Chapter Three- Hush Day
Lily glanced around the shadowy dorm suspiciously. But no friends were awaiting her. She breathed a sigh of relief and dropped onto her bed. Well that was odd. What's up with James? Or should I call him Potter? Who knows…interested in me…she snorted in amusement.
A quiet scuffling drifted to her from the opposite side of the room. Apparently, she had been wrong. "Oh, give it up. You're no good at surprising me."
"Damn!" Jessica and Heather appeared, grinning impishly. They flipped the lights on and turned to face Lily, who was sitting there smiling amusedly at them while twirling a long strand of auburn hair around her finger.
"What was your brilliant plan this time?"
"Well- we were going to try the good old grab your feet in the dark and pull you off the bed, but-"
Lily shook her head. "I meant your plan for tonight."
"Oh. Right."
"Is anyone else dreading our first day of classes?"
Before they could answer, the door burst open and in popped two boys who looked rather familiar. Oh…James' friends…Lily remembered grimly.
"What in the name of-"
The two boys paid them no mind, and slammed the door. After a moment of frantic panting and giving each other high fives, they turned around. "Now- what was that?"
"Er-" Lily stared at them blankly.
"Is there some reason you're in our dorm?" Jessica advanced on them, blue eyes gleaming in good nature.
"Well, you see- we played a rather nasty trick on James and he was chasing us…we figured this would be the last place he would want to go, since Lily's in here…" The boy with scattered brown hair replied in a rush. "By the way, I'm Remus."
The other one, with slightly longer dark hair, gave them a deep grin and a wink. He was holding something behind his back. "I'm Sirius. I don't think you'll have trouble remembering us, since-"
"YOU GUYS ARE EVIL! EVIL, I SAY!" James' voice erupted from outside the door. "Give me back those pants!"
"Oh, but Prongs, you were telling us how much Lily strikes your fancy…here's you chance to show off a little…leg."
There was a loud grunt in response.
"You can't have em back until you come in…" Sirius sang to the door.
The four of them inside the room caught random mutterings, including…"Impossible. Just impossible."
Suddenly, the door opened so that a little sliver could be seen, and James' dark eye came into view. "There is absolutely no way that I'm-"
Sirius stepped away from James' reach, with the pants, and Remus casually pulled the door open, so that James tumbled in. His cheeks flushed and after glaring violently at his friends, he tried to cover himself up while watching Lily's expression.
Lily was looking surprisingly placate, considering the laughter that surrounded her. However, the edges of her lips were curled abnormally…
James flushed pink and ran in circles after Sirius, who waved the pants above his head teasingly. His rather…little boyish boxers were causing Lily's friends to stare.
"It's not nice to be less than presentable in other people's dorms, James." Lily said to him, just short of laughing. Her emerald eyes twinkled.
James frowned at her. Giving up on his friends, and realizing that everyone had already seen him without pants, he approached the red-head.
"Yes, but I know you like it." He stopped a few inches before her.
"You wish." She grinned, but did appear a little uncomfortable about standing that close to him.
The rest of the commotion in the room ceased to watch the Heads of Hogwarts. One might have called it entertainment.
"So James- did you magically enlarge those children's boxers to fit you? Or I suppose you didn't need to…"
James rolled his eyes. "Very funny." He leaned closer, whispering something in her ear, oblivious of the fact that everyone else in the room had leaned forward in one movement to try and hear. They didn't…but Lily did. She scowled and resumed her look of violence.
James, sadly, was not one to take hints. He rested a hand on her hip as casually as he could manage.
"Out, OUT! All of you!" Lily tore his hand away from her and dragged him to the door- shoving him out and closing it firmly. Then she realized that the other two golden boys were still with them. She sighed. "I think it's about time to paint fingernails, women…" The boys bowed and left swiftly.
"Are we really going to paint our fingernails? Gosh, it's been a long time…"
"Don't be silly!" Jessica replied, the same time Lily said, "I think we should do Jessica first."
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James sighed on his bed. "I wouldn't have minded had you not gone into Lily's dorm."
"But that was the whole point, you see." Remus replied, grinning.
"Really, we helped you out. Now it'll be easier to talk to Lily- since you'll have pants. The worst part is over with, Prongs!" Sirius' blue eyes stared innocently.
"With you two, the worst is never over."
Remus turned to the dark-haired Sirius. "Sounds paranoid, doesn't he?"
