Parts of a whole
by shana
chapter 11.
POV: Jeff, Andrea, James, Lily
"What the...? Did that just happen?" I asked Rosmerta. "I did come in here with a redhead, right?"
"Yes, but she's gone—now!" Rosmerta stared out the door of the Three Broomsticks, where she waitresses. A tall figure had just run past her and out the door, causing strands of hair on her head to whip across her face. "Messy black hair—James?"
"Oy, James! What're you doing?" I sighed. "Time to be the cavalry." I grabbed a few Galleons from my coat pocket and placed them on the bar, adding, "Keep the tip; you deserve it after what's happened here today. He needs to learn that the women are chasing him, he doesn't need to." I gave her a grin.
Rosmerta smiled back. "Must be how he is. The Quidditch team is leaving now; best not let them leave without paying. I'll see you around school, maybe."
"Sure," I called, pushing the door open.
**********
I followed Sarah out the door. Josh stopped at the bar for a moment and paid, telling the barkeep to force James to pay if he came back. Ha, I'd like to see that. 'Mr. Potter, you must pay, before I put a full body bind on you!' I snickered out loud. "Oh, lord," I said. "Lily is really rubbing off on me." Sarah turned and grinned for a moment. She knew who Lily was. But how could she know what I was thinking of? Of course; she had a crush on James. I mean, it's not that obvious, but it's obvious to me having lived with him for three months and watching him surrounded by 'the ladies.'
Suddenly, I heard the words 'James', 'idiot', and 'jeez' in the same sentence, and it wasn't Lily saying it. Listening carefully to what people around me were saying, I tried to figure out who it was who was speaking about him. I could tell by Sarah's frequent mutterings of "how could I have been so stupid?" and "what a loser!" that she was annoyed at James.
Of course, we all were. He was supposed to pay! Josh had to pay for him, the lying cheat. If only he hadn't gone after Lily, or maybe if he had said something. Wait a minute: Lily—James—walk out—said something—it all makes sense now! Lily put a silencing charm on James, so he couldn't say anything to us. And, since he wasn't the attacker, he needs Lily to perform the countercourse so he can talk again. He still could have paid, though...
Okay, now that I've put two and two together, what does it equal?
"Uh, Sarah? If Josh asks, tell him I... Tell him I went for a walk. And when he starts yelling at you about me being twelve, say that I'm capable. Look at who my friends are!"
**********
I followed Lily out the Three Broomsticks. She was heading towards Honeydukes. Why, that piece of scum! She knew about the trapdoor. Great. I'll have to be more aware of my surroundings when I have important conversations from now on.
I slipped into the candy store. Lily, being smart I guess, went towards a big group of Hogwarts students hoping to mingle and throw off any followers—she probably knew about me.
But a pothole! "Free samples of Hard Rock Chokul!" I was salivating before she finished the sentence, and ended up third in the line. I couldn't remember any time they had every given away samples at Honeydukes. Must be a new marketing strategy, I thought, until I realized that it had given Lily sufficient enough time to get to the tunnel and be at least half-way through by the time I started. After struggling to say thank you to the sample-hander-outer, I headed for the trapdoor before I could make more of a fool of myself.
Stumbling in the dark (I was so intent on finding Lily that I didn't think to light my wand), I finally found the passageway.
It took another fifteen minutes for me to start my brain juices and turn on my wand. After that I was able to see every curve in the path before I hit the wall.
In no time at all—to use a drastic understatement—I was climbing out of the one-eyed witch's hump. To my luck, Hardy and some girl were walking right towards me, staring at the ground in front of them and staying a few feet apart. Weird, I thought they were going together. I slipped back into the statue just in time to see McGonagall following them, wand raised. Interesting, I thought, a separation charm. More useful than a restraining order. Would help when I went to court against Lily—wait, I am getting way ahead of myself. First I have to find her.
After McGonagall passed, I got out of the statue, shut it, and headed towards the Gryffindor common room as fast as I could without running. (Some of the portraits report students to Dumbledore. You always have to be careful not to run unless you don't pass a painting and are relatively close to your next class.)
**********
It took James a while, but he soon found Lily; 'soon' meaning three days later. She hadn't appeared at meals and he never saw her in the common room, explaining why it took him so long to find her. Meanwhile, Lily had been taking her meals earlier that the rest of the school or not with them, visiting the kitchens afterwards and taking a hoard of food back to her dorm room, and always being careful not to pass the Great Hall doors or somebody would see her skipping (like the first day, when a Ravenclaw asked if she was anorexic because she had not been inside. Lily said that she had eaten and had just left, heading the wrong way, which caused her to turn around. 'Bags of lies, swallow it up!' she had thought, hoping telepathic powers would mysteriously appear.).
