"I thought of that. But how am I going to get hold of him before I stop
being quite as angry as I am now?"
"Erm…" Eva kicked the floor nervously–"That won't be so hard."'
Lily raised her defensive eyebrow. "Stop it. You're not in tap class. Why not?"
"Er–you remember when I told you that we had an 'it' and his sibling here?"
Lily sat down on the bed. "So?"
Vanessa picked Willoughby up, who had followed the smell of Lily's Owl Treats. "Well, the 'it' is Peter Pettigrew."
Comprehension started to dawn on Lily's stunned countenance. "And?"
Eva played a bit with the beautiful teak brush, inlaid with gold, that had been in the casket. Nervously, she fingered the mirror, made in the same way, and the delicate shampoo bottles. "Well, you know Peter never goes anywhere without his friends."
Lily pushed the millions of cases of lipstick, eyeshadow, blush, and hundreds of other things out of Eva's reach. "I know. Get to the point."
Eva fidgeted, picking at the green silk sheets. "Well–to make a short story shorter, Sirius, James, and Remus are staying in three of the Scarlet rooms downstairs."
She looked at Vanessa with a question in her eyes. "Should I have said that?"
Lily was sitting on the edge of the bed, burying her angry face in her knees. "You should not have said that." Eva groaned. "I thought so."
Jumping off of the floor, Vanessa sped out of the door, the sounds of laughter, boys' laughter, coming from the floor below.
Lily turned to Eva. "When did he arrive?"
Eva shrugged. "About five hours ago. Don't worry," she added, seeing Lily's suspicious face, "I didn't invite him. Peter did."
Lily walked over to the window-seat, pushing the drapes aside as well as opening the stained-glass window, and stared out over the neatly trimmed lawns. She stood there for so long that Eva went over to her, quietly, and touched her on the arm. Lily flinched as if she had just been shot. "What?"
"Are you sure you're all right?"
"Positive." Lily snapped. "Oh, honestly, Eva, I just don't want to see him after this present. Can't you see that?"
Eva sighed. "Have I ruined your whole summer for you?"
Lily regained some of her old mischievous grin. "Me, let that git spoil my summer here, when I'm away from Petunia, ruffles, and here in this magnificent mansion? Along with you and Eva? Oh, is that a swimming pool there, beyond that sculptured planter?" she asked, pointing to a glimmer beyond a carved hedge.
Eva grinned, too. "I've got an extra suit!"
Lily beat Eva down to the stairway. "I'm already halfway there!"
Relieved, Eva followed. Dressed in a pale blue one-piece, with a short white skirt around her waist, Eva walked out to the pool with Lily, their bare feet pressing comfortably against the neatly trimmed grass. Lily wasn't too happy with the color she had been stuck with; she had been poured into a white suit and was looking a bit disgruntled at the choice of towels. Their maids had taken most of the towels to be cleaned, and the only ones left were pale lavender. But she had tied it around her waist, thrown her pants and wand into her trunk, and beat Vanessa to the humongous Acropolian back porch, covered in forest green carpeting and dotted with about twenty cream-colored tables and chairs, each set with a linen tablecloth, several crystal glasses, and a beautiful pitcher of lemonade.
The swimming pool was marvelous. The basin alone was made of stone, with delicate statues at every corner. Several chairs were placed on the sides, and the water was a clear blue unknown to Muggle pools. No chlorine pervaded the water, as Lily blissfully discovered after diving in; it was kept magically clean.
One side sported three diving boards, each feathering lightly and perfectly, each pedestal a carved masterpiece. Lily, who her whole life had practically lived in the water each summer, was in her own Eden. Racing Eva and Vanessa to the other side of the pool, she was in front of them by about six feet when a loud splash hit her arms and knocked her under water. Spluttering, she came up, fuming at a certain raven-haired, tousle-headed demon. His eyes blinked mischievously as he looked on her angry, coughing countenance. "Oh, oops, sorry, didn't see you."
Lily glared. "Of course you didn't." Her temper getting out of control, she pulled her hands out of the water and reached for James, who veered backwards. "What the–"
His exclamation was drowned as Lily pushed him underwater, hard, and held him there for a couple of seconds. When she finally let him up, he dove for the side of the pool, coughing up mouthfuls of water. Sirius and Remus helped him out, fighting back laughter.
"James, I hate to say this, but you earned that."
He looked wild. "Earned what? That girl almost drowned me!"
Lily was treading water, peals of laughter echoing from her mouth. "Oh, I'm a girl now? Not a random Muggle and not an electrocuted pheonix?"
James scowled at her. "Evans, shut your big fat mouth."
Lily climbed onto the diving board and looked down on him, leaning on the carved stone rail, the wide, ridiculing smile still fixed on her face. "Why should I?"
He stood up, throwing his towel into the pool. "Because I said so, that's why!"
Diving into the water, Lily came up and shook her wet curls away from her face. "Oh, really. And who died and made you God?"
He retrieved his sopping wet towel from where it was sinking to the bottom of the pool. "Evans, I'm going to say this again. Shut up or else."
"You never said it the first time. I did."
"Oh, shut up."
Eva broke in, laughing. "James, you're losing this round."
