Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and situations created and owned by JK Rowling, various publishers including but not limited to Bloomsbury Books, Scholastic Books and Raincoast Books, and Warner Bros., Inc. No money is being made and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.
A/N: I just decided that posting this would take too much time to post each chapter individualy, so, I'll be doing about 10 chapters at a time.
Lily and James- A Prophecy Fulfilled
Chapter 7
The houselves had done a good job with dinner, but Petunia was screaming at them with fear. Lily went up to her and covered her mouth with her hand.
"Shut up Petunia, they cooked dinner. Mrs. Potter let me borrow them. They're a symbol of wealth and prosperity, so feel honored."
"But they're not NORMAL" Petunia wailed
"Neither are you, so shut up!" she hollered back, effectively silencing her. Petunia was wearing another horrifying creation like last night's. Lily went to check, and the dining room was decorated perfectly, and the tables were sat elegantly with the best crystal and China. She checked the gym; it was equipped with Cd's, decorations, and refreshments. People began arriving, and Lily directed them to the living rooms. Once everybody had arrived, they were ushered into the dining room, and the elves had put the food on the table. Lily's mother had put place cards at every seat so everybody would sit at the correct spot, and Lily was sitting between James and James's Grandpa who was visiting. It was a miracle that the Evans's had such a large dining room, because four 6 foot wide tables had been placed, each twenty feet long, sitting 30 people each comfortably. Every chair was filled.
At first, Lily thought dinner would go off without a hitch, but that was until the old people got brought into the conversation. It was every kid's nightmare.
"These younguns here make a right good pair don't you think?" James's Grandpa, Joe said.
"What?! We're not-" James started yelling
"No use denying it. I looked at your Gran the same way, God rest her soul, as you look at little Lily." Joe continued, until Lily's grandpa, Ray, stepped in. "That boy better not be making eyes at my granddaughter. Not if he wants to live to get his whiskers! No sirree, I won't tolerate it!"
"Hey! Stop-" both James and Lily said
"Yes, they do make a cute couple, just look, they can read each other's mind." one elderly lady said.
"Mrs. McGwirk, you see, we're not a couple." Lily said
"Balderdash, I know puppy love when I see it."
"You're legally blind!" James shouted.
"Well, I never-" she started huffily, but Lily and James both interrupted at the same time "Well I have!" and looked at each other and started laughing.
"Children, stop making fun of your elders, and everybody, leave them alone. They're just friends." Lily's dad said, and Lily never loved her dad more than at that moment.
James continued shoveling down his food like nothing was wrong, in fact, he could eat a person out of house and home rather easily. Very soon, Lily just stared at him, eating his fifth plate full of food, thinking wow, he's kind of cute, even if he is a hog. He looked up, "What you staring at?"
"The world's best garbage disposal."
"Ha, Ha, aren't you a regular box of laughs."
"Oh yes, all that and a bag of chips." and she tossed a baked potato on his plate.
"Hey! Don't bruise it."
"Potatoes don't bruise dumba**." Lily said sarcastically.
"Lily Evans! Watch your language!" James said with pretend outrage.
"You kids can go over to the gym now." Mrs. Evans announced, saving a blazing row between James and Lily.
They got into the gym and Lily said "Petunia has prepared games and activities so we won't be bored." she looked over to Petunia who was frantically shaking her head. She walked over to her 14 year-old sister and said, "Let me guess, you didn't?"
"Correct"
"Well, isn't that just peachy. Everybody stay here, actually James come with me and help me get some stuff. One of my friends has all kinds of games and I'll just e-mail her and she can send me the rules and list of supplies, come on." she said, took off her heels, and ran across the yard to her house.
Lily and James ran through the house, and upstairs to Lily's room.
"Sit down and don't touch anything besides the floor you're sitting on." she told him, and he obediently sat, but looked around. Her room was decorated in light purple and yellow, and surprisingly girlie. She started clicking a funny button and pushing flat ones. Then she printed out a whole bunch of papers.
"Okay, I got the games. We'll need spoons, string, bottles, potatoes, and flashlights."
"Go downstairs and get two spoons from the kitchen, a glass bottle, just look in the fridge, and a potato, they're in the pantry. You can't miss them, then come back up here, but knock first." Lily told him and he went to get the stuff. Lily changed quickly into jeans and a sweater, and found some string. She opened the door just as he knocked.
They went back to the gym and Lily said, "Okay, here's some games, pick which one you want to play first. We can play flashlight hide and seek after it gets dark. Okay, here are the choices:
pass the potato
drop the spoon
and chair share. (That's not the real names, I don't think they have real names)
"What about spin-the-bottle?" one guy asked,
"Only as a last resort, my parents would skin me alive." Lily said.
They ended up deciding on chair share.
(Because it's my favorite)
They lined up the chairs and Lily explained it. "Okay, everybody starts out with their own chair, and the moderator calls out different things. They'll say stuff like if you have on red move three chairs to the left, and if you have on red you move. If there's somebody in that chair, sit on his or her lap. If there's two somebodies in the chair, stack em up. Got it? Good, any moderator volunteers?" and a shy girl volunteered, she didn't like the idea of sitting on anybody's lap.
Everybody sat in a chair, James sat next to Lily and muttered, "This is a muggle game, isn't it?"
"Yip, just think, it's too bad you couldn't have played this with Saran."
"Move one chair to the left if you have blue on." Lily sat in James's lap, because she had blue jeans on.
"Move two places to the right if you are wearing closed-toe shoes" and both of them moved to the right, stacking up on their across-the-street neighbor.
That neighbor soon moved, and Lily and James were stuck for a while. She slung her arm around his neck and said, "see Potter, this is fun."
"Yeah, a riot."
"Oh, that's me, see ya later." and Lily went 4 chairs to the left. After about twenty minutes they got tired of that game and decided to play drop the spoon.
"Okay, it's boys against girls, and what you do is take this spoon that's tied to this string, and you try to be the first line to get the spoon at the other in. What you have to do is put the spoon through your clothes, so it comes completely out of them. If you have pants on, just put it through your shirt."
