A/N: Thank you ever so much to those who reviewed! I am so much inclined to them that I will list their names:
o Lilly
o Davita
o Claire Goodyear
o Kathy
o Danielle
o Goldenphoenix
And to Ginny and Lilly, who have helped me tremendously with my writing. Thanks a bunch!
Thank you very very much for your support!! This story is dedicated to all of you!
And to all of the people who tried to look over my shoulder while I tried to write this-IT'S JUST A STORY! There is absolutely no thanks to you.
Lastly, to Jamie, because of what she's done for me.
And now, on with the story you've all been waiting for!
Part 3
Over the course of the year, Lily and James had gotten hexed several times.
James had gotten the Jelly-Legs curse, the Dancing curse (it made you dance for an hour before the counter-course would work. James had to dance in the back of the History of Magic class, while everyone watched. A/N: Go Lily!), the Tongue-Catcher (couldn't say a word for a week), the Tickling Charm, and various others, not to mention that his robes would never be the same again.
Lily, on the other hand, had suffered the Leg-Locker curse, the full Body Bind (the boys had shoved her under her bed and Mei Long found her 3 hours later), had her hair color changed several times, and found that James could turn her pillow into insects such as spiders. Ew!
They had the entire summer to think up new hexes and relax, not that it did any good.
On the train ride to Hogwarts, they managed to avoid each other (thank God.) However, it was close to impossible to avoid each other in the Gryffindor common room.
"Hey look, Sirius," James said loudly the moment he saw Lily. "It's a human carrot!"
Lily ignored him, but said under her breath, "Oh my god! It's a huge lummox!"
Mei Long had a fit of giggles that made her choke, causing Darcie to wallop her across the back.
A lot had changed about Hogwarts in the small time they had left, but not the teachers' unfortunate habit of placing James and Lily together.
"What is it with our teachers?" Lily asked, resuming her usual seat next to James when partners were called. "They must have it in for us."
For the first time in his life, James found himself agreeing with Lily. "Tell me about it," he grumbled.
Little did they know, Sirius and Mei Long had had a talk with their teachers.
"Hey, I'll make a deal with you, Carrot," James said, looking at his hands. "You do the Charms work, and I'll to the Transfiguration. That way we'll both get good grades."
Lily was surprised, but who was she to say no? "Deal," she smiled. "You're really good at Transfiguration, compared to my lousiness."
Lily realized what she had said and quickly added, "Which makes up for your repairing charm!"
"Well, your pencil still squeaks when you write!"
"Remember what happened when you tried that Slug-Belching hex?"
"The only change your tomato made was to get strawberry seeds!"
"Hey, keep it down," Rose Brown said, frowning. "Some of us are trying to work!"
Lily and James went back to work, but Lily couldn't help but giggle.
"What?" James asked.
"Remember what Sirius and Mei Long did to that poor mouse?"
James laughed behind a hand, remembering how its tail had reappeared on its nose. Eyes replaced the ears, and goodness knows what happened to the nose.
Lily pointed her wand at James and laughed, "Quietus."
James voice was instantly lowered.
"What was that again?" she asked, grinning. James glared until she returned his voice to normal.
They spent the rest of the lesson goofing off, Lily trying out spells on James and James changing Lily's things into odd replacements.
"Having fun?" Sirius asked. "Class ended five minutes ago."
Lily and James instantly stopped laughing at James' twitching ears and grabbed their stuff. Without a word to each other they walked out of the classroom.
"Have they got it bad," Mei Long said, shaking her head.
Sirius just rolled his eyes.
~#~
"So what's been going on with you today?" Mei Long asked Lily as they got ready for bed.
"What are you talking about, Mei Long?" Lily said, shooting an odd glace at her friend.
"What she's trying to ask you is what came over you and James in Charms today?" Darcie asked, getting involved. "You were laughing and everything."
Lily shrugged. "We were just remembering all of the stupid things you guys have done," she said, still brushing her fiery red hair.
A pillow came down on her and she yelped, turning around.
