Hypocrites Always Fall in Love
Disclaimer: I don't own any of this (except most of the plot, and the characters you don't recognize). It all belongs to the amazing J.K. Rowling.
Chapter 4- Knuts and Black-haired Boys
London was just like any other city. Loud and crowded at times, but in a charming way. The city amused Lily to any extent. Lily had been to London numerous times, but even so she was still captivated by the streets, huge signs, tourist-attracting shops, and utter chaos. She was always spell-bound by it, even though lived right outside of London for her father's business reasons.
It was swarming with so many people and rushed faces that Lily could barely soak it all in, let alone walk properly.
"Hey, little girl, watching you're going!" A young man, looking refined in his business suit, scolded her as she bumped into him head first.
She felt her father grip her hand tightly, and drag her away.
"Sorry, sir!" Lily called. Someone hasn't had their morning coffee, she thought.
As the man angrily walked away, he noticed a rain cloud just over his head. He began jumping up and down, (and saying a number of bad words that won't be written here) while hopping away from the little gray cloud. It was pouring down hot coffee on him!
People stopped to stare at the sight of a running man being chased by a puff of fog raining down some obscene brown liquid. One store owner even grabbed a mug, stood on her front stoop, and held the cup under the moving mass.
"Ahhh...nothing like black coffee in the morning," she smiled as she sipped it. Many just froze, dumbfounded, others astonished. Rain clouds just didn't do such nonsense!
Lily, having been whisked away by her father, knew nothing of the sort had happened, and continued on her merry way to Diagon Alley.
Mr. Evans and his daughter soon found themselves standing outside a dirty, old building among other vacant shops. The windows were dark, as if it had been abandon for quite a few years. Lily stopped in her tracks, waiting for her father to say something.
"This is it," he said simply.
Lily shot him a questioning look. "Are you kidding me?"
"Nope. According to the map, and my memory, this is the place, kiddo," he said, smiling at her as they stepped through the dusty doorway. "Don't worry. It's more impressive in the actual alley."
It can't get more impressive than this, she thought. Her father was such a loony. Honestly.
People (and many other creatures) glanced up quickly to see who had come in. They went back to their respective conversations almost instantly. A pair of young boys and their mother at one of the tables caught Lily's eyes.
"A pair of muggles, no doubt," the older boy whispered, "How do you think they would have gotten here?"
"I don't know, Sirius. But obviously, they do not belong here," his mother said sighing, "Must you ask so many questions?"
The woman looked disgustedly at Lily and her father's choice of clothing.
"Yep. Or else I'm not ever going to know anything," he replied.
The woman laughed. At that exact moment the younger boy tugged at her sleeve.
"Mom! Mom! Can I get a broom today? You said I could have one!"
"Yes, Regulus," the woman responded, exasperated, "You can get a broomstick today."
Lily watched from afar. Muggles? Broomsticks? Maybe her father wasn't the loony one around here.
"What about my stuff for school?" the Sirius character whined.
"Well, how about this boys?" their mother proposed expertly, "I'll take Regulus to get his broomstick and you go get some of your school things, Sirius?"
The woman handed Sirius a brass key. "Now don't you lose that, you hear?"
She stood up and motioned for the boys to so the same. They began walking towards the door, away from Lily and her father.
"Come on, Dad," Lily said grabbing her gapping father's sleeve, extinguishing his thoughts about old childhood memories. She began leading him in the direction of the Sirius, Regulus, and their mother.
The three of them headed outside, closely followed by Lily and Mr. Evans. Lily wasn't sure why she felt the sudden urge to follow them in the first place. She felt foolish for doing so, but decided that maybe these people knew about wizards and witches and stuff. She could always ask them...
They reached a brick wall, and Lily watched the woman carefully, to make sure that her eyes weren't deceiving her.
The boys' mother pulled a bit of wood out of her pocket and muttered some words under her breath, pointing straight at the wall.
Lily blinked uncontrollably. Was she really seeing the wall turn into an archway? She rubbed her eyes, and quickly turned, looking at her father in disbelief. He just grinned again.
