfy sofa, in his dorm. His stomach was grumbling for help, but he ignored it. He didn't even know why he was doing this. All he knew, was that just looking at her face made his body threaten to break down. He closed his eyes and sighed.
"I brought you something."
Lily's voice startled him and he snapped his head towards the door. She smiled weakly and waved a bun through the air. Then she walked over and sat down next to him.
"Is this okay?" she asked.
"Thanks," he said, taking the bun from her an biting into it gratefully. They sat in silence for a few seconds, as James finished eating.
"No, I mean, is me sitting here okay?" she asked.
"Yeah, sure, if you want to." he shrugged.
"It's just… I think I overreacted a bit," she confessed. "Sorry, it just didn't seem like such a good idea to me, and the fact that you didn't even care to tell me about it made me really mad. But if you think-"
"Please tell me this isn't some sort of big speech," he rolled his eyes.
"Actually, you could call it a small speech," she smiled, and he grinned. "But you get my point, right?"
"I guess so," he nodded. "And sorry for yelling at you. I'm not saying you had a right to go up to my room, but I overreacted a bit too. I mean, if you weren't curious after what you found out before, then I seriously would have thought you were an idiot," she laughed.
"Okay, then. We'll forget this ever happened," she said, and half-raised her arm to pat his back, but let it fall midway. "Just, one favor, okay? Don't lie to Evie. Tell her the truth, that you're not going to stop. She's just caring for you, she deserves to know."
"Okay," he sighed. "And you know why I didn't tell you about it before? Because I didn't trust you. I thought you hated me, and that if you got anything against me, I was in trouble for sure."
"Yeah, you might have been," she reasoned.
"But now… since you've seen everything already… I don't think it can hurt."
"To do what?" she asked curiously. But he just grabbed her hand and steered her over to his stairwell.
"Show you."
They climbed the stairwell together, and he seated her on his bed. Then he opened his trunk and pulled out the small mirror which she had seen before.
"This," he explained. "Is a two-way mirror. Sirius has the other one. I say his name into the mirror, and then we can talk to each other. We use it during detentions, if we're separated."
"Wow," she took it from him and ran it through her fingers. "Who gave it to you?"
"It was his," he shrugged. "And he wouldn't tell me."
"Nice," she gave it back to him, and he put it back in his trunk.
"And I bet you wondered what this was, huh?" he pulled out the yellowing bit of parchment which Lily had looked at so quizzically before, and smiled.
"Yeah, I spent ages," she said as he sat down beside her. Then she watched as he pulled out his wand and tapped it.
"I solemnly swear that I am up to no good," he whispered, and immediately black ink spread out from the center of the paper. Lily watched in awe as the ink formed words, but it didn't stop there. It spread all across the paper in various designs and shapes. Her eyes darted across it, taking in the whole thing. She saw a gigantic area titled 'the Great Hall', where she saw hundreds of moving figures, which were all labelled. Her eyes found 'Hestia Jones', 'Sirius Black, and 'Remus Lupin' walking out of the hall.
"Is this… a map of the castle?" she asked incredulously, searching the paper and finding a number of passageways which she didn't even know were there.
"Yeah," he said admiringly. "We made it. Isn't it brilliant?"
"It's amazing," she breathed, snatching it from him and holding it up to her eyes. "So this is why Filch can never find you."
"You got me," he held his hands up in surrender.
"We can use this during patrols, it'll be so much easier," she sighed with relief.
"Yeah, only don't tell anyone, okay? No one's supposed to know, Filch would confiscate it for sure."
"Yeah, you have my word," she assured him. "Anyway, how do you wipe it blank?"
"Like this," he took it from her and tapped the surface with his wand again. "Mischief managed," he muttered, and the map wiped itself clean. "Like it?" he asked.
"How many times do I have to say it's amazing?" she rolled her eyes.
"I don't know, it's just that I don't think I can believe my ears. You know, Lily Evans saying she likes a pranking object,"
"I'm not that bad!" she spluttered. "I'll have you know, I love pranks."
"So how come you try to stop us every time we do one?"
"Because I don't like you."
"Okay, then, prove me wrong," he challenged. "We're going to put up some half-naked pictures of McGonagall in the Great Hall tonight."
"You're what?" she asked incredulouslly, nearly laughing.
"Help us, then," he said. "I'll take you underneath the Invisibility Cloak."
Lily hesitated. It wasn't like her to pull a prank on a teacher, but then again, she didn't want to look like a coward.
"Fine, I'll do it." she said, and he laughed.
"Really?" he raised his eyebrows, and she grinned.
"Sure, as long as you don't tell McGonagall I was in on it."
"Deal," he said. "But you better not be asleep at midnight."
"Midnight?" she asked. "You think I sleep before midnight?"
"I don't know, I don't keep track." he shrugged.
"Of course you don't," she said. "But I have a question… why did you show me?"
"What?" he asked. "My stuff?"
