Disclaimer: Harry Potter 'tis not mine!

Hem Hem This, Hem Hem That

Chapter Ten ll The Lakey Adventure!

----------

While her crazy group of "friends" talked, laughed and pegged rolled up bits of parchment at each other, Lily looked around affectionately. A small smile played across her lips as a scene in fifth-year flashed through her mind.

---

"How d'you think you guys went?" Emily asked as they settled on the grass near the lake.

"Good," Meddy said confidently, "The questions weren't as hard as I thought they would be."

Lily nodded in agreement.

Penny, however, was looking far off, "What in the name of Merlin...?"

"What is it, Pen?" Lily asked, following Penny's gaze. There seemed to be a crowd gathering on the other side of the lake.

"Not the MARAUDERS!" Lily immediately groaned. Looking completely frustrated, Meddy watched as the redhead dumped her bag down and marched over to the crowd, which parted as they saw her approaching.

She placed her hands on her hips and glared at James, who was now causing pink soap bubbles to froth in Snape's mouth.

"Leave him ALONE!" Lily yelled, fury rising up in her.

James turned to her, his free hand immediately jumping to his hair.

"All right, Evans?" James said in a much more mature tone.

"Leave him alone, what's he ever done to you?" Lily asked fiercely, looking at him with great distaste.

"Well, it's more of the fact that he exists, if you know what I mean..."

Many of the surrounding students laughed, Sirius and Peter included. Remus continued to read his book, and Lily crossed her arms and glared at James even more.

"You think you're so funny," she said coldly, "But you're just an arrogant bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone!"

"I will if you go out with me, Evans," James said quickly. "Go on... Go out with me and I'll never lay a wand on old Snivelly again."

The Impediment charm on Snape was wearing off; he was crawling over to his fallen wand, spitting out the last of the soap suds.

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid!" Lily exclaimed hotly.

"Bad luck, Prongs," Sirius said briskly, before turning to Snape, "OI!"

Snape hurled a hex at James; a flash of light appeared and a gash appeared on the side of James' face, splattering his robes with blood. James whirled around; a second flash of light later, Snape was hanging upside down in the air, his robes falling over his head to reveal skinny, pallid legs and a pair of greyng underpants.

The crowd cheered, and the Marauders excluding Remus were roaring with laughter. Lily's furious expression had twitched for a second, but it was immediately replaced with her look of fury and anger, "Let him down!"

"Certainly," obliged James, and he jerked his wand upward. Snape fell into a crumpled heap on the ground. Disentangling himself from his robes, he got quickly to his feet, wand up, but Sirius yelled, "Petrificus totalus!" and Snape keeled over again at once, rigid as a board.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Lily shouted. She had whipped out her own wand, which James and Sirius eyed warily

"Ah, Evans, don't make me hex you," James said earnestly.

"Take the curse off him, then!"

James sighed deeply, then turned to Snape and muttered the countercurse.

"There you go," he said as Snape struggled to his feet again, "You're lucky Evans was here, Snivellus--"

"I don't need help from filthy little Mudbloods like her!" Snape retorted, getting up and shooting a look of venom at Lily.

The redhead blinked, taken-aback. Then she regained her confidence. "Fine," she said coolly. "I won't bother in the future. And I'd wash your pants if I were you, Snivellus."

"Apologise to Evans!" James roared at Snape, his wand pointed threateningly at him.

"I don't want you to make him apologise," Lily shouted, rounding on James. "You're just as bad as he is!"

"What?" yelped James. "I'd NEVER call you a -- you-know-what!"

"Messing up your hair because you think it looks cool to look like you've just gotten off a broomstick, showing off with that stupid Snitch, walking down corridors and hexing anyone who annoys you just because you can -- I'm surprised your broomstick can get off the ground with that fat head on it! You make me SICK." With that, Lily turned and stalked back to her friends, anger still bubbling in her.

"Evans!" James shouted after her, "Hey, EVANS!"

But she ignored him and swept back to her group of friends, who broke into applause and cheering when she returned.