"And this would be Diagon Alley, Lil," he whispered.
She smiled at him, "So you weren't kidding me?"
"Please hold your applause until the end of the trip. Thank you, thank you very much," her father boasted, smiling some more.
Lily turned away from her father for a second to get a better look at Diagon Alley.
It was completely amazing. There must have been twenty-some shops lined crookedly up the graystone road. Thousands of signs flooded into view. Advertisements for cauldrons, "All-new, blood-free, sweet butterbeer," a place called "Frido's Old Ye Prank Shoppe." And there were very odd-looking people in long cloaks. In the middle of summer too! It was enough to make Lily's head spin.
She was quickly snapped out of her trace as the boys and the mother in front of her walked through the threshold. She watched them part, the older one giving the younger one a goodbye punch in the shoulder to provoke him. After a mild scolding and the breaking up of a promising fight, the older boy steered right, while the younger one and his mother kept moving straight. The mother grabbed the young one's arm to stop him, and called out to the other.
"Sirius! We'll meet you at Flourish & Blott's in an hour. That's half past one."
The woman then followed the younger son to their destination, "Quality Quidditch Supplies."
Sirius nodded mutely, and continued to walk dejectedly in the direction he'd been walking before. Lily noticed that his head drooped sadly as he carried on, hands in his pockets.
Lily felt awfully sorry for him. She put her hands in her own pockets, and she and her father began to walk through the barrier together.
She could just barely see Sirius through the crowd of people. He disappeared behind a middle-aged woman with a vulture hat and bright red purse, who was clutching a young boy's hand. Going, going... gone.
"So..." she turned to her father, "Where should we go first?"
"Why don't we start at the Apothecary?" her father asked, trying to contain his own excitement to a minimum, reading one of the signs.
"Okay," the young girl agreed.
No more quickly had they turned to the right, they came upon the place they were looking for. "Apothecary" was spelled out in silver letters on the logo above it's doorway.
Her father had already gone into the shop, glancing around. He stopped and paused at the unicorn horns in the back.
Lily rushed up the cobblestone leading to the door, eager to see what the wizarding world had in store for her next. She peered inside and was amazed at what she saw. Thousands of bottled fluids and materials for making potions lay before her eyes. Things called unicorn hairs, beetle eyes, and goblin finger nails...
She almost instantly spotted Sirius, who was trying to pay for a potions kit of some sort.
"I'm afraid that's not enough to pay for your things, boy. You'll have to stop by Gringotts for more money or find your parents," the man at the counter was saying.
"But sir--!" Sirius began to protest...
"I'm terribly sorry, but I can't help you." And with that, the man handed Sirius back his bronze and silver pieces.
Lily was completely confused. What was Gringotts? And were those pieces in the boy's hand?
She must have looked curious too, because when Sirius spotted her staring at him, as he put his money back in his pocket, he asked her pointedly, "What're you looking at?"
"Oh-- uh...nothing," Lily replied, feeling quite stupid for staring.
"Hey," Sirius said, finally recognizing her, "You're that muggle I saw in the Leaky Cauldron!"
"Er..." Lily wasn't sure how to respond. "What's a muggle? And the Leaky Cauldron?"
"Wow, you must be a muggleborn, aren't you?" he smiled and laughed, thinking that for once, he wasn't the clueless one. "A muggle is a non-magical person, and the Leaky Cauldron is that place you just came from."
Then he pointed to the entrance of the alley.
"You mean that...that...place with all the," she hesitated, "--funny people?"
"Yeah," he said, his face scrunched up like he was thinking really hard, "They are funny, huh?"
"Uh-huh," she replied, she face turning a bit red, making her round eyes more noticeable in contrast, "But I'm not a muggle."
"Who are you then?"
"Lily Evans," she said simply, "So that makes you--?"
Sirius froze. Why did that name sound so familiar? Did her know her from somewhere? But he just couldn't, seeing as she was a muggleborn. So then how--
"Are you okay?" Lily asked, looking a bit concerned that he was zoning out on her.
"Uh...sure. Your name just sounded--"
"Like you had heard it before?" she finished, catching his drift.