"Mei Long Chang!" she said, glaring. Instead of saying another word, Lily grabbed her pillow and flung it at Darcie. Soon, the three were involved in a huge pillowfight. Feathers were flying everywhere, and the three looked like they had gotten in the wrong way of a feather charm.
They took one look at each other and burst into laughter.
"You looked like a chicken," Darcie panted, pointing to Mei Long.
"Well, Lily looks like a chicken someone tried to behead!" Mei Long laughed.
This sent the group into further hysterics (A/N: Lil, does this remind you of a certain five ppl at lunch?), which ended when a girl from down the hall stuck her head in at told them in unpleasant terms to be quiet.
It was only later that night, when Lily was once again the only one awake, that Lily took Mei Long's words to heart. "What is going on with me?"
~&~
Over the next few days, Lily was blissfully free of James. None of the teachers had any pairing up for lessons, which left Lily to do her own thing for once. The world was perfect, or at least until Friday the 13th. It proved to be a very fateful day.
By the last class of Potions Lily was praying for free time.
"Today we will experiment with sleeping drafts," Professor Hyde sneered. The head of Slytherin house, she always seemed to favor them. Lily figured this would be no exception.
"We'll be pairing up, as I only have so much of the ingredients," the Professor said. "Brown and Finnigan- you're together."
Hyde moved up and done the isles, paring people with their neighbors. Lily automatically assumed she would be with Mei Long, who was sitting right next to her.
"I don't think so," Hyde jeered. "You, Evans, will be with..." she looked up and rested her eyes on the person behind Lily. "Potter."
Lily pursed her lips in a sign of distaste. "Not again!" she thought.
After she and Sirius had rearranged themselves (he would be working with Mei-Long), Lily rolled up her sleeves and began chopping dandelion roots.
"How much are you willing to bet that the teachers plan all of this?" Lily asked, keeping her eyes on her knife.
"Six galleons," James responded promptly.
"I'll bet seven," Lily said.
"Eight."
"Like you even have that much!" Lily said skeptically.
"I do too! I won five off Sirius the other day," James protested.
Lily leaned over James's arms and dropped her dandelion roots into the potion.
"Hey, where did you get that bruise?" James asked.
Lily drew her arm back. "Oh, this little thing? I hit my arm when I went to turn off my alarm clock yesterday," she said unconvincingly.
"Yeah, sure. Where'd you get it?"
"I told you!" Lily said, stirring the potion. "I hit it on my beside table!"
"Right. You can tell me you know." James dropped his powdered snake fang into the glop.
"I wish I could," Lily said under her breath. "If I had something to tell you, I would," she told him. "Don't makes something out of nothing."
"Your potions will need to stew for a moment before they can be tested. Put them aside while you clean up," Professor Hyde directed.
Lily began to clean without another word, leaving James in the dark. If she had a secret, he would find out, or he wasn't a Marauder.
~%~
During dinner that night, James took out the vial of sleeping draught he had sneaked from potions.
Discreetly, he emptied it in Lily's pumpkin juice as he reached for the cornflower muffins.
Towards dessert, Lily announced that she was going to bed and left, stumbling a bit.
"Hey Mei Long," he asked nonchalantly.
"Hey James," she said.
"What time is Carrot's alarm cloclk set for?"
"Lily's alarm clock?" Mei Long frowned. "She doesn't have an alarm clock."
~!~
That night, Lily slept like she was drugged (she was!). James hardly slept at all. He lay awake in for quite awhile, wondering what it was that she was hiding. She didn't have an alarm, but banged her arm trying to turn it
off. James drifted off to sleep thinking of ways to get it out of her.
~*~
Lily felt like she was returning from the world of the dead when Darcie woke her up with the last whack of a pillow.
"What?" she asked groggily, poking her head out from under the covers.
"You look terrible!" Mei Long exclaimed. "What happened to you? Are you sick?"
"Thanks ever so much," Lily said dryly. "And I'm very tired so I wouldn't mind if you just left me alone." With that, she disappeared under the scarlet covers.
