Hi! Sorry if there isn't enough L/J action for some of you, but I need to
take my time with this. Otherwise I'll believe the plot is too rushed.
Besides, if they get together too quickly than the story ends sooner.
I've just realized I don't have a single disclaimer.
DISCLAIMER 1: I relinquish all my nonexistent rights to the characters. The
characters aren't mine, just victims of my plot. All you would win if you
sued me is Leonard Rupert, the third mechanically depressed printer to live
in my house.
Oh my love, please don't cry, I'll wash my bloody hands and we'll start a
new life.
Disclaimer 2. Interview format and some of the altered text courtesy of my
YM magazine from February 2002. Why I still have it I have no idea, but YM
and other such magazines really do help occasionally. Article on Josh
Hartnett (FYI I have no idea who he is) I forced myself to read it. By Ali
Gazan. And I am in no way insulting the article. I thought the article was
rather good, but I rarely read things like that and needed to base mine off
something. Got that? No suing or you have to deal with Leonard Rupert.
Disclaimer 3: The author doesn't share the anti-gay opinions expressed in
this chapter nor does she want to incur the wrath of people who are on
either side of the issue.
Disclaimer 4. This chapter is slightly violent and may be found offensive
by some people.
The Witch Weekly Star of the Week By Azela Heartsberg I'll admit I have a small crush on Li Evans. I'd even change my last name
for him.
But beyond his good looks I know nothing about him except that he plays
Seeker on Britain's own Chuddley Cannons. This man of mystery has never done any interviews, and he's pretty much MIA when it comes to the party
scene. I figured the best way to learn about the 22 year-old Quidditch
player would be to make a pilgrimage to his new flat in a town outside
London. The town was a small muggle one. I couldn't believe Li hadn't moved to the
Wizard populated downtown London. The town was so small that an "accidental" run into with the star seemed quite likely. I walked around
the whole town and even to a Quidditch field that is concealed against muggles as an overgrown field. I would have never found it if I hadn't been
looking for it. This was where Li played Quidditch for the first time.
Maybe he once stood where I was standing. The photographer and I went around town. By this time we were starving so
we stopped to eat at a restaurant Li supposedly eats at regularly. I expected it to be this huge place, but actually it was rather plain. The food was ok there. The muggle owners couldn't tell me anything about our
star. Walking around town we couldn't find anyone who knows him. Li
definitely keeps a low profile.
We then headed to Hogwarts for a talk with his former teachers.
One of Li's nasty little secrets we found is that he was a former
Slytherin, but we soon found that this title meant nothing as everyone
seemed to have something good to say about him. "Li was a delightful student." says Headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore. "He had his share of scrapes with my students because of the house rivalry, but it seemed to be all in good fun.an extraordinary student," Professor McGonagall admits. It seems our man of mystery was also a bit of a bad boy
in his younger days, but the compliments of Professor McGonagall are
apparently very hard for a Slytherin to win.
"He was the best student I ever had," Professor Flitwick, the charms
teacher, told us. "He was always coming up with new delightful spells.
Someone of them will even be taught next year to our students."
All this about Li being a good student makes me wonder why he went into Quidditch. Our next logical stop was therefore to visit Madam Hooch, the
flying instructor.
"He was the best flyer in my first year class. I was thinking about
dropping the "no first years of the house team" policy for him. He was
probably the best flyer ever to grace Hogwarts Halls," says the
electrifying teacher. Madam Hooch looked very much like she dropped her
toaster into the bath that morning.
We found out from Madam Hooch that once Li fell over thirty feet from a broomstick while flying hanging upside down by his legs at over a hundred kilometers per hour while going in loop de loops. Apparently he was chasing
the snitch and caught it.
We went back to Li's flat in hopes of seeing him but were met by his friend, Severus. The two met each other and their third friend Lucius in
the Headmaster's office on a day when they were all in trouble. The two
friends are not flat mates, but Severus apparently lives in the same
building as his famous friend. When we asked Severus about Li, he was very vague about his friend and even
told us to sod off. I wondered why Li would be hanging out with such a
person. We stood outside the apartment building. Most of the flats had balconies, and I could just imagine Li looking down at me from his balcony on the top floor (we managed to get out of Severus that Li enjoys heights) wondering why I was holding big signs with his name on it. I thought that maybe the
heartthrob would come down and talk to me.
Li snorted and passed the article back to Lucius. Lucius put it down neatly on a stack that seemed about a foot high.
"Who the hell is that woman?" Li pondered. "And since when am I a heartthrob?"
"Oh Li, you're beyond good looks," Lucius teased in a higher voice.
"Hey Sev, when did she come around?" Li asked.
"The bloody woman came into the building last week and starting banging on all the doors, calling your name. She kept asking me the stupidest questions like what your favorite food was," Severus replied. "Where were you by the way when you threw me to the lion?"
