A/N This note ought to be short and sweet. Want a disclaimer? Go to the
first chapter. If you read this, have the decency to review, please.
Constructive criticism is always welcome!
~Stef
~*~*~*~*~
On Monday, Lily found herself squashed in a compartment with all of her friends. The result of James's offer was that Lily, Remus, Sirius, Anna, and Jill were coming. Molly could come for a while, but she had to go home on Christmas Eve. None of the others could come at all. How they managed to fit in the compartment, Lily would never know. Jill was on Sirius's lap and Anna was on Remus's. As much as Lily would have liked to sit on James's, she didn't, because everyone still thought that the two of them were fighting. Instead, Peter sat on Sahi's lap, much to her disgust.
Everyone was talking about what they would do in the holidays, which reminded Lily that Cecilia probably thought that she was coming to the orphanage. She took out some parchment and a quill, and began to write a letter to her friend.
Dear Cecilia,
I'm not going to be coming to the orphanage for Christmas, because I'm going to James Potter's house for the holidays. Do you remember last summer, when I went to his house for the last few weeks before school? It's the same James, but a lot of my friends from school are coming too. I'm writing this on the train now, leaving Hogwarts, just in case you were going back to the orphanage and missed me. I think Miss Theresa knows I'm not coming, but if she doesn't, would you mind telling her for me? Does Beauxbatons allow students to stay there for the holidays? Will you stay there, or are you going to the orphanage? If you are, I'll see if you can come over to James's for a day, and you can meet my friends from Hogwarts. Oh, and you know I said Dumbledore used to let me use magic in the holidays because of my disguise? Well, he forgot to tell the people handing out the letters that I'm not supposed to be doing magic in the holidays any more! That means I can still do it, and not get in trouble! I hope you have a good Christmas, and write to me whenever you feel like it. Happy holidays! See you next summer. Love,
Lily
Lily folded the parchment, found an envelope to put it in, and then asked James to borrow his owl. Lily didn't have an owl of her own yet, but she planned to get one next time she visited Diagon Alley. James let her use his owl, and soon Twitterdragon disappeared ahead of the train. That owl could fly fast! Then Lily realised that it was because the train had stopped. She blushed, and stood up, looking for her trunk. She found James holding it out of her way, a grin on his face.
"Oh, thankyou." Lily said, holding her hand out for her trunk. James's mischievous grin just intensified.
"What makes you think I picked it up for you? I might be stealing it." He said teasingly. Lily moved closer, but instead of grabbing it, she whispered in his ear.
"You're mad at me, remember? You can't tease me if we're not talking."
"Oh, right." James handed Lily the trunk. "You know, I think we'd better think up a reason to make up. There's no way I'm going to be able not to talk to you all holidays."
"All the others are gone now. We can just start talking again, and let them think that we made up in here. No-one will be any the wiser."
"Okay then. Let's go." James led the way out, and Lily followed.
They were greeted by James's mother, and then led to a car. It looked pretty small, but it fit all of them in easily. Lily sat next to James, and although the others looked surprised, they didn't comment. As Michelle (James's mother) drove off, she asked James,
"I haven't seen or heard anything about Luke in a long time. Did you have a fight?"
James looked confused for a split second, but then everyone in the car burst out laughing. Michelle looked very confused.
"Lily will explain, Mum." James gasped out. Lily was the only one not laughing, but she was grinning broadly.
"Well, I kind of am Luke. Voldemort killed my parents just after I received my letter for Hogwarts. He told me that if I went to Hogwarts, he would kill me too. I decided at once not to go, but Professor Dumbledore came to me and convinced me otherwise. If I didn't go, I would be doing what Voldemort wanted. Professor Dumbledore convinced me to disguise myself as a boy while I went to Hogwarts.
"Last summer, Dumbledore talked to me. He said that I should be able to hold Voldemort off, at least for a little while, by now. Also, he wanted me to be a prefect, but he wanted James to be one too, and Gryffindor couldn't have two seeming boys. So I reverted back to my normal self, giving my friends a bit of a shock."
