Lily Angel
Chapter 9
Lily sat in her bed in the girl's dorms, talking to Lissy. Her job in Rome was finished ('you should have seen it! So much colour!') and she had come to help Lily, though in secret.
'You want James to come down?' Lissy said doubtfully, biting on her nails. 'You weren't even supposed to tell Harry…I'll be in big trouble if Michelangelo finds out, I'll never get to train you.' She looked suddenly downcast.
'I didn't exactly tell him,' Lily said, patting her friend on the shoulder comfortingly. 'He sort of figured it out himself. I didn't know he had a photo album of us, but he did, he showed it to me the other day. And he wants to see James so much! Please?' She looked at Lissy with pleading eyes.
Lissy sighed, and she leaned back on the pillows, closing her eyes thoughtfully.
'I suppose so,' she said with a sigh, sounding much older than she looked. She only looked as though she was twelve years old, and here she was dealing with fate. It was enough to make anyone sigh.
'Thankyou! Thankyou, thankyou- hey! Where'd you go?'
Lissy had suddenly disappeared, and while Lily crawled around on the floor trying to see if she'd hidden under a bed, Cho came in.
What on earth?
She was greeted by the sight of Lillian lying on her back, talking to the springs under the mattress, or whatever else was under her bed. Cho didn't really like to guess.
'Er- Lillian?'
Lily banged her head on the springs and crawled out, rubbing her head.
'Ow.'
Cho stared at her, but decided against saying anything. Her friend's red hair was tangled messily, and her face bore a strange resemblance to someone she knew- but she knew no one else who had red hair, or green eyes like that, so it must have been her imagination.
Or was it?
Harry and Lily sat outside about a week later, playing wizard chess. It amused Harry to find that he was even better than she was- so, in all honesty, she was pretty bad. When Lily had lost her fifth game, Harry began to get impatient. He expected her to say some like 'patience is a virtue,' as all his other elders had, but she didn't- she seemed to be almost as impatient as he was.
'Lily?'
'Mmm?' She glanced up from where she had been pulling grass out of the ground- there was now a little mound on dirt in its place.
'Are you sure he'll come?'
'Sure he'll come,' Lily said cheerfully, glancing up at the sky. 'Any minute now…maybe you should move over there, on second thoughts.'
'Why?'
Lily raised her eyebrows at him, so he shrugged and stood under the tree nearby. While his back was turned, he heard a loud thump and a yell. Harry spun around.
There, lying on the ground, was a tall, gangly man. He had landed directly on top of Lily, and she didn't sound- or look, but she was underneath him so it was hard to be sure- too pleased with these arrangements.
'Oof! You just had to land on me, didn't you, you great lump!' Her voice was indistinct, but James Potter didn't seem to care. He pulled her to her feet, while Harry watched, speechless.
James was looking at her with a funny kind of grin on his face.
'You look different…Miss Potter, have you shrunk?'
Harry couldn't hear Lily's answer, but he supposed it was funny, as James laughed and picked her up, swirling her around in the air.
Then he turned around, and the grin that had been on his face was quickly replaced by an even wider smile, and although his eyes were quite serious, they were smiling too. Harry blinked. It was like looking into a mirror- although, of course, he was still quite short and his father was not short at all.
Lily decided it might be time to say something- 'James, this is Harry.'
'Hey, Harry.'
'Hey.'
Harry mentally hit himself. First time he'd ever spoken to his dad, and he sounded strangely like a mouse. He decided to try again.
'Hello.'
Now rat talk had clicked in.
But James just laughed again, but he didn't know what to say either, and the two of them just stood there, staring at each other. It wasn't exactly an awkward silence, nor an uncomfortable silence. It was just silent, and strangely so at that.
Lily blinked. 'Okay. Now we can all talk.'
Silence.
'Or not,' Lily added.
''You like Quidditch?' James asked, eyeing Harry's strong arms.
Harry's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. 'Yeah!'
'Got a broom?'
'Yup!'
'Then off we go.'
The two off them practically raced off to the broom shed, with Lily hurrying after them, shaking her head in disbelief.
'Quidditch? Not even a 'how are you today?' No, just Quidditch…I must have been mad to marry him. Absolutely crazy.'
She shrieked as James jumped out from a bush, picking her up in his arms, swinging her around.
But happy. Crazy and happy.
Cho Chang sat in Muggle Studies. It was all very confusing, this television business. Were they real people, or puppets made to look life like with what the professor called 'special effects?'
