Chapter 11As she stepped through the front door, she was immediately hit with the smell of cinnamon and apples. The feeling of warmth filled her and as Lily glanced around, she understood why James called this home. Unlike the Potter Mansion, which had the feeling of being in a museum, the house gave off a relaxed cottage feel and as she walked through the house, she couldn't help but notice all of the pictures and trophies that lined every surface in the room. All of the memories and happiness of their family were in this house. Lily jumped slightly as footsteps began to fumble down the stairs and as she turned, she took a few steps back seeing a disheveled Sirius with a scowl across his face.
"What did you do to him, Evans?" He snapped quickly walking toward her. "One minute he's perfectly fine and the second I leave him alone with you, something happens and he shoves me half naked out of the bedroom and slams the door behind me!" He glared down at her and if Lily hadn't known better, she could have sworn she heard a slight growl escape his throat. " What did I do to him? Seriously, Black! If you hadn't banned us from the house for your sex-capades with Vance, we wouldn't have had to bring up the subject of what the bloody hell happens when we return to school!" He stared at her a moment and the anger returned to his eyes. "What did you say to him?" This time she definitely knew she heard a growl.
"Just that it may not be so easy being friends there because of what everyone else has seen from us." She mumbled glancing down at the ground, realizing what she had said to James was stupid. Even though they had fought for all these years, now was different. She wanted to be his friend and he wanted to be hers. Also the fact that she found herself feeling empty when he wasn't around. "Do you know how long he has waited just for you to even be nice to him?" She glanced up to meet his anger filled eyes once more. Pain clenching through her heart as she thought of an angered James upstairs. "You better fix this Ginger!" He snarled before walking past her and slamming into her shoulder. She winced at the pain but stayed quiet as he entered the kitchen behind her. As his footsteps faded away, she glanced back at the staircase and began to walk toward it.
Upstairs, James could hear Sirius shouting but ignored it. In only a few weeks, he had reached a point with Lily that he had only dreamed of. He saw it in her eyes too that something was there. Whether she was just realizing it or had been hiding it this entire time, something was there and he wasn't going to let it go just because she felt they would be judged. It wasn't until James heard Lily yell back that whatever was going on downstairs, caught his attention. He couldn't make out what they were saying but he knew that if things were going to work, those two needed to fight out every bit of pent up anger they had for one another. Things became quieter a few moments later as James sat down in an armchair in the corner of the room, running his fingers through the mess of hair on his head.
It was then that he began to think about what would happen at school this year? They had ended the year not talking and he was with Deirdre. Now they were returning and had suddenly become mates and James was going to be ending things with Deirdre not too long after arriving back. His friends knew about them spending time together, well just Sirius and Remus, but had she mentioned a single thing about this to her friends? What would their reaction be? He jumped suddenly as a light knock on the door sounded and glanced up to see her head peering around the door. As his eyes locked with hers, he could see the gloss forming across them. She slid further into the room and shut the door behind her, never breaking eye contact. After a few moments of silence the gloss over filled her eyes and she finally broke eye contact and looked down.
"I'm sorry James." She whispered, expecting him to scoff and yell at her. What she didn't expect though, was James standing up and pulling her into a hug. One hand was along the small of her back, holding her closer to him while the other stroked her hair as she cried into his chest. "I should be the one apologizing. There was no reason for me to react like that. I know things are going to be different when we return." He mumbled, resting his chin on the top of her head. He hadn't realized how much shorter she actually was. "I just want us being friends to work. But in order for that to happen we can't let anything people say get to us. Alright?" He leaned back to look down at her. She glanced up with tear-stained cheeks and smiled. "Alright." She nodded, tightening her grip around his back.
"I should probably find some way to tell the girls about this before they get ambushed." She muttered, glancing back up at James to see him shaking his head. "Why haven't you told them?" She shrugged her shoulders and met his eyes, trying to see what he was feeling through them. "Well Celia and Marlene are in France. Plus there is no way I'm interrupting an Alice-Frank vacation." She laughed watching his face ponder over what everyone was doing. "Why did they go to France without you?" Her breath caught in her throat. She wasn't expecting this question. Her mouth fumbled for words and she felt his eyes watching her, growing more and more curious. "Lil's? You alright?" Her mouth continued to open and close as her eyes darted around the room. What was she supposed to say to him? He had seen her this summer, she worked and she sat around the house. There was no reason in his eyes why she shouldn't have been able to go. She had to tell him.
"PRONGS!" Sounded from downstairs as Lily began to open her mouth. They both turned to the door as they heard Sirius stampede up the stairs. "You alright, Padfoot?" James asked as Sirius tripped through the door with a bottle in his hands. "I have the best idea!" James shook his head, which caused Lily to giggle. A smirk formed on his face as he glanced from her back to Sirius. "What is this brilliant idea Pads?" A grin spread across his face as he leaned in closer and held his hands out in front of him like he was about to tell the most important secret ever. "I want a tattoo!" Lily didn't see that as a huge thing but by the look on James' face, this was big. "You're afraid of needles you bloody idiot!" He scoffed still watching Sirius with concern. "That's why I need to get completely shitfaced!" He laughed taking a rather large swig of the bottle in his hand, which Lily then recognized as Fire Whiskey. "Sirius they wont let you get one if you're piss drunk!" She scoffed seeing he had drunk a third of the bottle in one chug.
