Chapter 11: Add Drama to the List of Problems

I sat at the table, simply picking at my food. I was physically in the Great Hall, but mentally I was elsewhere. My brain kept replaying the night before.

I just stared into the fire on my favorite couch in the common room. I'd lost track of how long I'd been there, but I knew it was late in the night, for the only noises in the common room were the roaring fire and my breathing. My thoughts were purely on Mary. I couldn't believe I'd lost her. I couldn't believe she decided to run off to Italy instead of seeking my help. Did she not trust me? Sirius went directly to James when his parents kicked him out, and they are no closer than we were. She was the second best friend I lost, Severus being the first. I lost two of my closest friends in less than half a year, I realized. I felt a warm tear run down my cheek, and soon a few more followed. I didn't bother wiping them away; there would soon be a whole river to join these few. I wasn't much of a crier, but when I cried, I cried a lot.

"Lily, is that you?" A deep voice said, from behind me. I didn't say anything or turn around. I knew who that was, and he knew who I was. He came over and sat down next to me. He folded the cloak he was holding, which I figured was the infamous Invisiblilty Cloak, on his lap. "Lily?" He whispered, bringing his face down near mine. I turned to face him. My sad, crying, green eyes stared into his surprised, then confused, then concerned hazel eyes. He looked at me for a while. "Is it Mary?" He asked softly.

I nodded my head in response. He put his arm around my shoulder and pulled me to his chest. I wrapped one of my arms around his waist and put the other on his chest. I let the tears flow more freely. My thoughts wandered from Mary and all the good times we had together to Severus and how I lost him and finally to Petunia and her hatred for me. I didn't know how long I'd been crying, but enough to soak James' shirt. He didn't mind, he held me and stroked my hair and just let me cry. I figured it was about time to pull myself together, and told myself that what happened, happened. And I couldn't do a thing about it. I looked up at James and saw his hazel eyes stare down at me. They were full of pain and sadness.

"Sorry." I whispered, gesturing his shirt. He shook his head.

"Are you alright?" He asked, his head leaning closer to my face.

"Yeah." I breathed. He moved his head closer near mine. Our lips met and the kiss was nothing like our first. This one was passionate and hungry. His hands moved up and down my waist and pushed my chest against his. One of my hands was entangled in his hair, the other on his cheek. We separated, in need for air. All I could think was, "Whoa." I rested my head on his chest and his warm arm was around my waist.

Next thing I remembered, I felt a hand shake my lightly and a soft low voice say, "Lily…Lily?" My eyes shot open and I saw a pair of familiar hazel eyes. I sat up and looked around. The clock on the fireplace said it was 4:30. Had I slept here, with James, the entire night?

"Sorry, I had to wake you up; it's time for me to work out." He said, pointing to the clock.

"It's okay." I said groggily, rubbing my eyes. He picked up his cloak and headed towards the door.

"I'll see you at breakfast, then." He said, over his shoulder.

"Bye." I replied and sat down on the couch. I had nothing to do, because classes were only going to start today. I was really tempted to watch James as he worked out through my window, like I did that one day last year, but I told myself that stalking him like that would be creepy. I did head up to my dorm, though. I looked around at my dorm mates and noticed that the bed next to mine, the one Mary usually occupied, was empty and there was no trunk near it. She must've moved in with the bints across the hall. I sighed and started cleaning up my trunk and sorted through my quills and book I needed this year.

"Good morning, Evans! How are you today?" Sirius' joyful voice brought me out of my reverie.

"Why are you so happy…and awake?" I asked as he sat down across from me. James often told me about how hard it was to get Sirius up in the mornings.

"Well, James started taking him on his workouts every morning. They started sometime over summer." Remus said, and sat down next to me. Sirius nodded proudly and started to pile his plate with food.

"Yeah, and we're trying to convince Peter to join us. With any luck, he'll grow a bit more and lose a bit of the weight he put on over summer."

"Don't think that's happening anytime soon. I found a stash of food in his trunk this morning." James said, taking a seat on the other side of me. He gave me a quick peck on the cheek and started eating.

"Where is he anyway?" Remus asked, taking a swig of his pumpkin juice.