"Yeah,"
"Because…" he trailed off. He really didn't know why he showed her. "I guess I didn't want anything to hide from you anymore." She smiled tearfully at him. He suddenly remembered Sirius smiling at him on the Quidditch pitch, and laughed. He remembered Sirius saying that it was Lily's job to look at him like that.
"Thanks, James," she smiled.
"No problem," he waved it off. "Come on, it's nearly ten o' clock, good thing we don't have to patrol tonight."
"Yeah," she said. "So what do you want to do for two hours?"
"I don't know… Exploding Snap?" he suggested, and she grinned.
"Bring it on," she challenged, and they darted downstairs.
"By the way," she said.
"Yeah?"
"Get rid of that picture you have of me," she ordered, but he just laughed.
"Not any time soon," he said, and she turned and just huffed at him.
They spent the next two hours playing Exploding Snap, occasionally looking at their watches for the time. Once the clock struck midnight, James went upstairs to get the Invisibility Cloak and they slipped out into the empty seventh floor corridor.
"I haven't done anything like this before," Lily said nervously.
"I know, you don't need to tell me," he rolled his eyes. "And keep up, will you? We're going too slow, we're going to have to go a bit faster if we're going to have them up tonight!"
"Okay, but this is the last time," she warned him, and he laughed.
"Okay,"
They reached the Fat Lady, who was fast asleep.
"Darn, where are they?" he muttered. No sooner had he said this than the portrait door opened and Sirius and Remus clambered through.
"James?" Remus whispered.
"Here," James withdrew the cloak slightly, revealing him and Lily.
"Lily-Flower?" Sirius asked incredulously.
"Yeah, she's going to help," James grinned.
"Really?" Sirius asked, amused. "So you two made up?"
"I don't know what you're talking about," Lily hinted, and Sirius shut his mouth.
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Remus asked. "Get us under, quick!"
"We can't all fit under this," James said worriedly. "How about you two just walk without it? There's no one in the corridor anyway,"
"If I get caught then mind you, I will kill you," Remus warned.
"Shut up and hurry, Moony."
They all walked over to the Room of Requirement and Lily stifled a gasp. She had never known about this room, and was curious as to what was inside. She walked through and moaned as James removed the cloak from their shoulders.
"Fashion magazines," she groaned as Remus shut the door behind them.
"That's not the best part, Flower," Sirius said excitedly. "Come here!" he dragged her to the middle of the room where he had been working on McGonagall's picture.
"Aw, yuck!" Lily covered her eyes when she saw the pictures. "Absolutely disgusting! Have you idiots got no shame?"
"No, actually," James shrugged, and Lily whacked him across the head.
"You expect me to put these up in the Great Hall?"
"Yep,"
"Grr…" she growled. "I'm so going to kill you…"
"Great!" Sirius clapped his hands together. "It's you and Moony versus me and Prongs."
"Shut up and get moving, Padfoot," Remus rolled his eyes, gathering a bunch of the pictures in his arms. "Boy, is she going to flip once she sees these," he added.
"That's what we're hoping," Sirius winked, scooping up some more pictures.
The next morning, when Lily and James entered the Great Hall, there was total chaos.
More than half the student population were rolling on the floor, clutching their sides, while the teachers were trying as hard as they could to remove the hundreds of pictures plastered to the walls. They couldn't, of course, seeing as Lily had done an excellent job with the Permanent Sticking Charms.
James felt something heavy against his shoulder. He looked down and saw that Lily was holding on to him to prevent herself from falling to the floor in her present state of laughter. He laughed too, and within minutes, the two of them were reduced to two shapeless, laughing heaps.
"LILY EVANS!"
Lily jerked her head upwards and found herself face-to-face with no one other than Hestia Jones, who was looking at her disapprovingly.
"What?"
"Sirius told me everything! Now explain yourself!"
"No- no- one cares, H-Hest!" she shook with laughter. "It's j-just too f-funny-"
"Have you seen McGonagall?" Sirius heaved James up from the floor, barely being able to manage it, seeing as he was laughing himself.
"N-No, where?" he asked. Sirius pointed to a spot somewhere ahead of them, and once James saw her, he collapsed again, his roars of laughter adding to the echoes all around the hall.
She was there, right at the end of the hall, a crazy look in her eyes. Realizing the futility of removing the pictures, she resolved to something desperate- blasting the walls apart and then rebuilding them.
The whole thing was just so hilarious that practically no one in the Great Hall, not even the teachers or even Professor Dumbledore, could suppress their heartfelt laughter.
"You need to promise you're not going to do that again!" Hestia ordered Lily, who just ignored her, which was understandable, because for anyone in that state of laughter, even uttering a single word would have been miraculous.
The only thing she could manage was a wink at James, who winked right back at her.
Looks like they had finally become what you could call friends.
How was it? Hope it was okay, I tried to include all the suggestions that people gave me in this chapter!
Again, if you do have any suggestions, just PM me. I'd love to hear them.