She was finally caught on the second floor one evening by none other than that very same Ravenclaw, who dragged her down to the Great Hall and force-fed Lily a well-done steak. Lily received detention for skipping dinner and it just so happened that James had detention the very same day for filling some Hufflepuff's goblets with pepper, causing them to sneeze with great clouds of brightly colored smoke. He had denied it but was caught anyway. (Which is not hard to believe, knowing James.)
**********
"So, you're anorexic, huh Lily? I hear there are groups you can join, sort of like AA."
"Shut up, James! That is not a joking matter."
"What, Al-Anon? I never said it was."
"No, anorexia. Don't tease Lily. She is not anorexic; skinny, maybe, but not anorexic."
"I never said she wasn't skinny. Why, is there some hologram around her hiding her rolls of tubular fat?" He enunciated the 't' in 'fat.' It was so nerve-wracking, but I held my cool and kept walking. Alexia could keep talking as long as she wanted, I won't say anything.
"Anorexia is a disease, wise guy. I had a friend that was sent to the hospital because she didn't eat anything. She almost died."
"Okay. The real-life example was a nice touch there. I'll shut up now."
"Thank you, God. It took forever."
"Look who's still talking!"
"You didn't ask me to be quiet!"
"So? I implied it!"
"BOTH OF YOU, SHUT THE F--- UP! It is very annoying."
Yes, everyone looked at me. And yes, the next thing that happened was a full body bind and I was suddenly floating in the air following the others. Professor Oleson 'floated' me all the way to the Forbidden Forest. Then he dropped me on the ground and undid my body bind. I scrambled up quickly and stepped a bit to the side.
"Please plan on saying nothing else this evening or I will have to put a Silencing charm on you."
Will do, Mr. Annoying Potions Teacher, sir. That I said to myself. In real life I just nodded.
"Thank you, ma'am. Now, everyone follow me into the forest. We will be collecting oignon circlettes. You should know what those are from your Herbology lessons, if they are sufficing nowadays. Remember, the purple ones are poisonous. When you find six yellow ones, your time for tonight is up." He didn't tell us what to do incase we were in danger. Like Oleson would care. Less students for him.
Only six? That should be easy enough.
I started walking deeper into the forest, leaving the other behind. If I remember correctly, oignons grow eighteen feet from an open meadow. My wand is one and a half feet long, so I just have to measure twelve wand lengths and I should find some oignon plants. I did a round-about and went back to the edge of the forest, starting to measure the ground where the darkness first set in.
About a half hour later, I left the forest. Oleson hadn't told us what to do with the oignons once we had them, so I just headed back to the castle and left the oignons in the Potions office near the dungeons.
As I walked back towards the Gryffindor tower, I heard voices in front of me. Luckily, they were unfamiliar. (Loud, but unfamiliar.) I hid in a crevice in the wall closest to the speakers.
"All of you, back to your dormitories! Where is it written that your group of five fifth years is exempt from obeying school rules? If you find it, please inform me of your findings. But now, I believe that you are TO BE IN BED! It is far too late for any student to be up so late."
"You're a student," I heard a voice mutter quietly. It was kind of low, so I guessed it was a guy.
"Yes, but I am a Head Boy. The teachers trust me enough to allow me to stay up and catch idiots like you." This was most definitely a guy, because I saw a group of people being pushed forward by a tall—and handsome—boy with brown hair and a Head Boy badge pinned on his robes. There were two girls, one blonde and the other a brunette, in a row with three other boys (who had light brown, black, and blond hair). They were all dressed in casual clothing and were moving forward fast, thanks to repetetive pushes from the Head Boy.
"That was harsh!" one of the girls suddenly exclaimed, giggling a little bit. The black-haired boy looked confused and looked at the the other girl, who was smirking so wide I was positive her lips would just stretch across her cheeks to her ears.
"Well, Jonathan deserves harsher, the stupid git," she replied.
The Head Boy, who I guessed was Jonathan, looked as if he would explode. He kept looking at his left wrist and quickly said, "Don't think I'm deaf over hear, Gwendolyn. Get your asses back into the Ravenclaw dorm before I drag you there myself, all of you!"
