Ugh. This was supposed to be up two days ago, but the evil step mother had other plans. Haha.
Thanks to Ally Kitten and mimimi213 for reviewing!!
As always, let me know if you see any typos, and I hope you enjoy!
PLEASE REVIEW! I would love to get more than one review per chapter! Haha. I love you all!
Here we go...
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Leave love to your heart, don't let your head get in the way.
Chapter Ten: Heart to Heart
James was woken the next morning by a short scream as Lily realized where she was. His head, which had been resting on top of hers, hit the floor as she jumped up in surprise.
"Oh, I'm sorry!" She said, pulling him into a sitting position and plopping back down beside him.
"Kiss it and make it better?" James said, rubbing his head.
"Not a chance." Lily said, the corners of her mouth twitching into a smile.
"Bloody hell, we smell something fierce." James said, wrinkling his nose. "We should probably get ours wands and take showers before the stench seeps into our skin."
"Does that happen?"
"Dunno." James said, frowning.
Lily laughed a bit and allowed James to pull her to her feet.
They reached McGonagall's office and knocked. She opened the door a moment later and stared at them, horrified, for they were still covered in blood.
"What happened to you two?" She exclaimed.
"We spilled troll blood while we were cleaning and fell asleep waiting for it to dry so we could finish." Lily explained, yawning widely. "We're done, so we came to get our wands."
McGonagall disappeared into her office and returned a moment later.
"Here you are. And I would suggest taking showers before you return to your dormitories." She looked pointedly at James, who grinned.
"Thanks, Professor." He said as he and Lily began walking in the direction of the Common Room.
They were almost there when James stopped and spun Lily around to face him.
"Look," he began. "I really am going to try to be nicer to Snape."
"Really?" Lily asked, she had thought James had been too tired the night before to know what he was saying.
"Really, love. You mean more to me than some prank any day."
"Alright." Lily said with a smile. "If you can prove that to me, we'll be friends."
They walked in silence a moment before Lily remembered something.
"Thank you for finishing up last night." She told James. "That was actually kind of.... sweet."
James smiled down at her, but it was not his usual cocky, charming smile. It was a smile of someone who was looking at something they adored, even covered in troll blood. It was a smile he reserved for Lily alone.
- - - - - - -
James entered the Common Room after taking a nice long shower to find Lily, who was wearing Muggle soccer shorts and a t-shirt, her wet hair thrown up into a messy bun, sitting on the floor around a low table in the Common Room with Remus. They were eating toast and drinking coffee and had their Astronomy books open and star charts spread across the table. When James approached them, however, they were not talking about the stars.
"Ugh, Filch made up polish ever trophy in the Trophy Room – twice. With no magic, obviously." He showed Lily his hands, which were far too shiny to be natural. Sirius's are worse though. Filch made him stay later and polish the floor as well."
Lily laughed and James sat down beside her, messing up his wet hair and taking a piece of toast.
"We ended up covered in troll blood." Lily told him, still laughing a bit. "We were almost done when this genius," she said sarcastically, pointing at James, "knocked the whole vat on top of us. It was rather funny, but we smelled terrible."
Remus laughed. "Alright, that's disgusting. You win for worst detention."
"Worst?" James asked. "I'd be covered in troll blood any day if it meant spending hours alone with Lily." He winked at her.
"Sorry to disappoint you, but there's a good chance that I would refuse to even be in the same room with you if you still so much as smelled like troll blood, much less spend time with you."
"But you'd spend time with me if I was clean?" James smirked.
"No, considering you're clean more often then you smell like that, though not by much."
Remus laughed.
"Fine," James said in mock offense. "I can see when I'm not wanted." He stood up and added off-handedly, "I think I'll go put gum in Sirius's ears." He made his way up the stairs to the dormitories calling "See you later, love!" over his shoulder.
"He'd better have been talking to you." Remus joked. Lily laughed and he continued, "We'd best start studying. O.W.L.s are only a month away."
"A man after my own heart." Lily said with a laugh. "Alice and Vanessa don't ever study until the last minute, but somehow they always do fine." She added, noticing Remus' cheeks flush a little at the mention of Vanessa's name.
