By Dimantrien
AN – Sorry if I haven't updated in so long! But I finished my exams now, thank God! I think I can do a lot more now while I've still got time on my hands… thanks to everyone who reviewed!
Chapter 4: When Friends Feud
Lily hurried to the lake as fast as she could, cursing Witzgromeneirre for her stupid Potions project. The Slytherin girl, Roxanne Boyd, disagreed with her in every little thing and was such a major bitch. Lily was at the point of deciding to curse her no matter how big the chances were that the little brat would tattle to Witzgromeneirre when she remembered that James asked to meet her by the oak tree beside the lake.
"Bloody hell, if James didn't ask me to come there I could've given that Slytherin scumbag an extra eye or two, but—" she started to mutter as she neared the lake, but she saw James standing there and stopped.
She ran over to him, considerably brightening. James never failed to cheer her up when she was in a bad mood with the Slytherins; even just looking at him made her feel happy.
James' back was turned, but he heard Lily's footsteps and turned around.
"Hey!" Lily greeted, smiling brightly. Her grin faded when she saw the look on James' face. It positively screamed, "I've got bad news."
"Hello Lily," James said, not quite in his confident-and-mischievous tone. His face was pale and the usual gleam in his eyes was missing.
Lily sensed that something bad was up. "What happened? Is anything wrong?" she pressed, her brow creasing in concern. She took his hand, which was slightly cold. She knew that James was only like that when something was bothering him.
James cleared his throat, looking extremely nervous. He opened his mouth but no sound came out.
"You can tell me," Lily said gently.
"I—this is really hard to say…" James muttered, but Lily heard him.
"Come on, James, I can listen," Lily urged. Whatever was bothering him, he could tell her. Didn't he realize that? Or maybe the problem he had was really big. Whatever it is, she thought, I'll be there for him. He's always been there for me, so I have to help him too when he goes through a rough spot.
James was still silent, as if he was considering telling Lily or not.
"James? Come on, it can't be that serious, right?" Lily asked, smiling again. She was trying to lighten the mood, but to no avail. "Just tell me." She waited. She was ready to help him through this no matter what.
James took a deep breath. "I want to break up," he blurted out.
Lily's heart shattered. That she hadn't expected.
*****
"Checkmate!" Rhiannon exclaimed.
Sirius groaned. "No, not again…" he moaned.
"Ha! I beat you twelve times already Sirius. Give it up!" Rhiannon's blue eyes twinkled.
Sirius pretended to look dejected, his head down. "I just can't take losing to a girl…" he lamented mock-dramatically, laying an arm across his forehead and looking up at the ceiling. For the past two hours the two of them were bored out of their minds and bored themselves even further playing chess.
Rhiannon shook her head and slapped his arm playfully. "You're pathetic. I'm going to the kitchens to eat." She got up and went to the portrait hole, but it suddenly opened and Chase and Celeste emerged.
"Hey," Rhiannon said brightly to the two of them.
"Hi," Celeste replied, and Chase lifted her chin slightly in greeting. "What have you been doing all this time?" asked Celeste.
"Kicking Sirius' ass in wizard chess," Rhiannon answered. "All that thinking made me hungry. Wanna come with me to the kitchens?" she offered.
Chase shook her head before Celeste could respond. "I don't think Celeste would like that. She'd be too traumatized if she gained even a single pound more in two hours—"
"Excuse me, but I am not that shallow!" Celeste snapped, looking annoyed.
Chase smirked. "Well, are you saying that you're going to come with her?"
"Are you kidding? Of course not! I can't afford to gain another pound—"
"Like that wasn't what I was saying just a second ago," Chase countered, rolling her eyes at her twin.
"Why are you always trying to get on my nerves?" said Celeste.
"Because I find it amusing when my straight-A twin answers irrationally to my more sarcastic comments about her physical appearance," Chase replied innocently.
"More sarcastic comments? My dear Chase, if your usual cynical one-liners were any more sardonic, I doubt anybody could put up with your attitude," Celeste scoffed.
"I appreciate your concern for my social welfare, but really, I can manage well by myself," Chase responded, amused.
Celeste shook her head and walked off, muttering about how someone had to remind her why she liked having a twin.
Chase noticed Sirius and Rhiannon staring at her, and assumed that they had probably listened in on the whole bickering session. She shrugged at them and said, "PMS." With that, she followed the steps that her sister took to the girls' dormitory.
After Rhiannon left, Sirius started packing up his chess set, and the portrait hole burst open again. The sound of sobs erupted from the entrance.
Sirius looked at the direction of the sobbing and was shocked that it was Lily who was crying. He rushed over to her.
"Lils! What happened? Why are you crying?" he asked, frantically searching his pockets for a tissue. He found a whole roll of it (pranksters carry everything J) in his robes and tore off a piece, handing it to Lily.
