Betrayed
II
Summary: Sometimes, the consequences of a betrayal are your worst nightmares.
Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters J.K. Rowling's... Get it?
"How do I look, Padfoot?"
"Prongs, you look like everything Lily thinks you are... a toerag."
James glared daggers at Sirius, who just lay on his bed in the boys' dormitory, snickering.
"Seriously, Padfoot," James said through gritted teeth as he looked at himself in the mirror. "How do I look?"
Sirius finally sat up and inspected his best friend. It was the night of the graduation ball, a night that all four marauders have been looking forward to since the beginning of the year. Although the rest of the marauders were excited about this special event merely because of the prank they were about to pull on everybody, James had a particular reason to anticipate it: it would be his and Lily's first ball together. And now, as Sirius gazed at a very nervous James, he couldn't help grin.
"Relax, Prongs," he replied. "You look exactly how I look... except, of course, I'm better-looking, and hotter, and s-..."
"Shut-up."
Sirius couldn't help smirking as he pushed a strand of his black hair out of his face. For the very special night, he was wearing a blood red dress robe, while James was wearing a midnight blue one. He continued staring at James, who kept trying –for once- to tame his wild, jet-black hair. He finally got bored of it all when his friend started rearranging his glasses in odd positions.
"Okay, mate," Sirius declared. "It's time to go down to the Great Hall, either you like it or not! I'm really getting tired of looking at you making a fool of yourself... before you even went downstairs!"
James was about to reply when the dormitory door suddenly opened to reveal Remus and Peter.
"You both look very good," Peter complimented them politely.
James just rolled his eyes and snickered while Sirius replied disgustedly:
"You both look very good... can you come up with anything more informal than that... please!"
Remus just took one glance at James' hair before calmly commenting:
"I see that you've tried combing your hair, haven't you, Prongs?"
"Yeah, and it didn't do me any good," James answered, scowling. He then quickly changed the subject by saying: "I see that you've finally found a good dress robe, Moony!"
Remus blushed slightly but still had the courage to say:
"Forest green is a very good color for dress robes... and it's even better on me."
"Green is Slytherin's color," Sirius pointed out while eyeing Remus' robe with a little distaste. But when the smarter marauder threw an intimidating glare at him, he rapidly recovered by noting: "But it does look respectable on you, Moony!"
"What about my robe?" Peter asked, almost whining.
"It looks..." James took one look at the dull yellow robe Peter was wearing and decided that it was the worst robe he had ever seen. But unwanting to hurt one of his best friend's feelings, he remarked: "It matches your hair perfectly."
However, Sirius, who was never afraid to tell people what he actually thought, cried:
"Wormtail, who chose that robe for you...? Your mum!"
Peter reddened considerably while Remus scolded Sirius for his incompetence. Finally, in an attempt to diverge the previous subject, Remus asked:
"Is the plan ready?"
"Is a werewolf sitting next to me?" Sirius asked mockingly.
Remus silenced Sirius by suffocating him with a pillow and then calmly repeated his question:
"Is the plan ready?"
"MmmF... SmmPH... UmPH!" Sirius cried, struggling to get the pillow out of his face.
"It should be all set, right, Wormtail?" James answered cheerfully, deliberately ignoring Sirius' cries for help.
"I hope so," Peter replied, fidgeting. "I hope I won't do anything to mess it up..."
"Don't worry," James reassured him. "You won't. Now Moony..." he then turned to his other friend, who was still holding a pillow against Sirius' face. "Don't you think that you suffocated Padfoot enough?"
"Actually no, but I guess that I'll have to let him go eventually," Remus said, and then sighing, he lifted the pillow from Sirius' face.
"I'll kill you for that, Moony!" Sirius bellowed, but then quickly regained his posture when he said: "But I, being the exquisite gentleman I am, will hold the homicide until tomorrow."
Remus gave Sirius a skeptical look while James and Peter just snickered.
"Hey, Prongs!" Sirius suddenly cried out to James. "Do you remember that faithful day in November? Why in the hell did you bring me with you if you suddenly decided to run away with Lily in the end!"
He pretended to scowl at James, who just shrugged and answered:
"Hey, I didn't know what I was about to do until the last minute... so you really can't blame me."
And then unexpectedly, James remembered a familiar and disturbing memory.
"Do you remember what Carla said to me and Lils a month ago?" he asked his other friends.
"Hmm... that you looked perfectly cute together?" Sirius guessed innocently.
"No," James snapped, scowling at him. "She told me that although she's happy that we're together, somehow she had this feeling that it won't last..."
Remus was the only one who remained unfazed as the other two marauders collapsed laughing.
"Seriously, Prongs!" Sirius chuckled. "Do you actually believe her? I mean, she's as fake as the Divination professor!"
