A/N: Hello all! I hope you haven't forgotten about me. I temporarily fell off the edge of the Universe, but now I am back. And hopefully it won't happen again. (It's been happening a lot lately, hasn't it?) Well, I hope you enjoy this installment of Illicit Love. Make sure to read the Thank-yous at the bottom!
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Harry Potter…yaddah yaddah…
Happy reading!
Illicit Love
Chapter Fourteen
Ramortia Dungeons
"Pooky Bear," Josephine said. "I missed you so much; I did, I did, I did!" she cooed annoyingly. James looked about ready to lose his dinner. Lily felt a pang of sympathy for him. She also felt a pang of jealousy, even though she knew James hated Josephine Ramortia.
Sirius felt this wave of jealousy Lily emanated and grabbed her hand. He whispered in her ear, "Play along," and Lily could clearly hear the pleading in his voice. She searched his face, then nodded.
Josephine finally let go of James. She turned and greeted the others. "Good evening, Remus darling. How are you Peter? Oh, and Sirius...you grow more handsome every single day. If you keep doing it, I'm going to have to blindfold myself so I don't jump on you! And who's this pretty little thing?"
"This is my girlfriend, Lily."
Josephine smiled brightly. "Isn't she just gorgeous?" she said. Lily noticed Dumbledore's eyebrows knitting for a fraction of a second in confusion as to the act – he'd certainly seen James and Lily holding hands in the hallways and kissing each other lightly when separating.
"You better keep this one on a leash, Sirius sweetheart, because this one could run away and never come back." Lily fake-smiled and Sirius drew Lily into the crook of his arm. This was a bit strange, she thought, but played along, leaning into the embrace.
"Miss Ramortia came along with her father, who is on official business. She inquired to see you," Dumbledore informed. I've got to get back downstairs. Jo, your father is expecting you in the entrance hall by midnight." He left the tower.
"Why are they having a meeting so late? I don't understand," said Peter. Josephine shrugged.
"I don't know. I was pinning away to see Jamsie and Daddy said that he needed to see Dumbledore anyway, so he brought me here, just so I could see my James."
"My little creampuff," he said. Lily thought she was going to puke. "I'm glad you came."
"What's ailing my baby, eh? You seem down." He shook his head. "Let's go for a little walk, shall we?" James looked pleadingly at Lily, but nodded to Josephine.
"Well, Lily and I were just about to go upstairs anyway, right?" Sirius said. Lily smiled in agreement.
Josephine giggled in a high pitch. "I bet you two go at it like rabbits." James glared sharply at Sirius as if threatening, daring him to touch Lily at all. Sirius grinned back at him then dramatically palled Lily up the stairs, making sure Josephine saw them.
"What was that about?" Lily asked once they were in the seventh year boys' dorm. "Nice acting by the way; you can let go of my hand now." Sirius smiled at her and kissed her hand then dropped it.
"Josephine Ramortia is an extremely annoying girl, but she's also extremely jealous. The last time James had a girlfriend she had her father terrorize the other girl's father until he had to be placed in a mental institution and she left school to be with him. We all love you here, Lily; we wouldn't want your family to end up in hell and for you to leave us."
Lily shook her head. "Imagine!" she said. A thought came to her mind. "Do you think it possible that she saw me with James and had my father killed?"
Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment.
"You know," he said, scratching his chin. "I really suppose you could be right. But I don't know why she would go at such lengths to have several other Muggles killed. I imagine that if she wanted to get rid of you, she's leave a mark, letting you know that it was her. and it would probably be just your father." He shrugged.
"Yeah... Maybe it was just a terrorist attack." She sighed. "What're they doing anyway?"
"Who? James and Jo? Well, she's going to tease him along and he'll play along, thinking about how much he'd rather be throwing up in the toilet. Then she'll act like the Virgin Queen and get all prissy and say she believes in waiting until marriage and James will be relieved, pretending like he's upset."
Lily knitted her eyebrows. "I don't get it, why does he do this? Put up with it?"
"Arranged marriage, that's why." He sighed melodramatically. "The joys of having money and power – you get no say in your life."
"All of this is driving me mad! I'm going to be the one submitted into a mental institution."
"You're telling me. And I've been dealing with this for years!"
"How old is she anyway?" Lily asked. "Why isn't she in school?"
"She graduated last year. She went to an American school down in the southern part – can't you hear the twang?"
"Like Scottish mixed with Texan," Lily replied, thinking of all the movies and television programs she had seen of Texan girls with large breasts and short skirts and cowboy boots. "Strange. Well, I'm going to go to my room now." She kissed him on the cheek. "I appreciate your acting skills saving my life. Have a good night."
