~*A Lily and James story*~
Chapter Summary- James Potter, prank extraordinaire, Lily Evans, perfect prefect. How did the lives of these two ever collide? Throw in Sirius, Remus and Peter, and you got yourselves the dynamic Marauders. May become an AU.
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters belong to J.K Rowling. They do not belong to me.
Many thanks to my reviewers!
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Chapter 4- Come what may
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After Lily walked through the doorway to the dormitories, she was bombarded by questions.
"Where have you been?" Jenny asked, shaking her hands towards Lily. Jenny moved closer to Lily, as if inspecting her. "That gleam in your eye, that smile…you were with a guy!" Jenny yelled. "Give us details! Catherine shrieked. Lily softly snorted and nervously laughed, before turning her head away, when two pairs of hands pushed her onto a four-poster bed. "Spill it!" Jenny demanded. Lily heaved a small sigh and glanced at her two best friends, both girls were looking at her expectantly.
"Okay…yes, I was with a guy…James to be exact." She paused to measure the amount of surprise she was sure she would get. There was little surprise evident on Catherine's face, but Jenny was a whole different story. "JAMES! I thought you hated him! Well, speak on, tell us the details!" Jenny urged.
"He was really sweet and sincere." Lily said, knowing that response would aggravate the two girls. "…I'm not hearing any details…" said Catherine in a shrill high-pitch voice, trying to suppress her excitement. "Yeah, sincere and sweet about what?" Jenny asked, adding to Catherine's statement.
"Anyways…" Lily continued completely ignoring Catherine and Jenny. "I walked into the common room, and decided to sit on the couch with a good read. When I sat down, I guess I sat on James… "Oooh…Kinky. Jenny interrupted." "Okay then, if your going to interrupt I guess you don't want to hear the rest." Lily replied, sticking out her tongue.
"No, go on!" both girls ordered in unison. "Okay, so anyways, he told me he was waiting for me, and that he loved me." Lily ended, sighing.
"Wow, he's changed so much." Catherine inquired breathlessly. Lily softly smiled, "yeah, he really has, we went through a whole conversation without him mussing up his hair, or asking me on a date, this must be some kind of record…but anyways, enough about me. Catherine, have you talked to Remus lately?" Lily asked smiling. Catherine blushed at hearing Remus' name, which emitted a giggle from both Lily and Jenny. "Lils, I really like him, but what do I do to get him to notice me?" "Talk to him." Was Lily's short answer. "Now then, I suggest we all get to bed, because no one likes a cranky Jenny." Lily said, nodding her head towards the blonde.
Jenny and Catherine both jumped off of Lily's bed and fumbled to their own four-poster beds. "Wake me up in the morning." Jenny softly called out once settled underneath the warm sheets in her bed.
Once the two girls were gone, Lily flopped backwards onto her bed with a sigh. She was completely exhausted after the day's events, and now she knew she would never get to sleep because she was too busy thinking of James.
'He's changed so much. Next time he asks me out, maybe I should give him a chance, what could it hurt anyways.' Soon Lily's conscious butted in. 'Think of your heart, look at the way he plays all of the other girls.' Lily shook her head to rid the thoughts and decided to at least try to get some rest. After 30 minutes of just laying there, the inevitable happened, and Lily finally drifted off to sleep.
Lily was rather rudely awakened by something heavy bouncing up and down on her stomach. "Time to get up! And here I thought I was bad." Lily's eyes immediately opened and grew as large as dinner plates, she knew that voice, and that voice should not be in the girl's dormitories.
"Sirius! Why are you here? How'd you get here? What time is it!?" Lily wanted answers, and she wanted them now. Sirius flashed his eye-catching smile before answering each question in one statement. "I'm here to wake you up, my little secret, and 7:30AM." Lily blinked before realization kicked in.
"Oh god! I have 10 minutes to get to potions! I'm going to be late on the first day of school! I'm a prefect I shouldn't be late! What kind of example would I be setting for the first years?" "Not a very good one." Sirius interjected. Lily gave him a harsh glare and then continued to ramble until Sirius finally lifted his hand and placed it over her mouth.
"Shh…you're rambling and wasting time. Now you only have eight minutes to get to the dungeons." Sirius inquired in a mock professional tone.
