The rest of the year flew by quickly, and the time came for the second year to choose their new subjects for their third year.
'Any idea, Sirius?' James asked, turning to his friend.
'No,' Sirius said, rather snappily. 'Don't turn to me for questions. Turn to your new friend.'
'If you mean Lily…'
'Of course I mean Lily! Don't bother me with such sissy things!!' Sirius snapped suddenly, walking off with his head held high. James scratched his head in confusion. Sirius has been acting odd lately.
'What got into him? Any idea, Remus?' James asked in puzzlement, turning to his other good friend.
Remus shrugged. 'I'm going for Arithmetic and Muggle Studies. And if you're wondering about Sirius, I vote he's jealous.'
'Jealous! Why?' James asked in surprise. Never had he known Sirius to be jealous, of all people.
'You're with Lily most of the – no, scratch that! It's all the time! Remember how both you and him were once the best of friends? he hates Lily for those reasons, I think,' Remus said logically, turning to face James.
'But why?' came the puzzled reply. Remus sighed.
'He thought Lily stopped you from being friends with him! Lily stole your friendship, as he'd seen it in his eyes. Also, Lily hasn't been on speaking terms with Sirius now, has she? Al she did was keep everything to herself, be as secretive as she can and talks to practically no one but Professor Hart and you,' Remus explained. James laughed.
'Why's he jealous of Lily? She didn't do anything to him!'
Remus shrugged. 'That, James, you must figure out for yourself.'
~**~
'And Sirius is jealous! Can you believe that?' James said, recounting the conversation with Lily. Lily had grown to take James as a friend. Or a sort-of friend, because friends usually trade secrets, and Lily kept hers to herself.
'…'
'Um, you heard me?'
'Why not you talk to him about it?' Lily said, taking out a book from her bag. James's story has ended, and so has the duty of her to pay him the attention.
'Nah! He'll go over that soon enough,' James said dismissively. 'I hope.'
'… Are you a friend, then?' Lily asked slowly. James said nothing but thought pensively for a moment. For the whole year – okay, not the whole year. Ever since Christmas Holidays – he was trying to befriend this new girl, but had lacked company with his best friend.
'Well…' he started slowly.
'Sirius is at the fireplace,' Lily said shortly, turning the page. Over the months, Lily seemed to have understood more about friendship than she last had.
James got up a little hesitantly and walked over to Sirius, who was doing his Transfiguration essay. He plopped down next to his friend and notice that Sirius was writing very fast. Very angry and fast. His quill flew over the parchment, untidily scrawling hard on the parchment and blotting nearly all of his giant words.
'Sirius?' James said rather hesitantly. He had his pride at stake, though only goodness knows what a pride had to do with the twelve-year-old boy when asking his best friend.
'What? I'm really busy now and Lily's over there, in case your glasses have gone wrong,' Sirius scowled darkly. James sighed.
'Look Sirius, I've come to a- a- apologize,' James said. Sirius slammed his quill down angrily, causing nearly all heads turned to him for the attention he had probably wanted.
'For what?' He asked sharply. 'Do you really think I care about you? Huh? That I love you like my brother? Do you really think I'm jealous of that- of that- of that girl? Well you're wrong, James Edward Potter! I'm NOT jealous of anybody here cause I DON'T care!'
'Well I—'
'Do you really care about me? I don't think so, smart-aleck. Do you love me like a brother? Maybe not, bozzo! Are you me??? Are you me???' Sirius demanded in rage. Then, turning to his audience, he barked, 'Find something better to do! You're not a busy-body, are you?'
'Sirius, I care and I—'
'Liar!' Sirius yelled. 'You should at least think about me! That stupid carrot-head over there had your attention!' he jabbes his finger at Lily, still sitting quietly with her book, totally absorbed in it.
'Sirius, I—'
'You barely even talk to me now! What sort of friend are you anyway? What sort of enemy are you??? Even Snape knew how to sneer to me when he meet me, but you simply pretend that I'm invisible!!! If I knoew that you'd turn your back on me someday, I wouldn't even want to know you, James Potter!' Sirius yelled in blind rage.
'Sirius, listen to me!'
'Do ahead. I shan't bother,' Sirius said, his anger and rage finally fading into despair, shame and self-pity. He sunk back to his Transfiguration essay sullenly, well ashamed after being able to think sensibly for two minutes.
'No. Listen to me, Sirius,' James said, pulling the parchment away from his blotting quill. 'You ought to know me, after what we'd been through for so long. Just, please, listen to me.'
'Fine,' Sirius said, taking it as his punishment for yelling at him, embarassing him. 'I'll listen to your story, though it couldn't prove more interesting than the havoc I just made.'
'Sirius, I'm still your friend. Always am and always will be, rain or shine. How could you think otherwise? I'm in charge of Lily for the year, so I thought I had better get to know her.
'She needs a friend, just like every single one of the human race. She has the rights to have friends,' James started, before elaborating the long story of Lily's sullen history. Sirius listened quietly, as he had promised to. 'Why don't you give her a chance, Sirius? I'm sure no one really wants to be alone, however much they want it.'
Sirius wasn't one of those type of people that, evern when brough to light, will stay stubborn and keep his toe in his line. He don't quite really belong to the group of tempers and tantrums that lasts forever, too. So James predicted that Sirius is willing to give anyone a second chance.
He did tried to give three chances to Severus Snape once, but he still ended up loathing him.
'Okay. I'll give her a chance,' Sirius said finally.
'But that isn't all,' James said.
'What?! More?! Spare my ears! They're red!!!'
'I think that there's more,' James said. 'I just want to know everything, and so did Bec.'
