A/N: otayz!!! I'm so happy with how many reviews I got!!! 11!!! *dances* that's more than I've EVER gotten after one chapter of The Phoenix Ring!!! Thanks a ton to everyone who reviewed it! Well, here's chapter 2! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: lesse...I don't think I own anyone, do I? wait...I own dat brat, Victoria, and her personality-lacking fiancé, Roger....*nodz* and I won everyone's personalities, I guess...and the plot...not that there's much of a plot...
Chapter Two:
In Further News...
The man shoved Lily into a dungeon-like room. "What're you doing? I'm just a journalist! Let me go!" Lily kicked and shoved the man, but it was no use. He was about twice her size. He slammed the door shut, and the only source of light was a window, high above Lily's reach. Lily flopped onto the floor, and started writing down notes.
Hong Kong, Chine. Held hostage by Chinese man. Inside a dark dungeon. Not much light.
There wasn't much else to write, and her lost sleep was catching up with her. She slowly began to drift asleep.
"Damnit, where's Lily?" James said, as he and Sirius looked for the Death Eaters.
"Dunno. She was with us a second ago, wasn't she?" Sirius replied
"Yeah, I think...wait, no...we left her in the middle of Hong Kong!"
"We can't go back now. We'll get her later. I think they're down this way." Sirius and James walked down another deserted street, and saw two Chinese men, talking in low whispers.
"BELUSIO!" James and Sirius screamed in unison, and the men were both knocked out immediately.
"Call in Patrick, and tell him to bring the squad." James said, and Sirius obeyed. Within a few minutes, a few men and a woman came in Ministry cars and took away the unconscious Death Eaters. Sirius and James then apparated to Hong Kong center. "We could just leave her here, you know. And let her find her way back by herself." James smiled evilly.
"You're joking, right?" Said Sirius, "Imagine the article she'd write. 'Inpolite aurors abandoned me in Hong Kong to fend for myself', hell, we'd lose our jobs. That would be fun, though" Sirius added, grinning.
"Ok, fine, let's get her, and go."
After an hour of hopeless searching, a Chinese man stopped Sirius and James. "You James Potter and Sirius Black? Message for you." He said, handing James a paper, with a scribbled note.
"Oh, shit." James read the paper aloud, "The girl is in the Wyung Tower in the East Side of Hong Kong. Come alone unarmed by 10 pm, or we kill the girl."
"This is bull. Alone? Unarmed? He's going to kill us all once he knows what he wants."
"What else can we do, Sirius?"
"Nothing. So, here's what we're going to do; you go get Lily. When they take you in, I'll sneak in somehow and try and at least hold them back. I'll have the rest of the team hiding somewhere on alert, and call them in."
"Ok...sounds risky, but, fine. We'll apparate to the office now, and tell Patrick..." Before he could finish, Sirius had disappeared into space.
Lily shuddered. It was freezing and dark in the dungeon, and all the sentry would give her was ice cold water, whenever she asked for anything. They were having a bit of a...communication problem. Lily flopped onto the ground, and began to bang at the door. "Excuse me! I'm with the press! I have nothing to do with anything you're doing in here, so if you could please just let me go! I think you have the wrong person! I'm just a journalist! I'm not an auror!" She yelled, but it was no use. She was completely stuck in a dark, cold room with nothing but about fifteen cups of water.
Patrick Beanmore sighed from behind his desk. "Journalists, nothing but trouble, that's what I always say. Ok, go on with your plan. Be careful. From the looks of it, this is risky. But, I don't think he's there. Just some Death Eaters."
"Ok, Then, let's go." James said, nervously. He was still pretty new at this, and even if he loved his job, he wasn't like Sirius. He couldn't casually say 'ok, I'll go into a building full of armed death eaters without my wand, knowing that they're going to very well torture me when I don't tell them what they want to know.' He sighed, and disapparated.
James was in front of the building in which the Death Eaters had told him to go to. It really wasn't an easy job, being an auror. Many people tended to think that the people who did it were extremely brave, and noble, and never afraid. They were wrong. At least when it came to James, they were. It was his own choice, though. He didn't have to do it. He could've been a star quiddich player and hid from the world forever, like Lily except that at least Lily had the courage to face it, instead of shunning it away completely. For six months, James had shunned the world away completely. It was easy just to ignore Lord Voldemort. Until...
