Chapter Sixteen: The End Of An Adventure
"The Hogsmeade trip is tomorrow." James told the common room, consisting of a few scared little second years the Marauders and not to mention the girls.
"Yip" Lilly said brightly, cuddling in to James and kissing him.
"You lot figured out what you're wearing?" Sirius asked them curiously. The girls face all split into identical grins,
"Yip" They all said,
"And we have our shoes, make-up, handbags, jewellery and hair all planned as well" Laura said smiling brightly.
"Yip" Lou and Lilly said in agreement.
"You don't mind us not going to Hogsmeade with you lot, do you?" Lilly asked them,
"Nah, were over it," James said quickly,
"Oh thanks!" Lou said jokingly
"Ah, we never meant it like that" Remus said holding Lou closer and kissing her. Just then the door to the common room opened,
"Ah, the man of the moment, where ya been Peter?" Sirius said across the common room,
"I erm, I got attacked! Malfoy, said something to me, then I told him to shut up, and he pressed me up against a wall and told me to watch my step or I'll be going down the same road as Potter." Peter said sacredly, "What did he mean James?" Peter asked him. The whole common room turned to look at him, including the second years.
"I do-don't know" James admitted, "He said the same kinnda thing to me when I drove him into the ground at the Quidditch match, something about watching my step and him killing me" James said, banishing the feeling in his stomach.
"Not scared are you, James?" Sirius asked, a mix of curiosity and worry,
"Nah, not at all, why would I?" James laughed it off, but he hated to admit that the feeling he had at the Quidditch match, was back in his stomach, stronger than ever, he just had a nagging feeling something bad was going to happen. The girls seemed to accept that James was fine, although the Marauders didn't, the minuet they were all in the dormitory he got bombarded with questions, "What's going on, Prongs?" Sirius questioned,
"I dunno, its weird, I did that dive thing, like I told you, then he said what he did, and for once in my life, I'm actually worried that Malfoy might do something to me, I mean, we've pd him off enough in the last five years, that he would probably join up with that Voldermort just to kill us!" James reeled off.
"Don't be stupid, James" Sirius said. James could tell Sirius was either extremely annoyed at him, or extremely worried about him, for he called him James.
"Yeah, your right, I am, I'm sorry" James said, curling into bed, he would get to the bottom of this on the last day of term.
"Hey, mates" Sirius started, James turned to face him, "Don't fret it, it'll be fine" Sirius said with a reassuring smile. James smiled at his best friend before falling asleep.
James had no reason to wake up the next day, so he didn't until gone one o'clock, when Lilly came into see him. "Hey sweetie, how you feeling" She said stroking his jet-black hair, his face.
"Yeah, I'm good" James said sleepily, he flattened his hair, but it made no difference, "Morning" James said still rather sleepily,
"Morning" Lilly giggled, "You getting up any time this morning?" Lilly asked jokingly, "Were all heading into Hogsmeade, in about half an hour." She informed him,
"Oh, right, yeah, okay, tell them I'll be down in ten" James said, pulling Lilly into bed with him, "In fact, tell them that I've changed my mind, no, then you'll have to go downstairs, never mind, they can wait" James said, tight clasp around Lilly's waist,
"James! Get off me, I have to go downstairs" Lilly said in a very girlish, sweet tone.
"Awww, shame, it was going to be the highlight of my day, being in the same bed as my beautiful girlfriend, for a bit" James said with a smirk,
"Then you'll have something to look forward to then, wont you" Lilly said getting out of James's clasp and walking towards the door,
"Is that a promise, Lilly?" James asked, knowing the answer to be no,
"Yeah, yeah it is, James" Lilly said, her lovely auburn hair swished across her face, and a pink tinge was visible caused by what she said.
James was still smiling, and still in shock at the recent promise Lilly had made to him. James and the Marauders said goodbye to the girls at the carriages, where they took one carriage, and the girls took another one. They were going to meet up at about six o'clock at the Three Broomsticks. Even though the girls already told them they weren't going to show them their dresses. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all decided that they were going to go and buy the boring stuff first, like the dress robes and there books which they got the list for yesterday. "You know what, I've never ever bought a book in this place!" Remus said out of nowhere,
"Hmmm, neither have I, come to think of it" Sirius agreed. They got all their level six books, and a copy of, 'Artefact's for the brave' as well as a copy of, 'Mischief For The Makers.' James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all decided these books would be a must have for next year. When they got their robes, there was the usual complaints about looking stupid, Remus had a nice set of blue ones, 'to match his eyes' as the lady picking the robes for him told him. James, being James had to get the best, and was fitted in a light brown set that made him look, extremely mature, and extremely handsome. Sirius got a blood red set and Peter got himself a grey/white pair. James, although he wouldn't admit it, looked extremely fetching in his robes. When they had got the 'boring' stuff out of the way, they made there way to the Shrieking Shack. "Well, this is different, seeing it from here," Remus said, smiling slightly
"It is isn't it? Just think, three years time, we'll be long gone, long gone. Wonder where we'll be" Peter said leaning on the fence surrounding the shack.
"I'll be married to Lilly, have a kid called Harry, or if it's a girl, she'll be called Rose, be filthy rich, live in a huge house and be respected by so many people" James said confidently,
"Yeah Prongs, sure you will be! I on the other hand, will be either still with Laura, I'm not one of these people who jump in to marriage – Sirius shot a look at James, to say, unlike you! – I'll be making my money the hard way, I will have no kids, but a nice house, away from my family, and that nut case of a house elf we have!" Sirius reeled off,
"Well, I will not be married either, I will be a bachelor, living by myself, poor, with no proper job, probably cleaning muggle toilets, I will be living with my cat, and I would turn myself into a rat to get some kicks" Peter said unhappily,
"Don't be stupid Wormtail!" Remus said, laughing slightly at Peter's comments,
"Nah you wont Wormtail, you wont" Sirius assured him,
"Yeah, we wont let you get into that state!" James added. "What about you Moony?"
"Hmm, I would probably be researching a cure for my, 'problem,' I would have found one, I would be living in the country, with a beautiful girl, not married yet, with a nice house, a great Quidditch pitch in my back yard, cause I will be stinking rich when I sell my cure!" Remus said with a smirk of longing on his face.
"Nice" Sirius and James said at the same time,
"Very." Added Peter.
"It's going to be weird though, isn't it, I mean, we wont see each other every day" Peter said, James thought he saw a tear in Peter's eye, so he quickly said,
"Ach, don't be silly, course we will, anyways, why do we care about this right now? We still have two long years full of lovely memories to be filled" James said heroically.
"Check the hero" Remus said, giving James a little push.
James and the rest of the Marauders didn't spend that much more time at the shack, so they went and sat in the Three Broomsticks, waiting for the arrival of the girls, even though they knew it would be a few hours before they got there, they didn't mind.
"You know, as much as I love Lilly, I really like it when its back to normal, you know, all of us, the Marauders, and no one else" James said,
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Remus said, quickly he added, "Just don't tell Lou I said that." They all laughed,
"Hocked!" Sirius and James said at the same time,
"Ha-ha" was all Remus said. At five to six, the girls walked into the three broomsticks, saw the boys, and bounced there way over to them, all three of them were carrying countless shopping bags, they also happened to have someone else with them,
"Heya, look who we found" Lou said brightly, pointing to the pretty little blonde next to her, it was Penny,
"Heya" She said all smiles, "Do you mind if I stay?" She asked, suddenly nervous.
"No, not at all" James said
"Friend of Peter's, is a friend of ours," Sirius said, making room for the girls. "Well, I don't know if you could call yourself a friend of Peters, bit more than that, eh" Sirius said, nudging Peter, who blushed, and said
"Shut up Sirius!" very quietly. The girls, much to there dismay couldn't fit there bags under the table, so they had to put them up by the bar, Sirius took them up for the girls and ordered them all some drinks. James could have sworn that he saw Sirius peer into one of Laura's bags, put in a blink of an eye, he wasn't doing anything suspicious.
They all made there way up to the castle, when the girls saw the time, "Oh my gosh!" its seven o'clock, the dance starts at nine! We have to go" Laura exclaimed, there was a mad rush to get there bags, and rushed kisses to the boys, "We'll see you in the common room, at quarter to nine" Lilly informed them all,
"That okay?" Lou asked, they all nodded, "Good, good, see you then" She said, giving Remus another kiss, before she was dragged off by Laura, "I'll see you later" She said laughing.
"We are so lucky, we have the hottest babes in the, whole school" Sirius said, all three boys nodded and took a glug of there drink at the same time.
The boys headed back up to the school at eight o'clock, failing to see the point in taking two hours to get ready, all they were going to do was jump in the shower, put on there robes, and fix there hair, that was it.
"Remember, room of requirement, we should draw up a plan for it, how long do you think we'll each need?" James asked,
"Well, then thing finishes at two o'clock..." Remus said,
"Two?" Peter, Sirius and James all said loudly
"Yeah, Dumbledore says he's not bothered about it going on late, since none of us have to do anything tomorrow, but people are allowed to leave early if they feel they have to" Remus said,
"How do you know all this?" James asked him,
"Lou" He said simply,
"Ah, of course" James said. "Right, well that gives us, five hours, an hour each, your wanting to use it aren't you Wormtail?" James asked mid sentence,
"Do you mind?" Peter asked nervously,
"Don't be stupid of course we don't! So that means, an hour each, then an hour at the dance thing, at the start... that sound alright?" James asked them.
"Yeah, sounds good" Sirius said, "A whole hour, by myself with Laura, great!" Sirius said, a sinister look appearing on his face. The guys all laughed,
"So who's going to be the first one in there?" James asked,
"Me!" Sirius said, suddenly,
"Okay, so Padfoot first, then who?" James asked,
"I wanna go last, is that okay?" Remus asked,
"Yip, so who's next, me or Wormtail?" James asked,
"You go first Prongs, I don't mind" Peter said, he sounded a bit upset though,
"No, don't be stupid mate, you go first, then I'll go after you, after all, I wanna get the info from you lot first! Now, everyone has to come back into the hall, or show some form of communication to tell us its all okay" James told them, they all nodded.
"So, we ready?" Sirius asked, looking at himself in the mirror,
"As ready as I'll ever be" Remus said, they all had one last laugh, before moving into the common room. The girls weren't down yet, so they sat on the chairs. Quite a few guys were standing or sitting downstairs, all in different states of robes, all waiting for what looked like, the girls,
"Hey" James heard someone say behind them, the Marauders turned to face the voice,
"Frank!" Sirius said,
"Where ya been mate, haven't seen you in a while" Remus said to Frank,
"Ah, been around, doubt you lot to look at where I am, especially when you got those hot girls with you all the time. I don't know how you lot do it, I really don't!" Frank exclaimed,
"Animal magnetism" Sirius said, and they all laughed, "Nah, I don't mean it really, you cant call Laura an animal, you ever seen an animal look, that good?" Sirius asked. The Marauders and Frank all had a laugh before his date came downstairs, she happened to be, Nadine Simons.
"And you think were the only ones who can do it?" James hissed into Franks ear as he left with Nadine, who looked stunning.
"There they are" Remus said, as three gorgeous girls descended from the girls dormitories. All three of them seemed highly aware of the attention they were getting from the males down stairs, as they walked downstairs looking no less than beautiful.
"Hey" All three of them said at the same time, they looked incredibly nervous,
"You look, all of you, look fantastic," Sirius said to them all, they all blushed, deeply, especially Laura.
"Oh, talking of looking fantastic, because she does, Penny said she'll be down in two seconds, she's fixing her shoes," Laura told Peter,
"Yeah, she didn't like the colour, and is trying to find a shade that will suit her dress." Lilly said. The boys nodded, right here was where the most of the Veela showed up in them. James couldn't take his eyes of them, none of them,
"Erm, do you want us to wait with you for Penny then?" James asked, still not able to take his eyes of Lilly,
"Nah, its fine, you lot go ahead, I'll catch up later" Peter said. So James and Lilly, Sirius and Laura and Remus and Lou all walked down to the great hall.