"Oh, really?" He removed his glasses and kicked Peter aside. "I'm winning the next one." He dived into the pool, straight at Lily and Eva. Coming up behind them, he grabbed both of their feet and rose to the surface, dunking them several times. Eva fought wildly, but Lily let herself be dunked until the third time. Then, when she was being lifted up for air, she pulled her feet back a bit and kicked forward.
Hearing a groan of pain come from James, she propelled herself forward, using James as a makeshift side of the pool, and reached the other side, getting out before the blood from James' nose reached her. Eva was sitting on one of the adjustable lawn chairs, holding her stomach and collapsing with laughter as they saw James swim to the edge and hold his hands out to Remus and Sirius.
"Help me out!"
Both of them drew back, not wanting to come any closer to his blood- drenched form. Remus was fighting back a comment, which did him no good, as Sirius said it for him.
"James, you just got the guts beat out of you by a girl."
"That's not a girl. That's a demon."
Lily was lying on a lawn chair on her stomach, lazily raising her head. "Funny. I thought the same thing about you when you jumped on me."
Eva had covered herself with a towel. "James, you were right. You didn't win this round. Next one, maybe. Not this one." Shaking her head, the wife of the pool's caretaker trotted out of her small house with wet cloths and a wand, tutting and fussing. She pointed her wand and James and the pool, and instantly, the blood was gone and his nose stopped bleeding. Holding the cloth against James' forehead, she forbade him to get in the pool or even off of the lawn chair for the next five minutes, then clamped her wand under her arm and went trotting back inside her lodge, muttering about dangerous games.
By the time the five minutes were up, Lily, Eva, and Vanessa had judged it wise to leave. They had run back to the mansion, which, Lily now noticed, was structured in the style of a cross between a beautiful castle and the Chateau de Versailles, using the good points of each. Eva had swiped a crystal pitcher filled with lemonade and three glasses, and they were sitting in Lily's room, because it was in a tower and they could seal the door. Willoughby had migrated to Lily's window-seat, but it was so large that it could have held about five people, the window being so large, so Lily, Eva, and Vanessa had seated themselves around the sleepy cat.
"Lily, I'd say you paid him back for that present."
"You definitely did. I was laughing so hard, I–"
"Fell off of the lawn chair. I know."
"Oh, shut up. C'mere, Willoughby. Does Willy like lemonade? Come, Willy, see if you like this. Come on–" Willy pushed his nose into the sparkling gold liquid in Eva's glass and snorted out a sneeze, spraying lemonade all over the three friends.
Lily wiped a drop off of her cheek. "Willy does not like lemonade."
Eva refilled her glass. "I noticed."
Vanessa pointed out to the lawn, where four figures were racing towards the house. "They're coming back."
Eva groaned. "Come to take their revenge?"
Lily smiled. "They may try."
Vanessa leaped up and followed Lily over to her trunk. "Lil, we're not supposed to use magic! Not during the holidays! You could be expelled–what's that?" she asked, puzzled, as Lily drew out her foil. "A sword?"
Lily nodded, pulling on her black Hogwarts robes and pointing her sword at the door. "Exactly."
They had no more time to talk, as they heard a stampede downstairs. Lily quickly unscrewed the tip, letting the sharp end of a screw point towards the boys, who were blockading the doorway.
They stopped dead in their tracks as they saw a long bit of metal pointed straight at them. Peter was edging downstairs, pulling Remus with him. Lily, in her dark robes, holding a sword, was the very image of a Crusader of the old days. She looked dangerous as her eyes turned hard and received a perilous glitter. Peter was rushing out of Eva's room downstairs.
James was the first to speak. "Evans, put that down. You don't know how to handle that." He folded his arms over his chest and resembled every bit a Southern plantation overseer, ordering his subordinates about.
Lily, with the dignity of a queen, looked down on him, with a sneer on her face. "Oh, really? What makes you think I can't handle a sword?"
"Well, for one thing, girls can't fence. They can't even control the thing."
"Oh?" With a flick of the wrist and a twitch of the sword, Lily disarmed James of his wand before he knew what she was about. It flew out of the window as neatly as if she had just disarmed him with her wand. "You're right. Of course I can't control it. How stupid of me to think I could ever have stood up against you, O High and Mighty One, when thou wast holding thine wand." Eva peered out of the window. "James, your wand's on the top of the dining room roof!" James' scorn turned a bit to admiration. "You don't think you can teach me that?"
"Teach you how to do what?"
"Well, use a sword. I'd like to learn. I could beat Snape and Malfoy up, for one thing." Lily raised her chin. "So, you've been hideous to me ever since the last Quidditch match of the year, and now, out of nowhere, you expect me to be nice to you and teach you to fence? Potter, out of my room." Flourishing her foil, Lily drove him out of her room backwards and kicked the door shut. "Well, that's one problem solved." Vanessa left her seat on the bed. "Lily, I have to say, that was really good!"
"Of course it was. I've spent my summer doing nothing else."
Eva filled up Lily's glass. "I can tell–wait, what's that?" "What's what?" Lily and Vanessa raced to the window. Outside, whizzing towards her window, three flecks were flying, rapidly turning darker and larger as they approached the window. Moving aside quickly, Lily caught all three letters that the owls dropped, each bearing the Hogwarts crest. "Our end-of-term marks! Look!" They ripped their respective envelopes open and pulled out their sheets. Lily's was a bit longer and thicker than her friends'.