This game only lasted for about five minutes, the boys won because the girls kept getting it caught about half way down. They played pass the potato once, and that was very boring. They were running out of games, and it was two hours until dark.
"Let's play 7 minutes in Heaven." One boy suggested, and it was either that or spin the bottle, so Lily agreed, purely because she didn't know what it was, and she was game for about anything.
"I don't know how to play though"
"don't worry, we'll explain it as we go." James said evilly he apparently knew this muggle game.
Everybody sat in a circle then they took out the bottle.
"Lily, you can go first" Frederic said, "Just spin the bottle."
"Umm, okay" and Lily spun the bottle. By the time she sat back down it was beginning to slow down. It finally stopped pointing at...
Lily, eyes riveted on the bottle, looked up only when it stopped. She followed the direction of the bottle right to James Potter.
"Okay, what now?"
"It's time for the 7 minutes in Heaven. You and James go in the closet and kiss for the 7 minutes." Frederic told her.
"WHAT!! NO WAY!!" Lily shouted,
"You guys, she didn't know what was going on, she doesn't want to..." James said.
"It's a dare Lily, would you back down on a dare?" Gina said, striking the right cord.
"Oh course not, come on James" and she dragged him into the broom closet and flipped the light.
"TURN OFF THE LIGHT!" was immediately yelled from outside.
"James if you touch me, I will severely wound you."
"I wouldn't touch you with a ten foot stick."
"Good." and she started rummaging through a shelf, causing a bucket to fall with a clatter, causing an eruption of laughter from the eavesdroppers outside.
"Ha, I found them, want to play 21?" Lily asked holding up a deck of cards.
"Sure, how do you play?" She explained, and then they started playing.
James asked, "When do they explode?"
"They don't, they're muggle cards."
"Oh"
"LILLIAN MARIE EVANS, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS CLOSET WITH A BOY!" Lily's dad busted down the door and started shouting.
"Uh, Papa, we're playing cards, see?" Lily explained, holding some cards up.
"WELL, THOSE KIDS SAID YOU WERE KISSING IN HERE!"
"That was the dare, so we just sat in the closet and played cards, so what brings you here?"
"I brought the flashlights, it's dark, I thought you might want to play flashlight tag or something."
"Cool! Yeah we do, I just forgot to get the flashlights."
"Okay, I better not hear about you kissing some boy again, got it?"
"Oh, yes."
Several kids went home and they played hide and seek.
Soon, everybody went home, the little kids needed to get in bed so St. Nicholas could come. The Evans residence was a destruction zone. The Potters loaned them the house-elves for the night though, to clean up the mess.
Lily woke up late the next morning, then dashed downstairs. Her parents were already downstairs, waiting to open the scores of presents under the massive Christmas tree, one Queen Victoria and Prince Albert would have been proud of. (My personal heroes)
"Merry Christmas hone" her mother greeted her. "We'll open presents as soon as Petunia comes down."
Then Logan Evans started talking, "The Potters called to tell us that Christmas dinner can't be held at their house. James set the dining room on fire. The room was pretty much undamaged, except for smoke damage. We volunteered to have the dinner here. The caterers are making a spectacular feast, and it will just be us, and James, Gina, Anthony, and Meredith. The rest went home last night."
"Okay, cool."
Petunia finally dragged her butt downstairs an hour later, still dressed in her Christmas pajamas, the same as Lily's. Lily had some twenty packages and in them, some presents were new dresses, robes, books, afghans, house slippers, and an emerald cross pendant. The present she was really looking forward to though, was a makeover to be collected in the summer.
Just as Lily finished picking up her wrapping paper the doorbell rang.
"Oh, no! We lost track of time, and they're here, we're all in our pajamas still!" Lily's mom (Debbie) shouted.
"Relax, I'll get the door, go change." Lily said. What was the big deal, everybody's seen pajamas for the love of Pete. She went to the door, but first checked in the hall mirror to make sure her braids that she slept in were still intact.
She decided they looked okay and threw open the door. She felt slightly underdressed, because James and his father were wearing black suits and green silk ties, and Gina and Meredith were wearing black skirts and red blouses. She turned a dark shade of red and said, "My family will be down shortly, we just lost track of time. Make yourselves at home." and she led them into the living room. This wasn't a good idea, because it was still decorated with Petunia's wrapping paper and Lily's presents.
"Uh, err, sorry about the mess, Petunia couldn't grace us with her presence until 10:30." Lily explained, then started piling her stuff up. It soon became apparent she wasn't going to be able to lift it all, so she kicked it into a corner. "James! Be a gentleman and help Lily out. You haven't been raised in a barn!" Mrs. Potter hollered.
"Yes, Mum." James said dolefully, "What do you want me to carry Lily?"
"Actually, this stuff here." and she piled all the books he could hold on him, and draped some of her dresses across his shoulder.
"Here, I'll carry those for you Lily" Gina volunteered, and they followed Lily, carrying her jewelry, about 10 books, and her fuzzy slippers to her room.
"Thanks you guys, James, just drop that on the floor please, and Gina would you hand me those dresses?" Lily requested, and James high-tailed it out of her room. Gina however was still looking with interest, "I wouldn't have expected this kind of room from you Lily. I was expecting tomboy and tennis. Not feminine and frilly."
"Oh, uh thanks I guess. My mother hired an interior decorator to design it, and it kind of grew on me." I'll explain Lily's room to you (it's similar to mine). It was a large square room with white carpet and purple and yellow wallpaper. She had a cherry daybed on one wall with a fly net around it. On another wall was her cherry dresser, matching vanity, butterfly chair with ottoman, and her keyboard. On another wall were the cherry jewelry armoire and her closet. The other wall was composed of a computer table and entertainment center.
Just then Lily threw open the doors to her closet and Gina stared.
"Lily, I was under the impression you played sports, not shop."
"I do, my mother shops for me. Actually the only things in here that I've actually picked out are my sports outfits. I wouldn't have bought this other junk. I mean, who really needs all of these dresses? Mama's crazy."
