Disclaimer: I don't have my name on Harry Potter or any part of the wizarding world. ^_^ I'm just a mere muggle trying to create an alternative world for this brainchild, which is owned by none other than Joanne Kathleen Rowling. :^) And I don't own Meteor Garden, either, from which some of the characters' personalities are based.
Author's notes: This fanfic was inspired by the television series Meteor Garden, and the animated film Spirited Away. ^_^ I tried to edit this chapter after realizing that I missed bits of James' personality out, especially the most important one about him... his short temper.
"Why, hello there, young man!" Mrs. Evans chirped gleefully. She seemed so oblivious to the fact that several muggles were staring at her, it almost seemed possible for an evil overlord to come screaming at her ears through the car window without her even noticing. "It's James, isn't it? Lily's told me all about you! Looking rather indepent without your possibly wealthy, influential parents now, are you?"
Lily was now bending her head so low, she could actually see the pieces of dirt and grime that gathered up in the mat of her mother's car.
"Well, a lot of independent young men like you are making good names for themselves nowadays! I'm Desiree Evans, by the way!" Lily's mother repeated, seemingly immune to even the smallest amount of self-shame.
Instinctively, Lily took hold of the knob beside her and started using it to roll the window up furiously.
"How rude! " Mrs. Evans quipped, rolling the window back down. "Oh, by the way, Lily's here! Say hello, dear!"
There was a rude, derisive snort from the limousine, and Lily hoped that she could just get into a car accident once the traffic moved. She knew well that James Potter was not someone to say, "It's alright, really, I think your mother's wonderful", and then keep the scene buried under the sands of time forever.
It wasn't at all difficult to think of him otherwise. Even with all her blood rushing towards her head from hiding it in humiliation at the moment, Lily could still remember all those atrocious moments where she had fallen victim to James' unabashed behaviour. Not that she could really count them all.
There was that one in her first year at Hogwarts, for instance, a time when she was still pining to learn this newfound discovery called 'magic' and was still completely naive to the childish antics of the said prankster. For no other purpose but to give in to his restlessness and utter tedium, James Pothead had actually traded in Lily's Yorkshire pudding with a bowl of mashed shrimp, mixed with something the Marauders had called Eyes Cream.
Although Lily never found out what that cream exactly was (and she really didn't want to know, anyway), she developed quite a gaudy amount of rashes on her arms and legs for an entire week. But this was not the work of the cream; Lily was coincidentally enough allergic to shrimps. Those tactless Marauders found it so funny, victimizing Lily had become a habit soon after. Really. They were a disgrace to the Gryffindor house.
But don't get her wrong, Lily didn't always shrug things off and run away. She was extremely tough towards the taunting she received from those boys, if not already the most strong-willed girl in her year. In fact, it was her choice to stand up to them that triggered a nasty boost in James' short temper. Perhaps, the only thing that weakened her defense against them was the lack of support from her own parents. She received unexpected reactions when she informed her parents about this constant bullying.
"Oh, that's wonderful, dear!" her mother had exclaimed. "At least boys have their attention on you! And wizards, too! What a handsome thought, perhaps those medieval fairy tales of magic can come true for you, after all!"
Lily thought her father would disapprove of this remark, but after she had told him about it, she knew she had thought wrong.
"Are they rich, Lily? Maybe you can actually marry one of them when you grow up! Look at Petunia here, she's found somebody with a rich background already! Rather morbidly obese, of course, but very much capable of supporting a good family..."
And right now, introducing herself to a complete stranger who, by some ugly twist of fate, was the same bullying bulk of boy Lily had been putting up with for an entire four years, her mother wasn't helping her at all.
"I'm sure you already know that Lily's a very bright student. She receives top marks at her Charms class every year! Excellent, really. But you know, I believe I was also quite the over-achiever when I was her age! But we didn't have all those additional, advanced classes, of course. We had all of the good old-fashioned ones... Arithmetic, Geography, English... oh, and mind you, I aced four exams all in all throughout high school... yes, counted them all, actually! Like mother, like daughter, I say..."
Please, Lily pleaded in her thoughts, let the darn traffic move!!!
James was having the time of his life. And the school year hadn't even started yet.
This is even better than those wide-screen muggle movies, he thought, amused. He almost wished he had his wizarding camera at the moment... or perhaps one of those muggle video ones. It was hard to stifle his urge to emboss this event in history and reproduce every single moment through mass production. Just like all the other pranks and acts of humiliation he had played on that foolish, red-headed girl.