Dear Miss Evans,
As you will see from your enclosed marks, your average grade following the exams is one hundred and seven percent. We shall be pleased to promote you to the third year at Hogwarts at your returning. Enclosed is also a form that will give you several choices as to which new classes you will be taking next year. Please fill out the form and return it by no later than July 15th.
Sincerely,
Professor M. McGonagall
Enclosed, Lily found two pieces of parchment, one with her marks on it and the other with the list of subjects. Smiling so hard she thought her teeth would start to crinkle and fall out, Lily handed the letter to her friends.
"Lily, that's amazing!" Eva and Vanessa hugged her tightly. "I just hope you'll help us with studying next year.
Lily sniffed. "Is that your first reaction?"
Vanessa giggled. "Well sort of. My second reaction is what are you going to do when you're in the same classes as James and Sirius next year?"
Slipping her Hogwarts robes off and placing them in her trunk along with her foil, Lily laughed. "I wish I could see their faces when I show up in practically every one of their classes! Actually, I will see their faces, won't I?"
Eva shook her head. "I know. I'm terribly jealous. But you won't forget us little second years, will you?"
"I don't know. I'll try not to miss seeing every single ant when I'm up high floating on an asteroid–I'm joking, honestly!"
Vanessa drew back her fist. "I wouldn't have hit you, but thanks for retracting that."
Later that night at dinner, Lily could see why she had been invited to stay. Basil, their brother, had invited about ten older boys, some of whom had brought their siblings, all of whom had brought friends. The large dining table, used to seat seventy people at a sitting, was filled up completely. Not one of the guests were girls.
The dinner itself was as amazing as the house was marvelous, and there were seven maids in crisp, starched aprons, serving at table. Every possible kind of food had been placed on the table, and it was surprising to Lily to see how fast it all vanished. Eva and Vanessa seemed resigned to the quick disappearance of the food, however, and made up for it by inviting Lily to Vanessa's room after dinner and ordering up some food from the three house- elves that served in the kitchen and around the house. Their parents hadn't showed up for dinner, and after dispatching a quick note to her own parents, Lily had followed her friends gladly to their after-dinner dinner. Vanessa's room was almost like Eva's, being on the same floor and therefore having the same carpeting, but it was a bit more cluttered and had two more windows. Her room was connected to Eva's through a grandly large bathroom, which had been done in many different shades of blue, so they were able to drag Eva's large dark blue velvet couch into Vanessa's room.
After a dinner that was, if not as magnificent in scale, at least as good in content as the one downstairs, they were discussing the events of that day. Vanessa still fell to the floor giggling when she thought back to the pool and Lily's almost breaking James' nose.
"He looked so stunned, honestly! As if he expected you to let him drown you!"
"Well, what can you say? He's a big stuck-up git who's never had anyone say no to him before, plus he's dreadfully spoiled and needs to be hit several times and more than I did."
Eva looked at Lily in amazement. "You know, you're the first girl I've ever heard talk like that about him; they're all going on about how adorable he is and how wonderful he is at Quidditch."
Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Well, he needs to be told that."
Vanessa gave a short laugh. "And I suppose you're going to be the one to do it?"
"Why not?"
"I'll tell you why not. Because he's already heard." Reveling in the squealing of the blond twins, James stepped out from behind the door."
Immediately on the defensive, Lily's eyes narrowed. "And what are you doing here?" she asked, pronouncing 'you' with a disgusted hiss.
"Well, listening to you three talk. It's extremely interesting to listen to people talking about me."
"What's your point?"
"I don't exactly have one, to tell you the truth."
"Of course. Well, to make it simpler for your most simple intellect, what are you doing in a girl's bedroom?"
He flinched a bit. "Only you would think of it that way."
"I know. Anything else?"
He moved away from the door and sat down on the floor, looking at Lily questioningly. ""Yeah–I wanted to ask why you're being so mean?"
Lily's eyes opened wide. "Me–and mean? What about you?"
Eva and Vanessa, who were looking rather uncomfortable, had finished a silent struggle for the empty food tray and were both carrying it out of the room, trying not to be obvious. They didn't succeed.
"What do you mean, what about me? You started this whole thing!"
"You're a very bad liar. After that Quidditch match the first thing you did was insult the way I looked."
"Oh–I'd forgotten about that. Oops."
Lily reseated herself on the couch and picked up her lemonade, taking small sips and staring into nowhere, thinking.
"What're you thinking about?"
"Hum? Oh–nothing–James, I'm not sure if you realized this, but the only reason I stopped sleeping on knobby curlers was because I wanted to find out who really liked me for who I am. And I guess I found out."
"What–You were refusing to make your hair look decent!"
James Potter, I did not give up brushing my hair. However, I stopped using curlers and hairspray. All I cared about was my grades, and I couldn't very well concentrate on those if I spent my time in front of a mirror."
"You just sounded like a book. That was scary. Don't ever do that again."
"Oh, so now you're telling me how not to sound? I'm not your subordinate and I never will be."
"You will be. When I get out of Hogwarts I'll fix it so that wherever I decide to work I'll be your boss."
Lily smiled. She'd forgotten all about her letter from Hogwarts. "You won't have enough time."
"How so?"
"I'm leaving Hogwarts with you."
James looked a bit shocked and disgusted, not to mention puzzled. "You're not eloping with me, if that's what you mean. Right now I'd rather elope with Malfoy."
