Disclaimer: Nothing belongs to me, except the stuff that does ::Cheshire Cat grin::
*`*`*`*`*
Oh I am what I am
I'll do what I want
But I can't hide
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until your resting here with me
I didn't hear you leave
I wonder how am I still here
And I don't want to move a thing
It might change my memory
Interlude:
Lily and James' Midnight Romp
When they arrived in the common room, several people tried to stop them but they waved off all questions and went to bed. Of course, this only made people more worried. The marauder's being sedate? The girls weren't pounding on them? Something was most definitely wrong. Needless to say, they were basically accosted at breakfast, but by then, they were their normal selves and suspicion was lessened. Before that happened though, Lilly and James came to an understanding.
Lily tossed and turned, Thalia was snoring softly again and Clio was murmuring to herself as usual (Lily thought she heard the word Moony, but wisely decided not to press upon the matter). She just couldn't sleep.
She kept thinking about…
Something…
Someone…
"ZZZZZZZZZZ"….
A time passed…
Lily squirmed…
Lilly murmured something like: "James… don't… Harry…"
A shorter time passed…
"AHHHH!"
Lilly abruptly sat up and freaked.
*`*`*
Exactly three feet and one wall away, James Potter seemed to have the exact same problem. Moony was murmuring something that, under normal, circumstances James would have logged away to torture him about. Peter was snoring and Sirius was, well, doing something Sirius like, James didn't bother to ask. Soon he too, like his female counter part, fell asleep.
Only to wake up screaming.
*`*`*
James and Lily were in a house at Hogsmead; they looked to be in their early twenties. A baby was lying in a crib next to the bed with the slumbering parents. The baby, who looked like a little version of James with Lilly's eyes, gave a small slightly wicked smile, as if he knew what was happening and what he was about to do. Sniffing, he made a face and began to cry loudly, VERY loudly.
"James," the twenty something Lily groaned, "it's your turn. I took him last shift."
"Shift?" James murmured back, "Is that's what we're calling it now? He's a child Lily, not a job at the 711."
"Don't get technical with me Prongsy, you know what I meant."
"You haven't changed since we were fifteen Lily."
"And I don't intend to," she said brightly. "Now I went through two days of labor for Harry, the least thing you could do is change his diaper. You can bring him to me and I'll gladly do it, but I have no intentions of leaving this warm bed."
This entire time, baby Harry had been balling his lungs out, so James got up and leaned over the crafty child's crib. For a long time James had been wondering if little Harry didn't know exactly what he was doing when he woke them up like this, at two A.M. in the morning. James parents had said it was no less than he deserved; Lily's parents had said the same thing. Of course that was all before the attack, James sighed.
As soon as he saw the eyes of his father, baby Harry shut up and held his pudgy hands up to him. James grinned, who could resist that smile, so like his own? He picked him up and carefully carried over to his wife. Lily was sitting up in bed and took the baby, "Hello Harry, shh, don't cry, I'm here."
James pouted, "I think he likes you better than me."
"Of course he dose, I'm his mother, that's what nature intended."
"That's doesn't make it fa- what was that?" A loud thump and several snickers were heard from the lawn and not so far off, it seemed like someone was screaming.
"Oh God, no. Please no. James, you don't think?"
"Shh, calm down." He placed a finger on her lips to keep her quiet, Harry wisely decided to remain calm as well. "No, I don't think it's him. I'm sure it's just one of our insane friends paying us a midnight visit. Thalia and Sirius never did learn to pay proper attention to a clock. I'll go and check…" He continued in a whisper
"No, wait." Lily grabbed his sleeve, like she had so many years ago, "I-" she was cut off by a startling green color that invaded their windows and a image of a skull with a snake crawling out of it's mouth being projected onto their walls.
"No!"
"He can't be here yet, not in Hogsmead!"
"Lily, go to the school, go to Dumbledore. I'll be right behind you. I have to stay to protect Hogsmead. "
"No James, you're coming now too!" Lily, still holding Harry, threw floo powder into the fire and, dragging James in with her, yelled, "Hogwarts!" They began to swirl around and disappear just as several masked men invaded the house. The roof was blown off and then came the vision of angry red eyes and an all too snake like voice shrieking "You can't hide from me forever, I will have Harry!" Then, the visions literally shattered into fire and ice, as both James and Lilly woke with a start and small yelps.