James grunted. "I'm not paranoid!" he paused for a thoughtful moment. "Which of my enemies told you this?"
They chuckled to themselves while climbing into their beds and turning off the lights.
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It was no big deal, really to James, that he was attracted to Lily Evans. She was eye-catching, was all. The real problem was that he had never wanted a relationship. He didn't want a family. All that would do is weigh him down; keep him from doing other things that he wanted to. He was very ambitious about what he wanted to do…even if he wasn't totally sure what that was yet.
His father, and mother, had pushed him since he was little about becoming successful. He had sort of accepted the fact that all his parents cared about was money and how much he was going to make. If he hadn't been Head Boy, then he had a feeling that he would have failed them.
And so he had come to the conclusion that a wife would not be good for him, nor would any children. He didn't want to get married; what was the point? This was the actual problem before him- he felt strangely towards this Lily, and he didn't know what to do about it.
"James? Jamie? Prongs?" Sirius was leaning over the Gryffindor table and staring at his friend, who was staring at his plate.
"Er- what?" James snapped out of it and looked up.
"Oh, noth- Peter! About time you join us- where have you been lately?"
"Well, y'know. Around." Peter replied, plopping himself down beside James.
"In other words, you were with that Hufflepuff girl."
"Exactly." He spooned large amounts of food onto his plate.
Out of the corner of his eye, James spotted Dumbledore getting up from his seat.
"Good evening, students. I hope you're enjoying your dinner, and I'm sure your first day back went well." He smiled quickly. "Let's see…the staff and I have decided on making tomorrow a…special day." the Hall quieted down at the word 'special'. "A new idea- and we find it rather fun. Tomorrow will be Hush Day. You see, at the beginning of the day, all of the girls will be given a pin. They won't be allowed to talk to the guys all day, and if they do, they must give their pin up to the guy they spoke to. At the end of the day, prizes will be given to the girls who still have their pins, and to the guy who obtained the most pins." The students of Hogwarts stared at him. It took them a moment to realize what was really going on.
"Excellent!" Luke said from Sirius' side. The Marauders turned to look at him.
"You know, you have a funny accent."
"Me?" Luke asked. "Yeah right, that's you guys."
"We're English."
"And I'm American."
Remus turned to Sirius. "I don't think he's getting the point."
James, meanwhile, was watching Lily. With this Hush Day, I may have a chance…she won't be able to talk to me all day. He grinned to himself.
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Lily beamed at her friends while Professor McGonagall passed out the pins. This will be nice. I've always wanted an excuse to not talk to any guys. Carefully, she attached it to her robes, along with her Head Girl badge.
"This officially starts Hush Day." McGonagall announced. "Girls- I caution you. Men can be quite annoying when they feel the need."
Men are annoying anyway. In any case, these here certainly aren't men…She watched as James approached her from the other side of the room, abandoning his friends, who were busy chatting away to the girls over there. Oh crap…I forgot about him! How the hell am I supposed to not yell at him, if he's going to try and talk to me all day? She firmly resolved that if she was going to lose her pin, it would not be to James Potter.
"Hello Lily. Fancy seeing you here." He smiled pleasantly. "Nice first class of the day, eh? Everyone seems so happy…" he glanced around the room, taking in many annoyed girls and amused guys. Lily simply scowled at him.
Damn the guy. He's so…cocky.
"You know, I was thinking that you could come to Hogsmeade with me…" he casually rested a hand on her shoulder and wrapped another around her waist. She attempted to ignore him and glanced at her friends.
"I'm so glad that I can talk to you guys. I don't think I could last otherwise…"
"Oh, but Lily. You should feel honored to have a guy so obviously hung up on you."
"Yeah, that's right, my Lily." He stopped, confused. "I'm not…" he looked to Lily's friends, who were grinning. "Alright, so maybe I do think she's good-looking. What do you say to that Lils?"
Lily groaned.
"Alright, students. You'll have time for this…game, in the halls. It's time to start class. Settle down!" McGonagall raised her voice out of need. She stared at them with a stony expression. "I don't understand why Albus insists on doing these things…" she mumbled quietly. McGonagall to the rescue once again. I really should thank her some day.
They began an intense study of transfiguring rocks into quills. Lily felt herself dropping off, but managed to keep her eyes open solely because of James' annoying caresses and winks.
At the end of class, she sprang from her seat, and with her friends directly behind her, sprinted out the door.
"This is hell already!" she exclaimed.
"Tell me about it. I can't take anymore." Jessica said,
shaking her head.
