Well another day another chapter!
Chapter 21 : To Azkaban – With Love
It was the following Thursday at lunchtime, before James ventured into the Great Hall again. He had been informed of Sirius' run in with Lily, and anxious not to go through it himself, had spent all meals times and any spare time locked up in his room. It had taken until Wednesday night for Sirius and Remus to convince the house-elves not to bring him food to his room anymore, and James had lasted less than a day on an empty stomach.
There was much cheering from the Marauders as he took his seat beside Sirius.
"Told you he wouldn't last past lunchtime!" Peter squealed excitingly, whilst pointing his finger at Sirius.
"Yes but you didn't specify which lunchtime Wormtail, you could have meant lunchtime tomorrow, so the five Galleons is still mine," Sirius replied smoothly. Peter sat back dejected in his seat. "See that wasn't difficult was it?" he continued, turning his attention to James.
"Yea, so far so good," James replied, whilst casting a wary eye round the room. "Did I miss anything?"
"What you mean when you placed yourself in solitary confinement?" Sirius laughed. James nodded feebly. "Well Caitlin and Lily are friends again so you're off the hook." James gave an audible sigh of relief.
"When did that happen?" he asked, whilst tucking into some mash potato.
"The morning after," Sirius said with a grin. James let his fork drop out of his mouth.
"You mean I've locked myself in my room for nearly a week? Dreaded coming out for classes and my Head Boy duties? And this was all sorted the day after?!" The rest of the Marauders fell about laughing. "Oh you know what, screw you guys!" James started back into his mash potato as the others began to compose themselves.
"You know maybe we were protecting you from something else!" Sirius whispered into James' ear, as he felt someone grab his left hand.
"Jamie," drawled a sickly sweet voice into his other ear. "Haven't seen you in a while, where you been?"
"Uh..." James didn't quite know how to react in a situation like this, he looked around the table for some help from his friends but got none. "Well..."
"What he means Avril, is that 'that is none of your business, so would you please fuck off?'!" James and Avril turned around at the same time, to find Caitlin standing directly behind them.
"Thank you," James mouthed to her. It wasn't exactly the way he would have put it but he was grateful all the same.
"Avril move, James and I need to talk," Caitlin ordered. Avril was obviously smarter than she looked, because she did exactly as she was told, and moved down the bench enough so Caitlin could sit between her and James. "Move further," Caitlin barked again. "I can still smell you," she added under her breath. Avril moved further down the table and joined in a conversation with some 5th years.
"Jamie," Caitlin said as soon as she was out of earshot, mimicking her drawl perfectly. She grabbed James' hand as well, but this time it felt more like he had it trapped in a vice.
"You know, it was a lot sweeter when she did it," James said pointedly.
"Oh sorry," said Caitlin in mock concern. "Am I hurting you James?" She lifted his hand off the table, and brought it back down with a tremendous thump.
"You know, as your Head Boy, I forbid you to break my hand," James protested, wincing through the pain. He also took the time to notice that his friends were doing absolutely nothing to stop this.
"So it's true then?" Caitlin asked sharply, letting go of his hand.
"Is what true?" James knew exactly what she was talking about, but he thought his best chance of survival was to feign ignorance.
"That your going to the ball with Avril," Caitlin hissed. James nodded. "You asked THAT to a ball?!"
"No!" James answered boldly. "That's not true, I didn't ask her! So you can't be mad at me now!" James turned back to his potato, hoping desperately that this conversation was over.
"So she asked you then?" James nodded again, his mouth full of potato. "And did you say yes?" James was about to give her an answer when Sirius interrupted.
"Cait, I don't mean to be rude, but it's a bit obvious that he said yes," he pointed out.
"Yes I know that's the obvious answer, but I was hoping that he actually said no and she mistook him. That would mean we could sort out this horrible mess quickly. Now we're going to have to do it the hard way."
"What do you mean?" James asked a bit fearfully.
"Well James, you're going to go over there right now and tell her you're not going with her."
"WHAT?! I can't do that! That's awful!"
