The Flower's Story chp16
"Dreams are the touchstones of our character."
-Henry David Thoreau


During the next few Dances the staff and students were getting accustomed of seeing Lily and James together. At first it startled some people to find that they had caused the ripple of kisses during the first dance. But they hardly kissed in public so not everyone knew about it. It was already Easter and everyone decided to stay at Hogwarts for the holidays except for James. This made it very hard for Lily to work on the Animagi charms with Tasha and Molly looking over her shoulder.

One day Lily had called over Siirus out of aggravation.

"Sirius I need you to do me a enormous favor!"

"Depends on the favor!" He smirked

"Oh, you'll like this one! I need you to take Tasha away from me for the day..." She waited for the reaction

"Wait, I thought you liked her! I'm confused..." he sat down next to her thinking very hard

"Sirius, she's my best friend but I need to work on these charms and I can't do it with her breathing down my neck! Look, just think of this as a date all right? Please Sirius...for me?" she made her best pouty face

"Lily we really need to find out your childhood trauma because that face just makes you look distorted." She was about to protest but he raised a hand to her mouth "But we'll have to do it some other time, I have a date to attend to!"

"Thank you!" she whispered excitedly

Lily grabbed all the books she needed and ran for the Library. Sirius looked over to Tasha who was about to run after Lily. He ran in front of her.

"And where exactly do you think your going Ms. Tasha Harris?" he gently took her hand

"I'm going after Lily...............Sirius theres something suspicious going on" she said looking from her hand to his huge devious smile "Uh-oh"

"You got that right" and at that moment he whipped open the portrait whole and dragged her through. He ran all the way down to the front doors and suddenly stopped. Tasha went flying onto the floor.

"OW" was all she said

"Eek, sorry dahling! Would you excuse my stupidity? I am but a simple minded clutz. DO forgive me will you?" He took her hand and kissed it

"Well the least you could do is help me up! Now what's this all about Sirius?"

"What? I can't have some peace and quiet with the woman of my life? Should I be deprived of the person that sheds light onto my dark and dismal life?" He put one hand on his forehead and the other was used as a fan.

"Do you practice being a loony?" She looked as though he was a mental patient

"No. It comes naturally. Come, let us walk." They linked arms and took a stroll down to the lake

" I remember us but as children! We used to frolic along this hear lake. The Giant Squid would bring its tentacles up to the surface and wave to us. That squid..." he sighed "He was always good for a joke. And on our darkest days we would wander into town and have a warm butterbeer. Those always used to tickle your nose when..."

Sirius babbled on and Tasha just smiled to herself knowing that she has the zaniest boyfriend in the world. If that's what he was to her. He hadn't even declared them that, just that he wanted to be her date for every single dance. She had to clear this up with him. But he was still babbling on.

"Then you stuck those peas up your little button nose and spit them out across the room! Mother thought that-"

"Sirius-"

"Mother thought that you still had some up there so she stuck a fork-"

"Shut up Sirius!" She yelled

He stopped abruptly "Why Tasha dahling what ever is the matter?"

Tasha popped at this.

"You! You're the matter Sirius, and I don't understand it! You ask me to all the dances, you kiss me on several occasions, and then drag me down to the lake in the middle of the night just to remaness about the past that never happened? What is wrong with you?" By now she was breathing heavily

Sirius looked at her. Her eyes were so intense that he just sighed and sat down on the edge of the lake.

She sat down next to him.

"Listen Sirius, I just want an answer that's all!"

"Umm...not to be a pain or anything but" she snorted "you haven't asked a question yet."

"I know! I was just about to, but you interrupted me! Are you my boyfriend."

"Yes! If you want me to be?" He said it like it was nothing

"YES!" she said just a little bit to quickly. "I mean, yes my dahling Sirius."
She stood up and brushed herself off.

"Come! I'm feeling famished, and I do remember how I stuck those peas up my nose!" she smiled at him "But they were no ordinary peas!"

"Oh really!" he asked as he stood up in front of her

"Really!" She nodded

"How so?" he inched closer to her until they were nose to nose.

