Lily

Chapter 18






Chantel walked into the compartment, her black hair like a veil on her shoulders. "Hi, Lily!" She swooped down and hugged her friend. "Hi, James." James gave a distracted wave in her direction. "Well, excuse me for livin'. What's up, Lily?"

Lily and James were seated at opposite sides of the compartment on the Hogwarts Express. They weren't really ready to make intelligent conversation, as they both kept remembering the kitchen with flour all over it and that kiss that never happened. Sirius and Remus were standing in the back, leaning against the door with folded arms and smirks a mile
wide on their faces. Lily just said, "What do you mean, 'what's up?'"

Chantel shrugged. "I don't know. Just...what's up?"

"Nothing. What's up with you?"

"Um...well, obviously your temper. What is going on with you, girl?"

Lily sighed and got up. "Come on, Chantel. I've got to talk to you." And they went off in search of an empty compartment.

Sirius burst out laughing as soon as Lily was out of earshot. "James, puh-lease! Why don't you just make your move now and get it over with?"

James's gaze cut over to Sirius. "What? What do you mean by that?"

"God, you don't see it? You STILL don't see it?" Remus was shaking his head in disbelief. "You've got to see it!"

"Can you just get off my back? Nothing happened, o.k?"

James obviously forgot that, when dealing with pranksters, you never say "nothing happened" unless you are asked if anything happened. "'Nothing happened?' What WOULD happen, James, my good fellow?" Sirius's eyes shone with concealed mirth. "I do believe you're implying that we are implying that something happened between you and Lily...implied only, of course."

James slumped back against the seat. "Can't anyone have a serious thought around here?"

"Many people think about me, good chap! Half the teachers in the school are now dreading my very arrival!" He and Remus sat on either side of him and pinned his arms to the seat. "Now. Can't you just tell ol' Moony and Padfoot what happened?"

"Lemme think. Hmm, no." He struggled to get up, but he was held fast.

"No, no, no, that's not what you're supposed to say. If you can share a dangerous, illegal secret with us, you can share a tiny-winy, itsy-bitsy little secret about the fireworks that flew over your summer holiday, can't you?" Remus's voice was wheedling, like that of a mother trying to get her 2-year-old to eat his spinach.

James sat still, defeated at last. "I'll tell you, but if you tell a soul, I'll impale you at the next full moon."

They spoke in unison. "Worth more'n a dime, more'n a penny, a Marauder's word is as good as any."

"All right. I swear I would, though. Anyways, if you ask Lily, she'll claim that 'it never happened.'" he mimicked her high voice. "We were having a flour fight in the kitchen of my house after she nearly fell off her broomstick, and we did that thing where we were circling in different directions around the table, 'cause she didn't want me to hit her with the flour, and we ran into each other..."

"And????" Sirius's voice was heavy with glee.

"And...the floor was really slippery because of all the flour, and we grabbed onto each other to keep from falling..."

"AND??"

"And we kissed, o.k? K-I-S-S-E-D, you happy? I leaned down and she leaned up and we went mmmmuah, and that was it. One and a half seconds, people, at the most!"

Sirius released James's arm and leaned back like a schoolgirl watching a romantic movie. "Ah...that's soo romantic!"

Remus was content to act the scene out as James described it. He chucked imaginary handfuls of flour all over the place and then pretended to run into something about the height of a second-year girl, then stopped dead and pantomimed an extremely long, passionate, sloppy kiss on the back of his hand.

Sirius said, "Oh, stop it, Remus, you're making our dear friend turn the color of his beloved's hair!" Before he knew it, James's hands were around his neck and squeezing rather tightly. He spoke in a choked voice. "Oh, did I say that out loud? What I meant to say was 'Oh, stop it, Remus, you're making James embarrassed and insecure about a situation he
was reluctant to relate to us to begin with." As he gasped for air, James walked over to the compartment door to dispel a crowd of eavesdropping first years.

"Beat it! Hit the road! Wait!" He caught a smarmy-looking first year boy with golden hair and dazzling teeth by the arm. "Did you...hear anything?"

The little boy reached up and patted James's shoulder paternally, even though he could probably have been smushed by one well-aimed stomp of James's foot. "Don't you worry about that, now, you're little secret's safe with me." He flashed those oh-too-many teeth at James again and took off. Luckily for the little boy, James turned around to deal justice to Remus before he could see the kid making kissy-lips against the glass door.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "I saw him on the platform. Asked me if I would mind putting his trunk up in the train for him, can you imagine? Annoying little git, isn't he?"

James paused for a moment, not letting Remus out of the headlock he had. "Sirius, do you happen to know the 'annoying little git's' name?"

"Odd little name...Gilroy Lockhert or something like that, I'm not that good with names."



The school year had started once again, and classes were no different, just harder. Lily and James began talking normally, except for the heated glares that Gilroy or whatever his name was constantly catching from James in the common room. Nothing much was different from the previous year.

They had a new Herbology teacher named Professor Lollio. She was a thin little witch, but with enough energy to outdo twelve cheerleaders at a pep rally. Professor Lollio always seemed to know exactly what every one of them was thinking and when, making James feel quite insecure (needless to say). She also had a wicked habit of pairing them with the worst possible people when they had practical lessons, for example, Lily paired with Gilroy (whose real name happened to be Gilderoy Lockhart), Chantel paired with Peter, James and a very annoying first-year girl who seemed to have the largest crush on him ever (her name was Melissa). Sirius and Remus was the only good match she made.

"Alllll rrrighty then, class!" Professor Lollio's voice always sounded like a roller-coaster ride going up and down, up and down. "I reeeeally hope you like this claaasss..uh-oh..." she looked over at Melissa grasping James's arm lovingly yet dangerously. She shook her head reminiscently. "Ah...young love...Aaaanyways, class! Weee'll be processing the
Baaarrraaa root today, so weeeear your gloves! If you touch it with your baaaaare hands, dyes them vermillllion for a day and a haaaalf!"

There was a great rush as everyone seized a pair of gloves from the desk. Chantel scowled angrily as she made her appeal to the bouncy professor. "Please, Professor, Peter's not here yet, and-"

She chuckled warmly and patted Chantel's shoulder. "Ah, me...unwilling to begiiin, without her liiiitle 'friend...' No, don't try to denyyyy it, I've seeeeen you making eeeeyyyes at him during leeessons. Heeere he comes nooooow!" Peter, huffing and puffing, ran through the door.

"Sorry I'm late, let's get to the lesson." Peter was always short and non-verbal like that.

He walked over to the table and began to chop up the roots. Chantel was seated across from him and eyed him critically. "Peter, you're supposed to wear gloves."

"Hmm? Ew!" His hands were a bright red color from holding the roots so much. "Yuck! This looks awful!" He reached across to wipe them off on Chantel's robes, and got a huge red spot right on the chest of her robes. She reached across to smack him across the face, and it worked. Next thing everyone knew, Chantel was leaving the greenhouse in a huff
and Peter was lying on the floor, dazed as all heck. "Wha' happened? Why's my cheek hurt? Why're my hands red like that? Wha' happened?"



It was refreshing to see Peter get his, but Professor Lollio was totally incorrigible; when Chantel begged for a change in partners, she kept labeling it as denial and shyness. So, Chantel had to go without, and her mood seemed to suffer for it. She was slightly withdrawn from everyone else, and she was always jumpy around the evening time. But nobody
thought anything of it; it was just her way of lashing out against The Matchmaker from Heck, a.k.a. Professor Lollio.


A/N- I know the ending sorta sux, but please don't kill me! I'm sort of eager to get this out so that I can post the next part right afterwards; it's already written!