"Yea, I mean it's only two weeks 'til the ball," Sirius added.
"And it's almost Christmas," Remus continued. "'Tis the season for good will among men." Caitlin gave him a disdainful look. "No good will in you Caitlin?" She continued her look. "Alright then." She turned her attention back to James.
"Go over there now," she said reaching for his hand again, he snatched it away just in time.
"No," he replied firmly. He was after all, Head Boy, Quidditch Captain and a member of the Marauders, and there was no way he was going to let himself be pushed around by some girl, especially when she wasn't even his girlfriend.
"Do it!" Caitlin ordered again.
"Cait, why should he?" Sirius asked a little tetchily.
Caitlin smirked.
"Because if he doesn't," she replied coolly. "I'll go and stand on top of the teachers' table and announce to the whole school that the Head Boy is an illegal animagus!"
James and Sirius gasped in mock horror, while Peter let out a strangled whimper. Remus, meanwhile, seemed to turn a funny grey colour. James placed his hand in front of him across the table.
"Moony relax, she won't actually," he reassured him.
"You sure about that James?" Caitlin asked, slowly raising her eyebrow.
"Nah, you're bluffing," Sirius confirmed, placing an affirming hand on James' shoulder.
"Well, we'll see," Caitlin replied cryptically.
"Caitlin, I don't think you understand," began Remus, ever the voice of reason. "If you tell about Prongs, he won't lose his badge or get detention or anything like that. Hell, he won't even be expelled. If you tell, he'll be put in Azkaban."
Everyone shuddered at the very thought.
"Yes, exactly Caitlin. Are you telling me if I don't go and tell Avril I won't accompany her to the ball, you're going to put me in Azkaban?"
Before Caitlin could answer, Professor Dumbledore rose to his feet and the whole room fell into silence. The expression he wore was very grave, and James was sure he was not the bearer of good news.
"School your attention please," Dumbledore asked, as he clapped his hands together. "I'm afraid that it is my duty to inform you that there has been another attack by Lord Voldemort. A number of pupils' families have been affected. They have been informed and are at the moment being counselled by members of the Ministry.
"In this recent climate, it has been decided by myself, and the rest of the staff, that it would be most beneficial for you all to return home at Christmas to spend some time with your families. Because of this, it is with great sadness that I have decided to cancel the Yule Ball."
A great amount of whispering and upset followed these words. Only one figure stood out against the backdrop of disappointment in the hall.
James punched the air with a triumphant fist and then brought it back down again quickly, realising that innocent people had just been killed.
"At least your happy Prongs," Remus said a little bitterly.
"Yea well," James answered, feeling guilty himself. "At least I'm not going to prison."
"At least not for now anyway." With that Caitlin got up and left them, allowing Avril to come racing over to James.
"Oh no!" she squealed as she sat down beside him, trying to grab his hand again.
"I know," he replied, pretending to scratch his head with it. "It's a big fat bummer." Somewhere behind him, James could hear Sirius stifle a laugh. Beside him, he could see the tears welling up in Avril's eyes.
"Listen Avril... I promise... the next ball... I'll take you, ok?" He would say anything to stop her from crying; her face was ugly enough without it going all red and puffy.
After Avril left, her face beaming, Remus was the first one to question James' promise.
"Look this way everybody wins. We didn't have to watch her cry, and she thinks that I don't think that she's about as attractive as a mountain troll." The rest of the Marauders were clearly not as enthused with his reasoning. "Besides, when have you known Hogwarts to throw any other ball apart from the Yule one? And by next Christmas we'll have left anyway! Honestly, it's win-win!" James finally began to start in properly on his lunch.
"I don't know Prongs," mused Remus. "Sounds like that one is going to turn round and bite you on the arse."
-----------------
A week later it was the last day of term, and a few of the seventh years were a bit regretful that they wouldn't be able to have their final Christmas in Hogwarts.
"It's just not going to be the same you know," moaned Frank Longbottom. "Hogwarts is just so Christmassy, with the decorations and the snow outside."
"Yea I know what you mean," agreed Scarlet.
