Lily in Full Blossom

Chapter 09: Adventures in Babysitting

Pre-Author's Notes: This fic is based on the manga, Hanazakari no Kimitachi e also known as For You in Full Blossom. I had to change some elements from the Harry Potter story to make it work, so live with it. Yes, I am aware that some of the facts from the Harry Potter series is off, but I had to change it for the story. ^^


Lily opened the curtain to let the sunshine in. The sun was reflecting off the the newly fallen snow, creating a blinding light that blasted James' eyes open. He woke up and shook his head groggily. It took a moment before he could remember where he was.

"What time is it?" he asked.

"It's seven," replied Lily.

"It's too early," mumbled James before falling back on his pillow.

"You wake at the same time every morning at Hogwarts," said Lily.

James pulled the sheets over his head. "It's a holiday. This is the earliest I've ever been awake on a holiday," he said.

"No, it's not. We're here to work. Wake up, Sleepy Head," said Lily as she went over to his bed and pulled the sheets off him, exposing him to the offending brightness of the sun. He wasn't fully awake enough to be aware of the implications of his next actions. He took Lily by the arms and pulled her towards him, but Lily kept her feet planted on the floor. Despite her efforts, James' strength overwhelmed her.

"Go back to sleep," he mumbled sleepily as he held on to her.

"James! What the Hell are you doing?!" she shouted at the top of her lungs, completely waking him up. James bolted upright and released her. Once again, she had her arms folded across her chest. Her face was bright red as she glared at him.

"What's going on in there?" called Frank from behind the door. "Lucas? Are you all right?"

"He's fine. He's just trying to wake me up," said James calmly, quickly making up an excuse. "Sorry about that," he told her in a more quiet voice.

"Don't do that again," said Lily. I wonder if he noticed anything. What am I thinking? Even with the vest, I don't have much to notice she thought to herself.

"Um...why don't you go and take a shower first," said James, making up any excuse for one of them to leave. She nodded, grabbed her things, and went into the bathroom. I wonder if she noticed that I could feel something there.

It was a good thing that neither noticed how much the other one was blushing.

*

As soon as breakfast was over, everyone was given a set amount of chores to do. Frank and James were directed outside to shovel snow off the gazebo outside. Lily and Byron were put to work on setting up the Christmas decorations. Christina was in the kitchen helping the chef, while Isabelle was doing her inspection of the rooms, making sure that everything was clean.

"Here let me show you something," said Byron as he smiled at Lily.

"What?"

He folded a square piece of paper into a crane. "Wow, that's a amazing. And you folded it so fast," said Lily.

"I think that these would make great Christmas decorations," said Byron. "Why don't we fold up different kinds? We can even string up some together."

"Maybe, we could write something inside some of them," suggested Lily. "But, I don't really know how."

"Origami is easy. Let me show you," said Byron.

"Okay," agreed Lily.

The boys outside were busy, but not busy enough not to notice what was going on inside. "What the Hell does that guy think he's doing with Lucas?" asked Frank out loud as he watched them through the window. He saw how close they were together, but he couldn't tell what they were doing.

"Hey, Frank! We have to finish this so we can go inside," said James.

"That guy! How dare he try and get close to Lucas?" complained Frank. A snowball promptly hit him on the side of his face. He snapped his attention at James. "What was that for?!"

"Pay attention to your work. The faster we finish this, the sooner we can go inside," said James. "Now shovel."

Frank glared at James, but he started shoveling again. I don't like what that guy's up to thought James. I should probably warn her. But, if Frank is noticing it, then she's got to notice it, too. He stopped to look inside the window. He could see Lily laughing at something that Byron said. James gritted his teeth and gripped the handle of his shovel. He started to shovel faster, so he could get back inside sooner.

It took another half hour before James and Frank were back inside. Lily and Byron were just about done, stringing some paper cranes together. It looked wonderful because they alternated colors of red, green, and white. Lily smiled as the boys came in. "Look what Byron taught me," said Lily as she showed James a paper crane.

James didn't know what to say. "You can have it. It's an extra," she told him.

"What about me?" asked Frank.

"Oh, I'm sorry. That was the last crane. Here, you can have this little monkey that I folded for practice," said Lily as she handed it to Frank. His cheeks turned bright red.

"Boys, are you done with the work outside?" asked Isabelle. Frank and James nodded. "Then, I need you in the kitchen. The potatoes need to be peeled."

"Potatoes? I can't do anything in the kitchen without magic," said Frank. Typically, the students of Hogwarts were allowed to use their magic during the holidays, but only on Hogwarts grounds. Most of the wizarding schools had the same rule.

"You'll do fine. If you cut yourself, there's a potion to heal you," said Isabelle. "Come along." She walked off and snapped her fingers, expecting the boys to follow her. Frank grumbled as he looked at James. James shrugged and walked off towards the kitchen, forcing Frank to come along. However, neither boy was all right with leaving Lily alone with Byron.

