Disclaimer: To whom it does NOT concern – obviously I do not own Harry Potter, James Potter, Lily Evans/Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, McGonagall, Dumbledore, Malfoy, Knott, Crabbe, Goyle, Rockwood or Johnny Wilkinson (I wish!) and those names have just scratched the surface!
Do you want me to start on the people I DO own?
Nah! I won't bore you and put you off this fic, although if you've read this far, I have a feeling that it would be hard to make you not want to read further. The past few chapters have 'weeded out the unwanted' - so to speak.
And since I can literarily hear you in my mind screaming, "Just get on with the bloody story!" I will, without further a do:
AN: British / North American DictionaryNo man is an island entire unto himself – this is a quote! I have no idea who wrote it! Anyone know?
Sweets – candy
Trousers – pants in North America
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Unforgettable, In Every Way Part XVI – In Which There are Socks!~*~*~*~*~
End of Last Chapter:
"Side effects?" She questioned again, this time more forcefully.
"Oh, sorry. But the spell that she cast has its drawbacks, as you can see."
"You mean the sleepiness," Hermione realised as their voiced faded out as they climbed the stairs, "Did she give some of her energy to Harr- James so that he healed?"
"More than that, Hermione, she gave him some of her life force."
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I woke slowly, my conscious slowly coming back to my body.
Ow… Something hurts. Hurt was definitely not good.
Mentally, I ran a quick scan of my body. What hurts? Arm.
Why does arm hurt? Arm hot - too hot.
I quickly tucked my arm away from the heat, revelling in the sudden coolness.
Gradually becoming aware of my surroundings, I took stock of what had happened. I lifted my head from its position facedown on a crimson, lumpy pillow, finding that I had the imprint of a gold tassel on my cheek. Slowly sitting up, the small part of the common room that was near the fire was bathed in the flickering fire, while in the corners, the shadows danced to and fro, from wall to wall and on the furniture.
It felt like I was on an island, encompassed by darkness.
"No man is an island entire unto himself," I whispered, the quote appearing in my head out of the darkness. It fit the occasion perfectly.
I noticed the heat on my cheek from my close proximity to the fire. It didn't do much by the way of light, but the heat seemed to be blasting out. Putting my hand to my face, I tried to cover the slightly burnt skin, the coolness of my palm soothing my overheated cheek.
"The hunger must be getting to my head," I muttered to myself, as my stomach growled in annoyance at being empty. "I have compared the sofa to an island. What next? The lamp a pillar of stability?"
Lying surrounded by crimson cushions, I winced at the gold tassels digging into my back. As I deliberated with myself whether to sneak up the stairs, through the corridors, into my dorm, open my trunk and root around for my cache of sweets whilst trying not to wake anyone. . . I heard the shuffling of feet from the corridor outside the portrait hole.
I froze.
Slowly and with a small creak that was almost surreal – like out of a horror book, the Fat Lady swung open. I was certain that the portrait had never creaked during the day. . . My breath caught in my throat as the door swung wide and then shut, only letting in air. But what had caused the Fat Lady to swing open? Someone had to have said the password. . .
"Well, I think that we achieved a great deal tonight, don't you agree?" Muttering followed, what sounded like agreement.
"Oy, Wormtail, if you don't stop stepping on my feet – I'll shrink them to half the size they are already –"
Almost as if a great curtain had been lifted the four Marauders appeared - almost sitting in my lap they were so close! A bright, silver substance had pooled around their feet, like liquid silver. James picked it up and draped it over his arm. How could they not see me? I then remembered the spell that Laura had cast over me last night; 'protect invisibly' or something. In that case, they wouldn't be able to see me at all!
Sirius threateningly pointed his wand at Peter while the others looked on in amusement.
"Oh come off it Padfoot," Peter scoffed through a half eaten chocolate frog, chocolate on his teeth as he talked. "You probably wouldn't even get the spell right and end up conjuring a heap of sugar quills. On second thought – please do, I've almost run out of sweets already. We need to visit Honeydukes again soon."
"But we just went last night! You can't tell me you've eaten everything already!"
