Summary: Lily hates James. James loves Lily. What will happen to make her
change her feelings toward him?
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nada. Rien. Niente. Well, except for Samantha, Tracy, Alex, Julia, Helen, and Sally. Heehee.
Chapter 27: The Trail
-----
"Uhg, Helen, go away," Lily sighed. "It's too early."
Helen folded her arms. "FINE!" she yelled. And she stomped out of the room.
Lily sighed. It was 1 day till Christmas and she was relatively happy. Amos Diggory was her new boyfriend, and her friends were all around her. She just couldn't figure out what was keeping her from being completely cheerful.
It was 7 in the morning and she was lounging on the common room couch. She looked around as she heard someone walk towards her.
"Lily, an owl came in 5 minutes ago with a letter for you," Julia grumbled. She handed Lily the letter and stomped back up the stairs.
Lily looked at the letter and raised an eyebrow. "Hmm... wonder who it's from..."
She ripped open the envelope, paper bits flying everyway. When she was done, she looked at the parchment she was holding.
*Roses are red, violets are blue, I really, really, really, really like you*
Lily chuckled at the bad poetry but thought it was sweet all the same. She put it down but something in red ink caught her eye.
*Muggle Studies* it said. It wasn't signed. Lily looked at it, front and back, trying to find another sentence that would give her more information. But she found nothing.
She sat in silence for a few moments but then something hit her. "Oh..."
She rushed up to her dormitory and dressed. She brushed her teeth and but her hair up in a messy bun. She sprinted down the stairs and out the portrait hole.
"Where's the fire?" the Fat Lady asked as she watched Lily rush down the corridor.
Lily hurriedly walked to the other side of the floor. She walked to the Muggle Studies classroom and peered in through the small window on the door. Sure enough, there was a rose and a piece of parchment on one of the desks. Lily turned the doorknob but was horrified when it wouldn't open.
"Damn... door," she hissed in frustrated tone as she struggled with the door. She sighed and stuck her hand by the waist, but remembered she wasn't wearing any robes. She grunted. With one last longing look into the room, she re-traced her steps and walked to her dormitory.
"What's going on?" Alex grunted as Lily threw her wardrobe door open. Lily didn't respond until she found her robes.
"Love notes... where is it... following a trail... WHERE'S THAT DAMN WAND?" She searched her last pair of robes before finally finding the wand. She sighed and rushed out of the room and back to the classroom.
She looked into the window to make sure the rose and letter were still there. They were. She opened the door with a spell and ran to the desk. She smelled the rose and read the parchment.
*Ravenclaw* it said. She frowned a bit at the lack of poetry but speed out of the classroom and ran down the stairs to the sixth floor. She skidded in front of a tapestry, her red hair flying behind her. She stood there a moment, trying to think of the password.
"Erm, books?" she guessed. She was Head Girl; she was supposed to remember theses things.
"School? Food? Quills?" she gasped. She tapestry finally fluttered forward, creating a space to enter the common room. She sighed and stepped inside.
The room was basically blue. There was a fireplace to Lily's right. A few feet in front of it was a couch and 2 armchairs were next to the fireplace facing each other. There was a dark wood table in the middle of the lounge area.
To Lily's immediate left was a wall with a bookshelf built in. It was very long, but not extremely tall because the ceiling was relatively low.
In the center of the far wall, there were 2 staircases. Next to each of them was a full-length window, decorated in bronze draping.
Lily sighed. "Accio letter!" she said, hold her wand up. A letter came soaring to her. She looked down.
"... and he asked me out. I can't believe he would- wait! This isn't mine!" she sighed, throwing the letter down on the couch. She looked around but couldn't find another letter.
"Where is it?" she asked herself. Then she got an idea. She hurried out of the room and ran down a few flights of stairs. She rushed into the library and slowed down.
She slipped into an aisle. "10:00?" she asked herself as she glanced down at her watch. She breathed heavily and started searching the selves.