"Gladly, your majesty. It gives me nothing other than pleasure to serve you," the boy with light brown hair said, and the blond one rolled his eyes. It was the first time I had heard him speak, but his voice sounded very familiar: like someone I grew up with or something like that.
"Stop with the sarcasm, Broderick. Here's the statue. Go." He waited until one of the others quietly said the password and all five of them trooped into the opening. "Finally; master's going to be so angry with me. I've got to get going..."
Master? Okay, a little over my head. As soon as he (Johnathan) was out of sight I stepped out of my hiding place.
"Hey! There's someone else up!"
"Oh great," I whispered under my breath as I started to run. I hadn't done anything wrong, except listen to that whole little conversation. Yes, running was a good idea. In the corner of my eye I could see the Fat Lady up ahead. Putting on an extra spurt of speed and shouted the password. "Orthopedic! Quick, wake up!" I obviously woke her and she opened rather slowly. I slipped in as fast as I could and pulled the frame shut.
Panting near the opening, I could hear someone saying on the other side, "Damn, she got away!" and a different voice questioning, "Do you think she heard anything?" as well as the reply of, "Obviously. She ran!" and yet another person saying, "Oh well." Confusing? Yes.
From behind me, a stern voice said, "And where have you been young lady?"
"Detention," I replied quickly. Turning around, I grinned. "Andi, you are such a freak!"
"Yeah, I know. Thanks for noticing, though."
"You're very welcome. I'm dead tired, let's go upstairs and I'll explain everything to you."
"Explain what?"
"The fun I've just had."
**********
a/n attack of the writer's block! i dont think i've posted a chapter to this story in, like, ever! this is obviously not up to my usual standards [i kno, ur thinking 'she has standards?'] but review anyways. it'll make me feel better. and i know that anything you wrote during/after your writer's block was/is way better than this. wait, how does that make sense?
the phrase 'going together': i know, i wouldnt have used it lest i moved, because i'd never heard anyone use that phrase to describe someone going out til i started at my new school.
oh, and have you had krispy kreme doughnuts? yum! i am salivating, lol! that stuff is good. especially the samples of the hot fresh original glazed kind. i always get a devils food cake doughnut [oxymoron?] in the half-dozen we get each time we go there. yum........
no flames please. constructive criticism...
by shana
chapter 11.
POV: Jeff, Andrea, James, Lily
"What the...? Did that just happen?" I asked Rosmerta. "I did come in here with a redhead, right?"
"Yes, but she's gone—now!" Rosmerta stared out the door of the Three Broomsticks, where she waitresses. A tall figure had just run past her and out the door, causing strands of hair on her head to whip across her face. "Messy black hair—James?"
"Oy, James! What're you doing?" I sighed. "Time to be the cavalry." I grabbed a few Galleons from my coat pocket and placed them on the bar, adding, "Keep the tip; you deserve it after what's happened here today. He needs to learn that the women are chasing him, he doesn't need to." I gave her a grin.
Rosmerta smiled back. "Must be how he is. The Quidditch team is leaving now; best not let them leave without paying. I'll see you around school, maybe."
"Sure," I called, pushing the door open.
**********
I followed Sarah out the door. Josh stopped at the bar for a moment and paid, telling the barkeep to force James to pay if he came back. Ha, I'd like to see that. 'Mr. Potter, you must pay, before I put a full body bind on you!' I snickered out loud. "Oh, lord," I said. "Lily is really rubbing off on me." Sarah turned and grinned for a moment. She knew who Lily was. But how could she know what I was thinking of? Of course; she had a crush on James. I mean, it's not that obvious, but it's obvious to me having lived with him for three months and watching him surrounded by 'the ladies.'
Suddenly, I heard the words 'James', 'idiot', and 'jeez' in the same sentence, and it wasn't Lily saying it. Listening carefully to what people around me were saying, I tried to figure out who it was who was speaking about him. I could tell by Sarah's frequent mutterings of "how could I have been so stupid?" and "what a loser!" that she was annoyed at James.
Of course, we all were. He was supposed to pay! Josh had to pay for him, the lying cheat. If only he hadn't gone after Lily, or maybe if he had said something. Wait a minute: Lily—James—walk out—said something—it all makes sense now! Lily put a silencing charm on James, so he couldn't say anything to us. And, since he wasn't the attacker, he needs Lily to perform the countercourse so he can talk again. He still could have paid, though...
Okay, now that I've put two and two together, what does it equal?