"Yeah," he nodded, and then stood proudly, "And I'm Sirius Black."
Then there was silence. Just for a moment. Neither was exactly sure what to say to the other. This proved the fact that even when you were an eleven-year-old chatterbox, you could still run out of things to day.
"So... uh..." Lily had always tried to avoid those words at all costs. She, like many others, didn't like long periods of quiet... you think too much.
Besides babble and small talk seemed pointless to her. Being no witless young girl, she hardly made small talk anyway. Lily had something to say when she started a conversation with you. She did not usually go up to people and start talking for the charm of hearing her voice. Now she felt like a hypocrite who had no idea what to say to this cute, dark-haired boy.
Sirius stared back at the flustered girl, and began to feel his own cheeks turning red. This type of thing does not happen to Sirius Black, he thought, and grinned off the twinge of embarrassment quickly.
Then he opened his mouth to speak--
"Lily?" her father called from the counter, as she whirled around at the sound of his voice.
Apparently, during Lily and Sirius's enlightening conversation, Mr. Evans had been having a nice little chat with the cashier at the register. The young man, Morpis, as her father had called him, told him about the place that Lily had been wondering about since Sirius mentioned it. Gringotts. It was a wizarding bank, which explained the weird money that lay in Sirius's pocket.
"We ought to go there, Lil. You have to get money to pay for your school things," her father pointed out.
Then, of course, the next words out of his mouth had to be; "Now who is this new friend of yours?"
It was enough to make Lily's eyes roll. Sirius wasn't exactly a friend. Yet. He was some kid she had just met.
For all I know, he could be an ax-murder in a kid's body, she thought. Psychopaths were pretty tricky in this decade. Like trying to find a certain hippie in a whirlwind of peace, tie-dye, and hair. Not that she really thought he could be insane. He was too cute for that.
So she didn't completely mind when her father invited Sirius to come to Gringott's with them. Besides, he looked pretty lonely before she introduced herself.
And on the way to the bank, Lily found that talking to Sirius wasn't as hard as she though it would be. He was actually pretty funny at times.
And Sirius thought that Lily wasn't half bad either. He could talk to her about, you know, stuff. Like the things he talked to James about. He had never spoken to a girl before without feeling that the conversation was a bit strained (not that he realized that exactly at his age, but you get the idea). The girls he knew, like his cousins for example, were interested in lip gloss and being as nice as possible to all boys. It puzzled Sirius to no end. But Lily. She was neat. She wasn't so hard to understand. Why couldn't all girls be like her?
So Sirius was in the middle of telling Lily about yesterday's adventure when he realized why Lily's name sounded familiar, and why Mr. Evans knew who he was, and looked like he knew him from somewhere.
He almost choked when he tried to speak.
"You...you..." he pointed at Mr. Evans in an act of realization.
"Me," Mr. Evans smiled knowingly.
Sirius turned to Lily. "And you...you were the girl on the phone, weren't you?"
Lily just looked puzzled, not catching on yet.
"...When you called the Potters about your sister..." he said, trying to help Lily out.
"Oh!" she replied, finally understanding, "So that's how you knew him, huh, Dad?"
"Of course. I wouldn't extend an invitation to a person I didn't know," her father answered, glancing down the road, "Look, Gringotts. It's just ahead!"
And so it was. The three had reached a enormously tall building, taller than all the shops in the alley. Because of it's height it looked widely out of place. The other little builings seemed to cower under it.
The bank was the purest color white Lily had ever seen. Next to the magnificent bronze doors, the creature, guarding the them looked even more out of place.
"What is that... person?" Lily inquired to Sirius, looking completely surprised beyond belief.
Sirius just laughed a little bit and replied, "Haven't you seen a goblin before?"
"Not exactly," Lily answered. "The only thing I've seen remotely familiar to a goblin is a kid in a halloween costume."
Sirius just smiled at her. "Oh, yeah! I forgot. You wouldn't have seen those before, then, would you, Lily?"
She rolled her eyes out of exasperation. "Obviously."