"Yeah" Gina laughed, still amazed at Lily's clothes. This girl was treated like a princess, Gina knew that the Evans family was rich, after all, they lived in this neighborhood, but this was ridiculous.
"So do you have your own bathroom, too, Lily?"
"Yeah, through that door." Lily said, pointing at a door next to her entertainment center. Gina walked through the doors and was astounded once again. Gina had her own shower, sink and toilet. Lily had her own bath/shower combo, Jacuzzi, sink, and toilet, all exquisitely decorated.
"Good grief, you are treated like the Queen of Sheba" Gina exclaimed,
"Actually I prefer Queen Victoria, just joking." Lily told her, and got Gina to quit staring at her bathroom so she could change. Fifteen minutes Lily emerged, looking perfect as usual, and Gina was still looking with awe at her room.
"No way, I can't believe it took you fifteen minutes to look like that." Gina exclaimed. Lily did look pretty, dressed in black dress pants and a silk shirt.
"Ready for dinner?"
"Yeah." and they went downstairs to the living room. Debbie and Logan were downstairs, but Petunia wasn't.
"Lily, get your sister." Debbie told her daughter.
"Okay, sure." Lily went to the door and shouted, "PETUNIA. GET. DOWN. HERE. RIGHT. NOW. OR. I'LL. EAT. ALL. OF. THE. CRANBERRY. SALAD!"
Chapter 8
James started laughing and Gina looked shocked. Her parents said, "We'll give her one minute." The Potters looked mildly surprised, but didn't say anything. Petunia had two seconds left when she came leisurely strolling down the stairs. "Hello Mr. Potter, Mrs. Potter, Gina. James." She said the last name in a gushing voice, and Lily had a hard time controlling herself. They sat down at the dinner table, said grace, then started eating. Lily was surprised to see that James wasn't shoveling the food down like usual. She was disgusted to see Petunia staring at James like a piece of succulent meat from the market. All of a sudden she realized 'oh my, my fourteen year old sister has a crush on my eleven year old best friend' and she started giggling. Those giggles turned into full-fledged laughter, her green eyes dancing merrily. Everybody stared at her, Petunia looked like she wanted to say something, but didn't. James stared besotted at her for a moment, then said irritably, "What's so funny?"
"Geez, calm down. Don't have a horse." Lily said still laughing. She finally got calmed down enough to continue eating.
Soon Christmas break was over and it was time for them to return to Platform 9 3/4 to jump aboard the Hogwarts train. This time the Potters were going to take Lily so Logan wouldn't have to make the trip to London. Very soon they were back in the Gryffindor common room.
"Hey guess what?" Gina shouted.
"You will never guess what my brother and Lily did over break."
Gina was the first one through the portrait hole, so everybody was staring at James and Lily as they walked through. Lily was wondering why they were staring, and she almost wiped out, but James luckily caught her.
"Ah, here's the two wild ones now. Why don't you tell them what you two did?" Gina said peskily
"What?" they both said
"Why don't you two tell them how you were partners in 7 minutes in Heaven?"
"GINA!" They both yelled
"And things must have been getting pretty rowdy." Gina continued, and the entire common room was on the edge of their seats. Lily and James rushed over and were trying to shut Gina's mouth and get her to shut up, but she muffled out, "They knocked over a bunch of stuff, you could hear the clatter from outside the door."
The entire common room burst into laughter, and James and Lily wanted to fall through a hole in the floor. Lily levitated her trunk upstairs to her dorm, and James followed suite, only to his dorm. Peter, Sirius, and Remus were right on his heels, while Adriana, Renee, and Amelia were chasing Lily down. "So, you have a thing for the tomboy." Sirius said,
"She's not a tomboy" James said through gritted teeth
"Oh, yes, you should know from first hand experience." Sirius said.
"You're a moron." James said
"Really, come on, why don't you just tell us what happened." Remus said,
"Oh, Remus is jealous" Sirius said
"You got up on the wrong side of the bed this morning." James said, "Anyhow, we were at a neighborhood party, and we played 7 minutes in Heaven. We were just killing time, and Lily didn't even know what it was. My cousin Frederic just told her the rules as we went along; he was probably hoping he would be her partner. Anyhow I was, and we went in the broom closet.
"Go on" Peter said
"She threatened to kill me if I touched her, and we played cards. You won't believe this. Muggle cards don't explode" James said.
"Quit changing the subject, I can't believe you spent 7 minutes in a dark closet with the prettiest girl in our year. You can't tell me you didn't do something?" Sirius said.
"You're right, we did do something. We played CARDS!" James said perturbed.
Meanwhile, in the girls' dorm....
"You and James played 7 minutes in Heaven?" Renee squealed.
"Act-"Lily started
"You better not have. He is MINE. I called him at the beginning of the year. You must have forgotten who my father is." Amelia said.
"No, I haven't. My father is definitely getting a letter about this. Maybe he can transfer your father, and you can transfer too. Yes, I'm going to write that letter right now." Lily said. She did indeed write the letter, she was tired of Amelia. The contents of her letter basically consisted of: one of your workers daughters is making my life a living Halifax, could you please transfer him? Love your princess. Lily knew her father would do whatever she wanted if he thought Amelia was really bothering Lily. "See the letter. It's your own fault. Too bad."
"He won't listen to an eleven year old" Amelia said scathingly
"Not any eleven year old he won't. But he'll listen to Papa's princess." and Lily marched to the owl tower to send her message via a Hogwarts' owl.
The next day the Gryffindors were in Charms when an angry man came stomping in.
"AMELIA, THIS IS ALL OF YOUR FAULT. YOU PESTERED THE EVANS GIRL UNTIL SHE WROTE A NOTE TO HER FATHER! HE TRANSFERRED ME TO SIBERIA! ALL BECAUSE YOU COULDN'T USE YOUR MANNERS!" the man who was apparently Amelia's dad said.
"Well, she started it. She's just jealous of me because I'm pretty and popular." The whole room snorted at this, nobody liked Amelia after they got to know her. Lily, James, and Sirius were the most popular kids out of the entire 1,2,3, and fourth years. All four houses.