Lily just sobbed more, ignoring the tissue that he was offering. Barely a second later there was a thundering of footsteps in the direction of the girls' staircase and Chase appeared, looking worried. "I heard somebody crying—Lily! What's wrong?" She, like Sirius, ran to her friend.
Sirius was absolutely baffled, as if he didn't know how to act in situations like this. Chase wrapped an arm around Lily's shoulder and led her to one of the armchairs by the fire.
"C'mon, Lil. Tell us what happened." Chase took the tissue that was still in Sirius' hand and gave it to Lily. Lily wiped her eyes, but it was no use, tears were still overflowing from them.
She said something in a hoarse whisper that Chase and Sirius couldn't make out.
"What? Sorry, I couldn't hear you…" Sirius said, ripping off another tissue piece from the roll.
Lily leaned closer to Chase. "J-james dumped me," she said again, in a low and shaky voice that only Chase could hear.
"He did what?!" Chase exclaimed.
"Who did what?" Sirius said impatiently.
Chase was about to reply when Lily gave her a look that said, "Don't tell him." She nodded and started to help Lily up.
"Aren't you going to tell me?" Sirius demanded, trotting beside them as they headed for the dorm. "I mean you can trust me. I'm not going to blab it to the whole school."
Chase gave him a wry smile and just shook her head. "Some other time Sirius." The two of them started to climb up the stairs. "Later."
"Gee, after a year of friendship, you two sure are still distrusting," he called after them.
"And he claims he isn't a bigmouth," Chase said sardonically to Lily. Lily would have cracked a smile at that, but at the moment any form of slight cheerfulness just couldn't be squeezed out of her.
"I'm willing to bet that as soon as we enter the room, Celes' exact words will be 'Omigod! Lily, what happened to you?!'" Chase imitated Celeste's slightly higher-pitched voice. She opened the door and let Lily come in first.
"Omigod, Lily! What happened to you?"
Chase rolled her eyes, flopped down on her bed and watched Lily intently.
Celeste pulled out a box of tissues from her trunk and tossed it at Lily. "OK. Spill."
"Well look at you, in full gossip mode. Could you at least make your tone of voice sound at least slightly less eager?" Chase remarked.
Celeste glared at her. "How do you want me to act? 'Oh Lily, dearest, we all lament the ordeal that you have yet to explain! Please, for your sake, tell us what is bothering your troubled heart!'" she intoned in an overly-concerned tone.
Chase laughed herself off her bed. She emerged at the side of it a few moments later, clutching her stomach. "Now that sounds like your usual melodramatic self," she gasped, still fighting off laughs. "I was beginning to get worried that you ate something that made you more crabby and less dramatic."
"You are just such a—" Celeste began to retort, but Chase waved her hand.
"Ah, shut up for a sec, will you dearest sis… Something's bothering Lily, and all we can do is snipe at each other."
The moment she uttered those words, Lily broke out into another wave of tears. Celeste's face softened and she sat beside Lily, patting her back. "There, there. What happened?"
"James broke up with her," Chase said quietly when Lily didn't respond. Celeste gasped aloud.
"He didn't," she said disbelievingly.
"Right. And Lily's an award-winning actress playing the role of the broken-hearted ex-girlfriend," Chase answered sarcastically.
"But why?" Celeste argued. "There wasn't even a problem. They were getting along well until yesterday…" She noticed Chase recline slightly, looking a little ill. Celeste stared at her beadily. "Spit it out, Chase. You know something."
"Gee, what makes you say that?" asked Chase, her tone cynical. But when her eyes landed on Lily, who was looking at her in a hopeless sort of way, she felt guilty that she had kept it at the back of her mind all this time.
"James and I had been getting along," Lily said slowly. "And he wouldn't just dump me for no reason. You always know what's going on with everyone, Chase. Please. Tell me." Her voice was stronger, but it seemed that another blow would make her break into tears again. Chase couldn't drop another bombshell on her. But she couldn't lie to her either.
"Okay," Chase said quietly, and she took a deep breath. "You remember a few days ago, when James was tutoring Damaris?"
Celeste's mouth dropped open in shock, but Lily just nodded since she was in front of Celeste and couldn't see her reaction. She still hadn't put two and two together.
Chase wished she had just gotten it like Celeste did so that she wouldn't break the news directly, but there was no other choice. "Well… I thought there wasn't anybody there, since the lights were already out…and…and…"
"And what?" Lily prompted, still not getting the point.
"And… God, Lily, don't make me say it… I walked in on them kissing." She suddenly wished she hadn't said anything, not if she had seen the look on Lily's face beforehand. The completely horrified, beyond shocked and raging look, all mixed into one, on her best friend's face.
"No," Lily said in a trembling voice, shaking her head, "You're-you're kidding me, right? He w-wouldn't…he'd never…" But she still had that expression on her face, and another emotion was added in—denial.
