Author's Note: Ooh… Finally, the chapter that's not so freakishly happy… I was beginning to scare myself with all the sappiness in the previous chapters…
Title: Love and Flashbacks
Rating: PG
Spoilers: Erm… Possibly.
Summary: Lily and James remember the events that led to their romance.
Disclaimer: As much as I'd love to own Harry Potter and its characters, I don't.
Setting: This story takes place when the Marauders are at Hogwarts.
*** = setting change
*~*= begin flashback
~*~ = end flashback
[…] = time
italics = emphasis
italics = thoughts
~The Breakup~
Lily stared at her boyfriend, unable to speak.
"Lily?" James said, waving a hand in front of her face. "Are you going to give me an answer or what?"
The redhead continued to stare. Her lips were moving, but no words were coming out.
The dark-haired boy was now beginning to get worried. "Lily? Lily, are you all right?"
She looked sadly at him, and suddenly he understood.
James got up and took a step back. "You don't," he said, as realization dawned on him. "You don't want to marry me." (AN: Aha! Unexpected turn of events! For some of you, anyway…)
Lily couldn't say anything. She looked away from his hurt brown eyes.
"Okay, fine. Well, if you don't want to marry me, then I guess we're through, because this relationship is going nowhere." He stormed upstairs.
Lily finally found her voice. "James," she said, but it was too late. "I'm sorry," she whispered to herself.
***
[The next morning]
"Lily, wake up. Come on." Koren tried to shake her friend awake.
Lily's face was buried in her pillow. "No," she said in a muffled voice, "I'm never getting out of this bed. Never."
Charlotte came over to Lily's bed. "Why not? Is something wrong?" she asked, concerned.
"All right, come on." Koren forced the redhead to turn over. Lily's face was streaked with tears. "Oh, Lily, have you been crying?"
*~*
[5th year] (AN: Right after Lily discovers that she likes James.)
Lily entered her dorm room in a trance-like state and accidentally stepped on Whiskers' tail. The cat screeched in pain, waking up the other two occupants of the room.
"Wha—Huh? Did Sirius just ask me out?" Koren asked, sitting up.
Charlotte laughed. "You were dreaming."
"Oh…"
Lily picked up Whiskers, who was nursing her injured tail. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said, setting the cat on her owner's bed. "I didn't mean it. I guess I wasn't watching where I was going. Sorry I woke you guys up."
"It's okay," Charlotte said, smiling.
"Maybe for you," Koren stated. "I was having the best dream…" She fell back onto her pillow, remembering it.
The brunette turned to Lily and asked, "What were you doing up so late? And were you crying?"
"Yeah. You know, since Patrick broke up with me…"
"Oh."
"I was down in the common room. And—you guys are going to think this is so weird—Potter made me feel better… I think I like him now."
"What?"
"What?!" Koren shot up out of bed. "You? Liking James Potter? I didn't think that was possible."
Lily grinned sheepishly. "Well, it is."
~*~
"James and I broke up," she answered softly.
"What?"
"What?" Charlotte was confused. Lily should be happy. After James did what he had been planning to do… "Why?"
"He—he proposed to me. But I didn't say anything. I—I couldn't say yes, I couldn't say no…"
Koren asked, "He proposed? As in marriage? Why couldn't you answer?"
"I have no idea. I love him, really, I do. But I couldn't accept. I just don't think I'm ready for marriage. Right now, anyway. I mean, I just turned eighteen. I have my whole life ahead of me. I want to spend that life with James. But I don't know if I'm ready for such a huge commitment yet."
Charlotte said, "I'll be back in a minute, okay?" She walked out of the room.
***
[Meanwhile…]
"So you go to propose to her and end up breaking up instead? Man, Prongs, I didn't realize you were that bad at relationships."
"Padfoot."
"Sorry."
Peter asked, "How did this happen? I thought everything was perfect."
"Yeah," Remus said. "You had it all planned out. What went wrong?"
"I didn't count on her not saying yes, that's what went wrong."
Charlotte knocked on the door and walked into the dorm. "Lily told me what happened… Oh God, James, I'm so sorry."