Lily stood up, "Oh yes, I'm sooo jealous of you Amelia. I mean, you're the most popular student in the WHOLE school."
"You're Logan Evans daughter?" The man asked.
"Yeah."
"He obviously raised a good daughter, I can't say the same. I'm honestly ashamed of the way she acts. It's caused us trouble before."
"I can see that. My mother always threatened to send me boarding school in Switzerland, maybe you could try that."
"I might have to. Good day Lily." he said and walked out. Lily wondered why he was so polite to her. He could have just got Amelia and left.
"Ow! Lily, you finally got rid of the bit**" one girl yelled.
"Children! Watch your language." the professor yelled.
"Sorry" the same girl muttered.
"I can't believe it? Did you write your dad?" one boy asked
"Yeah, she finally pushed me over the edge."
"Well, I think you're pretty rotten for it." Renee said.
"WHAT?"
"you heard me. That was pretty mean"
"You said you didn't like her. But you know what? I don't care what you think. Two can play this game Renee." Lily snapped back.
A few weeks later Lily walked into the Gryffindor common room and saw the boys piled in a corner. She walked over to them and cleared her throat to signify her presence.
"Oh, um hi Lily" Remus said. Sirius and Peter were trying to hide something in a stack of books.
"Oh, come on guys, she's our friend, it's not like she's going to tell." James said exasperated
"Tell what? What's going on?" Lily asked,
"We've been working on the ultimate prank aid." Remus said.
"Which is?"
"The Marauder's Map." all four said proudly.
"The whatter's what?" Lily asked
"The Marauder's Map." Peter supplied. Lily sat down; she could tell this would take awhile. "Explain."
"See," James showed her proudly, «This shows us every passage in Hogwarts, in and out, and it tracks everybody roaming the halls down."
"Cool, but anybody could use it. You could get in trouble."
"That's the beauty of it, there's special passwords to clear it and make it work" Sirius said.
"Great, see ya" Lily said, then turned around.
"Wait? Aren't you impressed? You're just leaving us just like that?" James wailed,
"Yeah, I'm going to the library."
"Why?" Remus asked.
"That's for me to know and you to find out."
"That's not fair, we told you our secret." Sirius pointed out.
"All's fair in love and war." Lily quoted.
"So, it's me you're in love with, isn't it?" Sirius asked teasingly.
"Nope, it's your buddy over there." Lily said truthfully, but in a teasing voice, then exited the room.
Lily came back about an hour later looking extremely pleased with her. She then walked up to the dorm to store some books she had checked out. She had left the door open, so when she turned around she walked right into it, hitting her eye.
"Je*** Chr***" She yelled, immediately sending two girls up the stairs to check on her. Since it wasn't their dormitory they couldn't enter it without one of the occupants permission, and Lily was crying, they half carried/half dragged her down to the common room.
"Boy, she's got a mouth on her." one of the girls said,
"What happened?" Remus asked,
"I think she ran into the door." one of the girls answered.
"I guess she hit her eye by the way she's holding it" James said,
"Ya think?" Sirius said sarcastically
"Come on Lily, let's look at it." James coaxed, trying to pry her hand away from her face.
"No! My eye's bleeding" Lily hollered
"Why do you think that?" Peter asked,
"It's wet!" she cried,
"Uh, Lily, I believe those are tears." James said, and Lily lifted her hand.
"Well, do you see blood?"
"No, just a knot on your eyebrow."
That night Lily's head hurt too bad to sleep so she stayed up in the common room. She was reading the Wizard of Oz when James came down about three.
"What're you doing?" Lily asked
"Insomnia, couldn't sleep."
"Oh."
"What are you reading?"
"The Wizard of Oz"
"Oh, so it's got magic in it."
"kind of" and Lily explained it to him.
"So, I completely don't understand, why didn't the witch just make Dorothy a portkey to begin with?"
"Don't you get it? This was a DREAM; it would completely ruin the plot. Or did you completely miss that part?"
"Gosh, you don't have to be so vindictive."
"Well, I emphasized that this ended up being a dream of Dorothy's. Geez Louise James, you're losing it. The wheel's still turning, but the hamster's dead."
"good grief, attack of the psycho." and James stomped back up to the boy's dorm.
Over the next three weeks, James was acting stranger and stranger. He seemed paranoid and shaky. She knew he stayed up most nights, and his eyes were bloodshot the next morning. He was also really irritable. Lily was becoming very worried about him; even quidditch was suffering, though imperceptibly to everybody else. Lily seemed to think she was the only person who noticed the change in him. She had heard of a few of these symptoms before, but she needed to check. She went to the library again and checked out "Magicals and Drugs: a lethal combination".
She read the book through, making notes of symptom similarities between those listed in the book and James. She was terrified. The book practically shouted he was on drugs, but she couldn't believe it. One day after class she asked their potions teacher, Madame Morano, where they stuck themselves. She told her if they were trying to be tricky they might stick a needle between their toes. That night in the common room Lily said, "James, let me see your feet."
"WHAT?"
"you heard me, let me see your feet."
"uh, okay" and he took off his shoes and socks. She gingerly checked between his toes. She would rather not think of what else was there, but no needle marks. She also checked his elbow, and nothing there either.
The next morning James had a seizure, and Lily thought she knew what it was. When he was taken to the hospital wing she explained everything she knew to Dumbledore.
"Dear Lily" he smiled kindly, "James has a temporary medical condition, we have already diagnosed it. That explains most of his symptoms, except for insomnia. It's good he has such a caring friend"
"What?" she said shocked
"He has a medical condition similar to muggle diabetes, but it will only last for a week once treated. We didn't catch it until a few days ago. He wasn't as hungry because of body defects."
"Oh, that's a relief, I was scared."
"Yes, I can see that, and I will talk to him about his insomnia. Don't worry Lily; he is definitely not on drugs. He will be fine"
The next day James was allowed visitors, and Lily went in first.