Mr. Evans smiled fondly at the pair. You could tell that these two were friends in the making. Lily's sassiness verses Sirius's humor made them a funny bunch to watch.
He pondered the idea some more. Yes, it would be good for Lily to go to Hogwarts and make new friends. He wanted his daughter to be happy. He just hoped that this trip to Diagon Alley and the potentially new friend would be enough to talk her into going to Hogwarts. Let's face it, as much as he wanted his daughter to be happy, he was only human. He had always dreamed of being a wizard, ever since he Auntie Elm. Like must fathers, he had high hopes for his daughter. Of course, he wasn't going to force her to be a witch. Her happiness was more important than his own dreams for his daughter.
"Is he coming in?" Sirius whispered to Lily. The two of them had reached the doors, but Mr. Evans seemed to be in a daze a few feet away.
"I certainly hope so. I don't like to spend time alone with weird people I don't know," Lily replied back.
Sirius still stared at her father, and smiled, turning to her, "Yeah? Well your dad seems pretty weird to me."
"Oh, really?" she began to sound a bit defensive.
"Calm down, Evans. It was just a joke," he said, not wanting her to be upset. He actually wanted to be friends with her ---wait--- did he really just think that?
Sirius signaled Lily to wait there, and he left her to walk up to Mr. Evans, who was glazing in the opposite direction.
"Uh... Mr. Evans?" he waved his hands in front of the man's face, "Anyone home?"
"Oh.. um, Sirius. Yes. Let's go to Gingotts." Lily's father answered him. Then he set off for--
"Hey Mr. Evans?" Sirius called as he walked away.
"Yes, Sirius?"
"The bank's this way," he said, pointing in the other direction.
"Oh..." Mr. Evans turned a little red, looking quite embarrassed, "I knew that."
"Okay, Mr. Evans," Sirius said as they approached Lily, and she rolled her eyes.
--------------------
The inside of Gringotts wasn't like anything Lily and ever seen before. Marble floors, golden pillars, and those thing Sirius had labeled as "goblins."
Mr. Evans began to walk towards the counters, and glanced at Sirius as if to make sure he was headed in the right direction. Sirius nodded in response.
As Lily's father reached the marble counter, the goblin looked up from his copy of "The Daily Prophet."
"Yes?"
"Er...Hello, my daughter," he said motioning to Lily, behind him, "would like to open an account here."
"What is the amount she will be placing in it?" The goblin asked lazily, still gazing at the paper.
"Well, I'd say about--," he turned to Sirius, "250 pounds?"
Sirius shrugged back in response, "Sorry, I don't do muggle money."
"250 pounds sounds suffice, sir," the goblin replied, finally putting the newspaper down, "Anything else?"
Sirius stepped forward, "Yes, I need to go to vault 532." And he placed his key on the counter. The goblin extracted it quickly, and handed it to another goblin.
"Kingsloff will escort you to your proper vaults."
"Thank you," Mr. Evans said with a simple smile, "Let's go kids."
The ride in the cart was a little shaky, and much to fast. Let's keep in mind that that was only Sirius's opinion. Lily and her father on the other hand, thoroughly enjoyed the ride, and were never less pleased when they realized the ride was over. Everyone's money in their respective pockets, they returned back to the streets of the alley to get school supplies.
-------------------
James grumbled as he made his way down the crowded alley. Yesterday's adventure had gotten him a horrible punishment. He was to stay at home for the next two weeks, and hadn't even been able to Diagon Alley with Sirius like they had planned. Instead, Sirius had gone with his parents, and James was to go with his. Supposedly they didn't want James and Sirius to get into any trouble. Ha! There were still a million ways from James to get in trouble, even if his parents did happen to have him chained to their wrists. Well, holding his hands so he couldn't get away, but same difference.
His parents dragged him along to Gringotts, where he saw a man dressed in muggle clothes, with two children. A red-headed girl, and...Sirius?
He blinked. Sirius? He blinked again. It couldn't be.
And this girl. He had seen her somewhere before, he knew it. But where?
---------------------
Lily, Sirius, and her father walked down the steps of the bank to the street shops. Mr. Evans was staring at a map of Diagon Alley, looking thoroughly confused. Sirius was explaining all the wizarding money to Lily, which made it seem even more frustrating for her to understand.
