Do you guys want Arabella to be with Sirius but have Remus as a friend? Or should she just stick with Remus and they get married, and all that? Lol…nobody answered last time I asked…*hangs head in extreme shame* lol….
Hey you guys, I know I haven't updated in a while, but I'm really busy with school starting up and such. And I had a bunch of homework to do…you know, PRE-school stuff….to get me all ready for school again. My brain tends to get lazy over the summer, so I'll be updating slower now cause I've got tons of homework every night, I'll try to update every month or month and a half but I can't promise anything. I warned you, so no reviews telling me that you'll rip my eyes out if I don't update, ok? Lol…on with the story…
"Lil! Come out! I know you're mad at James, but why take it out on me?" Sirius called loudly through the shut door of Lily and Arabella's bedroom.
No sooner had he called this than Lily opened the door with such gusto that Sirius was shocked. He peered closely at her, and noticed faint pink around her eyes, and that they seemed slightly glassy. "Were you crying?" He asked suspiciously, but putting a comforting arm around her shoulders.
"Yeah. Apparently Concealment Charms can only do so much…" Lily smiled at Sirius.
He gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and they went on their way down to one of the larger Common Rooms. Just as they were walking past an open door, they heard James yelling at someone.
"God! How was I supposed to know she'd get so worked up about it?!" They heard him yelling.
Then, a woman's voice screamed back, "You ass! Haven't you realized it by now? She was totally in love with you back at Hogwarts!"
"Wh-what? Bella, I think this yelling match has rattled your brains. There is no way Evans was in love with me!" James said matter-of-factly, but with a little sigh at the end.
Lily looked up at Sirius, a quizzical expression in her eyes. What was it? It looked most like fury, with a little bit of confusion, and long-gone affection mixed in. Wait a minute? Affection? No way! Sirius shook his head and tilted his head in the direction of the open door, signaling for Lily to listen.
She put her head close to the door and listened in, growing more and more angry with each passing sentence that James uttered.
"Bella, if you're implying that Evans and I would make a good couple, you're off your rocker! Barking mad!" James hissed, when Arabella gave him a wink.
He went on. "I mean, look at it this way. Evans is disgusting, plays Quidditch with guys, doesn't dress properly for a girl, and-this is a main one-she aggravates me more than anyone!"
Sirius was holding Lily back from lunging at James again and giving away their position.
"And then we have me. The perfect specimen of a human being." James finished pompously. "No one can measure to me. Not even Sirius when he acts so weird…"
Sirius stiffened, and whispered to Lily, "Now you can hurt him." And he let go of her arms, which he had pinned behind her so as to restrain her.
Lily barged into the room, gracefully tripping over a pile of boxes in front of the door, which she hadn't seen in her blind fury. James was looking at her, shocked.
"Terribly sorry, Potter. I mean, you probably wouldn't even want to be in the same country as one who's so disgusting, and non-girly, right?" Lily said sarcastically, dusting herself off.
"Actually, I'd rather not be in the same country as you Evans, but since we have to be, would you mind taking your dirty little self somewhere away from me? Like, perhaps, up to the sky and never come back?" James smirked at 'Cissa'.
"The hell I will!" Lily exclaimed and made to knock James over, but found herself being held back by Arabella, while Sirius was being wrestled away by Remus. "Fine, I'll be the bigger person and walk away without insulting you, dickhead."
"I thought you weren't going to insult me." James mocked.
"Oh, that's nothing. If I was insulting you, you'd know." Then, she added as an afterthought, "Dickhead."
James muttered something to 'Cissa' and they walked off.
'Probably to snog.' Lily thought.
She was distracted as an owl flew in and landed on her shoulder. She freaked out, and made the bird flap its' wings madly. Finally, she calmed down enough to see that she had received a note from Dumbledore.
Miss Evans,
I'm sorry to hear that you and Mr. Potter aren't getting along well. I shall need you two to report to my office at three o'clock today. As the former Head Girl and Head Boy of Hogwarts, I shall require you two to deliver a motivational speech of sorts to the present student body. You two will deliver the speech together, so I do not expect any displays of animosity in front of the younger students. I also want you two to meet the present Head Girl and Boy and give them pointers as to how to handle the responsibility of being someone of such importance. I expect you and Mr. Potter to put aside your personal feelings towards each other and get through this with as little snags as possible. I look forward to seeing you at three, so until then
Professor Dumbledore
Headmaster
Lily crumpled up the sheet of parchment in her left fist, and walked out of the room, stony-faced. In the hallway, she ran into James-literally.
