A/N: Thanks to those who reviewed the first chapter, every one of you has an individual note at the end of the chapter!
IN COR CLAUDERE
By Empress Jade
Callie.
"Callie?" James heard himself say in an unusually weak voice.
She nodded, straight up and straight down in an extremely purposeful way.
"You know, for a little while we thought you weren't here," he replied, getting calmer as he spoke, shifting his weight onto his left leg. He tended to do that when he was trying to keep his distance from something without looking like he was trying to keep his distance.
"I've been waiting for you." She annunciated each word carefully, as if reciting from a well written play and not wanting any of the words to lose their power and meaning. Her eyes remained unnervingly steady in their penetrating gaze.
"Well, I know we're a little late. At first we couldn't really figure out how to get here," he rambled on, continually shifting back onto his right foot, then left again, then right; trying not to look into her eyes.
"Cal!" he heard another voice. Sirius. James heard his footsteps approach from behind him and toward her.
"Oh, Sirius," she smiled a smile and didn't quite reach her eyes, planting a kiss firmly on his lips.
"Hey beautiful, you did a good job hiding from us," he twirled some of her long hair in his hand as he sat on the armrest of the chair she was seated in, showering her neck with little kisses. He didn't seem to notice her unusual stillness or the steadiness of her eyes. Then again, he had his eyes closed.
She looked up at him abruptly. "Hey sexy, you wanna go get me another drink?"
"Make James do it," he murmured, still nuzzling his face against her neck.
"Oh, but I'd rather that you did," she pulled away from him and pushing stray hairs out of her eyes, leaving his face feeling cold without her hair's warmth.
"Alright," he got up reluctantly and walked back toward the large room they had entered from. "No funny business while I'm gone," he pointed at James with a wink. James watched him saunter away in that way that he did.
As soon as Sirius was out of sight, Callie returned her attention to James. "Finally," she rolled her eyes, and turned to face him.
"What?" he replied, his confusion evident on his face. James was one of those people that didn't bother to hide his thoughts. After all, was there a point to having an opinion if you weren't going to share it?
She sighed and stood up in one graceful motion, her hair stirring like a veil behind her. She remained standing, holding out one slender arm to him. "Come with me for a moment."
He simply looked at her hand warily, unsure of what to do, taking a tiny step backwards.
"Just for a moment," she repeated, she was obviously not going to give up until she got her way. Beautiful blondes are like that sometimes.
A little unwillingly, he stepped closer to her, not wanting to argue, and placed his well sculptured hand in hers. She picked up the glittering purse that had sat next to her on the chair.
And the world spun.
* * *
"Okay...that doesn't sound good."
"And one order of high splicing action and mystery story is served," grinned Sirius.
* * *
Sirius carried a glass of white wine in one hand and a slice of chocolate cake in the other. "Hello ladies," he smiled cheekily at the numerous female admirers he had on his way back to his girlfriend. He hoped that what she had had was white wine, and that he wouldn't have to go get something else for her. If she starting getting too authoritarian like, he would have to let her go. After all, there was always that cute writer down by the post office, he smiled to himself at that thought. He maneuvered himself around the pool tables and the half drunk wizards around them, back toward the leather armchair where he last saw his girlfriend.
When he reached the chair, however, he found that it was empty. Callie was no longer there. And neither was…James. A flare of anger rose up within him. "That…" he muttered several profane things under his breath. "My best friend…and after I said…" he muttered a few more. "And he already has a girlfriend…" he was now so angry that he had to make up a few swears, as he had gone through all the ones in the book, in the unabridged copy.
Sirius looked down to see that he had smashed the cake in his sudden anger, and threw it against the wall with all his strength. A few pool shooters looked at him out of the corner of their eyes. But he didn't care.
He stormed back into the large hall, glad that the music was so loud and the room was so dark that no one would notice his rage, since he was running into people left and right.
"Sirius!" one of them yelled after he had trampled them. He turned around. His anger amplified after recognizing the redhead. Lily.
