A/N: As always, we enjoyed reading the reviews; thanks!
*
Lily made her way to Dumbledore's office slowly. She wanted to put the pieces of her past together, but then again, she was worried. It might be something she did not want to hear; if Dumbledore wanted to talk in private...She approached his door and tentatively knocked.
"Come on in, Miss Evans." his voice rang out, muffled behind the door.
She sighed and stepped through, turning to face him and smiling slightly. "Thanks for taking the time to answer my question, Professor. I've been wondering what-"
"Miss Evans," he broke in, "I'm not sure that I have much to tell you about your past. I did, however, wish to tell you about something in your future."
"What?" Lily asked, confused.
"Well, I have heard...rumors...about the Dark Lord. He's on the move, though I thought he had died out. But in any case, he's looking for you, Lily. I decided that you will not be safe with your aunt and uncle this summer, and have made plans for you to stay with the Potters-"
"James Potter's house?" she was bewildered. Stay at his home?
"Yes, Miss Evans. Since you're cousins I thought it would be alright. And Mr. Potter is an Auror. In the mean time, you will be here at Hogwarts, and I'll do everything in my power to keep you safe." he finished, looking as sincere as he could manage.
"Er-" Lily started, not knowing quite what to say. "I, well, um...thanks." The Headmaster simply smiled at her, a bit sadly.
She rose from her chair and turned to leave, but then stopped. Facing him again, her hands felt the top of the chair in front of her. "Professor? I'm still wondering about my past, though. You haven't told me anything and...well..."
"I know it might seem a little...odd, Miss Evans. But I assure you that you and James are cousins and must have met at a family reunion as little kids. Who knows, you may have even been to the Potter's house. But as your uncle's profession as an Auror grew more intense, I believe he drew back from family outings. I think he felt that he might be endangering the rest of his family. But whatever the case, it was meant for you and James to meet each other again at Hogwarts, I'm sure of that. So don't worry, everything's been taken care of and you'll be staying with James this summer." he sighed, seeing that his words had done anything but put her at ease. This girl doesn't give up easily. She's going to dig up everything she can on the subject. And if she finds the truth... "Have a good day, Lily."
She nodded, as if to say, you too, but the words failed her. She left the room in a flash, knowing that there had to be something that Dumbledore wasn't telling her-them- otherwise the lingering feeling that she had acquired would have left.
"Well that wasn't what I had hoped…" she mumbled while hurrying through the halls. Abruptly, she hit something with an 'ouch' and became tangled, dropping to the floor. She grunted and lifted herself off, with her arm, of the lump she had landed on.
"James!" she threw herself backwards, off of him. He grunted, and then laughed.
"Well, I was looking for you Lily, but I didn't think I'd find you that way."
"James, I have something to tell- What? Why were you looking for me?"
"Well…er- not here." He said, laughing as he realized that they were sitting on the floor, in the middle of the corridor.
"Alright then, where?" she replied, lending him a hand to get to his feet.
"Let's go to the Marauder's room." He rushed off down to the right, glancing back to see that she was following.
She caught up with him. "Don't your friends get annoyed that you always take me to their room?"
"No. It's my room too, and they like you. It isn't as if you've told the whole school about it, so it doesn't matter. If I showed you some of our…projects," he cleared his throat deliberately, "that would be a different story."
"Er- okay." Lily smiled and tousled his already sticking up hair. He grunted.
They walked into the room, having given the password, and dropped into the comfortable chairs.
"Now- you first." Lily said.
"No- go ahead."
"Okay,
well…I just finished talking to Dumbledore. He said that Voldemort is getting
stronger and he's, um…looking for me specifically. He was looking for someplace
where I'd be safe for the summer and…You're my cousin and all and your dad's an
Auror, so he told me that I'm staying at your house
for the summer." She finished quickly, watching his expression.
He paused, surprised. "That's cool Lily. I'm sure it'll be fun at my house, I
mean, I can show you around and we'll find stuff to do. I-"
"James," Lily cut in, "you're missing the point. Doesn't it feel like something's missing to you? Doesn't it feel like there's something we don't know? Don't you remember? Don't you have weird dreams? Don't you-"
"Whoa. Slow down, Lily. One question at a time." He said softly.
"I'm
sorry James. I just don't understand. It's taking over my life- the wondering,
I mean. I can't concentrate. I have weird dreams and I don't know what to do
about it. I asked Dumbledore…but that didn't help as much as I had hoped."
"I do wonder." He replied.
"What?"
"I do wonder. I've been having weird dreams too. I don't understand it and I don't know if I should…but let's forget about it anyway. We're cousins and let's just take advantage of that and have some fun. K?"
She smiled, desperately trying to erase her thoughts. My mind doesn't work when I want it to, but when I want to turn it off it does anything but that. "Okay, James." But she knew that it wasn't going to happen. She was going to learn the truth if it killed her.
*
James walked in the Gryffindor common room confused. So he wasn't going crazy. Lily had been having odd dreams too. Not as if it matters anyway. We decided to forget about it. It doesn't mean anything.