How could he not resist?
Sure, there were a lot of other quick-tempered girls to pick on, but Lily Evans had gotten to him somehow. Her annoyed and belligerent facial expressions had always acted as excellent catalysts to trigger another set of good ideas for James and his almost equally shameless trouble-making friends. He just loved it when she got angry or humiliated, from that reddening patch of skin to those narrowed, bright green eyes. Codswallop, it was almost a constant invitation for him to pick on her!
"A lovely morning to you, Mrs. Evans," James greeted suavely through the sliding door, past the driver's window, and across a partially hidden tuft of Lily's auburn hair. The girl seemed to have a rather amusing interest in rubber car mats at the moment.
How Mrs. Evans had heard him so easily was a bit of a mystery, but then again, James had always had a surprisingly good amount of charisma whenever he spoke to people.
"You look especially beautiful today," he added with a handsome, well-practiced smile.
James actually saw Mrs. Evans blush. "Oh! What a charming lad you are... your parents must be so proud of you! It would do me a deal better if Lily was more like you, of course."
"Mum--"
"What does your father do, by the way? Or your mother? They're business tycoons, I presume? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if they were. What are their names? Maybe we could get together sometime over a cup of tea..."
"Mum!" A rather relieved voice muttered from the floor of the Evans' car. "Traffic's moving!"
Desiree Evans looked disappointed, but a wide, welcoming smile broke into her face almost immediately as she looked back at James. "Alright then, I'll see you at King's Cross! Maybe the two of you could be best friends so you could teach Lily a thing or two about elegance and wealth..."
All the blood seemed to rush back to their proper arteries once Lily brought her head back up. It came as such a relief when that stubborn little traffic light finally turned green. "Why did you have to do that?" Lily demanded irritably once the limousine had zoomed out of sight.
"Do what, dear?" her mother replied, eyes still focused on the road before her.
Lily looked very much prone to bursting. "Blabber in front of that--- that--- pig!"
"Pig?"
"James!"
"Young lady, I do not approve of you using such a filthy word on such a charming young man!" Mrs. Evans reprimanded lightly. "Don't be such a pig!"
Lily sighed deeply.
"Why, you could learn a thing or two from that boy! So pleasant, and ever so polite!"
"But mum!" Lily retorted impatiently, "You don't know what he's like! That's the egoistic, short-tempered... pig ... I've been telling you about! He bullies me all the time and---"
Mrs. Evans waved a hand in front of Lily's face. "Oh, no, of course not! You're being too sensitive, dear. You just need to get to know him... perhaps marry him! He seems like a very charming young man, after all... oh, here we are!"
Opening the car door, Lily glanced at the familiar train station before her. As always, it was crowded with people of different sorts, muggle and wizarding folks alike. Her mother helped her unload her trunks onto a cart and into the station. Lily easily found platforms nine and ten, between which was the barrier that led to the hidden platform she was looking for.
"Have a good term, dear," Mrs. Evans said, leaning over to plant a kiss on Lily's cheek. "And do start introducing yourself to those rich wizarding boys... I'll see you, Lily!" And after a goodbye hug from her mother, Lily charged into the barrier with her trolley.
The familiar scarlet train greeted her upon her arrival at Platform Nine and Three-Quarters, along with several familiar faces from school. She was about to step into an empty compartment when a hand grabbed her shoulder from behind.
Just my luck, she thought with a sigh. She was really getting annoyed with that ocean of messy, jet-black hair, and those teasing blue-gray eyes.
Potter.
"Hey, Evans," he smirked, looking at her with that familiar, malicious glint in his eyes. "It was nice meeting your mother back there. You've got her green eyes, you know... and her spot in St. Mungo's."
Lily could feel the fume erupting from her own ears. "Put a snitch in it, Potter," she spat back.
A nasty flare shot up in James' eyes. "What did you say?" he said threateningly, grabbing her by the neckline of her sweater. Lily, though slightly shaken, tried to keep an angry face for herself and glared straight into his eyes as he spoke. "You'd better keep that mouth clean, Evans. It just adds to the disgrace of being such an insolent streetrat."
Ignoring the fact that she was of the opposite gender, he shoved her onto the floor as he strode away to greet his friends, all of whom had just entered through the barrier.
"I am not a streetrat!" she called, but her voice weakened slowly at the end, seeing that she wouldn't be listened to anyway. Furious at his own temper, Lily tossed her baggages into the compartment angrily and slammed the sliding door shut. Smart though James was, he still needed to learn a thing or two about having a pleasing attitude.
