Title: Steps

Author: Amelia Bedelia

Chapter Three: Why You Don't Eat Dinner with House Elves

AUTHORS NOTE: Hola! So, how's everyone doing? I think I'll let the number of reviews slip this time. I only had twelve people who actually reviewed but I also got two reviews last night that had to be sent by e-mail and they said that wouldn't let them review.

I also had one of my good friends (that I go to school with) review and she's been sending me e-mails threatening to hurt me if I didn't upload soon! Well, I sort-of (in a way) persuaded her to update her own story as well. And she knows who I'm talking about too…

I also wanted to point out that it might take a little longer for me to post my fourth chapter. I'm about two-thirds done but I am probably leaving town for part of the weekend and won't be able to post, but I will try to keep writing even when I'm away!

One more thing - I want to point out to three of my reviewers (Sendriella, Buggy-Such, and Pheobs) that I made a REALLY stupid mistake! I'm gonna use the best excuse that I have right now. I was really tired the night before I posted the second chapter and when I went to pick out the name of the chapter that I sort-of picked the wrong one. (I know, I know, lame excuse…) Well, I managed to fix it the next morning after they pointed it out to me, but I still want to apologize to them real quick! However, I can also say that you three actually got a small (ok, not that small) preview of the second or third chapter of a different story that I will be posting as soon as I can!

Anyway, on with the story! Enjoy!

Chapter Three: Why You Don't Eat Dinner with House Elves

James' thoughts were cluttered. He didn't know how he should think of Lily. She's my best friend! Nothing else… I think…

Lily stopped in the middle of the hallway again leaving James to continue walking on accident. He turned, however, once he realized Lily's arm wasn't in his anymore.

She began to sway with her eyes closed. "Lily?" James asked cautiously, grabbing hold of her arm.

And her eyes opened.

She looked at James curiously. "What are you doing?"

James had, in fact been staring at Lily no more than six inches from her face. He shook out of his reverie once her big green eyes locked on his icy blue ones.

"Oh, um, you sort-of just stopped walking…" James stuttered, backing from Lily nervously.

She eyed him confused. "Um, ok. Well, what are we still doing here?" She asked, almost rudely.

"Uh… Yeah, right! Kitchens… Right on it…"

James had to yank his eyes away from her green ones to focus on where he was heading. Lily was so confusing. He would never understand why she did what she did.

It took about ten minutes until they reached a picture of a bowl of fruit. James began to tickle the pear until a handle popped out of it. He turned the handle and opened the door for Lily. "After you."

Lily stepped into a room full of small house elves hurrying around, cleaning up dishes and the room. But once Lily stepped into the room, they began to swarm around her.

"Um, hello," Lily said, uncomfortably. She didn't know how she should react to these little animals. They were greeting her as if she were the first person they'd seen in a year.

"Anything Naty could get you, miss?" an elf asked.

"Anything at all?" another piped up.

"Er…"

"Mr. Potter! How is James doing today, sir?" Immediately, all of the elves turned their heads in the direction of James and found him as a new target of questioning instead of Lily.

"I'm doing fine, Ellie, how are you?" James asked.

"Ellie is doing fabulous today, sir!" the elf replied, starting to blush. Lily giggled. "Is there anything James is needing?"

"Yeah, could you whip up some potatoes and gravy, a few rolls, and maybe a few pieces of ham," James said without hesitation. He smiled over at Lily as the elves scampered off to find some extra food.

James led Lily over to a small table. Two elves continued to run back and forth bringing plates, glasses, and silverware to the table.

Ellie then hurried over to James and set a basket of rolls in the middle of the table. "Here's your rolls, sir. Ellie hopes that James Potter likes them very much, sir."

"Well, I'm sure I will," James said and placed one on his plate. "Lily, would you like a roll?"

"Sure," Lily said as he passed the basket to her. "You know, I think that elf likes you, James."

