Such Sweethearts
By Lily Orange
Summary: How did James Potter and Lily Evans fall in love? And how did their friends fare romantically? Will Sirius "I have rampant hormones" Black ever settle down? Will Lizzie and a certain Marauder ever admit their feelings for one another? And will Rebecca "Sexy French Girl" Villade ever find true love?
Disclaimer: Sadly I'm not JK Rowling and don't own any of the characters, locations or general things you recognise from Harry Potter.
A/N: Hello! Thank you to lily-james-forevs, vanillabean18, Stephie Cat-Kat, xExpectoxPatronumx, sarlovesoccer and Freya-Rhianna for reviewing and thank you to .AwwLookTheSkyIsCrying., Bathsheaba and Little-Moony37 for adding my story to your favourites :) This chapter is a biggun so I hope you like it!
Chapter Twenty-Four
OLD FRIENDS AND NEW RELATIONSHIPS
The walk ended up with Remus, Rebecca and Eden walking back and each of the three couples finding solace behind the large oak trees. By solace, I don't think I need to describe what I am insinuating.
But pretty soon, we found ourselves back at the house, and being ushered into a pretty immense dining room to eat dinner. The walls in this room were covered in damask once again, with many more portraits in gold frames stuck up. I noticed they all moved, like the portraits at Hogwarts. I hadn't a clue who any of them were, but I liked them all the same.
"So, do you like the house?" Mrs Potter asked – by Mrs Potter I mean James' Gran, except I can't keep calling her James' Gran.
"It's amazing," Lizzie said, beaming at them, whilst sipping the vegetable soup. It was lovely and warming, as the air had cooled down much in the evening that day.
Suddenly, James leaped up, much to the amusement of everyone else at the table.
"Er, sorry," he apologised, embarrassed, "but you said you had something to tell us earlier? And you wouldn't except my offer of a badger?"
"Oh yes, I remember," Mr Potter smiled. "Well, your Gran and I decided that it would be nice for you to have something to do whilst you're here, so we bought you some tickets to go and see a play on at the local theatre."
I loved the theatre, and immediately started grinning.
"Wow, what play?" Rhiannon asked, sharing my love for the theatre.
"I think you may know it – it's Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare," he replied.
"I love that play so much!" I gasped.
"What's it about?" Sirius asked, exampling his incredible lack of knowledge of anything outside the magical world.
"It's about a young couple who fall in love, except their families hate each other, and they have to run away in secret to be married, and in the end the plan put in place by the friar causes them to kill themselves for their love," Lizzie explained.
"Well thanks for telling me the ending!" Sirius sniffed, and everybody laughed.
"And I invited some of your old friends, James, Sirius," he continued.
"Oooooh, who?" James said in a really high-pitched, girly voice. I laughed.
"Do you remember Tana, from the village?" he said.
"Oh yes," Sirius said, in a distinctly suggestive tone which made Lizzie glare at him.
"I thought you might," Mr Potter winked, "but anyway, she's coming and she's bringing her friend, a boy called Spike?"
"Interesting name," Remus commented.
"But she works in a shop in the village, so you could always go down and see her," Mrs Potter told them, as the roast beef was bought in for the main course.
*
It ended up that only James, Sirius, Lizzie and I went to the village. Rhiannon and Jasper were somewhat preoccupied in a secluded area of the garden, and Eden, Remus and Rebecca wanted to complete a Transfiguration essay. Naturally, James and Sirius had found this hilariously funny – until they were silenced by two steely glowers from their respective girlfriends.
It was only about two miles to the village, so we walked – even though Sirius offered to drive us there on his motorbike. We politely declined, preferring to keep our lives with us.
"So is Tana a witch?" I asked James.
"No... but she knows about us," James replied.
"Whoever told her is breaking the law!" I exclaimed a little over dramatically, but concerned, nonetheless.
"Yes, Lily, I know, but her sister is a witch. Muggle-born, and Tana didn't have the magical abilities like her. You know Eleanor Bloom in Hufflepuff, the year above us? That's her sister. She's not bitter about it, more interested than anything," James told me.
"So a bit like me and my sister? Except she's not malicious and covetous with a distinct lack of flirting skills and a horsy face?" I said.