"Sirius, don't seem shocked – you've known him for, what, three years now?" James joked, but he seemed exhausted, his features drawn as he slowly made his way to the fire. Mind you, that meant that he was about two feet from where I was uncomfortably resting. I shifted, attempting to get comfortable but again froze when I heard the noise it created.
"Did you hear something?" Remus asked, his eyes darting to the corners of the room. In the firelight, his eyes seemed to take on a yellow cast, almost glowing. . .
"Moony, your eyes are going again." Peter motioned towards his own before he started rooting in a pocket, presumably for another sweet. Walking over to the chair directly opposite my couch, he threw himself down hard enough to make the spring protest loudly.
"Sorry," Remus apologised, rubbing his temples with both hands as he slouched in an arm-chair, "It's only been two nights, so I guess that I'm still on edge. . ."
"Yup, that was certainly an interesting night," Peter started, but stopped after the glares that he received from the other two.
"Interesting?" Remus immediately leaned forward, his eyes taking in the unspoken warning from James and Sirius.
"Oh, you know. . . the usual run-around-go-into-the-Forbidden-Forest stuff." James tried to sound nonchalant.
"No, you aren't telling me something – and I don't need my heightened senses to know that." Remus pressed, his eyes narrowed and yellow tinted – but no one reminded him of them.
Just at that moment of silence – my stomach decided to growl. This time everyone heard.
"Who's there?" Sirius barked out into the darkness, leaping up from his sprawl on the couch.
"Mrwwwwww!" A black cat, the end of it is tail looking like it had been dipped blue paint, suddenly shot out from the cushions beneath Sirius, directly through his legs. Mirwen! I had wondered where my cat had been these past few days!
"Ah!" Sirius jumped up onto his seat, overbalancing and falling into the back of the sofa, toppling the maroon seat over and throwing his body back, away from the fire. All we could see was his black trainers and trousers. . . and pink socks.
I gave a snort of laughter, and then clapped my hand over my mouth. Luckily, everyone else was finding the current scene too hilarious to notice.
"P- p- pink socks!" Was all James could force out between his bursts of laughter. He grasped the mantle of the fireplace with both hands in an attempt not to fall to the floor and risk setting his robe on fire – as Peter has done the night before. Even Remus laughed, his eyes loosing their yellow glow.
"Imagine Padfoot being afraid of a cat!"
"Imagine him having PINK SOCKS!"
"I know!"
"Um, a little help here?" Sirius weakly pleaded, wrestling with the pillows currently pinning him down, "Oh Peter – I think I found your lost cache of sweets!" He threw a few toffees over the rim. They landed and skittered across the floor, most of them landing under the sofa I was resting on.
Oh no, oh no. . . Please, please don't come over here. . . I silently pleaded with Peter, but it was hopeless.
"Oo! Yay, Tipsy Toffees! Wasn't that what you gave to Lily, Remus?" He popped one into his mouth, discarding the wrapper into the floor. Soon, the entire area within a foot radius of Peter was coloured with crinkly wrappers.
"Hellooooo! Help!" Sirius called again, struggling his way out from beneath the pile of pillows. Emerging victorious, he placed his hands on his hips and glared at the room as a whole, "Fat lot of help you lot are!"
"It's not like you needed help there," Remus mused from his reclining position on the chair, "From what I could see – James, are you ok?"
My attention was riveted on James in his position in front of the fire. The glow from the only source of light cast a silhouette of his body.
"James?" Sirius questioned. There was no response, the figure didn't even move, but maintained a ridged stance, the mantle in a vice-like grip.
"James?" Remus sounded worried now and I sat up, staring at the shadow only a few feet away. Peter and his sweets were forgotten.
Sirius hesitantly stood up and walked over to James, cautiously putting a hand on his shoulder. Almost as if he had disturbed the delicate balance that James had maintained to stay upright, James wilted to the floor.
"Oh my God!" The cry was torn from three throats simultaneously, each person up on their feet and clustered around the prone figure before Sirius and Remus realized that I was there too.
"Hey, what are you doing –"
I cut them off quickly, "Does it really matter right now? What do you think's wrong – apart from the obvious?" I added as Sirius opened his mouth.
