Author's Note: I apologize for the delays. One word can sum all my problems up, it's a word associated with unnecessary over burdensome work that they call homework, horrible evil creatures called teachers, and exams of life and death that they call tests, I shudder even to mention it here. The-place-that-shall-not-be-named.

Sorry about the delay AGAIN. This year, I can't even begin to complain about this year, seriously I'll go off on a tangent for about 6 hours. Let's just say I started counting down the days until summer the day I went back a month ago.

Cursed

By HazelMist

Chapter 25: Surprise!

Professor Tomorrow walked down the dreary hallways. She was headed for the Potions classroom. As she walked, she wondered what she would find. The Professor had left two enemies with each other in the same room, and there was rumor that one of them had wandless magic abilities. Last time those two had been left in the same room alone, Lily Evans had supposedly lost her temper and done something horrible to James Potter. But that couldn't be, because the two of them had been seen after that, holding hands and kissing in the hallways. Then suddenly there was none of that, and Lily and James had gone back to being arch enemies. It made no sense at all. Professor Tomorrow told herself that she had to stop listening in on the student's gossip. It was too difficult to understand any way.

She entered the hallway, waiting for the shouts and arguing voices to meet her ears, but there was none of that. There was nothing but silence. Professor Tomorrow quickened her pace hoping that they didn't hurt each other, or worse, kill each other. It seemed unlikely, but this was Lily and James they were talking about. They could and would do serious damage to each other if they got the chance. The two young teenagers didn't know it, but they were very powerful.

At last the middle aged Professor arrived at the doorway. She heard a girl laugh. Lily was laughing, but that wasn't right. The Potions Professor stopped short and waited in the shadows. From her hiding spot she watched the classroom. Sure enough, Lily walked into view laughing. She looked, happy? Perhaps she had killed James.

But suddenly James appeared, sneaking up behind the innocent girl. Lily hadn't killed him after all. James grabbed Lily, causing her to shriek. Her shriek turned to laughter as he turned her around and pulled her into his arms.

Professor Tomorrow wondered if perhaps now she should step forward and prevent the murder. But instead she stayed silent, curious to see what was the meaning of their odd behavior.

James forced Lily to face him. She glanced up into his eyes and the laughter died away. Then all of a sudden the two teenagers leaned toward each other... and.... they...

Professor Tomorrow drew in a sharp breath and clutched her heart. Suddenly she was falling towards the ground, and everything went black.

"What was that?" Lily asked pulling away from James.

"I don't know. I think it came from the hallway."

James started towards the door with Lily following close behind. They peered out into the dark corridor but saw nothing that might arouse suspicion.

"That was weird." Lily remarked with a chuckle.

She turned around and was just about to go back into the classroom when she stumbled. She nearly tripped over an inanimate object lying in the darkness. Lily bent down, curious to see what she had tripped over. When she saw what it was, she gasped.

"James you better come and see this!"

James hurried to her side, and when he saw not what, but who it was that was lying on the floor, he couldn't help but laugh.

"Well if it isn't our friend Professor Tomorrow! She's enjoying the forces of gravity I see." James grinned. Lily rolled her eyes and scowled.

"Come on, help me get her into the classroom. She's too heavy for me to lift alone."

With James' help the two students were able to get the Professor into the classroom. They put her on a table.

"She's heavy! I think she should lay off on the roast lamb." James joked.

"Don't even start James!" But Lily was grinning as well.

"Do you think we should wake her? Or should we just leave her like this and look through her pockets and cabinets." James turned to Lily who once again marveled at James' life philosophy.

"Of course we're going to wake her! Honestly James, do you have a conscious?"

"As a matter of fact I do, and his name is Sirius Black."

Lily punched him playfully and started poking the professor. James meanwhile, went to the back of the classroom and filled up a cauldron of water.

"She's not waking up." Lily said nervously.

"Don't worry I've got just the thing." James came back with a cauldron filled with water.

Lily balked when she saw what James had in mind. She shook her head firmly.

"No way! I am not getting another detention!" Lily protested.

"Oh come on, it will be fun, you and me, and cauldrons in the Potions Classroom." James grinned mischievously and Lily simply couldn't refuse that grin. But she had to try to reason with him. As much as she'd love to see the Professor all wet, she did not need another mark on her record.

"Can't you use wandless magic and just wake her up with Enervate?" Lily asked him.

"Yea I guess we could do that, but wouldn't water be more fun?!"