"James, I'm so sorry for doubting you."
"It's okay, thanks for caring"
"Yeah, get well soon, I brought you some candy." Lily leaned over and kissed him on the cheek and silently left the room, leaving a red James behind.
Sirius and Remus and Peter came in just as Lily left, Remus a little in the lead "Why's your face so red?" Sirius asked,
"Uh, it's not" James made up
"Yeah it is, Lily kissed you, I saw." Remus said, and James turned very red.
"Yeah, you two can't keep your hands off of each other, I doubt you played 21 in the broom closet" Sirius piped up.
"Children, quiet down, this is a hospital ward, not a nut house." Madame Pomfrey shouted
"We'll talk about this later, get well soon." Sirius whispered and they tiptoed out of the room.
Chapter 9
James got out of Valentine's Day. This wasn't lucky for him, because that's when Lily's prank was going to take place, though he didn't know it. He swung by the common room to meet Peter, Remus, Sirius, and Lily. Lily said she would catch up with them in just a minute, but she secretly followed them, jinxing James, Sirius, and Remus. On the back of Remus's robes she put "Hottie" in flashing letters. On Sirius's she put "Bad boy" and on James's she put "Major Hottie". They didn't know this, so the entire great hall was laughing at them, but they didn't realize it. The entire great hall also knew who did it, because they saw Lily tuck her wand in her robes, following them to the great hall, but they weren't about to say anything.At 7:45 the owls came in with Valentine's presents. Lily had given the boys huge cakes that said, "Will you be my valentine?" on them. Sirius had given her a gold locket, and Remus had sent her a copy of Miriam and Gilton, the magical equivalent of Romeo and Juliet. Her parents sent her dozen white roses and an emerald ring. Then dozens of owls came swooping in for Lily from half of the boys of the school. Single roses, cards, and chocolates were sent to her. Severus Snape had sent her a dozen red roses. The boys at the table looked like they were going to have a heart failure, James severely so."What's wrong?" Lily asked, and she realized the whole Gryffindor table was staring at her once again.
"Look at all of those cards, candy, and flowers. Not even Mia Yunmnin got that much stuff, and she's the most popular girl in school" Gina exclaimed. Indeed, the Ravenclaw girl had a stack a fraction the size of Lily's. "Well, erm, what are you looking at James?" she asked rebelliously. "I forgot. I forgot today was in Valentine's Day. I was in the hospital. I'm sorry Lily. I'll have your present by tomorrow morning" James said, truly apologetic "It's okay, you don't need to get me anything" Lily shouted after him, but he was out the door, along with his "major hottie" sign. Sirius saw it as left and said, "so that's what everybody was laughing at. Did you do it Lily?"
"Yeah I did it, but he's only partially what they were laughing at."The had charms first this morning, and the three bumper stickers walked in and the professor said with humor, "well, some poor girl has lost her senses. She apparently likes you three." "What do you mean Professor?" James asked,
"She's talking about your robes." Sirius said.
"And yours, Mr. Black, and Mr. Lupin."
Both boys pulled their robes around and they saw their signs. "LILY!" all three shouted, cause James just saw his.
"Miss Evans, did you do this?" the professor asked.
"Yes ma'am"
"Excellent, ten points to Gryffindor for each sign."
That night, Lily was walking back from the library when she was pulled into an empty classroom.
"Don't scream Lily" James said, and she stared. "I have your present, better late than never."
"You didn't have to get me anything" she demurred.
"Yeah right, I wouldn't have ever heard the end of it if I overlooked it when you sent me a cake. Very tasty I might add" She opened the present, and inside was a pair of silver hoop earrings in a vine pattern.
"Oh, they're beautiful, thank you!" and she quickly hugged him and ran to the Gryffindor portrait. The next morning James was inordinately pleased to see her wearing the earrings.
The quidditch team was practicing their butts off for their final match against Slytherin. Their practices were lengthened to an hour and a half every night, and the teachers helped out by giving them three hours worth of homework every night. The five friends worked out an idea though. James would do transfiguration homework, Sirius would do defense against the dark arts homework, Remus would do divination homework, Lily would do charms homework, and Peter would do herbology homework, the easiest. Everybody finished their assigned subject, and then they switched papers, rewording the answers.
They would have to beat Slytherin by 50 points to win the house cup. Soon the game day rolled around, and the seven nervous players walked onto the field. Shane and Tupper Ware, the Slytherin captain shook hands in mini arm wrestling match, and then they mounted their brooms. The Gryffindor chasers were all over the field, intercepting the quaffle, cherry picking, and scoring. Slytherin had excellent players, but they lacked the teamwork James, Lily, and Remus shared. They seemed to know what the other was thinking, so Lily would go distract one, James would intercept the pass, and Remus would score. Tupper Ware, the seeker called a time out to chew the team out, and they went back onto the field with a renewed force, even though the score was 80-0.The chasers came onto the field in full force. The Gryffindor chasers were beginning to slack off, so they were in for a surprise. The Slytherin beaters were getting rather violent, especially toward Lily and James. Sirius had his hands full protecting just the two of them, while Caitlin tried to get back at the Slytherin chasers. It seemed like centuries since the game started to Lily, and she was relieved when the game finally ended when Tupper Ware caught the snitch, but luckily the Gryffindors were in the lead by two hundred points. The chasers immediately made their way to the ground, sweaty and exhausted. They had truly played their hearts out that game. Lily turned to James just in time to see the Slytherin beater; Ronald Natoby hit the bludger straight at his back. "James, move" she yelled, but he didn't have time to move. Lily had started flying toward him as soon as she saw the bludger being hit. She made a dive to try to stop him from hitting the ground.
Lily suddenly knew she wouldn't reach him; he was too far away, falling too fast. If she had her wand, she could levitate him, but it was in the locker room. Her eyes never left him. She hovered a few feet off the ground on her broom, just staring at him. Her eyes started to burn, but she wouldn't blink. James suddenly started slowing down. He had almost stopped completely when he landed gently on the ground. Lily finally closed her stinging eyes and passed out, falling the remaining few feet herself.
