A/N: So here we go, Lily takes over. I hope this will be the end of the
complaints that there is not enough L/J action - I quite agreed with you
but there wasn't much I felt I could do. Anyway, thanks to Red-Emerald
(fear not, yes here is Lil), arf (sorry it was too short), chocoliciouz (NO
it is not over but I already emailed you to say that!), SiriusObsession
(yes we remember you, welcome back!), Latoya (well no I'm afraid I'm not
skipping but Year 6 is only 5 chapters and also, the Lily-mindset begins to
change pretty soon. but if u wanna leave ur email address then i will email
u when Yr 7 starts), Egypt's Star (well, yes, I know, but... I will keep
Sirius), Wind Whisperer (lol I know, soz), RedRaspberry (well now it's
Lily... hope you like...), First Light of Eos (agreed he is arrogant but I
love him anyway lol... he will improve), gryffindor_girl2002 (thanx),
PriBAngel (thanx lol), Invisible Voice :D (er... thanx dear...), Cyclone
Girlie (that was James' last because, well, I am a girl and find it hard to
imagine... certain things... in a boy way...), atiya (thanx) and rinny
(thanx). WOOHOO!!!!! 15 reviews is a record for one chappie! Thank you
all and I hope you enjoy Lily! Review!
B/N: subliminal message: Sev is a gorgeous god. WORSHIP HIM!!! ...except First Light of Eos *sobs* Now you see why I ran away for chapter 24? Cruel, cruel Marauders (except Remus *pats Remus*) Oh well. At least Lils has the right ideas... for the moment... Yay! Thankyou gryffindor_girl2002!!! And First Light of Eos: ok, as you have presented me with a challenge, here is my advice: go and read 'Men of Our Word' by L.M.Griffin. I have no idea how you feel about slash, but it is veeeeeeery mild in this first part of her trilogy and the fics do give Norrington an amusing, wry inner voice...
A/N: Sorry I just have one point before I shut up. Patting Remus, Eihwaz?! Your taste is improving...
Chapter 25
Lily
I hate James Potter. I was sitting watching him fooling around on platform 9 and 3/4, and that was all I could think. I hate James Potter.
A pretty self-explanatory statement, I guess, but truly I cannot understand why even one person would like him, let alone the whole year-group. Well, almost the whole year-group. Not me, Juliet or Rebecca, obviously. Or the Slytherins. But they just hated anyone who wasn't one of them. I, on the other hand, wasn't given to hating people. Only James Potter and his best friend, Sirius Black. I've always viewed Peter Pettigrew as a bit of a tag- along, a bit wet but not as honestly vile, repulsive, horrible, cruel and arrogant as Potter and Black. And I always tarred Remus Lupin with the same brush as his friends, although he'd been unceasingly pleasant to me when we were prefects together. And at least he wasn't a womanizer... in fact, I don't think he had a girlfriend at all. Peter didn't, of course, but no girl really wanted to be seen with him. Not even me, but I was hiding behind my feminism.
Of course, I'd been persuaded to have a make over during the summer before fifth year, but I'd never wanted to attract him. Or Potter. Imagine, going out with him... sure, I knew most of our year - most of the school, come to that, he didn't stop at his own age group - considered he and Black to be the hottest guys around, but I certainly wasn't one of the fan club.
"But don't you think he's so sexy? And yet still so... cute?" whined several girls.
I spluttered. "I wouldn't know about the first, but cute? Cute? How can anyone - anything - that arrogant, and bullying, and... and... foul be cute?"
It was lucky I was so popular, or that sort of comment would have named me as an outcast, possibly verging on an invalid. As it was, I was allowed to be individual, because I had earnt my place as a caring, kind and popular girl before Potter had turned 'charming' and everyone loved him. Besides, there was always someone around who he'd just dumped that wanted me to hug them and repeat how I'd known he was a bad person from the start.