"I am going to kill that good for nothing boyfriend of yours!" Sirius shouted over the music.
"James?" she shouted back, looking confused.
"No, the other one," he shot back.
"What is your problem?" she raged.
"My problem?" he thundered back. "I just left my girlfriend and your boyfriend in a room together for two seconds, and I come back to find them both gone! Now how do you explain that?"
"Easily! It was probably her!"
"It was not!"
"Why?" she tested.
"What girl in her right mind would choose him over me?"
"Maybe she was choosing both of you! Don't look so surprised, girls can play that game too, it's not just you!" She was fuming. She always hated the way she looked when she was fuming. The muscles in her face always got tense, and a rush of color went to her cheeks.
"Well it's your boyfriend too!" The possibility of girls playing the field left him so shocked, that those five words were all he could manage to squeeze out. Girls? No, they were for being toyed with, not by. Girls were supposed to adore him, his rugged appearance, his sense of fun, his everything. Any ideas beyond that were radical and far beyond reality.
While Sirius pondered those thoughts, different ones were forming in Lily's mind. The five little words that he said were now swirling around in it, making unpleasant little visuals and a taunting little voice. 'I have nothing to worry about,' she reminded herself. Although Callie was blonde, and beautiful, and could be quite cunning when she decided to be, she didn't have a chance at whatever she tried with him. But Lily couldn't shake that feeling of doubt.
"Maybe they just went to look at the rest of the mansion or something. We don't have to jump to conclusions," she finally proclaimed aloud, more to reassure herself than him. She made sure that her face was as convincing as possible.
Sirius shrugged, coming out of his state of astonishment at last. "Whatever you say," although he was no longer astonished, those ideas did not leave him in a very cheery mood. He really wanted something to drink, and we're not talking apple juice here, folks.
"Will you at least help me look for them?" She was getting irritated with his lack of attentiveness.
"Yeah, whatever."
"Okay, you look back in the room where you last saw them, and I'll start in this big hall, okay?"
"Whatever you want," he replied nonchalantly, staring at the food table.
She was really, really getting irritated now. "How many times is it humanly possible to say the word 'whatever' in a matter of two minutes?" she nearly screamed at him.
"Beggars can't be choosers."
Frustrated, Lily sighed angrily and stormed away from him.
***
"Umph!" James felt his feet hit a floor, and he toppled over. He blinked rapidly to see his surroundings as he brought himself back up into a standing position. He was in a little room with black marble walls and a black marble floor. A bedroom, in the essence of a bedroom, for that was all that was in it. A bed. A large bed made of oak with a lovely green 300 thread count comforter spread on the fluffy looking mattress. And sitting on it, smiling, was Callie. "Where are we?" he asked, though he knew that when people asked such questions, they usually received unpleasant answers.
And he was right. "That is for me to know, but you will find out soon enough," she replied cheerfully, and suddenly hopped off the bed and strode toward him, placing both arms around his neck and looking into his eyes.
He pulled back, but could not get out of her grasp.
She didn't seem to notice. As she leaned in, he squirmed even more, thinking that she was going to kiss him. Instead, she pulled one dark strand of hair off his head. "But first, I have things to take care of," she looked at the hair in her hand, and stepped away from him, preparing to pick up her purse again. "By the way," she added as a side note, "I wouldn't try to get out of here if I were you."
His eyes questioned her.
"Because these walls do not like magic use by unknown beings. Some very interesting things could happen to you. I highly advise that you leave your wand where it is, I'd like to come back to find you in one piece." She beamed at him, grabbed her purse, and disappeared, leaving James alone.
"Great," he mumbled to himself, as he often did when he was alone. "Locked in a magic-proof room, who knows where, with a really scary girl about to come back after she's done who knows what," as he trudged to the bed and sat down.
***
Sirius sipped the white wine he had originally picked up for Callie on the way back to the billiards room, slowly, as he really did not want to go back in there. It was all part of his plan to become very, very drunk and be very, very happy. He wasn't really a drinker, but he had decided that such times called for it.