But going back to more important matters, she continued drawing the picture on her parchment she'd been working on for ages. She was not a person that could draw realistically- her people looked oddly like Mrs Potato Head after she'd been in the oven for several hours or something. But her paintings were very colourful, and they cheered her up occasionally. Lillian, somehow, had also made life slightly more bearable, but her paintings were her favourite thing, although her best friend Marta Hoppings said that they gave her a headache.
Of course, her paintings from after the tri-wizard tournament weren't exactly what you'd call cheerful. More like dark and angry. But they were, strangely, some of her best work, though she didn't often look at them. It was too depressing.
She sighed loudly, but was distracted when Lillian Skye, the crazy red haired transfer from- well, somewhere- came rushing in, her long hair wet.
'Miss Skye?' The professor said, raising his eyebrows. However, before he could lecture her on punctuality and the importance of a watch (but Lily and watches really didn't go well together)
She grinned cheerfully, and for a moment her face took on the look of an angel.
Cho shook her head out of her trance, blinking. Her friend turned back into Lillian, but still…there was something about her eyes.
'Where were you?' She hissed the moment Lillian had taken her seat.
'Outside, I got a bit- um, sidetracked.'
'Right.' Her dark eyes narrowed. 'With who?'
'I never said with anybody,' Lillian said defensively, but she didn't look Cho in the eyes.
Cho smirked. 'You have that love-sick look in your eyes, I can tell.'
What is this? I thought I got rid of that look when I was nineteen? Dammit.
'So who's the lucky guy?'
'You wouldn't believe me if I told you.'
'So what's he like?'
Lily thought for a moment. 'He's the most sweet, yet the most annoying person on the planet…and he's got the most adorable smile in the world. And he sucks at writing poetry.'
'He wrote you poems?' Now there's something Cedric never did.
'They weren't very good,' Lily admitted.
'How'd you meet some adorable guy when you've hardly been here a month?'
'Oh- um…lucky, I guess.'
Cho snorted, but in her head she was remembering someone with the sweetest smile…it was unfair. She'd kill Voldemort one day, even if she died trying. So far blunt knives were looking very appealing.
***
Joanna Matheson stared at the television. Nothing was on, and the screen was blank but she didn't care. The darkness was kind of interesting, in a boring way.
She kicked the remote control, attempting in grabbing it with her toes, succeeding in shoving it to the other side of the room.
Joanna gave a loud snort.
Her life was the pits. That was how she described it to her friends, when they bothered to ask. She didn't actually have many friends, and all of the ones that she ever had had were either dead or in prison or they'd disappeared off the face of the earth.
She'd disappeared as well.
From the outside world, but also from herself. She was hiding inside a shell she didn't know how to crack, and every time someone tried to break it she added another layer or just rolled away.
Yes, life couldn't possibly get any lower.
The stick lying on the coffee table jerked over a few centimetres.
'Bloody thing,' Joanna muttered.
It gave off a few sparks in reply, and the next moment someone appeared in her fireplace.
'Sirius. Black. Get the hell away from me.'
Sirius's hair was shorter than the picture she remembered from the newspaper.
'Hey, Jo-jo.'
'Leave me alone.'
Sirius stared at her. 'You've cut your hair.'
'It's been fifteen years, I think I'm allowed to do what I want. I waited for you to be proved innocent, you know. I waited ten bloody years.'
'And you've been hanging around drunks, haven't you? And the hair looks nice, now that I think of it. It shows off your ears. You have nice ears.'
Typical Sirius conversation.
'I don't believe you.' Jo hissed. 'You kill my best friends, ruin my life, and come here and tell me that I have nice ears? You have some nerve, Black.'
Sirius looked sheepish, and an expression Jo Gilles had rarely seen in his eyes and had hoped never to see again. Hurt. Sirius never got hurt. They had an empty look left in them as well, darkness that just ducked out of the shadows and made him look older than he actually was.
'Jo…I didn't mean to…' He said feebly.
'No.' She said sarcastically. 'You just went and played chess with Voldemort for a few days, lost a couple of million galleons and had to repay him, right?'
'Well- no, actually. I thought Remus told you-'
'I haven't seen Remus for five years.' She said shortly. 'And now that I think of it- this is the last question I ask before I blow your head off by the way, how exactly did you find me? I'm not even connected to the floo network.'
'Yeah- I asked Arthur Weasley to connect you when I found out where you were…took me months.'
Jo was stunned. Then she remembered that Sirius had killed Lily and James and that he was a complete loser.