He was clever, too, of course. That was another thing that wasn't fair. He and Black never worked, and yet we three had tied with the best results in school in the OWLs. Remus Lupin was not far below - but at least I'd seen him poring over books for the last two months. Peter Pettigrew brought up the rear, pretty much, with three OWLs. And even that seemed to have surprised him pleasantly.
"Hey, Lils, what's up?"
"What?" I turned and grinned as Juliet dragged her trunk into my compartment and sat in the seat next to me. "Nothing, why?"
"You had that preoccupied look on your face again. So what are you thinking about?"
"Oh, just brooding about Potter," I said. "Par normal."
She grinned. "You know, Lils, none of us like him, but I swear you border on obsessive."
"Yeah, maybe. I just wish..."
"Wish what?"
"I wish he'd fall off his damned broomstick and sink into oblivion with the humiliation!"
"Harsh," said an agreeable voice behind me, "but a sentiment I often feel too. Evening, Miss Evans," Remus Lupin said, sticking his head in our compartment door. "I take it he and Sirius aren't here then?"
I smiled. "Good evening. And no."
"How come you don't mind him?" Juliet said when he'd moved off. "He's friends with Potter."
"I know, but he's different. He's sweet, in a gentlemanly sort of way."
"You don't fancy him, do you?" Rebecca appeared on my other side.
I laughed. "No! He's just not such a bad person, that's all. At least he doesn't bully people."
"True. Or play Quidditch."
"I've nothing against Quidditch itself," I protested. "Just... Potter."
In fact, for once I was feeling kindly disposed to Quidditch. My sister, Petunia, whom I loathed and who continually called me 'Freak' because I was a witch, had received rather a fright when a Snitch that someone... and I didn't know who... had given to me flew into her room and circled her head for so long that she cried.
"Freak!"
I hadn't responded.
"Freak, come here! One of the freaky things from... that place... is in my room!"
I heaved myself off my bed, where I had been reading, and paced across to her room where I saw the Snitch. I laughed, delighted to have a chance to fight her almost with magic.
"Oh, Petunia, it's only a Snitch!"
"A what? No, wait, I don't want to know. Just get it away from me!"
"It's part of Quidditch," I said, sitting down to explain though I barely knew the rules myself. "The Seeker has to catch it, and whichever team's Seeker catches it first, gets 150 points. That's why the Snitch is really the most important ball - it often dictates the outcome of the game."
"Great," Petunia snarled. "But why have you got something that's used in wizard football?"
"It's not football, you must have misunderstood," I said. "It's played on broomsticks in the air and -"
"I never want to hear you talk about your world again!" Petunia screamed, interrupting me. "NEVER, NEVER, NEVER! Just get this thing away from me!"
I reached out and tried to catch the Snitch. For once in his life Potter could be useful and I was at home. It was harder than it looked, but at last I clasped it, struggling, in two hands, and admired it. I had kept it - the gift? - because I had always thought the Snitch was pretty. And it was an easy way to remind myself that a better life, a magic life where I fitted in, did exist. However I did wonder who had left it in my bag. As far as I was aware, only Juliet and Becky knew of my fleeting delight in the little winged ball. And they certainly hadn't given it to me. Oh well.
I brightened up once we left King's Cross - there was no more risk of coming into contact with Him for a few hours, and no having to live with Petunia for best part of a year. My best friends and I had been joined by the other Gryffindor girls and some Ravenclaws who I liked, despite their penchant for Potter and Black. We spent the train journey trying not to munch through too many pumpkin pasties and chocolate frogs, and exchanging hair and make up tips as well as stories from the summer.
At last we arrived and I surveyed the castle happily. My parents had always supported me through being a muggle or a witch, and I loved them dearly, but this was more like home to me now. I twisted my hair up behind my neck and stretched.
"Good to be back?" Juliet teased.
I yawned in reply as we crashed into our usual seats at the Gryffindor table. She giggled. "Yeah," she agreed.