"No James, use the spell." Lily ordered.

James groaned, but gave in. He put the cauldron back and rolled up his sleeves concentrating on the Professor.

"Wait a second... how did you know that I could do wandless magic?"

Lily was suddenly tongue tied. That was supposed to be a secret. But apparently Lily, with her big mouth, had made a tiny mistake.

"I just saw you use it! Remember?"

James looked thoughtful for a moment, but then he frowned.

"You knew though, before all this, didn't you?" He studied her with his brown eyes, and Lily helplessly tried to come up with another excuse.

"Um, I um, well you were really careless, you slipped up a couple of times a few years ago."

James wasn't fooled though. Lily was flushed and he could always tell by her eyes if she was lying. It was something he had noticed over the years that she did when she was lying.

"You're lying." James said bluntly.

"I know." Lily admitted. She was a terrible liar.

"Tell me the truth. Who told you? Or how did you find out?" He took a step closer to her, forcing her to look into his eyes. She couldn't lie to him. Sirius was going to be in trouble, and it was all her fault. But if she lied...

"I didn't figure it out. Sirius told me." Honesty won.

"Sirius told you?" James looked surprised.

"Yes. It kind of slipped out accidentally. He didn't mean to tell us." Lily drew in a sharp breath hoping he wouldn't be mad.

"Who else did he tell?"

"Only me, Diane and Mary. No one outside of our circle of friends."

James paused and did some thinking for a moment. He was probably thinking of some way to get Sirius back. And it was all her fault. Sirius was going to kill her.

"I guess I should have told everyone earlier. You would have found out anyway. No use keeping secrets." James said with a shrug. Lily exhaled.

"You mean you're not mad at Sirius or me?" She asked cautiously.

"No." James grinned. "How could I ever be mad at you flower." He quipped.

Lily blushed. But it was irony. They were always mad at each other. He had called her flower, though. Perhaps there was something there after all.

"It's Lily, not flower. You've forgotten my name already." Lily said half angrily. James turned to her and laughed.

"I'm sorry flower."

"Lily."

"Flower."

"Lily."

"Flower."

"Alright I give up!" Lily exclaimed.

The two teenagers laughed and James performed the enervate charm on the sleeping professor. Poor Professor Tomorrow, she was literally in for a rude awakening.

"What in Merlin's name is going on here?!" Those were the first words out of the Potion Professor's mouth. She sat up and stared at the two students with narrowed beady eyes.

"You were out in the hallway, unconscious. So we brought you in here and woke you up." Lily said timidly.

The Professor opened her mouth to say something, but then suddenly remembered what had caused her to faint. She held her tongue and got off the table.

"This classroom better be clean, from top to bottom, or else." She hissed.

Lily and James stepped away from her.

"It is, now can we leave." Lily was impatient to get away from the Potions professor. Why couldn't they have dumped the water on her when they had the chance?

"As long as everything is in order." The woman began marching around the classroom, making sure every little thing was sparkling clean. Lily and James were soon bored.

At last, she returned twenty minutes later, grumpily satisfied with the classroom and cauldrons.

"Here's your wands. Now get out of my sight!" She barked at them.

Lily and James took their wands and left the room. Lily started walking, but suddenly James yanked her back. He pointed into the classroom. A cauldron was innocently hovering above the Professor's head.

"Don't you dare James." But she was grinning like a Cheshire Cat.

The cauldron tipped over, soaking the Potions Professor from her dyed hair to her ugly shoes. A very wet and dripping Professor let out a high pitched shriek, and suddenly growled.

"POTTER! EVANS!"

But James had already grabbed a laughing Lily, and taken off down the hall.

Back in the common room, four Gryffindors had gathered and were waiting impatiently for their friends return.

"Do you think something happened to them?" Diane asked worriedly. She was walking a well worn path in the rug. Sirius was getting tired of having to follow her from one side of the room to the other, with his eyes.

"Diane, for Merlin's sake, quit pacing!" Sirius exclaimed.

Diane obediently stopped and went to the couch, sitting down beside her boyfriend. She sighed, and he put his arm comfortingly around her.

"I'm just nervous about what might have happened to them." She said laying her head down on his chest.

"I'm sure they're fine." Mary reassured her. She and Remus were engaged in a Chess match on the floor by the fire.

"You have eyes. Didn't you see what happened today in class?"

"Relax Diane. They did no damage to each other. It was only little spells." Mary concentrated on the board and then had her knight move forward. One of Remus' pawns went to her growing pile at the side of the board.