As they set to work, Frank decided he couldn't take it anymore. "Aren't you a little worried about Lucas?" asked Frank.

"He can handle himself," responded James.

"But--that guy!" shouted Frank.

"Frank, you're peeling the potatoes wrong," said James calmly. He was referring to the fact that Frank took most of the peel with the potato. Frank looked down and exclaimed, "This is hard! I want to use magic!"

"You said that you helped out at home," said James.

"Yea, but not stuff like this. We can't all have servants and house elves to do this kind of work, James," said Frank.

"My family doesn't have house elves. They left when my grandfather offered to pay them. They were insulted," said James, thinking about his quirky, late grandfather.

"Pay them?" asked Frank.

"What's going on in here? Why aren't you peeling, Frank? You call this peeling?" asked Isabelle as she snuck up on them.

"Ah!" exclaimed Frank in surprise.

"Never mind. It's fairly obvious you're useless in the kitchen. Why don't you just go and change the bed sheets?" suggested Isabelle.

"That I can do," agreed Frank as he left the kitchen in a hurry. He spotted Byron and Lily talking. "What are you to up to?" he asked.

"I was just telling Lucas about last year," explained Byron mildly.

"Yeah, well, Lucas would you mind helping me change some of the beddings?" asked Frank. He could make beds with the best of them. His mother had drilled the importance of hospital corners to him. However, he was willing to play dumb if it meant getting Lily way from Byron.

"Sure, I'll help you," agreed Lily as she left Byron, scowling after them.

*

The next morning, James was up before Lily. He watched her sleeping for a good ten minutes before getting ready for the day. The first wave of guests were arriving that day, so they had to get an earlier start than the day before. James had to come up with a plan. It seemed as if Byron was stopped by Frank. James didn't want to leave it up to Frank.

Lily woke up while he was in the bathroom. She sat up slowly and stretched out. She wondered what was going on that day. She knew that the guests were coming and wondered what they were like. She was looking forward to meeting more people. Just then, the bathroom door opened.

"Good morning," said Lily.

"Morning," said James. "Lucas, there's something I wanted to tell you about."

"What?" asked Lily as she looked at him with wide eyes.

"It's about Byron."

"What about Byron?"

"You shouldn't get too comfortable with him," said James quietly. "I mean we're not going to be here for that long, and it's a waste of time."

"It's not a waste of time trying to be nice to other people. He's a nice guy."

James pursed his lips. He didn't really want to explain it because he knew it was going to backfire. The point of this conversation was to warn her ahead of time before she got too comfortable and left herself vulnerable to Byron's advances. However, James didn't want to appear jealous either. Was he jealous? He wasn't sure.

"Look, just be careful, okay? I can't always be there just to watch over you," he told her with a sigh.

Lily glared at him. "I am not asking you to watch over me. I can take care of myself," she said as she stood up. "You can go ahead without me."

James stood there, mildly stunned. He tried to figure out what he had done wrong. By the time his brain was working again, Lily had already gathered her things and was on her way to the bathroom. "Wait--"

He was cut off by door slamming. All he could do was sigh. Fine, if she won't listen to me, then I won't do anything about it. She can find out by herself. He stalked off for breakfast.

Around ten o' clock, the first guest arrived. The first people came from Sweden and were very pleasant. It wasn't until noon that James, Lily, and Frank received a shock. Frank was the first one to notice. He was coming down the stairs from one of the master suites. He had been sent there by Isabelle to prepare it. He recognized the platinum blond boy immediately.

"What the Hell are you doing here, Malfoy?" demanded Frank.

"What do you think I'm here for, Longbottom?" asked Lucius in his usual drawl. Next to him was a young teenage girl with long platinum blonde hair and greenish-blue eyes as well as a little toddler with the same coloring. His sisters.

"You mean you're here for the holidays?! So, it was your suite I was preparing!" exclaimed Frank in a high pitched voice. SMACK! Isabelle walked in and smacked him upside the head.

"Do not be rude to the guests, Frank," she chided as she smiled at Lucius. He looked like he had gotten weak at the knees. Isabelle really knew how to dazzle her guests, and Lucius was always a sucker for a beautiful older woman.

"What are you doing here?" came another voice. James walked in with Lily. They were once again on speaking terms. Because Lily felt guilty about getting snappy at James that morning, and she made up for it by spending most of the morning with him.

"Oh. My. God. Are you James Potter?!" asked the teenage sister of Lucius Malfoy. "My name is Tara Malfoy. I am a huge fan of yours. I heard that you can fly circles around my brother." She was also shaking James' hand vigorously. He was standing there with a mildly surprised look on his face.

