A/n; This is going to be the perfect plot twist because it makes so much sense! You're going to be kicking yourselves and thinking 'why didn't I realize that???' unless… you've already pieced it together… in which… I will… applaud you! And possibly hand out cookies.
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"Agh! I can't find my knee socks, where're my bloody knee socks?" Sierra asked running frantically around the girl's dorm trying to find them.
"I think you flung them over there… somewhere," Lily said calmly buttoning her robes up.
It was another hectic Tuesday morning, in which Sierra was in distress because she couldn't find anything and none of the other girls feeling like getting up.
"Great! Found them!" Sierra waved them triumphantly up in the air, tugging them on.
Lily slid her feet into her Mary Jane's and grabbed her robe from off the hook of her dresser, which had been freshly washed and pressed.
"Now I can't find my brush! I hate Tuesdays!" Sierra burst out savagely.
"Take it easy, you can borrow mine," Lily said and Sierra followed her, trying to put her hair up.
They entered the bustling bathroom with girls standing very close to the mirror trying to properly put on eyeliner or lip liner. Lily tossed her toiletries bag onto the marble counter and dug around until she produced her hairbrush, handing it to Sierra.
"Thanks Lil, you're a lifesaver!" Sierra said gratefully, raking it through her raven-black hair.
"Welcome," Lily said smiling. She was in unusually good spirits after last night and so far she hadn't told a soul about where she'd been, despite the fact they all asked where she was.
Lily pulled up one of the stools that was sitting under the counter and leaned her elbows against the cool marble. She fluffed out her hair and then ran her brush through its auburn waves. As a characteristic all girls have, she flicked back her hair behind her shoulders and held it in a ponytail, examining herself. Puzzled, she noticed a large reddish blotch on the base of her neck. She leaned forward and then let out an audible, horrified gasp: James had given her a hickey!
Mortified beyond belief (not to mention a tiny bit of thrilled), she flattened her hair against her neck trying to hide it.
"Lily? You all right?" Sierra asked.
"I'm fine!" Lily squeaked, "Just have a nasty rash!"
"Oh," Sierra said with a look of small look of disbelief on her face.
"Really, I'm fine, I like my hair down anyway!" Lily said quickly trying to push Sierra out of the bathroom so she could properly hide James' little present.
"Lily what the –" Sierra started but the door was promptly slammed in her face.
"Be out in a minute!" Lily called through the door, locking it just to be sure. The girls in the bathroom eyed her in the mirror with their eyebrows raised, muttering to each other. Lily smiled apologetically, her cheeks flaming brilliantly, and sauntered over back to where her stool was. Sitting down, she pulled her foundation out and started dabbing at the spot on her neck.
Oooh my goodness Lily, what've you gotten yourself into? She chided herself, hoping no one saw the hickey. Once it was well hidden, she tossed her foundation back into her bag and ran back up to the girl's dorm.
Everyone was already happily eating breakfast and chattering away. She veered towards Gryffindor table, trying to act as though everything were perfectly all right. Yes, she could pull this off! She was going to get through the day without ever letting anyone know about her midnight rendezvous with James or the little marking he'd made.
"Lily! Lily, I've got a seat that's got you're name on it!" Sirius said calling in a cheery voice, patting the chair next to him.
Lily graciously slid into it, not taking hint of his over-cheeriness.
"Morning James," Lily said politely.
He barely looked up from his breakfast, but gave her a slight nod.
"Where's Peter?" Lily asked trying to strike up a conversation.
"Sitting with his new girlfriend," Sirius sneered uncharacteristically, "suddenly his buddies aren't good enough for him!"
"Sirius, that's a perfectly awful thing to say: you're the exact same way with women!" Remus chided him chucking a piece of his bagel at Sirius. Sirius examined it closely, found it to be still edible and popped it in his mouth.
"I am not! I would never abandon you guys for a girl! What kind of a mate would I be?" Sirius asked. Everyone looked hesitantly around the room, whistling softly.
"That's not fair! James abandoned his mates last night when he was supposed to help Peter for the Divination test coming up so he could go up for a snog!" Sirius declared.
Lily's eyes widened in alarm and mistrust. "James –"
James looked up, trying to look nonchalant but looking at Lily's expression he blushed deep red.
"How do you know that?" Remus asked skeptically.
"You fell asleep, you great lug, but James came back a good hour later after he left – muttered something about 'best snog ever' or something," Sirius said trying to recall details, which Lily wished he couldn't.
"Yeah – umm me and Veronica got back together?" James said helplessly.
"No you didn't, you stupid prat!" Sirius said laughing jovially not even noticing what was about to come out of his mouth next, "Before you went to bed I said 'goodnight James' and you said in plain English 'goodnight LILY.'"
Remus dropped his fork. "WHAT!"
Lily covered her face with her hands, hoping this was all a horrible dream. She'd be waking up any minute now…
She took her hands away from her eyes and found James, Sirius, Remus and the entire breakfast hall to be staring at here. She groaned and felt like she was going to be sick.
"Whoa… wait… James ditched Peter to be with … LILY?" Remus asked in an amazed voice.
"Oh my God, you're not serious," Sirius asked also in disbelief, "you mean…"
"No! What're you talking about? Potter could've been with anyone!" Lily said, "It's all rubbish!"