"Besides, they probably won't be allowed to use their wands." Remus pointed out. He moved another one of his pawns, and caught a bishop, that Mary had stupidly left out in the open. Mary grimaced and Remus smiled smugly as it went to his small pile.

"I think Professor Tomorrow is more of a threat to them, than they are to each other. Remus is right Diane. I don't think they'd be allowed to use their wands." Sirius stated truthfully.

"True. But remember what happened in the last detention?" Diane replied giving them something to think about. It was silent for a moment as each remembered the results of the previous detention where Lily had lost her temper.

"It wasn't so bad." Remus spoke up breaking the silence.

"Still, Lily could have killed him." Diane worried.

"I guess you're right." Mary sighed.

"If they don't come back in five minutes, I'm going after them." Diane said getting to her feet.

"Calm down, they can take care of themselves." Sirius pulled her back down.

"That's the thing, they can't! They're like two year olds. They'll kill each other." Diane tried to stand up, but Sirius placed a firm hand on her shoulder.

"They'll be fine, everything's going to work out." He told her softly.

"How can you be so sure?" She asked him, facing him for the first time.

Sirius grinned, getting everyone's attention.

"James, had a little talk with his conscious today." He smirked.

"Sirius you know that was stupid. Like James is going to listen to you, it's like saying Mary would ever beat me at chess" Remus was suddenly interrupted by Mary.

"Check mate." She said grinning.

"What?"

"I said check mate."

Remus stared at the board with wide eyes, trying to figure out what had gone wrong.

"Do you really think James is going to listen to you?" Diane snorted.

Sirius smirked as the portrait suddenly banged open and two red faced, laughing Gryffindor Seventh Years came into the common room.

"See for yourself." Sirius said smugly.

Lily and James looked up at the others, facing four pairs of eyes. It was then that Diane realized that Sirius had been right all along. One simple gesture, could speak louder then any word.

James was holding Lily's hand.

"Well, well, well look what we have here." Sirius said smugly, looking the two blushing teenagers over with a critical eye.

Diane was speechless, while Mary was stifling a giggle and Remus was too interested in the Chess board to notice. Lily and James suddenly became shy in front of their friends, revealing a side that none of them had seen before.

"Uh hi Sirius." James said.

"Hi, that's all you can say to us. We're looking for an explanation here, some details." Sirius continued to stare at them, making them go as red as Lily's hair.

"Why are you all staring at us like that?" Lily asked nervously shifting her weight from one foot to the other.

"You're alive.... and you're holding James' hand, and you're not blowing each other to smithereens." Diane blurted out, her eyes still as round as saucers.

"Thank you Captain Obvious." Mary quipped rolling her eyes.

Remus had taken out his wand and was poking at the chess board.

"You're scaring me Diane." Lily said.

"I'm scaring you, what about me! Don't you think I already had a heart attack!" Diane fell back onto the couch staring at the two.

"Remus quit trying to cheat! I spelled the board along time ago." Mary snapped slapping Remus hand and wand away from her pieces.

"You two look like you had fun in detention, the teacher kept you real busy, I see." Sirius drawled. Lily and James diverted their eyes to the floor. James leaned over and whispered something in Lily's ear. She nodded and before Sirius could speak again, they had left, hand and hand.

"I bet they went to the broom closet." Mary mused. She shook her head and went back to the chess board.

Sirius was staring at his girlfriend with that look on his face. Diane hated that look it was one of the reasons why she had never dated Sirius when they were younger.

"What?!" Diane exclaimed, finally unable to take it anymore.

Sirius remained silent just grinning smugly at her, forcing her to beg for him to come right out with it.

"Just say it!" She snapped.

"Fine, I told you so." Sirius sang in a little sing song voice, that made Diane cringe.

"Okay, you said it, you happy now!"

"Nope." Diane groaned and sank down into the couch, dreading what was coming next.

"I need you to admit something first." Sirius casually glanced at his nails, trying to hide the growing grin.

"And what would that be Sirius, that you are a git? Because I already know that." Diane smirked.

"That wasn't quite what I was looking for." Sirius flashed her a grin.

"I know, there's no need for me to say it again."

"I'm right, and you know it. Admit it."

"Never." Diane retorted.

"Oh come on, just admit it this once that I was right and you were wrong." Sirius pleaded with puppy dog eyes. She simply couldn't refuse, and he had a point there.

"All right, you were right, just this once you were right." Diane admitted reluctantly.

