A/N: Oh my gosh I actually had some hits! Yay! Now maybe we could turn those hits into reviews? Oh and thank you wikipedia for you defintion of a toad!
Disclaimer: sighsighsighsighsigh
A Weekend of Apologies
All throughout the week I managed to ignore Severus, which was a huge feat because we weren't used to being apart for more than a few days. He attempted to pass me notes during class but his attempts were futile because they were intercepted by Potter. Though I could care less if he read the notes I couldn't get rid of the feeling of being spied on. I mean, who knows what Severus was putting in those notes.
The weekend came quickly. My week had been filled with homework and class was mostly spent copying notes and very little wand work was used.
When I woke up on Saturday morning, I realized I had slept in 'til 10:32. Molly, who had been freezing me and Jenna out since our first encounter with her, was, of course, still sleeping. Jenna however was nowhere in sight. I took a shower and dressed in just a plain yellow t-shirt and some exercise shorts, because the weather was still pretty warm for this time of year. When I got to the common room, Jenna was talking to Sirius.
That's pretty weird because they were all alone. What was even weirder than that is that Sirius is up this early!
"Oh hey Lily," Jenna waved me over. "I just asked Sirius here if he and the guys would like to join us and Jackson.
"I of course said yes," Sirius squealed. Yes, Sirius squealed. Noticing this he attempted to correct himself. "I umm, just thought that if I were hanging out with a group then my horrendous family wouldn't bug me about being a Gryffindor. And of course I wouldn't mind taking some time to get to know some more about you Jenna."
Clearly this sentence took Jenna's mind off of Sirius' "unmanly" moment.
"Let me just get the guys and we'll get going." But before I could protest he was already bounding up the stairs.
"So, umm Jenna what did you plan on us doing today?" I mean we hadn't really discussed what we were going to do. Hanging around the common room was out because Jackson wasn't a Gryffindor.
"Umm, well I hadn't really thought about that." She answered.
We heard footsteps on the stairs and soon saw a mess head of black hair- well messier than it usually was- followed by two more messy heads of hair, though they were not as bad.
"We better have something good planned for today or I'll have wasted a perfectly good day of sleeping." Potter said.
"Aww, did we interrupt your beauty sleep Potter? You're welcome to go back and leave us alone Potter."
"First of all, must you call me that?"
"Yes actually I must."
"Fine then Evans. Second, no you didn't interrupt my "beauty sleep". You could use some though."
"Okay okay calm down you two. Let's just try and have fun today." Remus intervened.
"So what exactly are we doing today?" The small boy who had mostly been hiding behind Sirius had finally piped up.
"Why don't we find Jackson and decide from there?" Jenna suggested.
We all agreed and soon found him in the Great Hall already eating. We joined him and when we had all had our fill- except for Sirius of course, you would think that boy hadn't eaten in weeks by the way he shoveled everything from pancakes to grits in his mouth- we went outside and settled under a large oak tree. It felt really nice out. Warm but the air had a slight breeze every now and then. We all sat in silence for a while until Sirius leapt up.
"So what do we want to do today? Sneak into the Forbidden Forest? Play a prank on Filtch?" Ugh Filtch the horrendously old caretaker. It was only my first week and he had already threatened me with detention just because I was "dawdling" around, when really I was just lost- again. I actually wouldn't mind doing that.
"How about we just go swimming in the Black Lake?" Jackson said.
"Fine." Sirius said sulkily.
We all trudged back up to the castle and went our separate ways with Jackson, and then with each other, heading into the girls and boys dormitories, though Sirius did start to follow me and Jenna, claiming he just "wasn't paying attention".
Luckily my mum, who had a strange way of knowing exactly what I would need when I was traveling, had packed me two swimsuits. One was a faded blue one-piece with yellow flowers on it, and the other was just plain orange. I was going to wear the orange one until I noticed there was a hole in it.
Hmm, holey or flowers? They would both be pretty embarrassing.
That's when Jenna walked out of the bathroom wearing a bright red bikini with the letter J in rhinestones on the top.
"Is it too much?" She asked me.
"Umm maybe just a little."
"Eh, whatever, I won't really be swimming much anyway."
While she started putting stuff into a bag to take I was still wondering which swimsuit to wear. The hole was rather large so that pretty much rules that out. Flowers it is.
I went into the bathroom and started to get change but when I had put the thing on I noticed it seemed too tight. Uh oh.
"Hey Jenna," I called out to the door.
"Yeah Lily?"
"I hate to ask but do you think I could borrow one of your swimsuits?"
"Yeah sure."
When I opened the door she had already pulled out four or five different ones.
"How much did you expect to go swimming?"
"Oh I don't really swim in these. They're just for tanning purposes."
"Umm okay."
"Here, this one will be perfect!" She shoved one into my hands before ushering me into the bathroom and shutting the door.
When I put it on I noticed it was a little loose but it'd do. It was a red one-piece with some sort of fluffy junk around the waist, like a tutu or something. Whatever. I'd just be swimming anyway.
Jenna's bag may look small but it sure can hold a lot. When I asked her what she had packed she went on and on naming things like sunscreen, towels, and even some umbrellas. I know, crazy.