James smiled down at his plate. "Yes, well I'm a womanizer. I attract women of every shape, size, and species."

Oh, how true he is.

Lily tried not to laugh at James so that he would realize he was acting stuck-up. That didn't work, however, since he started to smile at every house-elf that passed and every single elf grinned or blushed back.

Lily burst into laughter. Ellie shot a nasty look her way.

James smiled at Lily and ate his roll.

It was a few minutes before everything else was on the table and James was dishing out liberal amounts of food on both Lily's plate and his own plate. Lily didn't touch her food.

"Is James liking the food that Ellie helped to make?"

"Yes, very much, thank you!" James said, flashing a gleaming smile towards her.

Ellie began to wring her hands in her lap and turned bright red. "That is very good! Is James wanting anything else now, sir?"

"Er… not yet, I don't think," James replied.

"Ok, sir. Just call for Ellie when you is needing anymore food!" Ellie exclaimed, sprinting back to the kitchens behind them.

Lily smiled at James again. "So," Lily spoke, "when did you find these kitchens?"

James started to laugh immediately.

"Well, it's all pathetic, really. As you know, Sirius and I were friends before we ever came here. We were also those famous pranksters that you remember us as before we became friends."

"Well, James, you're still pranksters - you just don't aim all of your pranks at me anymore."

"Same thing," James said, lazily dismissing that point with a wave of his hand in the air. He shoved a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth. "Anyway, before we became friends, Sirius always liked to eat a lot, you know?"

"James?" Lily interrupted.

"What now?" he asked with a whiny voice. Lily smiled at him.

"Sirius still eats a lot."

"Whatever! Just stop interrupting me, ok? I'm about to lose my train of thought!" James said.

"How are you 'about to lose' your train of thought?" Lily asked curiously.

"Stop, Lil!" James exclaimed, accidentally spilling his glass of Pumpkin Juice while hitting his hand on the table. Lily broke into hysterics as James danced around the room with his pants covered in Pumpkin Juice and Ellie chased him with a towel.

"Ellie will help James Potter!" she shouted.

"No, no!" he yelled, jumping out of the way of Ellie. "James can clean it himself! Ellie, I can get it!"

"No, James Potter needs help from Ellie!"

"Ellie!" Lily yelled which caught Ellie off guard and James had a chance to grab the towel from her hands.

The elf ignored James and rounded on Lily who was laughing so hard she felt as if she would fall off of her chair at any moment.

"Why is you laughing, Miss? Miss is thinking it is funny that James Potter spilled on himself because Miss is making James Potter frustrated! I is not liking you, Miss!" Ellie yelled.

"Sorry," Lily said taken aback, "I was only laughing at the situation. It's all just a huge joke!"

"James Potter is getting angry at Miss and I is not wanting to have James Potter angry! Miss should leave immediately!"

"Excuse me, Ellie," James cut in. "Lily and I were just joking around. See?" James smiled at Ellie. "Fun! You don't have to throw Lily out. Now, do you think you could grab me another glass of Pumpkin Juice?"

"Absolutely, Mr. Potter!" Ellie said excitedly.

James waited until Ellie had left to the kitchen before he made eye contact with Lily. "I see you found out that magic was more effective than a towel," Lily said.

"Oh," James mumbled. He looked down at his pants analyzing where he had cleaned his pants with a simple cleaning charm. "Yeah, I guess. Shoot…"

"What?"

"I spilled on my shirt also. Hold on." James pulled off his shirt and laid it on the floor. He began to clean every spot that he had spilt on.

Lily blushed so deeply at seeing James without his shirt that she had to turn away so that she could try and help control the color in her face.

Relax, Lily, he's only your friend, remember?

Lily tried to eat some of her food but ended up spitting it back up into a napkin next to her plate.

Crash.

Lily and James both turned their heads to see Ellie in the kitchen doorway with a broken goblet lying at her feet.