"Rabbits... Ralin, Marcus... Raplias... RAVENCLAW!" she yelled as she grabbed a book from the shelf. She flipped open the book on one of the Hogwarts founders.
"Ah! There it is!" she squealed, delighted. She picked up the 3rd note.
*Roses are red, violets are blue, I hope you find me soon, so I can kiss you!*
She sighed and held it up to her chest. She didn't even think about how corny the poem was. She loved this. "I bet you its Amos," she told herself as she stepped out of the library. "He's so romantic." She looked down to the letter and searched for the red writing. *Knight* She skipped merrily down the stairs and towards the dungeons. "Which knight?" she asked herself. She searched around the first knight. She lifted up the thing blocking its face and screamed. "AHHHHH!" she yelled but she realized she wasn't the only one screaming in terror. The knight fell to the ground with a loud CRASH. Lily stood up and looked around to see if anyone was coming and hurried over to the pile of metal. A short blonde was panting on the ground... Helen. Lily tapped her shoulder and Helen jumped a few inches off of the ground. "AHHHH! LILY! AHHH!" she cried out. Lily stumbled backwards and landed on her bottom. "Helen? What are you doing down here... in a suit of armor?" Lily questioned as she stood up and brushed dirt off of her butt. "WAITING FOR SIRIUS AND REMUS," Helen explained as she too stood up. Lily raised an eyebrow. "Why?" Helen shrugged. "I WANTED TO SURPRISE THEM!" "What would make you think they're come down here?" Helen scratched her head. She then glanced sideways at Lily. "I DON'T KNOW!" she finally yelled. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" "Looking for a note," she explained. "You do know Sirius and Remus have girlfriends, don't you?" Helen wrinkled her round nose. "SO," she stated. "I KNOW THEY LOVE ME!" she added with a sigh.
Lily rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I got to go," she said shortly. She passed Helen and walked over to one of the knights.
"WHAT'S THAT?" Helen asked her. She pointed to a piece of parchment lying on the ground.
"Ooh! That's my- oh, no it's not," Lily said. She threw the paper to her side. But then:
"Wait, maybe that was," she exclaimed as she picked up the paper again.
*Take a break, go to lunch* it read. Lily raised an eyebrow but stood up. "Erm, ok..."
"WAIT?!" Helen asked as she bounced up and down in excitement. Yet again, Lily rolled her emerald eyes.
"Nothing," she snapped impatiently. Helen didn't pay any attention to the girl's rude tone. Lily strode up the damp stone steps and entered the bright entrance hall. She walked to the Great Hall where the remaining students were filling in.
Alex looked up as Lily and Helen entered. "Lils, where were you all day?"
"I'll tell you later," she muttered. Lily took her normal spot at the long Gryffindor table and started chatting with her friends.
"OH SIRIUS!" Helen yelled as she rushed over to the black haired boy. "I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!"
"Why don't you go bother Remus?" he gasped as she squeezed his neck. She rushed over to Remus and did the same thing. Remus would've shot Sirius a very nasty look at that moment, but he was too busy gasping for air.
"Hi, Lily!" James said as he walked into the Great Hall. He waved his hand while his other was in his pocket.
"Hi, James," Lily muttered.
Amos Diggory strolled in with his usual friends. He spotted Lily and beamed at her. "'Lo, Lily!"
Lily looked at and grinned. "Thanks so much!"
Amos raised an eyebrow. "Uh... you're welcome?" and he walked away to his table. Lily continued to smile.
"Thanks for what?" Julia asked in a whisper.
"All morning I've been following these notes. They have poems and I even received a rose. I have a sneaky suspicion they're from Amos." Julia and Alex smiled.
After lunch...
Lily sighed as the hall emptied out. Midway through lunch, she realized that the last note didn't say where she was going to have to go next for a letter. She sighed heavily and glanced down at the parchment as she walked out. As she walked, red writing appeared before her eyes. *Rosewald*
So Lily was off on her search again. She went to the library to look at books on this "Rosewald" character.
