Chapter 5 – The Secret Garden

From that day on, Lily got along very well with James. They had little arguments every now and then, but in the end, they could usually just agree to disagree. Their tutoring sessions were going smoothly. James came to admit that there was a lot he could learn from Lily. When they weren't studying or reviewing homework, they spent what seemed like endless hours talking. Talking about everything from the teachers at Hogwarts to the philosophy of life. Lily learned that James was surprisingly a deep person. He was extremely clever and had some very interesting points of view. On the inside, James was kind, warm, and fun loving. And all those years Lily had just admired his physical attractiveness from afar while stereotyping him as a self-absorbed jock…she had been so wrong. Sure, he had his unpleasant moments…but in general, he was a good guy. It seemed like the more Lily got to know James the more she fell in love with him, though she could never bring herself to terms to admit it.

James was careful not to ignore Lily anymore. He often spent a lot of time talking with her, even outside of their sessions. Lily gradually became more lenient of James' pranks. She had to face the fact that he was naturally a prankster. James was

James, so why expect him to be something he's not? Anyway, the majority of his pranks were harmless, and very amusing to watch. After all, there's no real crime in making people laugh. Lily soon discovered that a good laugh could cure almost anything.

Of course, this new bond of friendship between Lily and James didn't go unnoticed. Remus, being the sweet-natured boy he was, seemed thrilled to have Lily hang out with him and his friends. But Sirius, on the other hand, was suspicious of her from

the start. He eventually learned to tolerate Lily's presence, but he still gave her a distrustful look every time she was left alone with James, a look that often had Lily feeling kind of uncomfortable.

The month of September slipped by very quickly. The summer was now gone and the trees surrounding the Hogwarts ground had turned to beautiful shades of yellow, orange, red, and brown. Lily sighed as she stared out of the window one October morning in Transfiguration class. She turned around to see James attempting to take notes on Professor Mcgonagall's lesson. If there was one subject he took seriously, it was Transfiguration. However, it's not easy to take notes when you could barely hear the professor's lecture over Sirius' snores.

"It's a beautiful day, James. Why don't we move today's session outside?"

"Shhh," James pointed, laughing silently at the sleeping Sirius who had a puddle of drool on his desk. Lily giggled. He scribbled down something on his note sheet and passed it to Lily.

That sound's great! Where what time should we meet?

"Is 4:00 okay?" Lily whispered as quietly as she could. James nodded. A few moments later, the bell rang, and all the Gryffindors piled out of the room.

James poked Sirius with his quill. "Hey drool face, wake up! Class is over."

"Five more minuets..." Sirius moaned. James kicked Sirius's foot. "OUCH!"

Sirius woke up with a start. "What was that for?" He spotted the puddle he left. "Oh, sorry." He wiped it away with the sleeve of his robe.

"Did you enjoy your nap, Mr. Black?" Professor Mcgonagall approached Sirius from behind. She did not look too happy with him. "Would you care to discuss your problem in my office?"

Sirius yawned. "Okay…whatever." He winked at James. "I'll meet up with you later." Then he followed Mcgonagall out of the room, leaving Lily and James there alone.

James just rolled his eyes. "That boy's a lost cause."

"Yeah," laughed Lily. "No wonder why you two have so much in common."

"Ha ha, very funny." But James was laughing too. He held out his arm for Lily to take "May I escort you to the common room, m' lady?" he asked jokingly in a deep voice.

"Yes you may, kind gentleman," responded Lily taking his arm into her own. Then the two exited the room together, talking and laughing.

From not too far behind Bridget Bernstein watched James closely. Why on earth was he hanging around with that dorky girl? At first, she thought that James was just looking for some girl to do his homework for him. But…there was something else he saw in Lily. He was always talking to her, always laughing. There was something going on here, something wasn't right. James Potter should not be spending his time with girls like her. "Maybe it's time I have a little talk with Miss Smarty-Pants," Bridget whispered under her breath. She smiled maliciously. "I'll set things right once and for all."

Lily looked at her watch. 3:45 p.m. "I'll go wait for James on the front lawn," she told herself. Lily made her way to the front of the common room to find that the porthole was being blocked by Bridget and a few of her followers. "Um…excuse me," said Lily sweetly. "I need to get through."