"They were chick peas!" she whispered.

Well it wasn't as romantic as she hoped it to be but it had still been a very good kiss! They linked arms yet again and walked back to Gryffindor tower.

*-*-*-*-*

The next morning, all the rest of the students came back from their Easter holidays. James greeted Lily with a slight smile and a hello to everybody else. But then he started walking towards the tower. They all looked at each other knowing something was up.

"What's wrong with him?" Lily asked Sirius as they walked back to the tower

"I have no clue but something is definitely wrong! He hasn't looked that down since his cat fluffy died!"

"He had a cat?" He nodded "How did he die?" she felt terrible for James about a little cat

Sirius smiled guiltily "I accidently blew him up."

Lily suddenly turned green "I think I'm going to be sick!"

When they reached Gryffindor tower, Sirius went bounding up the stairs to see what James was upset about. Lily opened up her rolls of parchment and started finishing her essay on Helga the horrible.

When Sirius finally came down an hour later he looked stunned. His face was pale and his eyes were red. Luckily everyone else in Gryffindor was off somewhere else. Lily jumped up out of her seat.

"Sirius what's wrong?" she asked concerned

"James'...............how...............not possible...............Voldemort!" he said in a daze.

The second she heard the name Voldemort she ran up to his dorm room to see James leaning against the window. His forehead was against it and she could see his breath fogging up the window.

"James?" She reached out a hand and touched his shoulder in comfort

He flinched. This hurt Lily, but she tried again.

"James, please tell me! What's wrong?" she said a little desperately this time

He turned around and looked her in the eye. He saw her need to know what's going on. He leaned over and put his arms around her in a hug.

"Lily, promise me something!"

"Anything" she said returning the hug

"Promise you'll never leave me!"

"Is that what this is about? What happened James?"

She pushed away a strand of hair in his eye.

"Voldemort." He said sitting down

"What about the git?" she tried to lighten the tension

He gave a weak effort of a smile. "He sent some of his people, his death eaters." There was a tone of complete hatred in his voice. "They came to my house, they killed-" he took a deep breath "He killed my parents!"

Lily just stared at him. But she smiled.

"James, you helped me through when he did it to my parents, and now it's my trun to help you! Look at me!" his face had wandered to the window again "You need to move on all right? I know it's hard, and it's going to take a while but I'm here for you and so is Sirius. Sirius was in shock on his own!"

"Well, I kind of yelled at him..."

"Then the first step to redemption is to apologize." She smiled at him and kissed him on the forehead.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

The weeks flew by and Lily had actually gotten through the first book of animagi transformations. It was only a book the size of a whale. James' spirit had come back when the Quiditch games were back on. Gryffindor was in the lead yet again for the 6th year running.(they had won the years before they had entered Hogwarts) There was only one more month to Hogwarts and one more dance. The boys had gone all manly again and started telling secrets to each other whenever the girls were around.

"OOOhh, that just makes me so mad!" Tasha hissed

"I know I can't believe thir doing it again, and right before the last dance too!" Molly exclaimed

"I'm not that sure about this but their definitely planning something!" she eyed James who looked up at her and winked. "HA! I knew it!" she said triumphantly

She looked to the girls for approval of her genius. But they just stared back at her.

"No really!" Tasha said turning back to her homework

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

It was the night of the last dance and the girls were thinking of boycotting talking to the boys at all. But then they wouldn't get the little perks of it all Tasha pointed out.

Lily had bought a light blue silk gown in contrast to her hair. There were no sleeves and the back was only a couple of straps. This time she left it down and curled the ends of it in. she magically enhanced her skin and made it look as though she was glowing.

Tasha had put her hair up into a messy bun with little crimps of hair sticking out here and there. Her gown was a dark purple with little lace roses all down it.

Molly's dress was a light pastel pink with long sleeves. The dress was a little poofy at the bottom but straight at the mid drift. Her auburn hair was also put all the way up, but molly had put butterfly clips in her hair just for decoration.

