As promised, the much-quicker-updated chapter 23. Enjoy!
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"I think I made the dreadful mistake of making a comment that would inflate your ego even further than it is already stretched. Though," she said in apparent pensive reflection, "I do suppose that just about everything anyone happens to say to you would have that effect, seeing as how drastically large your ego really is."
Then James laughed, really laughed, and Lily joined in. Laughter had the habit of consuming her, and when she finally righted herself from her bent-over position, she found James not-at-all laughing anymore, much closer than he had been before, and smelling especially nice. They, sitting on the bench as they were—closely, staring at each other with (though they might not see it) some longing—would appear to the average passerby as a young couple out for the afternoon. These thoughts would be further confirmed by James, who slowly leaned over, and kissed her.
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Chapter 23 ~ Love Me, I'm an Asshole
It was pleasant, very pleasant, she decided, so she saw no immediate reason to stop. His arm crept up behind her, and her fingers found the way to the back of his neck where they took the job of running through his hair and making it even messier than normal. James was definitely the best kisser she had come across, or, she rationalized, it might be that she had never liked a guy as much as she liked James and that kissing him was that much better. And amidst that flood of thoughts she picked out that she really did like him, and she couldn't deny it. James pulled away first, looking a little startled.
Lily, not even caring that she usually never kissed so much in public, just pulled him back and kissed him again.
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James, upon entering his room, was greeted by hoots and cat-calls. "Prongs, my boy, I'll admit that I didn't think you had it in you. I might have lost some money on it, but I'm glad you and Lily are finally together," Sirius volunteered.
"Wha-What?!? But, how did you guys see—How do you know—I just don't… Wait, YOU BET MONEY? Padfoot, how much against me?"
"Oh just one, or maybe twenty galleons. Chump change, buddy, when it comes to true love!" he cackled, and Remus and Peter laughed with him.
"James, we have the Map, we have the Invisibility Cloak—why shouldn't we have put them to use? It would have been against the very nature of the Marauders!" Peter exclaimed. "Besides, I had my money riding against Sirius, so I decided to tune in for the show."
"So that's what it was then, just a show?" he said, getting angry. "I might not have given particulars"—Sirius then laughed, and added that it seemed like Lily sure can kiss. James glared, and went on—"but I wouldn't have totally held out on you guys."
"Sorry James, but it was a little hard to resist," Remus said, always the peacekeeper. "You can't blame us for expecting it, after you spent all last night watching her. Too bad the door kicked you out, saying all that business about how it was improper." James shook his head.
"He attacked me this morning too, you should have heard it. Mr. Woodsworth, as he likes to be called," James said mockingly, "has kicked us out of the room for two or three weeks. The only reason Lily and I went to Hogsmeade was to rent some space to keep all our stuff in," he said huffily, as he had forgotten about it, and now that he had remembered was quite sour.
"We sort of figured that when we saw you carrying all our things with you," Peter added. Sirius looked bored. Did he really care about psycho doors? His mind was wandering along a more primitive track.
"On to more important things, now, how was it?" he asked slyly.
"Sirius!"
"What? I have the right to be curious!"
"You watched," he said angrily. "And I told you I wasn't going to give particulars." And James walked back out the door, perturbed at his welcome, and Sirius, assuming the duties of The Best Friend, followed soon after him to try and convince him that it had all been in fun.
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"Oooohh, and he was the best kisser, you wouldn't believe it," Lily drawled, up in her own dorm. Evelyn who, having heard the same phrase multiple times, and could indeed believe it, seeing as how she had gone out with James herself, was on the end of her patience. Cecil was starting to wear thin as well, and Laura was simply in raptures, as she had secured a new object for her attention, and was assuring herself that he, too, could kiss as well as James. Evelyn simply prepared herself for another round of 'The Kiss' but Lily had contented herself simply to lie in her bed. Altogether surprised with how little doubt had welcomed her announcement, she had realized that people considered her and James as inevitable.
One truly unexpected bonus that came from this was that none of her friends commented much on her hand. It was generally accepted that yesterday when Lily had claimed she needed to go the Library to study, instead headed to the Potions room to get ahead and got a rash from one of the ingredients.
"So Lily," Laura started, "When's your first official date with James?" Lily turned to look directly at her friend with her eyebrows knit together.