I saw Potter watching me down the table and frowned. I had never really forgiven him for that first remark about house elves. Could I help it that I hadn't known? Stuck up pureblood, I thought bitterly - even more sour because I knew it wasn't true. If there was one thing Potter didn't rate himself on being, it was a pureblood. But he had made me feel foolish that first day, and I didn't forgive that easily. By now, of course, there were more sores than that. But it had been the start.
Luckily, the Sorting Hat began to sing at that point, and in listening to that I forgot my other woes. Everybody enjoyed the Sorting of the first years - last year, I remembered trying to herd them all along to Gryffindor Tower afterwards, Lupin and I laughing as they kept falling down missing stairs and staring at the talking portraits. This year, after the back-to- school feast I was able to go straight back to the common room, where our time tables were waiting. I picked mine up and glanced through it. I was continuing with Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, Astronomy and Herbology. The last was a choice made less through interest or even need to continue for later life, but merely because it was better than History of Magic, Potions or Care of Magical Creatures. I had been allowed to give up Flying, too, at last - that was a great relief.
Then I noticed that I was holding two pieces of parchment by mistake. Potter's timetable had somehow stuck to my own. I glanced at it furtively and my mouth dropped open in horror. By some terrible twist of fate, we were still in some classes together! He was taking Muggle Studies instead of Arithmancy, and Defence against the Dark Arts instead of Herbology, but apart from that we were entirely together! Why, why, why?
"Hey, Potter," I said, as best I could with my dry throat, "I've got your time table."
He came and took it from me, grinning. "Been checking out which classes we share?"
"As a matter of fact I have," I replied. "To my disgust and horror we have only two classes apart." And with as much dignity as possible, I threw the parchment at him and stalked off to bed.
I soon discovered, however, that it was not as bad as I feared. Yes, the classes were a little smaller now, as everyone was taking fewer subjects, but I was not forced to have close contact with Potter any more than before. I sat at the front of classes, he sat at the back; there was always someone else to sit with.
Unsurprisingly, Arithmancy and Herbology were the emptiest classes; in the former, only ten people took the subject. Thankfully, only Lupin took that from the 'Marauders' - as Potter's gang was ludicrously called. He didn't bother me, and I didn't work with him anyway. I sat beside Robert Diggory - the quiet, more studious brother of Amos Diggory, who had waged war on Potter when Gryffindor beat Hufflepuff in Quidditch. Robert was in Ravenclaw, and was the opposite in almost every way to his sibling. He was shy, calm and good-tempered, whereas his brother had an infamously short fuse and love of shouting. Robert had an unobtrusive sort of good looks and he certainly wasn't a player like Potter. He was the sort of person you neither noticed nor really expected to like until you got to know him. We had always got on fairly well, however, due to being together in Arithmancy and bizarrely, in Astronomy, in which we always seemed to have adjacent telescopes.
"Clearly, we're destined to be friends," he had joked the previous year on noting that we had been placed together again. "Permanent partners in Arithmancy and neighbours in star-gazing!"
We were always able to have a laugh together, and discuss both light- hearted and deeper matters. We had even ruminated on boy/girl problems from time to time.
"So, Lily," he said at the start of our fifth Arithmancy lesson, "how are things?"
I laughed. "What things?"
He shrugged. "You know... life."
"Fine, I guess... you?"
"Yeah, good, yeah."
I gave him an odd look. "Robert, you can be very strange..."
"I return the compliment."
"Hey!" I smiled. "I was being serious."
"And so was I. I never asked you how the summer went, with your sister and all that."
I had not expected him to remember how I had moaned about Petunia last year, and was touched. "Oh, not too bad..." I recounted the story of the Snitch to his amusement.
"So why did you have it?" he asked curiously.
"A mystery," I replied. "Someone left it zooming around in my bag with a bonding charm on it so it wouldn't fly away. No note or anything, but it was clearly meant for me."
"A bit strange," he said. "It's not like you're a big fan of Quidditch..."