"No, Lily, the little bronze pieces are called knuts," Sirius explained, patiently, pointing to the pieces in her hand.
"Knuts?" Lily replied, the new word feeling foreign in her mouth, "So, did I say it right?"
"Yes, Lily. Twenty-nine kunts is equal to one sickle. Or was it thrity-one?" Sirius asked himself, scratching his head.
"You can't remember what your own money is worth? My God, Sirius, get help." Lily said in annoyance.
Sirius looked up at her, grinning mischievously.
"It's not exactly the easiest thing to remember.
"Then what is? Tell me, oh Great One," Lily teased, looking ready to laugh herself.
"Quidditch rules, of course."
"Quidditch? What's that?"
Sirius's smile fell.
"You don't know what quidditch is?"
He sounded appalled.
"Do enlighten us then, Sirius. I think I may remember hearing a few things about it, back in the day," Mr. Evans intervened.
Lily took one look at Sirius's face and could tell that is was going to be one long conversation.
"Well," he started, "Quidditch is the most amazing sport ever. It's played on----OY! JAMES!"
James quickly turned his head back, to see Sirius far off in the crowd. He gave Sirius a gloomy wave as his parents dragged him off to another antique shop.
"Oookay," Sirius said, turning back to the Evans.
"I see your friend James got his punishment for sneaking out of your house yesterday," Mr. Evans replied, looking amused.
"Yeah, I guess he did."
Now that made Sirius feel a little bad. Here he was having fun with these new people, and meanwhile his best friend is all by himself. Well, without friends that is because technically speaking his parents were with him so he wasn't all alone and--
"So, back to quidditch..." Sirius said.
After a long(it had taken them through Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions "She's cut my hand off!" "Hold still, or your toes are next, Flourish and Blott's picture a pyramid of ink bottles... with Sirius at the foot of it, and the Apothecary "You still don't have enough to buy the kit... Wait! Just kidding!") and confusing (because Sirius was explaining it) conversation about quidditch, Lily and her father came out of it feeling much more knowledgeable. About Quidditch, that is.
"Oy! I was supposed to meet my mom fifteen minutes ago at the paper store!" Sirius cried, as Lily's father stated the time.
"Then you'd better hop to it, Sirius," Mr. Evans replied.
"Uh-huh," then Sirius began to run down the street, "See you on the Hogwarts Express, Lily Evans!"
"Bye, Sirius!" Lily called back.
"So..." Mr. Evans started conversationally, as Sirius disappeared into the crowd of people, "I guess all we have left to do is get your wand."
"I suppose," Lily said, watching the people pass her by on the street.
"Do you not want to get a wand, Lil?" her father asked, hoping for a certain answer.
"No, I do want a wand."
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"
Lily laughed with her father. Then she followed him through the clusters of goblins, witches, wizards, and many others.
When they reached the shop, Ollivander's- Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC. Lily was almost afraid to go in. It looked pleasant enough. Although, maybe a bit old and dusty, and out of date, it seemed perfectly normal in its surroundings.
So why was she so afraid to go in? While she stood unsure, her father's eyes sparkled with anticipation. Why hadn't he been the wizard in the family? He was the one who loved the whole idea. Not that it wasn't growing on Lily, but what happened if his was just so kind of illusion that she would wake up from tomorrow morning?
Lily grabbed the brass handle of the wooden door and pulled.
Someone greeted her at the counter.
"Fancy seeing you here, Miss. Evans," a middle-aged man greeted her cheerfully.
Lily stood with her mouth wide open, as though she had been turned to stone.
"How...how do you know my name?"
"I know you, because I knew your Great-aunt. Last I saw her, about three years ago, she was raving about you and your sister," he smiled knowingly, not even noticing that he was freaking Lily out, " I remember her first wand as well as I will remember yours thirty years from now."
"Oh. So you own this place."
"Yes, and my father before me, and my grandfather before him and so on," he replied.
"Now you need to be measured," he said summoning a magical tape-measure.