Michelle smiled in understanding, but her friends looked slightly shocked. Then Lily realised why. They knew she was in hiding because of Lord Voldemort, but they didn't know that he had killed her parents and threatened her not to go to school. But they didn't say anything, because they were arriving at the Potter home, and had to get out of the car. Michelle led the way, and James took Lily's had and squeezed it for a second before letting go. He had a sympathetic look on his face.
Lily tried something. ~* Hey, James, does this still work? *~ There was no answer from James, so Lily had to assume it had worn off. It had still worked last night, though, so it seemed that the limit of the spell was 48 hours. Well, it was good to know.
They went into the kitchen, and had a drink. Then James showed them all to their rooms. Lily shared a room with Molly; the same room she had slept in last summer. Anna and Jill shared a room, and Sirius and Remus shared a room. That left James alone in his own room, but (as his mother pointed out) it was such a mess that they wouldn't be able to fit any extra beds in it, anyway. And the use of so many guest rooms didn't phase Michelle at all. It seemed that they were only using half of the guest rooms in the house, which Lily was beginning to think of as a mansion. Lily unpacked her stuff quickly, but Molly was still unpacking, so she decided to go for a walk to familiarise herself with the house.
It was big, and half an hour later Lily reckoned that she had the maze of passages and rooms memorised. She made her way back to her own room, getting lost only once. A very friendly witch in a portrait put her back on track, and from there Lily found it easy. When she got back, Molly had just finished un-packing. Whereas Lily had just thrown her stuff into her drawers, Molly appeared to be a bit of a neat-freak. All of her muggle clothes were neatly folded, and her robes were hanging up in the cupboard which Lily had ignored.
"Done?" Lily asked.
"Just about. Everything's folded and put away, and all my school books are left in my trunk."
"Would you like me to make your trunk and its contents smaller? I'm still allowed to do magic, I guess Dumbledore forgot."
"I don't think he forgot. He probably just likes you, or trust you. Or both. But yes, please." Lily smiled at her friend, and shrunk the trunk. Then she and Molly went into the hallway. They checked James's room, and found all of the others in there.
"Finally!" Sirius exclaimed. "What were you doing? Washing and ironing your clothes?"
Lily grinned, and Molly blushed. "Just because I like everything to be neat and tidy…" she began, but Lily prodded her.
"He's just being Sirius. His clothes are probably arranged more messily than mine."
"Of course they are!" Sirius said proudly. "They're all strewn all over the bed." Molly rolled her eyes, and everyone else laughed. Lily and Molly sat down, and everyone started to plan what they would do for the rest of the week.
~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~
Molly left on Christmas Eve, and Christmas day came and went. Lily received presents from all of her school friends, from James's parents, and even an owl from Cecilia. The note attached said that if they were to write to each other, Lily had better get an owl. Lily laughed at the note, but was happy with her owl. She didn't, however, have any idea what to name him (it was a him.) Her friends amused her with all kinds of names, suggestions varying from 'Sirius' (guess who that suggestion came from) to 'Bambi.' Lily wasn't quite sure how Anna came up with Bambi, but she rejected the name all the same. At last, she decided to leave him nameless until she could come up with something. It was better to have an owl without a name than one with a name that didn't suit it. Lily was a strong believer in having names that suited the character, and her owl was certainly not a 'Bambi.'
A few days after Christmas, nobody knew what to do.
"Let's go out and play Quidditch!" Sirius suggested. Very calmly, Jill said,
"Sirius, we've played Quidditch every single day that we've been here, except Christmas day. Don't you think it's getting a bit old by now?"
"Quidditch could never get old!" Sirius returned obstinately.
"Maybe not when we're on a team against different opponents, but playing it with apples, on differently matched broomsticks, in my back garden does wear a bit thin after a while." James said. It seemed even the Quidditch captain could have enough after a while.
"So what should we do?" Remus asked. "I suppose no-one is quite desperate enough to do homework yet?"
That comment was greeted by a prod in the ribs from Anna, and four shouts of "NO!" Remus grinned, and there was a moments pause before James's face lit up.