"Not a chance!" Mei Long said as she threw back the covers. "Who do you think I am? You're going straight to the hospital wing!"
"No..." Lily moaned, but it was no use. Mei Long grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the bedroom. On the way out, Lily caught sight of herself in the mirror. Dark circles ringed her usually bright eyes, which were now a dull green. Her complexion had faded until she was ghostly pale.
"What happened to you, Carrot?" Sirius demanded. James swallowed nervously and fiddled with his robe sleeve.
"Just tired," Lily yawned. "Let's rest for just a minute, okay Dragon?" (A/N: Mei Long is Chinese for beautiful dragon, or something like that)
Mei Long rolled her eyes.
"Darcie, tell Professor Kettleburn that we'll be a little late to Care of Magical Creatures," she instructed, dragging Lily along.
James watched as they disappeared from sight.
"Uh-oh," he thought.
~$~
"Somebody's given her an overdose of sleeping potion," Madame Pomfrey said, clucking her tongue.
"We made some in potions yesterday," Mei Long said uncertainly. "Maybe she's just had trouble sleeping so she took some."
"Either way, she needs a good rest here," Madame Profrey said sternly. "And she shouldn't go around playing with potions."
Lily opened her eyes and stared up, towards the top of her crimson bed. But it wasn't there. She sat bolt upright, about to grab for her wand.
"Up already, dear?" Madame Pomfrey asked.
Lily stared at her. "What happened?" she managed to choke out.
"Oh, you just took an overdose of sleeping potion. You ought to be more careful," the nurse scolded, checking her temperature.
"I didn't take any sleeping potion," Lily blurted out.
"Of course you didn't dear," came the vague reply.
Lily frowned. Who would've done this?
"Is she awake?"
Mei Long walked around the corner, out of breath.
"Oh, hi Mei Long," Lily said cheerfully.
"Someone's happy," Mei Long remarked, ruffling Lily's hair.
"So, what happened after I left the table?" Lily asked nonchalantly as she walked down to the Gryffindor common room.
"Oh, James was being stupid. As usual." Mei Long rolled her eyes.
"What did he say?"
"He was going on about you having an alarm clock."
"My what?"
"Your alarm clock. Said something about you turning it off."
Lily froze. James! Why hadn't she guessed? But what was he doing?
"Lily?" Mei Long said, waving her hand in front of the redhead's face. "We're here."
Lily walked in with Mei Long and faced a bombardment of questions. What happened? Was she all right? Did Madame Pomfrey try to poison her?
She noticed James was in the back corner of the room. She met his stare and glared for a moment, before making up some excuse about writing to her Mum and left for her room.
Why did he give me sleeping potion? Lily thought. And why is he trying to invade my personal life like this?!
~@~
"Ouch!" James yelped as something hit his face-hard.
"What's wrong with you James?" Sirius asked, flying up next to him. "That's the second time you've let the Quaffle get you. What's eating at you?"
"Nothing," James muttered, rubbing his head.
Sirius flew alongside the tower that framed the Quidditch field.
"Hey look! There's Mei Long! ...And Darcie and Lily too," Sirius quickly added.
"So it is," James answered.
"Maybe they want to play!" Sirius said, already flying downwards.
"Maybe they don't," James grumbled, then followed his friend. "The things I do for him..."
~#~
"Do we want to play Quidditch?" Mei Long echoed. "Well..."
"Of course we do!" Darcie answered, being the more sporty girl of the group.
"Um, I've got to finish my homework!" Lily finished the last part quickly.
James raised his eyebrows. "Is Wiwy afwaid of heights?" he teased.
"Of course not! No! What gave you that idea?" Lily asked in a strange voice.
"You are afraid of heights!" James crowed.
"So what?" Lily demanded, putting her hands on her hips.
James shrugged. "Just thought you wouldn't be afraid of something stupid like heights. I thought you were brave."
Lily stared open-mouthed. "I'll show you!" she said. "I'm not afraid of heights!"
With that, Lily marched out towards the Quidditch field after Darcie.