Lily walked down the stairs, said goodnight to Peter and Remus, then continued on to her room where she planned on taking a hot back with lavender and eucalyptus oils, lighting a few aroma-therapeutic candles for relaxation. She certainly needed and deserved it!
She muttered the password to her room and walked in, closing the door loudly behind her. She kicked off her shoes at the door and started discarding her clothing until she reached her bedroom. She was about to pull off her last item of clothing when a voice spoke: "Did you know I was in here?"
"James!" Lily yelped. "What are you doing in here?"
"I got rid of the Virgin Ice Princess by telling her I had a counseling appointment with another student. She insisted on listening in because she has a psychologist friend who might be interested in having me work for him. I told her it was a very confidential meeting we were having and she gave up after a few minutes and traipsed down the stairs to find Daddy."
"That doesn't explain what you're doing in here," Lily said, crossing her arms and making her realize that she was nearly naked. James stared for a second and her cheeks flushed slightly, she was still not used to being so exposed.
"Well, I came in here because I wanted to make up to you for everything that happened between us today this last week."
* * *
And make up he did.
Lily sighed heavily, her whole body limp as James kneaded his hands into the tense muscles all over her body. He had started by running her a bath, just like she had planned, then he had washed her hair and toweled her dry. He brushed her wet hair softly, carefully, and he seemed to be in a trance, his love and passion for her showing in his eyes.
Then she was on the bed while he massaged her with sweet smelling oils. When he had moved lower on her body, she had giggled uncontrollably.
"What?" he had asked.
"Nothing, this is all so silly," she replied.
"If you don't like my payback, I'll leave."
"No, this is wonderful." She sat up and looked at him for a moment. "Thank you." then she kissed him.
Now they were lying on the bed, hands entwined, legs entangled. Lily watched James sleep, taking in the contours of his face, serene and handsome. She finally fell asleep and dreamt about butterflies – something she had loved to dream about as a child, but hadn't had any since she had gone to Hogwarts. She was in true bliss.
* * *
Monday morning, Lily awoke to find that James had disappeared, again. He had spent the night in her rooms again, and it was the second morning he had done this.
She showered disgruntled and dressed in her Hogwarts robes. She then went down to breakfast and started eating a bowl of hot porridge. Sirius sat down next to her.
"Where's Mr. Lover Boy?" he asked. Lily shrugged. "What's the matter?"
"This is the second time I woke up with him gone. he swears he doesn't regret anything, but he keeps disappearing."
"Maybe he's afraid that is he stays, you'll regret it, so he leaves before you wake." Lily pursed her lips.
"What's this?" she asked, rubbing the patch of stubble on Sirius's chin.
"I'm growing a goatee."
"A what? Urgh! Facial hair is gross."
"I'll give James the heads up – he's been wanting to grow chin hair since we were little." Lily's lip curled. "I'm kidding, Lils." He looked around the Great Hall. "I've no idea where James is."
Lily stared at Sirius for a few seconds, trying to decipher if he was telling the truth, then decided he was. The bell sounded, informing students that lessons were to begin and Lily and Sirius trudged up the stairs to their first Gryffindor lesson of Transfiguration.
James didn't turn up at all.
"What the hell is his problem?" Lily said. They were on their way to Potions class in the Eastern Wing of the castle. "I can't believe he didn't show up."
"Maybe he's not feeling well," Peter said.
"Yeah, and that's why he left your room this morning – because he didn't want you to see him being sick," Sirius said. "Lils, don't fret."
"I'm not."
"You are; I can feel it," Remus said. (He had to be a werewolf, didn't he? Lily thought.)
"Well, it kind of worries me that Josephine would kill off people James is associated with. He just spent the night with me, what the hell is she going to do with him, you know? I'd more think that she'd do something really awful to me."
Instead of being partners with James in Potions class, she paired off with Sirius. He told jokes galore and made her laugh. He also flirted with her big time, which was his usual nature and he meant nothing by it.
"Ooh," he said after slapping her behind when she walked around to take the jar of pickled mugwort he was trying to keep away from her. "Do you work out?" Lily rolled her eyes.
"James will appreciate that, he will." Sirius shrugged.
"James and I are best friends – we share everything."
"That's great," she said dryly, adding the mugwort to the Sleeping Potion.
"Ah, nice of you to join, Mr. Potter," the professor of Potions said. Lily and James looked up to see James strutting in. His hair was slicked from its usual unruliness and he was wearing chic black velvet robes. "I assume Miss Evans and Mr. Black will allow you to join them."