"Don't worry. That was farthest from my mind. I meant what I said, and what I meant was that I'm going to be graduating at the same time you are."
Smirking to see the both horrified and interested expressions that floated across his face, Lily drained her glass.
"What's the face for?"
"Do you mean to tell me that you're skipping second year?"
"Exactly."
"Why? If it's just to be closer to me, it's not going to work."
Lily bit her tongue, counting to ten backwards, but she exploded before she reached five. "You are nothing but a stuck-up git, and if you think that I'd even dream of skipping so that I could be with you–I've wanted to do this for a long time. Stand up." James was rather puzzled, but he stood up anyway and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to look invincible, tough, and cute as Lily came walking towards him, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. Ten inches away from him, she stopped, looking quite embarrassed and uncomfortable, not to mention that she was blushing a bit. Not a bit--more than a bit. He looked straight into her forest green eyes, then closed them a second later as she did something unthinkable. He reeled onto the carpet, holding his bright red jaw, cheek, and ear in pain. "WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?" he roared as soon as he could open his eyes. The first thing he saw was Lily, who had knelt down on the floor, holding her stomach in ecstasy. She was laughing so hard she thought she'd split in two, her hair falling in her face and her eyes tearing.
"James, you idiot, what on earth did you think I'd do?"
"You almost broke my jaw!"
"You mean I didn't? Oh, how terribly clumsy of me! I'll be sure to break it next time, though, don't worry."
His eyes widened and he sprang up, knocking a small table over in his hurry to get out.
Lily regained enough possession of herself to get to the door and watch James dash down the hallway, tripping over Remus' outstretched leg fifty yards down
Lily was only standing upright with the help of the doorframe, so Sirius had to catch her as he came up right beside her and poked her in the side, making her fall.
"Sirius Black, what the heck do you think you're doing?"
"I thought I'd congratulate you. He needed to be slapped."
"And how did you know what I did? Were you also behind the door?"
Sirius opened his eyes wide. "You mean he was spying on you? Double congratulations!"
"So you heard me slap him? Criminey, I didn't know I hit him that hard."
"Oh, please, Lily." He set her back on her feet. "We could hear that all down this hall and then some. And if we hadn't heard your slap, we'd definitely have heard James' scream. Peter's still on the floor laughing. He deserved that big time. And, by the way, what did he give you for your birthday? He never told us, but he said it was expensive and mean."
"Ah. It was. He gave me a nice teak chest inlaid with gold, with lots of makeup cases and shampoo and all sorts of things. Plus a brush and a mirror. I say he deserved his slap seven times over."
"Well, all I have to say right now is congratulations. From me, Peter, Sirius, and the rest of the world."
"Why, thank you."
"Say–you're not mad at me because he's been lousy, are you?"
Quizzically, Lily stared into his dark eyes, then laughed. "Of course not."
He looked relieved and smiled too. "Oh, good. Say,–you wouldn't want to come down to Peter's room downstairs? We're playing Exploding Snap–want to come?"
Lily beamed. "Sure." Lily walked into Peter's room to a storm of applause, while Sirius was walking ahead of her, shooing imaginary people away–"Miss Evans is not going to give autographs at this point in time–she shall be happy to later in the evening after she has been presented with her trophy, please do not crowd the conqueress just yet…"
Besides Peter, half of the second year Gryffindor boys seemed to be in the room, all applauding and banging on the floor with their fists, trying not to choke on excessive hiccuping laughter.
"Way to go, Evans!"
"Did you really hit him? We heard that all down the corridor."
"You rule, girl! Do that to Snape and Malfoy and we will forever be your slaves!"
"So, are you two friends again, now that you've gotten your revenge?"
"Lily has too much sense for that. I mean, wouldn't you?"
The rest of the evening passed rather pleasantly, with several stacks of cards exploding in Peter's face as he dropped them and providing an unending source of entertainment as he jumped around, trying to get the sparks out of his hair.
All too soon, the two weeks and the extension Lily got of three weeks were over, and her mother wanted her back home. The rest of the summer brought nothing new besides the letter from Hogwarts with her supply list on it. Her parents had an international meeting in Berlin, so it worked out that Lily was to go to Diagon Alley with her parents on August first and get a room at the Leaky Cauldron, her parents leaving her there in the care of Amanda's parents, who had also rented a room there.
Lily was waving goodbye to her parents, who were rapidly disappearing down the road in a taxi in a cloud of dust, when she felt a fist connect with her spine.
Lily fell forward onto the street, skinning her hands and knees. Not wasting an instant of time, she jumped up and raised her fists.
"James Potter, what on earth did you do that for?"
He shrugged, smirking. "Payback."
Lily dropped her balled hands. "All right, then I guess I deserved that. But why're you here?"
"Why do you think? I'm getting my supplies. I'd ask you what you were doing here, but you have a very talkative friend."
"I see. Amanda?"
"Exactly. Say, you want to come to Flourish and Blotts with us?"
"Us?"
"Yeah, Sirius and Remus. Peter's got a sick aunt, so he's in Russia, but the rest of us're here. So, what do you say?"
Dusting herself off, Lily walked towards the Leaky Cauldron without saying a word. James followed at a bit of a jog.
"Say, what'd I do?"
"Do?"