Professor Dumbledore moved quickly out of the stands and reached Lily's side. He did a spell that transported her instantly to the hospital wing. He told James to follow him. Professor Dumbledore and James got to the hospital wing and saw Madame Pomfrey, the young nurse checking Lily.
"Well?" Dumbledore questioned,
"She has no injuries, she seems to be suffering from exhaustion. What happened?"
"It's quite amazing. James fell off of his broom and Lily here stared at him, willing him to slow down. She never broke eye contact and he did indeed slow down. If she hadn't done that he would probably have very severe injuries if he hadn't perished on the spot from a snapped spinal cord."
"Amazing. Very few can do that" Madame Pomfrey said with admiration.
"Yes, it is, isn't it? James, you owe Lily a great deal, I wanted you to hear what happened while I explained to Madame Pomfrey. You should be examined as well"
"No, I'm fine." James argued.
"Nonsense, this great excitement has put a strain on you. You need rest." and Madame Pomfrey pulled out her wand and with a "CLACK" James was wearing his pajamas, and she put him in the bed next to Lily's. She gave him a potion to make him sleep, and he was soon completely out of it.
Lily and James woke up about the same time and saw Madame Pomfrey standing over them. "Children, I'm going down for dinner, then there's a teacher's meeting, so you'll be on your own for awhile. Be good." she said, and then walked out.
"Hey, umm, thanks Lily for saving me." James said hesitantly.
"Any time Potter, I love to fall off my broom."
James smiled and said, "no seriously, Dumbledore said I could have been hurt very badly if you hadn't saved me."
"it's nothing James, forget about it."
James was sitting up and rummaging through the nightstand between their beds.
"What are you doing?"
"When I was in here close to Valentine's Day I left a chess set in here. Ah ha! Here it is, wanna play?"
"Sure." and James moved over to Lily's bed and they played wizard's chess. The boys had taught Lily how to play earlier this year and she was pretty good at it by now.
The quidditch team came thumping in like a herd of elephants. "Are we interrupting something?" Sirius asked, not noticing the chess set.
"You're interrupting me beating the living daylight out of James" Lily said, motioning to the board where James only had two rooks, a knight, and a queen, while Lily was only missing a knight.
"Oh, you're going for tamer pursuits now huh?" Remus asked, earning a questioning glance from James and Lily.
"No more 7 minutes in Heaven!" Remus and Sirius both said.
"Yeah, real funny guys." Lily said, and finished James off.
"I wanted to say you two played excellently together today. I've never had three chasers work so well together, especially you two." Shane said looking at James and Lily.
"Oh, stop it Shane, you'll make me blush" James said in a girlie voice, effectively sending the team into riotous laughter.
The next day when they got out was March 31st. James had been planning his April fool's pranks for some time. They woke up the next morning and James's plan was already in motion. On the back of every outfit she owned James had written in glittery green letters 'JAMES POTTER IS THE CUTEST, SMARTEST, FUNNIEST BOY AT HOGWARTS. AND HE'S A GRYFFINDOR!' The best part of this joke was she wouldn't be able to remove the message for five hours. James had turned all of Sirius's clothes as well as his hair pink. And he had painted Remus's fingernails neon pink while he was asleep. James had a hard time controlling his laughter when all of his friends noticed each other's pranks, then pointed them out. James thought Lily was going to have a stroke. All of his friends retaliated. Lily wrote 'Lily Evans is the most gorgeous, nicest, sweetest, funniest girl anywhere. I don't know why she likes a dork like me.' on the back of his robes.. Sirius put a spell on him so every time he said a word that started in a vowel he blew bubbles, and Remus hexed him so his shoes kept changing sizes. First they were too small, then he walked out of them because they were too big.
Peter escaped unscathed, so when the five of them went down to the great hall, he was the only normal one. Everybody erupted in laughter at them.
"Hey, Lily, I didn't know you liked James." Gina said as she sat down, "Oh, James, you like Lily too? How cute!"
"Hey, no-"
"HEY EVERYBODY, MY BROTHER JAMES AND LILY EVANS ARE GOING OUT!" Gina shouted.
James could see a major catfight would happen if Lily moved out of her chair. She jumped out of there and if James hadn't held the back of her robes Gina would have been mince meat. He whispered in her ear, "Leave her alone, I've got a plan to get her back later."
Lily quit flopping and sedately ate her breakfast. As soon as she and James was done she dragged him out of the great hall and said, "Tell me now, I need revenge."
"You're scaring me, but anyhow here's what we do. In our potions book there is a recipe for the truth potion. We slip some to Gina and she will tell the truth about whatever goes on in her mind."
"OOH. That's good. When do you want to work on it?"
"Tonight. I'll meet you at eleven o'clock in the common room." Then they both returned to their friends. The entire school now believed they were a couple, after all, Lily was already bossing James around.
Gina kept waiting all day for either Lily or James to do something to her, but it never happened. At eleven o'clock Lily put on her robe and fuzzy house shoes and went to meet James. He had all the stuff they needed and was in a dark corner.
"Okay, I've got everything, we just need to mix it up. I'll heat the liquid ingredients, you chop sycamore root and poppy blossom."
Got it." and Lily and James set to work. By one o'clock that morning they had a bottled truth potion. They had it all planned out how James would get it in her goblet the next evening.
Chapter 10
That evening at diner Lily went over to Gina a not nice look on her face.
"Hey, I want to talk you now Gina." Lily said in her meanest voice.
"Uh, okay" Gina said rather weakly. Lily led her over to the corner; the entire school was watching them, not James who was slipping the potion in her goblet.
"I don't appreciate you spreading rumors about James and me. We are NOT going out. Those were April Fool's pranks."
"But, I was just trying to-"
"I don't care. Just don't do it again, unless you want me to tell your secrets" Lily said. By the way every ear in the great hall was straining she could tell nobody heard the conversation. Gina sat back down at the table and immediately gulped down the contents of the goblet.