"So, whys the queue not moving?" Sirius asked, standing on his tiptoes to elevate his height even more. "Ah, the prefects haven't opened the doors yet" Sirius said,
"Why are the prefects there?" Peter asked
"To let us all in" James said, making it sound like the most obvious thing in the world,
"Oh, look, were moving, lets go" Lilly said, grabbing James' hand and pulling him a few paces ahead, the other girls followed suit. The hall was decorated all over with some sort of cheering dust, because the minuet they walked in, a smile was soon plastered across their faces. The hall also had brightly coloured rainbows strewn across the ceiling, and clouds were at both ends of the rainbows.
"Whoa, nice and summery" Sirius said.
"Yeah, its nice though, really pretty" Lou said to them,
"Ach, not a patch on you" Remus said to Lou, who blushed. It was only then that James noticed what the girls were wearing. Lilly had a beautiful black halter neck dress on, that split just below her thigh and continued to be split all the way down to her shoes, which were a lovely pair of black sparkly high heeled shoes. [URL= Lilly's dress, I don't like the girl who models it, hehe, but i like the dress, and i changed Lou had a pink sparkly dress on, that hung loosely to her figure, it was also a full length dress, and split at the knee, right down to her pink matching dress! Again, don't like the model, hehe, I'm so nasty! [/URL] James's glance then went to Laura, who had the most revealing dress, but she could pull it off well. It was a purple full-length gown that was straight but had a V-cut from her neck to her belly button. You could just see her silver heeled shoes from the bottom of the dress. The hall also had a new shimmering floor, scattered with flashing silver dust, Sirius was the first person to notice the food on the other side of the hall, "Oh, food" he said, making Laura laugh,
"Didn't you eat dinner?" Lou asked,
"You think he needs not to have eaten dinner, he's always hungry," Peter said,
"Oh, yeah I guess" Lou said going red at her mistake. Remus noticed this and sent a set of daggers at Peter, who mumbled, "I didn't mean it like that" before dragging Penny off to one of the tables near the end of the hall. Before long Dumbledore was making his way on to the stage to make a speech, "I must first start by saying that you all look wonderful, it is great to see such beautiful wizards and witches pass through this school. Now secondly, I must say that I am very thankful for coming to this summer school, as it has helped me a lot, I have seen my friends, as have you, I have learnt more, as have you, well, I can hope. I hope to continue this idea next time, but I'm afraid the ministry wouldn't allow it. I can say now that they are not to keen that I let any of the pupils, other than the one young man supposed to stay, stay. So, in order to make this a summer to remember, you have tonight to enjoy yourself, and tomorrow, if you did not all know already, you will have the day of tomorrow, to do as you please. I was thinking of not letting you go to Hogsmeade tomorrow, but some of you may need to, so for tomorrow, is yours to choose what you do with. But please, please use the day sensibly." Dumbledore said before walking of the stage. Many of the pupils, including the girls and the Marauders, were shocked at his sudden ending, and what it meant. Thus making them jump at the sound of the music suddenly coming without warning.
"Can I have this dance?" James asked Lilly, holding out his hand. Lilly blushed,
"Of course, James" She said allowing herself to be lead towards the dance floor. Lou and Remus soon joined them, and a while later, after Sirius had had some food, Laura and Sirius also did. Peter and Penny didn't join them at all. Almost an hour had gone by without any of the Marauders noticing the time, but at ten to ten. "Sirius!" James hissed in his ear,
"What?" Sirius replied,
"Ten to ten" James informed him. Sirius' smile was enough to show James what he didn't say. James and Lilly soon went down to sit at one of the cute tables, each decorated with a vase with one rose in it. "Red, or white?" James asked Lilly,
"There all red, James" Lilly said smiling, as though he was blind,
"For you, I would change the colour of everything" James said with a wink, as he drew out his wand and charmed the rose from white to red every two seconds. "If you cant choose, you can have both colours, you deserve them. Or-"James swished his wand again, as the red rose became white and red. -"Would you prefer them both colours at the same time?" James asked her, sitting her down on her chair.
"James, you really are a strange one" Lilly suddenly said,
"Why?" He asked puzzled,
"Because...well, you just are. I got you all worked out wrong. This has been the best summer of my life, and I owe it all to you" Lilly said to him. For the first time in a very long time, James Potter was blushing,
"Don't be stupid, Lilly, don't be stupid" James told her. Out of the corner of James' eye, he could see Laura being lead out of the hall by Sirius, "Lill's?" James asked her, remembering that he had no idea what to ask for when he got to the 'room of requirement'
"Uh huh?" She replied, looking at James with her bright green eyes that James almost got lost in,
"What's your perfect date? I mean if you could have anything in the world for one night, what would it be?"
"Oh, that's simple, me Lou and Laura have had this planned since we were little girls, and its always been the same. Were all different though, but hey, whatever turns you on. I would love, absolutely love to start of by a little walk, through a garden thing, and then end up under a tree by the lake. That's why I spend so much time out at that frigging lake." Lilly told him. James was concentrating very hard on what Lilly was saying to remember it all, "The there would be a little picnic set out, and a blanket, and it would be all sunny, and perfect weather, and the birds and everything like that. We would just sit, eat, cuddle, kiss and chat, and then stars would start to appear and we would just spend the time out there, doing nothing, then walk back through the garden, and, ah..." Lilly trailed off with a dreamy look on her face. James smiled,
"And who may I ask, would be accompanying you?" He asked, hoping to God it was him, and not someone else.
"If you asked me this a few months ago, it wouldn't have been you, but now, now my perspective of you has changed, so I'm hoping, its you" Lilly said, now making it her turn to blush. James smiled at her answer,
"Well I really hope that wish for you comes true," James said, "Sooner than you think," he continued, but he said it quietly that time, so Lilly didn't hear him. Lilly and James spent a little bit longer talking, and then went to dance again. James noticed that Sirius and Laura suddenly re-appeared, with wide grins on there face. "Where'd you get to?" Lilly asked Laura as her and Sirius got closer to their table.
"Oh, we went out for a bit, of, erm, fresh air" Laura said, her face reddening.
"Gosh I need to teach you to lie" Lou suddenly said from behind Lilly and James. Laura's face reddened even more at Lou's comment, but she said nothing.
"Well, would you mind if we had a little chat?" Lou asked with a commercial smile on her face,
"Not at all" James and Sirius said together. Lou, Laura and Lilly walked away and Remus and Sirius sat down opposite James, "Did it work? What happened?" James asked straight away,
"Yeah it worked. Not a lot happened, just the usual. She was well delighted though, couldn't keep her hands off me. I swear." Sirius bragged. The boys all had a good chat about what happened with Sirius and Laura, James slightly failing to believe certain parts of it. His mind was altered though when the shriek of laughter from Lou was in the air a few tables away. Lou was hurriedly shut up by Lilly who put a hand to her mouth. James was shocked to see that she too was giggling, and Laura, was redder than a tomato. Soon the girls came back to the tables, and they all started dancing again, James was constantly looking at his watch, or the door to see if Peter would return any sooner. James had already scanned the room, looking for him, making sure he had actually gone, and he had. James watch now said eleven forty eight. [I] It was getting sooner [/I] James though to him self. Lilly has enquired a few times as to why he kept checking his watch, and he just replied, "Wait and see Lilly, wait and see." Finally James saw Peter emerge into the room again, with Penny, who had a pink tinge visible to her cheeks. Peter hurried over to where James and the rest of them were. "Thank you!" He mouthed immediately to James, who just smiled.
"Hey Lill's, come for a walk" James said in his usual charismatic way, leading Lilly away, Laura and Lou were both giggling, and both knew what was happening by the looks of things.
The music started to fade away, as both of them walked away from the great hall. "So where are we going?" Lilly asked, cuddling into James arm even more, as though she knew what was happening.
"You'll see" James replied quietly, kissing the top of Lilly's resting head. Lilly smiled sweetly up at James. James and Lilly arrived at the statue that James so familiarly encountered only a while ago. "Close your eyes, Lilly" James told her, she did as she was told, but let out a little giggle at the same time. James thought very hard, [I] I want this room to become what Lilly described to me [/I] James thought, three times as he walked from the statue to the picture frame. Suddenly the door appeared, and James removed his hands from Lilly's eyes, allowing her to enter the room. For the first time ever James didn't see a room, he saw a long pathway, a gorgeous dirt pathway, enclosed by trees that had chattering birds in them. James couldn't see to the end of the path, but he knew there must be one. James looked at Lilly, to see her reaction, she was smiling, grinning even, her head was moving all around, "James, how did-" Lilly started, but she didn't finish, because James held his hand across her mouth,
"Ask me no questions, I will tell you no lies," he said, kissing her on the lips. "Shall we?" James asked, indicating to the pathway, and holding out his hand. Lilly took his hand, and gently caressed it, "I don't know how you did this James, but thank you," She said sweetly. James yet again smiled to himself. They both walked down the little lane in silence for a while, but then they struck up a conversation, and before long, James saw the end of the lane, and by the reaction of Lilly, so did she. "Oh, my goodness, James I love this, how- oh I don't care, thank you, thank you." Was what Lilly was saying.
"Its fine Lilly, anything to make you happy" James said to her. They sat down on the chequered blanket, and opened the picnic basket. "You hungry?" James asked, "There's food" he said making it seem like Lilly was stupid. Lilly just laughed though,
"Nah, I'm fine for now, thanks," She said back to James. James sat himself underneath the tress, and Lilly rested her head on his chest. "This is so perfect" Lilly said again to him. James nodded, and pulled Lilly's chin up to eye level with his, and they lay pressed up against the tress kissing for what seemed like ages to James, although he was enjoying every second of it. With every short second that went by, the kiss seemed to be heating its self up slightly, and although he loved it, he wasn't to sure if Lilly was, so he pulled away. "What's wrong?" Lilly asked shocked,
"Nothing, I just guessed you didn't appreciate that," James said, going red slightly.
"No! I did, I mean, well, I didn't hate it" Lilly said, suddenly changing her tone slightly. James smiled at her slightly and only said, "Well then..." Before going into kiss her again, with the same intensity as when he left off. A few minuets later, James and Lilly both pulled away from there kiss, that had lead to a bit more, and Lilly, was blushing, "I'm sorry, I should have, it was just the, the..." she said,
"Its fine, really, it wasn't anything, big, its cool" James said, reassuring her, slightly. James a Lilly sat in silence for a few minuets, a comfortable silence, before James started to take Lilly's shoes off, and toss them aside. "Erm, James, what are you doing?" Lilly asked him, with a smile on her face,
"You'll see," James replied. James then started to take his own shoes off, and he placed them next to Lilly's, "C'mon, water will be nice" James told Lilly, she just laughed at him,
"James, I have a dress on!" Lilly informed him,
"Well, we could change that you know" James said cheekily, Lilly blushed deep crimson, but tried to keep her cool,
"I don't think so James, I don't think so"
"Ach you can always try" James told her. James though, wouldn't take Lilly's no as an answer, and proceeded to pick her up and dump her in the water,
"James!" She screamed, "This is a really expensive dress" Lilly exclaimed, half laughing, half not. James finally got Lilly to calm down, and they paddled around in the water a bit, before James half jumped on Lilly, in an attempt to kiss her. James succeeded, until he ruined his chances by trying to remove a strap of Lilly's dress, and he only received a cold glare, "Okay, I'm sorry, I'm pushing my luck" he said. Lilly just nodded, eyebrows raised as well. "C'mon, lets get dry," James said, "I mean, like a charm, to make us dry, over there" He said, only noticing what he said sounded slightly wrong to Lilly. James and Lilly where back on ground, and dry in no time at all, just in time for James's watch to beep, indicating five to twelve. "We have to get back" James told Lilly, who sight and looked disappointed.