James stopped his thoughts from wandering off, and came back to the subject at hand, which, of course, was going into the building. He was about to knock on the door, when he realized that he was supposed to be pretending to think he'd be able to rescue Lily without trouble from the kidnappers. He was supposed to play clueless until they caught him and tried to make him tell them what they wanted. The door creaked open on it's own, to James' surprise. James crept in. The place was dark and dank, and smelled of fish. "Obviously they've had a budget cut," James muttered. Suddenly, a man caught James by the wrist.
"James Potter, come with us." Said the oriental man, who had his hand tightly around James' wrist, and James frowned at him, trying to get away from his grip. James knew well enough not to kick, or else he'd probably end up with broken bones, seeing as this man was quite a bit larger than him.
"Let me go!" James yelled
The man ignored him. "Master will be here to see you in a few minutes."
James didn't like the sound of 'Master'...could Patrick have been wrong? Was Voldemort really there? If he was, this situation was way over their heads. Way over their heads. Voldemort could kill an entire city of innocent people, muggles and magical kind alike, and two full-of-themselves late-teen aurors and a former-top-of-her-class-at-Hogwarts reporter were not going to be able to stop him. As clever as the three of them were put together, Voldemort was mad. James' skin prickled. This was turning out to be a more difficult situation than he imagined.
The man shoved James into a dungeon. "Hey, stop! You have no right to do this! I'm an auror! I'll let you know that after this shenanigan, we'll have your entire operation put out." James shouted in outrage, but the man slammed the door on James' face. "Damnit, I was hoping to scare him into letting me out," James muttered
"Ha! Potter, you couldn't scare a fly." Came a voice, James turned to see a grinning Lily Evans sitting in back of the dungeon, next to about ten cups of water. It was quite an odd sight. "Water?" Lily offered,
James blinked. "No, thanks, Evans."
"So, I suppose you were idiotic enough to get yourself caught while trying to rescue me, Potter." Lily said, very calmly, although inside she was scared out of her wits. One thing Lily could do was act. She'd acted all her life. It was simpler that way. It was simpler pretending, and acting her way through life. It was easy how she could simply say 'I'm perfectly fine,' when her parents had just died, or, 'of course your rock cakes are good, Hagrid!', or 'I hate James Potter.'. Her life was a complete play, written by none other than herself. She only had to stick with her script.
"James Potter doesn't make mistakes. You should know that after eight years." Lily rolled her eyes, "Sirius will be here in a few minutes."
"Oh, great, Black and Potter are going to save me? This is going to be a long day."
"Don't even start complaining. If you hadn't gone and gotten yourself taken hostage, none of this would've happened." James grinned at her, she looked cute when she was mad... Wait! No, she didn't! She was Lily Evans! She looked anything, but cute...
"Hmph...well, it's not like I said, 'oh, please, someone come take me hostage and try to drown me with ice cold cups of water.'" Lily pouted.
"Well, don't complain. This is what aurors spend their lives doing."
"What? Drinking water in a dungeon?" Lily said sarcastically
"No, fighting Death Eaters."
"But, I'm not fighting Death Eaters."
"You will be in a few seconds." James said grinning at the expression on Lily's face,
"WHAT?! I'm a reporter...oh, god...I'm going to kill Mrs. Rimly for assigning me this article..." She loved that grin. It was the grin that made girls melt to their feet. Wait, what was she talking about? This was James Potter's grin! She loved nothing about James Potter...well, nothing except for the way he laughed...and the way he...Wait, no! Nothing! At all!
"I'm kidding, I'm kidding." James laughed.
"Mr. Potter, our master awaits you. Come with us, Miss Evans." Came a voice that sounded oddly familiar.
"Sirius?" James asked,
"Shh!" Sirius whispered, "They think I've come to bring you to their master. The team's outside, we'll bring Lily out there, and then get to business."
"Shit," James said, coming out of the building, "He got away. Well, at least we caught quite a few Death Eaters."
"Potter, even I, a mere journalist, know that Voldemort is a immensely powerful wizard, and that no matter what you guys tell the media, he isn't going to be caught anytime soon."
"We'll catch him at some point. Why not now? There's just as much a chance of catching him today as tomorrow, only that there's more tomorrows."