"Hey! Excuse me; I do know some things, you know. Don't put all your faith in rumours!" He burst out. I looked abashed at him, before dropping my gaze back to James; "I think that the Slytherins did something to him. . ."
"You think?" Remus questioned from over my shoulder.
"Well, I happened to be playing Quittich at the time!" Sirius defended, "I was also watching Malfoy's robes turn Gryffindor colours," he added with a smirk.
"But you can't do magic on the pitch!" I exclaimed. I had at least gleamed that much in First Year.
"Who said that I did it on the pitch?" Sirius' grin became wider.
"But then how… and why? Did –"
"Let's just say 'trade secrets'" Sirius tapped his nose, positively beaming.
"As you discus 'trade secret', our friend happens to by lying on the floor and the other scoffing all the sweets he can find under the cushions." A new voice interrupted, "Now what are we doing about James?" Remus continued.
"Em, Sirius?" I questioned.
"What?"
"Go on. . ."
"What?"
"What I mean is. . . your turn in the spotlight – break a leg."
"Oh. . ."
"Hurry up. . . James doesn't have all day!"
"Uh, Lily?"
"Hum?"
"Your turn. . ."
"No, really, after you. . ."
"Ladies first. . ."
"Obviously you should go then."
"Huh?"
"Oh, I don't believe this," Remus muttered, rolling his eyes, "WHAT DID THE SLYTHERINS CAST ON JAMES?!"
"No need to yell," I remarked, nursing my throbbing ear.
"SIRIUS!"
"Um. . . ah. . ."
"Some time this year, please. . ." I raised my brow at him, waiting.
"I have it!"
No one spoke.
"And. . ." Remus prompted, leaning forward.
"I remember! I was a Hurling Hex! Because they missed the first time, and then the second connected with James' broom right as Malfoy was screaming at Crabbe and Goyle to stop hitting bludgers at him because he was on their side!"
"No need for a running commentary," Remus uttered a long-suffering sigh.
"- So his broom split and he was left hanging on to the end that didn't have any twigs and he fell to the ground! Lucky that he was only ten feet up –"
At that I shuddered; I definitely would not like to ride a broom. All the way off the ground? The very thought made me feel slightly light-headed.
"So he was carted off to the hospital wing." Sirius finished. The hospital wing. . . now what. . . I wracked my brains.
"Oh! This is just normal!" I exclaimed, quite relieved. The light-headedness still hadn't left. Had I eaten anything the whole day?
"Care to expand on that?" Remus asked, he and Sirius looking at me as if I was fit for St. Mungo's.
"Oh. Well, I. . .um. . . had to put a spell on James. . . so that we could run away from Madame Gilles because she was intending on giving us detention for the next month and a half and make us clean bedpans and the whole infirmary without magic!" I responded. Remus and Sirius shuddered.
"So what did you cast on him then?" Peter had evidently finished the toffees and come over.
"Erm, a sort-of home-made spell. Just something to get him up and moving." My head pounded from the cross-examination, "Nothing much. . ."
"Well what did the spell do? We were told not to visit him in the hospital wing, that he had received a bad concussion and wouldn't wake up any time soon."
"Since when did you even do what you were told to do? I would have thought that the Marauders would have been in there right away using that invisibility cloak that you used tonight." I questioned. Sirius, Remus and Peter exchanged looks, silently communicating.
"Well we were told that if Madame Gilles found that we had been there she would have refused to use magic on James to heal him – not that she did anyway from what you told us." Remus looked down. My gaze followed his and I realized that we had been talking about James like he wasn't there – as if to tell us that he was, in fact, there. . . he started snoring. The sound made the floor vibrate, my headache increasing because of it.
"Oh. . ."
"So, um, what's wrong with him?"
I began hesitantly, "He just needs to sleep off the side-effects."
"So what was the spell?" Remus' voice seemed to faze in and out.
"Mandicar anima vigar. . ." I whispered, slightly dazed, my eyes strangely unable to focus on Remus'.
The translation from Latin took him some time, but when he achieved it, his eyes went wide. "Transfer life energy?!" Remus exclaimed, shocked, the others must have said something, but I could only hear a murmur and could not distinguish separate sentenced, the words strung together too tightly.