"In the morning, I had practice. After that I spent an hour explaining to James how to do Alohomora properly. Honestly, he thinks that you do this circular motion with your wand when it's a simple flick-swish- flick. After that I flew around a bit before going to Diagon and Knockturn Alleys. Here's your Mandrake root by the way. Cost me a bundle," Li handed Severus a brown paper bag and then turned toward Lucius. "How'd you get that magazine anyway?"
"It's one Narcissa gets. In case you were wondering, your face is on the cover along with 'Li Evans, hottie of the year!'" Lucius raised an eyebrow and looked scandalized. He flipped over the magazine so she could see. Li shoved him, and the three friends laughed.
"So how's married life?" Severus asked.
"It's the same as not being married. Only difference is I can't shag other girls, but to make up for it I can shag Narcissa whenever I want. I now get to be Head of a household and keep Narcissa in line," Lucius told his friends.
"Is that why these flowers say 'I love you pookie?'" Li asked while reading the card with a pair of roses. It seemed that there were five vases full of flowers.
"It looks like she's got you whipped man," Severus snorted. Lucius glared while his friends continued to laugh. Li and Severus soon needed to lean on each other for support.
"I don't know why I try to explain the joy of marriage to two bachelors," Lucius muttered.
"Speaking of bachelors, it's one of the chasers on my team's bachelor party and I have to go to it," Li told her friends grudgingly.
"Good luck. Don't have too much to drink. Drinking a lot at those things comes to bite you in the arse," Lucius advised. Severus and Li remembered Lucius' bachelor party when Lucius had gotten up on a table and did "I'm a Little Teapot." Li hugged her friends and said a quick goodbye. The sooner she left the less she would hear about that incident. She hurriedly flooed over to where the team was meeting.
Hail Psi was getting married. He was a chaser on the team who really went by Michael Paterson. The team had an obsession with coming up with nicknames for everyone. Hail Psi or Hail the Psychic, was the name given to the soon to be married chaser. Hail Psi had gotten his by predicting their Quidditch matches. He had an ability that would have made the divination teacher at Hogwarts jealous. He didn't predict things, or come outright and say whether they would win or not. He would approach random people and say things like "Throw salt over your left shoulder." No one would get what he meant until after the game. The team realized that he was referring to their chaser dropping the Quaffle because a bludger flew over his left shoulder and hit their opponent instead. This was akin to the custom of the Romans throwing salt over their left shoulder to hurt the demons that had caused them to spill the salt. (A/N true according to my high school honors history teacher.)
Hail Psi had once told Li to find a needle in a haystack. It turns out that that the game in which Li had gotten a chance to play, she/he had had to fly into the clouds to find the snitch, its white wings blending in with them.
When people asked Hail Psi what he meant by these predictions, he always said he didn't know. He admitted that he himself had no idea what they meant but felt compelled to say them anyway to the specific person.
Li had tried to get out of the bachelor party. Spending the evening with a group of former Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Gryffindors was not her cup of tea. She had claimed everything from a dinner party with her parents to being sick, but Hail Psi had said if need be, he would change the date of the party so Li "Slick seek" Evans could come to the party. When questioned why, he said the fate of the world would be changed by the reserve seeker's presence at the party. The team had warned from experience that these random things were usually to be followed, so they coaxed Li into coming. Li personally thought the predictions were a bunch of baloney, but when James, two burly starting beaters, two equally menacing reserve seekers, one rather annoying seeker, the coach, the assistant coach, the supposed psychic, and four other bloody chaser-prats insisted she come, she had no choice but to go.
"Is this going to take long?" an irritated Li asked James as soon as she arrived.
"Relax, we're just going to spend a few hours at a strip club then head back to a hotel. Lighten up and enjoy the "musical performances" of the Essex girls. Oh yea, I forgot, you don't like girls. Or maybe you actually DO swing that way," James said pretending to be scandalized.
Li whacked James soundly on the back with the closest object, a broom, and was quite glad that many of the guys had had at least one drink before arriving and that they were too absorbed in their own conversations.
"Hey, I didn't mean it like that. I was only joking. Don't give me an ear bashing. I just thought of this, you can put this statement in if you want or change it to your liking. 'Maybe you'd rather go back to the hotel and do a little dance for me?'" James always found teasing Li amusing. The only problem was you took your life into your own hands when you did.
"You're a prat, did you know that?" Li asked. Before James could answer, Hail Psi stood up in front of the crowd.
"Hey team!" he cried mocking what the coach often said.
"Hey what?" the team responded automatically.
"I'm getting married tomorrow!"
"Good to know," Li muttered. James smirked.