"Erm…" Eva kicked the floor nervously–"That won't be so hard."'
Lily raised her defensive eyebrow. "Stop it. You're not in tap class. Why not?"
"Er–you remember when I told you that we had an 'it' and his sibling here?"
Lily sat down on the bed. "So?"
Vanessa picked Willoughby up, who had followed the smell of Lily's Owl Treats. "Well, the 'it' is Peter Pettigrew."
Comprehension started to dawn on Lily's stunned countenance. "And?"
Eva played a bit with the beautiful teak brush, inlaid with gold, that had been in the casket. Nervously, she fingered the mirror, made in the same way, and the delicate shampoo bottles. "Well, you know Peter never goes anywhere without his friends."
Lily pushed the millions of cases of lipstick, eyeshadow, blush, and hundreds of other things out of Eva's reach. "I know. Get to the point."
Eva fidgeted, picking at the green silk sheets. "Well–to make a short story shorter, Sirius, James, and Remus are staying in three of the Scarlet rooms downstairs."
She looked at Vanessa with a question in her eyes. "Should I have said that?"
Lily was sitting on the edge of the bed, burying her angry face in her knees. "You should not have said that." Eva groaned. "I thought so."
Jumping off of the floor, Vanessa sped out of the door, the sounds of laughter, boys' laughter, coming from the floor below.
Lily turned to Eva. "When did he arrive?"
Eva shrugged. "About five hours ago. Don't worry," she added, seeing Lily's suspicious face, "I didn't invite him. Peter did."
Lily walked over to the window-seat, pushing the drapes aside as well as opening the stained-glass window, and stared out over the neatly trimmed lawns. She stood there for so long that Eva went over to her, quietly, and touched her on the arm. Lily flinched as if she had just been shot. "What?"
"Are you sure you're all right?"
"Positive." Lily snapped. "Oh, honestly, Eva, I just don't want to see him after this present. Can't you see that?"
Eva sighed. "Have I ruined your whole summer for you?"
Lily regained some of her old mischievous grin. "Me, let that git spoil my summer here, when I'm away from Petunia, ruffles, and here in this magnificent mansion? Along with you and Eva? Oh, is that a swimming pool there, beyond that sculptured planter?" she asked, pointing to a glimmer beyond a carved hedge.
Eva grinned, too. "I've got an extra suit!"
Lily beat Eva down to the stairway. "I'm already halfway there!"
Relieved, Eva followed. Dressed in a pale blue one-piece, with a short white skirt around her waist, Eva walked out to the pool with Lily, their bare feet pressing comfortably against the neatly trimmed grass. Lily wasn't too happy with the color she had been stuck with; she had been poured into a white suit and was looking a bit disgruntled at the choice of towels. Their maids had taken most of the towels to be cleaned, and the only ones left were pale lavender. But she had tied it around her waist, thrown her pants and wand into her trunk, and beat Vanessa to the humongous Acropolian back porch, covered in forest green carpeting and dotted with about twenty cream-colored tables and chairs, each set with a linen tablecloth, several crystal glasses, and a beautiful pitcher of lemonade.
The swimming pool was marvelous. The basin alone was made of stone, with delicate statues at every corner. Several chairs were placed on the sides, and the water was a clear blue unknown to Muggle pools. No chlorine pervaded the water, as Lily blissfully discovered after diving in; it was kept magically clean.
One side sported three diving boards, each feathering lightly and perfectly, each pedestal a carved masterpiece. Lily, who her whole life had practically lived in the water each summer, was in her own Eden. Racing Eva and Vanessa to the other side of the pool, she was in front of them by about six feet when a loud splash hit her arms and knocked her under water. Spluttering, she came up, fuming at a certain raven-haired, tousle-headed demon. His eyes blinked mischievously as he looked on her angry, coughing countenance. "Oh, oops, sorry, didn't see you."
Lily glared. "Of course you didn't." Her temper getting out of control, she pulled her hands out of the water and reached for James, who veered backwards. "What the–"
His exclamation was drowned as Lily pushed him underwater, hard, and held him there for a couple of seconds. When she finally let him up, he dove for the side of the pool, coughing up mouthfuls of water. Sirius and Remus helped him out, fighting back laughter.
"James, I hate to say this, but you earned that."
He looked wild. "Earned what? That girl almost drowned me!"
Lily was treading water, peals of laughter echoing from her mouth. "Oh, I'm a girl now? Not a random Muggle and not an electrocuted pheonix?"
James scowled at her. "Evans, shut your big fat mouth."
Lily climbed onto the diving board and looked down on him, leaning on the carved stone rail, the wide, ridiculing smile still fixed on her face. "Why should I?"
He stood up, throwing his towel into the pool. "Because I said so, that's why!"
Diving into the water, Lily came up and shook her wet curls away from her face. "Oh, really. And who died and made you God?"
He retrieved his sopping wet towel from where it was sinking to the bottom of the pool. "Evans, I'm going to say this again. Shut up or else."
"You never said it the first time. I did."
"Oh, shut up."
Eva broke in, laughing. "James, you're losing this round."
"Oh, really?" He removed his glasses and kicked Peter aside. "I'm winning the next one." He dived into the pool, straight at Lily and Eva. Coming up behind them, he grabbed both of their feet and rose to the surface, dunking them several times. Eva fought wildly, but Lily let herself be dunked until the third time. Then, when she was being lifted up for air, she pulled her feet back a bit and kicked forward.
