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. ^_^.

And I'm extremely sorry for the very late update! I haven't found much time to write since school started this June. And who could think of writing fanfics during the release of Book 5? :) Speaking of which, wasn't it excellent? I was a bit disappointed with how the plot seemed to rush by, and with the lack of cheer in the book, but it really paved way for the dark atmosphere and a blizzard of new questions... can't wait for the sixth installment. :-) And I hate Umbridge, but she makes a really brilliant villain. By the way, I guess I hadn't gotten Mundungus Fletcher's personality properly as compared to how Rowling portrayed him in Book 5. Also, James' eyes here are blue-gray and not hazel, while Mundungus' physical traits aren't very accurate either. Take note as well that James has been assigned as prefect instead of Lily, so this will definitely have to be AU. Bear with me people, okay? :-)

To criticize my own story, I'll have to admit I hadn't developed the characters that well... Also, the flow of the story may be stiff or not that smooth, but I'm really trying to improve the chapters as I progress throughout the story so keep the comments posted as well. :-) I'm trying to improve in these aspects and I'd really appreciate constructive criticism (as long as it's stated well and balanced and not to bash the person) and I hope you can find the time to do so. :)

Here's Chapter 5...

Seven Serpents

Chapter Five: A Stimulus

---

"Oh my God! Gus!" Lily repeated, running over to her best friend's side and trying to nudge him awake. She nervously felt for his pulse round the wrist, and soon realized that her fingers had trembled too much for her to find anything out. She quickly lowered her ear towards Mundungus' chest and tried to listen for something-- anything-- that would give her assurance of her friend's subsistence. But the absence of heartbeats only made her wish she was deaf.

"Somebody help!" she cried frantically as she absentmindedly searched the sky for people, all of whom were still gliding on their broomsticks. "Somebody call Madame Pomfrey! Please!!"

Feeling her chest constrict painfully amidst the heavy pounding of her heart, Lily spotted the big floating dot that was Edith hovering meters away on her Comet Two-Sixty. She tried to scream once more, to tell her that Mundungus was in trouble... that he needed help immediately... and that he was almost pleading for his life...

"Edith! Come down! He's injured!"

Even from afar, Edith's eyes could be seen widening. Lily tried to scream at her again but released a heavy gasp instead; before she could say anything else, she felt tears prick her eyes inconsiderately before they rolled down her cheeks. Edith turned into a fuzzy blur now, but Lily stubbornly tried to break through her tears to get anyone else's attention.

"SOMEONE HELP!!!" Lily yelled, voice breaking at the climax of her shouts as they paved way for uncontrolled tears. She grasped onto her wand instinctively, and searched her mind for any spell or charm that could reverse the situation or heal Mundungus' concussion, let alone wipe the blood of the side of his face, but nothing came. For a split second, she actually thought of using "Accio, Madame Pomfrey" to do the trick, but just as soon realized how ineffective and silly it sounded. She felt more helpless than ever and wanted so badly for her best friend to just get up suddenly and scream, "Gotcha!", or even suddenly wake up and find Dumbledore standing behind him saying, "Not to worry, Miss Evans, he'll be alright."

Gus would have to wake up soon enough, or so Lily reassured herself, since he just couldn't die like that... nobody could get into accidents out of nowhere after all! And besides, if he really did get injured, Madame Pomfrey would be able to heal him, wouldn't she? This wasn't like in the Muggle world, where people had to die because of physical injuries and wherein everything was 'too late'... the wizarding world had ways to save people...

Lily tried to lift him up on her shoulders carefully, and slipped a nasty curse from her mouth as she dropped him back on the bleacher, letting his head hit the marble with a rather nasty thud. Why wasn't anyone coming? Couldn't they just drop their stupid brooms for one bloody moment and help her lift the boy up?

After what seemed like eons, Lily saw two dots on broomsticks finally zoom into view towards her, one landing promptly on the same row as she was, the other one struggling to get nearer with what looked like frantic arm movements in the distance.

Lily didn't even seem to care that it was James that had landed just two feet away from Mundungus on the same row, or that, for some reason, he couldn't look directly at either the body or Lily.

"H-he's hurt!" Lily struggled to say between tears. "He needs medical attention! Where on e-earth is Madame P-Pomfrey? Did y-you call h-her? Does she know? W-Will you even look? Look! He needs help n-now!"

"She's on her way," James began blankly, eyes not meeting Mundungus' body at all.

Was that-- fear-- in his eyes? Was he scared of seeing unconscious bodies like this? Or near-dead bodies?

"God, p-please," Lily whispered in between sobs, "she's coming, G-Gus, you'll be okay...hang on, please..."

But her sobs were drowned out by audible shouts from in front of her. Looking up, she saw the other dot which turned out to be Edith zooming her way into view, panting a little as she waved a hand in front of her face.

