Chapter 10 ~ The Christmas Holidays
Lily had a really hard time sleeping that night. All she did was toss and turn, unable to keep what Kristy had told her out of her mind. Her words were played over and over like a broken record...'They always used to make you so happy...you miss them...think about what I said...think about what I said...' It was torture and she figured she'd be lucky if she got 3 hours of sleep that night, but even that was unlikely between thinking, having nightmares, and reading to make herself sleepy. But in the morning, when she woke up, she was wide awake when she remembered what today was.
"Ashley? Kristy?" She said through a yawn. "How much longer until you have to go?" There was complete silence. "Kristy? Miss Early Riser? Hello!?" Still, no answer. She hoisted herself out of bed. "Kris...ty...where are you?" He eyes fell on the 2 empty beds next to hers and then on the clock. "Oh no..." It was almost 10AM and the train had left at 8. Why in the world did they not wake her up? Kristy said she would!
She thought on this as she finally got herself to walk across the room and she saw a piece of parchment on her bureau.
'Hey Lils!
We have to leave in 10 minutes, so I'll try to make this short...
We really tried to wake you up this morning, but you wouldn't even open your eyes! If you weren't breathing, we'd have thought you were dead, but you obviously did have a rough night. We heard you moaning and rolling and talking in your sleep the whole night. I was pretty close to having Sirius come up here and wake you up, but that'd be disaster...plus, you'd kill me.
I want to wish you a Happy Christmas! Both Kristy and I! We'll see ya in a week!
Lots of love and hugs,
Ash
P.S ~ Kris says to remember what she said to you last night...think it over. XXXX'
That was just perfect...she couldn't get herself out of bed to bid a farewell to the only friends she had...What a way to begin the holiday.
It was four days until Christmas. FOUR DAYS! What would she possibly do for four days without friends? Well, come to think of it, she realized she did have a friend...Severus. She wasn't sure how close a friend that was, and she wasn't even sure if he was staying to begin with, but she'd find out at lunch.
Lily had already bought Christmas presents as well. Actually, she told her mother what she wanted to get all her friends back in November and her mom had bought them for her. The only problem was that not only did she send presents for Ashley and Kristy, but for the boys as well, and as far as she was concerned, Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter had a VERY slim chance of getting anything more than a sock as their presents.
At lunch, she saw that Severus had in fact, stayed for Christmas and she was overjoyed. Perhaps she wouldn't die of boredom after all.
"Hello Severus! I didn't know you were staying!" She greeted him as she took a seat at the almost-empty Slytherin table.
"Hello Lily!" He smiled extravagantly. "I was going to visit my family, but I overheard Potty and Pinky saying that they were staying just so they could trick you in to talking to them. So, I decided that I'd help you out a bit and keep you company. Plus, I can't stand them either."
Lily could see the boys glaring at them from across the hall. "Oh thank you Severus!" She hugged him lightly, and he blushed which made Sirius come awfully close to running over and punching him.
"Lily, after we eat, do you want to go outside and take a walk or something? It'll keep us both occupied. It can be a bore when no one's here."
"Of course I do!"
Lily then glanced over at the boys (the olny ones at the Gryffindor table) and then asked, "Ummm...do you mind if I eat with you? I'd rather not sit by them."
"Sure!" Severus couldn't have been happier.
Once breakfast was over, Lily ran up to her room to get her winder clothes on and then went outside with Snape. "Oh, it feels so good out here. I hate summers. The heat gets to me."
He looked at her like she was crazy. "Yeah."
"Can I ask you something?" She looked into his eyes which, for once, weren't as cold as stone.
"Uh-huh..."
"Why do you and Malfoy hate James, Sirius, and Remus?"
"Don't you hate them too?" He asked, bewildered.
She sighed, knowing that she had just walked into her own trap. "No."
"You don't!?"
"Of course not. I just want them to think that I do. No, I won't speak to them, but that doesn't mean that I hate them. I just, am temporarily sick of them. A really sincere apology would be nice instead of: 'I'm sorry...now talk to us or we'll pull a prank of you.' Men are so ignorant!"
"Hey!"
"Oh, sorry Severus...I get carried away."
"That's alright."
"Ok, back to the original question. Why do you guys hate eachother? Has there ever been a civilized word spoken between you?"
Snape took a deep breath. "Well, from what I've been told, out families were always great friends. James and I apparently would play together all the time when we were babies. Then, something happened. I'm not positive, but I think my uncle, who was an auror, was put under the imperious curse and killed one of the Potters. Even though it wasn't entirely his fault, James' family never forgave us. Anger turned to dislike, and dislike to hate. James and I were forbidden to be friends and we were both put under the influence of our parents to hate eachother, and soon it became natural. He's done things to me that I can never forgive him for, and vice versa."