Sirius' face lit up like a little boy who had gotten a brand new racing broom. But now he was puffing up like a proud bird. Diane rolled her eyes, his ego didn't need to get any bigger.

"I'm always right." He smirked wrapping his arms around her.

"Yes, Sirius, you're just perfect, you just keep thinking that, just go back to that little imaginary world in your head." Diane patted his head with a gentle smile.

"You're just jealous of my high I.Q." Sirius said running a hand through his hair.

"You're right Sirius. There's no way I could compete with a negative 1600." Diane grinned.

"You know I used to wonder how someone's I.Q. could actually be in the negatives. But then I met Sirius, and suddenly it all made sense." Mary quipped as she studied the chess board.

Sirius scowled, finally understanding what they were saying and playfully hit his girlfriend. Diane just grinned and leaned back closing her eyes. She rested comfortably in his arms.

"Remus you're cheating again!" Mary snapped.

The couple laughed.
James and Lily walked hand in hand through the vacant hallways. Happiness seemed to radiate from the couple like an invisible aura. Lily's green eyes were sparkling as she glanced James' way. Every time James caught sight of the beautiful red head at his side, his grin would grow wider. Lily smiled and leaned her head a little bit on his shoulder. He was taller than her and she had to look up to see his handsome face. James casually threw an arm around her shoulders, drawing her closer to his side. It was just where Lily wanted to be, in his arms.

"Having any second thoughts?" James whispered in her ear. Lily grinned and shook her head.

"Not yet, but watch it James. I might just change my mind about Hogsmeade." She teased him. James grinned in reply.

"Why are you having second thoughts?" Lily asked him seriously. James shook his head.

"I just wanted to make sure, that this wasn't some dream gone wrong, you know. A moment ago we were trying to kill each other and now..." He trailed off.

"I know what you mean." She agreed with him. It was all very sudden, though she had always had a place in her heart for him, ever since the last detention when he had won her over with a smile, it was still strange.

"What do we do now?" He asked her, referring to their relationship. Lily thought for a moment, then came up with an answer and a smile.

"Well you could start by asking me to be your girlfriend." The suggestion went over well, and James turned red.

"You were always clever Lily."

"Common sense James, it's called common sense."

"Okay." James glanced nervously around, and saw to his relief that there was no one around them. He took her by the hand and faced her.

"It's not a proposal." Lily joked earning a smile from him.

"I know, it's just you're different Lily from all the other girls I've dated. You're special." James blushed in embarrassment after he said it. He wasn't used to expressing his feelings.

Lily was touched. She knew this was not normally how James acted. It made her heart flutter and her cheeks turn pink.

"Will you be my girlfriend?" He asked looking up into her dazzling green eyes.

"Yes." Lily said softly.

She took a step toward him and touched her lips to his. It was a good enough answer for James. They were finally an official couple.

From a few feet away, someone else watched in shock as the two shared a touching kiss, and made their love official. The brunette stumbled back a few steps and then caught herself.

"I thought they broke up." She thought to herself.

She stood frozen on the spot, wondering what to do or say. Lily and James just continued to be oblivious to her presence caught in a world of their own. It was a long time before the girl finally found her voice and spoke.

"Well this is a surprise."

Her voice reached the couple, causing them to jump. They broke their lip lock and Lily searched for the source of the interruption. When she saw who was standing a few feet away with her arms crossed over her chest, her jaw dropped. James turned around as well, and when he saw the girl his eyes widened.

It was a surprise, a terrible surprise.

And Lily Evans knew right then and there that the happy lifelong future together that had just begun was suddenly over. She just didn't know how incredibly wrong, and how horribly right she was.

A/N: MUAHAHAHAHA! Cliffie. Um actually it's not that difficult to figure out who it is. The thing Lily said, it will all make sense in the end. But right now it's not supposed too.

Thanks to my wonderful reviewers!

KristiexxNguyen, MilliKilo, Luna Lovegood, Strawberry Love, J.E.A.R.K.Potter, irgova, neOnhunteR, spawn32818, allie, Amelia Bedelia, Granger-gurl-rox, LMDGlUVR4EVA, Hidden Tiger 13, firefur1, Pixy-Misa-Misao-Amano, LCH8292, Icy-Magic.

Without you there would be no story, seriously. Sorry no review replies, I have a ton of homework and it would just delay this chapter, I apologize for how late this is and I'm working on getting Chapter 26 done in less than a week.