As usual the boys were waiting downstairs but this time they had huge smiles on their faces. Peter was no where to be found yet again, but no one seemed to notice.

They all walked up to their dates and smiled.

"We have a little surprise for you gals!"

"HA!" Lily looked at Tasha and mouthed 'I told you so.'

Tasha rolled her eyes.

"But your going to have to do something that you normally wouldn't do!" Sirius explained

"And what exactly would that be? Asked Molly

"Trust us." Remus said simply

"HA!" Lily said again but with a more sarcastic tone.

"OK, what are we doing?"

"We're not exactly going to the dance, but we are going somewhere fancy!" He said quickly

"Where somewhere fancy?" Lily was getting worried

"Oh, that's for us to know and you to find out Lily m'dear!" James said

The girls looked at each other but went with it.

"Well, we're off to a see a wizard!" Lily exclaimed knowing that none of them would understand the term

*-*-*-*-*-*

When the boys had finally snuck them to a fireplace with no people around and told them to say a certain name.

"Bradley" James said while spinning into nothingness

"Bradley? Who's Bradley?" Lily asked Sirius

"Just go Lil!" Sirius said getting tired of questions

She stepped into the fire after sprinkling the green powder and said "Bradley" with one final look at the gang.

She hopped out of a small fireplace and looked around a cabin. It looked just like the cabin from her dream. Could it be? Was she dreaming again, where's James?

"Lil! Come on!" she saw James waiting for her on the porch of the cabin

She stepped out and saw a breathtaking sight. She was on a beack and the sun was just setting. There were no huge waves but no small waves. Lily looked just beyond the horizon and saw a pod of dolphins swimming together. It was just like a fairy tale.

James knew by the half-melted expression on her face that Lily had liked the little surprise they had planned.

"Oh Sirius!" Lily heard Tasha say

It was followed by a gasp from Molly. The boys knew they had succeeded.

"We're going to have a little dessert sort of thing over there on that table." Sirius said pointing to the table lit with candles "And then we can do whatever you lady's want!"

They smirked at each other with devilish grins.

The little dessert thing was actually very good. They instantly knew that the boys hadn't made it themselves, but it still was a very romantic notion.

By the end of the meal Sirius was still complaining that

"I did prepare it! All by myself!"

"Yes Sirius, we understand that you have a very strong feminine side! But please don't share it with us!" James pleaded

*-*-*-*

Lily and James were sitting along the jetty of the beach when an unpleasant thought came to James' head. But he had to bring it up anyway.

"Lil, I know your probably wondering where we're staying over the summer. Well, we're still staying at my house just...no...parents" he said sadly but continued "My parents left the mansion to me and I just thought that maybe we could still stay there!" Lily nodded.

"James...Thank you for all of this! I truly don't know what to say!"

"Krickey! Lily Evan's speech less, I never thought I'd see the day!"

She hit him playfully but he started tickling her. She giggled for awhile and then they settled back down again. Lily looked up at James and smiled. A little feeling came over her and she kissed him. Nothing really could've stopped her but it felt nice anyway. That they had shared a moment again together.

The rest of the night went along the same for the other's. A little talking, a little kissing, but not with Molly and Remus for some reason. They were just happy with being friends.

*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*

When they're romantic night had come to an end and so had the Hogwarts year. The next day they would be going home to the parent less mansion. It would be very odd for James. But he knew he could muddle threw with his friends' help.

Everyone said goodbye as the train came to a hault and they were on their way back home for the holidays. But this holiday, everything would change.

AN: Wow! I was actually able to post something! Even though it is 11:30 at night lol. Okey dokey I know this was a strange chapter but I wanted to get a mix of things in. Like tho whole Tasha/Sirius thing you know? More to come!

And to Caitlin: you are devoted! And kewl! Oh! I just love all you guys! ::breaks down into sobs:: ok! I'm composed!

All righty then enough with the madness. R&R please. And no flames!

Disclaimer: Nothing is mine I tell you! Nothing! Except.........some certain people but that's beside the point!