An evil looking smirk spread across Bridget's face. "And where might you be off to at this time? Dinner is not for another two hours." Her followers giggled

"Um…I…"

"Are you going to meet James Potter?" Bridget remarked nastily. Her beady brown eyes surveyed Lily.

"Th…that's n…n…none of your business, B…Bridget." Lily tried to look brave, but she feared that she wasn't doing a very good job.

Bridget stopped smiling. She motioned for the girls around her to back off. "It's my business if I say so, Skank!" Lily stood frozen in her tracks. "Now answer me. Are you going to meet James or not?" Lily opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. "So you are then. I thought so." The evil-looking smirk returned to Bridget's face. "I have been meaning to talk to you about that for a while. You see, I have noticed that lately you have been spending a lot more time with James. Now I understand you're his tutor and all…but that doesn't give you the excuse to socialize with him. You see, Lillian, you are a loser, a

zero, a nothing. Girls like you are a dime a dozen. And sooner or later you need to face the facts, James Potter is way out of your league." Lily felt her eyes grow watery with tears, as she stared at the floor. "Oh no! Don't tell me," continued Bridget. "You like him don't you?" Lily kept head down. "How touching. You thought that if you spent time with James you could make him fall in love with you." Bridget laughed loudly, so did her followers. "You're PATHETIC Lily!"

"J...J…Just leave me alone!" Lily shouted, her face flushing with anger and embarrassment. She tried to scoot past Bridget, but Bridget grabbed her arm, and held her in place.

"Stay away from James Potter, or you'll be sorry you disgusting piece of filth!"

Bridget turned to her gang of followers. "Come on girls, let's go."

Lily ran out of the common room. Hot tears were pouring out of her eyes. All she knew was that she had to go somewhere…she had to get away. She didn't stop running until she had made her way outside a collapsed on the front lawn sobbing.

"Lily?" She felt someone place a hand on her shoulder. Lily looked up to see James wearing a very concerned expression on his face. "Are you okay?"

"I…I'm fine." Lily wiped her eyes with the sleeve of her robe.

"No you aren't." James sat down beside her. "Want to talk about it?"

"Okay (sob) you see there's this girl (sob)…Oh she's horrid, James!"

"What did she do?"

"She (sob) just said some horrible things to me…called me names…threatened me…the worst part is that this wasn't the first time she treated me like that, either."

"Do I know this person?" James' eyes grew wide with anger. "I ought to give that bitch a piece of my mind."

"No…James, don't!" Lily grabbed on to his arm. "If I tell you who it is you have to promise me you won't say anything to

her, or to anyone for that matter."

"I promise."

"Do you swear?"

"I swear…but you think you could loosen your grip a little, you're cutting off my circulation."

"Sorry." Lily let go of James' arm. "Okay. It's Bridget," she whispered.

"Bridget Bernstein?" Lily nodded.

'That whore! I'm gonna…"

"James, please! You promised."

"Alright, alright I'll keep quiet." He put his arm around Lily's shoulder. "Don't let her get to you Lily. That girl's all talk. She's not worth your time." Lily stopped sobbing. "Hey I know what would cheer you up. Come with me." James took Lily's hand and pulled her up.

"Where are we going?"

"That's a surprise. Come on."

"James…I don't know."

"Come on…you're going to love it." He led her across the lawn, passed rows of trees. Left, right, and the left again.

"Where are you taking me?"

"Just a little bit further. Now close your eyes. Are they closed?"

"Yes."

"Good…now stand here…okay…open them."

Lily opened her eyes to find herself in a beautiful garden. The white marble walls around its perimeter were covered in vines. To the left was row upon row of rose bushes, with every different color rose known to man. To the right were patches of lush green grass with daisies and wild flowers. In the center was a fountain, which was surrounded by white lilies.

"Oh James…It's beautiful."

"I knew you would love it!" James smiled. "I come her a lot...you know to get away from everything…for inspiration to

write poetry…"

Lily gasped. "You write poetry?"

"Oh shit…did I just say that?"

"Then that poem I found in the library…"

"Yeah, I wrote it."

Lily smiled. "And it was the most beautiful love poem I have ever read."