James grinned.
o Lilly
o Davita
o Claire Goodyear
o Kathy
o Danielle
o Goldenphoenix
And to Ginny and Lilly, who have helped me tremendously with my writing. Thanks a bunch!
Thank you very very much for your support!! This story is dedicated to all of you!
And to all of the people who tried to look over my shoulder while I tried to write this-IT'S JUST A STORY! There is absolutely no thanks to you.
Lastly, to Jamie, because of what she's done for me.
And now, on with the story you've all been waiting for!
Part 3
Over the course of the year, Lily and James had gotten hexed several times.
James had gotten the Jelly-Legs curse, the Dancing curse (it made you dance for an hour before the counter-course would work. James had to dance in the back of the History of Magic class, while everyone watched. A/N: Go Lily!), the Tongue-Catcher (couldn't say a word for a week), the Tickling Charm, and various others, not to mention that his robes would never be the same again.
Lily, on the other hand, had suffered the Leg-Locker curse, the full Body Bind (the boys had shoved her under her bed and Mei Long found her 3 hours later), had her hair color changed several times, and found that James could turn her pillow into insects such as spiders. Ew!
They had the entire summer to think up new hexes and relax, not that it did any good.
On the train ride to Hogwarts, they managed to avoid each other (thank God.) However, it was close to impossible to avoid each other in the Gryffindor common room.
"Hey look, Sirius," James said loudly the moment he saw Lily. "It's a human carrot!"
Lily ignored him, but said under her breath, "Oh my god! It's a huge lummox!"
Mei Long had a fit of giggles that made her choke, causing Darcie to wallop her across the back.
A lot had changed about Hogwarts in the small time they had left, but not the teachers' unfortunate habit of placing James and Lily together.
"What is it with our teachers?" Lily asked, resuming her usual seat next to James when partners were called. "They must have it in for us."
For the first time in his life, James found himself agreeing with Lily. "Tell me about it," he grumbled.
Little did they know, Sirius and Mei Long had had a talk with their teachers.
"Hey, I'll make a deal with you, Carrot," James said, looking at his hands. "You do the Charms work, and I'll to the Transfiguration. That way we'll both get good grades."
Lily was surprised, but who was she to say no? "Deal," she smiled. "You're really good at Transfiguration, compared to my lousiness."
Lily realized what she had said and quickly added, "Which makes up for your repairing charm!"
"Well, your pencil still squeaks when you write!"
"Remember what happened when you tried that Slug-Belching hex?"
"The only change your tomato made was to get strawberry seeds!"
"Hey, keep it down," Rose Brown said, frowning. "Some of us are trying to work!"
Lily and James went back to work, but Lily couldn't help but giggle.
"What?" James asked.
"Remember what Sirius and Mei Long did to that poor mouse?"
James laughed behind a hand, remembering how its tail had reappeared on its nose. Eyes replaced the ears, and goodness knows what happened to the nose.
Lily pointed her wand at James and laughed, "Quietus."
James voice was instantly lowered.
"What was that again?" she asked, grinning. James glared until she returned his voice to normal.
They spent the rest of the lesson goofing off, Lily trying out spells on James and James changing Lily's things into odd replacements.
"Having fun?" Sirius asked. "Class ended five minutes ago."
Lily and James instantly stopped laughing at James' twitching ears and grabbed their stuff. Without a word to each other they walked out of the classroom.
"Have they got it bad," Mei Long said, shaking her head.
Sirius just rolled his eyes.
~#~
"So what's been going on with you today?" Mei Long asked Lily as they got ready for bed.
"What are you talking about, Mei Long?" Lily said, shooting an odd glace at her friend.
"What she's trying to ask you is what came over you and James in Charms today?" Darcie asked, getting involved. "You were laughing and everything."
Lily shrugged. "We were just remembering all of the stupid things you guys have done," she said, still brushing her fiery red hair.
A pillow came down on her and she yelped, turning around.
