Responses
~Thank you to EVERYONE who wished me luck with my French homework! No, I still haven't finished, but I have to today. Merci bien!
Bombshell ~ I know it wasn't with this story, but thank you for giving me a lead to getting a code!! (god I sound like a detective...) I don't know if it worked or not yet as she hasn't written back yet, but THANK YOU!!!
Chapter 10
Get Out of Bed
Lily remained in tower until the first rays of sunlight began peeking over the mountains in the distance. She had been up all night, cursing her stupidity; one, for actually falling for James AGAIN and two, for being such a bitch to him. She didn't know what to do about it, as she had never been in such a situation before and she didn't feel she had anyone she could talk to as her pride wouldn't let her confess to her friends, to whom she had adamantly denied having any emotions whatsoever towards James, that she was actually in love with him.
It was shaping up to be a beautiful day, which slightly ticked Lily off as she felt it should be rainy, gray, and all around miserable, like how she was feeling at the moment. Slowly, she dragged herself up off the ground, resisting the urge to fling herself off the tower once she realized it was Monday. She hauled her tired, worn-out body down the impossibly long staircase and back to the girls' dormitory, walking quietly as so not to wake anyone. She didn't want any prying questions as to where she'd been.
Flinging herself into bed, she waited for sleep to come. Unfortunately, although she was thoroughly exhausted, sleep wouldn't come. She stared at the ceiling, reliving the horrible events of the previous night. He said he was sorry, and what did I do? I flipped out on him. Why did I do that? It was just a kiss!
"What was just a kiss, Lily?" Madeline's tired voice floated over from the nearby bed.
Lily's eyes widened. She hadn't realized she was talking out loud! "Ah...nothing, Maddy. Nothing. Go back to sleep!"
It was too late though. Madeline was the kind of person who, once woken up, couldn't fall back to sleep. Lily tensed up as she heard the bedsprings on Madeline's bed creak as she climbed out. Soon, her face appeared over Lily's, tired, but alert. "You. Downstairs. Now." commanded Madeline.
Lily decided the best thing for her to do would be to pretend she had been talking in her sleep. "I was talking in my sleep, Maddy. It was nothing."
"Liar. If you had been talking in your sleep, which I highly doubt you were, then you wouldn't have responded in such an obviously guilty tone when I asked what you were talking about." she said in a no-nonsense voice. "Now get out of bed before I have to drag you out."
Lily sighed. Clearly this was yet another argument she wasn't going to win. "Fine." she grumbled, pulling herself out of bed and following Madeline downstairs.
*
Once she was situated on the couch, Lily felt everything spilling out of her. Once she finished explaining, she could feel a lump in her throat. She looked up at Madeline. "What do I do now?" she asked hopelessly. "I've made such a mess!"
Madeline leaned back against the couch. "You're not going to like what I have to say." she said.
"Try me."
"I think you should 'fess up to him. Not immediately of course, give him some time to cool off, but I think, sometime in the near future, tell him."
"You're right, I didn't like that." Lily said.
Madeline smiled slightly.
Lily buried her face in her hands. "I'm screwed, Maddy." she said, a waver in her voice. "I'm destined to become an old maid because of my foolishness and my pride. I've hurt a pretty decent guy who I happen to be in love with and now, for once in my life, I don't know what to do. Everything's a mess."
Madeline rubbed Lily's back comfortingly. "Don't worry. If it is meant to be, it will all work out. If it wasn't, then some day you'll meet the one who it will work out with."
Lily's shoulders began to shake and quiet sobs emitted from her hands. "No, Maddy, I'm pretty sure he is the one. The way I feel, well, it was so sudden, but I can't describe it. Now I've ruined it. I'm just a stupid, good for nothing girl."
"No, Lily, no, you're not! You're smart, you're beautiful, and some day, I promise you, you will be Mrs. James Potter."
This only served to make Lily cry harder. Noticing that people were starting to come down for breakfast, Madeline quickly ushered Lily upstairs so that as few people as possible would see her crying.
*
At breakfast, James was in a particularly angry mood, accidentally smashing his bowl of oatmeal when he slammed his spoon into it too hard. "Reparo." he muttered, smacking at it with his wand.