James blushed. "Yeah…well just don't tell anyone, okay. Nobody else knows about my…skill."

"Not even Sirius?" Lily sounded shocked.

"Sirius? Are you kidding me? Ha! If he knew that I had a sensitive side, he'd never let me live it down!"

"I understand. Don't worry, James. Your secret's safe with me."

"Thanks. I appreciate that."

"No…thank you for taking me here. This is so wonderful. I didn't even know there was a place like this at Hogwarts."

"Me either. See I discovered it one night when I was galloping…I mean jogging…"

"You were what?"

"Oh…uh…never mind. I'm just rambling."

"Hey for now on let's hold our sessions here."

"I guess that's okay," shrugged James. "For the next couple of weeks at least. But once November kicks in the cold rains will come. Then this garden probably isn't the most pleasant place to be." Lily laughed. "It's nice to hear you laugh again."

"Thanks," she responded, blushing. Lily pulled her textbook out from her nap sack. "Shall we proceed?"

"Yes, please. I need to review the ingredients of that nasty potion we made in class today."

"Ah…the sleeping potion. That was a difficult one. Look here, the ingredients are listed on page 104."

James opened his book and began to recite the list of ingredients aloud. Lily sighed. 'So now he writes poetry…could he be any more perfect?' she thought. Then Bridget's voice popped into her head. "Stay away from James Potter or you'll be sorry…" Did she really mean that or was she, as James said, "all talk"? Lily decided not to worry herself with it anymore. Getting the chance to befriend James was the best thing that had ever happened to her. She could not recall a time, since Carla was at Hogwarts, that she had felt so happy inside, and she wasn't about to let Bridget take that away from her. Besides, even if Bridget

was to keep true to her words…what's the worst she could possibly do?

Author's Note: Well, hello again. I hope you have enjoyed reading chapter five of my fanfic. I would like to start off by apologizing about the delay in my updates. Last week I started my new job as a front desk receptionist at Bally Total Fitness (it's the coolest job in the world ^_^), so things have been a bit hectic. Plus, there're the endless cases of writer's block I have seem to be running into, resulting in a very slow creative process. Nevertheless, my story will continue to progress with new plots, twists, and characters. There's reason behind my actions, so stay tuned and you will soon find the answers to any questions that

are arising. For example, you might be wondering why Bridget Bernstein is such a bitch. Well if you haven't guessed it by now, Bridget is the antagonist of this story, and her unlikable character will become more significant as my main plot thickens. I promise

that I will continue to update as soon as I possibly can. As of now I have about 25 days left of high school, and being that I am a senior my work load should be slowing down, so be sure to check back soon for chapter 6.

A personal thanks goes out to all my readers who have sent me recent reviews.

Lily potter I'm glad you have enjoyed reading my fic so far, I do aim to please. Thanks for the feedback

And as for gigi I will be posting, as well as writing more as soon as I possibly can (Damn these writer's blocks!). So, keep checking back for updates.

Kirbee you suggestions for my love potion are very helpful. Strawberries (that will go well with the whipped cream) and a picture of two lovers. Why didn't I think of that? Please, if anybody else has suggestions that they wish to add to my list of love potion ingredients (refer to my author's note in chapter 4 for the full list) please contact me.

A special acknowledgement goes out to Hannah. Is this really the best fic you have ever read? (blushing) Wow, I don't know what to say. You have made me so happy…I cried with joy when I saw your review, and for that I thank you with all my heart. However, I wanted to remind you that there are some other very good fics out there (many which are like 1000 times better than mine). My boyfriend (ronweasley1029) wrote a beautiful Harry/Ron slash fic called So, Is Everybody This Lonely When They're In Love? It's one of the best fics on the web, in my opinion (and I'm not just saying that because I date the author of it).

Be sure to check it out!

And as for my most loyal reader, Sierra Sitruc…Yeah, a third review! I feel so loved ^_^ Of course I liked your story, or shall I say stories. As you know I have been reading Curiosity Killed the Cat, but Do You Believe In Magic and Flirting with the Enemy are good too. You are a very talented writer, and I enjoy all your work. Please continue to write and update all of them

^_^

~Marissa~