Hearing a groan of pain come from James, she propelled herself forward, using James as a makeshift side of the pool, and reached the other side, getting out before the blood from James' nose reached her. Eva was sitting on one of the adjustable lawn chairs, holding her stomach and collapsing with laughter as they saw James swim to the edge and hold his hands out to Remus and Sirius.
"Help me out!"
Both of them drew back, not wanting to come any closer to his blood- drenched form. Remus was fighting back a comment, which did him no good, as Sirius said it for him.
"James, you just got the guts beat out of you by a girl."
"That's not a girl. That's a demon."
Lily was lying on a lawn chair on her stomach, lazily raising her head. "Funny. I thought the same thing about you when you jumped on me."
Eva had covered herself with a towel. "James, you were right. You didn't win this round. Next one, maybe. Not this one." Shaking her head, the wife of the pool's caretaker trotted out of her small house with wet cloths and a wand, tutting and fussing. She pointed her wand and James and the pool, and instantly, the blood was gone and his nose stopped bleeding. Holding the cloth against James' forehead, she forbade him to get in the pool or even off of the lawn chair for the next five minutes, then clamped her wand under her arm and went trotting back inside her lodge, muttering about dangerous games.
By the time the five minutes were up, Lily, Eva, and Vanessa had judged it wise to leave. They had run back to the mansion, which, Lily now noticed, was structured in the style of a cross between a beautiful castle and the Chateau de Versailles, using the good points of each. Eva had swiped a crystal pitcher filled with lemonade and three glasses, and they were sitting in Lily's room, because it was in a tower and they could seal the door. Willoughby had migrated to Lily's window-seat, but it was so large that it could have held about five people, the window being so large, so Lily, Eva, and Vanessa had seated themselves around the sleepy cat.
"Lily, I'd say you paid him back for that present."
"You definitely did. I was laughing so hard, I–"
"Fell off of the lawn chair. I know."
"Oh, shut up. C'mere, Willoughby. Does Willy like lemonade? Come, Willy, see if you like this. Come on–" Willy pushed his nose into the sparkling gold liquid in Eva's glass and snorted out a sneeze, spraying lemonade all over the three friends.
Lily wiped a drop off of her cheek. "Willy does not like lemonade."
Eva refilled her glass. "I noticed."
Vanessa pointed out to the lawn, where four figures were racing towards the house. "They're coming back."
Eva groaned. "Come to take their revenge?"
Lily smiled. "They may try."
Vanessa leaped up and followed Lily over to her trunk. "Lil, we're not supposed to use magic! Not during the holidays! You could be expelled–what's that?" she asked, puzzled, as Lily drew out her foil. "A sword?"
Lily nodded, pulling on her black Hogwarts robes and pointing her sword at the door. "Exactly."
They had no more time to talk, as they heard a stampede downstairs. Lily quickly unscrewed the tip, letting the sharp end of a screw point towards the boys, who were blockading the doorway.
They stopped dead in their tracks as they saw a long bit of metal pointed straight at them. Peter was edging downstairs, pulling Remus with him. Lily, in her dark robes, holding a sword, was the very image of a Crusader of the old days. She looked dangerous as her eyes turned hard and received a perilous glitter. Peter was rushing out of Eva's room downstairs.
James was the first to speak. "Evans, put that down. You don't know how to handle that." He folded his arms over his chest and resembled every bit a Southern plantation overseer, ordering his subordinates about.
Lily, with the dignity of a queen, looked down on him, with a sneer on her face. "Oh, really? What makes you think I can't handle a sword?"
"Well, for one thing, girls can't fence. They can't even control the thing."
"Oh?" With a flick of the wrist and a twitch of the sword, Lily disarmed James of his wand before he knew what she was about. It flew out of the window as neatly as if she had just disarmed him with her wand. "You're right. Of course I can't control it. How stupid of me to think I could ever have stood up against you, O High and Mighty One, when thou wast holding thine wand." Eva peered out of the window. "James, your wand's on the top of the dining room roof!" James' scorn turned a bit to admiration. "You don't think you can teach me that?"
"Teach you how to do what?"
"Well, use a sword. I'd like to learn. I could beat Snape and Malfoy up, for one thing." Lily raised her chin. "So, you've been hideous to me ever since the last Quidditch match of the year, and now, out of nowhere, you expect me to be nice to you and teach you to fence? Potter, out of my room." Flourishing her foil, Lily drove him out of her room backwards and kicked the door shut. "Well, that's one problem solved." Vanessa left her seat on the bed. "Lily, I have to say, that was really good!"
"Of course it was. I've spent my summer doing nothing else."
Eva filled up Lily's glass. "I can tell–wait, what's that?" "What's what?" Lily and Vanessa raced to the window. Outside, whizzing towards her window, three flecks were flying, rapidly turning darker and larger as they approached the window. Moving aside quickly, Lily caught all three letters that the owls dropped, each bearing the Hogwarts crest. "Our end-of-term marks! Look!" They ripped their respective envelopes open and pulled out their sheets. Lily's was a bit longer and thicker than her friends'.