"You have to promise us that you won't tell anyone about the cloak." Sirius' words took a few minutes to pierce through my foggy head.
"Ok," I whispered, the world seeming to spin.
"Because if you don't we'll make your – you will?"
"What do you think that you're doing downstairs at this time?" The new girl, Hermione, exclaimed from the bottom of the stairs, clad only in my dark green dressing-gown, "And why, may I ask, are you doing disturbing Lily? She needs sleep to regain the energy that she transferred to James!" Hermione stalked across the common room, expertly negotiating the assault course of abandoned wizarding chess sets and forgotten textbooks that lay strewn haphazardly across the floor.
"Who are you, and how do you know about that?" Sirius questioned suspiciously, his eyes narrowing.
"Hermione Granger, nice to meet you - Lily come upstairs, you might be able to get some rest up there more so than down here. Who is lying on the – oh. What did you Marauders do?" She surveyed the motley group, her hands on her hips and her lips pierced together, "You do know that I'll have to report you because of your – on, never mind. I forget that I wasn't a prefect anymore. So who are the prefects? I sincerely hope that they aren't Slytherins."
Snapping out of my stupefied trance, I looked over at the Marauders-minus-one and watched them try to throw off the same shocked look that I had succumbed to Hermione's rantings.
"Um, Remus Lupin – hi. Lily and I are the Gryffindor Prefects. But Patrick McCrimmon and Paul Motherwell are the Hufflepuff Prefects; Mathew Melville and Andrew Kirkcaldy are Ravenclaw and David Evindon and Lucius Malfoy Slytherin." Remus sneered even at the mention of Slytherin.
"You have more than one prefect? They must have changed that since… imagine all the trouble eight prefects could cause!" Hermione burst out.
"I'm Sirius Black – wait a second, how did you know that we're called the Marauders? Lily, you haven't been telling her everything, have you? You might not have given the best first impression, you know. . ." Sirius shot me a look, but I couldn't quite make it out.
"No, I haven't been telling her anything. . . I don't think." I couldn't recall any of our conversations, I only hoped that I hadn't.
"Oh. Ah, Laura, Katriona and Anya have told me almost everything I need to know," Hermione brushed it off with a tight shrug and a small smile.
"Oh, hi! Peter Pettigrew," Peter said around a found toffee, offering his hand to Hermione. But she stared at him and them at his offered hand with an expression between disgust and loathing, which I couldn't find a reason for. Peter hadn't done anything to her – they had just met! And it was hardly likely that Peter would make any enemies. It was the way he was; he cautiously followed Sirius, Remus and James and tried to avoid arguments whenever he could. It just didn't make any sense.
"Oy, Peter, you old fart! You don't go around offering to shake people's hands anymore, that went out of style eons ago!" Sirius, Remus and Peter apparently missed the flash of odd expression in Hermione's face. Smiling pleasantly, Peter withdrew his hand and concentrated on rooting through his pockets to find an errant sweet.
"You had better come up stairs with me, Lily. I trust that you know the proper spells to transfer Ha- I mean James up to your dorm? Yes, well then we should be going." She started for the stairwell, expecting me to follow her like a good dog.
"She's almost worst than McGonagall!" I heard Sirius whisper in awe as I rose to my feet. The world seemed to sway as I walked, like the rolling of a ship before one got their sea legs. I just couldn't seem to walk straight, toppling onto chairs and tripping over the carpet.
"Lily?" I could hear Remus questioning from a long distance away, "Lily are you ok?" From the corner of my eye, I could see Hermione turning on the stairs, as if in slow motion. . . before the thick crimson floor came roaring up to meet me.
Oh no, not again. . .
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A great weight settled on my ribs, causing me to start and my eyes to snap open.
"Wha-?" It took my eyes a few seconds to focus clearly on the bobbing and weaving blob of blue, "Mirwen, get off me you fur-ball!" She refused to move and instead curled her tail in close to her body and started a rumbling purr that echoed in my chest cavities as I drew breath in.