"Li--Lily, don't---"

"That's-- that's not Mundungus," panted another voice from Lily's right.

Lily looked towards the source and saw Remus with his head bent slightly down, hands rested on his knees from running to the bleachers where Lily sat. Raising his head up, Remus very briefly looked at Lily with stern, disappointed eyes and then took a good look at the lifeless Mundungus behind her.

Upon the swiftest bit of eye contact from the boy, Mundungus' body vanished in a puff of smoke, and was replaced just as quickly by a whitish, floating orb that glowed in the darkening sky. Remus took his wand out quickly and uttered, "Riddikulus!", to which the orb responded by vanishing with a loud 'Pop!' into nothingness.

A nasty, wide smile broke into James' mischievous face, and he began to laugh. And it would be completely untrue to say it hadn't made the situation worse when a laughing Sirius and Peter came walking down from the bleachers above, a shiny, silky material folded in the former's arms. The latter had a wizard's camera hanging from his pudgy neck.

"I knew you'd be doing something like this again," Remus muttered, towards James in particular. "It's a boggart, Lily. It's not real."

Lily felt a huge lurch among her insides. She didn't know whether she'd been more relieved or furious in her entire life.

"So that's why!" Edith exclaimed, eyebrows slightly furrowed. "I knew from the start it was a fake! Bloody hell, Potter, that was deliberate, you bast--"

But before anyone could say anything else, Lily stood up angrily, pulled her arm back, and punched James squarely on the jaw. "Bastard!" she cried, tears still streaming down her cheeks, before she gave him another strong punch in the stomach and ran off to the castle grounds in fury.

She didn't even take a single backwards glance to see James staring after her, rendered completely speechless as his mouth hung open in silence. Nobody had ever dared to hit a Potter like that before.

+_+_+_+

The way to the girls' dormitory seemed to be a very long one that evening. Lily's vision seemed to be unfocused, and the tears that were still in her eyes didn't make things any better. She still couldn't swallow the fact that James Potter had actually done such a prank to her, and humiliated her at the same time. It was just unnerving, and it made Lily even angrier seeing him just laugh at her like that. It was the most insensitive thing she's seen him do so far and the only thing that made her feel slightly satisfied at that moment was the knowledge that she had been able to punch him twice, although she knew he deserved something more on the lines of the Avada Kedavra curse.

"Password?" the Fat Lady asked as Lily reached the portrait hole.

Lily tried to subtly wipe the left-over tears the edged around her eyes and down her cheeks. "Horklump frump."

The Fat Lady smiled at her with a rather kind face, as though to quietly question her tears, and opened the portrait hole. Stepping into the Gryffindor common room, Lily caught sight of the familiar dirty blond hair that greeted her almost everyday.

"Gus!" Lily cried, running to the fireplace to hug him. Mundungus paled up and then suddenly blushed furiously, awkwardly freezing on the spot.

"Er, hi Lils," he greeted unsurely, surprised with the unexpected gesture. "Is this---erm-- a new best friend thing?"

+_+_+_+

Severus Snape sighed as he leaned himself on his dormitory's bathroom wall after dinner. He stared into the flask he held in his hand, straight unto the reflection tainted sapphire by the liquid that sponsored it, and combed his greasy, chin-length hair with a free hand. That grease was just infuriating.

"You'll get there, Severus," he assured himself as he felt the greasy black strands slide across his fingers. On impulse, he fingered the bottle containing the altering potion he had also concocted himself, which he would have to take if anything went wrong with the potion he made. "Alright, bottoms up."

Slowly, he raised the half-filled flask to the tip of his oversized, hook-shaped nose, and drank in as much of the liquid as he could drink in one gulp. He felt an odd tingle slither up from his scalp and up to the tips of his licorice-colored hair, making him feel like he had just gone through a strong, driving wind. Carefully, with a seemingly nervous muscle twitching in his left brow, he walked up to finally face the mirror above the brilliant jade green sink and looked properly at his reflection.

His black eyes told him that he was still staring at the same pale, sallow face he'd been disliking for fifteen years, but as his eyes scrolled upwards, his heart skipped a beat, and his nostrils took in sniffles of a deceased animal's rotting body.

Frankly, it would be an understatement to say that Severus had failed in de-greasing his hair, because his once slimy hair had turned dry, alright--- but it was now so completely dry and smelly that he at first thought he had a dying skunk sprawled on his head.

"Argh!" he gasped, tugging at his new, nest-dry and skunk-scented hair. He kicked a foot in impatience and sent a shoe flying across the bathroom floor. "This'll never do! Ruddy potion!"

He sank down onto the floor hopelessly and banged his head carelessly and repeatedly onto his knees like a disgruntled house-elf. How could he possibly get Lily's attention now that he looked like a sanctuary for dead baby skunks?