"I know! There's a waterfall with a big pool at the base about half an hour's trek from here. We could walk there, and take a picnic lunch." James said. Sirius opened his mouth, but James anticipated his question, and said, "No, we can't go on broomsticks because it's through the forest, and if someone crashes we'd have a hard time getting him or her back."
Sirius opened his mouth again. James interrupted again, "Don't bother. I've already begged Mum hundreds of times; she won't let us go on broomsticks." Sirius shut his mouth, defeated. Everyone else burst out laughing. They all thought it was a good idea.
James left to ask the house-elves to prepare a picnic lunch for them, and everyone else went to put on swimsuits under their clothes. Half an hour later, armed with towels and picnic baskets, the group of six left the Potter grounds, and walked through the woods. According to James, the path led directly there, so Remus and Sirius walked off ahead, setting the pace. Anna and Jill came next, And Lily and James brought up the rear, walking together. As soon as Anna and Jill were far enough ahead so that they wouldn't hear a whisper, James softly said to Lily,
"Do you think we should tell them now?" Lily automatically knew what he was talking about- it wasn't her Animagus transformations. He was talking about them being a couple. Lily didn't see why not. There would be the usual teasing, but what could you expect?
"How about we don't tell them, but we don't hide it. They should be perceptive enough to notice." Lily replied. James snorted.
"I don't know about perceptive, but…" here he raised his voice quite a lot, "… they certainly are nosy!" Lily looked at him strangely, and then realised that Jill and Anna weren't ahead of them any more. She looked around her, and, sure enough, there was Sirius's foot sticking out from behind a nearby tree.
Lily took out her wand, and muttered a spell under her breath, directed at Sirius. His foot turned bright green, and it began spreading up his leg, as far as Lily could see. She grinned at James.
"Come on out, you lot." She called. The four came out from behind the tree with guilty expressions on their faces.
"I suppose you heard everything." She asked, directing her question at the now green all over Sirius.
"No, we didn't hear anything." He replied convincingly. At least, it would've been convincing, had not Sirius's skin suddenly changed to bright red. It stayed like that for a second, and then subsided again, back to green.
"The truth, if you please." Lily said matter-of-factly.
"Yes, we heard it all." Sirius said resignedly, and his skin turned a bright yellow colour before subsiding again. Apparently, Sirius knew the nature of the spell Lily had cast on him.
"And are you planning on teasing us?" she asked again, no trace of embarrassment on her face. She hoped there would be none, and luckily, she was getting better at hiding her feelings.
"Yes, we are." Sirius turned yellow again, verifying his truthfulness.
"And is there anything James or I can do to stop you from that?" she questioned.
"Nope." At that, Sirius turned red again. He noticed, and said, "Oh blast!"
"What is it that we can do?"
"I won't tell you." Sirius turned a pale yellow, verifying that he had told a half-truth. That probably meant that he would tell, but only under duress. Lily gave up, but left the spell on him for good measure. Sirius looked better bright green.
"Come on, let's go before they start." James said, nodding in the direction of the four eaves-droppers. He took her hand, and they walked off fast. However, it wasn't fast enough to avoid the others, who came up, clamouring for details such as for how long they had been 'together', when Lily and James were going to tell them, and other much more embarrassing things. Lily couldn't really blame them, after the way she had questioned Sirius, but she didn't deign to answer. At last, James said,
"Would you lot like me to ask Lily to tie you all up and leave you by a tree until we get back from the waterfall? She can still do magic, you know." That subdued them, and they stopped asking questions, with a last,
"Just wait until we get back to Hogwarts." From Remus. James just stuck his tongue out at him. A few minutes later, they arrived at the waterfall. A vote was taken; swimming or eating first. Eating won unanimously, and the group set down to eat.
They stayed at the waterfall for a long time, and the sun was just beginning to set when they began to make their way back. When they got back to the mansion, everything was silent. The tired group of teenagers trouped around to the back door, leading into the kitchen. James opened the door, and instantly froze. His face turned ashen.
~*~*~*~*~
A/N Well, my cliff-hangers are getting better, aren't they? Okay, okay, it's probably pretty obvious what's going to happen, but at least I'm improving. Please review, this was a very long chapter and it took me forever to write. I hope you all liked it.