"Evans! Watch where you're going. You actually made physical contact with me. I'm gonna have to wash these clothes five times now, just to get the tainted feeling out of them!" James smirked.
She just looked up at him with blank misunderstanding, and he frowned. She turned and continued down the hallway, clearly not knowing where she was going.
"Evans! Evans!" James yelled after her, but gave up and shook his head. "What the hell's gotten into her?!"
Sirius came up behind him, and roughly shoved him forward. James stumbled and glared at Sirius angrily. "What was that for?" he demanded.
"You are an ass! God! I can't believe you're so conceited! Who the hell brings up the fact that someone doesn't dress properly for his or her gender? Seriously James…you need to work on your comebacks!" Sirius laughed harshly, and stalked away, looking for Lily.
He found her in his room; the one that he shared with James 'Perfect Specimen of a human being' Potter. She was currently sitting down on his bed in a weary manner. Sirius walked up to her, and she looked up at him, her eyes betraying the fact that she felt very angry, but also very-confused? Yeah, that was it. He sat next to her, and she buried her head in his chest.
"Siri, you'll never guess what that letter said." And without another word, she handed it to him. His eyes scanned the paper, and he burst out laughing. Lily turned and glared hard at him.
"Oh my god! This is priceless! Doesn't Dumbledore know that you guys hate each other?" Sirius cracked up.
"Siri! You were supposed to sympathize with me! You're not supposed to be amused!" Lily reprimanded playfully.
"Sorry…but, you know…there can only be so many coincidences before it starts getting creepy…" Sirius trailed off.
"Yeah, but what else could it be? It's not like Dumbledore has some elaborate scheme to get us to get along…" Lily laughed at the idea.
Just then, they heard someone stomping down the hallway and towards them.
Lily groaned and muttered, "Great! Just great…I'm so not in the mood to deal with him right now!"
James burst through the door and threw himself dramatically onto his bed. Then, he sat up abruptly and his cheeks turned pink. "Sorry. I didn't know I had an audience." Then, he proceeded to, once again, throw himself melodramatically onto his bed.
Lily laughed outright at his pathetic attempt for sympathy. James sat up and glared in their general direction. "What? What do you want? And what are you doing here?"
She stopped laughing and glared at him, absolutely spitting with rage. Sirius looked at her and, seeing as how she was, erm, unable to answer, he spoke up. "This is my room too James. If you don't like the fact that she's here, go spend the day in 'Cissa's' room."
James sat up fully and glared at his so-called best friend. "Sirius, what's gotten into you? You act like Evans is your best friend now."
Lily rolled her eyes, and Sirius said, "James, the way you've been acting actually leads me to think that she is!"
He then proceeded to lift Lily up from his bed, and they walked out, leaving James with his mouth gaping open.
Lily popped her head back in and announced, "Potter, close your mouth. You'll attract more flies than what are already in there. Pretty soon, you'll be able to start your own fly circus." Laughing, she headed down the hall after Sirius.
James snapped his jaw shut, and, once again, threw himself backwards onto his bed. Then he remembered that he wanted to have a go at Evans for that little meeting that they had to attend in Dumbledore's office so he got up, and stalked after them.
When he finally caught up, he only saw Sirius standing alone and looking around quizzically. He walked up to Sirius and said loudly, "What's the matter? And where's Evans?"
Sirius turned to him, and said, "That's what I'm trying to figure out. She said she was going to the bathroom, but that was five minutes ago…"
James snorted with laughter and tried to cover it up. Sirius looked at him and asked, "What's so funny?'
"God! I didn't need to know that Evans has trouble in the bathroom!" James burst out laughing.
Sirius did the same, and pretty soon, they were both cracking up. Finally, ten minutes later, they heard someone coming down the stairs from the direction of the girls' bathrooms. James looked up and called out, "Cissa!"
She flitted down the rest of the stairs and jumped into his outstretched arms. The rest of her blonde friends came up behind her and smiled seductively at Sirius.
He smiled at them, although it looked quite forced. "Did you guys see Lily in the bathrooms?"
'Cissa' exchanged evil looks with her friends and shook her head innocently. James looked disappointed and when she asked him why, he replied, "I was just hoping to blame her for this little meeting that Dumbledore expects us to attend today."
Sirius looked blankly at him. "How come-"
James cut him off, "Together!"
Sirius continued looking blankly at him. "Then why didn't the rest of us get letters?"
James sighed impatiently. "Don't you get it? It's a meeting for me and Evans alone!"
Sirius looked blank for a second longer before suddenly cluing in, and nodding. "Well, I'll just go looking for Lils then. See you three later." He winked at 'Cissa's' three friends.