Dear Miss Evans,
As you will see from your enclosed marks, your average grade following the exams is one hundred and seven percent. We shall be pleased to promote you to the third year at Hogwarts at your returning. Enclosed is also a form that will give you several choices as to which new classes you will be taking next year. Please fill out the form and return it by no later than July 15th.
Sincerely,
Professor M. McGonagall
Enclosed, Lily found two pieces of parchment, one with her marks on it and the other with the list of subjects. Smiling so hard she thought her teeth would start to crinkle and fall out, Lily handed the letter to her friends.
"Lily, that's amazing!" Eva and Vanessa hugged her tightly. "I just hope you'll help us with studying next year.
Lily sniffed. "Is that your first reaction?"
Vanessa giggled. "Well sort of. My second reaction is what are you going to do when you're in the same classes as James and Sirius next year?"
Slipping her Hogwarts robes off and placing them in her trunk along with her foil, Lily laughed. "I wish I could see their faces when I show up in practically every one of their classes! Actually, I will see their faces, won't I?"
Eva shook her head. "I know. I'm terribly jealous. But you won't forget us little second years, will you?"
"I don't know. I'll try not to miss seeing every single ant when I'm up high floating on an asteroid–I'm joking, honestly!"
Vanessa drew back her fist. "I wouldn't have hit you, but thanks for retracting that."
Later that night at dinner, Lily could see why she had been invited to stay. Basil, their brother, had invited about ten older boys, some of whom had brought their siblings, all of whom had brought friends. The large dining table, used to seat seventy people at a sitting, was filled up completely. Not one of the guests were girls.
The dinner itself was as amazing as the house was marvelous, and there were seven maids in crisp, starched aprons, serving at table. Every possible kind of food had been placed on the table, and it was surprising to Lily to see how fast it all vanished. Eva and Vanessa seemed resigned to the quick disappearance of the food, however, and made up for it by inviting Lily to Vanessa's room after dinner and ordering up some food from the three house- elves that served in the kitchen and around the house. Their parents hadn't showed up for dinner, and after dispatching a quick note to her own parents, Lily had followed her friends gladly to their after-dinner dinner. Vanessa's room was almost like Eva's, being on the same floor and therefore having the same carpeting, but it was a bit more cluttered and had two more windows. Her room was connected to Eva's through a grandly large bathroom, which had been done in many different shades of blue, so they were able to drag Eva's large dark blue velvet couch into Vanessa's room.
After a dinner that was, if not as magnificent in scale, at least as good in content as the one downstairs, they were discussing the events of that day. Vanessa still fell to the floor giggling when she thought back to the pool and Lily's almost breaking James' nose.
"He looked so stunned, honestly! As if he expected you to let him drown you!"
"Well, what can you say? He's a big stuck-up git who's never had anyone say no to him before, plus he's dreadfully spoiled and needs to be hit several times and more than I did."
Eva looked at Lily in amazement. "You know, you're the first girl I've ever heard talk like that about him; they're all going on about how adorable he is and how wonderful he is at Quidditch."
Lily tossed her hair over her shoulder. "Well, he needs to be told that."
Vanessa gave a short laugh. "And I suppose you're going to be the one to do it?"
"Why not?"
"I'll tell you why not. Because he's already heard." Reveling in the squealing of the blond twins, James stepped out from behind the door."
Immediately on the defensive, Lily's eyes narrowed. "And what are you doing here?" she asked, pronouncing 'you' with a disgusted hiss.
"Well, listening to you three talk. It's extremely interesting to listen to people talking about me."
"What's your point?"
"I don't exactly have one, to tell you the truth."
"Of course. Well, to make it simpler for your most simple intellect, what are you doing in a girl's bedroom?"
He flinched a bit. "Only you would think of it that way."
"I know. Anything else?"
He moved away from the door and sat down on the floor, looking at Lily questioningly. ""Yeah–I wanted to ask why you're being so mean?"
Lily's eyes opened wide. "Me–and mean? What about you?"
Eva and Vanessa, who were looking rather uncomfortable, had finished a silent struggle for the empty food tray and were both carrying it out of the room, trying not to be obvious. They didn't succeed.
"What do you mean, what about me? You started this whole thing!"
"You're a very bad liar. After that Quidditch match the first thing you did was insult the way I looked."
"Oh–I'd forgotten about that. Oops."
Lily reseated herself on the couch and picked up her lemonade, taking small sips and staring into nowhere, thinking.
"What're you thinking about?"
"Hum? Oh–nothing–James, I'm not sure if you realized this, but the only reason I stopped sleeping on knobby curlers was because I wanted to find out who really liked me for who I am. And I guess I found out."
"What–You were refusing to make your hair look decent!"
James Potter, I did not give up brushing my hair. However, I stopped using curlers and hairspray. All I cared about was my grades, and I couldn't very well concentrate on those if I spent my time in front of a mirror."
"You just sounded like a book. That was scary. Don't ever do that again."
"Oh, so now you're telling me how not to sound? I'm not your subordinate and I never will be."
"You will be. When I get out of Hogwarts I'll fix it so that wherever I decide to work I'll be your boss."
Lily smiled. She'd forgotten all about her letter from Hogwarts. "You won't have enough time."
"How so?"
"I'm leaving Hogwarts with you."
James looked a bit shocked and disgusted, not to mention puzzled. "You're not eloping with me, if that's what you mean. Right now I'd rather elope with Malfoy."