On the way back, Lilly and James were in the same position as they were almost an hour ago, "James, there's something I need to tell you" Lilly suddenly said, not moving herself at all,
"What?" James asked, imagining the worst,
"I have to tell you, and I don't want you to be freaked out at me or anything..." Lilly said, trailing off again. Thoughts that Lilly was about to tell him something like she was a man, or that she was after something, or that she was in love with Peter all rushed into James head, as he imagined the worst, "...I'm in love with you, James" Lilly finally said. James was dumbfounded, [I] In love with me? Finally! [/I] James though,
"Why would I be mad or freaked out about that?" James asked her,
"Well, I didn't want to scare you or freaking you out by saying that I loved you, especially, now that, well I dunno" Lilly said, looking down at her feet,
"Believe me Lill's you shouldn't care about that, especially when you know...that I love you as well," James told her. James brought her head up to eye level, and looked into her beautiful emerald green eyes, "I really do love you Lilly, I really do" James confirmed again. "I have for ages, and I always will" James told her. Unless it was a trick of the eye, or James was seeing things, he could have sworn he saw a tear trickle down her cheek, but he looked harder, and saw nothing.
Lilly and James excited the room, and stopped for another kiss, "You know, its almost a shame we couldn't have spent longer in that room, I was quite warming up to it, as well as you, of course" Lilly said slyly, pulling James back into the Great Hall. James could have kicked himself, [I] why didn't we spend more time in there. I could have known Lilly Evans in a whole new way! [/I] James thought madly to himself. James and Lilly wormed there way through the crowds of people, and back to Sirius, Laura, Lou and Remus, "Hey" Lilly said brightly. The girls all smiled at Lilly, and the boys grinned at James.
"C'mon, Lou" Remus said, leading Lou away,
"Have fun" Lilly and Laura shouted after her.
"I will" Lou mouthed back to Lilly and Laura, sending them into fits of giggles. Lilly and Laura went to a separate table from the boys, so to talk about what happened, although James and Sirius were talking about the exact same things,
"So, what happened?" Sirius asked eagerly,
"Not a lot, bit of kissing, bit more, not a lot though," James said casually, "What's been happening out here?" James asked Sirius.
"Not a lot" Sirius replied impatiently, "Now tell me, properly" Sirius demanded,
"Oh fine" James said, giving in and telling Sirius most of the events of the night.
By one o'clock Remus was back, and they were all in little groups again, telling the details of the night. Although Remus refused to play the old, 'kiss and tell game.' "Your no fun!" Declared Sirius in a huffy, baby voice. With only an hour left, the songs continued to get slower and slower, and the dances and couples, more intimate. "I meant it you know?" James said to Lilly, halfway through a song. He had his arms round her waist, and hers round his neck, he was looking deeply into her eyes again, as he was telling her this,
"Meant what?" Lilly asked quietly,
"When I said I loved you, I meant it" James told her, Lilly smiled at him,
"So did I, so did I" Lilly replied resting her red head on James shoulder. James didn't know what was so special about Lilly, he just knew they had a bond, and no matter what, he wouldn't break that, no matter what.
Earlier that morning, the Marauders and the girls all trooped up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, sore feet, but big grins on there faces. All four of them said goodnight to their girlfriends at different parts of the common room, each person having a different was of saying goodbye. Peter merely kissed Penny on the lips, before dashing up to the dormitory, whist Sirius, was kissing Laura's neck, only occasionally going back to her face, they also happened to be in an extremely tight embrace. Remus and Lou were just making out, whist Lilly and James, were yet again all over each other. Remus, Sirius and James all happened to 'finish' and go upstairs at the same time. "God, that was a good night" Remus said tiredly to the others.
"Hell yeah" James and Sirius said simultaneously. They all got ready for bed and slept well, not waking up until one o'clock in the afternoon.
"Today's the last day" Remus was telling them all at breakfast
"Yeah, so it is" Sirius said, sadly
"Where are the girls?" Peter asked abruptly
"By the lake, gossiping" Remus replied,
"About last night, no doubt" Sirius said,
"Yeah, after all, there is a lot to cover, eh?" James said hinting at his friends. They all laughed at James comment,
"Erm, I'm going to go find Penny" Peter said all of a sudden
"Okay, Wormtail, see you in a bit" James said, Peter waved, and then quickly rushed out of the dinning hall.
"There something up with him, he seems to be doing a lot of disappearing, he never actually is with Penny, I mean look, there she is over there" Remus pointed out.
"So she is," Sirius said,
"Oh well, I'm sure he'll tell us what it is soon enough" James said happily spreading marmalade onto his toast. Remus didn't look too convinced, and continued to look warily around the room.
Later on that day, everyone was back in the common room, and they were all laughing and joking, until Peter said, yet again unexpectedly, "I'm going to find Penny"
"She's up in the dormitory, want me to get her for you?" Laura shouted after him
"No, I told her I'd meet her downstairs," Peter said not turning round.
"Right, I'm after him, I wanna know what he's up too, I'll see you lot later," James said, as he kissed Lilly bye.
James summoned his invisibility coat and walked out of the common room invisibly. "Point me" James said, placing his wand on the palm of his hand. The wand pointed toward the school grounds, so he followed the directions of the wand, and sure enough, he saw a waddling Peter going out towards what looked like Hagrid's hut. James continued to follow him. James saw he was leading himself into the forbidden forest. If James was going to be one hundred percent truthful, he really didn't want to know where Peter was going. He convinced himself that it was Peter's business and he should stay out of it. On the way back, James saw approaching towards him was Lou, although she couldn't see him, he automatically forgot, and said, "Hey, where you off to?" This of course made Lou jump out of her skin,
"James!" She hissed, "Where the hell are you?" Lou asked him. James removed his cloak, and revealed himself.
"So what you doing out here?" He asked her again,
"I'm off to find that Voldermort guy," Lou said, edgily,
"Why?" James asked,
"Because I found out a lot more about him, I found out where he is, what he's doing, and why he's doing it" Lou explained,
"Wicked, I'm coming with you" James declared,
"Bad idea, it could be dangerous" Lou warned him,
"Ah, then a lovely young lady like you would need some help," James said professionally, making Lou blush slightly,
"I need no help of yours" Lou replied slightly coldly, "Although, I could use the company," She added in, after seeing James's disappointed face. James cheerfully agreed, and they continued towards where James had last seen Peter go. "So what's he doing, and whys he doing it?" James asked Lou,
"He's starting of a muggle hater group, he's killing any one who crosses his path, who happens to be muggle or half blood, or anything other than at least pureblood..." Lou trailed off.
"But, why?" James asked quite shocked, before Lou could answer though, there was a sudden movement in the bushes to one side. Lou instinctively grabbed hold of James. "Sorry," She whispered,
"Its fine" James mouthed. Lou placed her grip back onto her wand, and drew it above her head.
"Louise Rose Stevenson." A cold voice said from where they had heard the sound. James whipped around and saw a tall, thin dark haired man, towering over the two of them. Lou merely smiled,
"Yes?" She asked, "Oh sorry, yes, Tom Marvolo Riddle!" Lou said spitefully,
"Ah, impressive, for a muggle born" The clocked man said,
"You know nothing. I came here thinking I would face someone with worthwhile intelligence, instead, I am faced with you." Lou said boldly, James was astounded with what she was saying. He had just realised that the man in the cloak was that, Voldermort guy, the one who killed muggle borns and half borns alike.
"You think I am not intelligent, ah, what a shame, and here was me thinking I was, how silly of me" Voldermort said to Lou.
"If you had any ounce of intelligence you would not have tried to set up a base on the grounds of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry. You would also be able to tell apart a muggle born, from a pure blood" Lou reeled off. His time, as you could see in Voldermort's eyes, she had gone to far, she had said to much to insult him, and as James's prediction was right, he suddenly drew out his wand and shouted into the setting sky, 'Crucio.' Lou's screams suddenly filled the sky, and she fell to the ground in pain. James didn't know what to do, he picked her up, but she just fell motionless to the ground.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" James shouted at Voldermort.
"Stay out of this Potter, stay out of business you know nothing about," Voldermort said, aiming his wand at James's chest. James then drew out his own wand, but before he could say any spell, there was a rushing of feet behind him, and four people appeared behind him. Those four people were Lilly, Laura, Remus and Sirius. Lilly and Laura instantly went to help Lou, who had he eyes still closed, and was muttering to herself.
"She has a very week mind, only the weakest of minds would consider that pain, tell me Potter, do you think that this is painful" Voldermort suddenly said raising his wand and saying that dreadful word again. James suddenly felt his whole body seize up. He heard the screaming of Lilly in the background, as he felt his whole body burning. His body was on fire, he tried to move, to put it out, but he couldn't, all he heard was Lilly screams and the voices of people, were getting fainter and fainter. His body started cooling down, and the screaming got louder and louder. Suddenly, the feeling of being under someone's power was gone, as James stumbled backwards.
"You b!" Sirius said loudly,
"Watch it black, I have your brother behind me, he wouldn't want to pick up language like that now would he" Voldermort said, flicking his wand and releasing rope that tied all six of them together.
"Where's my brother?" Sirius demanded,
"Black!" Voldermort shouted, "Come here." A scrawny young boy that looked the age of seventeen walked towards Voldermort, he too was dressed in a black cloak, with a mask covering his face. "Show your dear brother who you really are" Voldermort demanded, the young boy lifted off his mask, and kneeled to Voldermort, kissing the hem of his robes,
"You worthless piece of scum!" Sirius stated. "No wonder mother never liked you, you kneel to others, she will not be happy at that, now ill she?" Sirius asked rhetorically. Sirius' brother made no movement, nor sound, it seemed he only answered to Voldermort.
"Ah, family affairs, how I miss them" Voldermort stated, letting out a false sigh.
"If you hadn't killed them, like the monster you are, then you could still have them!" Lou shouted with all the might she had in her voice. Lilly and Laura tried to quieten her, but it was too late, the harm had been said.
"You are an outspoken little brat aren't you, Stevenson" Voldermort said, swishing his wand and making the ropes untie and Lou float in the air to meet him, eye to eye.
"I am an outspoken, little, pure blooded brat," Lou said weakly,
"That indeed you are!" Voldermort agreed. With a swoosh of his wand. Lou was suddenly turned facing the other five, still tied up. "You will now all find out what happens when you speak back at Lord Voldermort, you will die, you will die painfully, and you will kill yourself." Voldermort said simply. Voldermort muttered some words under his breath, and conjured a dagger out of nowhere. The dagger fell right into Lou's hand. Lou was placed back on the ground with a thud. Suddenly, for no reason other than the words Voldermort had said beforehand, Lou pulled the dagger towards her, and started slashing at her arm. Lilly and Laura screamed at the sight. Remus begged her to stop and Sirius and James made fierce movements to try and get their wands to stop the spell Voldermort had put on Lou.
"Isn't it funny, watching someone kill them self is so much better than killing them yourself, just a note for you al when you come to your senses and join me." Voldermort said, observing Lou, who was screaming in pain, and trying with all her might, what looked to be dragging the dagger away from her. "But then again, after a while, it does get a bit boring" Voldermort said, he swished his wand again, and the dagger in Lou's hand fell to the floor, as did she. Remus made a quick movement to try and get to her. James tried and tried, but he couldn't move, all he could do was look at Lou. She was lying on the dirty ground, panting, and had blood pouring out of her arms, her eyes were tight shut, and she was muttering something. Suddenly she did something both very stupid and very noble. "I will make a deal with you," Lou said, rolling over, facing Voldermort, but yet not standing on her feet. "You torture me, as much as your jolly well like, and you don't harm a hair or any part of there bodies, and let them go" Lou said, gesturing at James and the girls.