"So what are we doing here? This is my last night as a free man! Let's go out and party!" Hail Psi called out. He was obviously one of those who had already had a bit to drink. The party moved out, and Li soon found herself sitting at a table with a front row view of the dancers. None of the customers in the bar were women. The waitress came over to them, and Li could immediately see why the popular bar was full of men. Part of the uniform was not wearing a top. Li quickly ordered a drink and looked down. James chuckled at Li's reaction and took a sip of his ale.
"What's the matter, Li? The ladies here not good enough?" one of the beaters slurred drunkenly. He laughed like an idiot and turned back to drooling over the women. Li made a sound of disgust and stared at the bottom of her drink. She really didn't want to be there. She didn't like looking at members of her gender stripping. It just wasn't her thing. She found this whole experience degrading to woman as a whole and gave more evidence to her women are weak mentality. Not to mention hanging out with these guys was insufferable. Maybe she could drown at the bottom if the wished it hard enough. Unfortunately Li realised her head was too big to fit into the glass.
"It's not going to run away," the assistant coach, B Batty, jokingly assured Li as he walked past.
Across the table, Hail Psi and the rest of the team were all observing Li's behaviour and his lack of interest in the girls.
"I wonder what's wrong with Sly Seek," a chaser whispered to Hail Psi.
"Maybe he's tired," a beater replied.
"Maybe he's got a girlfriend," the chaser countered.
"He never talks about girls. Then again he's really quiet. He's probably got a girl that will yell at him for looking at the girls."
"Hmm, maybe, but my intuition is telling me that 'Appearances can be rather deceiving,'" Hail Psi informed them.
"What? You saying he doesn't like girls?" the beater asked.
"How should I know? I just say the words, I don't know what they mean," Hail Psi retorted.
"It would make sense, you know, if he is gay. He keeps to himself a lot, and you wouldn't believe this, but I've caught him with women's magazines on occasion.
"That doesn't really mean anything. He could have been looking at the girls in it. Or it might be his girlfriend's or sister's." Hail disagreed. Everyone at the far end of the table watched Li put an arm around James. James in turn put his arm around the person in question. What they didn't know was that Li had come close to falling. She had reached out to James to keep from falling off the chair. James had put his arm around Li's waist to prevent future possible falls.
"No, there's definitely something different about him. It seems like he's trying to imitate us. Sometimes the way he behaves is just not like 'one of us,'" the chaser commented.
"If he is, that's just wrong. Gay guys are disgusting," a keeper put in. "They're filthy." The eyes of the team once again fell to Li and James. Li put her head on James' shoulder and closed her eyes. Her head was so heavy and James' shoulder was preferable to the disgusting table with its beer spills and food crumbs.
"Wait a minutes, guys, Li is an okay guy. We all have a good time together, on and off the field. We know Li better than that. He wouldn't keep something important from us. Besides, he'd still be the same whether he likes girls or guys," Hail Psi continued to argue.
The drunk beater ignored his last comment. "Hail, we really don't know him at all. Can anyone even tell me if he has any siblings? Or who his friends are? Or even his Hogwarts house?"
"I know he's friends with some supporters of Voldemort," the chaser said. "That adds another crime to his list."
"Another crime to his list?" repeated Hail, exasperated.
"Supporting the Dark Lord and being gay, of course."
"Now hold on." Hail Psi protested.
"Look at that! It's disgusting! He and James are going start making out any minute If that doesn't prove he's gay I don't know what will. I don't want something like that on any team I belong to. Let's get him!" the beater yelled. The mob, which now consisted of all the drunken team-mates excluding Li, James, Hail Psi, the coach, and the assistant coach, rushed at the accused. Someone grabbed a wand that hadn't been collected by the "designated driver."
Li looked up at the noise of people shouting, a mob of her teammates coming toward her, looking angry. Li looked around frantically for her wand or at least someone to help her. James had gone to the loo, and the coach and the assistant coach were across the room. Hail Psi seemed to be trying to reason with the mob, but it looked hopeless.
"Dolor!" yelled the person with the wand. Li felt her blood grow warm. A slim line of blood pencilled a line up her arm. Li knew this curse would cause other cuts to form all over her body, as if a needle were cutting into her. The curse began to cut the material of her shirt to pieces. If she moved now, the corset Li wore to bind her breasts would fall apart. As the curse took over her body, Li saw figures appear hazily in the background. She saw her mum being shot and her father wasting away in a hospital bed. She saw Severus and the Dark Lord step out of the shadows. She heard Voldemort call "Avada Kedavra!" and Severus' body slumped to the ground. 'This never happened, this never happened,' Li tried to tell herself. Tears rushed from her eyes as she saw the bodies of her mum, her father and Severus. Then a gravestone appeared. On it appeared the name, James Potter.