Mr. Evans watched interestedly in the single scarlet armchair. Lily could hear muffled laughs from her father as the measure went up to her hair and measured the size of her curls.
Lily batted the thing away when it started to measure the space between her eyes.
"Alright, alright, I think that's quite enough," Mr. Ollivander said as he pulled away the tape, "Now tell me, which hand is your wand hand?"
"Er... wand hand?" Lily replied feeling very confused.
"It's her right," her father chimed in from his chair.
"Now then..." Mr. Ollivander went over to his thousands of shelves. He read the labels and pulled out a single narrow box. "Try this, mahogany and unicorn heartstrings, 7 inches. Just wave it a bit."
He opened the narrow box to reveal... a wooden stick? Lily picked it up and waved it anyway, while Mr. Evans sat on the edge of his seat.
Nothing happened.
"Okay," Mr. Ollivander took the wand back and picked out another box. "How about willow, 10 1/2 inches, swishy?
Lily placed the wand in her right hand, and looked to Mr. Ollivander for guidance.
"That's right, dear, just wave it."
So she did. Suddenly she felt wonderfully happy. Like someone had just told her she could live off of double chocolate fudge brownies for the rest of her life.
"Yes! I believe we've found you a wand!" Mr. Ollivander said happily as Lily's father smiled hugely at her.
Later she found herself at home with her mother and father at the dinner table. Petunia had gone to a friend's house for dinner, which made the whole affair even sweeter.
"So Lily," her mother asked pointedly, "Have you decided if you will be going to Hogwarts?"
Her father crossed his fingers and toes underneath the kitchen table.
"Yes, I have," Lily said smiling, "I'm going."
Her father relaxed, and let out a laugh as her mother said, "Good for you, Lily! We're so proud of you."
For once, Lily felt that everything was right with the world. She was going to Hogwarts, so what could possibly go wrong?
------------------
James was still thinking about that girl with Sirius, as he lay in his bed, trying to fall asleep. How did he know her? And where did he know her from?
As he drifted off, it all seemed to come back to him...
He was floating...
...he was at Hogwarts...
Hogwarts?
James ran as fast as he could down the deserted corridors, waking up the paintings as he ran by. He just had to find her, he thought as he rounded the corner, almost crashing into a suit of armor. He couldn't let it end like this, he didn't want her to hate him anymore.
"Mr. Potter!" Professor McGonagall yelled in fury, interrupting his thoughts, "What are you doing running in the halls this late at night? You've done crazy things before, but really, this time you have gone--"
He ran past her and called, "I'll explain later, Professor!"
"Potter! Potter!" she yelled even more enraged. But she wasn't about to run after him. "Damn boy," she mumbled, then yawning, heading to Professor Dumbledore's chambers to talk about James Potter and her early retirement.
James rushed on, not fazed at all that he had just been caught by a professor, and hadn't even stopped to bid them a 'good-night.' There was also the fact that he was definitely going to get a huge detention sentence the next morning at breakfast.
That's when he saw her. She was huddled next to the statue of Morgana, her face hidden. James could tell she was crying, even though she was doing it silently. He didn't know how he knew, he just seemed to have this sort of 'sixth sense' when he was around her. The sight of her crying was something that would haunt him forever.
"Why are you crying?" he asked her softly, sitting down next to her.
"Nothing." was the reply, "Just go away, James."
She turned away from him swiftly. He was surprised that she didn't get whip-lash.
"No, something's got to be wrong, or else you wouldn't be crying," he said, brushing her curly her hair out of her eyes, and behind her ear, "Was it something I said?"
She looked up into his eyes and immediately regretted it. His hazel eyes looked so honest, and caring. She quickly looked away.
"Maybe," she spoke quietly, "Well... partly because of that."
"James!" someone called from far away, "James!"
He turned his head, and found himself awake. It was morning. Morning, already? Oh great, more dreams about the Lily-girl, of whom he had no idea who she was. He dismissed the dream quickly. He had things to do, pranks to pull. He just didn't have time to ponder dreams all day, he thought to himself as he got out of bed.
The dream lay forgotten.