James laughed heartily. I loved it when I made him laugh.
"No, she most definitely isn't malicious, covetous with a distinct lack of flirting skills and a horsy face," he clarified, amused.
"So you can vouch for the fact she doesn't have a distinct lack of flirting skills?" I teased, smiling.
"I can't, but Sirius can," he grinned.
"Another one of his conquests?" I asked.
"Yep. They went out for about three hours, if I remember rightly. When we were twelve – it was for about three hours before he got a Christmas card from Lizzie, and then he dumped her for Lizzie, thinking it was practically a declaration of love... except the bloody idiot didn't get with her until last Christmas, four years overdue!" James chuckled.
"He was such a womanizer!" I said sharply.
"Hmmn, seems to have given it up now," James pointed out.
"Yeah, they do seem smitten," I said, watching Lizzie and Sirius walking in front of us, her leaning into his shoulder and he stroking her hair.
"And I know another couple who are smitten," he said.
"Oh, who?"
"Does this answer?" he asked, and then kissed me.
The village was very pretty, and James and Sirius led us to the shop where this Tana was working. It was a kind of vintage clothes shop – I noticed a twenties flapper dress much like Lizzie's on one of the mannequins in the window, and a fifties style full skirted dress patterned with giant pink roses.
Inside, the shop was a bit like a treasure trove – bits of jewellery snaked the walls, interesting clothes stimulated attention and there was a glittering mirror ball hanging from the ceiling. It was a bit like a cross between a disco and the costume department at the theatre.
"Ohmigosh! James, Sirius?" came a voice from the desk. A tall, blonde girl with big eyes was grinning at the two boys.
"It's us, Tana!" James said. Tana came out from behind the desk. She was dressed so cool – much like the clothes in the shop. She was wearing a wine red tunic dress with a wide black belt pulling it in at the waist, over black tights. On her feet were a pair of dark grey round-toed high heels made of some kind of suede fabric, with a large rose fashioned out of the same fabric on the toe. Around her wrists were numerous silver, grey, red and black bracelets, and around her neck was a long silver pendant with a large heart charm on the end. Her long blonde hair was tied into a messy bun, with some tendrils coming out at the front, framing her face. Her lips had been coated with a sugary pink lipstick, complementing the wine red of the dress, and her eyes had been lined with black pencil. She was striking – she was beautiful.
She hugged James – James was tall, around six foot two, but Tana must have been around five foot nine or something because she wasn't that much smaller than him, and with her heels on, almost reached his height. She hugged Sirius – who was about an inch or two taller than James, and did look petite next to his height.
"Tana, there's two people we'd like you to meet," Sirius said – he took Lizzie's hand, and pulled her forward. "This is my girlfriend, Lizzie."
"Hi," Tana said, and she hugged Lizzie. She was so friendly. Lizzie hugged her back, also an incredibly pleasant person, and smiled.
"Hi, I love what you're wearing!" Lizzie complemented. I saw the awe in Lizzie's eyes. She had an eye for fashion – and was an avid follower of Muggle fashions, but made them a style all of her own. Today, she was wearing a red polka dot shirt, and a high-waisted red skirt which came to about an inch or two above her knee, that flared out slightly. Over the top was a slouchy dark grey cardigan, with some silver pins on it, matching the silver charm bracelet around Lizzie's wrist, a present from me and Rhiannon for her sixteenth birthday last year. She was wearing a pair of the coolest shoes ever – they were black, but with little red and white bits of glitter shimmering on them. Fashion-wise, Lizzie and Tana were matched.
"And this is my girlfriend, my precious, Lily," James introduced me with a note of possessiveness in his voice, which I loved.
"Hi, it's really nice to meet you both," she smiled, hugging me.
I felt inferior to Tana's fashionable exterior. What I had believed to be a suitably nice outfit now looked like dragon dung compared to what she was wearing. Seeing as, although it was August, it wasn't particularly warm, I had put on my charcoal skinny jeans, a blue checked shirt which was open to my waist with a white vest top underneath it, and a studded black leather belt around my hips. I had shoved my feet into a pair of navy blue Converse – my favourite comfy shoes. I suppose compared to my flaming red hair, the blue contrasted nicely.