Oddly enough, he was rescued by Malfoy who grabbed his sister by the arm. "You said you wanted to go skiing right? Let's go!" declared Malfoy, thoroughly annoyed with his sister. He couldn't stand the fact that his own sister had a crush on his worst enemy. I have to drag her away from the gay bastard.

Frank and Lily didn't know whether to laugh. James had a strange bewildered look on his face. He was wondering why Malfoy's parents would continue breeding after him. "Ah!" exclaimed Frank suddenly. "Get it away from me!"

It seemed that Malfoy had forgotten his kid sister. She was standing next to Frank, looking at his shoes. It just so happened that Frank had the same kind of shoes as her older brother. "It's the midget Malfoy!" exclaimed Frank.

"Stop that," said Lily as she laughed. She crouched to the level of youngest Malfoy. "Hello, what's your name?" she asked.

"I'm Catherine," said the little girl.

"Ah," said Frank as he stooped down to her level, figuring it was safe.

"How old are you?" asked Lily.

"I'm three," said Catherine, sticking two of her fingers into Frank's nose. He pulled back immediately. "I'm going to kill the little brat!" he declared as James held him back.

"Um...I think I'll return her to her family," said Lily as she picked up Catherine. "Keep a hold on him, James." She carried Catherine to reunite her with her siblings.

Lily stopped at the door and put Catherine down to knock. The door was slightly opened, so she pushed forward with Catherine mimicking her actions. "Oops! I'm sorry!" exclaimed Lily as she quickly slammed the door closed.

"Wait, it's okay," said Tara as she opened the door. "It's no big deal. It's a sports bra." Lily had accidentally opened the door while Tara was changing.

"Oh," said Lily with her face flaming red. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," insisted Tara. "By the way, I was wondering if you would help me with something."

"Um...I'm here to help all the guests," said Lily reluctantly.

"Great! My brother is such a bore and he's no help at all. You know James Potter, right?" asked Tara excitedly with her eyes shining, causing Lily to take an involuntary step backward.

"Yes--" started Lily.

"Great, then you can help me. I think it would be helpful to have a boy's opinion on this," said Tara.

"I want to go out in the snow," said Catherine.

"I don't think I can help you," said Lily. "Excuse me, but I have other things to attend to."

Tara pouted cutely at her. Lily could swear that the girl was flirting with her, which only made her want to escape faster. "What Hell is going on in here?!" demanded Lucius as he stormed into the room. He spotted Lily and smiled slightly. "Shouldn't you be working, Evans? You're not supposed to linger in the guests' rooms."

"I was just leaving," said Lily, actually grateful for Malfoy's interference.

"Are you ready yet?" demanded Lucius as Lily made her quick exit.

"You never let me do anything!" exclaimed Tara. It was enough to make Lily run out of there.

*

Over the next few days, the Malfoys proved to be not only demanding guests, but obnoxious ones as well. Lucius Malfoy proved to be very annoying and kept getting Frank to do stuff for him. Oddly, enough he was leaving James alone, but only because Tara wasn't. The only Malfoy that was tolerable was Catherine, who was called Kitty for short.

It turned out that the reservation that Malfoys had was for their entire family, but their parents had backed out at the last minute, leaving Lucius in charge of his sisters. On top of that, Lily and James were being constantly separated from each other because of work, Byron, and Tara.

One breakfast, Lily and Byron were setting up the table, when she noticed that James was outside shoving snow. Tara bounded up to him and kept putting her arms around him. She's so annoying. What's wrong with her? Can't she take a hint that he doesn't like her? She's so stupid thought Lily.

"What's wrong?" asked Byron with some concern.

"Nothing," replied Lily. He looked out the window and back at her.

"I see," said Byron. "Don't worry too much about it. It's just a harmless crush."

Lily didn't say anything as she kept herself busy. Byron smiled and was secretly grateful to Tara for distracting James.

"Get away from me!" ordered James. "I'm trying to work here!"

"Oh, come on. Let's go for a wintertime stroll," suggested Tara.

"I don't have time to deal with you!"

Lily couldn't take it anymore and left Byron to take care of setting. She took off her apron and wanted to go back to the room for a bit, but she ran into Lucius Malfoy instead. He was carrying Kitty in his arms. "Oh, there you are Evans. I was just looking for you," he said.

"What for?!" demanded Lily. She didn't have the patience to deal with another Malfoy.

"Hey, don't get mad at me just because my sister is nuts," said Lucius. He knew what was wrong. "Besides, I expected more from you."

"What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously, expecting him to insult her.

"What I mean is: where's that spunky kid who stood up to me earlier? I know that Tara's like a force of nature, but that you can't handle her. Where's your spine?" asked Malfoy.

Lily couldn't believe it. Lucius Malfoy was actually giving her advice. Helpful advice. She stared at him with her mouth open, wondering why he was helping her at all. "Anyway, I need you to watch the brat for a while," he went on.