Lily immediately jumped out of bed. She ran over to her dressers and pulled out the robes she would wear today and quickly changed in the bathroom, then brushed her teeth. Walking out of the bathroom exhaustedly, she looked at Sirius; he was sitting on her bed dangling one of her pink bras on his forefinger.
"Uhh! Sirius we don't have time for this!" Lily yelped, grabbing the bra from Sirius and shoving it under her bed. "I'm going to kill Catherine and Jenny! Why didn't they wake me up!" Sirius smacked his hand to her mouth again to quiet her yelling. Lily fiercely clawed his hand away from her mouth.
"Would you kindly stop doing that!" she bit out, grabbing his wrist and running through the open portrait hole. "So, the Tiger Lily has claws." Sirius stated while inspecting his hand. Lily stormed her way past him, muttered a few choice words under her breath, and then began running down the hall.
"There's no use running now, we're already late." Sirius said, lazily sauntering towards Lily. Lily continued to storm off towards the dungeons when Sirius spun her around. "Come on, I know a short cut." Lily gave him a reproachful glance before allowing herself to be led by him. They walked around a corner and then jogged down a long corridor, Sirius stopped them once they reached a statue of a house-elf. "Alara" Sirius called out, making the statue move aside and reveal a well-hidden passageway.
"How'd you find out about this?" Lily asked with the innocence of a child. Sirius chuckled. "There are ways, now lets go, we just need to jump across this ledge."
Lily peered down across the ledge, and figured right away what she thought of that. "Like hell! I'll fall!"
"Come on Lils, just jump, I'll catch you."
"Umm, wait, I have a question...aren't you afraid that James will get jealous from seeing you with me?" Lily asked, stalling.
Sirius looked Lily in the eye, and Lily saw something she couldn't place.
"Did you forget he was in class? Besides if touching you meant saving you from death, I think he would be happy to allow me to touch his girl." Sirius articulated.
"His girl"? Lily shouted in anger. "I am not his girl, and I don't know what makes you think I am!"
Sirius flashed her an all-knowing smile. "Well, Prongs and I were talking last night after he came into the dorm. He told me he had a late night chat with you."
Lily looked beyond furious at this. "So, that's what he was doing? Telling you about his accomplishments? Telling you he finally had a civil chat with me?"
Lily's voice progressively rose after every word; she could have sworn she saw Sirius flinch.
"Well, first of all…WHY DON'T YOU TALK A LITTLE LOUDER?" Sirius yelled, easily matching Lily's shouts. "I don't think the people in China heard you."
Sirius grinned at the embarrassed look on Lily's face.
"And secondly," Sirius continued, "James was telling me how happy he was that he finally had a talk with you that didn't involve you slapping him. So of course he was going to tell me about your guys' chat." Lily turned her head and stared blankly at the wall.
"Lils, look at me…" Sirius said, averting Lily's gaze back to him by placing his hands on her shoulders.
"I don't know if you want to hear it, or if you even care, but James has changed. He cares about you, a lot."
Lily slightly nodded before breaking out in a grin. "So, guys gossip too huh?"
Sirius smiled amusedly, and then clicked his tongue. "Oh, you have no idea!" Sirius said in a mock gay tone, trying to make Lily laugh. He was successful, as she did indeed laugh. "Now then let's go, we're already 15 min. late for class." Lily said.
Sirius shook his head and swiftly leapt across the ledge. Lily watched as he gracefully landed and hesitated. "Well, come on." Sirius said.
Lily, realizing there was no way out of this predicament, closed her eyes and jumped across the ledge, landing in very muscular arms. When she opened her eyes she was looking into Sirius' face. "Whew, I thought I was a goner." Lily said melodramatically while hopping out of Sirius' arms.
Sirius led her to a black door, sighing slightly.
"Well here we are." Sirius said while slowly creaking the door open. They walked through the door and received quite the lashing from their potions teacher, Professor Maralin.
"What is your excuse for being late?" Professor Maralin asked in a cold voice. "I see, you have no excuse, 5 points from Gryffindor, now sit down!" Maralin said, not giving Sirius or Lily the chance to explain. Lily glanced around the room for empty seats. There were only two, one next to James, and one next to Jenny.
Lily began to trek her way toward the seat next to Jenny when Sirius ran past her and took the seat instead. Lily looked up just in time to see Sirius cockily grin at her. Sighing, she made her way to the only empty seat left, the seat by James. She was taking her quill and potions book out of her bag and setting them on her desk when someone poked her in the shoulder.
"Why are you late?" James whispered concerned, he knew she would never, ever be late unless something bad happened.
"I slept in." Lily whispered back.
James arched an eyebrow then broke out into a grin. "What?" Lily asked annoyed. "Just never thought I would here that from the 'perfect' Lily." James retorted.
Lily sighed loudly before turning her attention back to her potions teacher. About 5 minutes later, she was poked in the shoulder again.
"Up all night thinking of me?" James cockily asked, running his hand through his hair. Lily, now very aggravated, picked up her quill and threw it at James, hitting him in the cheek.
"Oh! And what is this? Could it be a gift from the perfect Lily?" James asked smiling. Lily couldn't help but smile at the look on James face. "James…" James softly smiled.
"Lily, you know I'm only messing with you, right?" Lily glanced down at her book before answering. "Yeah, I do."
"Good." James smiled.
She smiled gently to him, and then opened her book, writing some notes she thought were important. The rest of the hour seemed to drag, until finally, the bell rang, signifying the end of the class. Everyone rushed out in a frenzy to get to his or her next class. Once outside the door, Lily waited patiently for Catherine and Jenny.
"So, did you have fun sitting next to James?" Catherine asked while walking through the doorway out of Potions. Lily blushed a bit, but not too obviously. Jenny, who was walking behind Catherine, gave Lily an obvious wink, and all three girls burst into laughter.
They walked together down the hallway heading to their Charms class still laughing. They only quieted when they heard the pounding of feet against the floor. Merely seconds later, Sirius and James came into view, running past the girls, almost knocking them down.
A couple of seconds later James reappeared next to Lily, Catherine, and Jenny's side, broadly grinning that spectacular grin of his. "Ladies." He said while running his hand through his mussed up hair. Still grinning, he ran off in the direction Sirius went, leaving behind three very baffled girls.
"What." Said Lily
"Was that." Added Catherine
"About." Finished Jenny.
They burst into laughter again, but were once more cut off, again by the pounding of feet against floor, only a lot more then the last time. Seconds after hearing the noise, Remus, Peter, James, and Sirius rounded the corner of the hallway, rushing through the Charms door that Lily, Catherine, and Jenny were standing next to. After almost getting bowled over again, Lily rolled her eyes and entered the Charms room, choosing a seat in the 2nd to last row, ahead of the marauders. Catherine and Jenny entered the classroom as well, and upon seeing where Lily sat, they each took a seat on either side of her.
It was about 30 minutes into class, and Lily was actively copying down notes that would magically appear on the blackboard. She was currently writing the sentence, 'When turning a jar into a chair, swish your wand first to the left, then to the right,' when a neatly folded note landed on her desk. Her name was written on the front in a scribbled fashion. Lily looked at Catherine and Jenny, making sure they weren't looking in her direction, and upon seeing that they were totally oblivious to their surroundings, she curiously picked up the note and quietly read the letter to herself.
Lily,
Meet me tonight in the Kitchens.
8:30 PM
James
Lily re-read the note multiple times before putting it in her bag and grabbing a new piece of parchment.
James,
I will meet you, but if I find out this is some trick, you best run as fast as your legs can take you.
Lily
James, who was planning an extravagant prank on the slytherins with the rest of the marauders, was surprised when a note came flying in his direction and landed on top of his desk.
"Ooh, looks like Jamesie got a letter from Lily." Sirius said hitting James in the arm.
James rolled his eyes, opened the parchment up and quickly read what Lily wrote. He then pulled out a new piece of paper, and enchanted it, so whenever he wrote something, it would write itself on Lily's parchment.
"Hey Lils." Lily read on the piece of paper that was currently in front of her. She looked around and then stared at it for a couple more seconds before new writing appeared. "This is James, I enchanted a piece of paper so we can write back and forth without having to throw paper around. This way we won't get caught." Lily silently scoffed to herself before replying.
"Since when did you care about getting caught?" She wrote, not having to wait very long for James' reply. "I'm not worried about me, I don't want you to get into trouble. Anyways, back to business, I knew you would have questions, so what are they?"