"What good will that do for me? Killing only one?" Voldermort asked her, grinning crazily.
"What good will it do? Your joking" Lou said weekly "It will do you no good whatsoever killing me, James, Lilly, Laura, Remus, Sirius or even Peter for Christ sakes. Were no one special, we like to think we all are, but were not. Were not even muggle born, none of us, we are all pure bloods! None of us have muggle blood in us, and none of us are anything, or will be anything special!" Lou exclaimed, "So you get your one little killing, me. And you let them go, without hurting any of them!" Lou demanded. James was routed even more to the spot than he already was. James had no idea why in the world Lou was doing this and he started to blame himself. [I] I should have dragged her back to the common room. I shouldn't have let her come here. Lilly's going to be mad at me, so is Remus, its all my fault [/I] James was thinking. By the time James was out of his thoughts, Voldermort had condescended to only killing one. "No!" Screamed all five of the remaining teenagers tied up.
"Everyone dies. Some people, sooner than people. It always happens, something's are worth dying for, like your friends. I couldn't have better friends than all of you, so this is the way I chose to die. Believe me, we will meet again, I know we will" Lou said, this little speech made Laura and Lilly burst in to tears. James couldn't even figure out what they were saying, he managed to pick up, "you...cant...we love you...don't...we cant...not without you...please don't and I love you" off of both Laura and Lilly. Remus was also struggling, "Please, Lou, don't! Please" He pleaded, "We love you, you can't do this!" Remus continued, Lou cut him short though,
"You don't understand do you? If I don't die, all of us will!"
"Then we will all die together," Sirius said loudly,
"No, save your death for some other time." Lou said, "You will all chose to die at some point, and if you don't, there will be someone you will die for. You five, especially Laura and Lilly, you lot are the ones I have chosen to die for, and I want to keep it that way" Lou said,
"How touching" Voldermort said to them all, "How utterly sweet, now can we continue" He asked menacingly, Lou nodded, "No!" Came a sudden lengthening scream from both the girls, as they dissolved into sobs again. It was two late, Voldermort had already cried into the now night sky: Avada Kadavra. Lou's body, that was propped up, by the usage of her un-bloody arm, was now slumped on the ground, and her eyes shut, not in fear, or by choice, but by death. By a painful, bloody and tortured death. Lilly and Laura hid their faces from her body, and James and Sirius comforted them.
"Let us go!" Remus suddenly said, trying, but failing to hold back the tears,
"Ah yes, Miss Stevenson's last wish" Voldermort said deviously,
"Let us go!" Remus repeated. Voldermort this time did, the ropes around all of them were suddenly loosened, and they all managed to stand on there won to feet. Lilly and Laura with the help of Sirius and James.
"We will meet again I am sure, but until then, I bid you farewell" Voldermort said before hiding his head in his cloak again,
"Wait!" Lilly suddenly said, "Your that b that killed my sister" Lilly said again. A smile crept across Voldermort's pale face, "You killed her, four years ago, you stole he wand" Lilly said again, even more tears welling up in her eyes.
"You never forget a face, do you, Evans?" Voldermort said, he went to swish his cloak and disappear, but Lilly stopped him again,
"You were right, Voldermort, our paths will cross again, and when they do. I will kill you! I will make sure every inch of my body survives until I find you, and I, will, kill you" Lilly said, James was struggling to hold Lilly still and away from Voldermort, he was also trying to shut her up, but it didn't work. Voldermort only laughed and disappeared.
Remus struggled to move towards Lou, but he knew he had to bring her body up to the castle. He cried at the loss of the only girl he had only loved, and James felt his sorrow as he carried his dead girlfriend back up to the castle. ((Yes I know you cant do that on Hogwarts grounds, but since this is before Harry, I thought the rules could have been changed slightly!! hehe))
The five of them, heads all hanging, saying nothing all walked back towards the castle. The group was a sorry sight, Remus carrying his dead girlfriends body, Lilly practically in James arms and Laura in the same but with Sirius. None of them said a word at all. Argus Filtch greeted them at the door, the last person they ever wanted to see. "Well, what a sorry- my God what has happened to her" He said,
"We need to see Dumbledore" Sirius said in a dull monotone,
"Of course, of course" Filtch said. Filtch lead them to where James knew the staircase to Dumbledore's office was, "Berti Botts" Filtch said, and suddenly, the stature of a gargoyle moved, and allowed them entrance into the elevating staircase. "Headmaster, headmaster. There is an emergency. Black and Potter have done something to Miss Stevenson. To upset to argue, James said nothing, only continued to walk past Dumbledore, and sit Lilly on a chair. Sirius did the same, whilst Remus laid Lou on the floor. Remus looked at his hands and body, he was covered in blood, from where Lou had attacked herself,
"Merlin. What happened here?" Dumbledore asked them. Dumbledore checked Lou's dead body to see if it showed any signs of life, he shock his head, indicating that it didn't. The pictures that were all sleeping, suddenly came awake, and there were tons of stifled cry's and, "Close your eyes" emitting from the paintings.
"Professor, it wasn't us," James said,
"Of course it wasn't. Hold on" Dumbledore told them. Dumbledore swished his wand and conjured five smoking goblets of potion. At the movement of the wand, both Laura and Lilly screamed and fell backwards.
"What's wrong, miss Evans, miss Hammond?" Dumbledore asked them.
"Sir, can I take them to the hospital wing, James was there from the start, he knows what happened. Me and Remus only know part of the story" Sirius said,
"Yes, yes of course. Tell Madam Pomfry ((I'm sorry, I didn't remember that they had the same matron back then as they do in HP times, sorry!!)) that I sent you, and that I require you to take a sleeping draught. Mr Lupin, you go as well" Dumbledore told them,
"I want to stay with Lou" Remus said, gripping Lou's mangled hand.
"Mr Lupin, I believe that is not a good idea. Gets some rest and then I shall see what we can do" Dumbledore said, driving all four of them out of the door,
"But...Lou!" Remus still said,
"Rest Mr Lupin, rest!"
Dumbledore said very sternly, with one last look at Lou, Remus left the room. When the door was shut, James was handed the potion, and he took it. Although he still felt bad, he did feel slightly better, although, the feeling of terror in his stomach, caused by the death of Lou's, was still there. James looked at Lou's dead, blue body, lying only a meter away from him. "Yes, Mr Potter, a great way to start, what happened? Before you start, I know this will not be easy for you. And I now respect you a lot more than you would think, because you are telling me this now, and not later. Now please, tell me what happened" Dumbledore said. For a while, James just sat and said nothing, not knowing where to start, he was trying to think of ways to cover the rules he broke, but none were available. James then just reeled off the story, right from the beginning, when Lou had started to read bout a terrible killer on the loose, about how he had never been captured, about how he killed muggle borns, about how he killed his own family. How he had his own group of people, he described their looks, and then he went no to the run through. From Peter, to the death of Lou, he spoke non-stop, and when he finally did. He buried his head in his hands and let out a cry. Dumbledore put his hand on James shoulder, and told him, "You are a brave man, Mr Potter. Just like Miss Stevenson was a brave woman." James hated hearing that, the 'was' he hated it. James walked over to Lou's body,
"She wouldn't be dead if it wasn't for me!" James said to Dumbledore,
"Now. James, I'm sure that's not true" Dumbledore said to James,
"Yeah, it is. I should have been a proper friend, when she was out there, I should have taken her back to the common room, and ignored where peter was off to, it would have been none of my business anyways." James continued,
"You seem to blame yourself when you shouldn't. James, I had known Lou a very long time, longer than you, and almost as long as Lilly and Laura, she was very strong willed. If she wanted something, nothing in this entire earth, and a whole load other places would get in her way to stop it. That being the reason she was so good at her subject, her acting, and how she got on so well with you lot." Dumbledore reeled off,
"How did you know her that amount of time?" James asked,
"Her father." Dumbledore said simply
"What about him?" James asked, suddenly curious,
"He wasn't very, nice, to Lou, so I went and kept an eye on her every once in a while, made sure she was okay, until she got to Hogwarts" Dumbledore said to James, who nodded. James supposed that was why she came to this summer school, to get away fro her dad, [I] well she certainly got away from him, away from him for good [/I]
"Sir, what do you think she'll do, come back as a ghost, or go through?" James asked, half hoping she would stay as a ghost,
"Ah, James, I feel she will not stay here as a ghost, Lou wouldn't want to annoy anyone here, ach, always trying to please everyone" Dumbledore said, a single tear slid down his face.
"Now, Mr Potter, I think you too should join your friends in the hospital wing. I have arrangements to make for Miss Stevenson." Dumbledore said.
"Thank you sir" James said before closing the door behind him. He couldn't believe on of his friends, was dead! And he was partly to blame. James got to the Hospital wing, and was fussed over by Madam Pomfry, who gave him a sleeping potion, and a hug.
James awoke to the sound of muffled crying, looking up, he remembered exactly what happened last night, and he thought correctly that it would be Lilly and Laura crying. To make matters worse, today was the day everyone was coming back to school. All five of the gang stayed very close together and Peter was disowned from the gang, on behalf of they didn't want to explain everything to Peter. They also weren't to forgiving because Peter wouldn't tell them where he was last night. That night at dinner, the sorting had already been done but privately, because Dumbledore had an announcement to make to the whole school, the whole school that was back already. Hardly anyone knew about Lou's death, and the few that did were in too much a state of grief to be blabbing it to anyone. The Great Hall had been decorated in black satin, to grieve Lou's death. "Tonight, we eat and drink to a great pupil, friend, girl who's bravery has astonished even, me. I am talking about Louise Stevenson, who if she were here tonight, would be severely annoyed because I called her by her real name, but since she is not, I will have to continue. Lou Stevenson, as she was known to many of you was a fantastic, brave smart and charismatic pupil, who I enjoyed teaching, all these year. Unfortunately, I cannot have the pleasure of teaching her again, because last night, she was murdered by a man who's name we will grow to fear, a man who's name some already fear, Voldermort. Lou told me years ago, back in her second year, that she thought she didn't belong in Gryffindor, that she thought she wasn't brave enough, but last night, she showed some bravery I have never seen Gryffindor's before her show. Last night Lou Stevenson died for a cause, she died to save her friends, she died to save others, and I now ask of you to each stand and raise your glasses to Lou Stevenson, one of Gryffindor's Bravest." Dumbledore said, raising his glass. There was a scraping of feet, as mostly everyone in the hall stood to their feet to raise their glass. James looked across the table at Lilly, and at Laura. The both had tears streaming down their faces, and their eyes were blood shot and the light of the candels illuminated their extremely pale skin. Dumbledore said a few more words, before the chatter started, and people asked questions, Laura was already upset enough, so Sirius charmed a glass wall around the five of them, blocking out Peter as well. "Thanks" Laura said weakly,
"No problem" Sirius said with a tiny smile.
"So much for the best summer ever," Lilly said to them all as they walked up to Gryffindor tower.
"Yeah, the worst is more like it," Sirius said
"James, can I have a word?" Lilly asked him, stopping,
"Course you can," James said smiling
"I know, your probably going to hate me, but I cant do this, I cant lose Lou and still go out with you, I'm sorry, I just cant, please don't be mad at me. I just can't be with you anymore. I meant what I said when I said I loved you, and I do want to be with you, but right now, I cant, and I'm sorry, Laura's breaking up with Sirius, but this isn't why I'm doing this. I just need to get my life back in order, I need to get over the loss of Lou, and, I know you wouldn't, but I just feel you would be annoyed at me because I would take so long. Please understand, and remember that I love you" Lilly reeled of to James. James went to retort, but he changed his mind,
"Okay, I understand, and remember, I love you. I always have, and I always will, we'll just see what the future holds" James said, pulling Lilly into the last hug he would give her for a long, long time...
Fin
"The Hogsmeade trip is tomorrow." James told the common room, consisting of a few scared little second years the Marauders and not to mention the girls.