And unenthusiastically, he took out the counter potion he had twiddled with in his pocket and began drinking it all up. Grease instantly returned up to the tips of his hair, and some of the stench wafted away.

"Why don't you just cut it short, boy?" asked his reflection on the light jade floor tiles.

Severus raised an eyebrow rather defensively, and coldly answered his reflection. "It emphasizes my nose," he quipped stiffly, as though he would rather not talk about it.

He couldn't see why he had to be so encased in his own self most of the time. Sure, he had sallow skin, black greasy hair and an abnormally overlarge nose, but nobody was perfect, right? And he was a whiz at his Potions class, so why didn't anyone even seem to acknowledge that? And why couldn't Lily Evans just notice him?

Well, there are many reasons, Severus thought unwillingly, but he couldn't blame himself. The thought of her creamy complexion and slightly wavy auburn hair always brought him hesitant heartbeats, and her bright green eyes always made the hair on his neck prickle gingerly. He didn't know why it happened so often, especially since she wasn't even all that beautiful. She was short, for one matter, or at least shorter than the average girls in their school, and she didn't exude that amount of elegance and beauty whenever she passed by. She was just---plain old Lily, and for an unexplainable reason it seemed like that mere fact made her more beautiful than anyone else in Severus' eyes.

Cease dreaming, Severus, he told himself in his thoughts, and get a grip on yourself. Evans is and will always be a dream, and nothing more. You will never get any closer to her than a meter apart in class, nor will you be able to interact with her or even get to address her future child as yours. You probably won't even be able to get a mere glimpse of her future child, or even get the chance to address the blessed boy or girl by name. You won't even be able to---

His eyes suddenly landed on the shoe that he had kicked off just seconds ago. It was lying motionless on its side, revealing an odd-looking card stuck to its leather sole.

Severus immediately got up and walked over to the black leather shoe to pick it back up. After getting a brief glimpse of a tree illustrated on the card, he carefully detached it and held it to his hooked nose.

"Serpens Illecebra..." he started to read, almost soundlessly, unaware of what he was about to get himself into.

+_+_+_+

James dropped himself onto his four-poster bed after the night's events, feeling extremely odd. His stomach churned uneasily while his chest was doing uncomfortable hurdle jumps, making him feel like he had just swallowed something unusually hyperactive. He couldn't even concentrate on eating dinner that evening, even though he had opted to eat alone in the common room, like in those days where he had to concentrate on unfinished homework. For some reason, his brain couldn't stop rambling on about the scenes that had just occurred just about two hours ago-- Evans' shouting, Evans' tearful eyes, the boggart, Evans' anger, Evans' voice, Evans' face, Evans' reddening cheeks, and the double punch Evans had given him---- especially the double punch Evans had given him.

Bloody witch, James swore privately, not quite feeling the anger of his own thoughts for some reason. She's such a... an.. a......er...... damn her!

Never had James felt angrier at a girl in his life. No one had ever used physical violence on him like that before, and it made his chest swell up with sheer fury. He just wanted to do something very-- bad-- to the ruddy girl at the moment, to tear her stupid red hair apart, to rip her annoyingly bright green eyes into something unidentifiable...

"Oy, James! You weren't at dinner today! Your insides still pushed in a dent?"

"Shut it, Black," James snapped, feeling angry enough to call his best friend by the latter's surname.

Sirius smirked. "Better start working on that bloody fist, now. That mudblood's a punching kangaroo!"

"I said, SHUT IT!"

"Tss... tad shirty now, aren't we?" Sirius commented, shaking his head theatrically.

James gave Sirius a very nasty glare at this point, jumping up violently from his bed and taking out his wand from a pocket. Sirius held a hand in front of his face, still looking as calm as ever, as he flashed a grin at his best friend before tossing a towel onto his own shoulder. "Hey, alright already, keep that temper down for Merlin's sake..." He summoned several garments from his trunk before walking on towards the door that led to their dormitory bathroom.

James placed the wand constrainedly back into his pocket, and plopped back onto his bed. After briefly hovering away from his impatience with Sirius, his thoughts drew back to tetchy old Evans again. Not even Sirius' consistent knocks on the bathroom door ("Snivellus! Get out of there! Your bowel movement's intoxicating!") could interrupt his infuriation at the annoyingly sensitive girl. Everything about Lily Evans seemed to annoy the hell out of him right now; he just hated that stupid face, those dirty little tears... that stupid little face when it was stained with dirty tears...

And before he knew it, he had fallen asleep, only to wake up the following morning with a rectangular object dropped onto his stomach.

---

A/N: I'm sorry if it came late or if it was too short! I really just can't find much time to write in or even visit fanfiction.net at the moment, as I'm in the process of adjusting to life as a junior in high school... especially since I have terrible study habits.. That's why I'm trying to budget my time right now to focus more on studying... not to mention all those extra-curricular activities! Our schooldays end at 4-5pm now on average, and it's eaten up a load of my time.