He rounded the first pool table.
Took six steps. 'Wow, it takes me six steps to make it past a pool table?'
Swerved around another one, and walked past it in five. 'An improvement.'
He continued walking past pool tables until he could make it past one in only one step. He was quite proud of himself, eyes still focused on the floor.
He saw the wooden leg of the leather chair Callie had originally been seated in.
And a slim ankle in a stiletto heel was next to it. He looked up.
"There you are," Callie grinned at him, "I was wondering if you'd ever come back!"
Sirius tried desperately to hide his confusion. "Um…where were you?" He looked around. "Where's James?"
"Oh, well," she looked at the ground. "He…" she bit her lip, looking embarrassed.
"Did he try to…" Sirius filled in.
She tottered her head back and forth, as if she was trying to decide whether to tattletale on someone or not.
"He did!" he said through clenched teeth, and squeezing his hands into fists. "Just wait until I get my hands on him, he'll regret the day he was born!" as he turned back toward the big hall with the music, scanning for his "best friend", although it was really too dark to see anything.
"Don't worry about it," he heard her say in a soothing voice as he turned around to look at her again, "He wasn't a problem, I took care of it. He's on his way home now."
"Good, but I'm still mad at him," he pouted, running his hand through her hair.
She rolled her eyes at him and laughed, a clear, ringing laugh. "Let it go, it's not the first time something like that's happened, and it certainly won't be the last," she offered him her wine, which he took carelessly.
"But still, it's not just anyone, it's 'Saint James', my best friend," he gulped down the rest of the wine, "I just never thought he would do anything--"
The glass fell to the ground and shattered.
***
"Hey Frank, have you seen James?" Lily approached a group of seventh years who were standing in the corner of the music hall.
A sandy blond-haired boy turned around, "No, I haven't, sorry." He saw the look of concern on her face and added, "Is something wrong?"
She shook her head lightly. "No, we just can't find him. Sirius and I," she replied glumly. " And Callie's gone too."
His face wrinkled. "Callie Lirdde?"
"Don't tell me you're another one of her admirers," she rolled her eyes at him.
"No," his voice was earnest. "She's my neighbor and we've been friends since…as long as I can remember. Why don't I come with you to look for them?"
"Yeah sure," she decided that with Sirius in the state that he was in, she needed whatever help came along. "The last I know, he was in the billiards room...you know, the one right off this hall," she indicated the direction, "why don't we see if there's anything there that will tell us where they are," she suggested.
"Sounds good to me," he smiled. He was always smiling, always happy. It comforted Lily to know that there was still some goodness in this world. "See you guys later," he said to his other friends as he walked away with her.
"Hey," he stopped.
"What?" she replied quickly with an edgy voice. Whatever she may have tried to convince herself of, she was definitely starting to get worried about James being gone...with Callie.
"Whoa, settle down, it's okay," he smiled again, unaffected in any way by her harshness. "I was just thinking that we should ask Lucius if he's seen them, it's his party and his house after all, and he's right over there," Frank pointed a few feet to the right of where he was.
"Oh," Lily sighed, trying to calm herself down. "Um...yeah, that's a good idea," remembering how cunning Frank was. Even though he wasn't on the Quidditch team, he was the one that wrote most of the Gryffindor team's plays and examined opposing teams' tactics. James was smart, but Frank's idea's were what kept their team alive. James...she tried not to think about him.
"Come on," Frank steered her in the right direction, they had to dodge a few dozen people before they could get to their host.
Lucius Malfoy stood tall and gaunt with brilliant white-blond hair that was short and spiked. He carried himself with a certain air that was unduplicable. With dignity, but not the heroic kind of dignity, the kind of dignity that comes partially from his custom tailored Armani, black, as always, and the glass of Cristal that he held gracefully in his manicured hands, and partially from his height and his razor straight posture. But more, it radiated from his firm, placid face, his chin held high, the unmeaningful condescendance of his glance, the coldness that shot out of his unbelievably sculpted cheekbones, the ease at which he could converse without being familiar. This was the air of one who firmly believed that he deserved everything he had, and cared very little of what others thought of him as long as the words beautiful, high class, and powerful were in the description.