While Tana, James and Sirius gossiped about old times – I noticed the three hour relationship was not mentioned – Lizzie and I looked around the shop.
I had an armful of things to try on, and when I went to ask Tana if I could, Tana beamed and said, "Yes, of course – but I have a really nice sequined silver dress, sixties style, in the back room. Just come in. I reckon you will love it – it'll look really good on you!"
I smiled, and Tana produced the dress, which was covered in so many sequins it looked like fish scales – in a good way, of course!
I took to the changing rooms, and every time I tried on an outfit, they all showered me with complements, and Tana found random bits of jewellery and accessories to go with them – it was like she was a professional stylist or something!
"So Tana, where do you go to school?" Lizzie asked, interested. I could hear them speaking.
"I'm starting college in September, then I'll go to university," she told Lizzie, playing with her endless amounts of bracelets.
"What to study?"
"Geography. I want to travel the world some day, so I'd better know something about it!"
"No way! I loved Geography in primary school – I love travelling too!"
"I really want to go to the Caribbean, but I also want to go to Paris... Rome... New York... Cairo... Sydney..." she drifted off dreamily.
"Guys, I don't think I can come out wearing this dress, it's a bit short!" I called out, surveying myself in the mirror. It reminded me of when I looked into the mirror when I first went to Diagon Alley.
"I don't mind!" James replied – I could practically hear him grinning wickedly.
"We all know you wouldn't," Lizzie said. Then I heard a kind of injured grunt. "Lily, if you didn't know, I just elbowed him."
"Thank you," I replied curtly.
"Just show us anyway, Lily," Lizzie told me.
I exited the dressing room, wearing the sequined dress. It had a high neckline, and was sleeveless – and also came down to the tops of my thighs, showing off all of my legs.
"Whoa baby!" Sirius smirked.
"Oi, mate, that is my girlfriend you're drooling over," James said indignantly.
"Sorry mate, but she looks bloody hot," Sirius announced. Lizzie looked at him in disgust.
"Yes she does, but I'll say it, thank you! Lily you look absobloodylutely gorgeous," James commented.
I smiled at him, amused.
"I think it's too short," I declared, smoothing it down.
"I don't," James offered.
"Do we need a reprisal of my elbowing you?" Lizzie asked sweetly. Tana laughed.
"Perhaps if you wore it with tights?" Tana said.
"Still be too short," I said apologetically.
"We could always..." Lizzie drifted off.
"What?" I asked, intrigued.
"Lengthen it slightly..." she said. I got what she meant.
"You're not seventeen, though, yet!" I protested. Tana, James and Sirius looked completely bewildered.
"You are! So are Sirius and James!" Lizzie said.
"Okay. I'll lengthen it. Tana, I love the dress. Can I have it?" I asked. She looked confused, but smiled nonetheless.
"I'll buy it for you, my petal," James offered.
"James, you can't buy my dress for me," I smiled.
"Yeah I can!" he complained.
"Do you have twenty five–" I began.
"Galleons?" he grinned, "of course."
"–pounds," I finished.
"Pounds? What the bloody hell is a pou– oh, you mean muggle money? Er, no, I haven't," he said sheepishly. Sirius found this rather funny.
"Don't worry, I'll pay for it," I said, and he hugged me.
"You are so wearing that to the theatre," he whispered in my ear, and kissed my cheek.
"Ew, Prongsy!" Sirius moaned. "That is disgusting!"
"Come off it, Padfoot," James said, rolling his eyes at his friend.
"I hear you're coming to see Romeo and Juliet with us," Lizzie said, striking up conversation.
"Yeah, I'm bringing my friend, yeah, well, he's my friend, Spike," Tana replied.
"Cool," Lizzie replied.
"Tana, we're sorry, we'd better be going... we'll be back tomorrow, okay?" Sirius said, and hugged her. I watched Lizzie's expression at this. Being the girlfriend of the previously scandalous womanizer had taught her to be patient, as James had told me, old habits die hard. And although Sirius had become accustomed to being a one-woman man, sometimes I noticed Lizzie tensed slightly.
