FIRST OF THE LAST THREE CHAPTERS…

Yup, it's only a short period of time before Lily and James end up together. And I'm going to be stuck in schoolwork for the rest of the year. Hmph.

Anyway, still kind of sad chapter here.

And that's about it.

Thanks for the reviews! I have more than 300 reviews! So happy…

lilybird

ta-tiana258

Sayo

Anarane Anwamane

Lady Ruth

crazyforJames

Alex'z Death Chic

zwizwi: yup, I've been reading "The Boy Who Loved Lily" that's why I got interested in Meteor Garden in the first place… and I'm also growing impatient since rinoa stopped writing again! Okay, I'm calm…

oobergoober: yup. Actually, school starts in June – for normal lucky students. But in my case, it started last week of May because my school has three semesters a year.

Potterfan18

shortydork

Treeling11

Little House Girl

SpiritedPhoenix: Uh, no I'm not Chinese and more unfortunately, I have to rely on English subtitles or dubbings. But I'm really inspired to learn Mandarin, though.

moozy: yup. And according to my dad, we have some Spanish ancestry – which is like the most common thing in the whole of my country… well, most. But, anyway, Lily will definitely give James a chance. Well, she has to.

Padfoot101

east of the shore

mutsumi: bakit may nagpoll na look alike Philip-Dao at Gab-Lei sa yahoogroups? Hindi ako papayag non. Anyway, just as what I said, I'm getting carried away with James' POV. Si Lily naman dito, so ayon…

snow-angel

Hinkypunk

Okay, now JK Rowling is coming up with HP5 so that means she owns HP.

And I own everything else.

i remember all the nights i lay awake staring at artificial stars on my ceiling... wishing pain was artificial too... -- hungry young poets, "rebirth"

~*~*~*~

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR: Obliviate… To Love?

Toni marched into the dormitory as she banged the door close behind her. She was still soaking wet and didn't bother to dry herself with magic. She was so upset, she was worried she might turn herself into a mosquito if she even dared to try a spell on herself. A scowl was plastered across her face as she walked to one side of the room and threw her broom aside.

Kiara, who was lying face down on her bed while reading a book, looked up at Toni and followed her friend around the room with her eyes. And quite confused, she asked, "What happened to you?" with knitted brows, as she sat up to get a better view of Toni.

After throwing her broom to the corner of the room, Toni turned around swiftly and glared at Kiara. "Do I have to answer that?"

Kiara scrunched up her nose. Yeah, did Toni really have to say what happened? "Quidditch practice," Kiara uttered, answering her own question.

Toni raised her eyebrows to say yes. Then, she went straight to Lily who was studying at the table next to the window.

Lily didn't even turn her head when Toni came barging in the door. And she wasn't really in the mental state to talk about Quidditch practice when Toni was in a bad mood. Because talking to bad mood Toni after Quidditch meant… talking about James.

Toni slumped herself tiredly beside Lily and looked at her friend with a frown.

And Lily, sensing that Toni wasn't just sitting there for nothing, slowly turned up and looked at her. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"Lily. Lily. Lily," Toni muttered, looking at the ceiling. Then, she breathed out a sigh just like hope had escaped her at the same time and looked at Lily straight in the eyes. "How hard is it to talk to James?" She definitely ran out of choices. She had been enduring James for the past two months and she had been avoiding talking about whatever happened between Lily and James for the longest time ever. In short, she couldn't take it anymore. Her, walking up the castle hallways and through the common room and now, sitting beside her friend while wrapped in dripping clothes was definitely the last straw.

Lily suddenly straightened up in her seat. "What do you mean?"

Toni snorted and rolled her eyes. She knew that Lily knew what she meant. And she wasn't in the mood in being a supportive let's-not-talk-about-James friend. "The guy is a wreck since he got back," she began. "Why don't you just… please talk to him?"

"I told you," Lily replied, looking back down to her schoolwork. "He doesn't want to talk to me."

"How can you even say that? You haven't even tried. Not once," Toni groaned as she shook her head. That night, she wouldn't take no for an answer. Not when she could still feel her robes sticking to her skin because of the fact that they were drenched in the rain.

"Toni," Lily began. She put an elbow on the table and turned sideways to face Toni. "He leaves the room when I come in. He ignores me when we come across each other in the hallways. He doesn't even make eye contact with me. In short, he's avoiding me."

"Are you kidding me?" Toni shrieked in disbelief. "If you can only see the two of you when you meet each other around school… You look at each other like you wanna grab one another—"

"What?!"

