Chapter 2: It Must've Been Love (Is it over now?)
"LILYYYY!" an irate voice shouted. "WHERE DID YOU PUT MY BLUE DRESS ROBES??"
"I NEVER TOUCHED YOUR STUPID DRESS ROBES!" another voice shrieked back. "WHY CAN'T YOU KEEP TRACK OF YOUR OWN THINGS!!!???"
It was late August, and the Potters were packing to go to Hogwarts. This involved loud yelling matches, a very messy house, and extremely frightened friends.
James's three troublemaking best friends had turned up to help the couple pack. Peter was currently cowered in a corner of the living room, in the dark, praying that the couple wouldn't see him before they were done loading their trunks. Remus had locked himself in the library and put several complicated warding charms on the doors to keep the angry bickering out. Sirius was, however, still in the thick of things. He was perched calmly on the couple's bed, watching with a bemused expression on his handsome face as the couple "had it out" with each other.
Lily, clad only in a silver slip that would normally have been the death of James, as it resembled a piece of scanty lingerie, was currently folding her robes and undergarments into her trunk methodically. In fact, if one didn't look at her face, one would think she was being very calm and organized about this whole packing ordeal. Her pretty mouth was scowling, however, and her eyes shot daggers at James every few seconds. Her movements were a bit jerky, and once or twice she slammed a book or bit of parchment into her trunk with more than the required force. James, meanwhile, was stomping around the room, rifling through the bureau and the wardrobe, searching for the aforementioned dress robes, piles of discarded clothes lying in his wake. His hair was messy as usual, and his glasses were slightly askew. His socks didn't match.
Sirius was trying very hard not to laugh. He'd seen Lily and James go through worse arguments than this one—by now, he had become quite good at sensing when the couple had reached their boiling points (ie., he'd learned to tell when it was safe to sit and chuckle at the state of affairs, and when he should surreptitiously exit the room to avoid getting hexed). They hadn't gotten very far yet.
As James kicked the wardrobe door in frustration and let out a strangled yell, Lily dropped her last casual robe into her trunk, slammed the lid down, sat on it to lock it, and then made a beeline for the wardrobe James had just kicked. She shoved James aside before he had time to protest, and yanked one of the doors open. Reaching in, she deftly pushed aside two or three dress robes, then stuck her entire head inside to better see whatever she was looking for. James walked around wringing his hands, muttering an angry tirade all the while. It sounded like: "...always rearrange my things without telling me, things were better when we still had house-elves, why can't you just leave my clothes alone, I always knew where my dress robes were before, no respect for other people's belongings..."
James' voice got louder and louder, until he was just short of shouting. He was now facing Lily's back; her head and arms were still inside the wardrobe. "ARE YOU LISTENING TO ME??"
Sirius took the moment to sneak out the door, tiptoeing down the stairs toward the kitchen.
Wordlessly, but with a look that could kill, Lily emerged from the wardrobe, turned, slammed the door shut, and smacked James in the chest with blue dress robes.
"WHERE DID YOU HIDE THEM?!?! I'VE BEEN SEARCHING THE WARDROBE FOR AGES!"
In a very icy voice, Lily replied, "You put the dress robes away last time, darling, not I." She turned and glided out of the room, clicking the door shut behind her. James was left standing in the middle of the room, holding his robes, angry defeat written all over his face. He stuffed the robes into his trunk without folding them, and glowered at his reflection in the mirror.
"Oh, dear," the mirror murmured.
"Don't you start," James spat. Just then, the door of the room opened. Lily came back in, a haughty look on her face. A flush was rising up her cheeks as she crossed the room, opened her trunk, pulled out a set of light green robes, and put them on. Her face was getting redder. It took a moment before James realized that she'd packed all her clothes before getting dressed, and let loose with loud guffaws.
Lily reached for her wand, intent on hexing him, but realized that she'd accidentally put it into the trunk when she'd taken out the robes. Amidst louder laughter from James (who was now clutching his stomach), she pulled out her wand, slammed the trunk closed, whispered something, and then practically ran out of the room.
James' screams could be heard throughout the house. "EVANS!" (James only called Lily by her last name when he was really peeved. It seemed at these times that he would revert back to before their fifth year, when the two of them were still archenemies.) "WHERE DID YOU BANISH MY HAIR TO?"
Sirius sniggered in the kitchen, and glanced at Lily, who had just come in with a smug look on her face.
"Cup of tea?" she asked.