"Uhg, where is it?" she whispered in a frustrated tone. She sighed and tossed the third book on Frances Rosewald down. She sighed again and let the back of her head slam into the bookshelf in back of her. Out of the corner of her left eye, she looked at the cover of the book. It was a dull forest green. There were silver letters that read "Famous Witch of the 1600's: Frances Rosewald". And most importantly, there was a picture.
The picture was old and worn. There sat an elegant woman with white-blonde hair tumbling to her waist. She was sitting on a wood chair in a lovely, colorful garden. Her purple eyes gleamed at Lily and she smiled kindly and waved. She had few wrinkles on her middle-aged face.
Lily smiled back and then a thought struck her. She recognized this photo. It hung somewhere in the school. But where...?
"Divination," she gasped. Lily jumped to her feet and rushed out of the library.
"One... more... stair..." Lily muttered as she stomped up the stone steps. She leaned against the wall as she reached the landing and caught her breath.
To her right was the ladder that lead to the dark, mysterious classroom. And to the left... the same portrait of Frances Rosewald.
The woman in the picture smiled warmly at Lily. "Hello," she spoke in a calm, caring voice. "You must be tired, walking all the way up here!"
Lily nodded as walked steadily over to Frances's picture. "Have you, err, seen a note anywhere around here? Any boy come up here and drop a piece of parchment off?"
Frances frowned slightly and shook her head. "I'm sorry, my dear, but no boy has come up here with a note."
Lily sighed. "Oh."
"But," Frances said as she saw Lily's disappointed face. "A young man was up here earlier this morning. He told me to tell a girl named Lily Evans something. Are you Miss Evans?"
Lily looked up and smiled. "Yes, I am Lily Evans."
Frances continued. "He said that he wanted me to deliver this message: "Roses are red, Slytherins stink, and you are getting closer than you think". He also said to tell you... er, "cry"."
Lily didn't have the slightest clue what "cry" meant, but she smiled brightly and waved anyway. "Thank you so much, Miss Rosewald." And she walked back down the many flights of stairs.
Lily sat on the floor, her head in her hands. "Cry..." she muttered to herself. "Cry..."
She had been sitting there for an hour, trying to figure out the meaning behind that word. "Cry..."
Lily stood up and wrinkled her nose. "It's worth a shot."
10 minutes later, Lily entered the girl's bathroom. There was a large puddle on the floor and sounds of a girls sobbing.
"Myrtle?" Lily whispered. She looked around and spotted the girl sitting on the sink.
"What... do you want?" Myrtle said between sobs as she looked up at Lily. She had thick glasses and brown pigtails. She had a ghostly appearance because... well... she was a ghost.
Lily looked around for a note. "I was, erm, looking for a note."
Myrtle cried again and pointed to the ground. Sure enough, in the middle of a puddle, there was a piece of parchment. Lily walked over, bent down, and hesitantly pulled the soggy paper off of the ground. "Uhg," she said as she looked down at it. She couldn't make out any of the words. "Siglioso" she muttered as she pointed her wand to it. The words instantly became clear. *Hallway*
"Uh, Myrtle?" Lily asked. Moaning Myrtle looked up and wiped her eyes. Lily was starting to doubt that it was Amos who was leading her on this trail. Amos was too sweet to say "Slytherins stink," even if that was how he felt.
"What did the boy who put this here look like?"
Myrtle started crying harder. "H-he threatened me to p-promise... not to s- say..."
Lily sighed. "Thanks anyway," she muttered. She stepped out the bathroom and immediately found the next clue.
*Back to the beginning* was written in thin air in silver letters. Lily bit her lip. 'Back to the beginning? That's the Gryffindor common room...'
Lily ran up the stairs and finally made it to the Fat Lady. She was bombarded with questions like "Why are you always in a hurry, dear?" and "What's that in your hand?"
"Nosey old bat..." Lily muttered as she climbed through the portrait hole. She stood up and looked around. To her left were a few third years. To her right was...
"Hello, Lily!" James said happily as he jumped over the back of the couch when he noticed her. She hid the letters behind her back and smiled a little. "Erm, hi James."