As he lowered the bottle from his lips, he glanced over at James with a rather large grin across his face. James' hand slowly reached up and slid through his hair. "Sadly, he's the most sober acting drunk I've ever seen in my life." She glanced back from James to see Sirius' grin had doubled in size. "I go to class hammered daily!" He seemed almost proud as he stood up straight and crossed his arms, cradling the bottle in them. She began shaking her head, but as she shook it in James' direction, she caught sight of the seriousness in his face. "You're serious?" She glared at James.
"No I'm Sirius! He's James." She quickly sent a glare in his direction, only to receive a slight shrug. "Figured you would have known after five years." He continued to shrug as he turned to leave. "So you're going to just get hammered alone and go get a tattoo?" James stepped forward catching his shoulder only to see Sirius turn with a devious look on his face. "Of course not! That's why I volunteered the two of you to drink with me." He pushed the bottle into James' hand and skipped off down the hall.
James glanced back at Lily to see her leaning against the bed with her arms crossed, laughing. "What?" He laughed back as he began walking toward her. She took a few more steps toward him, closing the space between them. He felt her hand on his for a moment, until he realized she had taken the weight of the bottle from him. "You are going to be a terrible influence on me James." She stepped back as she took a swig from the bottle, her face grimacing as the liquid burned down her throat. He loved hearing her say his name and reached for the bottle back, but was surprised to find she had shifted so her back blocked him. "Get your own bottle." She laughed brushing past him and out the door that Sirius had just left through moments before.
X
She could feel the blood rushing to her face as she hung upside down from the bed, her hands on the floor supporting her so she wouldn't fall. Her parents had decided to go out on a romantic night on the town, leaving Celia and herself to fend for themselves at the flat. But soon after her parents left, Marlene emerged from the shower to find that Celia had left her as well. It had become a common thing for Marlene to be alone, but it was beginning to frustrate her. She wanted her friends to come along so that situations like this wouldn't happen. With Lily not there, she knew it would be a bit more of a mild vacation, due to Celia's isolated behavior. But with her out on dates nightly with the boy she had met, Marlene felt like she hadn't even brought a friend at all.
She had gone out to a local café just down the street from the flat and eaten dinner alone, but what would have been the best night to go out and experience the night life of Paris, she was by herself and in no way was she going to explore random places alone at night! So after her meal and a free cup of gelato from flirting with the waiter, she made her way back to the flat where she found herself lying upside down until she was light headed.
Marlene had hoped that Lily would have written by now, but sadly a day or so after she had sent her letter, Sonia returned with nothing but a vicious hunger which resulted in Marlene having to bandage a finger or two. In her other days of boredom, she had already explored every last inch of the flat and would be able to tell anyone anything about it. There was also the situation of people watching and knowing their schedules perfectly. Like from the suspicious way her middle age neighbor across the way snuck a man through the fire escape window, she was blatantly having an affair whenever her husband left for work after his lunch break at noon. Or there was an elderly couple that would walk past the house around 4 in the afternoon everyday and sit on the bench by the fountain for about an hour. Marlene was in such a state of boredom that in the past couple days she had taken to cleaning. Something she had never even considered, especially seeing as she had to do it all without magic due to her still being under-aged.
She quickly flipped herself back up as black spots flashed slightly before her eyes. She lay back on the bed for a few moments, attempting to even herself back out again before seeing what else she could explore. As she drifted through the flat, the sound of the elevator ringing was something new to her around this time of day as was the door opening a few moments later, revealing a puffy eyed Celia. She quietly closed the door behind her, not having seen Marlene yet and tip toed into the bathroom next to the front door, lightly clicking the door shut behind her. Attempting to play dumb, Marlene rushed back into the bedroom and flopped down on the bed, pulling a magazine off the bedside table and pretending to read it. As she scanned through the familiar articles, she heard the click of the bathroom door open once more and a quiet cough sound a few moments later.
"Mare? You still here?" Celia's voice echoed off the walls and she knew if Marlene didn't reply, she definitely wasn't there. "Bedroom!" Echoed back a few moments later and she took a deep breath, following the direction the voice came from. "Hi. Sorry I just needed some fresh air. Took another walk around the neighborhood." She smiled and Marlene could easily read that something had changed. The chime in Celia's voice had vanished and her smile almost seemed forced. It was then that she realized the pain she was hiding. "He went home, didn't he?" Marlene mumbled, setting aside the magazine and pushing herself to the edge of the bed. She watched as a gloss formed over Celia's eyes and the red return around them as she nodded. Marlene immediately jumped up and pulled her into a hug, letting her cry into the shoulder of the blouse she had bought a few days before at a fancy boutique.
As they sat down and Marlene stroked her hair, she could feel that Celia was beginning to calm down as her short, choked breaths began to elongate and even out. "So after all of this time you knew?" She murmured, catching Marlene's eye. She jumped slightly at the short laugh outburst that followed as Marlene smiled down at her. "Of course I knew! I followed you the third night you bailed on me to 'go sketch the Eiffel tower' again!" This brought a smile to Celia's face as she glanced down at her hands in front of her. "Nothing gets past you McKinnon." She chuckled, quickly wiping the tears from her eyes. "Well that's obvious. Now at least tell me you're going to write the bloke?" She turned Celia to face her, meeting her eye. Celia smiled and nodded, pulling a crumpled piece of paper out from her pocket. "He told me to ring him originally." She mumbled glancing at the line through the numbers on the paper, which were followed by his name and address. "Was a bit taken aback when I told him that my family didn't believe in telephones."