"Lucius," Frank called, with yet another beaming smile.
The blond head pivoted gently, and Lily braced herself as smoky violet eyes, calm from the outside with a fire within, made contact with hers. They quickly moved on to her companion. "Longbottom, Ms. Evans," he acknowledged with a tip of his glass. "I trust that you're both enjoying yourself," he greeted without a smile, but those who knew him knew that Lucius Malfoy did not smile. It was not in his nature, and it saved his flawless face from smile lines.
"Yes we are," Lily replied, sans smile. After all, two could play at that game. "But we were wondering if you had seen either James Potter or Callie Lirdde."
His neatly trimmed eyebrows twitched for a second, "No, I don't believe I have."
"Oh," she couldn't help but be a little disappointed.
But Lucius, as cold as he could be, was without a doubt, the perfect host. "I'll keep an eye out for them."
"Thanks."
"By the way, Ms. Evans, that is an exquisite bracelet. White jade is extremely hard to come by."
"Oh thank you, it was a gift!" she smiled at the compliment.
* * *
"Now he just sounds...scary."
"Yeah, he was...but he had cheekbones to kill for," Sirius added thoughtfully.
Harry cringed. "Ew."
* * *
"Well, so much for that idea," Lily sighed, walking away from Lucius.
"Don't worry, we'll find them," Frank patted her arm. "Now let's go to that billiards room."
She nodded, and went left, masterfully maneuvering around the crowds of people until they reached the first pool table. "Here we go," she said with little enthusiasm.
"Now, now," he tried to cheer her up as they started walking in. "You really don't have anything to worry about."
She gave him a doubtful look.
"Malfoy mansion is a huge place."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning, if he had been trying to find the bathroom and took a wrong turn who knows where he could have turned up," Frank rambled. "You know, I heard that there are 100,000 square meters in this place. So if--"
He stopped very suddenly.
"What?" Lily asked.
"Nothing," he replied quickly, moving his jaw back to its usual place. "Uh, I don't think they're in here, let's go back out."
She raised her eyebrows at his unusual behavior "What is it?"
"Nothing," he repeated and proceeded to pull her out by her arm.
She pulled away. "You're lying."
"I'm not."
"Yes, you are!" she insisted. "Come on!" she pulled him back in.
She turned back around.
And saw. Exactly what Frank had tried to protect her from.
They had found them.
Callie and James. Sharing the same chair. Lips together, arms around each other--
She couldn't take seeing anymore and ran from the room.
She ran, and she ran, swearing to never speak to him again. Never to near him again. Never to love again, never to...
But she didn't notice that her bracelet was glowing. The gift that he had given her for Christmas, the white jade bracelet with a dragon intricately cut on it, was glowing an unnatural green.
*****************************
*Plays Twilight Zone music* What will happen next? Will Lily ever notice her bracelet? Why did Sirius drop his glass and then disappear? Why was James mad at Callie, but was snogging her by the end of the chapter? Will Lucius ever brighten up? Why is Callie suddenly acting so strange?
The answers to this and more in Chapter three!
BTW…Callie isn't really as much of an OC as you think. At the end of the series, you'll realize that you actually do know her…just not as Callie.
I noticed these at the bottoms of many stories and thought it was a good idea…
Scroll down to find your individual comment (sorry it's not alphabetized, and please excuse grammar/spelling as well):
Shirely: I hope 'interesting' means you liked it and that Chapter 2 was satisfactory.
Lily's friend*Jess: I''m going to try to work on BWMTE, but ideas aren't really flowing although I do have the fourth chapter started!
THE PUCK: I know…the Sirius/Harry comments quality was a little down this time, mostly because the action started up though…any suggestions?
