Chapter seven: Black mail as art

Thursday May 13th

Care of Magical Creatures: read chapter 22 page numbers 243-254 how to distinguish a kneezle from a full blood cat

History of Magic: Essay, the Vampire war of 1331 12 inches due Monday (Information in notes...I think)

Divination: None (Note to self: Drop class, is a complete waste of time)

Transfiguration: None (finally)

Personal notes: Must remind self to remain awake during History of magic. Will do no good to learn about vampires if mind is on the good nights sleep I didn't get. Remind self to slap sense into Virginia when she stares adoringly at Sirius Black, is arrogant pig after all. While on subject of arrogant pigs, must-not-use-un-forgivable curse-on-James-Potter. Even if prat deserves it. Bastard. Must sleep, or will lose all sense of self. Yes sleep is good. Good night.

Yours truly,

Lilly Anne Evans

Footsteps. Rather loud footsteps. Stomping up the stairs.

'Here it comes' Emily thought as she closed the cover on the last written page of Lilly Evan's journal. Any moment now, James Potter would come bursting into the room in a rage looking for the pilfered diary of his beloved. She, Emily, would proceed to confront him with her knowledge of said stolen object. Then...Let the fun begin.

Being an actress, she had always had an intuition that she would be good at blackmail. Not that a proper young heroine would ever participate in such illegal practices. And she was still a lady. But desperate times did call for desperate measures. Given that and the fact that the entire tradition of all things good and chivalrous was at stake, she knew she had to do something. (Even if that something was, just slightly, illegal.)

Sure enough within seconds the door burst open and James Potter ran into the room dashing to his bed. Frantically he began turning the covers, his hair tussled worse than usual and his brow had broken out into a faint sweat. He apparently hadn't noticed the fact that Emily was smirking madly at him.

Oh, it was fun to watch him squirm like that.

"Lost anything, Potter?" Emily asked sporting a deliberately evil smirk and putting particular emphasis on the use of his sur- name. Two could play at that game, she decided. He quickly turned and looked at her as if just noticing that she was there.

"All right Gardner. Hand it over." He said a threateningly as he could walking over to her bed.

"Hand over what?" Emily asked lightly.

"Don't play innocent with me Gardner. I know you've got it, now where is it?" He said advancing upon her.

"I'm sure I don't have anything that belongs to you." Emily said dragging the moment out as long as possible. This was just too much fun.

James turned away from her in frustration apparently debating on weather he should pull out his wand and hex her into next Tuesday or simply stalk menacingly out of the room. He seemed to have settled on the latter and began to walk to the door.

"However," She began as he stopped in the doorway. "I did happen upon a certain diary belonging to a Lilly Evans..." Emily said using her lightest and most innocent sounding voice.

"But I'm sure that couldn't possibly be what you're looking for, after all what would you want with a girl's journal?"

James walked slowly over to her bed and grasped for the book, which she was holding out of his reach. Now it was her turn to smirk.

"What? Didn't think a girl would be able to out smart a man of obviously superior intelligence?" She asked sarcastically.

He finally gave up the struggle and stepped away from her bed looking shocked. As if thinking of something that hadn't occurred to him before.

"Wait a minuet..." He said eyeing her suspiciously.

"I know I put it in my bag. I remember putting it in my bag. How did you...?" He stood staring at her for a moment more before his eyes widened in realization. Quickly he turned to see the invisibility cloak lying sprawled out on the floor, and then looked back at her wearing an expression of mingled furry.

"Why you sneaky little-"

"I wouldn't finish that sentence if I were you Potter. Not unless you want this Miss Evans to simply happen upon her missing diary in your dorm room." Emily had to bite her lip in order to keep her composure

"Yes. I imagine that she could give you a nice little bruise on your other cheek to match the one you got today."

James's hand instinctively reached up to his left cheek, which was still slightly red, a look of panic on his face. Emily nearly doubled over in silent laughter. Who knew black mail could be so much fun.

"You wouldn't... you couldn't. You're not supposed to leave this room." James stuttered. Though she could tell that even he didn't really believe what he was saying.

"Oh, we both know there are ways around that." Emily said innocently.

"What are you talking about? How in the world would you tell her?" James asked now completely panic stricken.

"Well, an anonymous little note would, theoretically of course, do the trick don't you think? It doesn't take much to slip down the hall into the girls dormitory. You don't have to be a genius to realize that the doors are unlocked and the common room is empty during the day. Except for me of course."

Emily's eyes were gleaming in silent triumph. Yes, this would indeed be a conquest for Woman kind in the modern age.

"In fact..." She continued. "I might see it as my duty to inform her of the whereabouts of this journal. After all, a stolen object really should, in all fairness be returned to it's rightful owner. Wouldn't you agree?" Emily said in her most dignified voice.

This put the icing on the cake. The last statement needed to send James Potter past the very edge of sanity.

"You...you...you would-wouldn't. You...you couldn't...."

Just by looking at his face she could tell that it was taking every bit of effort not to break down and beg her not to do what she had just described to him.