"That, Lily my friend," he said, as though nothing has happened. "Is why you and I are the top of the class."
They studied Astronomy for roughly an hour and a half (with a brief interruption to watch Sirius chase James around the Common Room, chewed-up wads of gum sticking out of his ears).
"Okay," Lily said, rubbing her eyes. "I don't think I can look at this anymore."
Remus laughed. "You took the words right out of my mouth." With a tap from his wand, the coffee mugs refilled themselves. "Why don't we start on History of Magic?"
"Mmkay." Lily said, gratefully sipping the steaming coffee.
"So, Vanessa, huh?" She ventured as they put their astronomy charts away.
"Uh, well – er," Remus stuttered, his face turning pink.
"It's nothing to be embarrassed about! I think you two would be adorable!" Lily said encouragingly.
"But it's just that I – Well, you see I'm – I don't really know how to explain this to you –" He struggled to find an excuse.
"Because you're a werewolf and you're afraid to date anyone because if they ever found out they wouldn't accept you?" She said, lowering her voice though the Common Room was empty. Everyone else had gone outside to enjoy the first warm day of the year.
Remus's jaw dropped. "How did you know?"
"I figured it out. Last year, actually." Lily said, pulling out her History of Magic notes.
"Why didn't you tell me you knew?"
Lily shrugged. "Because it didn't matter. And I figured if you wanted me to know, you would tell me."
Remus stared at her in disbelief. "What do you mean it didn't matter? I turn into a monster once a month for Merlin's sake!"
"Well, it clearly didn't matter to your friends, why should I be any different? Besides, it's not what you are, Remus, it's what you do. Since we've yet to hear about a bloodthirsty werewolf rampaging through Hogsmeade, and Dumbledore thought enough of you to make you a prefect, I don't see the problem."
"Lily Evans, you are definitely not like other girls."
"And neither is Nessa. I don't know if she knows about you, but I'm sure if she did, it would not stop her from dating you." Lily told him.
"But what if -"
"Look, you can't live your whole life scared of the 'what ifs'. I mean, all of your current, safe boundaries were once way out of your comfort zone, right? You just have to keep stepping outside of it. Your friends will be right behind you. And Vanessa will too, if you give her the chance."
Remus smiled. "I'll think about it. Though I can hardly fail to notice that you sit here giving me relationship advice while you have turned down your perfect match more times than anyone could count."
"It's completely different." Lily said, crossing her arms.
Remus raised an eyebrow. "How so?"
"You're afraid of rejection, and afraid to hurt someone you care about. James Potter, on the other hand, is an immature, arrogant toe rag."
"Lily, you've been telling yourself that for five years. Did you ever consider the fact that he's changed and you've forced yourself to turn a blind eye to it?"
"He has not changed. You saw him give Sev that Love Potion the other day."
"That's true, but, though he's tortured Snape for years, this time he did something a little different, a little better."
"He did?" Lily asked, racking her brain for a way that prank had been different than any of the others.
"Yes, Lily. He apologized to you."
"But that doesn't change the fact that he -" But Remus cut her off.
"It showed that he finally realized that you actually care about Snape, for whatever reason. He doesn't want to hurt you – he never has. So if you give him the chance, he might prove that he could be kinder to Snape."
"Funny you should say that...." Lily said, relaxing her arms.
"Why?"
"Because last night in detention, I told him that we could be friends if he left Sev alone."
"Well, for the two of you, that's more than progress." Remus said with a laugh.
"But he has got to stop with the pet names, and the kisses! I'm am not his girlfriend." Lily said firmly.
Remus laughed again. "Just give him time. He's not used to being able to get within ten feet of you without ending up in the Hospital Wing."
Lily laughed. "I guess so. But I'm still not going to date him."
"You keep telling yourself that."
"I will." Lily said, and thought, and I'll keep telling you that too, unable to keep a smile off her face.
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There you go! I've been wanting to show other characters besides James and Lily, so I hope you liked Remus!
PLEASE REVIEW!
Love Always,
Kayla
"What's life without a few dragons?"
- Ron, GoF movie