"The rat refused to wake up! He kept telling me to sod off and even threw a half-eaten Treacle Tart at me. Merlin knows where he got that from." James said. Peter did eventually com in for breakfast, unluckily when McGonagall was handing out schedules. She told him that he needed to have his robes washed and his face scrubbed and gave him a detention for lack of hygiene. Remus groaned because his idea for trying to keep the Marauders out of detention failed-and school only started today. On the other hand, Sirius nearly died laughing and congratulated Peter for 'landing a detention in the quickest time in the history of the school.' Peter beamed at this and I rolled my eyes, of course.

"The first class I had was Advanced Potions, with none other than the Slytherins. I didn't get that at all. For the five year I've been here, they made us take all of our classes with the Slytherins. The two most polar opposite groups of the school. Why did we have to take our every class with people we absolutely despised? It was asking for disaster.

"Oh, look, we have Arithmancy and Muggle Studies on the same day!" Remus told me excitedly.

"Evans, now why would you be taking Muggle Studies?" Sirius asked. "It's just a waste of time for you!"

"Yeah, I am a muggleborn, but I didn't get to learn everything else about muggles, like the inventions, literature, and sciences. Just the basics."

"You know, Fabian and Gideon wrote to me the other day, about Auror training?" James said, finishing his breakfast. "They say it's pretty difficult. Moody's the new Head Auror, and is already hammering them about constant vigilance."

"Who are Fabian and Gideon?" I questioned. They sounded familiar. Peter, Sirius, and James gasped loudly.

"How do you not know who they are?" Peter asked.

"Fabian and Gideon Prewett. They're the previous generation's pranksters. These three here,"" Remus gestured Sirius, James, and Peter, "Idolize them." He said with an eye roll.

"Yeah, and the funniest thing about their family, they have a younger sister named Molly. Like, who names their first two children such odd names like Fabian and Gideon and then name their third child something so normal like Molly?" Sirius snickered.

"Oh, it's time to go to potions." James said, getting up. I nodded and grabbed my bag from underneath the table. We were out of the Great Hall when I noticed something was wrong.

"Wait, where are Sirius and Peter?" I asked, looking around.

"I don't even want to know." Remus said, walking back towards the Potions classroom down in the dungeons.

"They'll show up eventually." James said, taking my hand. We were halfway there when a felt a tap on my shoulder. I turned around. It was Amos Diggory. I could hear James growl and I gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"Hi, Lily." He said with a grin. His eyes landed on James, who was a few inches taller than him. "Hi, James. Quidditch going well?"

"Yeah, it's good." James said, without smiling.

"Heard you lost a chaser."

"Yeah, we'll need to replace him." James said, still keeping his face expressionless. I could tell he wanted to strangle Amos, but was really trying hard not to. I gave his hand another squeeze and shot him a look that said 'don't try anything'

"So Lily, I was wondering if you wanted to go to Hogsmeade with me? The next one's in a few weeks." Oh no, he didn't. James was just absolutely red right now.

"WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE, ASKING MY GIRLFRIEND OUT RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME?" James screamed, lunging at him. He definitely would've hit him if I hadn't held him back.

"James, calm down." I warned, pulling him back, but he didn't seem to be listening to me.

"Do you not see this," He asked, holding up the hand that I was holding. "Are you blind? Or are you just that arrogant?" He screeched. Amos seemed to recover from James' yelling, but then, he said the worst possible thing.

"Wait, wait, wait, what? When I asked, Black and Pettigrew told me you two weren't going out, that you were just friends!" Amos said, taking a step back. He looked at James, and clearly seemed intimidated by his height and strength.

"You ignorant Hufflepuffs! You'll believe anything anyone says! You honestly believe Sirius? One of the greatest pranksters this school has ever seen? Are you really that desperate? Enough that you'll go for a younger girl, too?" James said, enraged.

"Listen, mate, I'm really, really sorry. I had no idea." Amos said, backing away. James looked like he wanted to hit him even more.

"Let's go. No need to cause more drama, we're attracting a crowd." I whispered to him.

"Let me hit him once." He begged, finally acknowledging that I was there.

"No, we're going to be late for potions. You can get back at him, in a nonviolent way, later." I promised. He grinned and gave me a peck on the lips. He threw a menacing glance at Amos and took my hand. I sighed a breath of relief. We turned around the corner and saw Remus, Sirius, and Peter laughing hysterically.

"What is wrong with you two, leading him on like that?" I yelled at them. "Remus, you too?" I asked in disbelief.

"Oh, no, I wasn't apart of it, it's just that when I walked ahead of you guys, and saw Sirius and Peter, I asked them what they were doing and they told me what I told Amos. We had a perfect view of everything that happened!" He said, bursting into more laughter.