"Although I have to agree that it does seem very unlikely, I have to admit that it does give me an uneasy feeling..." Remus commented. "For one thing, Lily herself is certain that her friend has the gift of seeing into the future, and she said that many of Carla's predictions did come true, but-..."
"But it's not going to happen because Lily and James are just crazy for each other!" Sirius rudely finished Remus' sentence, cackling loudly.
Peter just nodded as he laughed along with Sirius while Remus glared angrily at both of them. James, however, was glad that his friends –or at least most oft them- thought that it was all rubbish, because...
I really want this to last.
Lily was, whether he liked it or not, everything he wanted and ever since they started going out many months ago (it was now June), he tried to make it work. Sure, like other couples, they had their rows –sometimes Lily had the nerve to throw in a 'I hate you, Potter!'- but overall, they tolerated each other perfectly and were happy. Sometimes, his thoughts would drift to the possibility of Lily dumping him, and every time he pondered about it, it would hurt him and cause dread to flow through his body. He really wanted this relationship to work; he really wanted to make Lily happy...
And I don't know what I would do if she was gone.
----- ----- -----
"Hey, Lils! Who is it?" James mischievously cried as he put his hands over Lily's eyes.
"James Potter!" she nearly screeched. "How many times did I tell you not to do that to me!"
Several other students in the common room just smiled or laughed at the incident, knowing that this wasn't the first time.
"Sorry, Lils," James replied, sounding not the least bit apologetic. "Probably didn't hear you say it the first time, or the second time, or the thir-..."
He was about to go on when he saw Lily's face: instead of the normal annoyed expression she usually wore when he did something she told him at least a million times not to, she had a sad and worried visage.
"Are you okay?" James suddenly became anxious. "Did somebody in your family die?"
When she looked away and didn't answer, James quickly said:
"I know that I usually don't say the right things... so let me make it up to you by telling you how beautiful you look tonight!"
And indeed he wasn't lying: she looked like a stunning angel with her worried emerald green eyes and long, flowing sky blue robe. But when she still didn't answer, James became seriously concerned.
"Really, Lils, are you okay?" he questioned. "You know you can talk to me about it... I'll understand even if I can't find the right words to say!"
A few moments of silence went by, and when Lily finally spoke, nobody except James was there to hear the words she uttered:
"James... I can't go to the ball with you."
For a long moment, James couldn't think about anything to say as terrible possibilities went through his mind. But when he finally found his voice, his tone was not angry or shocked but forgiving:
"It's okay, Lils, really. I mean, I can understand if one of your family members died or something like that happened! We can have fun together another time and-..."
He got cut off short when Lily quietly said:
"We won't have fun together anymore, James."
Now completely speechless, James just stood there as Lily finally looked at him directly in the eye and continued:
"I wish I could say this in a gentler way... but I can't: I've fallen for somebody else, James."
He just stared at her, unwilling to believe what she just said. But deep inside, the damage was already done: his heart broke.
How could she...?
"I know it sounds harsh, but I couldn't help it: he just came along and I fell for him. I tried to tell myself that you were the only one for me... but now I know..."
Tears started to fill her sweet, sad emerald eyes as she whispered:
"You're not."
You're not, you're not, you're not... Striking, malicious voices kept whispering those words in his head. But what did she want more from him...? I already gave her all I had...
"Last week," Lily continued. "I asked him if he could go to the graduation ball with me, and he accepted. I wanted to tell you sooner, or even before, but it was so hard. But now, I gathered up the courage to tell you before you really got hurt."
Don't worry about me, Lils. It didn't matter if you told me or not. I'm already crushed.
"I know you must be really angry, James... but I honestly didn't see this happening, and if I could've controlled it... it would've never happened."
Under normal circumstances, if a girl dumped him for another guy, he would've yelled and cursed at her, showing exactly what he thought about the situation. But this... this was Lily. No matter how much she had hurt him already, he still wanted to make her happy. So containing all his frustration, sadness, and anger, James managed to keep an expressionless face and quietly said:
"I hope the two of you will have an enjoyable evening together."
He then immediately turned around and left.
"James...!"
For one brief blissful moment, he thought that she changed her mind. But when he turned around and saw the same sad and worried face, he knew that he was just fantasizing.
"James..." Lily repeated his name, struggling and failing to find reassuring words to say to him.
"Good-night," he told her, and this time he gave her a bitter smile before departing.
----- ----- -----
"Take that, Professor Howard! And double points, Padfoot: you got Snivellus, too!"