Dolor was the pain curse, causing all the physical and emotional pain one person could stand and stopping just short of killing them. Li felt the warm blood flow down her arms. She soon experienced a new pain on the back of her head, and her whole world went dark.
"I got him!" shouted a keeper who had snuck up behind Li and knocked her out with an empty beer bottle. She fell down on her face.
"Sano!" shouted Hail Psi. Any Latin word implying stopping or healing could be used as a countercurse for Dolor, the only reason why it wasn't one of the Unforgivables. The one Hail Psi used literally meant 'to heal.'
"Get back!" The coach and the assistant coach quickly shot as many stunning spells on the unarmed mob. James rushed toward Li.
"Check those cuts! See how deep they are!" the coach yelled over his shoulder. James turned Li over. The remains of her shirt and corset fell away.
Everyone stood there in silence. All action stopped in its place, and no one could speak.
'The bastards!' James cursed in his mind. He threw his cloak over Li and threw one last death glare at the mob. He apparated away without a trace, taking his fallen comrade with him.
(A/N Ah break time. Huzzah. Don't worry it's not over. I'm taking this opportunity to tell you all that this next part WAS NOT checked over by my beta reader and therefore has MANY mistakes and plot errors. Just to let you know. Oh, once more I'm goiving a language warning. THIS IS A PG-13 story. I'm allowed to curse when I feel it necessary, but for those more conservative people I'm avoiding the F curse and keeping "bitch" to a low. No one talk to me about this cause I warned you and I can quote it later on if you complain. Oh, I may be the daughter of a doctor, but I have no idea how this stuff works so please excuse me.)
"Open the door!" James yelled at the top of his lungs. James shifted the unconscious Li in his arms. Surprisingly for such a buff woman she was quiet light. James knew she lived on the top floor of this complex, but he had no idea where she kept her keys and the standard unlocking spell wasn't working. James had managed to locate an address in Li's pocket. It was for a flat five flights down from Li's. James prayed it was someone who could help. The door unlocked slowly and showed a dark face.
"Potter," hissed the voice of the man who had opened the door. His face turned into a snarl.
"Forget that for a minute Snape. Li's hurt," James explained. The man's face changed immediately. It became a worried look. He opened all the way and James found Li being ripped from his arms. Snape carried her over to a couch. He gently lay the woman on the couch and began to examine her wounds.
"It's not so bad, the cut isn't deep. It will need to be dressed and cleaned quickly or we risk infections. She does appear to have a mild concussion. We're going to have to force her to wake up. It won't be easy. How long has she been like this?" Snape asked.
"About half an hour," James said taken aback. How did Snape know all this?
"Shit. Ok, we're going to have to get her to wake up now. Have to wake her up by traditional methods. If she's been like this for that long, no spell will work," Snape explained. James opened his mouth to speak. "No we can't just use Ennervate. That only works when someone has been stunned. I thought you were training to be an Auror on the side of your Quidditch playing. Honestly." He stopped and examined the back of Li's head. "It appears to have been caused by a blunt object, but I'm guessing it either broke or there was something sharp, you see these cuts? We've got to get her to wake up. Unfortunately she'll be awake while I'm cleaning out these wounds. As I said before, none are deep, thankfully there's no damage to any vital organs from what I can tell, but I'd like a second opinion. The spell causes the blood to warm so we're going to need a blood fixing potion to make sure nothing was damaged. Well what are you doing standing there? Are you daft? The potion I need is in the backroom. It's labeled number twenty-five. It should be a greenish color. Bring it her. In the bathroom there should be some bandages. I don't think I have enough you'll have to fetch some bandages from Li's flat later."
"What makes you think I'm staying?" James asked. "I brought her here, I did my part. I could have left her there."
"If you don't help me, there a possibility she won't wake up. Or it could turn out that she gets an infection because I didn't clean these wounds out in time. Her rib cage protected her, but it cut something. Look, some leave an opening for viruses to get in and they are pretty damn close to some important stuff. She lost a whole lot of blood. We need to make sure all of them clot later so she doesn't lose more and the warming of her blood could have caused problems. So you are either going to help me. If anything happens to her I swear I will hunt you down. You got that you son of a bitch?" Snape threatened. James nodded. He ran to get everything Snape needed.
"There was no blood replacement potion," James told Snape.
"I haven't been able to get her up. You try and I'll cook up some more potion. If she wakes up give her the potion you have there. Use the alcohol to clean out her cuts and then wrap it quickly," Snape ordered before disappearing.
"Um, wake up?" James asked Li tentatively. He shook her arm gently. She remained a sleep. She looked like one who was dead. Not exactly peaceful, just not home. James shook her harder. He yelled in her ear, but still she wouldn't wake up. James started to panic and summoned a bucket of water. In the process of pouring it on Li her got at least half of it on himself. Li's eyes fluttered open and instant relief flooded into James. Green eyes opened to the world before closing again heavily.