James and Lily hightailed it to the common room, waiting on Gina. Gina was one of the last to come in, except for Remus and Sirius who still weren't there yet. Gina walked in and started talking, "Oh, Lily, I'm glad to see you. You will never believe what James said about you over Christmas break." James looked like he was going to pass out. "He said you looked droop dead sexy in that gold dress you wore to our house. He has the hots for you, believe me. That's all he talked about. Lily this, Lily that." Remus walked in about then, "Oh, Remus, you'll never guess what Lily said."
"Remus, you will never guess what Lily said about you in the dorm" Gina said. "She said at the beginning of the year that she thought you were adorable. She loved your chocolate brown eyes, that's a quote. She thought you were the sweetest nicest thing, and then she kind of switched to the bad boy type. She didn't mean for anybody to know, but I heard her mumbling in her sleep." Remus was looking at Lily with amusement. Lily was covering her face with her hands. Then Sirius walked in.
"Oh, Sirius. I've been waiting for you!" Gina said in a gushing voice. Sirius looked scared. "I told all the girls in my dorm I liked somebody else, but I truly love you. Your gorgeous gray eyes, jet-black hair. Yes, you are truly the most handsome person I've ever seen. I love you Sirius! Just think what our children would look like! Our black hair, your gray eyes. A beautiful child it would be. I didn't want to reveal my feelings because you're James's friend, but I can't keep them back anymore!" and she French kissed a stunned Sirius on the lips.
Sirius managed to peel Gina away from him. "Umm, Gina, you're obviously delirious right now, I think you should get some sleep."
"Will you tuck me in?" Gina asked flirtatiously.
"No, but Lily will" he said firmly, Lily's eyes widened.
"But-"
"Tuck her in."
"Okay" Lily said weakly. She got Gina tucked safely into bed. The entire common room had heard every word she said. Their plan really backfired. Lily walked reluctantly back to the common room to face the music. She chose the seat the farthest away from James, giving him a wary look.
"Sweet Lord, that was a train wreck" Lily said.
"I agree. We need to work on our revenge plots. This really backfired." James said.
"YOU TWO DID THIS!" Sirius and Remus shouted.
"Yeah, for revenge." Lily said sadly, "So, are you going to go out with Gina now?"
"With that Luna chick? Never, she needs to cool down a bit!" Sirius exclaimed.
"Sirius you got off easy compared to me." James said.
"Why what did she say that you said?" Remus asked.
"You don't want to know." Lily said.
"Yeah we do" both Remus and Sirius said
"She repeated what I said about Lily's choice of attire for our Potter family Christmas ball."
"You went to a Potter family gathering?" Sirius asked with awe.
"Unfortunately yes." Lily said.
"Was is good or bad what you said about her?" Remus asked
"Yes."
"What?"
"I said she was drop dead sexy in her gold dress." James said, trying to mask it with a cough
"What?"
"Drop dead sexy." James mumbled, and both he and Lily slouched in their chairs, covering their beat red faces.
"Oh you idiot!" Sirius exclaimed
"Hey!"
"Oh, I forgot to tell you what Lily said about you James." Gina said, reappearing in her dressing gown.
"What?" James asked weakly.
"She never really meant to tell me this, but she talks in her sleep a lot. One time she was dreaming about you. Here's what she said: "James I love you" over and over, like she was trying to convince you of it in her sleep. It was quite amazing."
"I did not!" Lily said indignantly.
"You were asleep, how would you know?" Gina asked, and havoc managed, went back to bed.
Lily turned a brick red color and covered her face with a throw pillow.
"You're not trying to suffocate yourself are you?" Sirius said.
"Yes!" and it almost sounded like she was crying
"Oh, come on, it wasn't that bad. At least she didn't kiss you!" Sirius said.
"I would hope not!" Lily exclaimed,
"You're not helping!" James growled.
"Would you guys just please leave me alone for awhile? I'm too embarrassed to move."
"Oh, okay" Sirius said, and they all moved. The kind girl prefect came over to her and said, "It will be okay, they'll forget about it soon."
"No they won't" Lily said, pillow still over her face.
"You got the best end of the bargain" the prefect said, and then Caitlin Mentz came over too. "Yes, James got his secret about you revealed, Sirius got kissed, Remus got dissed, and you had your dreams, or nightmares exposed. You can't control your dreams, Lily" Caitlin said
"Yes, but he just said I looked nice. I said the 'L' word", Lily said, still crying.
"One day he will crave those words from you, I guarantee it" Caitlin said, and left
The next day you could cut the tension between James and Lily with a knife. When James asked Lily to pass the syrup at breakfast they were both careful not to touch each other. They didn't start a conversation with each other, and they never mad eye contact. This went on for several days, lasting into Easter break. None of them went home during the break. James wanted to stay because his friends were there, and Lily's parents were away in Jamaica. They regretted missing her, so they sent her a TV and a Nintendo 64 to make it up. Lily used a special spell to make it work inside of Hogwarts.
During the second day of the weeklong break Sirius finally yelled at them, "That's it you two, you are going to stay here until you work it out!" and he dragged Remus off into the corner where they could watch, but not listen. Peter was already studying in the library for end of year tests. Lily looked up and emerald eyes met sapphire eyes across the chessboard.
"Let's just forget about it" Lily suggested.
"We both know we can't."
"Okay, then let's talk about it."
"Fine. I really like you Lily, you're smart and pretty."
"I like you too James, but I don't want to mess up our friendship."
"Good, me neither. You're really pretty, but I don't think we should go out." They both smiled a real smile for the first time since the truth potion.
Lily waved Remus and Sirius over and said, "Do you guys wanna play a really cool game?"
"yeah, what?" they all said at the same time.
"It's a muggle game. I'll explain it to you, come on, it's in my room." They all followed her up the Girl's dorm. She was the only one in there that didn't go home for break, so they assumed it would be okay. She explained to them how to play 007 Golden eye. They were all really excited about it, so she levitated it down to the common room. Lily didn't believe it would be a good idea to be caught with three boys up there.