She hated him, and yet she really wanted to rush at him and kiss him for the rest of her life.
But, at the moment, the hate part of her was far stronger. To prove this, she grabbed a cup and threw it at him. It bounced off Sirius's mess of hair- it was a bit like James's used to be, only longer and not quite as scruffy.
'I hate you. I hate you, I hate you-'
'Yes, okay, you hate me. Plenty of people hate me. In fact, I think the only people who don't hate me are Harry and Dumbledore and their friends.'
'Harry? HARRY! What the hell are you talking about? You killed his parents, Black.'
She felt bad after this comment, and even worse when she saw a single silver tear slide down his cheek. Sirius never cried.
Never.
Even when Lily accidentally sat on his owl, he didn't cry.
Even when Holly died he didn't cry. He was as quiet as a mouse all evening, but he didn't cry.
Jo stepped forward and patted his shoulder awkwardly. 'Sorry…'She caught herself. 'No! What have you said to Harry?'
'The truth,' he muttered. 'But as you seem to only want to pelt me with cups…I might go.'
Her heart did a tiny little somersault as he headed towards the fireplace. The room they were standing in was dusty, old and dull. She almost wanted to cry herself. Here was Sirius, the person she'd been waiting for almost half her life…and here she was chucking cups at him.
'Sirius…tell me what happened.'
His eyes widened and he spun around, staring at her, disbelief evident in his shadowy eyes.
'I'd never kill Lily and James,' he whispered. He sounded so unlike Sirius. It scared her and made it impossible for her to be angry with him.
He grinned, attempting look like the Sirius Black everyone knew.
But now she knew that under all his jokes, and under the laughter someone else was hidden. Maybe that person hadn't been there before, but they were there now and she knew they weren't supposed to be.
'I believe you. But what did happen- please tell me?'
Sirius sighed loudly. 'It could take awhile.'
'I've got forever.'
***
'Lily.'
Lily glanced up from her homework.
'D'you have to do that?'
She mumbled a reply, the sound of the quill scratching on the parchment more distinct than her answer.
James grumbled loudly. 'I'm bored. I want to do something.'
She looked up. 'Any suggestions? Cause unless you want me to spend all afternoon in the dungeons scrubbing cauldrons, I suggest you let me get on with this.'
He moaned. 'I'm so boooooored…I feel like tomato soup…oooh…I'll see you later, Lil.'
Lily blinked as James (who had now turned invisible) bounced off. She could hear his footsteps.
If James ever got wings, she pitied anyone who got in his way. They'd be trampled on for sure.
***
Ron Weasley let out a loud yawn, causing Hermione Granger to frown at him. She could look frighteningly like Professor McGonagall at these times, and Ron looked away quickly, horrified. It was bad enough to be in Professor McGonagall's class- but to have a best friend that looked like her…it was just horrific.
Harry Potter was off in la la land, still thinking of his parents- they had to be the coolest people in the world, apart from Sirius.
Lily was a lot like a teenager still. Her long hair was always in her face and she was so funny, like Ron in weird way. He re-thought this. His mother was like his best friend?
That did not come out right.
She had the same sense of humour?
Yes, that sounded a bit better.
But he was scared Lily would kill James if they were left alone together- though he supposed they'd managed without for quite awhile, they'd manage.
But he still couldn't help worrying that he'd find Lily without all her beautiful hair.
Or James bald.
'Talked to Lillian lately?' Hermione asked innocently, really only looking forward to seeing Ron's reaction.
'Lillian? What- no.'
As Hermione had mentally predicted, Ron's ears went a very dark pink colour.
And Harry, of course, found this hilarious.
His best friend (who had the same sense of humour as his mother) liked his mother…
No. That wasn't funny.
That was disgusting.
I am really, really, sorry this took so long. I actually wrote some of it during science (yay!) but we spent the entire lesson in computing today on spreadsheets. Cassie Lee, when you get back to Sydney, come to Adelaide and we'll trap my computing teacher and we can torture him with mosquitoes.
People have told me that my stories are too short, and that they should be longer. Sorry, sorry, sorry. The Flower and the Stag actually took me about 7 months, maybe longer, so if you want parts like that you'll be waiting an extremely long time.
Sorry again. J - oh, someone asked me how to do that. You press shift, keep your finger on it and press this one : and then you press this one )
It should make a smiley face (figured that out during a computing lesson.)
And the Joanna Matheson part- that was Jo.