---

Lily could hear her own voice echoing in her head.

"But you're just an arrogant bullying toerag, Potter. Leave him alone!"

"I wouldn't go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid!"

"You're just as bad as he is!"

Then suddenly, more recent things she had said to James began to come back to her, like a choppy movie trailer. They echoed through her mind and pounded her veins.

"Get that badge off and give it to it's rightful owner."

"You are one of the worst people I have ever met in my entire life. You are always inconsiderate of others and you hex people when they look sideways at you!"

"POTTER!¡±

"That was not a date, Potter! It most certainly was not!"

"It is not love."

"You know, Potter, I really thought you had changed this year. Even just a little, it'd be better than nothing. But I was wrong."

With a jolt, Lily stopped the rush of "quotes" that were flashing through her mind. Biting her lip, she glanced around at James who was chuckingly softly as he talked to Sirius.

James caught her looking and he smiled and winked at her. Lily slowly rolled her eyes and returned back to her homework.

"Hey, pumpkin," James sang out, shifting from Sirius and scooting towards Lily. He put an arm around her and said cheerfully, "It's a fine evening, isn't it?" He grinned at her.

Lily didn't shove his arm off her, as expected, "It sure is a clear sky," she agreed, looking up. In her mind she had made up to just play along.

"So, wanna dance?" James asked out of the clear blue.

"No, not really," she replied coolly. With that, she shrugged his arm off.

James pouted, "C'mon. It'll be heaps fun."

"Yeah!" Sirius chimed in, "Let's all dance in a line."

Everyone Looked at him.

"Okay, let's not then."

James turned back to Lily, "Ple-e-ease, pumpkin. I beg of you!" He grabbed a handful of her robe and tugged at it, "Ple-e-e-ease."

"Potter, let go of my robe!"

"...No."

Lily glared at him, before turning helplessly to her friends. Emily flashed a grin, showing all her teeth. Meddy tilted her head towards James like she had done on the previous occasion. Penny just smiled mysteriously and shrugged.

Great, she had received one "hehe-I'm-not-good-for-advice", one "just-dance-with-him" and one "it's-your-choice".

But I have a date this weekend... it's not like I'm really single anymore...

Lily pushed the thought away, turned back to James and snapped, "Fine. Fine! But one dance only and it's gotta be short!"

James leapt to his feet, perfectly satisfied, "Why, of course pumpkin."

Lily clenched her teeth and also got up.

He held her gently by the waist that reminded her of their little dance at the Three Broomsticks, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. He leant closer as they swayed in time with the music Sirius was belting out loudly.

"Can't say you don't like this, can you?" James whispered into her ear. To be honest, he was a little scared. He was scared he might lose Lily to that idiot, Diggory. He wanted to hold onto her.

The corners of Lily's mouth tugged and she felt a small smile on her face. Then she shook her head and rolled her eyes, to James' utter disappointment.

But he knew she loved him anyway.

Smiling, James gripped onto her waist tighter, making her giggle. His smile grew even broader.

"You're really... beautiful," he breathed, not even caring that Sirius had stopped yodelling and was now rolling around on the floor, laughing at their dance.

Lily sighed, "No I'm not."

"Yes you are," James said firmly, ignoring the girls who were giggling, "You're very... pretty and unique."

Lily found it hard to fight back her smile, and he looked down at her and pulled her closer.

Man... this feels so nice... I wonder what it's like to belong to James...?

This thought made her pull back abruptly, and she murmured something about the dance being too long already. Disappointed, James joined her back in sitting with their friends.

"That was so cute," Emily whispered to Lily, who rolled her eyes yet again.

"I have an idea," Sirius piped up.

"And it is...?" Remus asked.

"Let's play WAR!"

"Huh?"

"WAR! It's so much fun! We split into two teams and we have a sort of war... I think," Sirius said slowly, squinting in concentration.

"No, your games are too strange," Emily pointed out.

"Emily, this means WAR."

They laughed inspite of Sirius.

