Sorry I didn't respond to chapter 2's reviews! I was super sleepy that day, so I'll do both here :)
practicecourts: Haaaa, you know the Order *cough cough Dumbly* has very specific and cruel requests for Jily ;) They can never escape their DUTIES :D Bella does seem like someone who would want Voldy all to herself, doesn't she? AHHH: Yay! Don't worry, I'm clearly impatient too :p wrackspurthunter: Hey! So good to see your name again 3 Hope you're doing well too! Hahaha, and those were just the ponderings that have kept me up these past few months O:) Glad I finally got to say it, ha. Writing Lily as the dark one has been so fun! She's taking on a life of her own I feel like. chikotella: He's TRYING! ;) cscs01: Yeah, they always have to be okay with Muggleborns for it to work! :D And YEP! Dumbly be setting that shit up again. It's not your fault you're comparing, it's mine for writing so many similarities! Hahaha. My headcanons just be coming through. Lily will continue to kill James by doing the bare minimum... poor boy. There are so many flashbacks still to come! Probably most of this story will be flashbacks, heh Shivani: Thank you! Woot woot! Glad we're finally getting to it! Jilytober for life :) (Sorry Becks) YES. Why are her lyrics always SO DAMN GOOD? Can't wait for another album soon, EEK! Jilyfan: Yay! So glad you're here :) Haaaa, don't worry, you're in good company with those who think that same thing! Plus, let's be honest, don't we think Lily would always kind of have the upper hand with James? It's just now... she's using her powers for bad ;) Savannah: Hehe, my bad. I know James has matured, but I'm sure he still has sooooome naughtiness left in him from his school days ;) So glad you caved, welcome to the dark side! And she did let him off sort of easy, didn't she? Hm. misshandei: Hopefully in a good way! :D Hahaha
Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns Harry Potter. This author knows Lily is not a good person here, she hopes you know she is not a good person here, this story is not condoning bad behavior, just exploring it, if you are uncomfortable you can always stop reading, I won't mind :) Art work by the super talented windbyfire (insta)
Tell Me The Truth ~ Two Feet
Present Day
James rolled out of bed the following morning, stretching as he made his way to the kitchen to boil himself a cup of tea. The sight of bare, long legs clad in the shortest of pajama shorts was not what he'd been prepared for. His Rebecca was short and cuddly and wonderful.
Oh right. She's here.
Evans got off her tippy-toes, giving up on her attempt to reach for a yellow mug from the top shelf. "I don't know how anyone is supposed to do anything without a wand," she grumbled.
James smiled. He'd forgotten just how cranky she was in the morning. "You're up early," he said as he stepped around her and easily snatched the mug up. Just as she was gearing up to give him her thanks, he turned and poured some of the tea she'd just made into it, taking a sip for himself.
She eyed him annoyed but didn't say anything, instead reaching for another, more accessible mug. "Couldn't sleep."
"Pity." He gave her a look that said the opposite as he pushed off the counter, making for his bedroom.
"Wait," she called after him. "What are we going to do today?"
He didn't turn around. "I'm going to be working in my bedroom. Don't bother me."
He didn't hear her make another peep until lunchtime.
7th Year
The portrait door of the Head Suite clicked shut behind McGonagall, forecasting his doom. Usually the Head of House of both the Head Boy and Girl showed them around their new living quarters, but Slughorn had declared that the 7th floor was much too far a trek for him and that Evans would do just fine navigating the space on her own.
The space. The space she now shared with James. Our space.
What have I ever done to deserve this? James moaned dramatically in his head. A clap of thunder made Evans twitch and look to the balcony window behind her. He supposed she wasn't used to practically living in the clouds. If James wasn't mistaken, their suite was in the highest spire of the entire castle. All the better vantage point to throw myself off of.
Although James couldn't complain too much about the location. He knew that he was much closer to his friends than she was to hers. Ha! James thought triumphantly. Sure it might not seem fair, but he got it: Hogwarts had made its stance known. Why shouldn't the school pick between right and wrong? Dumbledore said that the two of them were the leaders of the two sides, but it wasn't like they were equal in their opposition — clearly James and his friends would be the ones who would go on to look good in the history books. Evans and her gang? They were mental and completely past the point of saving. James knew that Voldewhatever was new on the scene, and he wasn't really sure what exactly he stood for yet, but whatever it was, it was bad news.