*`*`*`*`*
Lily looked over at the ever-growing passage between the girls and boys' dormitories. They had almost forgotten about the invisibility spell because of Snape. She could have sworn she heard James yell from the other room, at the same time she had. She held her head in her hands, she new that skull and snake symbol on the wall.
Voldemort
Would he still be around in five years time? Would he be strong enough to invade Hogsmead? Would he be after her child? Her child? Lilly didn't have a child… and she certainly didn't have one with James! Her head began to clear slowly, but she still let out an aggravated growl.
"'Smatter Lil'?" Thalia said from her pillow.
"Nothing. Just, I think I had one of those prophecy dreams."
Thalia seemed to wake up a bit more, but not all the way, "You haven't had one of those for a while. You should write it down and talk to Sensei-sama later." She threw a journal at Lilly before switching off the lights and snoring again.
"How am I supposed to write with the lights off?" Lily mumbled, aggravated.
"You are certainly not going to do it in here and keep me up any more, I was having a lovely dream." Clio said incoherently from her side of the room.
Grumbling, Lily effortlessly turned herself into a beautiful and awe-inspiring phoenix. She grabbed a quill and the journal in her talons before flying out of the window into the cool late autumn air.
*`*`*
James gazed at the giant whole in the wall that led to the girls' room, he could have sworn he had heard one of them scream. Lily to be specific, he had gotten on her bad side enough to know what her aggravated screams sounded like. But this was one of fear followed by an aggravated one. Her scream in real life sounded just like the one in his dream. What a weird dream too. Why was he a father? More importantly, why was Lilly the mother? And that image on the wall, his father had shown him and Sirius the symbol before, to warn them.
Voldemort
"Shit!"
"Why Prongs! Such language!"
"Shut up Padfoot, I'm trying to think."
"That's new."
"Padfoot…."
"What's eating you?"
"I just had a weird dream, that's all."
"Falling under professor Trawlneys spell?"
"What?"
"Today, in divination, she was droning on about dream prophecy's or something, I wasn't really listening."
'A prophecy? You gotta be kidding me?' James thought to himself, but out loud he said, "Whatever Padfoot, I gotta go clear my head. See you at breakfast." He fumbled around in the dark for a while before jumping onto his broom flying out the window. James often did this when he was confused, something about flying felt right to him. It was in the air that he felt like he belonged. Sirius finished whatever Sirius-like-project he was working and went to bed, smiling to himself and looking forward to the next day.
*`*`*
Lily completely forgot about her dreams and just let herself go. She hadn't just flown for a long time. The past years had been taken up by making sure that the boys didn't take their newfound freedom to far, they had no idea how many times they had almost killed someone, or gotten killed themselves. Once in a while, Lily would get extremely upset. How could they endanger other people like that? She would scream as the other girls tried to calm her. Yet, the change in Remus was enough to silence anyone. He was happy. Keeping that secret from everybody, living in fear that they would find out and abandon him, it had been killing him. But now he knew that they wouldn't do it, they'd never leave him stranded because of such a "trivial matter" as Clio put it. So she let it go. Most of the time nothing happened and it did give the girls an excuse to transform. They were very careful about it; the last thing they needed was the entire student body brooding over their abilities. Dumbledore had told them about prejudice against Naturals, even though the Naturals were there to protect people. Wizards seemed to thrive upon judging people prematurely and sticking to it with every fiber of their being. But tonight was going to be different; Lily put all cares aside and just soared. She soon came upon Fawxes, Dumbledore's bird. The real Phoenix had been extremely apprehensive of the Natural at first. After he saw his master was pleased with the girl-turned-bird, Fawxes had no problem going on an occasional romp with Lily, or Pele, as Thalia sometimes called her after the Hawaiian goddess of fire. The boys never took much notice of the name, they figured it was because of her hair or something.
Lily mulled over her friend's forms, deciding that when it came to bird transformations, she had by far been the most blessed.
Owls were intelligent, graceful and excellent huntsmen, but not always magical. Though snow owls tended to have one or more tricks up their talons than the rest. Clio was by no means disappointed in her form and they all had to agree that it suited her.
Thalia was equally pleased with being a raven, she had always wondered if her ancestors new she would be a raven, therefor taking on the last name and waiting for their Natural to be born. Ravens were magical and mischievous. They weren't, however, evil, so she was pleased. With their shiny black coat, great, grinning eyes and hunting skills, they were her favorite birds.