Lily heard her whispering to herself. "James Potter is wearing no shirt. James Potter is wearing no shirt. James Potter is wearing no shirt." And then louder Ellie said nervously, "James Potter has scared Ellie."

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ellie. Oh, you dropped the goblet. Are you going to get another one for me? Please?" James asked, standing so that both Lily and Ellie had the full impact as to why girls loved James so much.

Ellie began to nod her head absentmindedly.

And nodded.

And nodded.

"Ellie?" James questioned. "Are you going to get my drink?" He threw on his new clean shirt. "Ellie?"

James waved his hands in front of Ellie's glazed eyes. He then snapped his fingers by her left ear and she came to attention.

"Yes, James Potter?" she asked as if nothing had happened.

"Um… can I get some more Pumpkin Juice?"

"Anything for James Potter!" she said grinning.

After she left, James turned and sat back down across from Lily. They just stared at each other for awhile.

"Well, that was strange…" James muttered and he began to shove more food in his mouth as though nothing out of the ordinary had happened. Lily shook her head and took the smallest of drinks.

"So…" she started. "Sirius eats a lot…"

"Oh, yeah!" James said, setting down his fork with a loud clatter. Lily cringed at the noise but quickly relaxed so that James wouldn't prosecute her with any questions.

"Well, Sirius ate about three times as much food as a normal growing Chimaera would!"

"Uh huh…"

"But he was still hungry before we went to bed. So we came looking for the kitchens. It was pretty easy, actually. We found it in about twenty minutes."

Lily shook her head smiling. "You guys are sorry excuses for Marauders, you know that?"

"Yes," James continued, "but that was the night that Sirius and I decided that we would create a union that would stand together, forever! Marauding until the earth shall crumble up and die. Until the last flower petal shall fall. Until there be none left to walk in our footsteps!"

"James, you're getting a little creepy on me here - "

"We would create the Marauders that would always be there for one another. We have a rule book on being a Marauder, did you know that?"

"Rule book?"

"Yes!" James exclaimed excitedly. "We wrote it all through first year. Every now and then we'll add or subtract one."

Lily looked at James awkwardly. "Interesting…" she muttered, beginning to play with her food.

"Lily?" James asked. "Are you ok? I mean, I know that you just about fell to your death and almost drowned, but other than that, are you ok?" James said as nonchalantly as he could which caused Lily to laugh. And that was exactly what he was aiming for. He smiled along with her.

"You're funny," Lily said.

"Why, thank you!" James exclaimed dishing out another cut piece of ham. "Why aren't you eating, Lil?" he asked curiously.

"Oh," Lily said, looking down at the pile food still left on her plate. "I'm not feeling very hungry right now."

James nodded. "So, uh, you gonna eat the last roll?"

Lily laughed and shook her head again. "No wonder you and Sirius are best friends."

"Yeah," James muttered as he took the roll Lily offered to him. He began to peel it apart and spread some butter in the middle. "You know, we were almost not friends, remember?"

Lily cringed at the thought. "Can we please not talk about that?"

James looked at Lily in realization. "Oh, right. Sorry…"

How could you be so stupid, James? You know that you and Sirius remind her of Elizabeth Ann! You are such a dimwit…

"No, it's ok," Lily said trying to smile. "Are you ready to leave yet?" she asked, almost impatiently.

James had just about brought the roll to his mouth when Lily said this. "Yeah, sure," James said, reluctantly placing the buttered roll back onto his plate. "Ready to go, madam?"

Lily smiled gratefully. It wasn't normal that she could just pull him away from human food sitting out for free in front of him.

They stepped out of the hole leaving Ellie confused as to where James had gone to.

Step. Step. Step.

Lily and James didn't speak on their way back to the common room. Neither dared to, but James got enough courage up for the job.

"So, uh, Lily?"

"Yeah?" she asked, curious as to what James wanted to ask.