Since they could play with four players all of them played at the same time. It was comical because when any of the boys met up with Lily, who was Xenia, they ran, because she could kill them easily. Especially since she was always stocked with the maximum amount of ammo, had back up guns, body armor, and the best weapon available. The boys would battle it out, laughing and yelling, and then Lily would sneak in there and kill them all. The were all having a good time, and the hours flew by quickly.
Lily flew backwards, landing on Sirius's lap.
"Hey!" he shouted, "What happened?"
"I hit her accidentally in the stomach." James said, and Sirius gave him a dirty look.
"Hey, it was an accident!" James repeated.
"Lily, are you okay?" Remus asked; she didn't seem to be breathing.
"Yeah" she gasped, "I just got the breath knocked out of me."
"I'm really sorry Lily, it was an accident." James said,
"Yeah, I know. It's okay."
"Lily you're dead!" James exclaimed with delight.
"What?"
"I just killed Xenia on here. This is the first time you've died this entire time."
"You killed me when I wasn't even looking?" she yelled in rage
"Uh, yeah." James said weakly.
"I can't believe you. You lowdown cheating scalawag!"
"Lily, calm down. It's just a game."
"JUST A GAME? JUST A GAME? I HAVE NEVER BEEN KILLED ON THAT GAME!" and Lily was truly mad. She had to vent her anger so she pushed him off his stack of cushions.
James had automatically grabbed her wrist, so she went tumbling off the cushions too. They rolled for quite away because Lily had pushed him so hard. Lily ended up sitting on James, laughing hysterically. "That's what you get for killing the great Xenia" she declared.
"Lily, get over yourself. Any idiot could have killed you when you were paying attention." James retorted.
"Really? I seem to recall you being killed every time you ran across the great Xenia."
"That's it. I challenge you to a 007 contest against me. Just you and me. I'll show you once and for all who's the best 007 player."
"You're on Potter" and Lily got up and walked haughtily to her stack of cushions.
James and Lily battled their game out for hours it seemed. They were both tense, staring at the TV screen, unaware of the outside world. They each had three kills, and everybody was surprised James was holding his own against Lily. Finally Sirius reached over Lily's shoulder and pushed the start button to pause the game.
"HEY" Lily and James shouted at the same time.
"Relax you two. Why don't you make a bet to make things more interesting." Sirius suggested evilly
"Did you bring your swimming suit Lily?" James asked.
"Yeah, why?"
"The loser has to wear their swimming suits tomorrow when classes resume."
"Okay, you have yours don't you?"
"Oh yes. What if it's a tie?"
"We'll both wear our suits. Got it? Okay, there's fifteen minutes left on the game. 1,2,3, start!" and the game were underway.
Lily and James really battled it out. When the game ended the score was Xenia: 5 kills
1 suicide
5 dies
Bond: 5 kills
0 suicides
4 dies
"Oh, no, I lost" Lily groaned
"Oh Yes! I won" James yelled.
Lily dragged herself to the owlery to write her mother. She had lied about bringing a swimming suit; so she wrote her mother that she needed one, please send by tomorrow morning. Sure enough, when Lily woke up the next morning a swimming suit was waiting for her. It was unfortunately a two-piece. It was chameleon green, changing from a misty green to deep emerald. Lily really had to hand it to her mother; she could really pick out nice clothes. It had bikini bottoms and a tanking top that had an open back that laced up. Luckily it came with a matching sarong and flip-flops. She braided her hair into a French braid and reluctantly walked down to the brimming full Gryffindor common room.
She walked down the stairs, steeling herself with an invisible armor. When she walked into the common room every guy stared. Lily wasn't sure if it was because she looked nice or she was wearing a swimming suit. She was most definitely not going to back down though. She walked calmly to the area where the first years were sitting.
"What are you wearing?" Gina asked
"I lost a bet so I'm wearing my swimming suit today."
"Who did you bet with?" Adriana asked
"None other than James Potter." and James smirked at this.
"So are we about ready for breakfast?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, let's go" Remus said. They walked down the common room, Lily's flip-flops clicking noisily. When they entered everybody stared at Lily's attire.
They sat down eating their breakfast, everyone surprised at Lily's calm. Madame Morano, the potions teacher came over and said, "The Headmaster wants to speak with you, go directly to the head table." Lily walked noisily over to the table.
"Miss Evans, I am curious about your choice of attire. Please explain why you are not wearing the Hogwarts uniform." Dumbledore said with a twinkle in his eyes.
"I lost a bet sir."
"And if the other person won they would've been wearing a suit?" and Lily nodded.
"My dear, who did you bet with?"
"James Potter, sir." Lily told him
"Well, what have you learned from this experience?"
"Not to bet with James Potter, because he has a way of getting what he wants."
Dumbledore burst out in merry laughter, "Well, you may wear your swimming suit for the rest of the day. You must honor your bet."
Lily walked back to the table, taking satisfaction in seeing James and Sirius staring at her.
Lily repeated her conversation with Dumbledore and everybody was amazed he wasn't mad. None of the teachers seemed upset either. In almost every class Lily requested to have the heat turned up, and all complied.
Five weeks later they were exiting transfiguration. "Boy, that was a tough test." Remus said.
"Yeah it was" Lily agreed.
"Lily, you just had a brain freeze from wearing your swim suit." James said.
"Oh shut up Mr.-I-Know-Everything-About-Transfiguration." Lily said.
"Hey, relax you two, don't get into a cat fight" Sirius laughed, «After all, all we have is the house feast tonight and then we leave tomorrow. Summer break."
"Yeah right, I forgot." Lily said with sarcasm.
"She's just mad she can't find another excuse to wear that swimming suit." James told everyone.
"More like you can't find another reason for me to wear it. Come on James, I saw you staring at me." Lily said teasingly, and then ducked to avoid a jelly-legs curse from James.
Slytherin won the house cup by five points, so most of the Gryffindors, including James, Sirius, and Remus refused to attend. Lily and some girls went down to eat; bring some food up to the boys. The next day the Potter's and the Evans's were waiting for their children at Platform 9 3/4.