"Where were you?" he asked. He looked up at him.
"What are you, my mother?"
He sniggered. She blushed a bit.
"What's that you're hiding?" he asked, pointing her hands.
"Oh, so now we're not my mother, now we're playing detective?"
"I'm just wondering," he said simply. He strolled over to an armchair and plopped down. Lily found herself following him.
"If you must know," she finally said. "I've been looking for notes all day."
James raised an eyebrow. "Notes? What type?"
Lily handed them to him and sat in the chair next to him. He read them all and smiled at her. "Clever fellow... making you roam the school looking for pieces of parchment. Why, it seems an awful lot like something I would do..."
Lily's jaw hit dirt. Why hadn't she guessed it before? "Y-y-you?!" she gasped as she jumped out of the chair. James smiled at her.
"M-m-me," he replied. She gasped again. "Lily, I've been wanting to talk to you, to explain. This was the only way."
Lily couldn't help but force a small smile. "It was very sweet," she murmered.
James grinned. "So will you hear my side of the story?" Lily bit her lip.
"I guess..." she said as she sat back down in her chair. "What have I got to lose?"
So James explained everything. From him liking her, to the kiss, to how he felt afterwards.
"Horrible," he muttered. "I felt terrible. And I knew you wouldn't believe me! Because that was the person I was... before you gave me a chance!"
Lily smiled slightly. "So do you believe me, Lily?" She bit her lip and nodded. She had heard the same story over and over. It had to be true.
"Yes."
James's smile couldn't be bigger. He jumped up and squeezed Lily in a big hug. "So will you give me another chance?"
"Err..."
"What do you mean, "err"?" he asked as he pulled back.
"There's one problem," she sighed. "I'm dating Amos Diggory."
----- Yay! This is one of my favorite chapters. Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I had some really hard homework. Yuck. So I hope you liked this. How will James react? Review please! They make me happy. Especially when I have loads of homework...
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Nada. Rien. Niente. Well, except for Samantha, Tracy, Alex, Julia, Helen, and Sally. Heehee.
Chapter 27: The Trail
-----
"Uhg, Helen, go away," Lily sighed. "It's too early."
Helen folded her arms. "FINE!" she yelled. And she stomped out of the room.
Lily sighed. It was 1 day till Christmas and she was relatively happy. Amos Diggory was her new boyfriend, and her friends were all around her. She just couldn't figure out what was keeping her from being completely cheerful.
It was 7 in the morning and she was lounging on the common room couch. She looked around as she heard someone walk towards her.
"Lily, an owl came in 5 minutes ago with a letter for you," Julia grumbled. She handed Lily the letter and stomped back up the stairs.
Lily looked at the letter and raised an eyebrow. "Hmm... wonder who it's from..."
She ripped open the envelope, paper bits flying everyway. When she was done, she looked at the parchment she was holding.
*Roses are red, violets are blue, I really, really, really, really like you*
Lily chuckled at the bad poetry but thought it was sweet all the same. She put it down but something in red ink caught her eye.
*Muggle Studies* it said. It wasn't signed. Lily looked at it, front and back, trying to find another sentence that would give her more information. But she found nothing.
She sat in silence for a few moments but then something hit her. "Oh..."
She rushed up to her dormitory and dressed. She brushed her teeth and but her hair up in a messy bun. She sprinted down the stairs and out the portrait hole.
"Where's the fire?" the Fat Lady asked as she watched Lily rush down the corridor.
Lily hurriedly walked to the other side of the floor. She walked to the Muggle Studies classroom and peered in through the small window on the door. Sure enough, there was a rose and a piece of parchment on one of the desks. Lily turned the doorknob but was horrified when it wouldn't open.
"Damn... door," she hissed in frustrated tone as she struggled with the door. She sighed and stuck her hand by the waist, but remembered she wasn't wearing any robes. She grunted. With one last longing look into the room, she re-traced her steps and walked to her dormitory.