"You know when, uh, you were about to let go of my hand. You know, in the Astronomy Tower…"

"Of course, James, I remember all of that vividly! Why?" she asked curiously.

"Well, just before you fell, you, um, said something. I just didn't know if you - er - meant it," James said, blushing.

"What did I say?" Lily asked, unsure of the answer. It had to be something big to have the James Potter blushing.

"Well… you said something along the lines of, uh, 'I love you,' you know - but I probably just misunderstood you!" James said quickly while Lily looked at him shocked.

Lily began to color. "Well, I did say that - "

"You did?" James cut in, hopefully.

"But, you know, I only said that because it was one of those things where I never had the chance to say those three words to anyone. Well, besides my family, of course."

"Of course," James mumbled, crestfallen.

"But, James, I love you as my best friend, you know that don't you?" she asked, placing her hand on his arm making him stop in his tracks along with Lily.

"Yes, and I love you too - as a friend."

"Good," Lily said, plastering a smile on her face. And then it seemed as if the world had flipped upside down. Lily's eyes rolled into the back of her head and her knees gave way. Lily's head fell to the hard, cold floor with a loud thud.

"Oh, god, Lily? Lily, can you hear me? Lily, stop joking around with me…" James picked up Lily's head with his hands and began tapping her cheeks lightly seeing if she could react to the feel of someone else.

She didn't move.

"Ok, Lily, if you can hear me, I'm just going to take you to the infirmary. I'm going to float you there - don't panic," James said.

He pulled out his wand and muttered a few well chosen words which caused a stretcher to appear in mid-air. He placed Lily on top of it and floated her to Eleanor's office.

Step. Step. Step.

James was nearing her office. "Eleanor!" he called down the hall. "Eleanor, I need your help!"

Down at the end of the hall, the miniscule door was thrown open and Eleanor came hurtling out, running towards James. "Oh dear, what happened? This wasn't another one of your brilliant ideas, was it, Mr. Potter?" she asked fussing over Lily at the same time that she talked.

"I don't know, she sort-of just passed out while she was walking and hit her head on the floor!" James said frantically. "Is she ok? What's going to happen? She's ok, right?"

"Mr. Potter! Please stop the questions! Help me take her into the infirmary."

After Lily was inside the infirmary, Eleanor didn't even take a second glance when she sharply told James to wait in the chair by the doors. She put Lily in a bed farthest from the door and pulled the curtains around her immediately. She began to run back and forth from Lily to her medicine cabinets.

James didn't move from his place by the door. Even after Eleanor had told him four times to go to bed, he insisted to say. There wasn't much that Eleanor could do, though, since James was Head Boy and it was his duty to make sure all students were safe. At least, that was the excuse that James gave her, as feeble as it was.

It was nearly two AM before James even stood from the seat. Eleanor had long since gone to bed and James had just now crawled out of his endless thoughts and he found himself worried about Lily almost more than he had been when Sirius was in the Hospital Wing.

James opened the curtains around Lily's bed a few inches apart and saw her sleeping peacefully. She looked so much like an angel when she was sleeping. James had to hold onto the curtains to keep from touching her face as if she were just a small glass doll.

"Lily?" he whispered, barely audibly. "Are you awake?"

No answer.

"Ok, well, I'll just talk to you then, I guess," he said, moving to stand next to Lily. He picked up her cold hand in his. "I'm really sorry that you got hurt," James said lamely.

No answer.

"I've been here ever since you were hurt, you know. I don't want you to be left alone in this empty room with no one to talk to."

No answer.

"Then again," James said giving up hope, "you're also unconscious." He placed Lily's hand back down on the bed and gently pulled the covers up to her neck. James pulled back Lily's bangs and softly kissed her forehead.

"Good-night," James whispered closing the curtains.

James walked back to Gryffindor Tower slowly, not willing to let Lily stay there alone. He climbed up the boys' staircase and heard Sirius and Remus still awake - and they were talking about him.