"Uh, Sarah? If Josh asks, tell him I... Tell him I went for a walk. And when he starts yelling at you about me being twelve, say that I'm capable. Look at who my friends are!"
**********
I followed Lily out the Three Broomsticks. She was heading towards Honeydukes. Why, that piece of scum! She knew about the trapdoor. Great. I'll have to be more aware of my surroundings when I have important conversations from now on.
I slipped into the candy store. Lily, being smart I guess, went towards a big group of Hogwarts students hoping to mingle and throw off any followers—she probably knew about me.
But a pothole! "Free samples of Hard Rock Chokul!" I was salivating before she finished the sentence, and ended up third in the line. I couldn't remember any time they had every given away samples at Honeydukes. Must be a new marketing strategy, I thought, until I realized that it had given Lily sufficient enough time to get to the tunnel and be at least half-way through by the time I started. After struggling to say thank you to the sample-hander-outer, I headed for the trapdoor before I could make more of a fool of myself.
Stumbling in the dark (I was so intent on finding Lily that I didn't think to light my wand), I finally found the passageway.
It took another fifteen minutes for me to start my brain juices and turn on my wand. After that I was able to see every curve in the path before I hit the wall.
In no time at all—to use a drastic understatement—I was climbing out of the one-eyed witch's hump. To my luck, Hardy and some girl were walking right towards me, staring at the ground in front of them and staying a few feet apart. Weird, I thought they were going together. I slipped back into the statue just in time to see McGonagall following them, wand raised. Interesting, I thought, a separation charm. More useful than a restraining order. Would help when I went to court against Lily—wait, I am getting way ahead of myself. First I have to find her.
After McGonagall passed, I got out of the statue, shut it, and headed towards the Gryffindor common room as fast as I could without running. (Some of the portraits report students to Dumbledore. You always have to be careful not to run unless you don't pass a painting and are relatively close to your next class.)
**********
It took James a while, but he soon found Lily; 'soon' meaning three days later. She hadn't appeared at meals and he never saw her in the common room, explaining why it took him so long to find her. Meanwhile, Lily had been taking her meals earlier that the rest of the school or not with them, visiting the kitchens afterwards and taking a hoard of food back to her dorm room, and always being careful not to pass the Great Hall doors or somebody would see her skipping (like the first day, when a Ravenclaw asked if she was anorexic because she had not been inside. Lily said that she had eaten and had just left, heading the wrong way, which caused her to turn around. 'Bags of lies, swallow it up!' she had thought, hoping telepathic powers would mysteriously appear.).
She was finally caught on the second floor one evening by none other than that very same Ravenclaw, who dragged her down to the Great Hall and force-fed Lily a well-done steak. Lily received detention for skipping dinner and it just so happened that James had detention the very same day for filling some Hufflepuff's goblets with pepper, causing them to sneeze with great clouds of brightly colored smoke. He had denied it but was caught anyway. (Which is not hard to believe, knowing James.)
**********
"So, you're anorexic, huh Lily? I hear there are groups you can join, sort of like AA."
"Shut up, James! That is not a joking matter."
"What, Al-Anon? I never said it was."
"No, anorexia. Don't tease Lily. She is not anorexic; skinny, maybe, but not anorexic."
"I never said she wasn't skinny. Why, is there some hologram around her hiding her rolls of tubular fat?" He enunciated the 't' in 'fat.' It was so nerve-wracking, but I held my cool and kept walking. Alexia could keep talking as long as she wanted, I won't say anything.
"Anorexia is a disease, wise guy. I had a friend that was sent to the hospital because she didn't eat anything. She almost died."
"Okay. The real-life example was a nice touch there. I'll shut up now."
"Thank you, God. It took forever."
"Look who's still talking!"
"You didn't ask me to be quiet!"
"So? I implied it!"
"BOTH OF YOU, SHUT THE F--- UP! It is very annoying."
Yes, everyone looked at me. And yes, the next thing that happened was a full body bind and I was suddenly floating in the air following the others. Professor Oleson 'floated' me all the way to the Forbidden Forest. Then he dropped me on the ground and undid my body bind. I scrambled up quickly and stepped a bit to the side.
"Please plan on saying nothing else this evening or I will have to put a Silencing charm on you."
Will do, Mr. Annoying Potions Teacher, sir. That I said to myself. In real life I just nodded.