~Stef
~Stef
~*~*~*~*~
On Monday, Lily found herself squashed in a compartment with all of her friends. The result of James's offer was that Lily, Remus, Sirius, Anna, and Jill were coming. Molly could come for a while, but she had to go home on Christmas Eve. None of the others could come at all. How they managed to fit in the compartment, Lily would never know. Jill was on Sirius's lap and Anna was on Remus's. As much as Lily would have liked to sit on James's, she didn't, because everyone still thought that the two of them were fighting. Instead, Peter sat on Sahi's lap, much to her disgust.
Everyone was talking about what they would do in the holidays, which reminded Lily that Cecilia probably thought that she was coming to the orphanage. She took out some parchment and a quill, and began to write a letter to her friend.
Dear Cecilia,
I'm not going to be coming to the orphanage for Christmas, because I'm going to James Potter's house for the holidays. Do you remember last summer, when I went to his house for the last few weeks before school? It's the same James, but a lot of my friends from school are coming too. I'm writing this on the train now, leaving Hogwarts, just in case you were going back to the orphanage and missed me. I think Miss Theresa knows I'm not coming, but if she doesn't, would you mind telling her for me? Does Beauxbatons allow students to stay there for the holidays? Will you stay there, or are you going to the orphanage? If you are, I'll see if you can come over to James's for a day, and you can meet my friends from Hogwarts. Oh, and you know I said Dumbledore used to let me use magic in the holidays because of my disguise? Well, he forgot to tell the people handing out the letters that I'm not supposed to be doing magic in the holidays any more! That means I can still do it, and not get in trouble! I hope you have a good Christmas, and write to me whenever you feel like it. Happy holidays! See you next summer. Love,
Lily
Lily folded the parchment, found an envelope to put it in, and then asked James to borrow his owl. Lily didn't have an owl of her own yet, but she planned to get one next time she visited Diagon Alley. James let her use his owl, and soon Twitterdragon disappeared ahead of the train. That owl could fly fast! Then Lily realised that it was because the train had stopped. She blushed, and stood up, looking for her trunk. She found James holding it out of her way, a grin on his face.
"Oh, thankyou." Lily said, holding her hand out for her trunk. James's mischievous grin just intensified.
"What makes you think I picked it up for you? I might be stealing it." He said teasingly. Lily moved closer, but instead of grabbing it, she whispered in his ear.
"You're mad at me, remember? You can't tease me if we're not talking."
"Oh, right." James handed Lily the trunk. "You know, I think we'd better think up a reason to make up. There's no way I'm going to be able not to talk to you all holidays."
"All the others are gone now. We can just start talking again, and let them think that we made up in here. No-one will be any the wiser."
"Okay then. Let's go." James led the way out, and Lily followed.
They were greeted by James's mother, and then led to a car. It looked pretty small, but it fit all of them in easily. Lily sat next to James, and although the others looked surprised, they didn't comment. As Michelle (James's mother) drove off, she asked James,
"I haven't seen or heard anything about Luke in a long time. Did you have a fight?"
James looked confused for a split second, but then everyone in the car burst out laughing. Michelle looked very confused.
"Lily will explain, Mum." James gasped out. Lily was the only one not laughing, but she was grinning broadly.
"Well, I kind of am Luke. Voldemort killed my parents just after I received my letter for Hogwarts. He told me that if I went to Hogwarts, he would kill me too. I decided at once not to go, but Professor Dumbledore came to me and convinced me otherwise. If I didn't go, I would be doing what Voldemort wanted. Professor Dumbledore convinced me to disguise myself as a boy while I went to Hogwarts.
"Last summer, Dumbledore talked to me. He said that I should be able to hold Voldemort off, at least for a little while, by now. Also, he wanted me to be a prefect, but he wanted James to be one too, and Gryffindor couldn't have two seeming boys. So I reverted back to my normal self, giving my friends a bit of a shock."