"WAKE UP DAMN IT!" James screamed at her. Her eyes opened again. James continued to yell for fear she would go back to sleep.
"What." Li slurred. James shoved the potion at her and forced it into her mouth. She coughed and sputtered as the liquid slid down her throat.
You know what? I'm leaving it here. I can't think of anything to come next at the moment that would continue the scene. Only gentle flames allowed here. I don't want a forest fire. This was the best way I could think of and never fear, L/J is around the next few chapters.
The Witch Weekly Star of the Week By Azela Heartsberg I'll admit I have a small crush on Li Evans. I'd even change my last name
for him.
But beyond his good looks I know nothing about him except that he plays
Seeker on Britain's own Chuddley Cannons. This man of mystery has never done any interviews, and he's pretty much MIA when it comes to the party
scene. I figured the best way to learn about the 22 year-old Quidditch
player would be to make a pilgrimage to his new flat in a town outside
London. The town was a small muggle one. I couldn't believe Li hadn't moved to the
Wizard populated downtown London. The town was so small that an "accidental" run into with the star seemed quite likely. I walked around
the whole town and even to a Quidditch field that is concealed against muggles as an overgrown field. I would have never found it if I hadn't been
looking for it. This was where Li played Quidditch for the first time.
Maybe he once stood where I was standing. The photographer and I went around town. By this time we were starving so
we stopped to eat at a restaurant Li supposedly eats at regularly. I expected it to be this huge place, but actually it was rather plain. The food was ok there. The muggle owners couldn't tell me anything about our
star. Walking around town we couldn't find anyone who knows him. Li
definitely keeps a low profile.
We then headed to Hogwarts for a talk with his former teachers.
One of Li's nasty little secrets we found is that he was a former
Slytherin, but we soon found that this title meant nothing as everyone
seemed to have something good to say about him. "Li was a delightful student." says Headmaster Professor Albus Dumbledore. "He had his share of scrapes with my students because of the house rivalry, but it seemed to be all in good fun.an extraordinary student," Professor McGonagall admits. It seems our man of mystery was also a bit of a bad boy
in his younger days, but the compliments of Professor McGonagall are
apparently very hard for a Slytherin to win.
"He was the best student I ever had," Professor Flitwick, the charms
teacher, told us. "He was always coming up with new delightful spells.
Someone of them will even be taught next year to our students."
All this about Li being a good student makes me wonder why he went into Quidditch. Our next logical stop was therefore to visit Madam Hooch, the
flying instructor.
"He was the best flyer in my first year class. I was thinking about
dropping the "no first years of the house team" policy for him. He was
probably the best flyer ever to grace Hogwarts Halls," says the
electrifying teacher. Madam Hooch looked very much like she dropped her
toaster into the bath that morning.
We found out from Madam Hooch that once Li fell over thirty feet from a broomstick while flying hanging upside down by his legs at over a hundred kilometers per hour while going in loop de loops. Apparently he was chasing
the snitch and caught it.
We went back to Li's flat in hopes of seeing him but were met by his friend, Severus. The two met each other and their third friend Lucius in
the Headmaster's office on a day when they were all in trouble. The two
friends are not flat mates, but Severus apparently lives in the same
building as his famous friend. When we asked Severus about Li, he was very vague about his friend and even
told us to sod off. I wondered why Li would be hanging out with such a
person. We stood outside the apartment building. Most of the flats had balconies, and I could just imagine Li looking down at me from his balcony on the top floor (we managed to get out of Severus that Li enjoys heights) wondering why I was holding big signs with his name on it. I thought that maybe the
heartthrob would come down and talk to me.
Li snorted and passed the article back to Lucius. Lucius put it down neatly on a stack that seemed about a foot high.
"Who the hell is that woman?" Li pondered. "And since when am I a heartthrob?"
"Oh Li, you're beyond good looks," Lucius teased in a higher voice.
"Hey Sev, when did she come around?" Li asked.
"The bloody woman came into the building last week and starting banging on all the doors, calling your name. She kept asking me the stupidest questions like what your favorite food was," Severus replied. "Where were you by the way when you threw me to the lion?"
"In the morning, I had practice. After that I spent an hour explaining to James how to do Alohomora properly. Honestly, he thinks that you do this circular motion with your wand when it's a simple flick-swish- flick. After that I flew around a bit before going to Diagon and Knockturn Alleys. Here's your Mandrake root by the way. Cost me a bundle," Li handed Severus a brown paper bag and then turned toward Lucius. "How'd you get that magazine anyway?"
"It's one Narcissa gets. In case you were wondering, your face is on the cover along with 'Li Evans, hottie of the year!'" Lucius raised an eyebrow and looked scandalized. He flipped over the magazine so she could see. Li shoved him, and the three friends laughed.