BELLA: I think you and Morgan have the awards for longest and most thoughtful reviews! It's a great honor, really! Yeah, the Malfoy family part was really fun to write, and so was Lucius in this chapter! And thanks for being specific with your likes!
EMILY: Thanks for reading, and I'm glad you enjoyed it!
SCULLYSPICE: I hope this chapter was up to par and at least as good as the last!
AZURE EDGE: (Awesome name btw, sounds like a magic sword or something…hmm…wheels start turning) Yes, the Harry and Sirius parts were my favorite too!
*SELLENE*: Another whole chapter, but you still don't really know what's happening, do you? Hope you keep reading for the truth…uncovered!
Jj: Yes, there is lots more on the way, and I sincerely hope you like all of it as well!
MOLLIE: I'm thinking of making a little email list because people have asked to tell them when something new is up (SO EVERYONE ELSE: LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO BE ON IT!) If you're a ffn writer, you can just put me on author alert.
~*CHARMSANGEL*~: Did you love this chapter too? And I'll be dishing out so much you'll never want to see me again! (hopefully, though I'll be out of town for a little while).
CASSIDY: Ah, my lovely beta reader (or one of)…finals, yuck! I hope yours are almost over! Although I haven't even started Chapter three yet (because of MM, side projects, bad me)
SABRINA: Hey, what's better than one review? Two reviews! And thank you to Zoe as well! WRU FOREVER!
AURORA: Your name reminds me of the princess from Sleeping Beauty (the disney version)…well, is this bad enough for you? I think it may get worse in the next chapter…which I have yet to write!
JJ: This is as ASAP as I could get, it's been a few weeks, right? Could have been worse…
MAMASITA: Thank you, thank you, thank you! You say the words I long to hear, now let's just see if my head will fit through the doorframe.
LISA: Special thanks to you! I'm sorry you didn't like the story that much, but if you're reading this, thank you and thank you for reviewing anyway!
CHRISSY: Does this clear up your confusion at all? Actually, I personally think it gets more confusing in this chapter, but it's supposed to. The smoke should clear sometimes between Chapter three and …the end.
PHOENIX: Was this chapter to die for? I certainly hope it's up to your standards!
SHAMPOO UL COPT: Thanks for reviewing and I'm glad you liked it!
FOXFIRE06: Thanks, merci, gracias for taking the time to drop a few lines!
AKASAILORMARS: Ahh…Sailor moon, great show. But I was never home soon enough from school to watch it, so I never really understood what was going on since the storyline is so long! I'm guessing that all caps means you liked it?
HOPE: I think we all get a little lazy about signing in sometimes…yes, "different" is definitely a good word when it comes to stories! Thanks for specifically telling me what you liked, it helps me know what to put and not to put in stories!
MYRDDIN EMRYS: Wow, what an interesting name! (Can you tell from my other comments that I really like names?) What does it mean? You can tell me that in your next review, right? (btw, thank you for reading, of course)
MORGAN: yes, the other co-winner of the Super Review Award! Foreshadowing? Someone here knows a writing term? Anyway…yes, every single name in this story has a meaning…it's one of the fun little things I get to do as an author, if you're wondering about any of them, just ask. I love Andromeda because you can actually see it in the sky! Grammar…we all love it. I do, really, but sometimes when you're typing to just get going so fast, you know?
RAINA: My other lovely beta reader, did you like your cameo? It was hard to me to sneak it in…but I think I did alright. Favorites! Yay, I'm on a favorites list! *Jumps up and down in a state of rapture!*
ADDAGIRL: Cheating? Hm…I guess you'll have to keep reading to find out! *Ponders possible death* As Draco said in Draco Sinister: "As least I got a warning. For most people, it's just 'watch the bus' 'what bus?' splat!" or something along those lines.
ELIZ BLACK: A nice simple 'good'…my grandmother used to say that to me a lot. Well, still does I should say. Thanks!
"To thine own self be true." William Shakespeare, Hamlet