Everlasting
chapter 2: someone for sirius
"Thank you so much, James. They're absolutely lovely!" Lily smiled, as she tried her new mittens on. They were enchanted to change color according to the wearer's mood. At present, they were a soft pastel pink, which matched the color of Lily's cheeks.
"You're welcome. But it's not much really." James said, blushing.
"I love them! And I'll be sure to wear them when I go watch you play Quidditch. I'll cheer for you louder than all the others, too." Lily said shyly, and James grinned sheepishly.
The two had been spending lots of time together lately. As their feelings for each other deepened, the amount of time they spent together also lengthened. In fact, Sirius hadn't spoken to Lily in almost a week, being as she was always with James. But Lily and James didn't notice their neglect towards their friends, they were too much in love. And although they were only in their third year, they were very smitten with each other, and their love was nothing more than innocent and sweet.
"By the way, I wanted to thank you for working on that Potions assignment with me. Thanks to you, I received full marks for the first time in my life." James grinned.
"Well, I probably couldn't have written it that well without you anyway."
"I guess I'm pretty lucky to have fallen for the cleverest girl at Hogwarts." James said, and Lily blushed.
"Well, I'd better get up to bed now." Lily let go of James' hand gently.
"Alright then. Goodnight, Lily."
"Goodnight, James."
***
"Blimey, am I seeing you two in what, two years or something?" Sirius joked as Lily and James joined him for breakfast in the Great Hall.
"Has it really been so long?" Lily said apologetically. "I'm really sorry I haven't talked to you much these days..."
But Sirius just shrugged it off with a carefree grin. "It's fine with me. Who am I to interfere in the matters of two lovebirds anyway?"
"And I want to apologize for yesterday. I know we had planned to practice Quidditch, but I just couldn't keep track of the time and..." James trailed off, looking extremely sorry. "Sorry, mate. I'll make it up to you, I promise."
"No need to. I knew it would probably slip your mind, being with Lily and all, so I didn't bother coming out at all. No hard feelings." Sirius grinned, and James looked hugely relieved.
But what James and Lily didn't know was that Sirius had been lying. He had actually come out to the Quidditch pitch that previous night, and waited for two hours in the pouring rain. Although he knew of his best mate's recent neglection of everyone but Lily, he didn't think that James would go so far as forgetting Quidditch practice with him.
He was proved wrong, of course. And Sirius couldn't remember ever feeling as dejected as he did that day, when he walked into Gryffindor Tower alone in soaked Quidditch robes. But Sirius couldn't bring himself to get angry at James. He was his best friend after all, and keeping their friendship intact was more important than getting revenge for a couple hours spent in the rain.
Of course, Sirius couldn't really understand what James was going through. He had never been in love before, so he could only ponder what James might be feeling like. Sirius knew nothing of the beauty of love, and how it could take over a person. But he still tried to understand his two best friends, and forgave them continuously.
"Long time no see." Remus said smiling, as he sat down across from Lily and James. They looked rather embarrassed and ready to start another round of apologies, but Remus seemingly read their minds.
"No need to apologize or make excuses." he held up his hands. "No one should have to apologize for falling in love. There's probably nothing more beautiful in the world."
"Well, look who's talking. And when have you ever fallen in love, Moony?" Sirius smirked, and Remus faltered.
"Well- well, one can imagine." he gathered his composure once more, and Lily giggled.
"What's so funny?" Peter said, as he also joined them, taking a seat next to Sirius.
"We were just talking about the love life of these two," Sirius gestured towards Lily and James. "and Remus' lack of one." he smirked at Remus, who protested.
"Well, I sure haven't seen you two around these days." Peter commented, and Lily and James looked even guiltier. "And Sirius has been looking pretty lonely lately, if you ask me."
Sirius frowned at Peter. "I have not. I have my own life too, you know."
"Maybe you should start dating." Remus suggested, and Lily brightened up at the suggestion.
"Yes! Why don't you start dating, Sirius? I know someone who would be perfect for you!" she gushed happily, but Sirius just sniffed haughtily.
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, lads, but I'm afraid there's no girl in Hogwarts who can meet my standards."
"More like there's no girl who's standards you could meet." James joked, and everyone laughed heartily. Sirius just pretended to be deeply insulted.
He had again managed to turn the conversation topic into a huge joke, but deep down inside, he was seriously considering what Remus had said. 'Me, start dating? Not such a bad idea, perhaps. I mean, maybe it is about time I got a life of my own. It would be better than bothering Lily and James with the responsibility of entertaining poor, lonely Sirius.' He thought to himself. But no one at all suspected that Sirius had so much as given a thought to the idea.
***
"I'd like full attention, please. I'm about to inform you about your next assignment." Professor Caliga called out over the noise.
It was currently Potions class with the Slytherins, and Lily was straining to hear the tiny professor's voice, unlike the rest of the class.
"QUIET!!" she screamed, and the classroom soon fell silent.
Why she hadn't used her wand to quiet the class, nobody knew for sure. But there were yet unproved rumours going around that the professor was a Squib, and knew nothing about magic except the art of making potions. Lily had dismissed the rumours at once, refusing to believe that their talented Potions master could possibly be a Squib.
"Now, as I was trying to say," Caliga took a deep breath and continued. "I am assigning a new potions project which is due by the 16th of next month. It happens to be a group assignment-" several cheers exploded from the Gryffindor tables. "But, it also happens to be a joint group assignment, which means that Gryffindors and Slytherins may be paired together."