"This isn't like James, Remus. He's usually always back before one, at least," came Sirius' voice.

"Sirius, relax! I bet James is just out with that Ravenclaw girl. He'll probably be back in ten minutes and everything will be p-p-peachy," Remus said, unsuccessfully stifling a large yawn.

James just shook his head and opened the door.

"James?" Sirius asked, amazed that Remus had been right with his prediction. "Damn, Remus, you're good."

"I know," he mumbled. "Will you let me go to sleep now?" he pleaded.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Prongsie, my boy, where have ya been?" James didn't even have to be watching Sirius to know that he had just gave him one of his sly grins. "How's Caroline doin'?"

"Actually," James said, "I was only with Caroline for about half an hour. Then I saved Lily's life, broke up with Caroline, ate dinner with Ellie bugging me and finally spent about, oh, the past four to five hours in the infirmary."

Sirius' jaw dropped. "Would you like to elaborate on that?"

James made a thoughtful face. "Not really," he said. He quickly threw on some pajamas and crawled under his covers. "Good-night."

Sirius was still sitting up in his bed, confused. "Good-night, Prongs," Sirius said, giving up. "You can just tell me about your adventure in the morning."

And his response was a loud snore.

AUTHORS NOTE: I hoped you liked it! It was mainly just dinner and sort-of boring (in my point of view!) I don't think this has been one of my best chapters.

REVIEW SECTION:

Pheobs: I'm sorry that I posted the wrong chapter on you! I hope you'll forgive me! Anyway, thank you!

Buggy-Such: I'm sorry you had to read the wrong chapter too! I hope that after I sent you an e-mail you got to read the correct chapter! Thanks for reviewing!

Sendirella: I'm sorry I posted the wrong chapter! It wasn't a flashback, but I've been thinking, it would've been pretty cool if it was, don't you think? Thanks for reviewing!

Green Eyed Rose: It made you cry! Either I'm a really good writer or I'm a really bad writer! Thanks for reviewing!

Chickensoup3: Thank you! I'm REALLY going to seriously try harder to keep the story out of the dumps from now on! You're probably the fifth person that's reviewed for me that said that the story was really sad! Thanks for reviewing!

Oldestof3: I agree with you on Caroline! I put her in there for the purpose of Lily wanting to commit suicide, but I took the chance to use her as someone I see as a "popular bimbo." She always gets what she wants and everything, you know? I also used her so that James could side with Lily after what she did and Lily would see James as "her hero." Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

Quinn: I agree with you on ALL of what you said! I just want Lily and James to fall in love as quick as I can get them to but my fingers and brain don't work that fast! I also hate Caroline with all my heart and soul. (Yes, I get into my stories a lot!) My English teacher is helping me proofread a different story I'll post soon and she was asking me a question about Petunia. She hated having Petunia being viewed as the bad sister and wanted to know if I would ever have them become friends again. I said "No, I hate Petunia!" She seemed a little shocked that I didn't like one of the characters I wrote about! What can I say? I pretend like I'm the main character a lot! Anyways, thanks for reviewing!

Young Golden Unicorn: Let's see… If I could date a Harry Potter character, I would most likely travel to the past and date James! (Even though I know he's taken… :sniff:) If not them, then probably George or Fred Weasley! They crack me up in most stories! I like funny guys! Anyway, thanks for reviewing!

Kathy: Thanks for reviewing! So, will you not hurt me now? I updated! Just like I said! I haven't checked out your other chapter, though. I need to check that out - AFTER I POST THIS FIRST! Thanks for reviewing, Rosie!

Bebe-Chrissy: You're just like me in e-mails! I write a lot like that! Anyways, thanks for reading and reviewing!

Mystical Obsessions: I thought about stopping briefly in the very beginning but as I got farther into the story I thought of a lot more ideas I could use! I hope you don't stop reading because I continued the story! Anyway, I really appreciate your thoughts!

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