"Mei Long Chang!" she said, glaring. Instead of saying another word, Lily grabbed her pillow and flung it at Darcie. Soon, the three were involved in a huge pillowfight. Feathers were flying everywhere, and the three looked like they had gotten in the wrong way of a feather charm.
They took one look at each other and burst into laughter.
"You looked like a chicken," Darcie panted, pointing to Mei Long.
"Well, Lily looks like a chicken someone tried to behead!" Mei Long laughed.
This sent the group into further hysterics (A/N: Lil, does this remind you of a certain five ppl at lunch?), which ended when a girl from down the hall stuck her head in at told them in unpleasant terms to be quiet.
It was only later that night, when Lily was once again the only one awake, that Lily took Mei Long's words to heart. "What is going on with me?"
~&~
Over the next few days, Lily was blissfully free of James. None of the teachers had any pairing up for lessons, which left Lily to do her own thing for once. The world was perfect, or at least until Friday the 13th. It proved to be a very fateful day.
By the last class of Potions Lily was praying for free time.
"Today we will experiment with sleeping drafts," Professor Hyde sneered. The head of Slytherin house, she always seemed to favor them. Lily figured this would be no exception.
"We'll be pairing up, as I only have so much of the ingredients," the Professor said. "Brown and Finnigan- you're together."
Hyde moved up and done the isles, paring people with their neighbors. Lily automatically assumed she would be with Mei Long, who was sitting right next to her.
"I don't think so," Hyde jeered. "You, Evans, will be with..." she looked up and rested her eyes on the person behind Lily. "Potter."
Lily pursed her lips in a sign of distaste. "Not again!" she thought.
After she and Sirius had rearranged themselves (he would be working with Mei-Long), Lily rolled up her sleeves and began chopping dandelion roots.
"How much are you willing to bet that the teachers plan all of this?" Lily asked, keeping her eyes on her knife.
"Six galleons," James responded promptly.
"I'll bet seven," Lily said.
"Eight."
"Like you even have that much!" Lily said skeptically.
"I do too! I won five off Sirius the other day," James protested.
Lily leaned over James's arms and dropped her dandelion roots into the potion.
"Hey, where did you get that bruise?" James asked.
Lily drew her arm back. "Oh, this little thing? I hit my arm when I went to turn off my alarm clock yesterday," she said unconvincingly.
"Yeah, sure. Where'd you get it?"
"I told you!" Lily said, stirring the potion. "I hit it on my beside table!"
"Right. You can tell me you know." James dropped his powdered snake fang into the glop.
"I wish I could," Lily said under her breath. "If I had something to tell you, I would," she told him. "Don't makes something out of nothing."
"Your potions will need to stew for a moment before they can be tested. Put them aside while you clean up," Professor Hyde directed.
Lily began to clean without another word, leaving James in the dark. If she had a secret, he would find out, or he wasn't a Marauder.
~%~
During dinner that night, James took out the vial of sleeping draught he had sneaked from potions.
Discreetly, he emptied it in Lily's pumpkin juice as he reached for the cornflower muffins.
Towards dessert, Lily announced that she was going to bed and left, stumbling a bit.
"Hey Mei Long," he asked nonchalantly.
"Hey James," she said.
"What time is Carrot's alarm cloclk set for?"
"Lily's alarm clock?" Mei Long frowned. "She doesn't have an alarm clock."
~!~
That night, Lily slept like she was drugged (she was!). James hardly slept at all. He lay awake in for quite awhile, wondering what it was that she was hiding. She didn't have an alarm, but banged her arm trying to turn it
off. James drifted off to sleep thinking of ways to get it out of her.
~*~
Lily felt like she was returning from the world of the dead when Darcie woke her up with the last whack of a pillow.
"What?" she asked groggily, poking her head out from under the covers.
"You look terrible!" Mei Long exclaimed. "What happened to you? Are you sick?"
"Thanks ever so much," Lily said dryly. "And I'm very tired so I wouldn't mind if you just left me alone." With that, she disappeared under the scarlet covers.