Michelle smiled in understanding, but her friends looked slightly shocked. Then Lily realised why. They knew she was in hiding because of Lord Voldemort, but they didn't know that he had killed her parents and threatened her not to go to school. But they didn't say anything, because they were arriving at the Potter home, and had to get out of the car. Michelle led the way, and James took Lily's had and squeezed it for a second before letting go. He had a sympathetic look on his face.
Lily tried something. ~* Hey, James, does this still work? *~ There was no answer from James, so Lily had to assume it had worn off. It had still worked last night, though, so it seemed that the limit of the spell was 48 hours. Well, it was good to know.
They went into the kitchen, and had a drink. Then James showed them all to their rooms. Lily shared a room with Molly; the same room she had slept in last summer. Anna and Jill shared a room, and Sirius and Remus shared a room. That left James alone in his own room, but (as his mother pointed out) it was such a mess that they wouldn't be able to fit any extra beds in it, anyway. And the use of so many guest rooms didn't phase Michelle at all. It seemed that they were only using half of the guest rooms in the house, which Lily was beginning to think of as a mansion. Lily unpacked her stuff quickly, but Molly was still unpacking, so she decided to go for a walk to familiarise herself with the house.
It was big, and half an hour later Lily reckoned that she had the maze of passages and rooms memorised. She made her way back to her own room, getting lost only once. A very friendly witch in a portrait put her back on track, and from there Lily found it easy. When she got back, Molly had just finished un-packing. Whereas Lily had just thrown her stuff into her drawers, Molly appeared to be a bit of a neat-freak. All of her muggle clothes were neatly folded, and her robes were hanging up in the cupboard which Lily had ignored.
"Done?" Lily asked.
"Just about. Everything's folded and put away, and all my school books are left in my trunk."
"Would you like me to make your trunk and its contents smaller? I'm still allowed to do magic, I guess Dumbledore forgot."
"I don't think he forgot. He probably just likes you, or trust you. Or both. But yes, please." Lily smiled at her friend, and shrunk the trunk. Then she and Molly went into the hallway. They checked James's room, and found all of the others in there.
"Finally!" Sirius exclaimed. "What were you doing? Washing and ironing your clothes?"
Lily grinned, and Molly blushed. "Just because I like everything to be neat and tidy…" she began, but Lily prodded her.
"He's just being Sirius. His clothes are probably arranged more messily than mine."
"Of course they are!" Sirius said proudly. "They're all strewn all over the bed." Molly rolled her eyes, and everyone else laughed. Lily and Molly sat down, and everyone started to plan what they would do for the rest of the week.
~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~*****~~~~~
Molly left on Christmas Eve, and Christmas day came and went. Lily received presents from all of her school friends, from James's parents, and even an owl from Cecilia. The note attached said that if they were to write to each other, Lily had better get an owl. Lily laughed at the note, but was happy with her owl. She didn't, however, have any idea what to name him (it was a him.) Her friends amused her with all kinds of names, suggestions varying from 'Sirius' (guess who that suggestion came from) to 'Bambi.' Lily wasn't quite sure how Anna came up with Bambi, but she rejected the name all the same. At last, she decided to leave him nameless until she could come up with something. It was better to have an owl without a name than one with a name that didn't suit it. Lily was a strong believer in having names that suited the character, and her owl was certainly not a 'Bambi.'
A few days after Christmas, nobody knew what to do.
"Let's go out and play Quidditch!" Sirius suggested. Very calmly, Jill said,
"Sirius, we've played Quidditch every single day that we've been here, except Christmas day. Don't you think it's getting a bit old by now?"
"Quidditch could never get old!" Sirius returned obstinately.
"Maybe not when we're on a team against different opponents, but playing it with apples, on differently matched broomsticks, in my back garden does wear a bit thin after a while." James said. It seemed even the Quidditch captain could have enough after a while.
"So what should we do?" Remus asked. "I suppose no-one is quite desperate enough to do homework yet?"
That comment was greeted by a prod in the ribs from Anna, and four shouts of "NO!" Remus grinned, and there was a moments pause before James's face lit up.
"I know! There's a waterfall with a big pool at the base about half an hour's trek from here. We could walk there, and take a picnic lunch." James said. Sirius opened his mouth, but James anticipated his question, and said, "No, we can't go on broomsticks because it's through the forest, and if someone crashes we'd have a hard time getting him or her back."