"Bye!" we all said, and exited the shop, me carrying the bag with the sequinned dress in.
Sirius and James went back to see Tana the following morning, whereas me and Lizzie stayed behind with the others – making a few alterations to my dress. I performed a lengthening spell so that it now reached three inches above my knees, as short as I was willing it to go.
At lunchtime, they came home and announced that Tana – and her friend Spike – were going swimming in the reservoir just north of the village that afternoon. So, believing it a good idea, we all dressed in our swimming costumes – me in my favourite red polka dot bikini – and put on some looser clothes on top.
I raced into James' room, wearing a long, loose shirt over my bikini and my feet in flipflops, for a quick moment of passion before we left.
He made all my worries dissolve away, and whenever I was with him I felt safe.
"Lily," he whispered in my ear.
"Yes, James?" I replied, my face buried into his shoulder, which smelt of his signature scent – I couldn't quite work out what it was, but it was uniquely his and whatever it was I loved it.
"I love you," he murmured.
"I love you too," I smiled, and we embraced.
*
At the reservoir, Tana came rushing over. Today, she had on an over-sized band t-shirt (AC/DC), with little denim shorts and strappy gladiator sandals, and a big set of colourful beads around her neck. Her hair was down, and casually wavy, and her eyes were absent of yesterday's kohl eyeliner, and framed by long eyelashes.
"Hey guys!" she said happily, beaming at us. James and Sirius quickly introduced her to Remus, Jasper, Rhiannon, Rebecca and Eden and we all raced towards the water.
"Last one in is a pile of dragon dung!" Sirius yelled, as he picked Lizzie up and lifted her, like a fireman, over his shoulder. She squealed in laughter, and Sirius raced into the water. Our pile of towels and bags lay forgotten by where we'd met Tana.
"Come on Lily!" James screamed, he already had hold of my hand but he lifted me like a bride and carried on sprinting towards Sirius – beating Remus, Rebecca and Eden by a mile.
Soon we were all in, splashing each other, when Sirius suddenly declared, "You know, I think it's time for a song."
"Oh Merlin, Sirius, no!" Lizzie screeched dramatically.
"What's so wrong with Sirius' singing?" Tana asked me, confused.
"Well, let's put it this way – he is no Aretha Franklin," I replied. I noticed a boy came over to her, and smiled.
She beamed back at him. "Lily, this is Spike."
"How do you do?" I smiled at him. He was tall, with spiky brown hair and a tanned body.
"Listen everyone! I am going to sing us all a song in honour of the fact that it is summer, and we are free of school, and... and... er... quite frankly, I just wanna sing a bloody song!" Sirius finished.
"Sing it! Sing it!" chanted James and Remus.
"Alright, alright, this is one for my one and only Lizzie, who is, er, not called Rosalie, but is pretty damn amazing – and I'll substitute her for Rosalie, who is in fact nobody I know!" Sirius grinned, and Lizzie smiled bashfully as he put his arm around her – but was also slightly bewildered by Sirius' nonsensical explanation.
"Get ready for the screeching..." I whispered to Tana, who giggled.
"SHE'S QUITE A MEDIATOR! SMOOTHER OPERATOR YOU WILL NEVER SEE!" Sirius began, bellowing. Luckily, we were the only people at the reservoir, and were standing in it, but I bet they could hear us in the village with the loudness of Sirius' voice.
"SHE KNOWS MUSIC! I KNOW MUSIC TOO, YOU SEE! SHE GOT THE POWER! THE TEEN QUEEN LI-IIII-ZZIE! LI-IIII-ZZIE!" he yelled, drawing out the syllables in Lizzie's name to make it fit.
"Okay... let's bring some music to the waves, Marauder style!" James caterwauled. I looked at him cautiously – his voice wasn't as bad as Sirius, but it wasn't very good...
"I GOT THIS FEELING INSIDE!" James shrieked.
"CAN'T EXPLAIN!" Remus chorused in the background.
"A CERTAIN KIND!" Sirius yelled, clapping his hands in the air, which Spike, Tana, Rhiannon, Eden, Rebecca, Lizzie and I joined in with.