"So you're awake, I honestly thought that you would sleep until tea time," a voice came from over my left ear. I craned my neck to look and saw Hermione. She was lounging on Laura's bed, a thick, dusty novel open and spread on the pillow. Laura would not be happy when she found out – she was allergic to dust and would have sneezing fits for minutes at a time. She literarily worshiped house-elves, especially in this ancient castle such as Hogwarts.
"What? Tea! Clock – time?" the Snitch rose and flew a loop-the-loop before settling for long enough so that I could clearly read it: "2:30?! What am I going to tell the teachers? And how am I going to explain not being at classes and neither in the hospital wing?!" Frantically, I threw off my duvet of moving stars and sparkles. Mirwen jumped down with great dignity, as if it had been her plan all along. With one reproachful glance, she leapt up onto the windowsill and then out, as I dove at my pile of robes, pulling one over my head.
"You have it on the wrong way, Lily. Honestly!" Hermione hadn't moved from her reclining position and didn't seem fazed about the time at all, though she was pointing accusingly at my robe. I looked down. Sure enough, the white label was sticking out reading "Other side, silly!" and prodding my nose as I tried to get a good look. I withdrew my arms and swivelled the robe around until the Gryffindor crest sat proudly on the left side of my chest.
"How can you be so calm?" I questioned, slightly miffed. For the whole time, Hermione had just turned the page of the book she was reading.
"Well, the official reason is that you're showing me around the school. But since I know it like the back of my hand, I thought that I would do some reading on how I'm supposed to get home!"
"Um, do you have any idea why you're here?" I asked, perching on the edge of my bed, "Like did you do any experimental charm or potion? Was there some magical item that you touched in Defence Against The Dark Arts or anything like that?" At my questioning, she went red.
"Of course not!"
"Any idea at all of why you're here?"
"I – well, um. . . I actually know how I got here. But unfortunately I won't be able to use that method again."
"Why?" I asked, intrigued, "How did you get here?"
"Well, I used a Time-Turner."
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Response to reviews:
Padfoot Hoshi – Still waiting for you to make good on that deal you know. You still haven't updated! And don't tell me that your computer broke down again…. Ok, it might have, but surely a person such as you would have the initiative to keep writing anyway – even if it's on paper?! *shudder* You were up at 6:30?! What are you, nocturnal?! How can you survive on so little sleep?
oAngel85o – Hey, Steph! Stop spoiling my plot line! I'll change it right not just to spite you! Ya… I sort of haven't updated for quite a while. Oops.
Jessie xxx – BUMPP? Eh? Um… I'll take the 'I love you' as a 'I like your work'. Otherwise I would start worrying right now…
MilesFromNormal – Yes, Kerr is an arse. I think that I got annoyed at him after the second chapter. He was just too nice to be true if you know what I mean. I liked your new chapter for 'A Secret…' one. Keep writing yourself!
Belle Black – I have a feeling that if you were dying at the last chapter, you'd be dead by now. Sorry – as the teachers always say with posh accents: 'events conspired so that I was unable to access the computer'. As I said before… sorry!
Violingirl7 – Is there such a thing as a lead balloon?!? Well, I can tell you that we have to keep him in the story a *bit* longer. He needs to be the catalyst for getting…. Well, not quite what you thought, but I tell you that it'll be good!
Abegweit – You'll just have to read and find out! Mwahahaha! By the way, really cool pen name, what got you to choose that?
LisBleu – Awwww… *blush* thanks! I'll probably need to get my head deflated now!
Swishy Willow Wand – I wouldn't quite call this ASAP… but it's the closest that you're gonna get!
Ping*pong5 – So who recommended this to you? I want to know so that they can get a nice triple chocolate chip cookie from me! I hadn't really thought of the fic that way and didn't really intend to do it that way… it just turned out like that. I had mixed reactions from my beta reader when I said that I wanted it to be in first person. She said that it would seem childish… and I suppose that it is, but …. Ah well. I love your story too! Keep writing!
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AN: Right, fishnetfairy and I have a deal on… she advertises for me in her fics and I do in mine. So, if you want to, read her fics!
They're mostly slash with Harry/Draco, but she does have one Lily James in which I *BrokenSkye* am her Beta reader! Yay! But no pressure anyone! The fic's called:
Nervous by Nature
Well, keep reading!
BrokenSkye