"I can't see myself keeping
the darn thing until the end of the day."
"Oh, shoot! I left my ink back in the classroom! You guys keep going; I'll meet you in Astronomy."
"Okay." They both called after her.
In a rush, she entered the room to find that McGonagall wasn't there. She approached her ink and quill, screwing the top on and talking to herself. She didn't notice that James was also still in the room.
"This is so not fun. I'm gonna have to say something to Dumbledore about-"
"About what, my little Lily?" James asked, having come up right behind her.
Her bright green eyes flared and she spun around quickly, not knowing how close they were. She was about two inches away from him, and he wasn't moving back. She opened her mouth to say something and halted….she couldn't speak to him.
James watched her closely, his eyes scanning her face and coming to rest on her lips. He smiled, and before she could do anything about it, lowered his mouth to hers.
Lily raised her hands up in between them, about to push him away, but then stopped. They slid around him instead. He smiled through the kiss and refused to pull back for fear of obtaining a red mark on his face…
But Lily wasn't backing away. Granted, he didn't allow her much space to do it. But she could have. She could have, and that told him something. The tables had turned, and he was indeed winning this war. Well, this battle, in any case…
Lily sighed into his mouth, and then suddenly she realized what was going on and her eyes popped open, staring at him. She pulled back quickly, wiping her mouth. A quick glance at him and she looked about to say something. Then she glanced down at her pin and closed her mouth.
"That was…nice, Lils." He said softly, trying to lean in again. She glared at him and pushed his hand away; pushed him away.
Frantically, she grabbed a hold of her ink and quill and left the room without a backwards glance.
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I am so incredibly stupid. She watched James out of the corner of her eye. And it will never happen again, that's for sure. I didn't even enjoy it anyway…Somehow, she felt like she was lying to herself. But that isn't true. I really didn't like it. Really. And I should never have let him touch me. Well, I know better now, at least.
"Thank heavens I can finally speak to everyone again!" Heather dropped into her seat across from Lily, and Jessica beside her.
"Yeah." Lily replied, softly. Her two friends glanced at her, then each other, and shrugged.
Dumbledore's beaming smile carried across the entire room. "Now, to announce the winner! Luke Whitemark, would you please come up here?"
Luke grinned charmingly and walked up to Dumbledore, his robe covered in pins.
"He only got those because he…he startled the girls with that damn accent of his. They all think it's cute."
Lily heard James' voice a few seats down and purposefully ignored it.
"And ladies who are still with a pin, come up during or after dinner, we have some goodies for you." He paused. "I found this day a success." Murmurs were raised in the crowd. He smiled. "However, the ladies at Hogwarts have demanded that another day be planned where the guys must be silent...so I will be looking into it. You need not be so forceful with your requests, however." his eyes twinkled as he resumed his seat.
Lily barely heard any of it. No, never again.
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A/N: Well, that was fun. I enjoy doing what I do (writing- for those people as asleep as I am), but guess what? Reviews make it better!!
~Emily~
Snoopy- Lol that she may. Didn't plan it exactly at first, but it sort of happened that way. Thank you so much! Sirius' lover- =) Thanks for reviewing again…and I'm trying to update all of my fics as often as possible. Jericho-sama- Lol, I never know what to say either…especially not in reply to reviews. But simply knowing that you like the story makes me very happy. The-m-chick- Hehe, I'm glad to see you back! Glad you like it too…and I'll try to update often. TheYellowSubmarine- Lol, I'm tempted to get them together, but I was thinking the same thing. They must suffer first! Okay, so maybe not suffer exactly…Emily Woodmark- Another Emily ;) Common name, I suppose…I'm glad you like it! Hopefully I'll be able to fit in a surprise or two…LaminaCourt- I will keep it up, hehe. Glad you like it so far. I'm not a very funny person, lol, but I try! Raven-gal2002- =) I'll be updating again asap! Chickensoup3- It's nice to know you still like it! Zetta- Lol, is the title that cheesy? Suppose it is, now that I think about it. But that isn't the point- you like the story! I'm so happy! Evillalmanotlamma(frogs- well hopefully this chapter gave you a little more about that…and hopefully you liked it! ToonedIn- Lol, you make better jokes than I do =) Thanks again! Unshed Tears- Heh. I probably would too, come to think of it. But she'll probably be more tolerant as the story continues. Bella Black- Funny you should say that ;) You're stories are way better!! Update soon, by the way!