Anyway, I crammed this chapter in 2-3 days (with plugs of schoolwork) so I hope it didn't turn out as a waste of website space. Please don't forget to read and review... I'll try my best to write again soon as well! And I know (as my personal bit of criticism) that the character development isn't very good, so I'll try improving that on my next fic. Thanks to all those who reviewed for the previous chapter!

Merenwen Luinwel(): Thanks! The prediction was good, but it doesn't turn out that way as Lily finds out in this chapter. :-)

Lucy in the sky with DIAMONDS: I'll try explaining a bit of James' behavior during their Christmas break. Meteor Garden is basically a love story between two complete opposites, and it's a really good series. The pairing also came as unexpected to me at first, so it made the series more interesting. Thanks! ^_^

alexa(): I'm sorry I made you wait! Anyway, I hope this chapter wasn't too disappointing! Thanks for reviewing!

Anonymous(): Aw, thanks! ^_^ I'm sorry for not updating that soon though... thanks again! :-)

Doneril: I'm really glad you like it! As for what happened, here's chapter 5! Sorry it came late though! ^_^ Thanks! :-)

citrus scented: Hey citrus scented! Yup, I agree, he is mean, the bully! Hehe... but Malfoy still rules as the prince of darkness ;P I'm really happy you found the pranks that way! I was worrying they might stink since I know the Marauders are way better at doing pranks in J.K.'s world. ^_^ Really? Heehee... poor cat, though! ^_^ By the way, James will lighten up in a way once the romance blossoms... the love triangle (square) has already started, but I'll be expounding on that a little more in the next chapters. ^_^ And I'm glad you loved the chapter! Like Pringles? That's really nice and flattering...thanks so much! ^_^ You're welcome, too...and I love your long reviews! They cheer me up, too! Good luck as well on yours! Keep on writing, I'd like to read more of your fics too! :-) I just hope I can find the time to access this website soon again... thanks again! ^_~

Angelxd14: Oh, thanks! ^_^ I'm glad you were able to hate them too :-), I've been canning in the fact that they've been sounding too one-dimensional to me. The feelings start in this chapter, which begins the whole bit of romance. ^_^ I'm happy you like Lily's best friends and the suspense... thanks so much! ^_^

Nnifer(): Thanks a lot! :-) By the way, Gus'll be okay as seen in this chapter. :-)

lavon(): Glad you do... thanks! :-)

Knutte(): Thanks! Thanks for the advice too... and I'll keep on writing in spite of the changes. :-) Thank you! ^_^ Nice nick!

j-chan: Hey, thanks so much! ^_^ He's already beginning to see the light in this chapter...^_^ I'm planning to write this until the end of their fifth year only, but I'd like to try writing about that if I had the time. Thanks again! :-)

CarmenSandiego(): You're right about that too! ^_^ Hehe, you're free to do so, but only to this fic's James, okay? James Potter in JK's world is too precious to have his eyes scratched out! Hehe... thanks! :-)

Cecilia Orechio: Yup, it is! I'd be furious if anyone did that to me... but Gus isn't dead, as shown in this chapter. ^_^ I'm not sure if I livened things up here, but I hope it wasn't a disappointment either. Thanks so much for the review! :-)

fanatic13: Thanks! ^_^ It's okay, I'm just happy you even bothered to read this.. ^_^ hehe...thanks again! ^_^

stringer(): Yikes... sorry about that.. I'm still trying to find time to write right now so I'm sorry for the late updates! Anyway thanks for the review! ^_^

Tessandra: I'm really glad you do! :-) I've been wanting to read more L/J fics since book 5 came out too except there's been so much to do that I haven't even found time to re-read book 5 again! But it was good, wasn't it? The only problem is it makes me feel bad about not being able to read a continuation until JK releases book 6.. :s Anyway, thanks a lot! :-)

Sen_Chan(): Wow, thanks! That was very flattering! ^_^ And you're a novelist? Neat...I'd like to read your works, too... I always get lots of inspiration from writers! ^_^ Nice wording... hot bastard... hehe.. ^_^ All your questions were answered in this chapter, hopefully...thanks a lot! ^_^

Anon(): Thanks.. :-) That was sweet...thanks so much! ^_^

Kat: Yeah, Umbridge bites! =P It's alright...thanks for taking time to review nonetheless! ^_^ I hope you get to read it soon!

Sirius's Girl(): Ooh... I like your nick! ^_~ Glad you found it lovely...thanks a load! :-)

Anaid(): I'm glad you did, and I'm sorry for the wait! Thanks so much for the nice comments! :-)

ChickoftheDarkMoon: I'm happy you liked it! And yup, I will as much as possible! Thanks! :-)




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