"No, but I do have a bizarre fascination with the Snitch," I admitted. "They're just so... mesmerising, close up."
He grinned. "Who was calling who strange, a minute ago?"
I raised my wand threateningly and he backed down. "Sorry, sorry. Well, I don't know. Who'd have access to the Quidditch store cupboard?"
"Anyone, if they knew the Alohomora charm," I said, smiling. "I tried thinking it through like that too."
"Oh, well, you obviously have a mystery admirer... I have competition."
"You?" I laughed incredulously. "An admirer? I somehow think not."
He chuckled, but a flash of... something... went across his face. I was intrigued.
B/N: subliminal message: Sev is a gorgeous god. WORSHIP HIM!!! ...except First Light of Eos *sobs* Now you see why I ran away for chapter 24? Cruel, cruel Marauders (except Remus *pats Remus*) Oh well. At least Lils has the right ideas... for the moment... Yay! Thankyou gryffindor_girl2002!!! And First Light of Eos: ok, as you have presented me with a challenge, here is my advice: go and read 'Men of Our Word' by L.M.Griffin. I have no idea how you feel about slash, but it is veeeeeeery mild in this first part of her trilogy and the fics do give Norrington an amusing, wry inner voice...
A/N: Sorry I just have one point before I shut up. Patting Remus, Eihwaz?! Your taste is improving...
Chapter 25
Lily
I hate James Potter. I was sitting watching him fooling around on platform 9 and 3/4, and that was all I could think. I hate James Potter.
A pretty self-explanatory statement, I guess, but truly I cannot understand why even one person would like him, let alone the whole year-group. Well, almost the whole year-group. Not me, Juliet or Rebecca, obviously. Or the Slytherins. But they just hated anyone who wasn't one of them. I, on the other hand, wasn't given to hating people. Only James Potter and his best friend, Sirius Black. I've always viewed Peter Pettigrew as a bit of a tag- along, a bit wet but not as honestly vile, repulsive, horrible, cruel and arrogant as Potter and Black. And I always tarred Remus Lupin with the same brush as his friends, although he'd been unceasingly pleasant to me when we were prefects together. And at least he wasn't a womanizer... in fact, I don't think he had a girlfriend at all. Peter didn't, of course, but no girl really wanted to be seen with him. Not even me, but I was hiding behind my feminism.
Of course, I'd been persuaded to have a make over during the summer before fifth year, but I'd never wanted to attract him. Or Potter. Imagine, going out with him... sure, I knew most of our year - most of the school, come to that, he didn't stop at his own age group - considered he and Black to be the hottest guys around, but I certainly wasn't one of the fan club.
"But don't you think he's so sexy? And yet still so... cute?" whined several girls.
I spluttered. "I wouldn't know about the first, but cute? Cute? How can anyone - anything - that arrogant, and bullying, and... and... foul be cute?"
It was lucky I was so popular, or that sort of comment would have named me as an outcast, possibly verging on an invalid. As it was, I was allowed to be individual, because I had earnt my place as a caring, kind and popular girl before Potter had turned 'charming' and everyone loved him. Besides, there was always someone around who he'd just dumped that wanted me to hug them and repeat how I'd known he was a bad person from the start.
He was clever, too, of course. That was another thing that wasn't fair. He and Black never worked, and yet we three had tied with the best results in school in the OWLs. Remus Lupin was not far below - but at least I'd seen him poring over books for the last two months. Peter Pettigrew brought up the rear, pretty much, with three OWLs. And even that seemed to have surprised him pleasantly.
"Hey, Lils, what's up?"
"What?" I turned and grinned as Juliet dragged her trunk into my compartment and sat in the seat next to me. "Nothing, why?"
"You had that preoccupied look on your face again. So what are you thinking about?"
"Oh, just brooding about Potter," I said. "Par normal."
She grinned. "You know, Lils, none of us like him, but I swear you border on obsessive."