"Yip" Lilly said brightly, cuddling in to James and kissing him.
"You lot figured out what you're wearing?" Sirius asked them curiously. The girls face all split into identical grins,
"Yip" They all said,
"And we have our shoes, make-up, handbags, jewellery and hair all planned as well" Laura said smiling brightly.
"Yip" Lou and Lilly said in agreement.
"You don't mind us not going to Hogsmeade with you lot, do you?" Lilly asked them,
"Nah, were over it," James said quickly,
"Oh thanks!" Lou said jokingly
"Ah, we never meant it like that" Remus said holding Lou closer and kissing her. Just then the door to the common room opened,
"Ah, the man of the moment, where ya been Peter?" Sirius said across the common room,
"I erm, I got attacked! Malfoy, said something to me, then I told him to shut up, and he pressed me up against a wall and told me to watch my step or I'll be going down the same road as Potter." Peter said sacredly, "What did he mean James?" Peter asked him. The whole common room turned to look at him, including the second years.
"I do-don't know" James admitted, "He said the same kinnda thing to me when I drove him into the ground at the Quidditch match, something about watching my step and him killing me" James said, banishing the feeling in his stomach.
"Not scared are you, James?" Sirius asked, a mix of curiosity and worry,
"Nah, not at all, why would I?" James laughed it off, but he hated to admit that the feeling he had at the Quidditch match, was back in his stomach, stronger than ever, he just had a nagging feeling something bad was going to happen. The girls seemed to accept that James was fine, although the Marauders didn't, the minuet they were all in the dormitory he got bombarded with questions, "What's going on, Prongs?" Sirius questioned,
"I dunno, its weird, I did that dive thing, like I told you, then he said what he did, and for once in my life, I'm actually worried that Malfoy might do something to me, I mean, we've pd him off enough in the last five years, that he would probably join up with that Voldermort just to kill us!" James reeled off.
"Don't be stupid, James" Sirius said. James could tell Sirius was either extremely annoyed at him, or extremely worried about him, for he called him James.
"Yeah, your right, I am, I'm sorry" James said, curling into bed, he would get to the bottom of this on the last day of term.
"Hey, mates" Sirius started, James turned to face him, "Don't fret it, it'll be fine" Sirius said with a reassuring smile. James smiled at his best friend before falling asleep.
James had no reason to wake up the next day, so he didn't until gone one o'clock, when Lilly came into see him. "Hey sweetie, how you feeling" She said stroking his jet-black hair, his face.
"Yeah, I'm good" James said sleepily, he flattened his hair, but it made no difference, "Morning" James said still rather sleepily,
"Morning" Lilly giggled, "You getting up any time this morning?" Lilly asked jokingly, "Were all heading into Hogsmeade, in about half an hour." She informed him,
"Oh, right, yeah, okay, tell them I'll be down in ten" James said, pulling Lilly into bed with him, "In fact, tell them that I've changed my mind, no, then you'll have to go downstairs, never mind, they can wait" James said, tight clasp around Lilly's waist,
"James! Get off me, I have to go downstairs" Lilly said in a very girlish, sweet tone.
"Awww, shame, it was going to be the highlight of my day, being in the same bed as my beautiful girlfriend, for a bit" James said with a smirk,
"Then you'll have something to look forward to then, wont you" Lilly said getting out of James's clasp and walking towards the door,
"Is that a promise, Lilly?" James asked, knowing the answer to be no,
"Yeah, yeah it is, James" Lilly said, her lovely auburn hair swished across her face, and a pink tinge was visible caused by what she said.
James was still smiling, and still in shock at the recent promise Lilly had made to him. James and the Marauders said goodbye to the girls at the carriages, where they took one carriage, and the girls took another one. They were going to meet up at about six o'clock at the Three Broomsticks. Even though the girls already told them they weren't going to show them their dresses. James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all decided that they were going to go and buy the boring stuff first, like the dress robes and there books which they got the list for yesterday. "You know what, I've never ever bought a book in this place!" Remus said out of nowhere,
"Hmmm, neither have I, come to think of it" Sirius agreed. They got all their level six books, and a copy of, 'Artefact's for the brave' as well as a copy of, 'Mischief For The Makers.' James, Sirius, Remus and Peter all decided these books would be a must have for next year. When they got their robes, there was the usual complaints about looking stupid, Remus had a nice set of blue ones, 'to match his eyes' as the lady picking the robes for him told him. James, being James had to get the best, and was fitted in a light brown set that made him look, extremely mature, and extremely handsome. Sirius got a blood red set and Peter got himself a grey/white pair. James, although he wouldn't admit it, looked extremely fetching in his robes. When they had got the 'boring' stuff out of the way, they made there way to the Shrieking Shack. "Well, this is different, seeing it from here," Remus said, smiling slightly
"It is isn't it? Just think, three years time, we'll be long gone, long gone. Wonder where we'll be" Peter said leaning on the fence surrounding the shack.
"I'll be married to Lilly, have a kid called Harry, or if it's a girl, she'll be called Rose, be filthy rich, live in a huge house and be respected by so many people" James said confidently,
"Yeah Prongs, sure you will be! I on the other hand, will be either still with Laura, I'm not one of these people who jump in to marriage – Sirius shot a look at James, to say, unlike you! – I'll be making my money the hard way, I will have no kids, but a nice house, away from my family, and that nut case of a house elf we have!" Sirius reeled off,
"Well, I will not be married either, I will be a bachelor, living by myself, poor, with no proper job, probably cleaning muggle toilets, I will be living with my cat, and I would turn myself into a rat to get some kicks" Peter said unhappily,
"Don't be stupid Wormtail!" Remus said, laughing slightly at Peter's comments,
"Nah you wont Wormtail, you wont" Sirius assured him,
"Yeah, we wont let you get into that state!" James added. "What about you Moony?"
"Hmm, I would probably be researching a cure for my, 'problem,' I would have found one, I would be living in the country, with a beautiful girl, not married yet, with a nice house, a great Quidditch pitch in my back yard, cause I will be stinking rich when I sell my cure!" Remus said with a smirk of longing on his face.
"Nice" Sirius and James said at the same time,
"Very." Added Peter.
"It's going to be weird though, isn't it, I mean, we wont see each other every day" Peter said, James thought he saw a tear in Peter's eye, so he quickly said,
"Ach, don't be silly, course we will, anyways, why do we care about this right now? We still have two long years full of lovely memories to be filled" James said heroically.
"Check the hero" Remus said, giving James a little push.
James and the rest of the Marauders didn't spend that much more time at the shack, so they went and sat in the Three Broomsticks, waiting for the arrival of the girls, even though they knew it would be a few hours before they got there, they didn't mind.
"You know, as much as I love Lilly, I really like it when its back to normal, you know, all of us, the Marauders, and no one else" James said,
"Yeah, I know what you mean," Remus said, quickly he added, "Just don't tell Lou I said that." They all laughed,
"Hocked!" Sirius and James said at the same time,
"Ha-ha" was all Remus said. At five to six, the girls walked into the three broomsticks, saw the boys, and bounced there way over to them, all three of them were carrying countless shopping bags, they also happened to have someone else with them,
"Heya, look who we found" Lou said brightly, pointing to the pretty little blonde next to her, it was Penny,
"Heya" She said all smiles, "Do you mind if I stay?" She asked, suddenly nervous.
"No, not at all" James said
"Friend of Peter's, is a friend of ours," Sirius said, making room for the girls. "Well, I don't know if you could call yourself a friend of Peters, bit more than that, eh" Sirius said, nudging Peter, who blushed, and said
"Shut up Sirius!" very quietly. The girls, much to there dismay couldn't fit there bags under the table, so they had to put them up by the bar, Sirius took them up for the girls and ordered them all some drinks. James could have sworn that he saw Sirius peer into one of Laura's bags, put in a blink of an eye, he wasn't doing anything suspicious.
They all made there way up to the castle, when the girls saw the time, "Oh my gosh!" its seven o'clock, the dance starts at nine! We have to go" Laura exclaimed, there was a mad rush to get there bags, and rushed kisses to the boys, "We'll see you in the common room, at quarter to nine" Lilly informed them all,
"That okay?" Lou asked, they all nodded, "Good, good, see you then" She said, giving Remus another kiss, before she was dragged off by Laura, "I'll see you later" She said laughing.
"We are so lucky, we have the hottest babes in the, whole school" Sirius said, all three boys nodded and took a glug of there drink at the same time.
The boys headed back up to the school at eight o'clock, failing to see the point in taking two hours to get ready, all they were going to do was jump in the shower, put on there robes, and fix there hair, that was it.
"Remember, room of requirement, we should draw up a plan for it, how long do you think we'll each need?" James asked,
"Well, then thing finishes at two o'clock..." Remus said,
"Two?" Peter, Sirius and James all said loudly
"Yeah, Dumbledore says he's not bothered about it going on late, since none of us have to do anything tomorrow, but people are allowed to leave early if they feel they have to" Remus said,
"How do you know all this?" James asked him,
"Lou" He said simply,
"Ah, of course" James said. "Right, well that gives us, five hours, an hour each, your wanting to use it aren't you Wormtail?" James asked mid sentence,
"Do you mind?" Peter asked nervously,
"Don't be stupid of course we don't! So that means, an hour each, then an hour at the dance thing, at the start... that sound alright?" James asked them.
"Yeah, sounds good" Sirius said, "A whole hour, by myself with Laura, great!" Sirius said, a sinister look appearing on his face. The guys all laughed,
"So who's going to be the first one in there?" James asked,
"Me!" Sirius said, suddenly,
"Okay, so Padfoot first, then who?" James asked,
"I wanna go last, is that okay?" Remus asked,
"Yip, so who's next, me or Wormtail?" James asked,
"You go first Prongs, I don't mind" Peter said, he sounded a bit upset though,
"No, don't be stupid mate, you go first, then I'll go after you, after all, I wanna get the info from you lot first! Now, everyone has to come back into the hall, or show some form of communication to tell us its all okay" James told them, they all nodded.
"So, we ready?" Sirius asked, looking at himself in the mirror,
"As ready as I'll ever be" Remus said, they all had one last laugh, before moving into the common room. The girls weren't down yet, so they sat on the chairs. Quite a few guys were standing or sitting downstairs, all in different states of robes, all waiting for what looked like, the girls,
"Hey" James heard someone say behind them, the Marauders turned to face the voice,
"Frank!" Sirius said,
"Where ya been mate, haven't seen you in a while" Remus said to Frank,
"Ah, been around, doubt you lot to look at where I am, especially when you got those hot girls with you all the time. I don't know how you lot do it, I really don't!" Frank exclaimed,
"Animal magnetism" Sirius said, and they all laughed, "Nah, I don't mean it really, you cant call Laura an animal, you ever seen an animal look, that good?" Sirius asked. The Marauders and Frank all had a laugh before his date came downstairs, she happened to be, Nadine Simons.
"And you think were the only ones who can do it?" James hissed into Franks ear as he left with Nadine, who looked stunning.
"There they are" Remus said, as three gorgeous girls descended from the girls dormitories. All three of them seemed highly aware of the attention they were getting from the males down stairs, as they walked downstairs looking no less than beautiful.
"Hey" All three of them said at the same time, they looked incredibly nervous,
"You look, all of you, look fantastic," Sirius said to them all, they all blushed, deeply, especially Laura.
"Oh, talking of looking fantastic, because she does, Penny said she'll be down in two seconds, she's fixing her shoes," Laura told Peter,
"Yeah, she didn't like the colour, and is trying to find a shade that will suit her dress." Lilly said. The boys nodded, right here was where the most of the Veela showed up in them. James couldn't take his eyes of them, none of them,
"Erm, do you want us to wait with you for Penny then?" James asked, still not able to take his eyes of Lilly,
"Nah, its fine, you lot go ahead, I'll catch up later" Peter said. So James and Lilly, Sirius and Laura and Remus and Lou all walked down to the great hall.