"Fine. Forget that," Toni said, rolling her eyes at Lily. "Forget that I was implying that he doesn't ignore you and that he doesn't not make eye contact with you." She paused when Lily just sat there looking at her with a totally disbelieving face. "C'mon, Lily. He's slowly trying to kill us." This time, she was hoping for some sympathy.

"He's only trying to win."

For a second, Toni just looked dead straight at her friend. Then, she slapped a hand on her forehead and continued to run her hand all the way to scratch her head. "That's what just what he said before he tried to pull an all-nighter out in the field!" she exclaimed, her eyes widening. "In the rain! It's inhuman! It's crazy!"

"Fine," Lily muttered once Toni finally stopped describing the cruelties of James. "I'll try to talk to him tomorrow."

Thank goodness.

Toni smiled. That could've been the most pleasant thing she could hear from Lily. "Thank you!" Now she could get into some dry clothes.

* * * * *

Lily woke up that Saturday morning feeling like she didn't even want to open her eyes. Why was that again? Oh yeah, she agreed to talk with a certain person who was slowly trying to depopulate the Gryffindor house team of Quidditch players by soaking them in the rain.

Lazily, she sat up and looked around the room. She realized that she might have slept in since nobody else was left in the room except for her. Or maybe because of the fact that it was Hogsmeade weekend and everyone who wanted to go were out of Hogwarts as fast as they could possibly manage. She took a deep breath… as she thought of how stupid she was to agree to talk with him. In the first place, what would she say?

Hey… how's it going? I mean, we haven't talked in a while and—that will be too obvious.

Hi, James. Remember me—of course he remembers you, stupid.

Oh, hi, by the way, I've read all your letters during the Christmas break and—no, no, no.

Lily shook her head. No. Not the letters. She was so sure what she was going to do with the letters. So sure she was that she had actually done whatever it was. She just waited for a chance to finally let him know what she did.

But the letters stopped.

And there went her chance.

She couldn't think of anything to say. Well, she had a lot of things to say but how to start… James, I think for the sake of everyone in the team, maybe you should take it easy… blah! Stupid Lily, she thought as she sighed and got up from her bed. She heard Toni say the night before that they were going to have practice in the morning. And since it was already a quarter before nine, she was pretty sure that they were already practicing in the field.

* * * * *

Lily was on her way out to the Quidditch field when she saw Richard, one of the Gryffindor players, walked back into the castle.

"Lily, have you seen James?" Richard asked, as he approached her.

"Uh… no. I was actually – aren't you supposed to be in practice?" Lily asked instead.

"Yes. And we are. But James is also supposed to be there."

"Oh. So he's not in the field?"

Richard shook his head.

Then where's he? she thought as she left Richard in the hallway without saying another word. After the field, she really didn't know where to find him. She was sure that he wasn't in the dormitories. Because he was supposed to be in the field. She was sure that he wasn't in Hogsmeade, either. Because, again, he was supposed to be in the field. And by the time she had ruled out every place in the wizarding world – or maybe at least the whole of Hogwarts – because he was supposed to be in the field, she decided to take a look in the Head Prefects Room. Well, if he wasn't in the kitchen then maybe he was in… there.

Lily opened the door slowly. Somehow, although she was thinking that talking to him wasn't such a good idea, there was something inside her that was hoping that she would find him there. She seldom entered the room since they got back from school. It was the only place where both of them could be alone together and it was the only situation that she didn't want to happen. But then again, if when she frequented the room, she would find James staring blankly at nowhere. And then he would leave… when he realized she was there.

James wasn't in the room that morning. In fact, there wasn't even a trace that he was there or anyone for that matter. Lily turned around and realized why she felt the room to be empty. The Christmas decorations were already removed. She couldn't believe that two months had passed and not one of them had bothered to clean up the decorations. And then, she woke up that day to find out that James had cleared them out. She sighed. Now, the only light she could really see was the sunlight coming in through the window.

She stopped.

Only from the window?

And then, she suddenly felt that sinking feeling. Slowly, she hesitantly looked up at the ceiling, afraid of what she would see… or not.

It wasn't only the decorations…

James had taken down the stars from the ceiling.

The stars. The anthology of his incessant apologies.

He took them out…

He let it go.

* * * * *

With a gloom clearly drawn on her face, she walked back into the Gryffindor tower.

"Lily, where's James?" Toni asked as soon as Lily stepped into the common room. It was only then that Lily noticed that the house team was gathered in the room and was still in their Quidditch robes. "We waited for hours outside."

"That's what I wanna know," Lily replied as soon as she got out of her trance. She looked at Toni and asked weakly, "Haven't you asked Sirius?"

Toni smiled. "It's uh, like nine in the morning on a Saturday," she said. Saying it was the best explanation she ever could give. "He's not even halfway through his sleep."