"Well, I don't know. We didn't exactly talk about it, you know, after the… well, anyway, we just walked back to school and both went up to our rooms." Laura looked at Lily skeptically.
"Did he kiss you goodbye?"
"What? No! I mean, not in front of all the people in the Common Room. Besides, we had already had quite enough of that already," she defended herself.
"But he kissed you in front of all those people in Hogsmeade. What's the difference?" she probed further. Cecil and Evelyn sent her warning looks.
"We are Head Boy and Girl, we should be setting an example to the other students," she answered, though she was now beginning to doubt if he would have kissed her goodbye, or if he really had even wanted to date her. He had seemed surprised when they kissed, she recalled. Cecil, having mouthed the word Idiot to Laura several times, prodded Laura into assuring Lily that James definitely would ask her out soon, probably tonight.
"Bother that, if he's going to be so shy. I'll just ask him myself," she finalized, and smiled. "You should just do the same with Steven," she said to Laura, naming her current flame. "I'm sure he likes you. I was talking with Ada Jordan two days ago, you know, the Ravenclaw, that huge gossip—I swear she knows everything—and she said she heard that he likes you too." Ada, besides being a rumormonger, was Steven's housemate and classmate and had told Lily that he had confessed it to her the other day in Potions. Steven, a particularly amiable Ravenclaw, was just as eager to talk to Laura as she was to listen to him; he was, therefore, surprised that someone so pretty could be intrigued by him, and she likewise intrigued that someone so smart could like her as well! Laura, beaming and scowling at the same time for Lily having held out on her, was bubbling over with needless talk and Evelyn, seeing this was going to be a long, drawn-out, and most likely annoying conversation, asked Cecil if she wanted to go to the Common Room and play some chess, who readily agreed. They left promptly, laughed about how silly their two roommates were, and headed instead to the Kitchen for a snack.
After enjoying a piece of seedless watermelon that didn't seem at all out of season, Cecil and Evelyn parted ways—Evelyn to the Library for a bit of study time, and Cecil to the Common Room, in case she could find someone besides her lovesick roommates to talk to.
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Sirius, having stopped to talk to several people on the way, only caught up to James about half an hour later. Stepping inside an empty classroom, Sirius grinned apologetically at his friend. James tried to glare unsuccessfully for a few moments, and finally declined to simply not looking at Sirius at all.
"Prongs, buddy, you know I didn't really mean any of that stuff up in the room. I was just poking some fun." James quieted down, allowed himself to smile a bit, and let most of his malice dissolve before Sirius added, "Besides, I really only had ten galleons against you. I have a little more faith than twenty against you, considering how you have been pining over her since you saw her at the start of the term." James had no answer to this, so Sirius continued, in a hushed, secretive voice. "And, guess what I heard on the way over. Ada Jordan has a crush on our favorite Head Boy!"
"Ada? She, she likes me?" he said, awestruck. He usually had horrible perception with these things, but normally there was at least a little clue. Ada was his partner in Magical Healing, a class they took with Ravenclaws. She was nice enough, but he had certainly never liked her. He shrugged his shoulders.
"I guess she hasn't heard the little, or not-so-little kiss you shared with Lily today then."
"It's only been an hour, for goodness sakes!" he said in exasperation, for he was sick of being teased, even if Sirius only meant it in fun. "Besides," he continued feebly, "It's not like Lily and I are even 'official'." Sirius raised his eyebrows questionably. "I didn't even ask her out," he finished glumly, though Sirius was ecstatic.
"Then I've got the little rat! I win the bet! Twenty galleons to me," he said cheerfully. James advanced upon him, backing him to the far wall until he corrected, "Ten, I mean, only ten."
James wasn't exactly happy, but let it go. Sirius will be Sirius, after all. "I have something else I wanted to tell you," he said in a grave tone, making James immediately pay attention. "After seeing Lily and you this morning, I thought I might want to mention a teensy little detail to you," he said with a nervous laugh. James was simply thinking, 'This can't be good.'
"She seemed, well, to put it plainly, a little more ... ahem… ardent, to put it that way, than I would have expected, and I know you were surprised as well." James nodded, severely disliking the turn of conversation. "I thought I might recall to you from when I had hurt myself with The Tree's leaves. After being under such heavy dosage of the medicine, I found myself, more… well… you know," he said, motioning, but James had no clue. Sirius sighed and continued, "Remember Katya?"