'Fine, I'll make friends with her, if that's what you want,' Sirius said.
'Believe me, you're not surrendering to some stupid Black Magic practice, Sirius,' James said. 'That's all stupid!'
'Whatever,' Sirius muttered, going a little red when he remembered the time he thought that she was using Black Magic when she really isn't. It's embarassing for a genius to do that.
'Lily's just there. I'll finish your essay for you, since you blotted yours,' James said. sirius grinned at him cheerfully before running towards Lily.
'Thanks!' he called. James just shrugged. Things were back to normal.
~**~
'James!' Sirius called.
'What?'
'You're right. She's a little protective at first,' Sirius said, jumping onto the bed. 'She wouldn't say a thing at all except asking whether the both of us made up yet.'
'Believe me now?' James said, a little smugly.
'Had to. She was loenly, I can see. You just try to strike up a conversation with her and you'll have this odd feeling that she wants to, too, but afraid of something,' Sirius said. He was a pretty observant kid.
'She barely speaks to any boy except me,' James said.
'She said something to me just now. "Time will tell in days to come" and I wonder what that meant,' Sirius said in puzzlement.
'Much as I'd like to learn her language, I can't, so I can't translate that for you,' James said.
'I didn't ask you to! I just want its meaning!'
'Well, in her own words, I think that'll mean the same thing. She comes up with odd words at some times, but I think she's pretty interesting,' James said.
Sirius gave him a puzzling look.
'She's different, or didn't you notice it? She's different from the people we know; from the kids in the streets and from the community around us. She's pure different. And that's what made me think her interesting,' James replied.
'I don't believe you,' Sirius said flatly. To think Lily Evans as different struck him as silly as finding that she grows a tentacle on her head.
'You can try sticking around her than running away from her. You avoid her like that lettuc you hate!' James laughed.
'Well!' Sirius funed.
'Don't worry. Know her for a year and you'll see what I mean,' James said gently.
'Why not you just said we find her in the holidays and see the life she live? That is so much easier than lending my ears for you to scream at: a long tale.'
'She doesn't live with Petunia now. unless you want Bec to ask if you'd finished her homework, be my guest,' James said in amusement. He knew of Sirius's fear of homework. Sirius's pale face gave him that satisfaction of smugness.
'Home's the best place ever, so I'll just stay there. North, south, east, west; after all, Home's best,' Sirius said nervously. 'Lalala… home sweet home…'
'Sirius saying poetry a while ago?' Remus said, grinning.
'Sort of,' James said. 'Something about his homework-phobia again.'
~**~
'We're going now, so my part on babysitting you for the year ends here,' James said, when Lily come down, heaving her trunk into the common room.
'You know, I'm gonna miss putting dungbombs on your parchment,' Sirius grinned. He rarely does that now, though.
'…'
'What, still mad at me?'
'… No.'
'Good! Bravo! You actually spoke to me without me forcing you to!' Sirius cheered. 'So you're going to miss me?'
'…'
'I take that as a no, then,' Sirius said, a little hurt. Lily just shrugged.
'Maybe.'
'So where do you and Bec live? Maybe I can visit someday,' James said. sirius stared at him with an expression that clearly screamed 'What?! Are you NUTS??? We might get extra work!!! I'm not in mood to slave yet!' James ignored it.
'…'
'Never mind. We'll owl you later,' James said. 'Bye!'
'G'Bye Lily! Nice knowing you!' Sirius waved.
'… Friends don't say goodbye,' Lily said quietly.
'Huh?' the boys chorused in confusion.
'…'
'One of Lily Evans's policy: never repeat what she always say,' Sirius said, jotting it down on his notebook. James put his index finger at the side of his forehead and turned it around before doing a sort of drill with it. Lily smiled a little.
'I saw that, Potter!' Sirius snapped.
'You were supposed to. That's why I did it before your face!' James said, laughing. 'Hey, Lily smiled! She smiled!' Lily's lip went into the prim line they were immediately.
'…'
'Lily! C'mon, let's go now!' Hart's shrill voice called. Lily turned to go out. Before she climbed out of the portrait hole, she turned to her friends, who were still puzzling over why Lily wiped that smile off her when it made her look sweeter.
'Thank you,' she said, before scurrying off with her cousin.
'I still don't get her,' James sighed.
'Another of Lily Evans's policy: Speak of the un-understandable things,' Sirius said, writing in his notebook. 'So far, I had 136 of her policies, all of them varying.'
'And you got that only in two weeks. That about a month!' James joked.
'You mean a year,' Sirius said.
'C'mon, it's high time for us to go now,' James said, pulling his trunk out. 'The carriage won't wait and I don't fancy living out in the streets until September the first.'
~**~
AN: After sooo long, I finally got this up! Hurrah for me!!!! My friend was really angry when I told her that not many liked this J see, she read the WHOLE thing [it's on paper] and she forced me to write it right to the very last word. She was really angry with me. So angry that she told me "I suggest you put a survey up and see which is your best story. I bet that this James Potter story is the best!!!" That's her, I guess, but I'm not putting up any survey.
I'm quite ready to bet that you folks are probably bored with me by now J people always get bored with me, and it's a sort of fact I hate. I mean, who wants to be a boredom? Anyway, I'm quite tired at the moment and my modem [genius as ever… hah.] is being really ignorant. Ho-hum. And this is NOT the last chapter!!! I have to finish this, even if it means robbing James's school holidays from him!!!!! *evil laugh* Aren't I cruel? Yes, I'm still going to torture you until I finish this story and the whole of The Marauding Five. And that might mean one year more before I can really complete everything. Toodles! Review, kay?