"No wait, I have a better idea," he said suddenly, looking like he had brilliant, world-changing idea that could strike up a "EUREKA!"

"What is it?"

"WAR!"

"That was your idea," Penny said, giggling.

"Was not," Sirius said stubbornly.

"Was too."

"I don't care. I have an even BETTER idea! Let's play w--!"

"If you say WAR again, I will strangle you," Remus said firmly.

"No, let's have a TICKLING WAR!"

"Sounds good," James said with a shrug. Then he leapt onto Lily and began to tickle her.

"Potter -- stop -- hehe -- NO!"

Sirius was now staring at Penny as if she were a merely interesting television programme.

"Sirius, what?" she asked irritably, then her blue eyes grew large, "Oh no. Oh, man. Oh, sh--"

She leapt up and began to run away.

"Hey, PENNEEEEE!" Sirius shouted gleefully after her, jumping to his feet.

"Potter-- hehe, please-- no, stop!" Lily giggled, trying to bat his hands away. James smiled mischievously and just tickled her harder, until they kicked and bucked and wrestled to the very edge of the lake.

"You two lovebirds better watch out," Meddy called, and Lily could hear the smile in her tone, "Otherwise you'll fall in."

James finally stopped and grinned at her as he slowly straightened up. Lily, breathing heavily and trying to glare at him, grabbed his hand and hauled herself up.

"Potter, that wasn't very nice," she said sharply in between breaths.

"It wasn't?" James asked innocently.

"Nope!" and with that, the redhead suddenly reached out and pushed him into the lake. But before he could fall all the way, he cursed and instinctively threw his arms out to pull Lily.

They both fell in.

SPLASH!

James grinned as he fought his way back to the surface. He broke the water with a gasp and felt his heart freeze when he heard faint screams. Looking around panickedly, he realised he had already floated to the middle of the lake.

"Lily!" he yelled, his teeth chattering. The water was cold.

"Lily!" he yelled again, starting to feel worried. He hadn't seen her break the surface yet. In fact, he couldn't see her at all.

"LILY!" this time, it was Meddy and Emily screaming. Their voices sounded oh-so-far away and distant.

"She can't swim, James!" Penny shrieked. James turned around while brushing his arms across the top of the water, and saw that she was standing at the edge of the lake with Sirius.

"She's there!" Sirius hollered, pointing, "I can see her hair!"

James immediately dove into the coldness and swam to his left.

To his relief, he saw red hair. He began to dogglepaddle at an incredibly fast rate. He watched as Lily broke the surface, gasping for air, before disappearing again.

James plunged in and grabbed onto her body. Feeling as if his chest was going to burst, he swam towards the surface again.

Sweet merciful air.

Sirius had taken off his robes and plunged into the lake. He waded over to where James and Lily were. He took Lily's body and swam back to the grass, and James dogpaddled after him.

"Lily!" Meddy gave a cry of anguish as Sirius laid the redhead onto the grass.

Penny quickly took off her robe and covered her friend with it, "Lil? Lily?"

"You okay?" Remus asked James, who was panting and shuddering. He followed Penny and gave his friend his robe. James nodded; he seemed more concerned about Lily, who was sitting up and spluttering. There were tears in her eyes.

"I'll get Madam Meynon," the twins said in unison, and, not bothering to even glance at each other for their perfect timing, sprinted off towards the castle to fetch their trusty school nurse.

Lily had started crying; it was too much to handle.

Meddy hugged her tightly while Sirius and Remus watched, breathless.

James crawled over to Lily and wrapped an arm around her. She stopped sobbing for a moment and looked up as Meddy gently released her.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, wrapping his other arm around her and hugging her closely. Lily didn't pull away, but buried her face in her shoulder and continued to cry.

----------

A/N: Wow, a humanly chapter for you all! Lol. Sorry it took so long to update, I've just been busy with homework, other stories, and my friends who keep me busy. My friend and I are pretending to be each other on MSN and are tricking people we know. Haha. It's so funny. Lol. I almost fell out of my chair laughing XD. Hehe. --MSQ.