But a Phoenix was a Phoenix. Healing powers, the ability to lift heavy objects more than ten times it' size, and the over all loyalty of the birds made Lily feel so grateful to be associated with it. The plumage was of fires, mainly reds and gold, with a touch of oranges and whites. A little blue and black was on her eyes and beak for good measure. The ability to blow fire wasn't that bad either. Lily often had a hard time not blowing it at James.
James… she told Fawxes about her dream. The bird gave her a simple answer.
'This Voldemort person is real, yes?'
Lily, or Pele, shook her head in the affirmative.
'Then you must tell my master, and you must tell the boy, it seems fairly obvious.'
'I'm not always blessed with the knowledge of a real phoenix. The human excuses and thought tend to invade my mind when I'm trying to be logical.'
'Not many people are, they haven't lived long enough. My master has though. That's one of the reasons I love him so much.'
'How old is the professor anyway?'
The brilliant creature gave a bird-shrug, 'Who knows, but he is old, not to old mind you.'
'Of course not.'
'Talk to the Potter boy and my master.' The bird flew off, soaring the sky and letting off a small burst of fire in a signal of hope to Lily. Lily decided she didn't want to be a Phoenix anymore. Nothing could compare to a real one and she didn't feel like trying. She changed into her second form and wandered into the forbidden forest. She wasn't worried about vampires or even the giant spider that Hagrid had kindly introduced her to (Lily had barely gotten out alive). She just wanted to lift her graceful hooves and run and jump, banter about, and over all just not think for a while. She hurried on deep into the woods and didn't look back.
*`*`*
James flew over the forest, he figured he would visit one of the centaurs, though they were vague, they did know something about the future. He set his broom down in a small clearing. He wandered on, not worried about his prize broom; he always left it there. James was all too aware of exactly what was lurking in the forest; he shuttered remembering his last visit and changed into a stag. He began to wander around aimlessly. The centaurs were no where to be found, then Prongs realized that the full moon was tomorrow and that they were most likely making preparations for their annual feast and fortune telling event. He sighed and walked back to where he left his broom. Anyone who saw this normally brilliant stag would wonder why it dragged its hooves so and why its antlers hung so low that they nearly scraped the ground. Then they would have seen its head jerk up and it sniff the air and bound off. Prongs had in fact, just heard a near by sound of hooves, almost like his own. They were far to light for a centaur, and it was very rare that a normal horse was found in the forest. So Prongs felt that there was only one alternative left, it had to be a unicorn. James had caught glimpses of the creatures two times in his life and had always wanted to get up close. But they always scattered at the sight of him, if a unicorn trusted a human enough to let it come near, it was never a guy, always girls. But he wasn't James anymore; he was Prongs, a stag and an animal, just like it. With thoughts of befriending the magical beast he sped up his pace and followed it. The only clues he had were the sound of its happy hooves and an occasional glimpse of white. He figured it had to have been a unicorn. What other white creature could canter like it didn't have a care in the world? The beast finally stopped and Prongs caught his breath, even for a stag, it had been a long run. He found himself just outside of the clearing where he had left his broomstick. He hid himself in a convent clump of bushes and tried to get a view of what the unicorn was doing.
The white creature slowly bent its head towards the broom and sniffed, If there was a student loose in these parts she had to find it. The beast sniffed, Gryffindor, a Quidditch player, a Seeker? James! The beast lifted its head up, there, behind the bushes, antlers.
Prongs couldn't believe his ears, was the majestic beast actually… giggling! He decided to forgo all caution and with a leap he was in the middle of a clearing. He whipped around and came face to face with… no way, he had never seen another one like him in the forbidden forest before, how did one just turn up?
It wasn't a unicorn it was…
A white Doe,
A deer,
A female deer
"Ray, a drop of golden sun. Me, a name I call myself. Far a long, long way to run. So, a needle pulling thread. Fa, a note to follow so. T, a drink with jam and bread, and that will lead us back to-"
'Lily!" Prongs, now James, croaked in shock. He had just watched a beautiful and mysterious white doe change into an equally gorgeous Lily, the person, not the flower.
"Actually I was going to say Doe, doe follows T, not lily." James merely gaped. "I was wondering when you would turn up, I knew that broomstick had to be yours."
"Alright, this is just getting ridiculous! You're a Phoenix, though I haven't seen it, and a white doe. What the hell is up with that!"
"James, calm down! I told you we had two forms, this is just my second. And I find it offensive that a guy who was goes by the name of Prongs of the four Marauders and was just a stag a moment ago is calling me ridiculous!"
"Lily, I may be have some odd habits, but you are ridiculous!"
"I am not!"
"ARE TOO!"
