Another you, another me.

by All Mighty Me

A L/J-centered MWPP fic. Tangled lovelives, life in the fear of the Dark Lord... Featuring Lily 'femme fatale', a shy Rita Skeeter, and a serious Sirius Black. *bad pun, bad pun!* *vbeg*(slightly revised chapter 2)

2. Nihil

TITLE: Another You, Another Me

SUMMARY: A L/J-centered MWPP fic. Tangled lovelives, life in the fear of the Dark Lord... Featuring Lily 'femme fatale', a shy Rita Skeeter, and a serious Sirius Black.

RATING: PG-13

DISCLAIMER: Not mine. Although sadly, I must disclaim them all. Even Sirius. *sighs sadly, then goes out of the room, dragging her feet*.

PAIRING(s): L/J, S/L, R/I. (some OC's)

A/N: I revised this chapter (read: re-named Cuthbert). From now on, the character formerly known as Cuthbert Mockridge will be named Barthemius Crouch Jr. 0.o

Anyhow, for those of you who are reading this thing for the first time: OOC-ness abroad! But, it does have a significance in the further chapters, so bare with me.

Special thanks to all that reviewed the fic so far! You are wonderful! And, of course,to my luverly beta-reader Lorelai (Erm...DARK)

***

"Lily? Will you please get dressed?"

Lily Evans, 7th year, Hogwarts, was brutally recalled from her deep thoughts by the annoying voice of Barthemius Crouch Jr..

'Why the hell is he talking to me like this?' she thought 'And why should I get dressed?'

Oh, yeah. The party. Rita Skeeter's party, to make it worse.

She didn't really want to go to Rita's. Not after their last conversation about James. And she absolutely didn't want to go there with Barty. But she couldn't do anything about it. After all, Rita was her best friend since kindergarten, and she didn't have any more propositions for the company to go there.

Barthemius was a friend from her Arithmancy class, an ambitional blond-haired perfect nuisance. A party in his company could be fun only if they could splash the boy with whipped-cream, stick some funny photos to him and set him out in an hot-air balloon (or something equally amusing). Barty, a guy with impeccable manners, was always fretful, talked through clenched teeth, squinted his eyes and unceasingly philosophised.

His father was a very successfull Minisrty employee, and he aimed as high as the position of Minister of Magic. Her friends were all giggly and congratulated Lily on having such a new boyfriend. But the auburn-haired young woman had her own opinion. No Barties would be welcome in her life! And see, she was doomed to go to her best friend's party with this pain in the ass.

"I would ask you to get dressed" said Barty through clenched jaws.

"But I am dressed" answered Lily. She still weared her school robes, and was playing chess with Liza.

"In an evening dress" precised Barty

"Oh" she muttered "Well, you'll have to wait a bit"

"We'll be late!" hysterically uttered the blond boy.

"Who cares. Be quiet."

Barty was immured. He clenched his jaws even tighter then before, nervously fiddled his button, and started to make convulsive movements with his leg. Finally, the girls stopped playing. Lily lazily streched herself, and climbed the stairs leading to her dorm. She came back nearly at once, dressed in a dress of an odd, deep-golden color.

"C'mon, lets go" ordered Lily, glancing reluctantly at her so-called boyfriend.

***********************

Lily felt extremely relieved when the party ended. It wasn't that she didn't like Rita, no, to the contrary, but she just couldn't stand beeing so close to James. Moreover, she felt a bit left apart, for Barty was really no company for a nice discussion, Liza sat in a corner on Sirius's lap, where they whispered and conversed for the whole time of the party. And Rita, of course, was busy doing stuff for her guests, like bringing in more food, and playing diferent tapes. It looked rather weird to Lily, who didn't remember the last time Rita cared so much about any of her guests.

What struck her, was her friend's behaviour around James. She was feeding him like a little baby, trying to talk to him, but James didn't even notice her, busy talking to Remus and Peter, his other friends.

Finally, she brought in the birthday cake. After singing the compulsory "Happy Birthday" to her, James kissed her on the lips.

"I like to kiss girls" he explained disarmingly, and rushed to kiss Liza, but Sirius moved him aside saying that he can kiss him instead. James refused and, still laughing, nonchalantly hugged Lily.

Unfortunately, she immediatly turned bright red.

James looked at her closer, and hugged her a bit tighter. Lily promtly turned her head aside. At such a sign of aversion, he let go of her, laughed shortly, and said

"See you tomorow." then he turned to the whole room and said that he ought to go.

"Don't go!" said Rita.

But he waved his hand and went away.

***********************

After wishing one more time a happy birthday to Rita, everybody decided to go. Sirius said that he and Liza would go outside for a small walk on the snow. They had such a visible desire to go alone, that no one joined them even though they kindly invited. Rita seemed to consider their offer, but she quickly understood that the invitation was plainly formal. She said that she'll leave the dishes and go read a book.

No one knew that she didn't even open her book. She went to her dorm, shut the curtains of her bed and cried all night long.

And the night was beautiful. Lily stood in front of the castle, and almost choked on the fresh, cold air, the scent of the snow and the glittering of the moon. The last few days it started to snow, even though it was April. But no one really complained, because at least they could still sledge. The steep hill placed near the lake merrily shimmered in front of her with snow like a giant saucer, big black chestnut trees surrounding it from both sides, their shadows sharp and easy to distinguish on the white layer of snow. Closer to the castle they couldn't have seen so many stars, because of the torchs, but here, in the place next to the lake they barely had to lift their heads to see the shining sky. The stars sparkled so hardly, they had to look at them through squinted eyes. There was only one thin dark cloud wich moved rapidly under the silver glimmer.