"What?!" Lily wanted to smack herself for letting Malfoy lull her into a false sense of security.

"Evans, you have to do what the guests request. Besides, Kitty likes you. You look enough like a girl to be a babysitter anyway."

"You bas--" Lily stopped herself because she knew that Kitty liked copying people. She didn't want the little girl swearing. "I am not a girl!" she insisted. "And why do you need a babysitter? That's your job!"

"Not really. I'm just responsible for her, but that doesn't mean I can't leave her with a sitter, Evans," said Malfoy.

"Why are you willing to trust a Gryffindor with your sister?" asked Lily suspiciously.

"There's this cute girl that I met at the ski lodge nearby. Got to run. I don't want to be late for my date!" exclaimed Malfoy as he put down Kitty and ran.

"Malfoy!" shouted Lily after him. Kitty walked up to her. She looked down at her and sighed. "Repeat after me."

"Okay."

"My brother is a moron."

"My brother is a moron," repeated Kitty. Lily smiled and starting laughing. Frank walked up to them.

"What's going on?" asked Frank as he eyed Kitty. He was the only person who didn't like the three-year-old that much. He didn't think she was cute at all.

"Malfoy is making me baby-sit her," explained Lily.

"Really?"

"He's got a date."

"Bastard!" exclaimed Frank with his fist clutched in front of him.

"Bastard!" mimicked Kitty, following his actions.

"Frank!" exclaimed Lily.

*

James was grateful just to get away from Tara Malfoy for a couple of minutes. He was still out on the grounds, but he was sure she was inside, so it was better for him to stay outside for a while. He was clearing some brush with his gloves. He wasn't told to do it, but he would have gladly done it to avoid Tara.

He worked his way to the backyard and heard the people talking. It was a bunch of guys from the nearby ski lodge that wizards frequented. He wasn't going to pay any attention until he heard Byron's voice.

"So, what's up with this year?" asked one of the guys.

"Did you find anyone new this year?" asked another one.

"Yep. She's a really cute," answered Byron.

"Really? What's she like?" asked the first guy.

"She's got short red hair and the brightest green eyes," replied Byron.

James' hands clutched into fists. There was only one person who matched that description around there. He decided to go back inside. He had to find her.

He walked into one of the inner greenhouses that the large Pomfrey Chalet had. He saw Lily and Frank playing with Kitty in a little pool.

"I can't believe that Isabelle had this," said Frank.

"Yeah. She said that Reggie used to play with it when he was younger," said Lily. "It's a good thing that the greenhouse is warm enough for an indoor pool party in winter, huh Kitty?"

Kitty had splashed half the water out of the pool. So, Frank squirted her with the hose. "Don't do that to her, Frank," said Lily to him.

"Huh?" asked Frank, but Kitty had gained control of the hose and proceed to squirted him. "Ah! Help! Lucas!" Lily laughed at him instead as the water splashed her, too.

James could see a problem forming, so he took of his jacket and marched over to them. "Lucas, get up!" he ordered, unable to hide the angry in his voice.

"What's wrong?" asked Lily.

"You're going to get sick!" he exclaimed as he wrapped his jacket around her. "You're getting yourself totally soaked. Go and change your clothes."

"But I--"

"Go and change your clothes," he repeated.

"Fine," said Lily, not wanting to argue with him because of the look on his face.

"What's wrong?" asked Frank, regaining control of the hose from Kitty.

"Nothing," muttered James, hoping that Lily wouldn't run into Byron and his friends before she could change her clothes.

Lily went back to the room, while being very careful at the same time not to drip too much water on the floor. She was going to have to mop up later. She went to the room and proceeded to change her clothes. "Why would he get so mad over water? He didn't yell at Kitty or Frank about getting wet," Lily muttered to herself as she took off her shirt and the vest, going completely topless.

She took off her jeans. "He's right. I'm completely soaked. Even my underwear got wet," said Lily as she started to look for some clean, dry clothes.

"I have some new sheets," said Isabelle as she knocked on the door.

"Wa--"

The door swung open.


Post Author's Note: And a cliffie. ^_^ The next part will be out later on, but I don't know when. So, sorry about the delays. School. Some of you should read my journal because that's where I tend to give my reasons for updating or not updating. As always questions are answered there. A lot of crazy stuff happened here. No, Lucius doesn't have any sisters according to the original story, but I added them in because of the manga. Yes, Kitty is very impressionable, but Malfoy deserves it doesn't he? Something from the manga are going out of order for those of you who cheated and read ahead.

I might take a few days off to rest up after finals. Thanks for reviewing. I'm not going to tell anyone my limit now. Just review. ^_^ Please go to my journal to lodge any complaint you may have about the delays, remyelf.livejournal.com

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Hanazakari no Kimitachi e (For You in Full Blossom). I just borrowed these for my fic.