"Oh, on the contrary I would. And what's more, I won't feel a bit guilty about any of it. You'd deserve every bit of what you got. Unless..."

This was it.

"Unless what?" James asked frantically.

"Unless of course you agree to abide by a few very simple rules."

"What are they?"

He was begging. She could see it in his eyes. Perfect.

"First of all. From this moment on you are to refer to me by my first name only. Unless, of course, the use of my sur-name is proceeded by the word "Miss".

"Fine miss Gardner." James asked with a slightly facicious air

"Second" Emily continued ignoring his sarcasm.

"I do not want to hear any further teasing, inuendos, or even the slightest hint that there are any feelings between myself and one, Mr. Remus Lupin that reach beyond a plutonic nature."

James smirked slightly at that but said:

"Consider the whole thing forgotten. Anything else?"

Emily thought silently for a moment and then said:

"Yes. Please try and lay off Peter. He has such a difficult time as it is."

This came out as more of a request than the other two. And indeed, Emily had not even meant for it to be one of her terms. The thought had simply come to her on a whim. But after she had seen how James and the others treated the poor boy, she felt she owed him something. This seemed to be the one demand that James had difficulty agreeing to.

"All right, I'll try." He said finally. "Although I can't speak for Sirius. So I won't promise anything on that front."

"Good enough." Emily sighed "Here's your precious journal." He took it greedily from her and began to flip open the pages.

Idiot. Emily thought. No matter what she had asked him to do, he would still carry on with his arrogant piggish ways out side the dormitory. Unless of course... Emily smiled as a brilliant idea struck her.

"I just hope you know your going about it the wrong way." She said lightly as she began to pick up the rest of the custard that Remus had brought after lunch.

"Going about what the wrong way?" James asked very quickly. His face was turning a distinct shade of pink.

"I'm just guessing that you didn't steal that diary because of it's stimulating literary value." Emily said, nearly laughing. Honestly, how stupid did he think she was? James's face went pinker. She went on.

"If you want to find out what she thinks of you, she hasn't written anything at all flattering in there."

James looked somewhat dejected at that statement.

"She-she hasn't?" He asked looking at the diary as his face fell.

If she hadn't known him to be so cocky, in that moment, Emily just might have felt sorry for James Potter. The moment passed however, and James straightened up apparently furious with himself.

"And why should I care what she thinks any way? It'll take a while but she'll come around." He said attempting to retrieve his cool non-chalant air from his small moment of weakness.

"Which brings me to another point." Emily said after a slight eye roll at James's failed cool act.

"You won't find any step by step course on how to win her heart in that diary either." Emily finished. This was the point she was most concerned about. Hopefully he would catch the hint.

"Isn't that the kind of thing you usually write about in your diaries?" James had attempted to say this sarcastically but she could tell that beneath it all, he was genuinely interested.

"Contrary to popular belief, girls don't write diaries as handbooks for boys to pick up and use to their advantage. Diaries express our feelings at specific moments. I've never seen one that outlines how a girl really wants to be treated."

Emily explained slowly. It was a bit more complicated then that actually. But James was only a beginner.

"And you how girls really want to be treated?" James asked looking up at her curiously and setting down the open diary.

"Of course I do, I'm a girl." Emily said lightly.

She could see the wheels beginning to turn in James's mind.

"Hey Gar-"

Emily shot him a quick deadly glare.

"I mean, Emily." He continued hastily.

"This... this thing. The way girls want to be treated and all that... do you think you could..."

"Teach you the noble art form that is chivalry?" Emily continued for him.

She took a moment to survey James, and appeared to contemplate the matter. Oh, manipulation was a fun game when played right. Finally she said.

"Well I suppose so, if your up to it. After all your not completely hopeless. But I'm warning you now, it won't be easy."

"Prongs! You coming? We'll be late for quidditch practice!" Sirius's voice called from the stair well. Why did he always seem to have the worst possible timing? And what in the world was quidditch?

"In a minuet Padfoot!" James called back. For the first time it really struck Emily to wonder what all those nicknames meant.

"I've got to go now. But after quidditch could we, you know, start?" James asked hopefully. It was actually quite cute how excited he seemed.

Emily thought for a moment. Remus had promised to come up before bed to check up on her. For some reason she didn't want him to know what James now knew about the cloak.

"No. Don't worry about it then. Tomorrow after dinner will be fine to start with." She said a bit hastily. He looked slightly disappointed at having to wait so long.

"Fine." He said all the same.

At that moment they heard foot steps coming from the stair well.

"Jesus Gardner, you running a harem up here?" Sirius Black said when he poked his head in the door and spotted James near her bed. Emily gave him one of her deadliest glares. James, however, appeared unphased.

"You wish Padfoot." He said smirking at his friend as he walked out the door and down the hall. Sirius however stayed behind.

"You know Gardner, as long as your taking customers, I'm free tomorrow."

"Oh, get out!" Emily said sharply as she hurled one of her shoes at the door. Sirius moved out of it's way quickly, but returned to the doorframe smiling.

"Just checking." He said with a wink before closing the door behind him.