"So, whys the queue not moving?" Sirius asked, standing on his tiptoes to elevate his height even more. "Ah, the prefects haven't opened the doors yet" Sirius said,
"Why are the prefects there?" Peter asked
"To let us all in" James said, making it sound like the most obvious thing in the world,
"Oh, look, were moving, lets go" Lilly said, grabbing James' hand and pulling him a few paces ahead, the other girls followed suit. The hall was decorated all over with some sort of cheering dust, because the minuet they walked in, a smile was soon plastered across their faces. The hall also had brightly coloured rainbows strewn across the ceiling, and clouds were at both ends of the rainbows.
"Whoa, nice and summery" Sirius said.
"Yeah, its nice though, really pretty" Lou said to them,
"Ach, not a patch on you" Remus said to Lou, who blushed. It was only then that James noticed what the girls were wearing. Lilly had a beautiful black halter neck dress on, that split just below her thigh and continued to be split all the way down to her shoes, which were a lovely pair of black sparkly high heeled shoes. [URL= Lilly's dress, I don't like the girl who models it, hehe, but i like the dress, and i changed Lou had a pink sparkly dress on, that hung loosely to her figure, it was also a full length dress, and split at the knee, right down to her pink matching dress! Again, don't like the model, hehe, I'm so nasty! [/URL] James's glance then went to Laura, who had the most revealing dress, but she could pull it off well. It was a purple full-length gown that was straight but had a V-cut from her neck to her belly button. You could just see her silver heeled shoes from the bottom of the dress. The hall also had a new shimmering floor, scattered with flashing silver dust, Sirius was the first person to notice the food on the other side of the hall, "Oh, food" he said, making Laura laugh,
"Didn't you eat dinner?" Lou asked,
"You think he needs not to have eaten dinner, he's always hungry," Peter said,
"Oh, yeah I guess" Lou said going red at her mistake. Remus noticed this and sent a set of daggers at Peter, who mumbled, "I didn't mean it like that" before dragging Penny off to one of the tables near the end of the hall. Before long Dumbledore was making his way on to the stage to make a speech, "I must first start by saying that you all look wonderful, it is great to see such beautiful wizards and witches pass through this school. Now secondly, I must say that I am very thankful for coming to this summer school, as it has helped me a lot, I have seen my friends, as have you, I have learnt more, as have you, well, I can hope. I hope to continue this idea next time, but I'm afraid the ministry wouldn't allow it. I can say now that they are not to keen that I let any of the pupils, other than the one young man supposed to stay, stay. So, in order to make this a summer to remember, you have tonight to enjoy yourself, and tomorrow, if you did not all know already, you will have the day of tomorrow, to do as you please. I was thinking of not letting you go to Hogsmeade tomorrow, but some of you may need to, so for tomorrow, is yours to choose what you do with. But please, please use the day sensibly." Dumbledore said before walking of the stage. Many of the pupils, including the girls and the Marauders, were shocked at his sudden ending, and what it meant. Thus making them jump at the sound of the music suddenly coming without warning.
"Can I have this dance?" James asked Lilly, holding out his hand. Lilly blushed,
"Of course, James" She said allowing herself to be lead towards the dance floor. Lou and Remus soon joined them, and a while later, after Sirius had had some food, Laura and Sirius also did. Peter and Penny didn't join them at all. Almost an hour had gone by without any of the Marauders noticing the time, but at ten to ten. "Sirius!" James hissed in his ear,
"What?" Sirius replied,
"Ten to ten" James informed him. Sirius' smile was enough to show James what he didn't say. James and Lilly soon went down to sit at one of the cute tables, each decorated with a vase with one rose in it. "Red, or white?" James asked Lilly,
"There all red, James" Lilly said smiling, as though he was blind,
"For you, I would change the colour of everything" James said with a wink, as he drew out his wand and charmed the rose from white to red every two seconds. "If you cant choose, you can have both colours, you deserve them. Or-"James swished his wand again, as the red rose became white and red. -"Would you prefer them both colours at the same time?" James asked her, sitting her down on her chair.
"James, you really are a strange one" Lilly suddenly said,
"Why?" He asked puzzled,
"Because...well, you just are. I got you all worked out wrong. This has been the best summer of my life, and I owe it all to you" Lilly said to him. For the first time in a very long time, James Potter was blushing,
"Don't be stupid, Lilly, don't be stupid" James told her. Out of the corner of James' eye, he could see Laura being lead out of the hall by Sirius, "Lill's?" James asked her, remembering that he had no idea what to ask for when he got to the 'room of requirement'
"Uh huh?" She replied, looking at James with her bright green eyes that James almost got lost in,
"What's your perfect date? I mean if you could have anything in the world for one night, what would it be?"
"Oh, that's simple, me Lou and Laura have had this planned since we were little girls, and its always been the same. Were all different though, but hey, whatever turns you on. I would love, absolutely love to start of by a little walk, through a garden thing, and then end up under a tree by the lake. That's why I spend so much time out at that frigging lake." Lilly told him. James was concentrating very hard on what Lilly was saying to remember it all, "The there would be a little picnic set out, and a blanket, and it would be all sunny, and perfect weather, and the birds and everything like that. We would just sit, eat, cuddle, kiss and chat, and then stars would start to appear and we would just spend the time out there, doing nothing, then walk back through the garden, and, ah..." Lilly trailed off with a dreamy look on her face. James smiled,
"And who may I ask, would be accompanying you?" He asked, hoping to God it was him, and not someone else.
"If you asked me this a few months ago, it wouldn't have been you, but now, now my perspective of you has changed, so I'm hoping, its you" Lilly said, now making it her turn to blush. James smiled at her answer,
"Well I really hope that wish for you comes true," James said, "Sooner than you think," he continued, but he said it quietly that time, so Lilly didn't hear him. Lilly and James spent a little bit longer talking, and then went to dance again. James noticed that Sirius and Laura suddenly re-appeared, with wide grins on there face. "Where'd you get to?" Lilly asked Laura as her and Sirius got closer to their table.
"Oh, we went out for a bit, of, erm, fresh air" Laura said, her face reddening.
"Gosh I need to teach you to lie" Lou suddenly said from behind Lilly and James. Laura's face reddened even more at Lou's comment, but she said nothing.
"Well, would you mind if we had a little chat?" Lou asked with a commercial smile on her face,
"Not at all" James and Sirius said together. Lou, Laura and Lilly walked away and Remus and Sirius sat down opposite James, "Did it work? What happened?" James asked straight away,
"Yeah it worked. Not a lot happened, just the usual. She was well delighted though, couldn't keep her hands off me. I swear." Sirius bragged. The boys all had a good chat about what happened with Sirius and Laura, James slightly failing to believe certain parts of it. His mind was altered though when the shriek of laughter from Lou was in the air a few tables away. Lou was hurriedly shut up by Lilly who put a hand to her mouth. James was shocked to see that she too was giggling, and Laura, was redder than a tomato. Soon the girls came back to the tables, and they all started dancing again, James was constantly looking at his watch, or the door to see if Peter would return any sooner. James had already scanned the room, looking for him, making sure he had actually gone, and he had. James watch now said eleven forty eight. [I] It was getting sooner [/I] James though to him self. Lilly has enquired a few times as to why he kept checking his watch, and he just replied, "Wait and see Lilly, wait and see." Finally James saw Peter emerge into the room again, with Penny, who had a pink tinge visible to her cheeks. Peter hurried over to where James and the rest of them were. "Thank you!" He mouthed immediately to James, who just smiled.
"Hey Lill's, come for a walk" James said in his usual charismatic way, leading Lilly away, Laura and Lou were both giggling, and both knew what was happening by the looks of things.
The music started to fade away, as both of them walked away from the great hall. "So where are we going?" Lilly asked, cuddling into James arm even more, as though she knew what was happening.
"You'll see" James replied quietly, kissing the top of Lilly's resting head. Lilly smiled sweetly up at James. James and Lilly arrived at the statue that James so familiarly encountered only a while ago. "Close your eyes, Lilly" James told her, she did as she was told, but let out a little giggle at the same time. James thought very hard, [I] I want this room to become what Lilly described to me [/I] James thought, three times as he walked from the statue to the picture frame. Suddenly the door appeared, and James removed his hands from Lilly's eyes, allowing her to enter the room. For the first time ever James didn't see a room, he saw a long pathway, a gorgeous dirt pathway, enclosed by trees that had chattering birds in them. James couldn't see to the end of the path, but he knew there must be one. James looked at Lilly, to see her reaction, she was smiling, grinning even, her head was moving all around, "James, how did-" Lilly started, but she didn't finish, because James held his hand across her mouth,
"Ask me no questions, I will tell you no lies," he said, kissing her on the lips. "Shall we?" James asked, indicating to the pathway, and holding out his hand. Lilly took his hand, and gently caressed it, "I don't know how you did this James, but thank you," She said sweetly. James yet again smiled to himself. They both walked down the little lane in silence for a while, but then they struck up a conversation, and before long, James saw the end of the lane, and by the reaction of Lilly, so did she. "Oh, my goodness, James I love this, how- oh I don't care, thank you, thank you." Was what Lilly was saying.
"Its fine Lilly, anything to make you happy" James said to her. They sat down on the chequered blanket, and opened the picnic basket. "You hungry?" James asked, "There's food" he said making it seem like Lilly was stupid. Lilly just laughed though,
"Nah, I'm fine for now, thanks," She said back to James. James sat himself underneath the tress, and Lilly rested her head on his chest. "This is so perfect" Lilly said again to him. James nodded, and pulled Lilly's chin up to eye level with his, and they lay pressed up against the tress kissing for what seemed like ages to James, although he was enjoying every second of it. With every short second that went by, the kiss seemed to be heating its self up slightly, and although he loved it, he wasn't to sure if Lilly was, so he pulled away. "What's wrong?" Lilly asked shocked,
"Nothing, I just guessed you didn't appreciate that," James said, going red slightly.
"No! I did, I mean, well, I didn't hate it" Lilly said, suddenly changing her tone slightly. James smiled at her slightly and only said, "Well then..." Before going into kiss her again, with the same intensity as when he left off. A few minuets later, James and Lilly both pulled away from there kiss, that had lead to a bit more, and Lilly, was blushing, "I'm sorry, I should have, it was just the, the..." she said,
"Its fine, really, it wasn't anything, big, its cool" James said, reassuring her, slightly. James a Lilly sat in silence for a few minuets, a comfortable silence, before James started to take Lilly's shoes off, and toss them aside. "Erm, James, what are you doing?" Lilly asked him, with a smile on her face,
"You'll see," James replied. James then started to take his own shoes off, and he placed them next to Lilly's, "C'mon, water will be nice" James told Lilly, she just laughed at him,
"James, I have a dress on!" Lilly informed him,
"Well, we could change that you know" James said cheekily, Lilly blushed deep crimson, but tried to keep her cool,
"I don't think so James, I don't think so"
"Ach you can always try" James told her. James though, wouldn't take Lilly's no as an answer, and proceeded to pick her up and dump her in the water,
"James!" She screamed, "This is a really expensive dress" Lilly exclaimed, half laughing, half not. James finally got Lilly to calm down, and they paddled around in the water a bit, before James half jumped on Lilly, in an attempt to kiss her. James succeeded, until he ruined his chances by trying to remove a strap of Lilly's dress, and he only received a cold glare, "Okay, I'm sorry, I'm pushing my luck" he said. Lilly just nodded, eyebrows raised as well. "C'mon, lets get dry," James said, "I mean, like a charm, to make us dry, over there" He said, only noticing what he said sounded slightly wrong to Lilly. James and Lilly where back on ground, and dry in no time at all, just in time for James's watch to beep, indicating five to twelve. "We have to get back" James told Lilly, who sight and looked disappointed.