"Thank you, ma'am. Now, everyone follow me into the forest. We will be collecting oignon circlettes. You should know what those are from your Herbology lessons, if they are sufficing nowadays. Remember, the purple ones are poisonous. When you find six yellow ones, your time for tonight is up." He didn't tell us what to do incase we were in danger. Like Oleson would care. Less students for him.
Only six? That should be easy enough.
I started walking deeper into the forest, leaving the other behind. If I remember correctly, oignons grow eighteen feet from an open meadow. My wand is one and a half feet long, so I just have to measure twelve wand lengths and I should find some oignon plants. I did a round-about and went back to the edge of the forest, starting to measure the ground where the darkness first set in.
About a half hour later, I left the forest. Oleson hadn't told us what to do with the oignons once we had them, so I just headed back to the castle and left the oignons in the Potions office near the dungeons.
As I walked back towards the Gryffindor tower, I heard voices in front of me. Luckily, they were unfamiliar. (Loud, but unfamiliar.) I hid in a crevice in the wall closest to the speakers.
"All of you, back to your dormitories! Where is it written that your group of five fifth years is exempt from obeying school rules? If you find it, please inform me of your findings. But now, I believe that you are TO BE IN BED! It is far too late for any student to be up so late."
"You're a student," I heard a voice mutter quietly. It was kind of low, so I guessed it was a guy.
"Yes, but I am a Head Boy. The teachers trust me enough to allow me to stay up and catch idiots like you." This was most definitely a guy, because I saw a group of people being pushed forward by a tall—and handsome—boy with brown hair and a Head Boy badge pinned on his robes. There were two girls, one blonde and the other a brunette, in a row with three other boys (who had light brown, black, and blond hair). They were all dressed in casual clothing and were moving forward fast, thanks to repetetive pushes from the Head Boy.
"That was harsh!" one of the girls suddenly exclaimed, giggling a little bit. The black-haired boy looked confused and looked at the the other girl, who was smirking so wide I was positive her lips would just stretch across her cheeks to her ears.
"Well, Jonathan deserves harsher, the stupid git," she replied.
The Head Boy, who I guessed was Jonathan, looked as if he would explode. He kept looking at his left wrist and quickly said, "Don't think I'm deaf over hear, Gwendolyn. Get your asses back into the Ravenclaw dorm before I drag you there myself, all of you!"
"Gladly, your majesty. It gives me nothing other than pleasure to serve you," the boy with light brown hair said, and the blond one rolled his eyes. It was the first time I had heard him speak, but his voice sounded very familiar: like someone I grew up with or something like that.
"Stop with the sarcasm, Broderick. Here's the statue. Go." He waited until one of the others quietly said the password and all five of them trooped into the opening. "Finally; master's going to be so angry with me. I've got to get going..."
Master? Okay, a little over my head. As soon as he (Johnathan) was out of sight I stepped out of my hiding place.
"Hey! There's someone else up!"
"Oh great," I whispered under my breath as I started to run. I hadn't done anything wrong, except listen to that whole little conversation. Yes, running was a good idea. In the corner of my eye I could see the Fat Lady up ahead. Putting on an extra spurt of speed and shouted the password. "Orthopedic! Quick, wake up!" I obviously woke her and she opened rather slowly. I slipped in as fast as I could and pulled the frame shut.
Panting near the opening, I could hear someone saying on the other side, "Damn, she got away!" and a different voice questioning, "Do you think she heard anything?" as well as the reply of, "Obviously. She ran!" and yet another person saying, "Oh well." Confusing? Yes.
From behind me, a stern voice said, "And where have you been young lady?"
"Detention," I replied quickly. Turning around, I grinned. "Andi, you are such a freak!"
"Yeah, I know. Thanks for noticing, though."
"You're very welcome. I'm dead tired, let's go upstairs and I'll explain everything to you."
"Explain what?"
"The fun I've just had."
**********
a/n attack of the writer's block! i dont think i've posted a chapter to this story in, like, ever! this is obviously not up to my usual standards [i kno, ur thinking 'she has standards?'] but review anyways. it'll make me feel better. and i know that anything you wrote during/after your writer's block was/is way better than this. wait, how does that make sense?
the phrase 'going together': i know, i wouldnt have used it lest i moved, because i'd never heard anyone use that phrase to describe someone going out til i started at my new school.
oh, and have you had krispy kreme doughnuts? yum! i am salivating, lol! that stuff is good. especially the samples of the hot fresh original glazed kind. i always get a devils food cake doughnut [oxymoron?] in the half-dozen we get each time we go there. yum........
no flames please. constructive criticism...