When the Potters finally arrived at Hogwarts, they still weren't speaking to each other. (James did have his hair back, though.) The two had apparated into Hogsmeade without saying a single word, and climbed into a horseless carriage that was waiting for them. They entered Dumbledore's office silently, and stood in front of the old wizard with their eyes fixed on the ground stubbornly.
Dumbledore chuckled, after a moment of assessing the situation. Lily and James looked up at him, with looks that challenged him to even try to make a comment.
"Shall I show you to your rooms, then?" the headmaster smiled, rising. Without waiting for a response, he opened the door and ushered the two of them out before him.
The rest of the day was spent trailing behind Dumbledore, finding out where their offices were, what their schedules would be like, and what material they should cover in their classes. Perhaps because of the chilly atmosphere between the married couple, Dumbledore even assigned them separate bedrooms—though they were connected by a lounge, in a similar way to the Head Boy/Girl rooms which the two had occupied in their seventh year at Hogwarts. At several points during the day, the two of them had to actually talk to each other, and were coldly civil. Several passing professors shivered when they heard the frigid tones used.
Later that evening, Lily was headed out to Hagrid's cabin to visit the gamekeeper. One could hear her muttering, "Stupid git," as she trudged along. She reached Hagrid's and knocked on the door. Hagrid's half-grown puppy Fang was barking madly in the background as Hagrid's enormous footsteps came to the door. He was mumbling to himself as he turned the knob.
He opened the door and Fang rushed out, nearly knocking Lily over. As Fang licked her face excitedly, Hagrid chuckled and held the door open for her. "C'min, Lily, come righ' in," the huge man said, smiling.
After she'd calmed Fang sufficiently (he still trailed behind her yapping loudly), Lily went in and threw herself down at the table. "Haaaagriiiiiiiid," she whinged, head in her arms, "I haaaaate hiiiiiiiim."
"I take 't yeh don' mean Fang when yeh say tha'." Hagrid grinned at her, as Fang lay down across Lily's feet. "Yeh mean James?"
Lily glared at Hagrid before banging her head on the table repeatedly. "Yeeees...him. Whatever possessed me to get married to the stupid git?"
Hagrid continued to smile. "Aw, yeh don' mean tha', Lily. Yeh two was meant ter be together. Knew it from th' firs' momen' I saw yeh two, glarin' a' each other after th' squid'd pulled yeh up on yer firs' day."
"Yes, and do you remember WHYYYYY the squid had to pull us up in the first place, Hagrid?"
Hagrid's smile faltered a bit, but then he began to laugh, his eyes twinkling at Lily, at Fang, and around his cabin. "Sure I do. James was laughin' at yer red hair cuz he knew it'd get to yeh, and yeh fell fer it an' shoved him righ' outta th' boat. 'Bout then th' whole boat tipped over, an' you, Remus, an' Sirius all went over, too." He continued to laugh uproariously.
Lily frowned sullenly, chin resting on her arms. After a while, though, she began to giggle as well, as Hagrid let out some strange sounding snorts at the memory. A few giggles turned into peals of laughter, and soon both her and Hagrid were rolling around laughing their heads off, remembering how Sirius and Remus had tried to keep the boat from tipping by grabbing onto the nearest thing they could find—which had happened to be the boat Snape, Nott, Crabbe, and Goyle were in. The soon-to-be Slytherins' boat had tipped over along with theirs and the Hogwarts squid had had its tentacles full that day.
It took them a while to calm down. Lily sighed as she wiped her eyes, thinking that a good laugh had probably been what she'd needed the most after a week of hellish living with James. They'd managed to grate on each other's nerves every single waking moment, and James had actually camped out in his study for the last four nights before they left for Hogwarts. She sighed again, picking up the teacup in front of her and sipping. She nearly spat all over the table.
"Hagrid, how long has this tea been sitting here? It's stone cold!" she scolded him, and began preparing a new draught. Hagrid grinned sheepishly, his eyes darting everywhere, and mumbled something that sounded like "a few hours." Lily bustled about, cleaning up Hagrid's kitchen and serving up a steaming cup of tea. While she was at Hagrid's cabin, she decided, she might as well do something to vent the stress and frustration.
So she baked.
Hagrid was forced to sit back and watch helplessly as Lily cooked up a storm. By the time she left, exhausted, happy, and rather sticky with sugar, Hagrid had a week's worth of treats and Fang was chewing on a biscuit with a look of doggy bliss on his face.
Hagrid watched from the window as Lily disappeared into the castle.