On the way back, Lilly and James were in the same position as they were almost an hour ago, "James, there's something I need to tell you" Lilly suddenly said, not moving herself at all,
"What?" James asked, imagining the worst,
"I have to tell you, and I don't want you to be freaked out at me or anything..." Lilly said, trailing off again. Thoughts that Lilly was about to tell him something like she was a man, or that she was after something, or that she was in love with Peter all rushed into James head, as he imagined the worst, "...I'm in love with you, James" Lilly finally said. James was dumbfounded, [I] In love with me? Finally! [/I] James though,
"Why would I be mad or freaked out about that?" James asked her,
"Well, I didn't want to scare you or freaking you out by saying that I loved you, especially, now that, well I dunno" Lilly said, looking down at her feet,
"Believe me Lill's you shouldn't care about that, especially when you know...that I love you as well," James told her. James brought her head up to eye level, and looked into her beautiful emerald green eyes, "I really do love you Lilly, I really do" James confirmed again. "I have for ages, and I always will" James told her. Unless it was a trick of the eye, or James was seeing things, he could have sworn he saw a tear trickle down her cheek, but he looked harder, and saw nothing.
Lilly and James excited the room, and stopped for another kiss, "You know, its almost a shame we couldn't have spent longer in that room, I was quite warming up to it, as well as you, of course" Lilly said slyly, pulling James back into the Great Hall. James could have kicked himself, [I] why didn't we spend more time in there. I could have known Lilly Evans in a whole new way! [/I] James thought madly to himself. James and Lilly wormed there way through the crowds of people, and back to Sirius, Laura, Lou and Remus, "Hey" Lilly said brightly. The girls all smiled at Lilly, and the boys grinned at James.
"C'mon, Lou" Remus said, leading Lou away,
"Have fun" Lilly and Laura shouted after her.
"I will" Lou mouthed back to Lilly and Laura, sending them into fits of giggles. Lilly and Laura went to a separate table from the boys, so to talk about what happened, although James and Sirius were talking about the exact same things,
"So, what happened?" Sirius asked eagerly,
"Not a lot, bit of kissing, bit more, not a lot though," James said casually, "What's been happening out here?" James asked Sirius.
"Not a lot" Sirius replied impatiently, "Now tell me, properly" Sirius demanded,
"Oh fine" James said, giving in and telling Sirius most of the events of the night.
By one o'clock Remus was back, and they were all in little groups again, telling the details of the night. Although Remus refused to play the old, 'kiss and tell game.' "Your no fun!" Declared Sirius in a huffy, baby voice. With only an hour left, the songs continued to get slower and slower, and the dances and couples, more intimate. "I meant it you know?" James said to Lilly, halfway through a song. He had his arms round her waist, and hers round his neck, he was looking deeply into her eyes again, as he was telling her this,
"Meant what?" Lilly asked quietly,
"When I said I loved you, I meant it" James told her, Lilly smiled at him,
"So did I, so did I" Lilly replied resting her red head on James shoulder. James didn't know what was so special about Lilly, he just knew they had a bond, and no matter what, he wouldn't break that, no matter what.
Earlier that morning, the Marauders and the girls all trooped up the stairs to the Gryffindor common room, sore feet, but big grins on there faces. All four of them said goodnight to their girlfriends at different parts of the common room, each person having a different was of saying goodbye. Peter merely kissed Penny on the lips, before dashing up to the dormitory, whist Sirius, was kissing Laura's neck, only occasionally going back to her face, they also happened to be in an extremely tight embrace. Remus and Lou were just making out, whist Lilly and James, were yet again all over each other. Remus, Sirius and James all happened to 'finish' and go upstairs at the same time. "God, that was a good night" Remus said tiredly to the others.
"Hell yeah" James and Sirius said simultaneously. They all got ready for bed and slept well, not waking up until one o'clock in the afternoon.
"Today's the last day" Remus was telling them all at breakfast
"Yeah, so it is" Sirius said, sadly
"Where are the girls?" Peter asked abruptly
"By the lake, gossiping" Remus replied,
"About last night, no doubt" Sirius said,
"Yeah, after all, there is a lot to cover, eh?" James said hinting at his friends. They all laughed at James comment,
"Erm, I'm going to go find Penny" Peter said all of a sudden
"Okay, Wormtail, see you in a bit" James said, Peter waved, and then quickly rushed out of the dinning hall.
"There something up with him, he seems to be doing a lot of disappearing, he never actually is with Penny, I mean look, there she is over there" Remus pointed out.
"So she is," Sirius said,
"Oh well, I'm sure he'll tell us what it is soon enough" James said happily spreading marmalade onto his toast. Remus didn't look too convinced, and continued to look warily around the room.
Later on that day, everyone was back in the common room, and they were all laughing and joking, until Peter said, yet again unexpectedly, "I'm going to find Penny"
"She's up in the dormitory, want me to get her for you?" Laura shouted after him
"No, I told her I'd meet her downstairs," Peter said not turning round.
"Right, I'm after him, I wanna know what he's up too, I'll see you lot later," James said, as he kissed Lilly bye.
James summoned his invisibility coat and walked out of the common room invisibly. "Point me" James said, placing his wand on the palm of his hand. The wand pointed toward the school grounds, so he followed the directions of the wand, and sure enough, he saw a waddling Peter going out towards what looked like Hagrid's hut. James continued to follow him. James saw he was leading himself into the forbidden forest. If James was going to be one hundred percent truthful, he really didn't want to know where Peter was going. He convinced himself that it was Peter's business and he should stay out of it. On the way back, James saw approaching towards him was Lou, although she couldn't see him, he automatically forgot, and said, "Hey, where you off to?" This of course made Lou jump out of her skin,
"James!" She hissed, "Where the hell are you?" Lou asked him. James removed his cloak, and revealed himself.
"So what you doing out here?" He asked her again,
"I'm off to find that Voldermort guy," Lou said, edgily,
"Why?" James asked,
"Because I found out a lot more about him, I found out where he is, what he's doing, and why he's doing it" Lou explained,
"Wicked, I'm coming with you" James declared,
"Bad idea, it could be dangerous" Lou warned him,
"Ah, then a lovely young lady like you would need some help," James said professionally, making Lou blush slightly,
"I need no help of yours" Lou replied slightly coldly, "Although, I could use the company," She added in, after seeing James's disappointed face. James cheerfully agreed, and they continued towards where James had last seen Peter go. "So what's he doing, and whys he doing it?" James asked Lou,
"He's starting of a muggle hater group, he's killing any one who crosses his path, who happens to be muggle or half blood, or anything other than at least pureblood..." Lou trailed off.
"But, why?" James asked quite shocked, before Lou could answer though, there was a sudden movement in the bushes to one side. Lou instinctively grabbed hold of James. "Sorry," She whispered,
"Its fine" James mouthed. Lou placed her grip back onto her wand, and drew it above her head.
"Louise Rose Stevenson." A cold voice said from where they had heard the sound. James whipped around and saw a tall, thin dark haired man, towering over the two of them. Lou merely smiled,
"Yes?" She asked, "Oh sorry, yes, Tom Marvolo Riddle!" Lou said spitefully,
"Ah, impressive, for a muggle born" The clocked man said,
"You know nothing. I came here thinking I would face someone with worthwhile intelligence, instead, I am faced with you." Lou said boldly, James was astounded with what she was saying. He had just realised that the man in the cloak was that, Voldermort guy, the one who killed muggle borns and half borns alike.
"You think I am not intelligent, ah, what a shame, and here was me thinking I was, how silly of me" Voldermort said to Lou.
"If you had any ounce of intelligence you would not have tried to set up a base on the grounds of Hogwarts School Of Witchcraft And Wizardry. You would also be able to tell apart a muggle born, from a pure blood" Lou reeled off. His time, as you could see in Voldermort's eyes, she had gone to far, she had said to much to insult him, and as James's prediction was right, he suddenly drew out his wand and shouted into the setting sky, 'Crucio.' Lou's screams suddenly filled the sky, and she fell to the ground in pain. James didn't know what to do, he picked her up, but she just fell motionless to the ground.
"What the hell do you think you are doing?" James shouted at Voldermort.
"Stay out of this Potter, stay out of business you know nothing about," Voldermort said, aiming his wand at James's chest. James then drew out his own wand, but before he could say any spell, there was a rushing of feet behind him, and four people appeared behind him. Those four people were Lilly, Laura, Remus and Sirius. Lilly and Laura instantly went to help Lou, who had he eyes still closed, and was muttering to herself.
"She has a very week mind, only the weakest of minds would consider that pain, tell me Potter, do you think that this is painful" Voldermort suddenly said raising his wand and saying that dreadful word again. James suddenly felt his whole body seize up. He heard the screaming of Lilly in the background, as he felt his whole body burning. His body was on fire, he tried to move, to put it out, but he couldn't, all he heard was Lilly screams and the voices of people, were getting fainter and fainter. His body started cooling down, and the screaming got louder and louder. Suddenly, the feeling of being under someone's power was gone, as James stumbled backwards.
"You b!" Sirius said loudly,
"Watch it black, I have your brother behind me, he wouldn't want to pick up language like that now would he" Voldermort said, flicking his wand and releasing rope that tied all six of them together.
"Where's my brother?" Sirius demanded,
"Black!" Voldermort shouted, "Come here." A scrawny young boy that looked the age of seventeen walked towards Voldermort, he too was dressed in a black cloak, with a mask covering his face. "Show your dear brother who you really are" Voldermort demanded, the young boy lifted off his mask, and kneeled to Voldermort, kissing the hem of his robes,
"You worthless piece of scum!" Sirius stated. "No wonder mother never liked you, you kneel to others, she will not be happy at that, now ill she?" Sirius asked rhetorically. Sirius' brother made no movement, nor sound, it seemed he only answered to Voldermort.
"Ah, family affairs, how I miss them" Voldermort stated, letting out a false sigh.
"If you hadn't killed them, like the monster you are, then you could still have them!" Lou shouted with all the might she had in her voice. Lilly and Laura tried to quieten her, but it was too late, the harm had been said.
"You are an outspoken little brat aren't you, Stevenson" Voldermort said, swishing his wand and making the ropes untie and Lou float in the air to meet him, eye to eye.
"I am an outspoken, little, pure blooded brat," Lou said weakly,
"That indeed you are!" Voldermort agreed. With a swoosh of his wand. Lou was suddenly turned facing the other five, still tied up. "You will now all find out what happens when you speak back at Lord Voldermort, you will die, you will die painfully, and you will kill yourself." Voldermort said simply. Voldermort muttered some words under his breath, and conjured a dagger out of nowhere. The dagger fell right into Lou's hand. Lou was placed back on the ground with a thud. Suddenly, for no reason other than the words Voldermort had said beforehand, Lou pulled the dagger towards her, and started slashing at her arm. Lilly and Laura screamed at the sight. Remus begged her to stop and Sirius and James made fierce movements to try and get their wands to stop the spell Voldermort had put on Lou.
"Isn't it funny, watching someone kill them self is so much better than killing them yourself, just a note for you al when you come to your senses and join me." Voldermort said, observing Lou, who was screaming in pain, and trying with all her might, what looked to be dragging the dagger away from her. "But then again, after a while, it does get a bit boring" Voldermort said, he swished his wand again, and the dagger in Lou's hand fell to the floor, as did she. Remus made a quick movement to try and get to her. James tried and tried, but he couldn't move, all he could do was look at Lou. She was lying on the dirty ground, panting, and had blood pouring out of her arms, her eyes were tight shut, and she was muttering something. Suddenly she did something both very stupid and very noble. "I will make a deal with you," Lou said, rolling over, facing Voldermort, but yet not standing on her feet. "You torture me, as much as your jolly well like, and you don't harm a hair or any part of there bodies, and let them go" Lou said, gesturing at James and the girls.