"What's up with you, Prongs?" Sirius asked. "You're like a PMS-ing girl, except you're not threatening our lives for chocolate."
James shot him a dirty look over his bowl.
"Kidding, kidding." Sirius said hastily, holding up his arms in mock surrender.
At that moment, there was a rustling in the rafters, announcing the arrival of the owls. A rather large brown and white speckled one landed in front of James with a fat, square package attached to it and a note.
James ignored the owl, leaving Remus to relieve the owl of its cargo. Opening the note, Remus read aloud:
Dear James,
I hope school is going well and that you're not getting into too much trouble. I am sending you the package of Cadbury's chocolates that you requested (though I don't know why, as Honeydukes' is infinitely better.). I don't know why you're requesting these when you've never shown any preference for them before but I'll assume it has something to do with a girl and leave it at that.
Love, your sister,
Devyn
At the word "Cadbury's" James groaned and slid down in his seat.
Not noticing this, Remus said, "Fantastic. This may very well be the last step in our plan for you to get Lily."
Sirius poked Remus and gestured at James, who was busily pulling at large handfuls of his raven hair.
"Um, Prongs? The chocolate's here."
"Bluck."
"Prongs? What's wrong?"
James slid up in his seat, an odd glint in his eye. "You want to know what's wrong?" he asked. "Well, I'll tell you. Last night, I told Lily that she'd never hear from me again because she told me, and I quote, 'There isn't the slightest chance that I will ever be interested in you so why won't you leave me alone?!'" he said, imitating an angry female voice.
Remus, Sirius, and Peter gazed at James with dropped jaws. "You what?" exclaimed Remus.
"She what?" shouted Sirius.
"You both what?!" cried Peter.
"Well." Remus said, scratching the side of his head nervously. "This puts a rather large wrench into our plans."
"Damn straight!" exclaimed James. "What am I going to do? I made a promise and I never go back on my word!"
Feeling that this wouldn't be the best time in the world to mention the ball incident fourth year, Sirius said delicately, "Some promises were meant to be broken."
James frowned. "Not this one." he said. "She made it crystal clear that she never wanted to see or speak to me again. I'd be a fool not to take the hint"
"Then be a fool." Sirius said. "Lord knows I know enough about it. You're not just going to let her go that easily are you?"
"Think of the months you've spent chasing her." Remus said. "Are you just going to throw that away?"
James sighed. "I don't feel like talking about this anymore." he said. "I'm going to go....somewhere. You guys can eat the chocolates. Or, Remus, you can give them to Madeline. Whatever."
As James walked out of the Great Hall, the remaining Marauders stared after him.
"It'll all work out in the end." Remus said, feigning confidence. "He still likes her, I'm sure. Otherwise he wouldn't be quite so upset about all this."
Sirius shrugged. "It's hard to tell, man."
*
Lily spent the rest of the day in bed and had Madeline tell her teachers that she had retched that morning, wasn't feeling well, and therefore was sleeping it off. One out of three wasn't too bad; she really didn't feel well. Guilt had been pouring through her all day, making her irritable. She still hadn't figured out what to do about the whole James thing. She hadn't seen him since the previous night and while part of her wanted to keep it that way, the rest of her wanted to see him, which would inevitably lead to her throwing herself on him and begging for his forgiveness.
*
James was in a terrible mood all day. He almost broke his wand several times in Transfiguration, there were now several splinters coming out of it, by using too much force when he was trying to change his frog into a toad. The frog was now cowering behind a stack of books, trying to avoid that long nasty thing that kept slamming itself in its general direction.
Sirius, Remus and Peter didn't know what to do. They'd never seen him in such a state before. They hadn't seen Lily all day either, something they took to be a good thing as they didn't know what James would do if he saw her.
*
The next day, Madeline managed to convince Lily to get herself out of bed and go to classes.
"You can't spend your whole life in bed just because of a dumb mistake." she scolded. "Now get out of bed."
Lily glared at her, but obeyed. Slightly shocked that Lily had given in without an argument, Madeline handed her her uniform without comment.
Once she was dressed, Lily grabbed her bag and trudged out the door behind Madeline. "I don't know why I have to do this, Maddy." she complained.