"DIZZY IN THE HEAD AND I'M FEELING BLUE!" Remus sang, quite tunefully for the Marauders.
"I KNOW WHAT IT MEANS, BUT..." Sirius sang in a voice that could only be likened to a cat being strangled.
"CAN'T EXPLAIN! I THINK IT'S LOVE! TRY TO SAY IT TO YOU! WHEN I FEEL BLUE!" James bellowed.
"OI, you lot!"
We all spun round, to see a group of teenagers, perhaps a little older than us. There were three boys and two girls – the girls dressed in skimpy bikinis and covered in makeup, and the boys looking distinctly disgruntled.
"Yeah?" James yelled back.
"Could you keep the bloody noise down? We're trying to relax here and you're making it bloody difficult!" one of the boys yelled aggressively.
"Sorry, mate," Sirius said apologetically. "What's your name?"
"My name?" the boy repeated incredulously, looking as if he thought revealing his name would make Sirius and James chop his head off or something.
"Yep, dude," James rolled his eyes.
"I'm Malcolm," the boy replied.
"And your lovely friends?" James asked.
I noticed the slutty girls blushing at this – how dare they blush at my boyfriend?
"Loretta, Dennis and Daphne," he replied.
"Well we're awfully sorry, Malcolm, Loretta, Dennis and Daphne," Sirius shouted in an apologetic voice.
We turned back to each other, we were standing in a huge circle in the water.
"Is anyone thinking what I'm thinking?" Sirius grinned.
"Well, your brain is very limited Padfoot so I'm guessing... it either concerns: girls, food, pranks?" Remus said innocently.
"Hey! That's so presumptuous!" Sirius growled.
"And accurate?"
"Well, yes, but that's not the point. Who feels like giving our lovely friends a lovely show?" Sirius said mischievously.
"I think we should," Spike agreed.
"Okay then..." Jasper said, and we all nodded.
"PEOPLE TRY TO PUT US DOWN! TALKIN' BOUT MY GENERATION! JUST BECAUSE WE GET AROUND!" we all bellowed in unison, laughing our heads off, tears streaming down our faces, when we saw the looks on the faces of Malcolm and his friends.
"YEAH BABY!" James hollered.
Swimming in the reservoir was fun – we had even managed to annoy somebody else with our admittedly tuneless singing. It didn't get much better than that.
One thing I observed was that Sirius was flirting with Tana. A lot. It wasn't as full on flirtation as when he was with Lizzie, but it was really weird. Lizzie seemed to have noticed it too.
"Prongs! Race you back to Potter House!" Sirius roared, much to the annoyance of Malcolm and his no-brained friends, "grab you're floozy and we'll run!"
Floozy? I really questioned what went on in his mind.
James immediately grabbed me, holding me like a bride, and began to run.
"James!" I squealed.
"Yes, my petal?" he grinned, looking over his shoulder at Lizzie and Sirius who were quickly gaining on us.
"I'm still wearing only a bikini!" I said, blushing.
"I seriously don't mind!" James replied audaciously.
As soon as we were on Potter turf (before Sirius and Lizzie, may I add) we cheered loudly and James lifted me above his head like a trophy. I dreaded to think what other people would say if they saw us – a tall, black haired boy in long shorts holding a red-haired girl above his head who was wearing only a red polka dot bikini – and an approaching couple, the boy dressed like the first but with long, curly, dark brown hair carrying a blonde girl wearing a flowery teal bikini.
"Padfoot, me and my petal are going for a walk," James grinned.
"Don't worry, I have a mission," Sirius winked, and grabbing Lizzie's hand ran off to the others, including Tana and Spike who had caught up with us.
"What on earth was that about?" I asked, very confused at this point.
"Haven't the foggiest. That boy's brain works in mysterious ways!" James replied, equally as perplexed as me. "Shall we walk?"
I nodded.
"Come now, Mr Potter," I smiled at him.
"Okay, Mrs Pott– I mean, Miss Evans," he corrected himself, mortified. I blushed involuntarily.
Thanks for reading! Please review for the next chapter which involves some drama at the theatre, on and off stage! I hope you liked the songs in this chapter -
:) x Lily Orange x (: