Summary: Sequel to "Time to Fly (Friends Forever)". Lily and James haven't seen each other for seven years. A school reunion rekindles their friendship, but how far will friendship go?
Disclaimer: Yes, everything's mine. I am also a chipmunk whose cousin is Billy Bob Thornton and lives in Bubblegum, Wyoming. (In case you can't tell, this is called sarcasm, children. This is a way of saying that nothing in this fic 'cept the plot is mine.)
Author's Note: Yup yup, another chappie! Up fairly quickly for me too.
Seven Years
Chapter Seven
By Lady Wildcat
A week later, there were three new heads at the breakfast table when Lily and James entered the Great Hall. Lily wouldn't have recognized Remus, Sirius, and Peter had not Sirius taken the opportunity to jump out of his chair, run over to her, pick her up, and swing her around. "Lily-bedilly!" he exclaimed over the snickers of the students watching.
"Whoop!" She tried to be mad, but it didn't work. Sirius was every bit as lovably goofy as James. "Si, stoppit!"
Unlike James, however, he followed directions. She looked up at him after he put her down. He looked the same as ever: big, grinning, shaggy-haired Sirius. The back of her head noted that she was going to have a hell of a time keeping both Padfoot and Prongs in check. "Good to see you too."
He grinned even wider, then turned to James. "Been taking care of our Lily, Jamesie?"
"You know I always do."
"Ha," Lily said wearily as she turned to the other Marauders. "Here are two people, at least, who won't spin me around."
Remus hugged her gently. "Hello, Lily." Remus seemed to have aged more than his friends, and his dark brown eyes were full of tiredness that was hidden behind the delight at seeing her. She knew from James' letters that Remus had a hard time securing a job because of his affliction. (Lily had gotten the whole Animagi/werewolf story in 6th year; it is quite hard to watch one's boyfriend turn unexpectedly into a deer without demanding some type of explanation.)
"Holding up all right, Remus?" Lily didn't say how worried she'd been about him. Remus was the nicest person she knew, and often was the one that people came to for advice and to have a shoulder to cry on. Lily had taken over the responsibility in school of being his shoulder and advice-giver.
"Fine, now that I've seen you." He gave her the old Remus grin.
Lily patted his shoulder and turned to the other Marauder, grabbing him and giving him a noogie. "Harr, it's Petey! How are you, Pete?"
"Oww--owww--oww!" Peter, a small, slight blond man with a little bit of a leftover stutter, broke out of her hold and smiled. "Well, you haven't ch-changed, Lily!" ((A/N: Yes, we all hate Peter and wish he would just lay down and die…but he was their friend for a while.))
Greetings over, Lily stepped back and surveyed them all. Surprisingly, she found herself getting a little teary, and turned her head to the side.
Unfortunately, it wasn't quick enough for Sirius not to see. "Aww," he cooed, "is Lily-willy getting nostalgic? Hmm? Did Lilykins miss her buddy Sirius?"
"No, you git," she said vehemently, wiping her eyes and hitting Sirius on the shoulder. "Why would I miss you?"
"'Cos I'm so special."
"Yes, you're very special, Sirius," she replied sarcastically. Then she looked at them all again and sighed happily. "It's just so nice to see the Marauders back in one piece!"
Remus came over to her left and put his arm around her shoulders. "It's nice to see you in one piece, Lily. With what I hear about the kids here these days…"
Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh, God…maybe you boys could stun them into silence for a while. They hero-worship you, you know. James made them shut up for almost a whole week…of course, he did use ceiling slime."
"Ooh, sounds like fun, Jamesie!" Sirius came up to her right and slung his arm across her shoulders, sandwiching her between her two friends. "Kids who worship you, ceiling slime…we missed all the fun!"
"Yes, but then she put me in detention."
Peter raised his eyebrows slightly. "D-detention? How old are you, James?" James hit him on the head in response.
The group meandered back to the breakfast table. As they were eating--with James vacuuming the food up as usual, Sirius going back for fifths, Peter putting everything (including syrup) on his toast, Remus trying to get the rest of them to stop eating so much sugar--Lily forgot momentarily that she was a teacher, and thought she was back in 6th year again.
***
This time, Ms. Evans walked into the class with not only Mr. Potter, but with three other men as well. The students craned their necks curiously as the men filed into the room--in size order, almost as if they were too used to being together.
Nick caught James' eye as he ambled back to his usual seat in the far left corner of the room. "Mr. Potter, who are they?"
James grinned down at Nick. The younger prankster and his friends had gotten over their deer-in-the-headlights attitude about him after they realized that, albeit he was their idol, he was also normal person and very friendly. Though they still treated him like a demigod. (And Kellie's not-so-secret crush on him didn't help either. The only person who did not know of her affection for James was, curiously, James himself. Although James was rather thickheaded when it came to girls, Lily had reflected a few nights before. It was good that he had often missed admiring glances and sighs from fellow students, or else his good looks would have gotten to his head a lot more. This, she thought, might actually help Lily's current…situation…concerning her feelings for James.)
"You're about to find out," he replied. "I think Lily's going to introduce them."
And, at that moment, she did. "Alright," she said, tapping her desk with her wand, "settle down."
The whole room went quiet. Everyone was that curious about their visitors.
Lily blinked for a couple seconds in pure surprise, then shook her head and went on. "Well, I suppose you've all noticed that we have three guests here today. They're chums of mine and James' from our class. They're here for the reunion. I think they can introduce themselves."
"Err--Peter Pettigrew."
"Remus Lupin."
"Sirius Black." Sirius gave a smile to the general room. Lily saw most of the female hearts in the class melt. Unlike James, Sirius knew damn well that he was one hot number. Three girls at the front of the room could barely contain their giggles--Lily saw the Sirius Black Fan Club obtain a Fourth-Years division. ((A/N: I'm in the Sirius Black Fan Club, New Jersey Muggles division…:P))
However, not only the girls were impressed. Most of the class was staring worshipfully up at Lily's friends, either mentally going through their prank records or just remembering the crazy urban legends that had been flying around school about the four. Like it or not, but the Marauders were in the Hogwarts history books for good.
Lily glanced over at her friends. Pete was blushing a little and smiling a little too wide, Remus was looking uncomfortable being in the spotlight, and Sirius--Sirius was loving it. She suddenly remembered one important fact about Sirius that she had forgotten--he flirts with everybody.
"Stoppit," she murmured to him. She said louder to the rest of the class, "Actually, Mr. Black is in a very unique line of work. He is an expert on Dark Arts curses and techniques. I was hoping today that he could tell us about his line of work." She elbowed him covertly so he'd get the point.
"Well, certainly, Lily." He, unfortunately, knew the game she was playing: make Sirius go off on a tangent about the work he loved so that he wouldn't wreak havoc with James at the back of the room. He knew, and he got her back for it. "May I say you're looking especially lovely today?" He picked up her hand and started kissing it vehemently.
"Ack, get off, you git!" Lily was blushing despite herself. Sirius just had that effect. "It's like getting licked by a dog!"
Unfortunately, the joke was pretty much lost, as only four other people in the room fully understood it. And only three of them were laughing.
***
"What'd I do?"
"Nothing. Stop bothering me, I'm thinking."
They were strolling down by the lake. Sirius had suggested it, as a way of revisiting old times "or whatnot". James, however, had been silent for the whole walk.
Sirius was quiet for a minute, then shoved James lightly. "Listen, James, I know you. You haven't been this silent with me since fourth year when I almost spilled to Lily about your crush on her. Now what did I do this time?!"
"Nothing, except flirting with Lily for the whole fucking class!"
Sirius literally stopped in his tracks. "What--whaa--Lily--am I missing something?"
"Yes. I think you missed the lesson not to flirt with the entire world."
"No, I mean…why are you being so touchy about her? Are you two back together?"
"No."
"Then what…" He exasperatedly ran his hands through his long, dark brown hair. "James, I wasn't purposely flirting. I just wanted to get her back for putting me in the spotlight."
"She seemed to be enjoying it."
"No, she wasn't. She hates it when I do that."
"She was blushing."
"I make a lot of people blush--for God's sake, James, I make your mother blush!"
He had a point. Luci adored Sirius. James was silent for a while, and Sirius knew he was partially forgiven.
He pried further. "James…what is going on between you and Lily?"
"Nothing. Nothing, nothing." His fists clenched.
"James."
"Well…" Sirius was going to keep at it doggedly (if the pun could be pardoned) until he got the whole story. "I don't know. You know I never really got over her when we were at school."
"Which is just another way of putting your miserably pathetic love life in seventh year?"
"You're not making this easier." James readjusted his glasses. "Well, I thought--for seven years--that the hard part was done with, and that my feelings for her were gone…"
He paused. Sirius listened without saying a word.
"But now," continued James, "see, when I'm around her again, I'm not so sure…at first I thought it was just a crush or something, or maybe, old leftover feelings from when I was dating her…except now I'm pretty sure it's the real thing."
Sirius whistled. "Wow. Are you positive?"
"Yes. But you see, now it will never work out, because I was such a stupid bastard for breaking up with her in the first place."
"You were…Leia Clark for Lily?"
"Shut your mouth, I know. She'll never forgive me."
"Well, what are you going to do?"
James shrugged. "I guess…I'll just…see where this takes me."
***
Author's Note: Okayday, hoped you like this chapter, even if it was a bit lame, sorry…other fics being updated soon…
Best,
Lady Wildcat