"Look," James began moodily, swishing his wand, "you stay on your side, and I'll stay on mine. Then, we won't have a problem." The carpet on the left side of the room, from the portrait hole, through the middle of a plush couch, to the center of the glass balcony door became a deep, rich burgundy. The beginning of his spiral staircase was on his side, lit by hearty torches, as well as the common room's fireplace. His wand stroke had stripped her side of carpet though, leaving the bookcases and study table standing on cold stone. James didn't mind that she got the table — as if he'd willingly spend one more second of time than strictly necessary in her presence anyway.
She flicked her wand as well, relighting the torches of her staircase that he'd so childishly extinguished, replacing them with green flames. "So you're holding me prisoner then?"
He tilted his head confused, not catching her drift. She nudged her head towards the portrait exit, clearly on his side. "Oh," he said lamely, "yeah, obviously you can step over when you leave."
"But don't come back, right?" she teased, stepping forward to the very edge of his red carpet.
He snorted but didn't answer, ready to trudge upstairs and use their stupid shared bathroom before she got the chance. Their rooms where mirrored half circles, separated by a long, narrow bathroom, with the sinks on one side and two twin showers on the other, directly next to each other. It was like Hogwarts wanted him to watch her get naked every morning or something. At least it meant that their bedrooms didn't share a wall — he didn't even want to imagine the sort of shit he'd hear. (Because it would gross him out or make him insanely jealous, he was not at liberty to say.)
"What's your problem?" she asked to his retreating back.
James supposed responding 'you' would make him seem even more immature than he was already being, but he couldn't tell her the truth. Evans was about the last person he wanted to talk about his relationship problems with.
"Susie still stringing you along?" she continued, somehow already knowing the answer to her previous question.
He silently went up the stairs, not giving her the satisfaction of a response, or the knowledge that she was partially right. He closed the door and collapsed onto his bed, shoving off his glasses before he viciously rubbed his face with his hands. What the fuck had happened today?
He'd been so happy and stupidly proud when Dumbledore had written him with the news that he'd been chosen as Head Boy. His sweet, old parents, frail as they were, had still mustered up the energy to be over the moon and let him throw one hell of a rager at their estate.
All of that pride looked so fucking foolish when James got to the platform this morning only to see his badge's twin pinned to Evans' cloak.
He'd been so furious and confused that he'd stuffed his luggage into Sirius' hands, taken his broom, and Apparated to Hogsmeade. From there, he'd flown to Hogwarts, circling around until he found Dumbledore's office — which he of course had been sent to many times in his youth. The esteemed old wizard had let him inside with a twinkle in his eye.
"Mr Potter, I daresay that you are a few hours early," he'd said, as though students flew up to his balcony all the time.
"Why her? Why me if you're also going to pick her?" James said, cutting straight to the chase. He suppressed all thoughts of a dumb joke Sirius would make about how something like this showed how he must be a good Chaser. (His stupid best mate with his stupid puns.)
"Ah, I see," Dumbledore responded, taking his seat behind his desk and pushing his fingertips together. "Why do you think I did?"
Ugh. Not now! "I don't know, sir. That's why I'm here." He really hoped he wasn't coming off too petulantly. He really couldn't believe that he'd just agreed to leave his best friends for a year to live in a state of torture instead.
"Well, Mr Potter," Dumbledore started loftily, "you and Miss Evans both represent the two factions of our school. Some might even say that you are both the epitome of the ideals they care for most." James had never thought about it like that, but he supposed he agreed. "I'm afraid that a war is coming once you leave these walls, James. And I think it best we try, one very last time, to see if we can mend some divides before it comes to bloodshed."
Hogwash. Straight hogwash is what the headmaster had fed James before whisking him out the way from which he'd come, ignoring his pleas to let someone else be Head Boy, because he thought Evans and he would more likely start a war than prevent one.
James had then Apparated to a spot close to where he knew the Hogwarts Express should be by now, and then used his broom to fly the rest of the distance. Sirius and James had attempted Apparating onto moving objects for a while when they were bored that summer, and the outcome had not been pretty. Besides, it made for a far more brilliant entrance into the Prefects Compartment when he had climbed through a window with his broom.
He really could not imagine any other way to start his tenure as Head Boy.
Evans' welcoming line of, "About time you dropped in," hadn't even ruined his mood. Unfortunately, the rest of her snippy comments, all designed to undermine his authority he presumed, had done the trick, and James was more than ready to get the hell out of the cabin by the time the meeting ended — mercifully not too long after. (He had missed half of it galavanting around Scotland after all.)