He wandered off in the direction of the girls' bathrooms and saw Lily stumbling towards him clutching her ribs. As soon as she saw him though, she straightened and smiled at him. He looked at her suspiciously but said nothing.
They walked to the stairs, where Lily stopped at the top and looked somewhat helplessly at them. Sirius gave her a strange look and he started walking down the stairs. When he was about halfway down, he looked at her expectantly, seeing as how she was still at the top.
"Are you coming or not?" He asked.
"Oh yeah. I'll be there in just a minute." Then, to herself, she muttered, "If I ever figure out how I'm gonna do this…"
He waited patiently for her to start descending, and when she did, he noticed her extremely subtle wince with every step she took. Sirius didn't say anything until they reached the bottom of the stairs. Then, he slyly said, "Hey Lil, I have to go back to my room for a second. Come on. I just have to get something, and I might need help with it."
He watched her as she looked desperately at the stairs, and then at him with huge, green eyes. "Erm, Siri, why don't I just wait here?" She suggested hopefully.
"Nuh uh! Come on Lils. You're strong and able! I need you to help me carry it down." Sirius looked at her worriedly.
She swallowed, although there was a huge lump in her throat. Then, she grimly nodded and started up the stairs with painstakingly, slow steps. Sirius looked at her and slowly started up the stairs after her.
When they reached his room, Lily asked, "So, what do you need help carrying down?" She looked around as though hoping that it wasn't anything too big.
He smirked and pointed to the case the held the Quidditch balls. He watched as she swallowed and slowly, but carefully nodded. He knew perfectly well how heavy the case was. He wanted to see if she would actually attempt to lift it up.
Lily couldn't believe her luck! She slowly made her way to the case. As she moved to bend over and pick it up, she gave a strangled gasp, and reached a hand out to steady her. She dimly felt Sirius' arms wrap around her stomach and lift her up. She bit her lip not to cry out in pain.
Sirius placed her on his bed and kneeled down in front of her. "Lily?" He said softly.
She looked up at him, pain clouding her eyes. "Yeah? What'd you do that for? I was just about to pick it up?"
He chuckled at he fake indignation. Even through pain, Lily always found something to offend her. "Lily, what's wrong? I do see the way you wince. I've known you too long not to."
Lily looked down at Sirius before sighing, and lifting the hem of her shirt up until he could clearly see her ribs. He gave a strangled cry and his eyes widened almost to the point where she thought they would fall out.
All across her ribs, there were huge, dark bruises, and one or two of her ribs stuck up at an odd angle. Lily bit her lip at his reaction and prayed that he'd have enough sense not to tell anyone about it.
Sirius swallowed, and said shakily, "Lily! What happened?"
She grimaced and smiled painfully at him. "I just…fell. Please don't ask anymore Siri. I can't tell you anything else!"
Sirius looked up at her, and smiled understandingly. She never did tell him more than she felt she could disclose at the time. He was certain that she'd tell him everything when she was ready. Then he said, "Alright. Since it's so obvious you can't play Quidditch today-"
"Why not?" Lily demanded indignantly.
"What the hell do you mean "why not"? Because you can barely walk! That's why not!" Sirius snapped.
She struggled up to her feet. "I can so stand! Are you watching? I'm standing right now! Now let's go! I'll even carry the case!" Lily stomped over to the case but stopped in front of it, and stared helplessly at it once again. She looked at Sirius and he sighed.
"Fine. I'll carry the case outside, but you have to take the brooms. And you have to promise you'll take it easy! If you fall off your broom in a sudden spasm of pain and die, I'll probably end up taking the heat for it!" He joked.
She smirked and said, "Well, then I'll be sure to fall off my broom in a sudden spasm of pain just to get you in trouble!"
Sirius laughed and jokingly shoved her into the wall. She hit the wall with a cry, and slid down it, clutching at her ribs. He rushed to her side. "Oh my! I'm so sorry Lils! I completely forgot!"
She looked up at him, and muttered a forced, "It's okay Siri. I know how you are!" Then she struggled to sit up and, finally, they were on their way down to the Quidditch Pitch again.
Hey you guys!! That was it. Who hurt Lily? /sings/ I'll never tell! Lol…well actually, all will be revealed in future chapters!! I hope you're happy that I updated! I'm so sorry that it's all late and stuff…but school started and I have tons of homework and stuff….*mutters* dammit! Too many frigging projects! Lol…alright…enough ranting. Please please please review! They're what keep my writing!!! THANKS A BUNCH!!! TAH for now!!
~lilypad