Tightening a fist angrily, Lily rambled in her thoughts with a scowl on her face. He thinks being rich gives him a cut above the rest! What a git! And that hurt, too... , she added, rubbing her elbows gingerly.
Lily shrugged her anger off with a huge, slow sigh as she seated herself. She then proceeded to take one of her new schoolbooks for a bit of advanced reading, placing it on her lap whilst attempting to keep all the other nasty thoughts in her head away from her conscience. But it was hard, especially when James' voice, sounding scripted and rather loud, suddenly became audible even with them being a few feet away from the closed compartment she was in.
"Guess what," he began, making Lily feel very irritated indeed.
"Finally whacked Snape's greasy noodle?" came a second voice, which Lily recognized to be the voice of Sirius Black, James' very roguish bestfriend.
"Even better," James replied in the same, oddly volumed tone. "I got Evans' wand."
Eyes widening and heart skipping a beat, Lily felt around her pockets. Apparently, he was right--- her wand wasn't there!
Agh! Damn the prats!, she thought touchily.
And much to James' and his friends' amusement, Lily came bursting out of her compartment in seconds with her face burning. "James Potter, give me my wand right this instant!"
James snickered. He waved it several times above her, taking advantage of his slightly towering frame, and threw it straight into the wall of a compartment.
SNAP!
A dungbomb seemed to have dropped in Lily's stomach. Her wand had broken in half.
"Argh! Potter! You broke my wand!" she shouted angrily. Her eyes narrowed into angry, greenish slits.
James didn't even have a trace of guilt in his handsome appearance. "What's the matter, Evans? Don't even have a few Galleons to buy yourself a new one?"
Lily walked over furiously to the boy with flared nostrils. "Why do you have to be so demented? What, you think being rich gives you the authority to treat others this way?" She felt her eyes getting watery as her patience took off for a vacation in Hawaii. "Listen, Potter, this is the last straw. I'm giving you three days-- three, solid days to replace my wand, or you'll wish I'd just let you rot in Azkaban for the rest of your nasty, worthless life!"
Peter narrowed his eyes. "Ooh."
As proud as Lily might have felt for standing up to James, it didn't seem like she had done the right move. The familiar flare in James' eyes flashed anger at her as he raised a fist to the girl's face .
"Whoa, hold it there, Jamesie boy," Sirius said immediately, holding him off. "That's a girl in front of you... cool down!"
James snatched his arms away from Sirius' grasp and glared at her. "Keep your eyes on, Evans," James continued, eyes narrowed at her. "It just shows that you're too poor to even identify a twig from your own wand."
James inserted a hand into a pocket, and took out a sleek, willow stick. "That was a fake, in case you were too thick to take that in."
Lily blushed furiously upon seeing her mistake. "My--- my wand," Lily muttered weakly.
"Oh, look, brains!" James exclaimed mockingly, giving her a sneer. "You need to control your own temper a bit, Evans. It's turning your hair red."
Lily glowered at him.
"Well, you should talk! Why don't you use up your time correcting your own instead of using it out on others, then? Just grow up!" she said with an icy glare. Wanting to avoid any further trouble from him, Lily ran off to her compartment.
Stupid marauding git, Lily thought crossly. Imagine! Taking my wand like that! And trying to hit a girl! Juvenile prat!!!
Lily was angrily rambling in her thoughts when the compartment door slid open. She looked up with a dent in between her brows, similar to the one she had earlier that day. The compartment gradually revealed a handsome, sandy-haired boy with hazel eyes. It was the boy she least disliked among the four troublemakers, Remus Lupin.
Remus was extremely quiet and reflective; he usually didn't say anything unless the situation required it. Although he played along with his friends' pranks, he was never as aggressive as any of them. On the contrary, he was very smart and philosophical, someone you wouldn't expect to be part of a group like that.
"What do you want?" Lily demanded irately, ignoring the fact that she actually liked the boy. "What, here to harass me with another one of your friends' little pranks?"
Still feeling irate from the little encounter she had a while ago, Lily watched as he placed a hand into a robe pocket and took something out.
"Take it," he said quietly, handing her what turned out to be a chocolate frog wrapped in a bit of foil. "It will make you feel better."
Lily stared at him for a while with furrowed eyebrows, as though trying to see if he was lying. "Listen, if you think I'm going to fall for---"
"It's not hexed. If you don't want it, then just say so."