Lily was about to say something when Richard came running down from the boys' dormitories with Remus following behind him.

"Looks like we don't have practice today," Richard announced that turned the heads of every team member in the room. "James is sick. He's in the Hospital Wing."

Well, not that they weren't concerned about their team captain but a bunch of sighs of relief came from the team before they left one by one.

"Oh. So, I'll be going to Hogsmeade then," Toni uttered while the team slowly emptied the common room. "Are you coming?" she asked Lily.

"Uh, yeah," Lily replied, half in her right mind and half floating in space. "Go ahead, though."

"Okay," Toni muttered in a singsong voice before she left for the girls' dormitories.

"Oh yeah. And by the way, he's gonna be okay," Remus called to all the leaving Quidditch players, in a sarcastic 'thanks for asking' tone.

"What happened?"

It was only the time Remus noticed that Lily was one of those waiting to know where James was. He looked at her and tried to stay true to the story as much as possible. "The guy stayed out all night in the rain. Then he came up to the dorm with all these glowing spheres in a box sniveling about…" he trailed, suddenly realizing that that probably wasn't a good time to reveal such things. "About… about how… he kind of… he… hates them cause they, uh… well… remind him of… anyway," he said abruptly, totally skipping the obvious. "After that, he fell down and lost consciousness. Turns out he caught a fever."

"Oh…" Lily muttered weakly. "Is he… is he going to be fine?" she asked as casually as she could make herself sound.

But then, Remus smiled reassuringly and widely mischievous at the same time. "Yes," he answered with a nod.

* * * * *

"Why can't I go?" James asked, groaning like a seven-year-old kid. He was lying in a hospital bed – trying to sit up while Madam Prenny was pushing him back down.

"No. Because you still have a slight fever," the nurse replied, feeling his forehead.

"But I'm okay now," James insisted. And with some luck, he was able not just to sit up, but also to stand up and started jumping. "See?" he said, as he jumped up and down.

"What are you doing? Sit back down," Madam Prenny demanded, trying to stop him from…

"Aw!"

That.

James suddenly stopped and held his throbbing head because of his sudden movements.

The nurse was finally able to sit him back down. "Now, that was stupid," she said, trying to conceal some sort of laughter. "See?" she added, mocking James' tone.

James willingly lay back down in his bed. But, he wasn't exactly keen on staying in the Hospital Wing any longer. "You know what I just noticed? You're really really pretty." Then, he smiled widely and added, "Especially when you let me go."

Madam Prenny rolled her eyes. "Did you hit your head on a very hard surface when you passed out?" she uttered with a chuckle. She poured some medicine juice in a glass and gave it to James to drink. "C'mon, now," she said, when James wouldn't take the glass. "Okay, do you want to stay for another week?"

Uh. No.

James quickly sat up, took the glass of whatever foul-tasting medicine that was and then went back down and lay in bed. Then, in some weird shift of mood, he closed his eyes and suddenly turned serious. "Do you know how to do a memory charm?"

Hmmm… Medicine seemed to be very powerful…

"Why?" the nurse asked back, as she put aside the glass and the bottle of medicine on the table beside James.

"Because… there's this girl… and I know this is going to sound so crazy but I think… I love her—no, I know I love her," he opened his eyes and looked at Madam Prenny just to be sure that she was listening and wasn't thinking that he was losing his mind. "And she only thinks of me as another guy who jumps from one relationship to another."

"Oh, is she just right about that?" the nurse replied sarcastically as soon as the last syllable escaped James' mouth. Apparently, yeah, she was starting to think that James was caught in some sort of a mad trance.

"C'mon…" James groaned, almost pleading – and sounding a bit drunk.

Madam Prenny sighed. "What would a memory charm do?" she asked, taking pity on the pouting James. "You wanna obliviate her to love you?" And there went that sarcasm again. "I don't think it works that way," she added. Actually, she was just waiting for James to finally get tired and sleep.

But James was far from sleeping and he definitely was far from over… talking? Something? Someone? "I want to forget that I love her."

* * * * *

Lily's eyes widened. Did she just hear everything right? She had been standing out the door overhearing the conversation and yet she still couldn't believe if they were for real or not.

She stepped back from the door.

But the dance… it was real.

The way he admitted to a woman about his imperfection about it… that was real.

And just a minute ago…

She knew… what she just heard was real.

~*~*~*~

but i can't help failing... to remember to forget you... and i know it's gonna be a long time... -- new radicals, "crying like a church on a monday"

No. James will not be under a memory charm anytime in the future. He's just really depressed. And Madam Prenny is just being too kind to listen to his whimpering.

I'll be definitely back next week.

Until then… please review. :)