"Yeah, maybe. I just wish..."
"Wish what?"
"I wish he'd fall off his damned broomstick and sink into oblivion with the humiliation!"
"Harsh," said an agreeable voice behind me, "but a sentiment I often feel too. Evening, Miss Evans," Remus Lupin said, sticking his head in our compartment door. "I take it he and Sirius aren't here then?"
I smiled. "Good evening. And no."
"How come you don't mind him?" Juliet said when he'd moved off. "He's friends with Potter."
"I know, but he's different. He's sweet, in a gentlemanly sort of way."
"You don't fancy him, do you?" Rebecca appeared on my other side.
I laughed. "No! He's just not such a bad person, that's all. At least he doesn't bully people."
"True. Or play Quidditch."
"I've nothing against Quidditch itself," I protested. "Just... Potter."
In fact, for once I was feeling kindly disposed to Quidditch. My sister, Petunia, whom I loathed and who continually called me 'Freak' because I was a witch, had received rather a fright when a Snitch that someone... and I didn't know who... had given to me flew into her room and circled her head for so long that she cried.
"Freak!"
I hadn't responded.
"Freak, come here! One of the freaky things from... that place... is in my room!"
I heaved myself off my bed, where I had been reading, and paced across to her room where I saw the Snitch. I laughed, delighted to have a chance to fight her almost with magic.
"Oh, Petunia, it's only a Snitch!"
"A what? No, wait, I don't want to know. Just get it away from me!"
"It's part of Quidditch," I said, sitting down to explain though I barely knew the rules myself. "The Seeker has to catch it, and whichever team's Seeker catches it first, gets 150 points. That's why the Snitch is really the most important ball - it often dictates the outcome of the game."
"Great," Petunia snarled. "But why have you got something that's used in wizard football?"
"It's not football, you must have misunderstood," I said. "It's played on broomsticks in the air and -"
"I never want to hear you talk about your world again!" Petunia screamed, interrupting me. "NEVER, NEVER, NEVER! Just get this thing away from me!"
I reached out and tried to catch the Snitch. For once in his life Potter could be useful and I was at home. It was harder than it looked, but at last I clasped it, struggling, in two hands, and admired it. I had kept it - the gift? - because I had always thought the Snitch was pretty. And it was an easy way to remind myself that a better life, a magic life where I fitted in, did exist. However I did wonder who had left it in my bag. As far as I was aware, only Juliet and Becky knew of my fleeting delight in the little winged ball. And they certainly hadn't given it to me. Oh well.
I brightened up once we left King's Cross - there was no more risk of coming into contact with Him for a few hours, and no having to live with Petunia for best part of a year. My best friends and I had been joined by the other Gryffindor girls and some Ravenclaws who I liked, despite their penchant for Potter and Black. We spent the train journey trying not to munch through too many pumpkin pasties and chocolate frogs, and exchanging hair and make up tips as well as stories from the summer.
At last we arrived and I surveyed the castle happily. My parents had always supported me through being a muggle or a witch, and I loved them dearly, but this was more like home to me now. I twisted my hair up behind my neck and stretched.
"Good to be back?" Juliet teased.
I yawned in reply as we crashed into our usual seats at the Gryffindor table. She giggled. "Yeah," she agreed.
I saw Potter watching me down the table and frowned. I had never really forgiven him for that first remark about house elves. Could I help it that I hadn't known? Stuck up pureblood, I thought bitterly - even more sour because I knew it wasn't true. If there was one thing Potter didn't rate himself on being, it was a pureblood. But he had made me feel foolish that first day, and I didn't forgive that easily. By now, of course, there were more sores than that. But it had been the start.