"Oh," Lily muttered. Remus could get unsociably quiet at times, but she trusted him more than the other three, anyway. "Erm, thanks. And...I-- I'm sorry if---"
"Just eat it," he replied in the same air of silence. "And you shouldn't let yourself lose your temper like that in front of James; otherwise, you'll just be hypocritical about it and make the situation worse." Without another word, he walked back outside.
He can be so kind at times, she thought. It's almost as though he wasn't a Marauder.
Lily unwrapped the chocolate frog gingerly, peeling off the silvery cover of foil that stuck to it. She could see that it was very much clean, and was merely taken out of its original container. She bit into the frog-shaped chunk of chocolate carefully, and instantly felt a comforting sort of warmth spread to her fingertips.
Hmph, stupid Remus, she added hastily to her thoughts. He always has to be so..., she took another bite of the frog carefully, ....different.
She was already halfway through the frog when the compartment door slid open once more.
"Hey, Lily!"
It was another boy of the same age, with dirty-blond hair and startling blue eyes. His build was a little on the bulky side, and his hair was of the short and wavy sort. His cheeks were also distinctly rosy and chubby, making him look slightly younger than he was supposed to be.
This boy's name was Mundungus Fletcher, Lily's muggleborn childhood friend. They had been best friends ever since they became seatmates in the third grade at a local muggle elementary, and had been even more inseparable once they both learned that they had both gotten an acceptance letter to Hogwarts.
"Hey, Gus!" Lily said, smiling back at him and feeling a bit more cheerful than before.
"Summer went by quickly, didn't it?" he said with a tone of disappointment as he heaved his trunks aside Lily's. "Too bad, too, especially since Yam and I really enjoyed those icy swimming trips back in Japan... right Yam?" He turned to the little gray owl staring at him in its cage.
"You went swimming with your owl?" Lily asked, intrigued by an image of William the owl hooting underwater aside Mundungus' cheery, childish face.
"Well, so Yam didn't exactly go swimming, but he enjoyed the cold atmosphere anyway... so, how'd your summer go?"
"Went the way it's supposed to," James answered in the compartment he shared with the rest of the marauders, with the usual, almost lazy expression on his face. "Father took us sight-seeing in France, and then we went to Greece for a four-day vacation. Met several wizarding girls, but it was hard to make things work out with them speaking in everything but English...."
"Who cares?" Sirius said bluntly. "As long as they're rich and beautiful, it can't really matter that much... hey, cart's coming. I could do with some of those Chocolate Frogs at the moment." He got up with Peter and met the cart lady in advance, unable to stifle their hunger.
James suddenly felt himself jump in his seat. "Oh, yeah, I almost forgot!" He grabbed one of his bags and parted it open, then took out something flat and shiny. "I found this last night in one of the Chocolate Frog packets. But it isn't part of the collection. Probably misplaced by some doddering old bloke."
"Let me see that," Remus said calmly, taking the odd card from James' hand. He looked at it closely, from the slithering serpents to the seemingly dead tree. He looked back up to see Sirius striding back over with a bunch of sweets in his hands a few minutes after. "This doesn't look good."
"Hmm," Sirius said, peering over Remus' shoulder to look at the card. "Maybe it's a special edition sort or something."
"It's hard to tell," James quipped. "And there's a bit of foreign riffraff at the bottom."
"Let me see," Peter said, walking over from the sweets cart, which he had just practically raided for a load of sweets. "Whoa. This looks neat."
Taking the card in his own hands, he looked at it closely, pressing his face closer into it until his nose was just an inch away from it. Everything that followed happened all too soon.
The card had a particularly strange air of enticement in it, something Peter couldn't fully understand. It was as though that faint, howling sound coming from the center of the trunk was inviting it to something; to simply get sucked in without even knowing it; to slither along with one of the serpents as though he was one of them....
And, subconsciously, he held up a finger to one of the snakes in response to that strange, alluring howl, and struck it gently as though it were for real. And oddly enough, it felt strangely three-dimensional to him; not at all like a mere flat card.
Peter watched, as though in a brief trance, as that particular serpent hissed and glowed a swampy, eerie green, and then coiled itself around the branch, suddenly turning immobile. Peter felt a sudden, strange feeling of relief, a different sort of warmth passing through every nerve in his body, and settling itself at the very tips of his fingers.
"Peter!"
He snapped out of the uncalled for trance at once, and gazed around for while. It was James that had called his name.
"What's wrong with you? Infatuated with the card or something?" he said with a hint of mockery.