"ARE NOT"
"ARE TOO!
"ARE NOT!"
"OH SHUT UP!"
"YOU SHUT UP!"
This went on for quite a spell, all the while Lily and James had been walking around the forest. Suddenly Lily stopped, "James?" she said quietly, at least quieter than her angry shrieks.
"WHAT!" he responded.
"Oh, do stop hollering for a minute, I think we're lost."
"Shit."
"James!"
"Um, nope!"
"What, you're not going to stop yelling?"
"No, I meant that nope we're not lost."
"We can go back to hollering later."
"You know, we have a long list of things to come back to."
Lily shrugged, "Now, you say we're not lost, so where are we?"
"Here."
"Don't pull that with me Prongsy."
"Okay, we just have to follow that path."
"Don't be ridiculous, James, that's just one of those fake forest paths that lead no where." Lily's arms were folded and she didn't seem open to discussion.
"Again, you are the ridiculous one, not me. And that path isn't what it seems; the guys and I designed it to look like one of those fake paths, but it's actually leading right to the shrieking shack and on to Hogsmead."
"Let me get this strait, you're saying that a fake path is really a path you made that will lead us to Hogsmead."
"Yes."
"And I have no alternative but to believe you?"
"Yes."
"Shit."
"Lily!"
"You can say it, I can say it."
"Alright, but we're even now. Come on, we can get a Butterbeer and warm up, then I need to ask you something."
"Okay…"
*`*`*
He led her through several winding paths until they came to a particularly rough patch of thicket. "Can you jump over this, Lily? Lily?"
"No, but I can."
James turned to see the white doe version of Lilly staring strait back at him; he smiled and changed into Prongs. They easily jumped the thicket and began to race up towards the Shrieking shack, which was now looming in the distance. When they reached the edge of Hogsmead they both changed back into people and James tackled Lily to the ground before taking off again and running for the shack.
"You cheat!" The happily blushing Lily called after him.
"Yup!" the equally blushing and proud James responded.
"Well, two can play at that game." Lily said more to herself than to James.
James stopped and blinked; did he just see a spurt of fire from over head? He looked up and saw a large red bird settling itself on the chimney of the shack.
"Lily!"
"Yes?"
"That was so unfair!"
"Oh, and tackling me to the ground wasn't?"
"Hey! No holding me responsible for my actions! And you still have to come down."
"I don't see why I should." The chimney perched Lily teased.
"Because, I was going to treat you to a Butterbeer, but since you're being such a tease, I don't think I shall." He said putting on an aloof air.
"James, don't lie, Madam Lilac is sleeping right now, much less running a bar."
"I happen to know from a very reliable source that the bar is open 24/7. Madam Lilac's daughter runs it at night."
"I'm not sure I trust these sources of yours, who is it?"
"Hagrid."
"Oh, well that's different." She easily scaled down the side of the house and landed effortlessly next to James. "So, shall we go?" she said turning to find a dangerously grinning James Potter. "What?" she said, shrinking back a little.
"Nothing, just this." He tackled her to the ground once more and began tickling her. In their third year he found out that Lily's only fear was being tickled. He couldn't understand, until he tried it. Lily was incredibly ticklish, almost everywhere, and she giggled profusely if you did it. Betraying her cool image in a big way.
"James! No tickling!"
"And why not?"
"Because I hate it! Hee, hee! Stop!"
"That would be the reason I'm tickling you Lily dear, do try to keep up."
She blinked a few times at him before bursting out laughing, he was tickling her side now, " Really-stop-air--hate-tickles" she panted, despite the fitfulness of her words, James got it. He momentarily stopped tickling her and said, "You hate everything I do." He pouted for a moment before tickling her in the ribs.
"I do not!" James really stopped this time (still not letting her up) and looked at her raising his eyebrows. "Okay," she admitted, bating him away as he tried to pinch her arm, "I hate most of what you do, but not everything."
"Oh really and what might that be?"
"If you let my up, I'll tell you."
"If you tell me, I'll let you up."
This went on for quite a while until Lily sighed, "Fine you stubborn pig! But I'm only giving up so we can get a Butterbeer before dawn come and people start to notice we're gone." James smiled and rolled off her. She sat up, "Oy! I think you broke one of my ribs!"
"Yeah right, out with it."
"This is so going against every grain in my being." She said before mumbling something unintelligible under her breath.
"What was that?" James prodded, since Lilly was refusing to meet his gaze she only heard the teasing note in his voice, not the attentive look in his eyes.