"Not a chance!" Mei Long said as she threw back the covers. "Who do you think I am? You're going straight to the hospital wing!"
"No..." Lily moaned, but it was no use. Mei Long grabbed her wrist and dragged her out of the bedroom. On the way out, Lily caught sight of herself in the mirror. Dark circles ringed her usually bright eyes, which were now a dull green. Her complexion had faded until she was ghostly pale.
"What happened to you, Carrot?" Sirius demanded. James swallowed nervously and fiddled with his robe sleeve.
"Just tired," Lily yawned. "Let's rest for just a minute, okay Dragon?" (A/N: Mei Long is Chinese for beautiful dragon, or something like that)
Mei Long rolled her eyes.
"Darcie, tell Professor Kettleburn that we'll be a little late to Care of Magical Creatures," she instructed, dragging Lily along.
James watched as they disappeared from sight.
"Uh-oh," he thought.
~$~
"Somebody's given her an overdose of sleeping potion," Madame Pomfrey said, clucking her tongue.
"We made some in potions yesterday," Mei Long said uncertainly. "Maybe she's just had trouble sleeping so she took some."
"Either way, she needs a good rest here," Madame Profrey said sternly. "And she shouldn't go around playing with potions."
Lily opened her eyes and stared up, towards the top of her crimson bed. But it wasn't there. She sat bolt upright, about to grab for her wand.
"Up already, dear?" Madame Pomfrey asked.
Lily stared at her. "What happened?" she managed to choke out.
"Oh, you just took an overdose of sleeping potion. You ought to be more careful," the nurse scolded, checking her temperature.
"I didn't take any sleeping potion," Lily blurted out.
"Of course you didn't dear," came the vague reply.
Lily frowned. Who would've done this?
"Is she awake?"
Mei Long walked around the corner, out of breath.
"Oh, hi Mei Long," Lily said cheerfully.
"Someone's happy," Mei Long remarked, ruffling Lily's hair.
"So, what happened after I left the table?" Lily asked nonchalantly as she walked down to the Gryffindor common room.
"Oh, James was being stupid. As usual." Mei Long rolled her eyes.
"What did he say?"
"He was going on about you having an alarm clock."
"My what?"
"Your alarm clock. Said something about you turning it off."
Lily froze. James! Why hadn't she guessed? But what was he doing?
"Lily?" Mei Long said, waving her hand in front of the redhead's face. "We're here."
Lily walked in with Mei Long and faced a bombardment of questions. What happened? Was she all right? Did Madame Pomfrey try to poison her?
She noticed James was in the back corner of the room. She met his stare and glared for a moment, before making up some excuse about writing to her Mum and left for her room.
Why did he give me sleeping potion? Lily thought. And why is he trying to invade my personal life like this?!
~@~
"Ouch!" James yelped as something hit his face-hard.
"What's wrong with you James?" Sirius asked, flying up next to him. "That's the second time you've let the Quaffle get you. What's eating at you?"
"Nothing," James muttered, rubbing his head.
Sirius flew alongside the tower that framed the Quidditch field.
"Hey look! There's Mei Long! ...And Darcie and Lily too," Sirius quickly added.
"So it is," James answered.
"Maybe they want to play!" Sirius said, already flying downwards.
"Maybe they don't," James grumbled, then followed his friend. "The things I do for him..."
~#~
"Do we want to play Quidditch?" Mei Long echoed. "Well..."
"Of course we do!" Darcie answered, being the more sporty girl of the group.
"Um, I've got to finish my homework!" Lily finished the last part quickly.
James raised his eyebrows. "Is Wiwy afwaid of heights?" he teased.
"Of course not! No! What gave you that idea?" Lily asked in a strange voice.
"You are afraid of heights!" James crowed.
"So what?" Lily demanded, putting her hands on her hips.
James shrugged. "Just thought you wouldn't be afraid of something stupid like heights. I thought you were brave."
Lily stared open-mouthed. "I'll show you!" she said. "I'm not afraid of heights!"
With that, Lily marched out towards the Quidditch field after Darcie.
James grinned.