"How could he do that?" Celeste said indignantly, now hugging Lily, who was sobbing into her shoulder. "I thought James would become more decent when Lily and him got together… I really thought he'd change…"
"I don't know if he was confused. Maybe he was," Chase said, shrugging.
Celeste snorted. "Yeah right. Last year, he was right next to Sirius in the 'Hogwarts' Top Ten Players' list," she scoffed. Chase's face darkened, and Celeste realized that she had said something stupid. Not only did she make Lily feel worse, she had also reminded Chase of the way her relationship with Sirius ended.
"Maybe we shouldn't talk about this anymore. It's only making Lily feel worse," Chase suggested finally after a long silence. Lily stirred when she said that.
"How come you never told me?" she asked Chase in a surprisingly biting voice.
"What?" Chase said, blinking at the sudden change in her friend's reaction.
"You said you saw them a few days ago. You should have told me! He'd have had plenty of times to cheat on me by now! I should have had the right to dump him since it's all his fault anyway! It's not fair—he gets away without a scratch, while I'm the one who gets hurt. And I'm not the one who did the wrong thing in the first place!!!"
Chase shook her head. "Lily, if I'd been the one to tell you, it wouldn't have been right—"
"Wouldn't have been right? Well, what is right then? Just let James cheat on me without my knowing, just let him get away with it and have a good laugh behind my back? Is it the right thing to do to lie to your best friend to cover up an unworthy boyfriend?!" Lily was in near hysteria.
Chase looked pleading now. "Listen to me, Lil. I did want to tell you, but it would be best if James were the one who did. You deserve to know the truth from him. It would hurt you more if you heard it from someone else."
Lily laughed mirthlessly. "Right. But you don't have to go by that rule. You're my best friend, and best friends are supposed to be there for their friends no matter what. Or at least I thought you were," she added scathingly.
Chase narrowed her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean?" she demanded.
"It means this. If you were my friend, then you would have told me. You can't stall things like this, Chase. The more time a lie is kept away from the person who should know it, the more it would hurt. But you probably don't know how that feels, do you?" Lily laughed coldly again. "No, Chase, you're always right, aren't you? You always know what's going on with everybody, and everybody knows that. Everyone just admires you for being wise, for being impartial, for being every single person's friend. Even to people who don't deserve your friendship."
"Which people?" Chase asked slowly, balling her hands into fists at her sides.
Lily hesitated for a moment, but she saw the look on Chase's face and her eyes flashed. "You already know. James and Snape."
"I can understand James, but not Snape. Do you think we're still second years, Lil? Grow up! We're fifteen years old. It's my decision to be mature and halt childish grudges that started because of a bunch of stupid pranks and insults exchanged the first time we met. But if you prefer otherwise, then I wouldn't care. Everybody's different, Lily, and everyone has a right to his or her opinion. I respect yours, so why shouldn't you respect mine?" Chase started pacing the room, staring at the floor as if afraid that if she looked at Lily, she would do something dangerous.
"You think you can manipulate me with all your so-called wise remarks?" Lily scoffed. "It may have worked before, but it's not going to fool me now. Who's the immature one, Chase? You can't control people just by making them believe that you're smarter than them. That trick could work on the Slytherins, but not to me. You've got to stop acting high-and-mighty just because you're a Quidditch player and a top student at the same time—"
"How can you say that about me?" Chase exclaimed, her voice rising. "God, Lily! I was only doing what was best for everybody. What would you have done if I had told you before James did? You would have just said that he was a worthless scum because he didn't even have the guts to say it straight to your face and you heard it from someone else. It doesn't matter if it's from me or anybody, as long as it was from another person, you'd be more offended if that was the case."
"And how would you know which case I'd be more offended of?" Lily retaliated, her porcelain cheeks flushing with anger. "You wouldn't know unless you tried, Chase! That's what's wrong with you, you're so used to people telling you you're always right and all your decisions are the wise thing to do, that it's gotten into your head! Now you think that everything you preach and do is what's right! But it isn't Chase, and that's the truth you just have to accept." Lily turned her back at Chase, folding her arms. Celeste was just watching, her eyes moving from her friend to her sister as if she were a spectator of a heated tennis match.
Chase stood up, her clenched fists shaking. "I can't believe this. I can't believe you'd think that of me."
"Well, that's because it's true. If you deny it, then that's your problem, not mine," was Lily's only reply.
Chase walked to the door and flung it open; it slammed into the wall with a deafening bang. Just before she went out, though, she said, "I did it because you were my friend, because I knew that you would have felt worse if you heard it from me first. I thought you'd appreciate it, since it was the mature thing to do. Call it wrong, but try to look in the mirror and see if you mean me…or yourself." She said it while gripping the doorknob so tightly that her knuckles turned white. When Lily didn't face her, she stepped out and slammed the door.
*****
AN – Short, wasn't it? That's all I can manage for now, I still have two other stories to update. Guess that's all…review…and (this would probably sound stupid once time passes) Advanced Merry Christmas!