She sighed in defeat and said, "I like that you went to so much trouble for Remus, most wouldn't. They would have just left him and even worse, told everyone. But you guys showed real character, you stood up for your friend." She said this all very fast.
"That's the only thing you like about me. Not my dashing good looks and Calvary?" he said, striking a dramatic pose.
Lilly stood up and walked around him, rubbing her chin and murmuring thoughtfully. Finally she stooped and inch from his face. "That's only thing I'm telling you." She said, ruffling his hair like a dog.
"I'll get the rest out of you eventually."
"Right Prongs."
"I never did get you back for that name."
"Sirius came up with it, not me."
"But you kept calling me it and encouraging the guys to say it too. No, I still owe you."
"Oh goody, I look forward to the challenge of your revenge."
They had reached the small pub and walked inside. "Well hello, what are you two doing up this late? Or should I say early?"
"Had a weird dream Madam Rosmerta."
"Both of you?"
"It's a long story."
"Well take a seat over there, I suppose you two want Butterbears?"
"Sure." They walked over to a booth in the corner and plopped down, their exhaustion finally hitting them. Lily thoughtfully chewed her lip; James tried, in vane, to ignore the part of his brain that labeled itself his "Dating Conscious" It was promptly telling him to kiss her. 'Damn, I hate my brain,' he thought venomously.
"James?"
"Eh?" he said coming out of his stupor
"Did you really have weird dream?"
"Yeah…"
"So it was you who yelled earlier?"
"I guess I did, sorry, did I wake you?"
"No I was already awake, I had a weird dream myself."
Madam Rosmerta brought the drinks over and they thanked her. "Did you scream?" James asked after taking a sip.
"Yes, wait," Lily blinked, evidently surprised by something. "How could have heard me scream?"
"I was awake."
"But I was awake when you screamed."
"Right."
"But didn't you wake up screaming?"
"Yes,"
"So did I"
"Yet we both heard the other scream. How is that possible?"
"We must have woken up at the exact same moment."
"We are stupid."
"Yes."
They both leaned back against the back of the booth and stared wearily at each other over the table. "James?" Lily said finally, sitting upright and talking in a whisper.
"What?" he said, doing the same.
"Exactly, what happened in your dream?"
"I dunno, what happened in yours?"
"I'm guessing the same thing happened in both."
"What! You really are ridiculous."
"No I'm not! Just think about it, we both wake up screaming at the same time, both of us head into the forest…"
"Are you saying that somewhere along the rode of our lives, an evil lord dude is going to burst in the middle of the night, and that we're going to just get out alive?"
"Ah ha! So we did have the same dream." She grinned in triumph.
"Answer me!"
"I don't know, it wasn't necessarily a prophetic dream, but the fact that we both had it makes me wonder if it was an omen."
"What's the difference between a prophetic dream and a dream containing an omen?"
"Prophetic dreams are usually unavoidable, usually. But omens are sent to you so you can avoid what's coming, usually."
"Oh great, so we have a weird dream, a bunch of 'usually' possibilities and we're going to be late for school!"
"What?"
"The sun's rising and if we don't get back everyone's going to know we snuck out."
"Damn." Lilly said gazing at the gorgeous sun that was steadily rising.
"Your one ahead of me now."
"Oh shut up, come on, if we change back into animals we can get back before anyone notices we're gone. At least any of the teachers or normal students."
"What do you mean by that?" James asked while he held the door open for a surprised Lilly.
"I mean, do you think we could ever hide this from Thalia, or from Sirius? I'm guessing that Thalia already knows exactly what I'm doing and is getting a collection of jokes ready. I wish she didn't always wake up so early, then she might not know I'm gone, but really she's probably up by now."
"Well, luckily, Sirius isn't so sharp. He's probably still sleeping, and if we hurry we can get back before Thalia tells anyone."
All further conversation was stopped. That morning several early birds saw a white doe and stag running up the streets of Hogsmead toward the castle of Hogwarts.
I don't want to call my friends
They might wake me from this dream
And I can't leave this bed
Risk forgetting all that's been
Oh I am what I am
I'll do what I want
But I can't hide
I won't go
I won't sleep
I can't breathe
Until your resting here with me
*`*`*`*`*
A.N. This is just a quick interruption, a sideline if you will. I wanted to give more perspective on the L/J relationship. Of this probably rose more questions than answered them, but everything said and done will eventually come into play. In the next chapters' notes, I'll give a quick overview of where I plan to take this. R&R!