Luckily, the Sorting Hat began to sing at that point, and in listening to that I forgot my other woes. Everybody enjoyed the Sorting of the first years - last year, I remembered trying to herd them all along to Gryffindor Tower afterwards, Lupin and I laughing as they kept falling down missing stairs and staring at the talking portraits. This year, after the back-to- school feast I was able to go straight back to the common room, where our time tables were waiting. I picked mine up and glanced through it. I was continuing with Charms, Transfiguration, Arithmancy, Astronomy and Herbology. The last was a choice made less through interest or even need to continue for later life, but merely because it was better than History of Magic, Potions or Care of Magical Creatures. I had been allowed to give up Flying, too, at last - that was a great relief.
Then I noticed that I was holding two pieces of parchment by mistake. Potter's timetable had somehow stuck to my own. I glanced at it furtively and my mouth dropped open in horror. By some terrible twist of fate, we were still in some classes together! He was taking Muggle Studies instead of Arithmancy, and Defence against the Dark Arts instead of Herbology, but apart from that we were entirely together! Why, why, why?
"Hey, Potter," I said, as best I could with my dry throat, "I've got your time table."
He came and took it from me, grinning. "Been checking out which classes we share?"
"As a matter of fact I have," I replied. "To my disgust and horror we have only two classes apart." And with as much dignity as possible, I threw the parchment at him and stalked off to bed.
I soon discovered, however, that it was not as bad as I feared. Yes, the classes were a little smaller now, as everyone was taking fewer subjects, but I was not forced to have close contact with Potter any more than before. I sat at the front of classes, he sat at the back; there was always someone else to sit with.
Unsurprisingly, Arithmancy and Herbology were the emptiest classes; in the former, only ten people took the subject. Thankfully, only Lupin took that from the 'Marauders' - as Potter's gang was ludicrously called. He didn't bother me, and I didn't work with him anyway. I sat beside Robert Diggory - the quiet, more studious brother of Amos Diggory, who had waged war on Potter when Gryffindor beat Hufflepuff in Quidditch. Robert was in Ravenclaw, and was the opposite in almost every way to his sibling. He was shy, calm and good-tempered, whereas his brother had an infamously short fuse and love of shouting. Robert had an unobtrusive sort of good looks and he certainly wasn't a player like Potter. He was the sort of person you neither noticed nor really expected to like until you got to know him. We had always got on fairly well, however, due to being together in Arithmancy and bizarrely, in Astronomy, in which we always seemed to have adjacent telescopes.
"Clearly, we're destined to be friends," he had joked the previous year on noting that we had been placed together again. "Permanent partners in Arithmancy and neighbours in star-gazing!"
We were always able to have a laugh together, and discuss both light- hearted and deeper matters. We had even ruminated on boy/girl problems from time to time.
"So, Lily," he said at the start of our fifth Arithmancy lesson, "how are things?"
I laughed. "What things?"
He shrugged. "You know... life."
"Fine, I guess... you?"
"Yeah, good, yeah."
I gave him an odd look. "Robert, you can be very strange..."
"I return the compliment."
"Hey!" I smiled. "I was being serious."
"And so was I. I never asked you how the summer went, with your sister and all that."
I had not expected him to remember how I had moaned about Petunia last year, and was touched. "Oh, not too bad..." I recounted the story of the Snitch to his amusement.
"So why did you have it?" he asked curiously.
"A mystery," I replied. "Someone left it zooming around in my bag with a bonding charm on it so it wouldn't fly away. No note or anything, but it was clearly meant for me."
"A bit strange," he said. "It's not like you're a big fan of Quidditch..."
"No, but I do have a bizarre fascination with the Snitch," I admitted. "They're just so... mesmerising, close up."
He grinned. "Who was calling who strange, a minute ago?"
I raised my wand threateningly and he backed down. "Sorry, sorry. Well, I don't know. Who'd have access to the Quidditch store cupboard?"
"Anyone, if they knew the Alohomora charm," I said, smiling. "I tried thinking it through like that too."
"Oh, well, you obviously have a mystery admirer... I have competition."
"You?" I laughed incredulously. "An admirer? I somehow think not."
He chuckled, but a flash of... something... went across his face. I was intrigued.