"Ooh! Goody! Can I quote you on that?" Lily said
"You just were this close to being killed by an evil sorcerer and you're still working on your article?" Jams said, surprised, "Fine, sure you can."
"I'll have you know, Potter, that nothing, especially not an insane sadist sorcerer can keep me from my work. I've been working on my article the entire time I was in that cell of theirs."
James laughed, "You are something, Evans."
"Was that a compliment from Prongsie to Fireball?" Sirius said, grinning
"I said she was something, something can be anything. In this case, something is an insane work-a-holic."
Lily rolled her eyes. "You two are going to take me to dinner now, I'm starved."
Bella had joined them for dinner, and they had met up at a little Italian restaurant. "Oh, how rare is this! Lily Evans is actually eating dinner...out? How long has it been?"
"I'll have you know, I had dinner out the day after graduation. Plus, I think I've had enough work for a day." Lily laughed.
"Lily Evans? Enough work? I never thought I'd hear those words coming out of your mouth." Bella laughed
"You know, Bella, I like your skirt." Sirius said, obviously attempting to flirt.
"Oh, really? Thanks! I just bought it! I quite like it myself, actually." Bella blushed at Sirius' grin. They then began an avid conversation about who-knows-what, when who else but Victoria Hemlocks the 5th walked in, with her fiancé, Roger.
"Oh, look, Roger! If it isn't Jamesie and Lira!"
"It's Lily," Lily said coldly
"Of course it is, dear." She said, ignoring her, "What a coincidence, we seem to be having the same taste in restaurants today, Jamesie!"
James muttered something under his breath. Sirius had then turned around from his conversation with Bella to see Victoria.
"Oh, and, is that Sirius Black? Oh, Sirius, darling! Long time no see. This is my fiancé, Roger! Oh, let me show you the ring." She held out a ring with the largest diamond Lily, James, Sirius or Arabella had ever seen. "Isn't it just gorgeous, Siri?"
"Yeah, gorgeous," Sirius muttered
"Oh, Roger is filthy rich. By the way, Jamesie, you're invited to my wedding next week." James' eyes popped when she said next week. It took months to plan a wedding, and Roger and her had been going out for four months! How many dates had they been on before he proposed? She didn't even know this man! James pitied Roger. "You can bring your girlfriend, Lizzie-"
By then Lily was seriously annoyed. "It's LILY!" She said, in almost a yell.
"Oh, yes of course, dear, that's what I said. Anyways, Sirius, you can come to. Oh, well, Roger doesn't seem to like this restaurant." Roger hadn't said a word, and still had a blank expressionless face on. "I'll be seeing you at the wedding! Your invite should come in a few days! Ciao, darlings!"
"Your girlfriend?" Sirius raised his eyebrows at James, "Why, Pronsy, why on earth didn't you tell me?"
"Lily is not my girlfriend." James snorted, "Like that'll ever happen! We just pretending we were going out so that Victoria wouldn't be an insufferable prat about how I 'miss her ever-so-much', and 'am still heartbroken over my loss'"
"By the way, I am not going to the wedding of that horrible snob. For your information, I have better things to do than go to a wedding for a woman who's wedding probably will last longer than her actual marrage!"
"Lilyyy! Please? Pretty please? I'll be completely humiliated by her if you don't come. She'll tell me I could never last in a relationship."
"That's one thing Miss Victoria Hemlocks the 5th is right about, like I said, I have better things to do."
"Like what? Be cooped up in your office all day? Oh, come on! Pleassse?" James begged, "Oh, and did I mention that after she's done telling me how I could never last a relationship, she'll tell me how you're a snobby, good-for-nothing, immature, ignorant-"
"Ok, ok, fine. I'll come. But, you owe me big time, Potter."
"Yes! Thank you, Lily!"
Just then, Lily did something she'd rarely done to James Potter; she smiled. "Well, I have a deadline to meet and an article to work overtime on! See you tonight, Belle, bye, Sirius, bye, James!" Wait, had she just called Potter James? What was getting into her?
Lily came home around ten thirty that night. "Hey, Bella!" She said, yawning.
"Hi, Lil!" She squealed, "Guess what? Oh, you'll never believe it! Sirius asked me to be his girlfriend! Oh, he's so amazing! I can't believe it! He's absolutely perfect! The way he smiles is just so sweet, and the way he laughs makes me wish I could just tape it and listen to it over and over, and the way he eats is so adorable, and the way he- Lily? Lily, are you asleep?" From the fact that she wasn't replying, Bella deducted she was. "Sweet dreams, Lil."