"The one you mauled in the corridors? Yes, I remember her," he said contemptuously. She had graduated last year, and had caused many malfunctions in the Marauder's plans when Sirius had been 'occupied' with her.
"If you want to call it that," he said huffily. "Well, after four days of the medicine, the fist time I saw her, well, I'm a little ashamed to say it, but I practically pounced on her," he said quickly.
"And the fact that you're a buffoon affects me how?"
"Bugger, James! You're such an imbecile, can't you understand that the medicine is practically an aphrodisiac?" he said harshly. James gulped and looked at the floor. It all made sense. Lily had never been a prude, but she was discreet, he knew. He had been surprised when she had kissed him, and kissed him again, and again. The most he had hoped for was a quick peck and no slap to follow. He had never even gotten as far as asking her out in his mind, because he truly hadn't seen the possibility.
"You sure?" he practically whispered, gripping the hair above his forehead, making it stand up. He paced, repeating multiple obscenities to himself, finally sitting down in a desk by the doorway. "Lily," he said, so passionately that his voice broke, making him reform his thoughts. "I never meant to take advantage of her."
"What about Ada?" Sirius asked, but James just waved his hand distractedly, not even paying attention to what Sirius had said.
"I'll ask her out tonight then," he said with a satisfied sigh.
"Do you think she'll say yes?" Sirius asked.
"I hope so," he said, slumping in the chair. "Lily, she takes things well, on the whole," he said, trying to reassure himself. "I'm sure that once I explain everything about the … you know… from this morning, it'll all be fine, don't you think?" Sirius nodded, and James, invigorated and confident stood back up and headed down the corridor to see what the house-elves had for them this afternoon.
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Cecil, licking her lips from the watermelon, headed back to Gryffindor Tower. She stopped, however, when she heard muffled voices from within a classroom ahead of her. She immediately identified the speaker as Sirius and walked slowly to the doorway.
As she kneeled down she heard intermittent scraps of talk. "Besides … had ten galleons against you. I have a little … considering how you have been pining over her since you saw her at the start of the term," she heard. Then, more softly he added "And … Ada … crush on our favorite Head Boy!"
Cecil stifled a gasp. Sirius was obviously talking to James, but she couldn't believe what she was hearing. Ada was normally the one to go to for Ravenclaw gossip, and so of course Cecil hadn't heard about this as Ada probably wasn't promoting her own secrets. Cecil had finally positioned herself so her ear was right next to the door, and she could hear much more clearly now.
"Ada? She, she likes me?" James said, as if he was enthralled by the very idea. Cecil wanted to gag, or at least slap him very, very hard. Sirius, to his credit, she thought, mentioned Lily.
"I guess she hasn't heard the little, or not-so-little kiss you shared with Lily today then."
"It's only been an hour, for goodness sakes!" he said, sounding angry at the very thought. "Besides, it's not like Lily and I are even 'official'. I didn't even ask her out." Sirius said something very quickly and loudly about a rat, and in her mind she cheered him on. Good for Sirius for standing up to his friend. There was some scuffling in the room, and James, she saw through the crack between the door and the wall, had backed Sirius against the far wall. Sirius said something rather solemnly that caught James's attention, but she couldn't hear what it was. 'He must be setting James straight about how horrible he was to Lily,' she realized.
They continued the conversation, both of them getting a little flustered, until Sirius said something rather harsh to him, the only word she caught was a rather patronizing "imbecile."
James then started pacing, and sat down right next to where she was watching from, making her immediately recall her head and resign only to listen.
"Lily," he said, "—I never meant to take advantage of her."
"What about Ada?" Sirius asked. James was quiet for a moment, and then replied, "I'll ask her out tonight then." He sighed rather loudly and contentedly. Cecil violently wished to squeeze the air from his lungs. First he had been horrible to Evelyn, and then Laura, and now Lily!
"Do you think she'll say yes?" Sirius asked.
"I hope so," James answered, making Cecil restrain herself from walking through the door and hitting him over the head. "Lily, she takes things well, on the whole. I'm sure that once I explain everything about the … you know… from this morning, it'll all be fine, don't you think?" Cecil knew that everything would not be fine, and James was an idiot if he didn't see that. She rose, not being able to listen to anything else they could possibly have to say, and walked away, intent on exposing the horrible piece of filth that was James 'Love me, I'm an asshole' Potter.