"But Lily was gone from her bed last night too!" Arabella said from a little way down from them.
Thanks a lot Bella, Lily thought savagely. Lily should've thought of what she could say if her friends were actually smart enough to piece it together: her reputation was going to be ruined. Absolutely blasted to smithereens. People would go around saying 'Oh there's that Lily Evans, so sad, she used to be the only one who couldn't stand James Potter and now she's just like the rest of us…'
"Pure coincidence," James said dismissing the thought, speaking for the first time. "Why would I be up there with Lily?"
"You tell us, James," Sirius said crossing his arms over his chest.
"I – wasn't up there with Lily," James said. He winced: he'd never lied to Sirius before.
"It sounds pretty phony to me," Remus admitted, "but you know it's perfectly all right to admit that you were up there with Lily… although I have a feeling either me or Sirius would faint."
"I WASN'T UP THERE WITH EVANS!"
"Who then, were you up there with?" Sirius shouted. The Hall, which was still filled with the sound of talking, went eerily silent. Even the teachers looked interested in this teenage soap opera.
James looked like he'd been slapped across the face. Sirius rarely ever raised his voice, to anyone.
"I'm not having this discussion," James said angrily, getting up, "not with you, not with Remus, not with anyone."
"You're going to tell me and everyone else in this bloody room who's listening WHO YOU WERE WITH LAST NIGHT or I'll deck you so hard it'll make your head spin!" Sirius threatened jumping up.
Lily gasped. Sirius was going to deck James?
"STOP IT!" Lily shrilled.
"Lily, stay out of this!" James shouted angrily, "I don't need you to defend me!"
"Who says I'm defending you? I'm here to defend my reputation!" Lily said with a cold laugh.
"Lily –" Sierra asked in wonderment.
"I never imagined that I'd be in this situation," Lily said ashamed, "that I'd be confessing to an entire student body the workings of my personal life."
"You mean that it's true?" Professor McGonagall piped up, and if Lily hadn't mistaken the look on her face, it looked as though she were impressed.
Lily sighed, trembling from head to toe. "It all actually started before Misty's death… a little before anyway. During the holiday break, me and James sort of – agreed to be civil –"
"I knew that something happened while I was away!" Sirius shouted triumphantly.
"And then we found out Misty was dead… and he showed me a whole new side to the rotten brat I thought he was: compassion."
James looked a bit prouder at this statement.
"Then we sort of decided to start seeing each other, of course in secret, in fear of something like this happening and one thing led to another – and I guess we wound up in the Astronomy Tower last night," Lily said ending her speech.
She bit her lip and looked over at the teacher's table. Professor McGonagall looked like she was going to cry, as well as Professor Hughes.
"Never – ever – in all of my years of teaching – " Professor McGonagall said shaking her head.
"WASTED!" Professor Hughes finished for her and Lily didn't know whether he looked pleased or utterly defeated.
"We lied to all of you, I'm so sorry," Lily said hanging her head. Feeling like a giant weight had been lifted off her shoulders, she sat down.
They all looked expectantly at James. James shrugged. "I think Lily's spoken for the both of us."
"Why James? Why didn't you tell us?" Remus asked.
"Because – "
"Because he's afraid that he's going to fall in love with someone as wonderful as Lily," Sirius put in darkly.
"Bloody hell, why's everyone assume I'm afraid to fall in love? God, I feel so stereotyped!" James exclaimed hotly.
"That's because you're the facsimile of a stereotype James," Arabella said rolling her eyes as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"I am not – "
"You're the most wanted guy at Hogwarts, you're on the Quidditch team, the most gorgeous girl in Hogwarts history hates you (Lily blushed even more at this), and you get top marks in everything. How is that not being stereotyped?" Remus asked.
"It's so typical," Sirius shook his head.
James looked indignant. "Well fine, if that's what you think then I guess I'll go – and not be… stereotypical!"
Thus saying that rather idiotic statement, James walked out of the hall.
"JAMES WAIT UP!" Lily shouted and ran after him, knowing how utterly obsessive she must've looked.
She found him walking randomly into a deserted classroom. "That was awful."
"It was worse than awful; he sold me out," James said bitterly.
"He sold you out? James, they found out and we deserved it: we never even told them about it and they're our best friends," Lily said trying to be reasonable.
"It doesn't matter! And what was that about me afraid to fall in love? What do you call our relationship? Platonic hate?"
"Come on James, the whole world knows you're afraid of commitment! Even you know that," Lily said.
"Don't you think that a person can change?" James asked sharply.
Lily looked taken aback. "Well, obviously some people never do."
James sighed, frustrated. "It's just a new feeling ok? I've always run away from relationships because if I commit I know it'll be for real and the thought of feeling so strongly for one person that you'd spend the rest of your life with them scares me half to death."
Lily smiled knowingly.
"But if I can promise one thing to you Lily, I will never run away from you," James said seriously.
"You can't break promises," Lily said looking at him warily.
"I'd swear my life on this promise," James said honestly.
"Don't swear your life. I'm probably some girl you just haven't been able to get out of your system yet," Lily said sadly.
"Lily, come on – don't say that," James said in a hurt voice.
"James, I can't see you anymore… I just can't. It's wrong and – and just not meant to be," Lily said with tears threatening to choke her, "I'm sorry."
She walked out of the empty classroom and left James with his heart shattered.
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