Sirius laughed from his hiding spot, unable to contain his glee as he watched Snape and the potions teacher get soaked in irremovable pumpkin juice. For the graduation ball, all four marauders had planned to embarrass their least favorite professors by dumping juice on them. Of course, the juice was charmed so that it was irremovable for at least a week; not only that, James came up with the brilliant idea of making them smell like dung, too. The latest prank was a one-man job: each marauder was responsible for coming up with an idea of dumping their own kind of juice on a certain professor. Sirius chose Professor Howard, because not only did he immensely favor the Slytherins, but he also once added newt eyes to Sirius' sleeping potion when he wasn't looking, thus exploding his cauldron. To make sure he wasn't caught, Sirius created a very clever muggle-like device to pour twenty gallons of charmed pumpkin juice on the evil professor. Coincidentally, Snape was near Professor Howard during that precise moment, making Sirius' victory more enjoyable.
"Good prank, Padfoot," Remus congratulated him once Sirius came out of his hiding spot, making sure nobody was suspicious about him.
"Thanks, mate," Sirius smirked as he saw Professor Howard desperately trying to remove the disgusting substance. "I believe that everyone now did their hoax, right?"
"I don't think James did…" Peter, who was right beside Remus, answered slowly.
Sirius just sighed as he shook his head mockingly:
"Prongs, Prongs, Prongs… what shall we ever do about him? Not only is he obsessed with his girlfriend, but if he isn't careful, Professor McGonagall will have his head."
He was referring to what James had organized for the Transfiguration professor. Because she was the teacher who gave the marauders the most detentions, James planned to have revenge by dumping what seemed like blood (it was actually strawberry juice charmed to taste and look like it temporarily) on the strict professor. But as Sirius looked around the Great Hall, he couldn't find his best friend at all.
"Where is he…?" he inquired, frowning.
"That was exactly what I was wondering…" Remus said, looking around as well. "But I bet he'll probably be near Lily… who's right there, getting some drink now."
He pointed to the dazzling redhead girl, who was now drinking pumpkin juice and laughing along with her friends.
"Hey, Evans!" Sirius roared to Lily, who just glanced at him once before turning back and deliberately ignoring him.
"Such a nice girl, isn't she?" he then sarcastically commented to his other two friends, who just laughed.
"Let's all go together," Remus suggested, "so that she won't be able to ignore us."
The three of them headed towards Lily, who after awhile saw them coming and waved.
"Hi, guys," she greeted them pleasantly while Carla giggled and Kristen just rolled her eyes. "How are you doing?"
"Just peachy, thanks," Sirius answered cheerfully.
"But that's not why we're here," Remus added before launching into his question: "Do you know where James is?"
Lily abruptly frowned as her eyes became concerned and worried.
"Well... to be honest, I don't know," she replied.
"But isn't he supposed to be with you?" Peter inquired timidly. "After all, you are his date."
The girl bit her lip and shook her head.
"You're wrong," she quietly said. "I'm not his date. I'm... I'm with somebody else now."
Peter just seemed mildly surprised. However, his astonishment was nothing compared to his other two friends: Remus' jaw literally dropped (something he did not often do) while Sirius' eyes suddenly glittered with an angry flame.
"You're kidding, right?" Remus asked meekly, trying to hide his amazement.
Lily just ruefully shook her head.
"How could you do that to him?" Sirius furiously bellowed, and several people near him looked at him quizically.
"I..." the Head Girl began, but she seemed to struggle about what she wanted to say.
Sirius wanted to say more, but he was immediately silenced by Remus' meaningful stare.
"I'll deal with her, Padfoot," he whispered.
Sirius just nodded before storming away wrathfully.
"Uh.. Lily?" Remus asked, directing her away from her friends. "Can I have a word with you?"
And as Sirius brooded elsewhere and Remus led Lily away, Peter was left alone to wonder the main question:
Where was James...?
A/N: Another chapter completely done! (does victory dance) Hope you readers –and hopefully reviewers- will like it! Also, I changed my mind: I don't know how many chapters this fanfic will have... but it'll be more than four chapters... because really, if I only had four chapters, each chapter (besides the first one) would be like... 5,000 words long? Naah... a few shorter chapters would do much better!
Once again, don't bother sending me reviews about how I'm twisting the already-given information said by J.K. Rowling because I know that already!
This time... the prize for the best –or only- reviewer will be... uh... all five Harry Potter books?
Readers: BOO! Do you actually think that we would want those!
Y Sunshine: Good point.
OK then... until I can figure out a better prize, the best –or only reviewer- will have the choice of either acquiring Lily's wand (ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow –good for Charms) or James' wand (eleven inches long, pliable, made of mahogany –great for Transfiguration).
Readers: That's better!
Well... until next time (I hope)!
P.S.: Congratulations to Living In A Nightmare (better known –I think- as Cassie) who won Sirius' motorcycle for the best review! But since I'm such a nice person and I don't want to forget my other reviewers, I would also like to thank Lillie Frost and mooncancer. And if one of you guys read the second chapter, hope you wil review again:)