Lily stared at the paper for a few puzzling moments before writing down her thoughts. "Why were you, Sirius, Peter and Remus running so fast to get here? You nearly toppled us over!"
James smiled before writing his response. "Oh, that, well we just played a little prank on the slytherins…nothing to harsh…we just poured 'Blannen's red hot itching powder,' in everyone's boxers."
Lily laughed to herself after reading that last line, but before she got the chance to reply, the bell rang. She rose out of her seat and without checking to see where she was going, accidentally bumped into James.
"Sorry James." She apologized.
James grinned and softly spoke. "It seems that you have adapted to calling me James, I like it." After giving Lily one last glance he walked out of class behind the rest of the marauders.
Lily softly sighed before joining up with Catherine and Jenny, and the three quietly made there way to the great hall for some lunch. Once they went through the great hall doors, they were met with quite the site. Everyone who was sitting at the Slytherin table was now standing up and itching at their boxers with fallen looks upon their faces.
"Must be the itching powder James told me about." Lily said, laughing. The girls made there way to their own table, Gryffindor, and sat down next to James and his buddies.
"So, Jen, how do you like our art?" Sirius asked nodding towards the slytherins and arching a brow. Jenny rolled her eyes before answering. "Sirius, I don't find human cruelty an 'art' as you say. Lily looked at Jenny with a questioning look on her face. "Lighten up, it's just the slytherins."
Remus who was listening to the conversation occurring between Lily and Jenny decided to interrupt. "Lily, it seems like you and Jenny switched places. Jenny used to love it when we picked on the slytherins and you use to hate it. Remember what you said to James last year when we hung Snape by his trousers?"
James gave out a nervous laugh. "Of course she remembers, don't remind her, I like this new Lily who seems to think our pranks on the Slytherins are funny." James broke out into a grin when Lily smiled to him.
Remus noticed the interaction between Lily and James, and decided to try to make conversation with the only person at the table he could understand. Catherine.
Jenny looked up from her food (which had appeared moments ago) and looked around the table. Everyone seemed to be talking with a special someone. Catherine and Remus. Lily and James. She shook her head to clear it, and then began to move her food around her plate with her fork.
Sirius obviously knew what Jenny had been thinking because he wrapped his arm around her shoulders. "You know, we could be like all of them, you and me." Jenny shrugged her shoulders, knocking Sirius' arm off of her. "I'd rather not." She replied before getting off of her seat and running out the great hall doors.
Everyone from the Gryffindor table watched as Jenny burst out of the room.
"What's wrong with her?" Catherine asked concerned. Sirius turned to Catherine with a serious look on his face. "I guess she's feeling left out, what with you love birds around here." He paused slightly. "Anyways, I'm going to go look for her, she seemed really upset." Getting up as well, Sirius swiftly walked out the great hall, and jogged to the one place he thought he might find her.
The quidditch pitch.
Now that Jenny and Sirius were both gone Lily sat in silence for a bit. "Don't worry, she'll come around." Remus said after seeing Lily's glum expression.
"Yeah, I hope your right." "Well, I am gonna start heading up to the astronomy tower, we only have a couple more minutes left of lunch anyways." Lily said.
James, now that Lily had also walked out of the great hall, was left to sit with Remus and Catherine. Not liking the feeling of being a third wheel, he turned to Remus and muttered a quick, "see ya at the astronomy tower." And he too strolled out of the hall.
Remus was currently staring into Catherine's big brown eyes.
"Catherine, for these last couple of days, I feel like we are getting closer. And I was wondering…" Remus paused, trying to gather up enough courage.
"Yes?" Catherine asked, encouraging him to go on.
"If you, ya know wanna go out sometime?" Catherine opened her mouth to answer but was immediately cut off.
"If you don't that's fine." He rushed out.
"Remus, I would love to, you're such a great person." Remus smiled and gently grabbing Catherine's hand, leading her out of the great hall.
'I'm not a great person, I'm a monster.' Remus thought quietly to himself with a furrowed brow.
Catherine was oblivious to Remus' thoughts, instead caught up in her own. 'Wow, we're finally a couple.' She softly smiled to herself, looking at all the glances of the people they passed. Everyone was obviously noticing that they were holding hands. 'This is how it's suppose to be.'