"And you know what? I would have liked to have spent my last Christmas in Hogwarts with you guys!" he added a bit formally.
"Awwwwwwwh," said the group in unison.
"You mean you prefer us to you're mother, Longbottom?" Remus asked. The group began to laugh a little.
"No," Frank stated firmly. "I love my mother, I'd love to spend Christmas with her. She's not standing behind me is she?" The group began to laugh harder.
"Well, I'm going to have to love you and leave yous," James said, getting up from where he was sitting on the floor of the common room.
"Awh but James you're ruining our moment!" Caitlin protested.
"Yea, but I haven't packed yet so I'll have to go. Why don't you all give each other a group hug while I'm gone?" James answered mockingly.
"Ok," Caitlin replied enthusiastically.
"Yea I'll think I'll go with Prongs," Sirius said quickly, and got up from his seat just as fast.
The two boys walked away from the others and started to head up to James' room.
"So are you going to do it again this year then?" Sirius asked eagerly.
"What? You mean New Years?" Sirius nodded. "Of course, I'll send out the invites next week."
They walked on a bit further up the stairs. Sirius obviously had something on his mind.
"Uh... Caitlin wants to know if you're inviting Lily this year?"
James stopped, and stared hard at his best friend.
"Well whatever, I mean it's your party," Sirius added. They both started to walk again.
"Well, to tell you the truth I'm not sure, but I'll probably not. Just to be safe. If I did I'd probably just end up fighting with her and ruining it for everyone. I mean you wouldn't want me ruining your New Years would you?" He hit Sirius a playful punch on the arm to try and lighten the mood. Sirius looked at him seriously.
"I think you should invite her."
"What?! Why would you want her there? Sure you hate her! You had that big argument with her and everything!"
"I don't hate her," said Sirius categorically. "And I only had that argument with her because she was in the wrong. But then she realised she was wrong and apologised to Caitlin, and for that I respect her. I've even started calling her by her first name and everything," he finished proudly.
"Yea I noticed that."
They had reached the top of the stairs, and the lion cub portrait was waiting patiently for James to give the password.
"Look Padfoot, she may have apologised to Caitlin and you might respect her for it, but she hasn't apologised to me, so I still don't ok?!"
He may have uttered these words a bit too loudly, because just then the portrait swung open and a blur of red hair swept past both boys. Lily wasn't able to look either of them in the eyes, but James could still make out the tears falling down her face.
At that moment his mind was made up whether he should invite her to the party.
Well there you go another one! I don't know when I'll update again, maybe tomorrow, maybe in four months time. Anyway please review and tell me what you thought! Even if it's bad!
nightwanderer: Look I straightened it out! But I already said in chapter 19 that he was going with someone else, that wasn't a new thing. She was just lying a bit when she said he asked her.
Carmel March: Look! I updated really really really soon!
Oliverwoodschic: I know I was a bit sad I'd lost it too, but I've written it out again in a new notebook and I like it better this way anyway! So it's all good!
I love truegryffindorgrit: Yea whatever you were here when I wrote this! "You a big moose baby!"
elements-of-the-soul: No it used to be 39, but because I lost it I had to write it out in a new notebook and now it's 41! Well that's kind of how the conversation went only I see more as –
James walks down the staircase into the common room and punches some first year in the back of the head out of sheer frustration.
Tiny Tim: Hey! My head!
James: Shut up! I'm Head Boy and I can do whatever I want!
Everyone runs out of the room screaming, in case James Avada Kedavra their asses.
James: I hate women! And anything female related!
Avril: James do you want to go to the ball with me?
James: Yes! Because you look like a man!
luvsirius: Thanks! Yea I know, it took me long enough!
CanadianBlueberries: Well James doesn't care if he breaks Avril's heart either. Thanks for reviewing!
Jillie: Hey! We have the same name! I don't understand though? What did I do to Sirius?
randomfrizzhead: Yea the characters will fight a lot in this story, I'm a very violent person. Jk! What do you mean by fuzzy feeling?
Lil Bazza: A good story without drama is crap! Anyway I hope it's fair now!