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Dinner time was rolling around, and James had an unshakable feeling of nervousness. What if Lily really didn't like him? What if she was so ashamed of what she had done that she wouldn't even talk to him? Or what if she had somehow figured out about the medicine and thought she had been horribly used? There were an endless number of worries that were running through his mind, and as soon as he took his seat for dinner he started shaking his leg out of nerves, annoying Remus, who was sitting on his right, so badly that he hit him swiftly across the back.
"Ouch! Moony, you could have warned me," James said, trying to rub the sore. Remus shrugged it off and awaited the food, seeing as he was successful in making James cease that stupid shaking. He transformed in a few days, and it always made him ravenous beforehand, and so he had more pressing matters to attend to than James's love fiasco, such as what was the main dish for dinner tonight. He had heard the side was mashed potatoes and was practically drooling already.
"Here she comes, James!" Peter announced suddenly, and all the three other Marauders scooted down the bench a bit to give a little privacy to Lily and James, seeing as Lily was headed right towards him. Her roommates looked apprehensive to let her go, and they sat separately at the far end of the table with the sixth year girls, who promptly shot him a Look. James was startled until he realized that Lily was smiling, and he relaxed, just as Dumbledore rose for the pre-dinner announcements. Lily took the seat next to him, and James barely heard the words "Prefect meeting scheduled for the 2nd of October" before the food appeared before them. Instead of grabbing as much food in a short a time as possible and stuffing it down his throat, as was the normal routine, he turned directly to Lily, who was already regarding him with a concentrated serenity.
"Lily, there's something I forgot to ask you this morning," he said sincerely.
"Oh? And what would that be?" she said nicely enough, but slammed the spoon for the mashed potatoes down on her plate rather violently, making him gulp. "Did it slip your mind, perhaps, before you kissed me, to ask if I minded being used? Or maybe now you are thinking of taking my feelings into account. Well, I can assure you that I certainly don't like you anymore," and with this she scooped a generous amount of gravy onto her potatoes. "I should have stayed away from you after Evelyn, and definitely after Laura, but I didn't. I take part of the blame. Now, though, I'm paying more attention to my friends and less to the scum like you" she said, pausing for a moment. If James hadn't been so confused, not to mention pained, he might have noticed the tears beginning to sting the corner of her eyes.
"Lily, I don't understand," he said helplessly. Her anger flared.
"You don't understand much about girls, so you, James?" she said a little loudly, drawing the Marauder's attention, though they tried to look at their plates as they listened, taking their friends embarrassment into account. "You obviously don't understand that to some, at least to me, a kiss means something. And if you honestly… if you honestly…" she stopped and tried to dignify herself, for the tears were starting to flow more freely now. James reached out a hand to comfort her.
"Lily, please, don't cry," he pleaded. She viciously slapped his hand away.
"It's a little late to wish that, James," she said, nearly choking on her silent sobs. James noticed now how red her eyes were, she had obviously cried for hours, but he hadn't the faintest clue why. "If you honestly didn't like me James," she continued stonily, and his jaw dropped in protest though he was too scared to speak, "I don't see why you had to pretend, to lead me on like that. We, we had such good times together, and you were always so nice…" she reminisced, almost as if it were a different person's happy past. As if she suddenly remembered that the happy person wasn't truly her, she continued harshly, "But all of that, everything was lies, wasn't it? And so you can never be my friend, or even an acquaintance to me ever again," she emphasized the last two words with difficulty, as if she couldn't believe she was saying them.
"Lily, please, I don't know what went wrong, but I promise, I swear, that I can explain myself to you," he said in quiet desperation, the sadness cracking at the back of his throat. Lily looked almost ready to consider the option, but she blinked tightly, sending a stream of salt down her cheeks, and shook her head. She gasped as a sob escaped her and stood up. Her nose was red, her eyes puffy, and the tears ran down her face in a constant stream. Her shoulders shook as though she was laughing, just as they had been laughing together this morning…
"Lily, don't do this! I don't know what went wrong, but I'll fix it, I swear!" he said in one last desperate attempt. His heart was breaking, a tear rolled unnoticed out of the corner of his eye.