"All righ', yeh can come out now." A rustling was heard, and James Potter stepped out from under his invisibility cloak, stretching.
"Are those Lily's strawberry tarts?" he asked first, sniffing hungrily. Hagrid barely had time to nod before James was on them like some starving animal. "Shwee washnd bmatde deshe wing (gulp) ages!" ("She hasn't made these in ages!")
"I just don't know, Hagrid," James said a good hour later, after he'd finished wolfing down a good portion of Lily's baked goods and drinking nearly all of the tea. "I mean, we were perfectly all right spending time together while we were still at Hogwarts, and goodness knows we were happy right after getting married, but somehow things sort of started going downhill after about the one-year mark. Especially lately...these past weeks have been awful. We've gotten on each other's nerves every other minute, and we can't seem to stop having these arguments over trivial things. We used to be able to understand each other perfectly, Hagrid. I just don't know what happened."
Hagrid looked thoughtful. "Do yeh still love 'er?"
James paused, then nodded, slowly. "Of course I do. Though the fact that I had to stop and think about it really says something, doesn't it? I know I love Lily, though...I'll always love Lily. It's just—well, always loving someone deep inside doesn't necessarily make living with them all the time wonderful. I mean, I'll love her, but at the same time, I'll want to curse her. It's not a good feeling." He turned imploring eyes to the gamekeeper. "I want the first year back. Why couldn't things have stayed the way they were before?"
Without waiting for an answer, he stood and pulled his invisibility cloak about him. "Well, Hagrid, I should be getting back to the castle. I'm supposed to get up early to meet with McGonagall to get some last-minute instructions. It was good seeing you again, though." Right before his head disappeared beneath the cloak's folds, he threw Hagrid a lopsided grin. "And it was funny, wasn't it, when we all fell into the lake?" Hagrid could hear some faint laughter, muffled in the cloak, as the cabin door opened and closed and James left.
Hagrid sat for a few moments, looking at Fang. Then he grinned.
"Th' two of them'll work things out. Yeh'll see. They was always meant ter be together." Firmly resolving to let fate run its course, Hagrid set about tasting some of Lily's strawberry tarts that James had been so ecstatic about.
"YEECCHH!!!" he spat it out into the sink. "Blimey, this 'ere's worse'n my treacle tarts!" He gulped tea rapidly, then sat back in his chair with a look of pained relief on his face. Then he offered the rest of the tart to Fang, who gobbled it up happily. Hagrid shook his great head. "It mus' be love, then. Wi' the both of yeh." Fang barked a couple times in acquiesce.
Back at the castle, James barely escaped being noticed by a roaming Filch. He finally arrived at the portrait hiding his and Lily's lounge, and whispered the password. The portrait—a very thin lady in a green dress (she was a friend of the Gryffindor Fat Lady's, she had told them, when Dumbledore had shown them their quarters)—swung open to let him into the lounge. Removing his cloak, he was about to head off to his own room (deciding that he'd rather not try and get back into Lily's good graces tonight), when he noticed that Lily was sleeping in one of the armchairs before the fireplace.
She was clad only in a thin nightdress, and her feet were curled up beneath her. Her red waves, which had been tied up in a neat coiffure during the day, tumbled around her shoulders and back. Several strands had fallen in her face, and her expression was peaceful—a small smile quirked her lips as she mumbled in her sleep. James took the moment to gaze at her, and wondered at how childlike she looked when she slept. She could easily be mistaken for a fifth-year student. He pondered whether he should just leave her there to sleep—after all, he didn't want to wake her up; they'd probably have another fight about his coming in so late—but he didn't really want to see her catch cold by sleeping in front of the dying fire all night, either. He wondered where they kept the spare blankets, forgetting that as a fully qualified wizard he could conjure some up himself. Finally, he very carefully picked up her small form and began carrying her slowly to her room. Lily was a deep sleeper, so it wasn't really very hard to avoid waking her up. Still sleeping, she curled naturally into James's chest, and one small hand reached up to clutch at the front of his robes. She mumbled a bit more in her sleep, and smiled. James unconsciously smiled down at her, then tucked her carefully into her bed and turned out the lights. He was leaning down to kiss her when suddenly Lily mumbled, "James...you stupid git...." Obviously having a dream about one of their arguments. So instead of kissing her, James merely made a face at her, and fled to his own room.
Notes:
Oh dear. Hagrid's accent was...difficult. I tried?
That's about it. Questions? Comments? Randomness to share? Please do. ;)
