Chapter 10 – A Plan in Effect
The rest of the week passed by without incident. Lucius sat at the Slytherin table, sending secret glances and smiles at Lily, who caught most of them. James still sat by himself, brooding and trying to work out the right words in his mind, but they never seemed to be good enough. Sirius and Jess continued to send little notes to each other, trying to decide how they were going to carry through their plan. And Lily, well, Lily walked around in a half-daze trying to figure out everything that was going on.
Today was the day. They were going to clear out the Astronomy Tower after dinner and trick Lily and James into the tower. The trickiest part about the plan was how they were going to take away the wands.
"Maybe we could somehow convince them to leave their wands behind," Jess mused to a relaxing Sirius, who was currently leaning up against the wall.
"So what are you going to tell Lily? I've still got no idea how I'm going to convince James to go up to the tower with me."
With a slight shrug, she replied, "I was going to tell her that she has a very hot secret admirer waiting for her up in the Astronomy Tower. I was going to make it somewhat like a mystery to intrigue her."
"That's it!" Sirius exclaimed, pushing himself away from the stone wall. "I'll tell him that the rest of the Marauders want to sit down and talk with him… alone… up there. He'll jump at the chance to make peace with us."
Jess moved forward to place her toned arms around his waist. "You're so clever," she whispered, standing on her tiptoes and brushing his lips with her own.
Winking at her, he drew her into a tight embrace, wrapping his arms around her and placing a gentle peck on the tip of her nose. "I know," he grinned against her temple, kissing it.
"I'm going to spoil you rotten if you take everything that I say as flattery," Jess commented, pulling herself a little out of his grasp.
His eyes twinkled mischievously. "Is that a bad thing?"
A loud bell signaled for the last class of the day to end and the 7th year students piled out into the halls, finally dismissed from Muggle Studies.
Jess backed completely away from Sirius and waved at Lily. Locking elbows with her, the brunette girl chattered excitedly with her best friend as they headed towards the Hall for an early dinner.
James slumped dejectedly out of the classroom, glancing up at Sirius. He obviously stood there waiting for him, because James was the last student to leave the room.
Sirius draped a casual arm around his mess-haired friend's shoulder. "Sorry, Prongs mate. You know how much I hate giving you a hard time, but you were kind of… acting like a prick. But whatever, I'm here to tell you that we want to talk to you after dinner in the Astronomy Tower."
"So I'm finally allowed to sit with you guys again?" he asked hopefully.
Shaking his head, Sirius shot James a weak grin. "Nope, sorry. We're going to start talking to you after dinner." He turned to walk away, but added, "Don't worry. We're still your friends."
"Come on, Padfoot!" Peter whined. "Tell us what's going on! Why are you being so secretive?"
Sirius cuffed him on the back of his head. "For the last time, Wormtail… no! I'm not going to tell you what's happening. I'm meeting James in the Astronomy Tower tonight under the pretenses that we all are."
Looking up at his friend, Remus smiled gently: he knew this had something to do with Jessica White. "We won't tell him," he promised, directing a glare at Peter.
He jumped up from the table, remembering what he had to do. "Sorry mates," Sirius said with a wink, "gotta finish up a few things before talking to Prongsie."
"Jess?" Lily asked her brunette friend as they sat in the Hall, chatting. "Why are you so excited?"
A big, blinding smile grew on her face as Jess winked at Lily. "Because I know something that you don't."
The Head Girl was instantly suspicious, "What?"
Glancing at her watch, Jess gasped. "You're going to be late!" She forced Lily to swallow the last of her food before dragging her out of the Hall.
Lily yanked her arm out of the tight grasp. "What am I going to be late for? Answer me!"
A mischievous twinkle appeared in Jess' brown eyes. "I think the correct question would be: who are you going to be late for. Now get your pretty arse up to the Astronomy Tower!"
Looking in on a happily snogging Hufflepuff couple, Sirius whispered a few key words to his wand. It instantly let off a stream of electric sparks which jolted the two apart.
As the guy glared at him, the girl blushed and attempted to look away.
Sirius pointed his wand at them and made a movement with his head, silently telling them to leave. The two quickly edged their way passed his menacing wand, knowing they did not want any other spells directed at them.
They disappeared behind him and he double-checked the tower to make sure that he did not lock any other people in with James and Lily.
Noticing a noise behind him, Sirius slipped out and hid himself down a shadowy hall just as James pranced by.
He fidgeted nervously. Originally, he had planned to just talk to Lily before he talked with his friends, but Sirius had approached him earlier and James did not want to pass up this most fortunate opportunity.
James spun around in surprise at the voice behind him. "James Potter?"
Lily raced excitedly away from Jess, calling out a hasty goodbye. She couldn't help but smile as she ran through the countless halls to the tower. Tripping on a disappearing step, Lily fell forward with a grunt onto the hard stairs.
Her legs wobbled underneath her as she forced her body off the ground. I wonder who it is, she mused, biting her lip.
Lucius?, she wondered, finally making her way into the Tower. Her eyes widened at the jet-black, messy hair.
"James Potter?" she exclaimed.
The wavy red hair disappeared in a flash and Jess paused before taking off, following her. Shooting wary glances around her, Jess searched for Sirius at the same time trying to keep a close distance between her and Lily.
Rough hands grabbed her and she let out a muffled squeal.
"Shh!" Sirius whispered, holding a finger to her pouting lips. He waved a hand for her to follow him, pointing his wand out in front of him."
Jess slid her wand out of the pocket of her robe and eyed the tall, dark, well-built beater. He mouthed the word 'accio' and pointed at her, indicating that he wanted her to get the wands.
"James Potter?"" They heard Lily call out.
"Accio wands!" Jess yelled as Sirius slammed the door shut after retrieving the wands, sealing it with a quick spell. With a huge grin on his handsome face, Sirius wrapped his arms around Jess, planting a quick kiss on her cheek.
Both Lily and James grabbed helplessly at their floating wands only to realize that they were gon3e. As the door slammed closed, Lily placed her hands on the handle. Yelling and screaming, she took out her frustration on the door, trying to force it to open.
"Lily," James called.
"What?" she yelled, turning on him, menacingly waving a finger in his face. "This is all your doing, James Potter! You arranged for this to happen! You tricked Jess!"
His face twisted in confusion. "What the hell are you on about? I'm up here because I'm supposed to talk to the Marauders and apologize to them."
Lily snorted a laugh. "You… apologize? That'll be the day."
Before James could utter a retort, a large, tawny owl soared through an open window, dropping a letter into James' hand. He opened it, read it, glared at it, and then handed it to Lily, who snatched it quickly.
Dear James and Lily,
We're sorry that we had to do this to you, but the two of you need to sit down and talk things out. Lily: you actually skipped class because of an argument. James: you fought with the Marauders (your best friends) and made an arse of yourself.
We're both waiting outside for you two to work things out and make up and we won't let you out until you do.
Sorry to do this, but you see, we really had no other choice. The two of you wouldn't have talked about this without a little intervention.
Sirius and Jess
Crumpling up the note, Lily looked at James and slumped to the floor. "Looks like we're going to be here for awhile."