"Do you look often at the sky?" Lily's voice suddenly broke the silence.

"At the sky? Well, yeah, I look at it, sometimes" answered Barty in a dissociated sort of voice. "I would look at it more frequently, but, you see, I'm very busy"

"I look at it very often" confessed Lily, who suddenly became calm and solemn. "It's a sort of addiction, or what. Whenever I'm outside, I must look at the sky, as though I was checking what's going on out there. And it always changes. It's got a magnetic influence on me, the sky..."

"And you, you've got magnetic influence on me" interupted Barty.

"Sorry?" didn't understand Lily

"You've got really very much magnetism" eagerly explained Barty"No man can ignore it"

"Gosh, really?" happily said Lily. It was the first time she got complimented in this way "Magnetism?"

"Yes" confirmed Barty through clenched teeth.

"By Jove, is this possible? I'm hungry again!" said Lily, bewildered, listening into herself "If I'll continue eating at this speed, I'll end up beeing a horribly fat old troll"

"I'd want to kiss you" said Barty on a wave of suicidal depression, and closed his eyes.

"Unfortunately, it's impossible" answered Lily and added "I ate plenty of rice, and all that cake, so maybe I just have really good metabolism"

"Yeah, it's really, really good" agreed Barty, whose mind didn't keep up with Lily's, because he was still thinking about the first topic "Why do you think it's impossible?"

"It's possible, possible, that I'm not in danger of obesity, since my metabolism is so good" Lily came to the conclusion "So I'll just go to the kitchens and get myself something good to munch before going to sleep"

After making this statement, she turned her back to the beautiful view that Barty represented with himself, standing there staring at Lily's back with an open mouth. Then, as if he woke up from a trance, he blinked and ran to catch up with Lily.

Lily went through the Great Hall and reached the corridor wich leaded to the kitchens, accompanied by Barty who followed her like a shadow. He didn't want to go to the kitchens with Lily, for he wasn't really 'in' with law-breaking.

"Merlin's beard, what a nice walk!" happily said Lily, pulling off her warm, brown coat. "Goodnight, Barty, have nice dreams, bye-bye"

"Bye-bye" Barty reflexively replied, after wich he hemed and renewed his question "Could I kiss you?"

Lily was surprised.

"Why, what for? I alredy told you, laddie, drop it. Conserve this vortex of passion for someone else"

"Lily! hissed Barty, provoked "Don't you have a heart?"

"That's possible" answered Lily, bursting with joyful laughter. "Maybe that's why I live my life so nicely" she added.

"I..." started Barty "I...think I'm in love with you."

"Hominis est errae" replied Lily "Goodnight!" she turned on her heels, wanting to go to the kitchens, but found herself with her nose in something soft and warm. This 'something' revealed itself to be a chest covered by an Invisibility Cloak.

'Darn. James' thought Lily, frantically thinking about the last few moments. What did he hear? How long was he here, behind her back? He could have heard everything, every single word.

"What are you doing here?" angrily asked Lily. She noticed that he looked a bit differently then at the party.

"Why, waiting for you two lovers, what do I look like I'm doing?" lazily answered James.

"Why?" curiosly asked Lily. There definitly was something different in his appearance. Lily didn't want to openly stare at him, so she chose to glance at him through her eyelashes.

He attentively looked at her for a few moments.

"I need some help from you, dear Barty" slowly said James, pulling his eyes away from Lily, placing them on Barty instead. "It's about Arithmancy. I didn't really understand the last chapter thingy we did"

While Barty throughly explained the issue, Lily kept on glancing intensely at James. Oh, yes, his hair. It looked as if James tried to make them look more tidy. It was a battle lost beforehand. She gigled loudly. James looked at her direction and, alas, caught her on one of her furtive glances. And she, instead of smiling naturally at him - quickly turned her head pretending to see something fascinating on the middle of the wall.

No camouflages would have helped; James knew everything. He caught her chin and forced her face in his direction, laughing cheekily.

"Hey there, what are you doing?!" Barty came out in Lily's defence.

James, still laughing - but this time a bit dangerously - looked at Barty, let go of Lily's chin, taking the one of Barty instead.

"There, calm down" he said mockingly "Don't be angry. There, there, there" he patted him on his cheek and left him alone "Next week we're playing a very important Quidditch match"

"Who: we?" Barty wanted to know, red and offended. Lily was red and offended, too. She thought that someone -Barty for example - should immediatly read James a lesson, instead of asking about some insignificant details from Hogwarts' sport-life.

"Gryffindor against Slytherin" said James "Well, I think I'd beter go now. I've got Quidditch practice tomorow in the morning" He pulled on his Invisibility Cloak and they heard his footsteps growing almost unaudible.

"I think I lost my apetite" announced Lily "Let's go to our common rooms now."

While walking up the big staircase leading to the Ravenclaw and Gryffindor common rooms, she searched for some painful words of disapproval. She didn't find any. When they reached the painting of the Fat Lady, who was sleeping, they stood in front of each other - and Barty instantly started to approach Lily, as if she really pluged in a very powerful magnet. It still worked beyond reproach, concluding on Barty's behaviour, who was getting closer. When he clinged to Lily, a bit clumsily, she put her hand on his shoulder and drawled out:

"I'll tell you something, laddie. You're a colossal idiot" After saying that, she slapped him lightly on his cheek and entered the common room.

Oh, how much she wanted to cry!

But why, for heaven's sake?

She had no idea.