When we got down to the Lake the boys weren't there yet. Figures.
Jena laid out her towel and handed me one. I took it and laid it down next to hers while putting on some sunscreen.
"Hey girls."
I looked up into the bright sun and saw Jackson standing over us with a shy smile on his face.
"Heyyyyy Jackson. Why don't you lay your towel down next to Lily's?" And then you know what she did? She winked at him when she thought I wasn't looking! I glared at her but she just gave me an innocent smile.
Soon after Jackson came Remus, Potter, Sirius and Peter.
"Hello girls! Don't worry we are here!" Sirius said looking around at everyone else who had gathered at the lake. We weren't the only ones who wanted to escape the heat.
"Gosh Lily what are you wearing?" Sirius said to me.
"It's my swimsuit Sirius! And I think it's cute." Jenna huffed.
I just laid there soaking up the rays while all of the guys except for Jackson were whispering to each other. That's probably not good. I felt myself starting to doze off. I hadn't gotten much sleep the past week. Not because I was in a new and strange place but because of Molly. Not only did she constantly ignore me and Jenna but she snored! I'm going to have to ask Professor Flitwick about how to stop her from keeping me up every night. Hmm, I wonder what we're going to have for-
That's when I felt it. Something cold, wet and slimy was sitting on my back! I screamed and jumped up to see a toad sitting on my towel. Potter and Sirius were in hysterics while Remus sat by talking to Jenna and Peter just looked confused.
"Potter what was that?"
"Well you see Evans, that was a toad. Now a toad is any of a number of species of amphibians in the order of Anura-"
"I know what a toad is Potter! I meant why exactly was it on me!"
"Don't blow your top Evans. We just wanted to have a little fun." Sirius said lazily.
"Fun? Fun? You couldn't have just gone swimming or something?" By now Jenna, Remus and Jackson were staring at us.
"Well I suppose-"Potter began.
"You suppose? Oh well that's just great!" I was tired of them. So before anyone could try and cool me down I had stormed off, heading back up to the castle.
I mean, why on Earth would they put a toad on me? Okay, so maybe I was being a bit barmy. It's just this past week has been so stressful. I had been so preoccupied with my thoughts I hadn't even noticed Severus trailing behind me and calling my name. I turned around and he quickly caught up to me.
"Lily, I was calling you. Didn't you hear me?"
"Oh sorry, I was too busy loathing James Potter."
"Yeah he's a real git isn't he? But that's not why I'm here. I just…I…I came to apologize Lily, for not saying anything to those daft third years. It was dumb of me to not say anything and you know I would never let anyone say anything bad to you."
"Okay. I believe you, but what exactly did they call me that was so bad?"
Sev shifted his eyes downward before answering me. "Umm, they called you a, a mudblood."
"What's a mudblood?"
"Shh, Lily. It's not exactly something you want people to hear you say!"
"Sorry. So what is a mudblood?" I asked again, lowering my voice.
"It's someone who is muggleborn. You see some witches and wizards don't take kindly to people who don't have non-magical ancestry. They think magic should only be taught and used by you if everyone in your family is magic as well. So umm mudblood sort of means dirty blood."
I just stared at him, probably with a shocked look on my face, without saying anything.
"Lily? Are you okay?"
"Just answer me one question."
"Sure, anything."
"Do you think I'm a mudblood?"
"Of course not Lily! And I would never call you that. Besides you're…never mind."
"I'm what?"
"Oh it's nothing…" It sure didn't sound like nothing. He was actually starting to blush!
"Tell me Sev? Please?"
"You're too pretty and nice to be anything as horrible as that."
"Hey Lily are you okay?" It was Jenna I saw standing next to me huffing and puffing with her bag slung over her arm filled to the brim.
"Oh yeah, I'm great."
"Oh 'cause you seemed pretty upset…Anyways how bout we get changed and get something to eat? I am famished."
I had forgotten I was still in the ruffled swimsuit. I could feel my cheeks warming when I thought that Severus had seen me wearing this.
"Umm yeah. I'll see you later 'k Sev?"
"Yeah okay, bye Lily." Did I detect disappointment in his voice?
When Jenna and I got to the Great Hall after changing, Potter was already there pigging out. Sirius waved Jenna over but she looked over at me and seeing my distaste of eating over there we sat further down and when Sirius gave her a look that said, "What gives?" she just harrumphed and turned towards me.
Shortly after we had started eating Remus came over.
"Hey Lily I'm sorry about the whole toad thing. I know James and Sirius would be sorry if ,you know, they thought about it."
"Thanks Remus but I'm pretty sure they wouldn't be sorry."
"Okay well bye."
When he went and sat back down I saw James and Sirius drawing on a large piece of parchment.
"So Lily, I talked to Jackson while you were "cooling off". Jenna interrupted my thoughts
"Umm okay? And how does that affect me?"
"Well I'm pretty sure I was right!"
"About what?"
"His crush on you of course!"
"He does not have a crush on me!"
"Oh really? Well I have a plan to figure out if he does or not-which he does!"
"Does not! And what exactly is this plan?"
"You'll see!"
In my whole 11 years of existence I had never cared for that phrase.