Sirius opened his mouth again. James interrupted again, "Don't bother. I've already begged Mum hundreds of times; she won't let us go on broomsticks." Sirius shut his mouth, defeated. Everyone else burst out laughing. They all thought it was a good idea.
James left to ask the house-elves to prepare a picnic lunch for them, and everyone else went to put on swimsuits under their clothes. Half an hour later, armed with towels and picnic baskets, the group of six left the Potter grounds, and walked through the woods. According to James, the path led directly there, so Remus and Sirius walked off ahead, setting the pace. Anna and Jill came next, And Lily and James brought up the rear, walking together. As soon as Anna and Jill were far enough ahead so that they wouldn't hear a whisper, James softly said to Lily,
"Do you think we should tell them now?" Lily automatically knew what he was talking about- it wasn't her Animagus transformations. He was talking about them being a couple. Lily didn't see why not. There would be the usual teasing, but what could you expect?
"How about we don't tell them, but we don't hide it. They should be perceptive enough to notice." Lily replied. James snorted.
"I don't know about perceptive, but…" here he raised his voice quite a lot, "… they certainly are nosy!" Lily looked at him strangely, and then realised that Jill and Anna weren't ahead of them any more. She looked around her, and, sure enough, there was Sirius's foot sticking out from behind a nearby tree.
Lily took out her wand, and muttered a spell under her breath, directed at Sirius. His foot turned bright green, and it began spreading up his leg, as far as Lily could see. She grinned at James.
"Come on out, you lot." She called. The four came out from behind the tree with guilty expressions on their faces.
"I suppose you heard everything." She asked, directing her question at the now green all over Sirius.
"No, we didn't hear anything." He replied convincingly. At least, it would've been convincing, had not Sirius's skin suddenly changed to bright red. It stayed like that for a second, and then subsided again, back to green.
"The truth, if you please." Lily said matter-of-factly.
"Yes, we heard it all." Sirius said resignedly, and his skin turned a bright yellow colour before subsiding again. Apparently, Sirius knew the nature of the spell Lily had cast on him.
"And are you planning on teasing us?" she asked again, no trace of embarrassment on her face. She hoped there would be none, and luckily, she was getting better at hiding her feelings.
"Yes, we are." Sirius turned yellow again, verifying his truthfulness.
"And is there anything James or I can do to stop you from that?" she questioned.
"Nope." At that, Sirius turned red again. He noticed, and said, "Oh blast!"
"What is it that we can do?"
"I won't tell you." Sirius turned a pale yellow, verifying that he had told a half-truth. That probably meant that he would tell, but only under duress. Lily gave up, but left the spell on him for good measure. Sirius looked better bright green.
"Come on, let's go before they start." James said, nodding in the direction of the four eaves-droppers. He took her hand, and they walked off fast. However, it wasn't fast enough to avoid the others, who came up, clamouring for details such as for how long they had been 'together', when Lily and James were going to tell them, and other much more embarrassing things. Lily couldn't really blame them, after the way she had questioned Sirius, but she didn't deign to answer. At last, James said,
"Would you lot like me to ask Lily to tie you all up and leave you by a tree until we get back from the waterfall? She can still do magic, you know." That subdued them, and they stopped asking questions, with a last,
"Just wait until we get back to Hogwarts." From Remus. James just stuck his tongue out at him. A few minutes later, they arrived at the waterfall. A vote was taken; swimming or eating first. Eating won unanimously, and the group set down to eat.
They stayed at the waterfall for a long time, and the sun was just beginning to set when they began to make their way back. When they got back to the mansion, everything was silent. The tired group of teenagers trouped around to the back door, leading into the kitchen. James opened the door, and instantly froze. His face turned ashen.
~*~*~*~*~
A/N Well, my cliff-hangers are getting better, aren't they? Okay, okay, it's probably pretty obvious what's going to happen, but at least I'm improving. Please review, this was a very long chapter and it took me forever to write. I hope you all liked it.
~Stef