"What's going on?" Alex grunted as Lily threw her wardrobe door open. Lily didn't respond until she found her robes.
"Love notes... where is it... following a trail... WHERE'S THAT DAMN WAND?" She searched her last pair of robes before finally finding the wand. She sighed and rushed out of the room and back to the classroom.
She looked into the window to make sure the rose and letter were still there. They were. She opened the door with a spell and ran to the desk. She smelled the rose and read the parchment.
*Ravenclaw* it said. She frowned a bit at the lack of poetry but speed out of the classroom and ran down the stairs to the sixth floor. She skidded in front of a tapestry, her red hair flying behind her. She stood there a moment, trying to think of the password.
"Erm, books?" she guessed. She was Head Girl; she was supposed to remember theses things.
"School? Food? Quills?" she gasped. She tapestry finally fluttered forward, creating a space to enter the common room. She sighed and stepped inside.
The room was basically blue. There was a fireplace to Lily's right. A few feet in front of it was a couch and 2 armchairs were next to the fireplace facing each other. There was a dark wood table in the middle of the lounge area.
To Lily's immediate left was a wall with a bookshelf built in. It was very long, but not extremely tall because the ceiling was relatively low.
In the center of the far wall, there were 2 staircases. Next to each of them was a full-length window, decorated in bronze draping.
Lily sighed. "Accio letter!" she said, hold her wand up. A letter came soaring to her. She looked down.
"... and he asked me out. I can't believe he would- wait! This isn't mine!" she sighed, throwing the letter down on the couch. She looked around but couldn't find another letter.
"Where is it?" she asked herself. Then she got an idea. She hurried out of the room and ran down a few flights of stairs. She rushed into the library and slowed down.
She slipped into an aisle. "10:00?" she asked herself as she glanced down at her watch. She breathed heavily and started searching the selves.
"Rabbits... Ralin, Marcus... Raplias... RAVENCLAW!" she yelled as she grabbed a book from the shelf. She flipped open the book on one of the Hogwarts founders.
"Ah! There it is!" she squealed, delighted. She picked up the 3rd note.
*Roses are red, violets are blue, I hope you find me soon, so I can kiss you!*
She sighed and held it up to her chest. She didn't even think about how corny the poem was. She loved this. "I bet you its Amos," she told herself as she stepped out of the library. "He's so romantic." She looked down to the letter and searched for the red writing. *Knight* She skipped merrily down the stairs and towards the dungeons. "Which knight?" she asked herself. She searched around the first knight. She lifted up the thing blocking its face and screamed. "AHHHHH!" she yelled but she realized she wasn't the only one screaming in terror. The knight fell to the ground with a loud CRASH. Lily stood up and looked around to see if anyone was coming and hurried over to the pile of metal. A short blonde was panting on the ground... Helen. Lily tapped her shoulder and Helen jumped a few inches off of the ground. "AHHHH! LILY! AHHH!" she cried out. Lily stumbled backwards and landed on her bottom. "Helen? What are you doing down here... in a suit of armor?" Lily questioned as she stood up and brushed dirt off of her butt. "WAITING FOR SIRIUS AND REMUS," Helen explained as she too stood up. Lily raised an eyebrow. "Why?" Helen shrugged. "I WANTED TO SURPRISE THEM!" "What would make you think they're come down here?" Helen scratched her head. She then glanced sideways at Lily. "I DON'T KNOW!" she finally yelled. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" "Looking for a note," she explained. "You do know Sirius and Remus have girlfriends, don't you?" Helen wrinkled her round nose. "SO," she stated. "I KNOW THEY LOVE ME!" she added with a sigh.
Lily rolled her eyes to the ceiling. "I'd love to stay and chat, but I got to go," she said shortly. She passed Helen and walked over to one of the knights.
"WHAT'S THAT?" Helen asked her. She pointed to a piece of parchment lying on the ground.
"Ooh! That's my- oh, no it's not," Lily said. She threw the paper to her side. But then:
"Wait, maybe that was," she exclaimed as she picked up the paper again.