James ran to Susan the first moment he could. On this very train, they had patched things up after the disastrous party in Slytherin last year. They'd felt like trying to break them up had clearly been Bellatrix and Evans' intention, and that actually doing so would be like letting them win. Well, James had felt that way. He was pretty sure that Susan actually just wanted to act like the whole night, and therefore entire debacle, had never happened. "Hey!" he cheered as soon as he'd seen her, rushing over to give her a hug.
She'd been stiff. She'd been awkward. It had sucked.
He couldn't pinpoint anything she'd said that had felt off, but her body language had been all wrong. James had always been a pretty affectionate person, whether it was through hugs or kisses or full-on snogs if the girl would have him, so to have that sort of tenderness rejected? Yeah, it stung in a way much deeper than words ever could have. It was silly, but Evans had sort of paved the way to his thicker skin against the cut of insults, because that girl had a mouth on her. Plus, people had always told James that he was just a little full of himself, so he was sure his self-assuredness didn't hurt when it came to brushing off barbs. James knew haters were always going to hate — especially considering he was awesome and had a lot going for him.
So when Susan hadn't returned the hug, but instead almost dodged him before looking around the train to see if someone else had witnessed them? Yeah. It hurt like fucking hell.
He knew that girls had different standards they had to abide by, he knew that, hell, he'd more often than not benefitted from those double standards. But it was a hug. No one could think that PDA as innocent as that was crossing any sort of line… could they?
Truth be told, things had been a little distant the times James had Portkeyed over to see Susan in Paris that summer as well. He'd hoped it was just because of being in a different country, or that they needed to get their groove back, but whatever had just happened on the train had been very much not good. Perhaps trying to pretend like the last day of school hadn't happened had been a terrible idea.
James sighed before getting out of his new bed to go brush his teeth. Tomorrow would be a new day. They'd figure it out.
Present Day
"Honey, I'm hooooome!" Sirius called out, letting himself into his old flat carrying a bag of groceries and a box of pizza.
"Yessssss," James cheered under his breath, getting up from his desk and walking out to greet him in the kitchen. He wasn't used to being pent up like this, and Sirius' promise of coming to bring him food had been the only thing getting him through this miserable day. Anything to break up the monotony of ignoring the shit out of Evans' entire existence under his roof was a-okay with him. "Hello my food delivery boy."
"Hello my still wearing sweatpants at 1 in the afternoon man. Working from home not all it was cracked up to be?"
James grunted as he tore open the pizza box, hungrily digging into a slice. He'd been so intent on avoiding Evans this morning that he'd forgotten to rummage through his fridge to check if he had anything edible for breakfast. (And of course he was too stubborn and proud to come back once he'd made his dramatic exit from the kitchen.) "Any news?"
"Actually yeah," Sirius began, exciting the shit out of James who quickly dragged him into his bedroom so that he could soundproof the door before Sirius continued. James pushed away the horrible flash of déjà vu of doing the same thing with Evans back in the day. Clearly, that had been under completely different circumstances.
"Well?" James asked impatiently with a mouth full of crust.
Confident that Evans couldn't hear them from her room, but still a little paranoid anyway, Sirius whispered, "Her intel actually checked out. We raided one of the headquarters this morning — the one where she said they kept the prisoners." A pang of longing shot through James; he should have been there with Sirius. "We captured a couple Death Eaters, most got away, but we were able to rescue Bones."
"He's alive?!" James couldn't believe it. He was certain his fellow Auror had to have been dead by now. "That's amaz—"
"Barely, but yeah." Sirius didn't look all too thrilled. He definitely had more news to break.
"What is it?"
"We found Meadows too, but, she'd already been murdered. Bones says by Voldemort himself." Fuck. James walked to his window, looking out to the busy street below. He'd already suspected the fact, but it still hurt like hell to have it confirmed. "We're gonna raid their main lair next," Sirius continued. "They're probably already suspicious, so Moody is planning it out meticulously, you know him."
That he did. Damn, he never knew he'd miss the old geezer so much, especially after one day. Although if James was being honest with himself, he knew it wasn't his boss he missed as much as the thrill of his work and the danger that came with saving the world every day. He'd only been trapped one morning and he was already going stir crazy. I'm a social creature, Merlin damnit!
Then Sirius really drove the dagger through his heart. "So I may not be able to come back for the next few days."
"What?" James spat out.