"Because if you miss any more classes, you'll be so far behind that it will be utterly impossible for you to catch up and you'll suffer a nervous breakdown without ever have becoming famous and doing drugs and such."
"Thank you for that lovely allegory." Lily said, rolling her eyes. "For your information, I have no urge to become famous and do drugs as you so nicely put it. I want to be an Auror."
Madeline smiled. Lily was back on form. "I know. I was kidding."
*
Lily dragged herself from class to class, avoiding James' eye, made easier by the fact that he was avoiding her as well. Their friends were relieved, they had been expecting a huge confrontation.
By the end of the day, they were both thoroughly exhausted, both from the strain of work and the strain of dodging each other.
Collapsed in front of the fire in the common room, Jessie was absently looking through Lily's planner.
"Hey! Lily!" she said suddenly.
Lily looked up from the fire. "Yeah?"
"You have a tutoring appointment for Transfiguration in two minutes!"
Lily's eyes widened. "Oh my God. I completely forgot!"
Madeline arched an eyebrow. Wait for it...wait for it...
"Oh. Wait." Lily sank back against the couch. "It's with James. Never mind."
"Liiiily..." Shayne cajoled. "This could be your chance to fix things with him!"
"Besides, it's not nice to keep him waiting." Cara chimed in.
Lily frowned, but they could tell she was giving in. "Fine." she grumbled. "But I'm blaming you all if anything goes wrong."
Madeline smiled angelically. "You'll be fine. Now go."
*
"James, don't you have a tutoring thing right now?" Sirius asked.
They were in the Room of Requirement because James hadn't wanted to go back to the common room.
James looked up from his position on the floor and checked his watch. "Poop. You're right."
"Aren't you going to go?" Remus asked.
"Its with the girl who never wants to see me again. Somehow I doubt she'll be there."
Sirius shot him a look. "And you'll piss her off even more if she goes to work on her Transfiguration skills and no one's there."
"Besides, it's the perfect opportunity to fix things with her." Peter said, waggling his eyebrows.
James sighed. "Fine. Whatever. I know when I'm not wanted." He slung his bag over his shoulder and walked out of the room.
A few minutes later, Madeline's head appeared in the doorway. "Is he gone?" she asked.
"Yeah, come on in." Remus said.
Madeline entered the room, followed by Shayne, Cara, and Jessie. "So, did it work?" Madeline asked.
Remus grinned proudly and gestured to the space next to him with his wand, turning his chair into a loveseat. "Yes it did! He should be on his way there now."
Jessie grinned. "Good."
*wow....long chapter, even though my mental train hit a solid brick wall after Sirius said ::said in deep voice:: "It's hard to tell man." Anyway, I was going to have a separate "story" format for writer's notes so these things would be shorter, but as I was setting it up I noticed a little rule that said "NO author's notes." or something like that. This story'll be ending pretty soon too, but never fear, I've got some more ideas. Let me know which one you like best! Oh, and I need title ideas!! Now, on to the ideas:
· Starting with the end of the scene in 00TP (possibly): Snape catches up with Lily (a couple days later?) apologizes for incident with James earlier and for calling her a mudblood, then asks Lily out. Lily would say no except enter James who says something (haven't decided yet) and Lily quickly says 'yes' to Snape. There may be possible dark ulterior motives for Snape? Lily/Snape ship bugs James immensely and he is constantly around trying to get Lily to dump Snape. Lily may possibly think she's in love with Snape. James may give up. Lily will eventually realize who she's in love with.
· (After Hogwarts?) Lily currently has a boyfriend who abuses her. James finds her crying/sees a bad bruise (or a broken arm) and tries to find out what's wrong/how did it happen, she lies/yells/tells him to bug off. He finds out anyway (witnesses it? she confesses? friend tells him? If so, confronts her, she confesses), hunts down boyfriend, beats the shit out of him, tells him to stay away from Lily. Boyfriend a.) listens to James and leaves Lily alone, b.) ignores James and carries on, again getting the shit beaten out of him, or c.) pretends to repent, later kidnaps Lily, who'd entered into a successful relationship with James. James rescues her, throws the bastard in jail, and they live happily ever after.
§ Let me know which option you like best for this one. Personally, I like c, just because of the drama potential. :) I would so hate to be one of my characters lol.