"Don't worry. That was farthest from my mind. I meant what I said, and what I meant was that I'm going to be graduating at the same time you are."
Smirking to see the both horrified and interested expressions that floated across his face, Lily drained her glass.
"What's the face for?"
"Do you mean to tell me that you're skipping second year?"
"Exactly."
"Why? If it's just to be closer to me, it's not going to work."
Lily bit her tongue, counting to ten backwards, but she exploded before she reached five. "You are nothing but a stuck-up git, and if you think that I'd even dream of skipping so that I could be with you–I've wanted to do this for a long time. Stand up." James was rather puzzled, but he stood up anyway and crossed his arms over his chest, trying to look invincible, tough, and cute as Lily came walking towards him, twisting a strand of hair around her finger. Ten inches away from him, she stopped, looking quite embarrassed and uncomfortable, not to mention that she was blushing a bit. Not a bit--more than a bit. He looked straight into her forest green eyes, then closed them a second later as she did something unthinkable. He reeled onto the carpet, holding his bright red jaw, cheek, and ear in pain. "WHAT'D YOU DO THAT FOR?" he roared as soon as he could open his eyes. The first thing he saw was Lily, who had knelt down on the floor, holding her stomach in ecstasy. She was laughing so hard she thought she'd split in two, her hair falling in her face and her eyes tearing.
"James, you idiot, what on earth did you think I'd do?"
"You almost broke my jaw!"
"You mean I didn't? Oh, how terribly clumsy of me! I'll be sure to break it next time, though, don't worry."
His eyes widened and he sprang up, knocking a small table over in his hurry to get out.
Lily regained enough possession of herself to get to the door and watch James dash down the hallway, tripping over Remus' outstretched leg fifty yards down
Lily was only standing upright with the help of the doorframe, so Sirius had to catch her as he came up right beside her and poked her in the side, making her fall.
"Sirius Black, what the heck do you think you're doing?"
"I thought I'd congratulate you. He needed to be slapped."
"And how did you know what I did? Were you also behind the door?"
Sirius opened his eyes wide. "You mean he was spying on you? Double congratulations!"
"So you heard me slap him? Criminey, I didn't know I hit him that hard."
"Oh, please, Lily." He set her back on her feet. "We could hear that all down this hall and then some. And if we hadn't heard your slap, we'd definitely have heard James' scream. Peter's still on the floor laughing. He deserved that big time. And, by the way, what did he give you for your birthday? He never told us, but he said it was expensive and mean."
"Ah. It was. He gave me a nice teak chest inlaid with gold, with lots of makeup cases and shampoo and all sorts of things. Plus a brush and a mirror. I say he deserved his slap seven times over."
"Well, all I have to say right now is congratulations. From me, Peter, Sirius, and the rest of the world."
"Why, thank you."
"Say–you're not mad at me because he's been lousy, are you?"
Quizzically, Lily stared into his dark eyes, then laughed. "Of course not."
He looked relieved and smiled too. "Oh, good. Say,–you wouldn't want to come down to Peter's room downstairs? We're playing Exploding Snap–want to come?"
Lily beamed. "Sure." Lily walked into Peter's room to a storm of applause, while Sirius was walking ahead of her, shooing imaginary people away–"Miss Evans is not going to give autographs at this point in time–she shall be happy to later in the evening after she has been presented with her trophy, please do not crowd the conqueress just yet…"
Besides Peter, half of the second year Gryffindor boys seemed to be in the room, all applauding and banging on the floor with their fists, trying not to choke on excessive hiccuping laughter.
"Way to go, Evans!"
"Did you really hit him? We heard that all down the corridor."
"You rule, girl! Do that to Snape and Malfoy and we will forever be your slaves!"
"So, are you two friends again, now that you've gotten your revenge?"
"Lily has too much sense for that. I mean, wouldn't you?"
The rest of the evening passed rather pleasantly, with several stacks of cards exploding in Peter's face as he dropped them and providing an unending source of entertainment as he jumped around, trying to get the sparks out of his hair.
All too soon, the two weeks and the extension Lily got of three weeks were over, and her mother wanted her back home. The rest of the summer brought nothing new besides the letter from Hogwarts with her supply list on it. Her parents had an international meeting in Berlin, so it worked out that Lily was to go to Diagon Alley with her parents on August first and get a room at the Leaky Cauldron, her parents leaving her there in the care of Amanda's parents, who had also rented a room there.
Lily was waving goodbye to her parents, who were rapidly disappearing down the road in a taxi in a cloud of dust, when she felt a fist connect with her spine.
Lily fell forward onto the street, skinning her hands and knees. Not wasting an instant of time, she jumped up and raised her fists.
"James Potter, what on earth did you do that for?"
He shrugged, smirking. "Payback."
Lily dropped her balled hands. "All right, then I guess I deserved that. But why're you here?"
"Why do you think? I'm getting my supplies. I'd ask you what you were doing here, but you have a very talkative friend."
"I see. Amanda?"
"Exactly. Say, you want to come to Flourish and Blotts with us?"
"Us?"
"Yeah, Sirius and Remus. Peter's got a sick aunt, so he's in Russia, but the rest of us're here. So, what do you say?"
Dusting herself off, Lily walked towards the Leaky Cauldron without saying a word. James followed at a bit of a jog.
"Say, what'd I do?"
"Do?"