At this last statement, loud groans ensued from both sides of the classroom. Lily was also just as shocked. Gryffindors and Slytherins? Did Professor Caliga have any idea what kind of chaos would be unleashed? Lily only prayed that she wouldn't be paired up with a Slytherin.
"Now, before I decide on the pairs, I shall explain what kind of assignment this is." The class fell silent once more, and Caliga continued, a twinkle in her eye. "It is, in fact, the cure for a love potion that you must make."
"Can't you teach us how to make a love potion instead, Professor?" A Gryffindor girl interrupted, and several other girls giggled.
"Perhaps another time, Miss Augustine. Now, if you'd kindly allow me to continue. Well, as I was saying, there are many different types of potions used as antidotes for love potions, but the one I am asking you all to brew is a very rare and difficult one. It is not used much nowadays, but it is indeed a special potion. The ingredients, I assure you, are simple enough to find, but it takes something special to make it work properly." The professor cast them a rather mysterious smile.
"What do you mean by special, Professor?" a Slytherin boy called out, on behalf of everyone's curiosity.
"I mean that it takes love, Mister Siletta."
"Love??" Everyone seemed even more puzzled by this vague answer.
"Not necessarily the romantic kind of love, but anything amounting to friendship or maybe even more. You see, only true love can erase false love. Oh, and by the way, it takes a pair made up of one wizard and one witch in case anyone's curious." Caliga finished with a smile, and chaos ensued.
Many of the boys were cheering and whooping, and the girls turning rather red. But Lily sat at her desk silently, worrying over the horrible possibility that she might get paired up with a Slytherin boy.
"Silence, everyone. Silence, please... SILENCE!!!" The classroom finally quieted down, and the Professor held out a small silver plate. There were small paper cauldrons sitting on the plate.
"Now the name of each boy in this classroom is written on one of these lovely cauldrons. The ladies will get to choose, of course, and pick one cauldron each. After you've unfolded the paper, I'd like you to call out the name of your partner so that he may be informed."
She first approached Teresa Augustine, who was sitting near the front of the classroom, and held the plate out to her. After she had read the name on the inside of the paper cauldron, she smiled a little, and turned rather pink.
"Remus Lupin."
Remus looked up with a start, as the other Gryffindor boys nudged him, laughing.
"Ooh, lucky Lupin!" One of the boys called out, and both Remus and Teresa blushed.
Next was Lina Burkins from Slytherin, and after that was Lily's turn. She closed her eyes tightly, and grabbed any paper cauldron at random. She silently prayed over and over again that it wouldn't be a Slytherin. But as she unfolded it with trembling fingers, and read the loopy golden letters, she let out a deep sigh of relief.
James Potter
'It's fate.' she thought to herself, and called out her partner's name softly.
"What? You're kidding? Potter and Evans? I bet she cheated!" One of the students exclaimed.
"I assure you, that Miss Evans did no such thing." Caliga warned the angry Slytherin, and moved onto the next student.
Lily glanced at James, who smiled at her happily. 'It's definitely fate. No doubt about it.' she thought to herself blissfully.
After two more students, the plate came to Narcissa Libelle of Slytherin. She was an extremely beautiful girl with pale skin and long, shimmering blond hair. But she had a very haughty air about her, and Lily could tell that Narcissa didn't consider her worthy of being a witch, just by the way she looked at her. The two had always been silent enemies, only conflicting through looks, never words. Yet Lily hated her all the same. She hoped with all her heart that Narcissa would get paired up with the worst boy in the classroom. But...
"Sirius Black." Narcissa called out in a clear voice, and Sirius nearly toppled off his chair.
Lily's mouth dropped open in utter surprise. It couldn't be true. Her best friend and her worst enemy?? But Sirius didn't look all too horrified. After all, it wasn't him who hated Narcissa. In fact, many of the other boys were eyeing him jealously, for Narcissa was quite popular among the male half of Hogwarts, not to mention her large gang of admiring Slytherin girls. Lily looked over at Sirius, feeling overwhelmed with shock. He caught her eye and shrugged as if to say 'I'm just as surprised as you are.".
Narcissa on the other hand, looked quite expressionless, so Lily couldn't tell whether she was glad to paired with Sirius or horrified. Lily secretly wished that Narcissa and Sirius would fail the assignment, because to pass you would have to fall in love, or least become friends with your partner, and Lily certainly didn't want her best friend falling in love with her worst enemy. 'Then, again. Something like that would never happen. After all, Sirius is my best friend, so he must dislike Narcissa almost as much as I do.' Lily assured herself, though she didn't feel confident of herself at all.
"Great news, eh?" James, who was sitting behind her, leaned over and said cheerfully.
"Great news?! How can Sirius and Libelle becoming partners possibly be great news? I mean, it's completely wrong! They'll probably fail, too! Can you imagine any couple as wrong as those two getting along? Absurd, really!" Lily ranted, not knowing how hysterical she sounded. She stopped for a moment, and looked at James who looked rather crushed.
"What's wrong, James?" Lily asked worriedly.
James paused for a minute, not meeting her eye. "I wasn't talking about Sirius and Narcissa, Lily. I was talking about us."
Lily realized that with a start, and felt extremely sorry to James. She, being too busy complaining about Sirius' new partner, had even forgotten to be happy about her own...
A/N: Can any of you guess what's wrong with Lily? For those who can't, I'll give you more hints in the next chapter, so make sure to stay tuned: P And by the way, I know that the Potions master is waaaaay different from Snape, but who says that Potions masters should always be nasty, right??
Disclaimer: Anything familiar belongs to the amazing Ms. Rowling, so don't sue me, 'kay?^^