James pulled out the chair next to Sirius and sat down. "So, what are we making?" Sirius and Lily stared at him.
"Where in the name of all that is holy have you been?" Lily said, trying to control her voice.
"In the dungeon of the Ramortia castle," James said simply. "Ah, Sleeping Potion, I see." He started chopping chamomile leaves.
"Dungeon of what? James, this is no time to be funny. We were worried sick about you."
"I'm fine, Sirius. I'm here."
"Where the hell were you?"
"Trapped in the Ramortia's dungeon. It took about an hour to break the bonds they tied me with, then break into the main house through the Floo passages and house-elf hallways. By that time I realized that I was stark naked and grabbed a set of dress robes from the Minister's closet and ran some of his gel through my hair." He hadn't looked up the whole time until he dumped the chamomile leaves into the cauldron and started chopping the vervain root. "I walked out of the house and two of the servants saw me and chased after me, shooting hexes at me. Then I dove out of sight, changed into a stag and they ran right past me. I went back to the house and Flooed straight to Dumbledore's office. He knows all about it now. Well, not he Animagus part…"
"Great, we've got ourselves a bleeding James Bond here with us!" Lily said. Sirius smiled, knowing what she was talking about, as he had seen the films when he was younger and at his father's house.
"James who?" James asked. Lily rolled her eyes. She threw the last of the ingredients into the cauldron.
"Dammit James! I can't believe you."
"There's no reason to be mad."
"No, not at all. Just that you disappear in the middle of the night to only god knows where and you don't show up until a few minutes ago acting and dressed strangely. And you act like it's no big deal! What the hell is wrong with you? You could be an imposter for all I know."
James laughed. "Imposter, I'm sure."
"I'm about to my wits' end, James."
"You should have taken advantage of those days off from classes that McGonagall offered you."
"I couldn't miss classes. I'm not a study freak, but I'd rather not get behind."
"Understandable."
"So," Sirius said casually, looking up from the slow-boiling pot, "where were you really?"
* * *
"I still can't believe it," Lily said, walking into her room with James in tow. She threw her bag down on the table. "Why would Josephine kidnap you? It'd be me that she'd want."
"She did kidnap me," James said, putting his bag down also. "Josephine's stupid. No, really, she's a moron. Her father, though...that man never misses a trick, he doesn't. I'm sure he's been reading the newspapers just like everyone else and I've been in there a lot lately, which means you have too. It's inevitable that we're seen together."
"I don't understand. Why? Why are you always in there when it's your father that's famous? And it's not like he donates his money to charity or anything like that. It's unheard of."
"Well, before I would have been in there just because I'm Teen Witch Weekly's most eligible bachelor or something like that. Or I was last year. Stupid running is coming up again this year and I've been placed on the voting ballots again. I'm more popular than Greg Hart."
"That wizard rock-star guy?"
"Yeah, that one. And since I'm out almost out of school, the press is keeping tabs on me because they know I play Quidditch for England, have lots of money and –"
"Are really good looking."
"Exactly. I just didn't want to sound cocky." Lily rolled her eyes.
"James, what am I going to do with you?"
"Kiss me." She kissed him then sat on the table with her legs wrapped around James's waist. "It's mainly my father's doing anyway. He owns part of the Daily Prophet. Well, funds it actually, but he likes to think of it as owning it. So, he has journalists keep track of me and Jessica so that he knows we're keeping in line."
"Well, I'm tired of talking about you," Lily said. "At least you still have a father."
"Lily, we've discussed this before – you believe he's not dead, so he's not." He pulled removed himself from her grip and sat down on a chair and pulled a gadget out of his pocket and jingled the trinkets. Lily stared hard at it, familiarity seeping into her brain. She had seen those before. A million times in fact.
"Where did you get that?" she snapped.
"Uh – I found it in the dungeon of Josephine's castle." Lily's eyes widened. "Interesting thing, whatever it is. What's the matter?"
"Those are my father's keys."
"These things keys? No way." He looked at her. Then it hit him. "Oh."
She grabbed the keys from out of his hand and checked them out. Sure enough, there was the family picture taken nearly twelve years ago placed inside a key chain.
"Yeah, these are my father's. That's a family picture." James looked at it closely.
"That's you? You're so little...and cute." Lily knitted her eyebrows.
"Do you know what this means? They've got my father – he's there in the Ramortia castle. Or was. We've got to find him."
* * *
Lily walked carefully around her room, trying not to wake James. He slept like the dead, but she couldn't be too careful. If he woke up, it'd be the end of her and her crazy plan.