"Dumbledore says it will probably be too dangerous for a while, since they may be tracking us in return, trying to scope out where we operate out of too. You know they know I'm involved and how close we are, so it's probably for the best. At least till things die back down." Sirius shrugged his shoulders sympathetically. "But I brought you groceries?"
"Bollocks."
James couldn't cook. That's why he found himself staring at an onion on a cutting board that night, willing it to turn into something scrumptious.
"Failing to perform wandless magic again, Potter?"
James spun to see Evans leaning against the wall of the kitchen, arms crossed and eying him amused. He had no idea how long she'd been standing there watching him. The thought was unnerving. (It also annoyed him that it looked like Marlene had packed her some fucking eyeliner, so that was just wonderful.)
"No, I'm making dinner."
Evans approached giddily. "Oh great, I'm starved."
Guilt shot through him. "Did you have lunch? We have pizza…" he pointed over his shoulder to the fridge, fully knowing he hadn't told her about it.
She bit her bottom lip, actually looking quite cute. "I wasn't sure if I was allowed."
James chuckled, looking back at the blasted onion that was still vexing him. "I can't have you die of hunger, Evans. I have one job here."
She took another tentative step forward, nearly by his side now. "Well… in that case, do you need some help?"
He looked back at her skeptically. "You know how to cook?" He looked over her body, still not seeing her wand poking out of her messy bun or from the waistband of her skirt as it sometimes had in school. "And without your wand?"
She playfully rolled her eyes as she took her final step towards him. "Men," she laughed. "It's like making potions, you just have to follow the recipe."
Huh, he hadn't thought of it like that before. But if she could cut a screaming Mandrake's legs off to make a Restorative Draught, he supposed she could cut an onion. James shivered, trying to repress the class when they'd had to perform the former. Sometimes he swore the things they did at Hogwarts hadn't been normal.
She reached for the knife in James' hand, bringing him back to reality. "Uh uh, I don't think so, Evans," he said, holding the knife high above his head and safely out of her reach.
Her brows scrunched. "Well, how am I supposed to cook if I can't even cut my ingredients?"
Yeah, he didn't know, but that was hardly his biggest problem.
"Relax, Potter," she said in her softest, honeyed tone. It was the sultry one that he'd always liked on her best. She reached up to grab the knife. "If I wanted to kill you, I already could have when you were asleep last night. You sleep like a log, I remember."
James felt a warm flush creep up his neck as memories of sleeping with her flashed before his eyes. And not just the hot, primal times, but when they'd literally just slept, naked and vulnerable, lying in each other's arms. Stop it. He quickly gave her the knife, deciding she made a fair point… and that dying wouldn't be so bad right about now anyway. He turned around to force out a cough, completely missing the coy smile that graced her lips.
"Watch and learn."
James did watch her as she sliced various veggies and meats, ordering him to boil some pasta before she made the best damn sauce of his life. It was unfair really, that a girl who looked like that could cook as well.
She'd make someone evil oh so happy one day. An equally sadistic, pathetic fuck for sure. Who knew, maybe they could manipulate and play games with each other — wouldn't that just be the sweetest?
"How's it taste?" Evans asked, looking like she genuinely cared for the answer, drawing James out of his downward hate spiral.
He stuffed another rigatoni in his mouth instead of answering, nodding with a muffled, "Mmhm."
"Best I'm gonna get, I suppose," she whispered under her breath as she scooped herself some into a bowl.
Did she actually look a little saddened by his lack of proper response? Terrible person or not, James guessed she was still a person, and she had clearly tried really hard to make them a delicious meal tonight. Maybe now wasn't the best time to keep treating her like shit. "It's great, Evans. Thank you."
She smiled up at him as she settled herself upon one of the high stools by the granite counter. "You're welcome, James."
The smile faded when he took his bowl to his room, ready to eat it there. He just couldn't act indifferent towards her, at least not yet. And especially if she was going to start calling him James all pretty and innocent like that.
She hadn't lied about the Death Eater quarters — and it had actually saved a friend's life. Okay, well, he guessed she hadn't had a choice in not lying, but so far all signs pointed towards this being a new Evans. An improved Evans. An Evans who had seen the light and was trying to make amends and start afresh. James really didn't want to get his hopes up, not again, but if she was being honest, then that was really swell for her.
But he wouldn't get sucked into her web — nefarious or not — again.
Nope. Not a chance.
Next Chapter: Dolls ~ Bella Poarch