"Oh... just-- just looking," he mumbled, more to himself than to the others. He didn't know what happened in those few, alluring minutes, but somehow, he knew one thing was for sure.
Food, he thought weakly.
He was hungry. Extremely hungry.
A/N: I hope that didn't get too boring... I'm getting worried about this story as I might screw it up again, like the other fanfics I've written. Sometimes, even though you've got a plot ready, writer's block comes sneaking in and threatening the story and all, and both the writing and the plot go bad, ruining the entire fic. I hope that didn't happen here, as I'm not feeling particularly good about this chapter. It was slightly crammed, as I still have to write the last chapter of my other fic, "It's All in the Diapers". Tell me if I can improve anything, okay? ^_^
Please don't forget to leave a review! ^_~ Thanks!
And thank you to my lovely reviewers!
Lucy: Thanks. ^_^ I'm glad you liked Micklewick's loyalty... I tried to create him after Dobby's liberal personality, actually. ^_^ Petunia's character is good? Thanks! I was getting a little worried about her, since I wasn't sure on how to depict her in this fic. ^_~ Thanks again!
Liat86: I'm really glad you do! ^_~ Meteor Garden rules, probably next to Harry Potter, and aside Rugrats! :^) It's an excellent series, isn't it? ^_^ Thanks a whole lot for the wonderful review! ^_~
K. Ashley: Thank you! ^_^ Yup, exactly! I'm glad he came out Malfoy-ish, as that's how I wanted him to be. ^_~ Thank you so much and I hope the update didn't take too long!
reader: This may sound weird, but I like your pen name. ^_~ Hehe... it just sounds so simple and obvious to use that... heh, I really don't know why it caught my attention... ^_^ Anyway, thanks! ^_~ I'm really glad you found both that way. ^_^
Stefanorkle: Hehe! I'm glad Mrs. Evans' character came out fine! ^_~ She's a goof, isn't she? ^_^ Hehe, poor Lily... ^_^ Hope you enjoyed this chapter! ^_~ Thanks!
KirbeeDesirae: I'm happy you found it great, KirbeeDesirae! ^_^ Hehe... I also like James this way. ^_^ Poor Mrs. Evans... perfectly awful really suits her perfectly. ^_~ Oh, and now that you've mentioned it, it's actually beginning to remind me of the Ring as well! Maybe it's because of the hole and the sound, maybe they reminded you of the well and the screeching...yike... I don't really want to think about it right now, especially at this time of the night...er, day (it's midnight right now =P)^_~ Anyway, thanks a lot for the review! ^_^
Stating-the-obvious: Hmm.. interesting nick. ^_~ Glad you found it good. Oi, you're right, he does seem like a snot. ^_^ Hehe.. ^_^ Sorry if Lily seemed a bit shallow... I guess I got too obsessed with exaggerating Desiree Evans' character that Lily's own came along with it... heh, anyway, thanks so much for the review! ^_^
sorcerer: Glad you did. ^_^ I hope you don't get too impatient with my writing speed! ^_^ Sometimes I write so slowly it bores me. :^) Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter and thanks for reviewing! ^_~
Addy: I'm extremely glad you enjoyed it that way! ^_~ And I love Mrs. Evans, too, even though she is perfectly awful. ^_^ Thanks! ^_^
Oliver's gurl: Lucky gurl! ^_~ Hehe...Thanks! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! ^_^
Chibi-Cola: Hey, I'm glad you were attracted to it! You reminded me of the Serpens Illecebra Obsequium card... ^_^ Hehe... ^_~ Yup, she's annoying! But she amuses me too... I hope her character didn't get too corny, though. ^_^ My humor skills aren't very good in stories... :^P I'm happy you liked my writing style, thanks! ^__^ Oh, and I hope you get to know about Meteor Garden someday... it's just one of the best TV romantic-comedies I've watched to date! ^_^ Thanks! ^_~
WindRider -Damia: That was a good metaphor, actually. ^_~ I think I'll save that. ^_^ I'm glad you liked it. Thanks! ^_~
Siren: And I'm happy you're liking it! Hope you enjoyed this one, too, and I hope you keep on reading! ^_~ Thanks!
CeciliaOrechio: Hey! I'm glad you reviewed this story! ^_~ I'm also glad you found Mrs. Evans amusing. ^_^ I hope you enjoyed this chapter, too! Thanks an entire lot! I'll try checking your stories out soon, if you have any new ones. ^_^ Have you received my e-mail? Anyway, thanks a lot! ^_~