Like auror James Potter said, "We'll catch him at some point. Why not now? There's just as much a chance of catching him today as tomorrow, only that there's more tomorrows." The auror business is truly a success. It saves thousands of lives every day, and it will most certainly succeed in conquering the Dark Lord.
Lily put down her quill. "I'm done! Oh, my gosh! I'm done!" Lily jumped up and down. It was 4:00, and she had never expected to finish so quickly, but it had all just came to her. Her mind had drifted off into daydreams about-well, about someone whom Lily didn't want to admit she thinking about, but part of it was still writing the article. "Maria? Do I have any more assignments?"
"No, miss. Mrs. Rimly gave you the day to work on your article. She wants it in before tomorrow."
"Oh, goody! I have the day off! Perfect!"
"You're finished, Miss?"
"Yes, Maria! Give this to Mrs. Rimly when she returns, please." Lily rushed out, handing Maria her article and clicking the door shut.
"Belle! Bella, Bella, Bella!" Lily squealed, banging on Bella's office door.
"Lily?! What is it? Honestly! The entire building can hear you! Are you on drugs or something?"
Lily was jumping up and down, "I have the rest of the day off!"
"Oh, brilliant! We'll go shopping!" Bella began to jump up and down also.
"Shopping for what?"
"Something to wear to that snob's wedding! Sirius invited me!"
"Oh, god...we have to dress up? I don't know why I let James convince me to go."
"Because your in love with him," Bella teased
"Oh, god. Yesterday, I liked him, today, I'm in love with him, next week you're going to tell me you've scheduled our wedding and named our children! Belle, trust me, I loath James Potter. I always will. I'm just doing this to show up that priss."
"Sure, whatever you say, Lil. Anyways, everyone knows you love him, and he loves you, except the two of you! I mean, I'm surprised it hasn't been printed in the Daily Prophet from how many people I've talked to that know it. Oh, yes, I can just see it now: 'And, in further news, Lily Evans and James Potter are in love.'" Bella giggled
"Belle, you're insane! I am not in love! Especially not with James Potter!"
Bella rolled her eyes, "That's what you think."
"Ok, come on, Belle! Let's go!"
A/N:
otayz...so, next chapter will have shopping,
weddings, and much more...review, please!!!
Thank Yous:
~Sara: sorry 'bout the fact that the bad guy's Chinese, but it's not really that he's Chinese, cuz he works 4 Voldemort, and there's Death Eaters all 'round the world...and I don't fink Voldy's Chinese either...but, anywayz...sry if the bad guy being Chinese thing offended you! Thanks for the review!
~Serena: You really think it's good? Ooo! Thanks!
~Joan: YAY! Another nice review! Glad you liked it!
~Felicity Aulia Evans: Well, I continued! Lolz...btw, I love your fics!!! I read them all and they rock! *nodz*
~Abby: Wooo! You fink it's good! YAY! It never ceases to amaze me how ppl can actually enjoy my terrible fics...lolz...
~Maggie_DB: tehehe...9 outta 10 times I end my chapters in cliffhangers, and 9 outta 10 reviewers hate it...lolz...i even ended my *fic* (The Phoenix Ring, it's my other L/J) in a cliffy...tehehe...well, thanks for the review!
~Satans Little Princess: YAY! My vewy first The Phoenix Ring reviewer to review In The News...thanks a bunch!
~Anon: Wow...another person that thinks it's good! Thanks! And, I wrote more, didn't I? Yup! YAY!
~Jak: It's cool? YAY! Btw, I used 2 know someone from the message board I go to that had the s/n Jak{insert a buncha numbers here}, but he lost AOL...I dunno why I'm telling you this, but o well...anywayz...thanks for the review!
~Sarcasm Queen: YAY! Thanks! I really like your fics, Worthy Adversaries, and Worthy Friends! They're really, really, really good!
~Libertygrl413: YAY! My 2nd The Phoenix Ring reviewer to read this! And, yup, L and J r back to square one...but, don't worry, cuz I'm still planning to write all the fanfics in the "The Phoenix Ring" series...*nodz* Well, thanks!