*Take a break, go to lunch* it read. Lily raised an eyebrow but stood up. "Erm, ok..."
"WAIT?!" Helen asked as she bounced up and down in excitement. Yet again, Lily rolled her emerald eyes.
"Nothing," she snapped impatiently. Helen didn't pay any attention to the girl's rude tone. Lily strode up the damp stone steps and entered the bright entrance hall. She walked to the Great Hall where the remaining students were filling in.
Alex looked up as Lily and Helen entered. "Lils, where were you all day?"
"I'll tell you later," she muttered. Lily took her normal spot at the long Gryffindor table and started chatting with her friends.
"OH SIRIUS!" Helen yelled as she rushed over to the black haired boy. "I'M SO GLAD TO SEE YOU!"
"Why don't you go bother Remus?" he gasped as she squeezed his neck. She rushed over to Remus and did the same thing. Remus would've shot Sirius a very nasty look at that moment, but he was too busy gasping for air.
"Hi, Lily!" James said as he walked into the Great Hall. He waved his hand while his other was in his pocket.
"Hi, James," Lily muttered.
Amos Diggory strolled in with his usual friends. He spotted Lily and beamed at her. "'Lo, Lily!"
Lily looked at and grinned. "Thanks so much!"
Amos raised an eyebrow. "Uh... you're welcome?" and he walked away to his table. Lily continued to smile.
"Thanks for what?" Julia asked in a whisper.
"All morning I've been following these notes. They have poems and I even received a rose. I have a sneaky suspicion they're from Amos." Julia and Alex smiled.
After lunch...
Lily sighed as the hall emptied out. Midway through lunch, she realized that the last note didn't say where she was going to have to go next for a letter. She sighed heavily and glanced down at the parchment as she walked out. As she walked, red writing appeared before her eyes. *Rosewald*
So Lily was off on her search again. She went to the library to look at books on this "Rosewald" character.
"Uhg, where is it?" she whispered in a frustrated tone. She sighed and tossed the third book on Frances Rosewald down. She sighed again and let the back of her head slam into the bookshelf in back of her. Out of the corner of her left eye, she looked at the cover of the book. It was a dull forest green. There were silver letters that read "Famous Witch of the 1600's: Frances Rosewald". And most importantly, there was a picture.
The picture was old and worn. There sat an elegant woman with white-blonde hair tumbling to her waist. She was sitting on a wood chair in a lovely, colorful garden. Her purple eyes gleamed at Lily and she smiled kindly and waved. She had few wrinkles on her middle-aged face.
Lily smiled back and then a thought struck her. She recognized this photo. It hung somewhere in the school. But where...?
"Divination," she gasped. Lily jumped to her feet and rushed out of the library.
"One... more... stair..." Lily muttered as she stomped up the stone steps. She leaned against the wall as she reached the landing and caught her breath.
To her right was the ladder that lead to the dark, mysterious classroom. And to the left... the same portrait of Frances Rosewald.
The woman in the picture smiled warmly at Lily. "Hello," she spoke in a calm, caring voice. "You must be tired, walking all the way up here!"
Lily nodded as walked steadily over to Frances's picture. "Have you, err, seen a note anywhere around here? Any boy come up here and drop a piece of parchment off?"
Frances frowned slightly and shook her head. "I'm sorry, my dear, but no boy has come up here with a note."
Lily sighed. "Oh."
"But," Frances said as she saw Lily's disappointed face. "A young man was up here earlier this morning. He told me to tell a girl named Lily Evans something. Are you Miss Evans?"
Lily looked up and smiled. "Yes, I am Lily Evans."
Frances continued. "He said that he wanted me to deliver this message: "Roses are red, Slytherins stink, and you are getting closer than you think". He also said to tell you... er, "cry"."
Lily didn't have the slightest clue what "cry" meant, but she smiled brightly and waved anyway. "Thank you so much, Miss Rosewald." And she walked back down the many flights of stairs.