Lily, through the tears, through the pain managed to utter a few last words. "James Potter," she said with vengeance, as if the words were poison, "I hate you." And with the finality of those statements, and with the perverseness that they entailed, for at this moment, this very moment, she knew thought she might truly love him, she picked up her heaping plate of mashed potatoes and flung it in his face.
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I know that every one of you might want to throw a huge plate of mashed potatoes at me right now. =D Rather good ending though, don't you think? Just kidding guys. Throw as much mashed potatoes at me as you want in the review box down there, okay?
My wonderful reviewer list! I wrote this chapter in just one go! Hope you liked it as much as the last one (hehe)
Amelia Bedelia ~ That was so sweet that you said it was sweet that I said it was sweet about you being so sweet!!! Haha, well I did write it ;) The beach was actually less than fun, all I did was summer reading and writing for LP (I finished through 25, which is 6,000 plus words) When I am that bored out of my skull I can just sit down and write it out. But normally I have too much going on to do more than a section at a time (as in, the pars between the *** marks) And as for your story, it'll get better as you go along. I'm realizing that the beginning chapters of LP SUCK royally, so I'm bringing them up to code, so to speak. Tell me when you post the l/j and I'll try really hard to read it! mwaz Ariana ~ I'm so glad that you liked the chapter! The Door seems to be pretty popular these days (but he's taking a small hiatus at the moment) and The Tree will hold more importance later on! Hope everything's great with you, toodles! Ayla Pascal ~ I'm really, really sorry for all the wait Ayla! Hopefully I will figure out how to manage everything well enough this year so that I can just post every two weeks. I'm trying to get a head start on the school year so that it can all be regular and this won't happen again. Eight practices a week plus school is what I've gotten myself into this year. Wish me luck ;) Beseeched by Locomotives ~ WOW! You wrote such a great review, it really brightened up my day to read that (though, I think I screwed up by sending you an email update for chapter 22 because I had added your name to the list… gah I am sooo stupid sometimes. Oh, and it was 2 in the morning when I did it) So anywho, your little thing at the end really cracked me up, I am simultaneously confused and amused by your penname, and your review was altogether superfralicagelisticexpealidocious! You rock! Britz ~ Hello! I just sent you an email, so there isn't much to say besides I'm glad I'm back! Thanks soooooooo much for the massive and kind review, it made me feel so LOVED!!! MWAZ, and talk to ya laters bubblegum*girl ~ Thanks for the review! I posted this chapter exactly two weeks later, aren't you proud? ^_~ Eidyia ~ Thanks for reviewing after such a long wait, it really means a lot. I'm glad you liked the tree thing and the ancient magic, because you will see them a lot more (hint hint) A gazillion thanks for the review! Min Hee Ha ~ Don't feel like you had to review any more than you did, I'm just glad you're back and reading Lily's Problems. Sorry about the problems with the comp. and thanks as always for reviewing! Mwu ~ I'm soooooo happy that you liked the last chapter and that you're back reading! I know you said that the kiss made up for the wait, so I hope that the 'mashed potatoes incident' makes up for that it was posted quickly. What? No? Ahhhhhhh.. *runs from flying plates of mashed potatoes* Haha, just kidding, um… I hope Parselmouth Majere ~ THANK YOU thank you thank you. You were the first person to actually offer me some real sympathy. Everyone else just said "Finally!" or about how they couldn't remember or blah blah (don't get me wrong, everyone was really really nice to still review, but I didn't feel the same support that I got from you) I hope everything with the Great Awakening goes well for you, and thanks again! PrincessLesse ~ Thanks for reviewing even after the wait! It made me feel a lot better that at least some of the 'old crowd' is still sticking with it. Glad you liked it, mwaz. Y. Kuang ~ I was wondering if I was going to get a comment on Mr. Woodsworth's vocab. I have a list of 300 something words that I have accumulated from all the books I've read in the not-too-long-ago past. THE DAY I posted this I had just finished Pride & Prejudice, and I was seriously in the P&P mood (it's my fave book now—I LOVE it) so Mr. Woodsworth was slightly transformed ;) Most of the words I used though came from my reading for my history term paper (lots of chicanery in that!) As for The Tree, yeah I came up with the idea myself. It's actually a big (read B I G) part of the plot, so stay tuned, don't change that dial! Haha, yeah, I'm weird. Anyway, thanks for the review! Gah, I wrote you a massive response… =D Mwaz