"So how's married life?" Severus asked.
"It's the same as not being married. Only difference is I can't shag other girls, but to make up for it I can shag Narcissa whenever I want. I now get to be Head of a household and keep Narcissa in line," Lucius told his friends.
"Is that why these flowers say 'I love you pookie?'" Li asked while reading the card with a pair of roses. It seemed that there were five vases full of flowers.
"It looks like she's got you whipped man," Severus snorted. Lucius glared while his friends continued to laugh. Li and Severus soon needed to lean on each other for support.
"I don't know why I try to explain the joy of marriage to two bachelors," Lucius muttered.
"Speaking of bachelors, it's one of the chasers on my team's bachelor party and I have to go to it," Li told her friends grudgingly.
"Good luck. Don't have too much to drink. Drinking a lot at those things comes to bite you in the arse," Lucius advised. Severus and Li remembered Lucius' bachelor party when Lucius had gotten up on a table and did "I'm a Little Teapot." Li hugged her friends and said a quick goodbye. The sooner she left the less she would hear about that incident. She hurriedly flooed over to where the team was meeting.
Hail Psi was getting married. He was a chaser on the team who really went by Michael Paterson. The team had an obsession with coming up with nicknames for everyone. Hail Psi or Hail the Psychic, was the name given to the soon to be married chaser. Hail Psi had gotten his by predicting their Quidditch matches. He had an ability that would have made the divination teacher at Hogwarts jealous. He didn't predict things, or come outright and say whether they would win or not. He would approach random people and say things like "Throw salt over your left shoulder." No one would get what he meant until after the game. The team realized that he was referring to their chaser dropping the Quaffle because a bludger flew over his left shoulder and hit their opponent instead. This was akin to the custom of the Romans throwing salt over their left shoulder to hurt the demons that had caused them to spill the salt. (A/N true according to my high school honors history teacher.)
Hail Psi had once told Li to find a needle in a haystack. It turns out that that the game in which Li had gotten a chance to play, she/he had had to fly into the clouds to find the snitch, its white wings blending in with them.
When people asked Hail Psi what he meant by these predictions, he always said he didn't know. He admitted that he himself had no idea what they meant but felt compelled to say them anyway to the specific person.
Li had tried to get out of the bachelor party. Spending the evening with a group of former Hufflepuffs, Ravenclaws, and Gryffindors was not her cup of tea. She had claimed everything from a dinner party with her parents to being sick, but Hail Psi had said if need be, he would change the date of the party so Li "Slick seek" Evans could come to the party. When questioned why, he said the fate of the world would be changed by the reserve seeker's presence at the party. The team had warned from experience that these random things were usually to be followed, so they coaxed Li into coming. Li personally thought the predictions were a bunch of baloney, but when James, two burly starting beaters, two equally menacing reserve seekers, one rather annoying seeker, the coach, the assistant coach, the supposed psychic, and four other bloody chaser-prats insisted she come, she had no choice but to go.
"Is this going to take long?" an irritated Li asked James as soon as she arrived.
"Relax, we're just going to spend a few hours at a strip club then head back to a hotel. Lighten up and enjoy the "musical performances" of the Essex girls. Oh yea, I forgot, you don't like girls. Or maybe you actually DO swing that way," James said pretending to be scandalized.
Li whacked James soundly on the back with the closest object, a broom, and was quite glad that many of the guys had had at least one drink before arriving and that they were too absorbed in their own conversations.
"Hey, I didn't mean it like that. I was only joking. Don't give me an ear bashing. I just thought of this, you can put this statement in if you want or change it to your liking. 'Maybe you'd rather go back to the hotel and do a little dance for me?'" James always found teasing Li amusing. The only problem was you took your life into your own hands when you did.
"You're a prat, did you know that?" Li asked. Before James could answer, Hail Psi stood up in front of the crowd.
"Hey team!" he cried mocking what the coach often said.
"Hey what?" the team responded automatically.
"I'm getting married tomorrow!"
"Good to know," Li muttered. James smirked.
"So what are we doing here? This is my last night as a free man! Let's go out and party!" Hail Psi called out. He was obviously one of those who had already had a bit to drink. The party moved out, and Li soon found herself sitting at a table with a front row view of the dancers. None of the customers in the bar were women. The waitress came over to them, and Li could immediately see why the popular bar was full of men. Part of the uniform was not wearing a top. Li quickly ordered a drink and looked down. James chuckled at Li's reaction and took a sip of his ale.