"Did you see the look on Diggory's face? Priceless!" Sirius said, clutching Peter's shoulder, doubled over in laughter. I rolled my eyes.

"We're going to be late for Potions and if you guys don't hurry up, we'll leave without you." I threatened.

"Now, Lilyflower, you wouldn't do that!" Sirius said, wiping a tear from his eye. I, once again, rolled my eyes. I headed down the hallway towards Potions and dragged James along with me. Soon enough, they followed, but still laughing. We entered the classroom and it seemed as though the lesson had just started.

"Lily, love, it is so rare that your late, is there any reason?" Slughorn asked, glancing at James. A couple of the Slytherins snickered.

"I'm very sorry Professors, but I needed to put a few students in line on my way down here. I believe they will join us shortly." I told him, taking a seat next to James in the back. Sure enough, Remus, Sirius and Peter came through. Sirius must have been out of his mind, because he actually announced his arrival.

"You can start the lesson now, Professor, I'm here!" Sirius said, proudly, taking a seat next to me.

"Mr. Lupin, were you part of this shenanigan Lily had to stop earlier?" Slughorn asked Remus, before addressing Sirius. "And Mr. Black, that will be ten points from Gryffindor because of your cheek, and you can come sit up here next to Ms. Nott." He said, gesturing a pretty girl in the front row. Sirius took a look at her and smiled wide.

"Gladly, professor." He said, moving up to the front.

"Mr. Lupin, you owe me an explanation." Slughorn said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes professor, well, you see, I was trying to stop it, but I couldn't and that's when Lily came along, and she set them right. But, these two were about to skip class, so I had to drag them down here." Remus invented. Slughorn raised an eyebrow, as if he questioned what Remus was saying, and I didn't blame him, Remus wasn't the best liar when it came to teachers. But, he just nodded, and looked at Sirius and Peter.

"Mr. Black and Mr. Pettigrew, you both have detention with me tonight." He told them.

"Er, professor? I already have detention with Professor McGonagall tonight." Peter replied, not even questioning why they had detention. I suppose they were so used to it by now that it was built into their schedules.

"Very well then, you have detention tomorrow night, Mr. Pettigrew." Slughorn said. Then, he turned to the board and started teaching whatever he was teaching. I didn't bother listening, because I had already read the chapter and even brewed the potion, at home. I was falling asleep when a note landed on my lap. It was from Remus.

Do you know what's wrong with James? He's been awfully quiet since that thing with Diggory.

I looked over at James. He was looking straight ahead, but not paying attention to Slughorn. His mouth was set in a straight line, and it looked like he was in deep thought.

Yeah, I did. Maybe he just has nothing to say?

I sent the note back and looked at Remus and shrugged. Remus sent the paper back

Just keep an eye on him.

When it was time to start our potion, I worked with James. He didn't say anything at all. I asked him to get the ingredients, and he got them. I asked him to pour them in when I told him to, and he did exactly as I said. And there were times when he sort of zoned out into deep thinking for a few minutes, but then he'd go back to not talking. When James wasn't looking, I scribbled a note to Remus.

Remus, he's not talking, at all. I'm kind of worried now.

I flew it over to where he was. He read it and shot me a worried glance. He scribbled something back and when James wasn't looking, he sent it back.

Ask him, once you finish your potion.

I looked up and nodded. We were almost finished, but I felt bad for Remus, who was working with Peter, who was pretty clumsy when it came to Potions. When James and I did finally finish our potion, I took a breath.

"James, are you alright? You've been awfully quiet." I asked hesitantly. He looked at me for a few seconds before telling me.

"Yeah, I've been thinking, like is this how it's going to be all year? Today's just the first day and every guy who's single is already after you! It's crazy. And now that they're older, they won't be scared away as easily they used to. And then there's this whole mental battle going on in my head because I want to protect you even more, but I know that you wouldn't like that. And then I'm worried about my stress levels right now because I'm worrying so much! I didn't expect you to become twice as hot over summer, if that was even possible, and become the bait of every single guy in the school! And-"

"James, honestly." I cut him off. "Are you REALLY worried about that? This'll just go on until they find out what Mary's become. Because once they all realize there's a new single girl who's perfectly willing to go out with any of them, they'll all start after her. This won't last long. A few days, max. It's obviously easier to get a single girl to go out with you rather than one that's taken. And, you should know that I'd rather die than cheat on you. Everything will be fine and this will all blow over before you know it." I told him reassuringly. This boy worried about the smallest things. He smiled at me and held my hand. I took a quick look around the room, and noticed that the number of people in this class was fairly small. Then again, these were the Slytherins, and this was Advanced Potions. Of all the Slytherins, the only one I could name was Snape, who was glaring angrily at either me or James. He looked away once he saw that I was looking at him. A few minutes later, Remus sat down in his seat next to me.