Lily sat on the floor, her head in her hands. "Cry..." she muttered to herself. "Cry..."
She had been sitting there for an hour, trying to figure out the meaning behind that word. "Cry..."
Lily stood up and wrinkled her nose. "It's worth a shot."
10 minutes later, Lily entered the girl's bathroom. There was a large puddle on the floor and sounds of a girls sobbing.
"Myrtle?" Lily whispered. She looked around and spotted the girl sitting on the sink.
"What... do you want?" Myrtle said between sobs as she looked up at Lily. She had thick glasses and brown pigtails. She had a ghostly appearance because... well... she was a ghost.
Lily looked around for a note. "I was, erm, looking for a note."
Myrtle cried again and pointed to the ground. Sure enough, in the middle of a puddle, there was a piece of parchment. Lily walked over, bent down, and hesitantly pulled the soggy paper off of the ground. "Uhg," she said as she looked down at it. She couldn't make out any of the words. "Siglioso" she muttered as she pointed her wand to it. The words instantly became clear. *Hallway*
"Uh, Myrtle?" Lily asked. Moaning Myrtle looked up and wiped her eyes. Lily was starting to doubt that it was Amos who was leading her on this trail. Amos was too sweet to say "Slytherins stink," even if that was how he felt.
"What did the boy who put this here look like?"
Myrtle started crying harder. "H-he threatened me to p-promise... not to s- say..."
Lily sighed. "Thanks anyway," she muttered. She stepped out the bathroom and immediately found the next clue.
*Back to the beginning* was written in thin air in silver letters. Lily bit her lip. 'Back to the beginning? That's the Gryffindor common room...'
Lily ran up the stairs and finally made it to the Fat Lady. She was bombarded with questions like "Why are you always in a hurry, dear?" and "What's that in your hand?"
"Nosey old bat..." Lily muttered as she climbed through the portrait hole. She stood up and looked around. To her left were a few third years. To her right was...
"Hello, Lily!" James said happily as he jumped over the back of the couch when he noticed her. She hid the letters behind her back and smiled a little. "Erm, hi James."
"Where were you?" he asked. He looked up at him.
"What are you, my mother?"
He sniggered. She blushed a bit.
"What's that you're hiding?" he asked, pointing her hands.
"Oh, so now we're not my mother, now we're playing detective?"
"I'm just wondering," he said simply. He strolled over to an armchair and plopped down. Lily found herself following him.
"If you must know," she finally said. "I've been looking for notes all day."
James raised an eyebrow. "Notes? What type?"
Lily handed them to him and sat in the chair next to him. He read them all and smiled at her. "Clever fellow... making you roam the school looking for pieces of parchment. Why, it seems an awful lot like something I would do..."
Lily's jaw hit dirt. Why hadn't she guessed it before? "Y-y-you?!" she gasped as she jumped out of the chair. James smiled at her.
"M-m-me," he replied. She gasped again. "Lily, I've been wanting to talk to you, to explain. This was the only way."
Lily couldn't help but force a small smile. "It was very sweet," she murmered.
James grinned. "So will you hear my side of the story?" Lily bit her lip.
"I guess..." she said as she sat back down in her chair. "What have I got to lose?"
So James explained everything. From him liking her, to the kiss, to how he felt afterwards.
"Horrible," he muttered. "I felt terrible. And I knew you wouldn't believe me! Because that was the person I was... before you gave me a chance!"
Lily smiled slightly. "So do you believe me, Lily?" She bit her lip and nodded. She had heard the same story over and over. It had to be true.
"Yes."
James's smile couldn't be bigger. He jumped up and squeezed Lily in a big hug. "So will you give me another chance?"
"Err..."
"What do you mean, "err"?" he asked as he pulled back.
"There's one problem," she sighed. "I'm dating Amos Diggory."
----- Yay! This is one of my favorite chapters. Sorry I haven't updated in awhile. I had some really hard homework. Yuck. So I hope you liked this. How will James react? Review please! They make me happy. Especially when I have loads of homework...