"For what? You're not the idiot who proposed to someone who doesn't want to get married."
"Don't think like that. Lily's just not ready right now."
"Why not? We love each other. Supposedly, anyway."
Remus said, "Prongs…"
"I don't care anymore," James said. "If she doesn't want to be with me, fine. It doesn't matter. And now if you'll excuse me…" He entered the bathroom.
Sirius said, "This is not good. We gotta get those two back together. James acting so normal after a rejection like that? It scares me. I can't deal with that."
"She didn't actually reject him, you know," Charlotte replied, sitting down next to Remus, who put an arm around her. "She just didn't answer."
"Hmm… You two stay here and wait for him to come out." Sirius started walking toward the door. "Come on, Pete," he said to the shorter boy. "We got a girlfriend to see and planning to do."
***
[Meanwhile…]
James splashed his face with water. Then he leaned against the wall and tried not to cry.
Why doesn't she want to marry me? Doesn't she love me? What possible reason could she have for acting like that?
***
[Meanwhile…] (AN: Too many meanwhiles going on around here, but there's just a lot of action here…)
"Lily, it's going to be okay," Koren said, trying to comfort her friend.
"How do you know? You're not the best at Divination, you know."
"Lily."
"I'm sorry. It's just… God, this thing with James…"
"I know. I—"
"Koren, can Wormtail and I talk to you?" Sirius asked, poking his head in the door.
The blond looked at the redhead and then said, "Uh, sure. Lily, are you going to be okay?"
"As okay as a person can feel when their heart's just been trampled by a stampede of hippogriffs."
"Okay…" Koren got up and went over to her boyfriend. "Feel better, Lily," she said before exiting the dorm room.
***
"What'd you want to talk to me about?"
"About this situation. The whole Lily-and-James-breaking-up thing."
"Oh. I can't believe this happened. They were so good together," Koren said, her blue eyes filled with sadness for her friends.
"Yeah, now we're the most sickening couple in school," Sirius muttered. "But that's not the point. We have to get them back together. James is acting so normal, it's scary. I can tell he's really hurting."
Peter said, "We all thought Lily would say yes. Why didn't she?"
The young witch in front of him replied, "She doesn't know. She says that she's not really ready for something like that right now. She's only eighteen, after all. Wait. You said you all thought she would say yes. You guys all knew he was going to propose?"
"Well, Charlotte knew too."
"Great. I'm the last to know?"
Sirius and Peter nodded.
Koren sighed. "Whatever. I don't care. What I do care about is my friend's happiness. I bet she was awake all night, crying. It certainly looks that way, judging by her face."
Charlotte came downstairs then.
"What are you doing here?"
"Well, Remus and I decided that it's not a good idea for James to see a happy couple right about now, so here I am."
"Okay, Char, obviously, you're the one who knows the most around here, so tell us what's going on," Koren said.
"I guess I should start from the beginning. Okay, five days ago, James told me that he was going to propose to Lily. He wanted me to tell him when the best time would be. So I did that yesterday—"
"Was that what that piece of parchment was about?"
"Yes. And then, based on what they've told us, I guess Lily didn't say anything when James asked her to marry him. So now they're not together anymore, and they're both miserable."
***
[Meanwhile…]
James came out of the bathroom, his face dry. He spotted Remus, who was still sitting on his bed. "Hey, Moony."
"Prongs, I really think you should talk to Lily. I mean, what if—"
"I don't want to talk to her."
"But—"
"There's nothing to talk about anyway."
"James, she still loves—"
"I'm going to head down to breakfast." James left the room.
***
Lily came downstairs at the same time James did. Her green eyes widened when she saw him, and she fled back up to her room.
James pretended that he hadn't seen her and went down to the Great Hall.
Remus entered the common room. "Hi, guys."
"So what happened?"
"He wouldn't listen to me. He kept cutting me off. Every time I tried to say something about Lily, he would change the subject."
The five teenagers stood in silence, each wondering what they could do to help their friends.
TO BE CONTINUED…
Author's Note: Well, that was not the way I had planned it to be, but here it is. I decided that the other part could be another chapter.