But then, he was going crazy. He thought back to when Lily had run into him. She had looked…attractive. Gross! She's your cousin, James. This is sick, this is sick… He wanted to hurt himself. Thinking about things like…that. Well, when you were related to the girl, in any case…
"What's up Prongs?" he heard Remus ask from the side of the room. The other two Marauders were crowded around him, grinning.
"Nothing." James mumbled in reply, still angry with himself.
"Oh
look- isn't it cute. Prongs is in a bad mood. What, couldn't find Lily, could we?" Sirius teased.
"Actually, Padfoot, I ran into her. Literally. But I never got to say anything about what I
wanted to…she talked to Dumbledore and she's staying at my house this summer
and…" he trailed off, not wanting to explain his feelings to them. Or his dreams or memories. They'd laugh at him.
"But you like that, don't you? You'll have Lily to talk to all summer." Remus said cheerfully.
"Yeah, I guess so." But he was happy. Summers were usually boring, but with Lily there for company…it might be pretty interesting.
"So, you still haven't explained why you're acting like you have a wedgie."
James rolled his eyes. "Nothing's wrong. You're just annoying." He lied, not wanting to tell them that he was disgusted with himself or why.
*
Lily walked into her dorm to find the twins and Lauren sitting on their beds.
"It's Lily!" Mikey squealed, bouncing on her bed.
"Yes, it's me. Why, what're you so happy about?"
"Where have you been?"
"With James?"
"What did he say about Sirius?"
"Nothing, you annoying little…" she trailed off, realizing that James had wanted to tell her something. But she had been too busy trying to be enlightening to- "Ouch!" she yelped as a pillow hit her in the face, causing it to be a muffled yell. Lily bent over to pick the pillow up, dodging another. "Take that!" she yelled, heaving it at Dani.
"Guys! Hey!" Lauren yelled, trying to get their attention. A pillow was sent flying at her. She laughed and decided that it was useless. She threw the pillow away and pointed at the door.
James was standing there, watching them with an amused grin. Lily turned around and blushed slightly, laughing. "Er- need something, James?" The twins giggled.
"Yeah...I wanted to talk to you about, well, the twins and Sirius." He glanced over at them while they squealed in delight.
Lauren was laughing and threw another pillow at them. Lily smoothed her red
hair, which was sticking up in all directions. "Uh, okay. Should we talk
outside?" she glanced at Mickey and Dani, who shook
their heads furiously.
"Guess we should." James replied, laughing too. He picked up a pillow that had landed at his feet and tossed it to Lily, who threw it at Lauren.
"What did I do?" Lauren's amused voice followed her out the door.
Lily closed the door behind them. She heard a thump, and pulled James' sleeve, mumbling, "They'll be listening at the door, so we should probably move down the hall a bit."
He laughed again. "I didn't know your friends were so hyper."
"Oh,
well, you know. Guess I'm just used to it." She smiled and stopped. "Okay, now
what?"
"Well, I wanted to tell you what Sirius told me. I asked him which one he wanted to go out with and he said he didn't know. Something about not knowing them well enough to choose. I don't think he can even tell them apart…neither can I, for that matter." James replied quickly.
"So…what? Does he want to spend a little time with one, and then the other, without us telling him which is which, and then choose?"
"Yeah, I guess."
"Doesn't it seem a bit silly to you?" Lily said, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah, but think about it. It's Sirius…and then from what I've seen of the twins…"
"Good point."
"So will that work for them?"
Lily laughed. "Do you even need to ask? They'll be ecstatic. Though I don't understand why…I like to choose the guy I go out with more carefully."
"Is that right?" James teased. "Me too."
Lily laughed and decided to tease him back. "So you like to choose the guys you go out with carefully too?"
"Ye- No!" he turned red, but she had already run off towards her dorm. "That wasn't funny!" he yelled after her, grinning.
*
Lily walked back into her dorm out of breath, hitting the twins in the head with the door on her way in. "When will you learn?" she shook her head. Mickey rubbed hers and scrambled off of the floor, while Dani closed the door.
"What did he say??" they both asked in unison.
"Oh, nothing…" Lily trailed off casually, exchanging a grin with Lauren while she dropped onto her bed.
Dani pulled out her wand and ran a hand over it. "You know, I've been reading up on curses. There was this particularly interesting one that I wanted to test out and…"
"Alright!" Lily said, sitting up and smiling. She told them exactly what James had told her.
Lauren had a weird look on her face as Lily finished, wondering what sort of idea that was. But the twins were dancing around with each other. "When?" they asked excitedly.
"I dunno. I'll have to ask James."
Lauren snickered, but the twins each grabbed one of Lily's arms and pulled her off the bed, opening the door and pushing her out.
"Well then go find him!" Dani said loudly, shutting the door.
*
A/N: Sorry I couldn't make it a bit longer, but my computer broke down and since it's been awhile I (Snoopy511- if you're wondering why I haven't updated anything in forever) thought I- we- should go ahead and get the next chapter up. Thanks for the reviews and I'll shut up now ;)