"What good will that do for me? Killing only one?" Voldermort asked her, grinning crazily.
"What good will it do? Your joking" Lou said weekly "It will do you no good whatsoever killing me, James, Lilly, Laura, Remus, Sirius or even Peter for Christ sakes. Were no one special, we like to think we all are, but were not. Were not even muggle born, none of us, we are all pure bloods! None of us have muggle blood in us, and none of us are anything, or will be anything special!" Lou exclaimed, "So you get your one little killing, me. And you let them go, without hurting any of them!" Lou demanded. James was routed even more to the spot than he already was. James had no idea why in the world Lou was doing this and he started to blame himself. [I] I should have dragged her back to the common room. I shouldn't have let her come here. Lilly's going to be mad at me, so is Remus, its all my fault [/I] James was thinking. By the time James was out of his thoughts, Voldermort had condescended to only killing one. "No!" Screamed all five of the remaining teenagers tied up.
"Everyone dies. Some people, sooner than people. It always happens, something's are worth dying for, like your friends. I couldn't have better friends than all of you, so this is the way I chose to die. Believe me, we will meet again, I know we will" Lou said, this little speech made Laura and Lilly burst in to tears. James couldn't even figure out what they were saying, he managed to pick up, "you...cant...we love you...don't...we cant...not without you...please don't and I love you" off of both Laura and Lilly. Remus was also struggling, "Please, Lou, don't! Please" He pleaded, "We love you, you can't do this!" Remus continued, Lou cut him short though,
"You don't understand do you? If I don't die, all of us will!"
"Then we will all die together," Sirius said loudly,
"No, save your death for some other time." Lou said, "You will all chose to die at some point, and if you don't, there will be someone you will die for. You five, especially Laura and Lilly, you lot are the ones I have chosen to die for, and I want to keep it that way" Lou said,
"How touching" Voldermort said to them all, "How utterly sweet, now can we continue" He asked menacingly, Lou nodded, "No!" Came a sudden lengthening scream from both the girls, as they dissolved into sobs again. It was two late, Voldermort had already cried into the now night sky: Avada Kadavra. Lou's body, that was propped up, by the usage of her un-bloody arm, was now slumped on the ground, and her eyes shut, not in fear, or by choice, but by death. By a painful, bloody and tortured death. Lilly and Laura hid their faces from her body, and James and Sirius comforted them.
"Let us go!" Remus suddenly said, trying, but failing to hold back the tears,
"Ah yes, Miss Stevenson's last wish" Voldermort said deviously,
"Let us go!" Remus repeated. Voldermort this time did, the ropes around all of them were suddenly loosened, and they all managed to stand on there won to feet. Lilly and Laura with the help of Sirius and James.
"We will meet again I am sure, but until then, I bid you farewell" Voldermort said before hiding his head in his cloak again,
"Wait!" Lilly suddenly said, "Your that b that killed my sister" Lilly said again. A smile crept across Voldermort's pale face, "You killed her, four years ago, you stole he wand" Lilly said again, even more tears welling up in her eyes.
"You never forget a face, do you, Evans?" Voldermort said, he went to swish his cloak and disappear, but Lilly stopped him again,
"You were right, Voldermort, our paths will cross again, and when they do. I will kill you! I will make sure every inch of my body survives until I find you, and I, will, kill you" Lilly said, James was struggling to hold Lilly still and away from Voldermort, he was also trying to shut her up, but it didn't work. Voldermort only laughed and disappeared.
Remus struggled to move towards Lou, but he knew he had to bring her body up to the castle. He cried at the loss of the only girl he had only loved, and James felt his sorrow as he carried his dead girlfriend back up to the castle. ((Yes I know you cant do that on Hogwarts grounds, but since this is before Harry, I thought the rules could have been changed slightly!! hehe))
The five of them, heads all hanging, saying nothing all walked back towards the castle. The group was a sorry sight, Remus carrying his dead girlfriends body, Lilly practically in James arms and Laura in the same but with Sirius. None of them said a word at all. Argus Filtch greeted them at the door, the last person they ever wanted to see. "Well, what a sorry- my God what has happened to her" He said,
"We need to see Dumbledore" Sirius said in a dull monotone,
"Of course, of course" Filtch said. Filtch lead them to where James knew the staircase to Dumbledore's office was, "Berti Botts" Filtch said, and suddenly, the stature of a gargoyle moved, and allowed them entrance into the elevating staircase. "Headmaster, headmaster. There is an emergency. Black and Potter have done something to Miss Stevenson. To upset to argue, James said nothing, only continued to walk past Dumbledore, and sit Lilly on a chair. Sirius did the same, whilst Remus laid Lou on the floor. Remus looked at his hands and body, he was covered in blood, from where Lou had attacked herself,
"Merlin. What happened here?" Dumbledore asked them. Dumbledore checked Lou's dead body to see if it showed any signs of life, he shock his head, indicating that it didn't. The pictures that were all sleeping, suddenly came awake, and there were tons of stifled cry's and, "Close your eyes" emitting from the paintings.
"Professor, it wasn't us," James said,
"Of course it wasn't. Hold on" Dumbledore told them. Dumbledore swished his wand and conjured five smoking goblets of potion. At the movement of the wand, both Laura and Lilly screamed and fell backwards.
"What's wrong, miss Evans, miss Hammond?" Dumbledore asked them.
"Sir, can I take them to the hospital wing, James was there from the start, he knows what happened. Me and Remus only know part of the story" Sirius said,
"Yes, yes of course. Tell Madam Pomfry ((I'm sorry, I didn't remember that they had the same matron back then as they do in HP times, sorry!!)) that I sent you, and that I require you to take a sleeping draught. Mr Lupin, you go as well" Dumbledore told them,
"I want to stay with Lou" Remus said, gripping Lou's mangled hand.
"Mr Lupin, I believe that is not a good idea. Gets some rest and then I shall see what we can do" Dumbledore said, driving all four of them out of the door,
"But...Lou!" Remus still said,
"Rest Mr Lupin, rest!"
Dumbledore said very sternly, with one last look at Lou, Remus left the room. When the door was shut, James was handed the potion, and he took it. Although he still felt bad, he did feel slightly better, although, the feeling of terror in his stomach, caused by the death of Lou's, was still there. James looked at Lou's dead, blue body, lying only a meter away from him. "Yes, Mr Potter, a great way to start, what happened? Before you start, I know this will not be easy for you. And I now respect you a lot more than you would think, because you are telling me this now, and not later. Now please, tell me what happened" Dumbledore said. For a while, James just sat and said nothing, not knowing where to start, he was trying to think of ways to cover the rules he broke, but none were available. James then just reeled off the story, right from the beginning, when Lou had started to read bout a terrible killer on the loose, about how he had never been captured, about how he killed muggle borns, about how he killed his own family. How he had his own group of people, he described their looks, and then he went no to the run through. From Peter, to the death of Lou, he spoke non-stop, and when he finally did. He buried his head in his hands and let out a cry. Dumbledore put his hand on James shoulder, and told him, "You are a brave man, Mr Potter. Just like Miss Stevenson was a brave woman." James hated hearing that, the 'was' he hated it. James walked over to Lou's body,
"She wouldn't be dead if it wasn't for me!" James said to Dumbledore,
"Now. James, I'm sure that's not true" Dumbledore said to James,
"Yeah, it is. I should have been a proper friend, when she was out there, I should have taken her back to the common room, and ignored where peter was off to, it would have been none of my business anyways." James continued,
"You seem to blame yourself when you shouldn't. James, I had known Lou a very long time, longer than you, and almost as long as Lilly and Laura, she was very strong willed. If she wanted something, nothing in this entire earth, and a whole load other places would get in her way to stop it. That being the reason she was so good at her subject, her acting, and how she got on so well with you lot." Dumbledore reeled off,
"How did you know her that amount of time?" James asked,
"Her father." Dumbledore said simply
"What about him?" James asked, suddenly curious,
"He wasn't very, nice, to Lou, so I went and kept an eye on her every once in a while, made sure she was okay, until she got to Hogwarts" Dumbledore said to James, who nodded. James supposed that was why she came to this summer school, to get away fro her dad, [I] well she certainly got away from him, away from him for good [/I]
"Sir, what do you think she'll do, come back as a ghost, or go through?" James asked, half hoping she would stay as a ghost,
"Ah, James, I feel she will not stay here as a ghost, Lou wouldn't want to annoy anyone here, ach, always trying to please everyone" Dumbledore said, a single tear slid down his face.
"Now, Mr Potter, I think you too should join your friends in the hospital wing. I have arrangements to make for Miss Stevenson." Dumbledore said.
"Thank you sir" James said before closing the door behind him. He couldn't believe on of his friends, was dead! And he was partly to blame. James got to the Hospital wing, and was fussed over by Madam Pomfry, who gave him a sleeping potion, and a hug.
James awoke to the sound of muffled crying, looking up, he remembered exactly what happened last night, and he thought correctly that it would be Lilly and Laura crying. To make matters worse, today was the day everyone was coming back to school. All five of the gang stayed very close together and Peter was disowned from the gang, on behalf of they didn't want to explain everything to Peter. They also weren't to forgiving because Peter wouldn't tell them where he was last night. That night at dinner, the sorting had already been done but privately, because Dumbledore had an announcement to make to the whole school, the whole school that was back already. Hardly anyone knew about Lou's death, and the few that did were in too much a state of grief to be blabbing it to anyone. The Great Hall had been decorated in black satin, to grieve Lou's death. "Tonight, we eat and drink to a great pupil, friend, girl who's bravery has astonished even, me. I am talking about Louise Stevenson, who if she were here tonight, would be severely annoyed because I called her by her real name, but since she is not, I will have to continue. Lou Stevenson, as she was known to many of you was a fantastic, brave smart and charismatic pupil, who I enjoyed teaching, all these year. Unfortunately, I cannot have the pleasure of teaching her again, because last night, she was murdered by a man who's name we will grow to fear, a man who's name some already fear, Voldermort. Lou told me years ago, back in her second year, that she thought she didn't belong in Gryffindor, that she thought she wasn't brave enough, but last night, she showed some bravery I have never seen Gryffindor's before her show. Last night Lou Stevenson died for a cause, she died to save her friends, she died to save others, and I now ask of you to each stand and raise your glasses to Lou Stevenson, one of Gryffindor's Bravest." Dumbledore said, raising his glass. There was a scraping of feet, as mostly everyone in the hall stood to their feet to raise their glass. James looked across the table at Lilly, and at Laura. The both had tears streaming down their faces, and their eyes were blood shot and the light of the candels illuminated their extremely pale skin. Dumbledore said a few more words, before the chatter started, and people asked questions, Laura was already upset enough, so Sirius charmed a glass wall around the five of them, blocking out Peter as well. "Thanks" Laura said weakly,
"No problem" Sirius said with a tiny smile.
"So much for the best summer ever," Lilly said to them all as they walked up to Gryffindor tower.
"Yeah, the worst is more like it," Sirius said
"James, can I have a word?" Lilly asked him, stopping,
"Course you can," James said smiling
"I know, your probably going to hate me, but I cant do this, I cant lose Lou and still go out with you, I'm sorry, I just cant, please don't be mad at me. I just can't be with you anymore. I meant what I said when I said I loved you, and I do want to be with you, but right now, I cant, and I'm sorry, Laura's breaking up with Sirius, but this isn't why I'm doing this. I just need to get my life back in order, I need to get over the loss of Lou, and, I know you wouldn't, but I just feel you would be annoyed at me because I would take so long. Please understand, and remember that I love you" Lilly reeled of to James. James went to retort, but he changed his mind,
"Okay, I understand, and remember, I love you. I always have, and I always will, we'll just see what the future holds" James said, pulling Lilly into the last hug he would give her for a long, long time...
Fin