It was finally Friday and they had fought earlier about taking the weekend to go find her father. James thought it was a bad idea and that Lily should let Dumbledore take care of it.
How could he say that, she said. It was her father. He may not like his father, but she liked hers.
That had cut James pretty deep. Contrary to popular belief, he informed her, he didn't hate his father. How could he hate the man who created him and did everything for him?
Lily glared at that last statement. It took back everything he ever bitched and moaned about his father and she knew he had meant what he said when he told her that he hated the man. She knew the whole story and he couldn't' say that she didn't.
James counter-acted super maturely and stopped talking to her. He hadn't even kisse dher goodnight before crawling into her bed. (They had decided to spend the weekend in her quarters, hoping it would be romantic, but the fight had broke out before sparks could fly.)
Now Lily was pulling on her corduroy trousers and a turtleneck sweater. Next was her robes then her thick wool winter cloak. She left the room without a last glance and headed quietly out of the castle. Once she reached the Hogsmeade pub, she pulled the pouch of Floo Powder she had shoved in her pocket and threw it into the public firebox. She stepped into the emerald flames and called out her destination: "Ramortia castle!"
She twisted and turned at a sickening pace, hitting her elbow on the side of a small chimney she passed through it, then landed flat on her face in a firebox large enough to fit four hefty-grown men
"Well, well, well," a voice said. "What have we here?"
* * *
A/N: It's not going to be who you think it is! We'll meet the people behind the madness next time and find out what the hell's really wrong with Josephine Ramortia. Though, no promises can be made that we can figure out how to solve her problems.
Well, being back from the cold of space, I've come back into the Real World. Man, it sucks. I've got homework and tests and reports/essays and play practice (I got into my school's spring play – it's very exciting!) and work and writing (which usually comes last after everything, though I cheat sometimes) and the list goes on. Why, oh why does it have to be hell being a high school student?
But, on the brighter side, I'm on spring break. On the darker side, I've spent the last couple of days stuck inside the house (literally) and today I helped my family dig ourselves out. Four feet of snow. I think it was national news. If anyone can guess what state I live in, I'll give you an extra souvenir. I don't think it was international news (why would it be?), but you can take a guess. As for you Americans, you might know.
Umm…anyway, I'm going to my thank-you's now. Something I haven't done in a while and I really miss doing, 'cuz I love you all so much!
* * *
THANK_YOUS
* * *
Mega-Archangel
Children,TheEmuIsNotAToy – Will I be your friend? Of course I will!! That is my carefully thought-out decision.
Brilliant, Just Brilliant – I am so honored that you think I am the best writer on ff.net. And I do feel special that you reviewed (though it's been so long since I've posted, I hope you haven't forgotten about me!). I don't ever plan to quit writing, and if I do, I'm counting on you to hunt me down!!! Writer's block is over now, but it's just not been easy to write with all the crap that's been going on. I don't cry when I have withdrawals – just curl up in a ball and shake. I haven't read The Outsiders, though I probably should because you're about the fifth person to ask me if I have.
Zetta – Hi!
Sighhhhh – I read all my reviews twice, thrice, or more! It's a very rare occasion that I don't read one or forget to write it down.
Harmonia
Silver Tiger
Anonymous – Are you my Anon? Just curious because I haven't heard that name in a long time!
Jess the Great
Ma'hi (2) – I've missed you! Did you miss me too? You didn't forget about me, did you?
Martini Addict – Ah! I missed you terribly too! I hate not updating for so long. I don't ever get to "talk" to you anymore.
Crazydreamz
Mizliz3325
LaminaCourt – I'm on your favorites list? I'm honored! I've never been to Canada, but I'd love to go sometime.
Marzoog – I've missed you too! Are you still in England (lucky dog) or did you go back to you homeland? Just curious. I hate being out of touch!!!
LiannesLily
Punkkittin01
Ruby – I'm glad you're a big fan of Falling into Grace.
Anawiel Blackthorn
GrrrL
The Lady Lillian – haven't heard from you in a while, either!
Renee Potter
KaTiE
hpz26
uknowwhoslittleprincess – I always love the jokes! Keep 'em coming if you have anymore!
Prongaholic
Emma
DarkHorse
Marilyn
* * *
THANK YOU!!!!
* * *
Okay, for all whose who review, you will receive a special package of a square foot of snow from my hometown. And for those who can guess correctly what state I live in, you will receive and one hundred square foot package of snow. Isn't that wonderful! Make sure you build lots of snowmen for me! (Because I really don't want it here...)
Happy Reading!
Luvs from~Lavender