"What's the matter, Li? The ladies here not good enough?" one of the beaters slurred drunkenly. He laughed like an idiot and turned back to drooling over the women. Li made a sound of disgust and stared at the bottom of her drink. She really didn't want to be there. She didn't like looking at members of her gender stripping. It just wasn't her thing. She found this whole experience degrading to woman as a whole and gave more evidence to her women are weak mentality. Not to mention hanging out with these guys was insufferable. Maybe she could drown at the bottom if the wished it hard enough. Unfortunately Li realised her head was too big to fit into the glass.
"It's not going to run away," the assistant coach, B Batty, jokingly assured Li as he walked past.
Across the table, Hail Psi and the rest of the team were all observing Li's behaviour and his lack of interest in the girls.
"I wonder what's wrong with Sly Seek," a chaser whispered to Hail Psi.
"Maybe he's tired," a beater replied.
"Maybe he's got a girlfriend," the chaser countered.
"He never talks about girls. Then again he's really quiet. He's probably got a girl that will yell at him for looking at the girls."
"Hmm, maybe, but my intuition is telling me that 'Appearances can be rather deceiving,'" Hail Psi informed them.
"What? You saying he doesn't like girls?" the beater asked.
"How should I know? I just say the words, I don't know what they mean," Hail Psi retorted.
"It would make sense, you know, if he is gay. He keeps to himself a lot, and you wouldn't believe this, but I've caught him with women's magazines on occasion.
"That doesn't really mean anything. He could have been looking at the girls in it. Or it might be his girlfriend's or sister's." Hail disagreed. Everyone at the far end of the table watched Li put an arm around James. James in turn put his arm around the person in question. What they didn't know was that Li had come close to falling. She had reached out to James to keep from falling off the chair. James had put his arm around Li's waist to prevent future possible falls.
"No, there's definitely something different about him. It seems like he's trying to imitate us. Sometimes the way he behaves is just not like 'one of us,'" the chaser commented.
"If he is, that's just wrong. Gay guys are disgusting," a keeper put in. "They're filthy." The eyes of the team once again fell to Li and James. Li put her head on James' shoulder and closed her eyes. Her head was so heavy and James' shoulder was preferable to the disgusting table with its beer spills and food crumbs.
"Wait a minutes, guys, Li is an okay guy. We all have a good time together, on and off the field. We know Li better than that. He wouldn't keep something important from us. Besides, he'd still be the same whether he likes girls or guys," Hail Psi continued to argue.
The drunk beater ignored his last comment. "Hail, we really don't know him at all. Can anyone even tell me if he has any siblings? Or who his friends are? Or even his Hogwarts house?"
"I know he's friends with some supporters of Voldemort," the chaser said. "That adds another crime to his list."
"Another crime to his list?" repeated Hail, exasperated.
"Supporting the Dark Lord and being gay, of course."
"Now hold on." Hail Psi protested.
"Look at that! It's disgusting! He and James are going start making out any minute If that doesn't prove he's gay I don't know what will. I don't want something like that on any team I belong to. Let's get him!" the beater yelled. The mob, which now consisted of all the drunken team-mates excluding Li, James, Hail Psi, the coach, and the assistant coach, rushed at the accused. Someone grabbed a wand that hadn't been collected by the "designated driver."
Li looked up at the noise of people shouting, a mob of her teammates coming toward her, looking angry. Li looked around frantically for her wand or at least someone to help her. James had gone to the loo, and the coach and the assistant coach were across the room. Hail Psi seemed to be trying to reason with the mob, but it looked hopeless.
"Dolor!" yelled the person with the wand. Li felt her blood grow warm. A slim line of blood pencilled a line up her arm. Li knew this curse would cause other cuts to form all over her body, as if a needle were cutting into her. The curse began to cut the material of her shirt to pieces. If she moved now, the corset Li wore to bind her breasts would fall apart. As the curse took over her body, Li saw figures appear hazily in the background. She saw her mum being shot and her father wasting away in a hospital bed. She saw Severus and the Dark Lord step out of the shadows. She heard Voldemort call "Avada Kedavra!" and Severus' body slumped to the ground. 'This never happened, this never happened,' Li tried to tell herself. Tears rushed from her eyes as she saw the bodies of her mum, her father and Severus. Then a gravestone appeared. On it appeared the name, James Potter.
Dolor was the pain curse, causing all the physical and emotional pain one person could stand and stopping just short of killing them. Li felt the warm blood flow down her arms. She soon experienced a new pain on the back of her head, and her whole world went dark.
"I got him!" shouted a keeper who had snuck up behind Li and knocked her out with an empty beer bottle. She fell down on her face.
"Sano!" shouted Hail Psi. Any Latin word implying stopping or healing could be used as a countercurse for Dolor, the only reason why it wasn't one of the Unforgivables. The one Hail Psi used literally meant 'to heal.'
"Get back!" The coach and the assistant coach quickly shot as many stunning spells on the unarmed mob. James rushed toward Li.