"If Peter would stop being so scared of Slughorn, he'd do a lot better in Potions, that's how he passed with an E." He sighed. I laughed. That kid was honestly full of surprises. I looked over at Sirius, who was with the girl. He was being his flirty self, but this time around, there was something different with the way he did it. It was like he took it all as a joke. Maybe he really was serious about giving up girls.

"You know, Quidditch tryouts are going to be later today, you want to come watch?" James asked. I nodded enthusiastically. Now that I was going out with James, I didn't have to pretend to be disgusted by Quidditch.


The late afternoon rolled around and James was ready to pull out his hair. I was in the middle rows, pretty high up, and I could see his anger and frustration clearly on his face, but I didn't know what. I couldn't hear from up here. The people who were already picked to be on the team looked a bit apprehensive about even being on the team now. I went down to the pitch, to see if I could soothe his anger a bit, and try to sort out what's wrong. I wasn't a prefect for nothing.

"James, what's the matter?" I asked, coming closer to him.

"Everything. Everything! We are missing a chaser!" He screamed, waving his arms around. "And I couldn't put Sirius as beater, those two over there were a perfect team." He whispered to me. I nodded understandingly and looked around at the crowd. There were quite a lot of people who were still hopeful. My eyes landed on a rather skinny and small boy. He looked like he was in his third year. I looked back at James, then to Sirius, and remembered something.

"I have an idea." I told James. "You can play chaser! You said that you played chaser while trying to teacher Sirius to be a beater, right? And you're perfect for it, you're getting too tall to play seeker anymore. And that kid," I pointed to the third year, "Can be your new seeker." I told him. His eyes went wide and his mouth formed an O. He slapped a hand to his forehead.

"Why didn't I think of that? That's absolutely genius, Lily!" He picked me up and spun me around. After returning me to the ground he looked at his two chasers, two beaters and keeper. "Alright guys, I'm going to try to join you as a Chaser, and you," He pointed to the boy, "Will be Seeker. What's your name?"

"John Aplinian." The small boy replied, stepping forward.

"Okay, everyone except these six, get in the stands if you want to stay, or just leave if you don't." Most people left to stay. I sat next to Sirius in the bleachers.

"So are you upset about not making it?" I asked him.

"Nah, I figured this might happened. Those guys are really good. Besides, it might give me more opportunity to do more pranking!" He smiled evilly. I groaned to myself. When will the boy grow up? I looked towards the Quidditch Pitch. It was working perfectly. The chasers worked pretty well together, and with a little practice, they could be extraordinary. James was a bit rusty because he'd played seeker for the entire three years he'd been on the house team. John was doing pretty well, though. He seemed to have adopted James' strategies pretty quickly. He stayed above the pitch, directly in the center. Occasionally, he'd move around, but his movements were quick. His broom was pretty good, too. It was the newest Cleansweep.

"Okay, guys, you six are definitely on the team. Everyone else, better luck next year!" James said, getting down from his broom. I got down from the bleachers and ran towards James.

"That was good, especially since you guys never practiced together before." I told him.

"Yeah, and thanks for the idea, by the way, it was completely genius. I had no idea you knew that much about Quidditch!" He told me, excitement lighting up his face.

"Oh, yeah, I read Quidditch through the Ages once. And I've read other Quidditch-related books. And I did play a few times at Mary's house. But I'm not that good, at all." I told him, turning a little red. I could only fly around a little, and at a certain speed. I could turn, but not well.

"Maybe I can teach you one day?" He asked, hopefully. I nodded.

"Definitely." We walked back to the castle, hand-in-hand, as the sun set behind us.


A/N:

Hey guys, glad I got this chapter in! It took me all week, writing an hour per day, staying up pretty late to write it. I'm proud of myself. :)

A big thanks to you guys who reviewed, favorited, etc. I REALLY appreciate it!

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Love,
SAM :)