"Check those cuts! See how deep they are!" the coach yelled over his shoulder. James turned Li over. The remains of her shirt and corset fell away.
Everyone stood there in silence. All action stopped in its place, and no one could speak.
'The bastards!' James cursed in his mind. He threw his cloak over Li and threw one last death glare at the mob. He apparated away without a trace, taking his fallen comrade with him.
(A/N Ah break time. Huzzah. Don't worry it's not over. I'm taking this opportunity to tell you all that this next part WAS NOT checked over by my beta reader and therefore has MANY mistakes and plot errors. Just to let you know. Oh, once more I'm goiving a language warning. THIS IS A PG-13 story. I'm allowed to curse when I feel it necessary, but for those more conservative people I'm avoiding the F curse and keeping "bitch" to a low. No one talk to me about this cause I warned you and I can quote it later on if you complain. Oh, I may be the daughter of a doctor, but I have no idea how this stuff works so please excuse me.)
"Open the door!" James yelled at the top of his lungs. James shifted the unconscious Li in his arms. Surprisingly for such a buff woman she was quiet light. James knew she lived on the top floor of this complex, but he had no idea where she kept her keys and the standard unlocking spell wasn't working. James had managed to locate an address in Li's pocket. It was for a flat five flights down from Li's. James prayed it was someone who could help. The door unlocked slowly and showed a dark face.
"Potter," hissed the voice of the man who had opened the door. His face turned into a snarl.
"Forget that for a minute Snape. Li's hurt," James explained. The man's face changed immediately. It became a worried look. He opened all the way and James found Li being ripped from his arms. Snape carried her over to a couch. He gently lay the woman on the couch and began to examine her wounds.
"It's not so bad, the cut isn't deep. It will need to be dressed and cleaned quickly or we risk infections. She does appear to have a mild concussion. We're going to have to force her to wake up. It won't be easy. How long has she been like this?" Snape asked.
"About half an hour," James said taken aback. How did Snape know all this?
"Shit. Ok, we're going to have to get her to wake up now. Have to wake her up by traditional methods. If she's been like this for that long, no spell will work," Snape explained. James opened his mouth to speak. "No we can't just use Ennervate. That only works when someone has been stunned. I thought you were training to be an Auror on the side of your Quidditch playing. Honestly." He stopped and examined the back of Li's head. "It appears to have been caused by a blunt object, but I'm guessing it either broke or there was something sharp, you see these cuts? We've got to get her to wake up. Unfortunately she'll be awake while I'm cleaning out these wounds. As I said before, none are deep, thankfully there's no damage to any vital organs from what I can tell, but I'd like a second opinion. The spell causes the blood to warm so we're going to need a blood fixing potion to make sure nothing was damaged. Well what are you doing standing there? Are you daft? The potion I need is in the backroom. It's labeled number twenty-five. It should be a greenish color. Bring it her. In the bathroom there should be some bandages. I don't think I have enough you'll have to fetch some bandages from Li's flat later."
"What makes you think I'm staying?" James asked. "I brought her here, I did my part. I could have left her there."
"If you don't help me, there a possibility she won't wake up. Or it could turn out that she gets an infection because I didn't clean these wounds out in time. Her rib cage protected her, but it cut something. Look, some leave an opening for viruses to get in and they are pretty damn close to some important stuff. She lost a whole lot of blood. We need to make sure all of them clot later so she doesn't lose more and the warming of her blood could have caused problems. So you are either going to help me. If anything happens to her I swear I will hunt you down. You got that you son of a bitch?" Snape threatened. James nodded. He ran to get everything Snape needed.
"There was no blood replacement potion," James told Snape.
"I haven't been able to get her up. You try and I'll cook up some more potion. If she wakes up give her the potion you have there. Use the alcohol to clean out her cuts and then wrap it quickly," Snape ordered before disappearing.
"Um, wake up?" James asked Li tentatively. He shook her arm gently. She remained a sleep. She looked like one who was dead. Not exactly peaceful, just not home. James shook her harder. He yelled in her ear, but still she wouldn't wake up. James started to panic and summoned a bucket of water. In the process of pouring it on Li her got at least half of it on himself. Li's eyes fluttered open and instant relief flooded into James. Green eyes opened to the world before closing again heavily.
"WAKE UP DAMN IT!" James screamed at her. Her eyes opened again. James continued to yell for fear she would go back to sleep.
"What." Li slurred. James shoved the potion at her and forced it into her mouth. She coughed and sputtered as the liquid slid down her throat.
You know what? I'm leaving it here. I can't think of anything to come next at the moment that would continue the scene. Only gentle flames allowed here. I don't want a forest fire. This was the best way I could think of and never fear, L/J is around the next few chapters.