"Lily felt really bad for them both. "We're in the same boat."
"Lily, there's something I've been meaning to tell you. At the dance, when I uh...slapped you somewhere I shouldn't have...contrary to what you thought, I wasn't getting...ehh....frisky."
Lily laughed. "Well that's reassuring!" She found this rather funny. "Why'd you do it then?"
"You know those creams you were going for? James, Sirius, and Remus had hexed them to make your ears grow to gargantuan size. I had eaten one right before you, but you didn't see because you were in the bathroom. I didn't want you to go through that humiliation, so I had to do something to distract you."
Lily smiled. "Thank you, Severus."
There was a really long silence until Lily closed her eyes and fell straight back into the snow.
"Lily! Are you alright!?" Snape yelled, petrified.
Lily laughed merrily. "Absolutely! The snow's great! Make a snow angel with me!"
Snape took a second to consider this wild and most feminine idea. "Oh alright." He flopped down in the snow and made his angel.
They were admiring eachother's work when Lily started cracking up. "Poor angel! It's deformed!"
Snape was startled. "What!? I can't helo that I've never done this before!"
"You've NEVER made a snow angel?" She gawked in disbelief.
"It's not something guys do all the time..."
"Well then, let me give you lessons." She rolled over and took his arms and slowly loved them up and down across the snow.
Meanwhile, hiding behind a tree, Sirius was boiling with jealousy. What was she doing associating with him? He wasn't near what Remus, James, and himself were! And rolling in the snow together? It was too much...He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He had to get Lily back.
"Mark my words Snape...you will pay for taking her away from us..." And he ran back, unseen, to the castle to start planning his revenge.
Lily had been spending almost all of her time with Snape which really disgusted the boys. James and Remus were still trying to get her to talk the them but Sirius had apparently given up. She noticed that he wouldn't even look at her. But why?
"Have you decided what potion you're doing your paper on?" Snape asked her while they were studying in the library. Professor Snape had assigned all of his classes to write 13 inches of parchment on any potion they want over the holidays...what fun.
"Yes, I'm writing mine on Love Potions. Do you think that's uncreative and overdone?"
"No, I'm going mine of Anigmaus Potions. Talk about unoriginal. I'll probably have to change topics. Do you have any ideas? I'm thinking I should..." He stopped in mid-sentence as Lily slammed her book shut. "What are you doing?" he asked, watching Lily gather up her things.
She nodded her head towards the nearest bookshelf. There was a space with two books missing. Instead, the space was occupied by 4 spying eyes.
"Oh, I see." Snape replied as Remus and James ducked down below the hole to hide themselves, but he had already seen them. "I'll talk to you later then."
Lily stormed off, knocking over a stack of books as she made her leave. Madame Pince scowled.
"Why can't they stop pestering me? They're so stubborn!" She told herself as she walked through the hallways.
'No my dear, I think it is YOU who is being the mule here,' the little 'voice' in her head told her.
"You don't know what you are talking about!"
'Au contrair...I AM what you are talking about.'
"Why don't you bother someone else?"
'Ahhh...if it were only that simple. I can't, I'm stuck in this huge, yet dumb brain of yours. I'm your conscience.'
"Give me a break."
'Those boys are your dearest friends.'
"WERE."
'You are nothing without eachother. You miss them.'
"Argh! You sound like Kristy! I know what I'm doing!"
'Do you really? I think not. You're grades are suffering because of your foolishness.
Lily remained silent.
'Why don't you try to make up?'
"No," she answered simply. Sheesh! This was getting annoying!
'Hey! I heard that!' Her conscience said, rather hurt.
"Heard what?"
'I'm in your brain! I know what you're thinking. Maybe I'd stop being annoying if you'd listen to me!'
"What are your terms?"
'All I'm asking is that you get both your spirit and school marks up.'
Lily didn't answer.
'Do we have a deal?'
Lily just wanted to get rid of the stupid voice.
"Fine, deal."
'Thank you. That's all I wanted. I'm going to go talk to God now...maybe he'll let me switch and occupy a mind that actually appreciates my help. Goodbye.'
"Whatever...Adios Jiminy Cricket."
She realized that she had passed quite a few people in the halls as she was talking to herself. Now she looked even stranger to everybody. She was developing a bad reputation for being crazy, but just as long as the little voice never came back, it was ok.
She began to run as fast as she could to the safety of her room. She'd be all alone with no one to bother or tease her. "LEMON FRESH!" She yelled, out of breth, to the portrait. It swung open really fast becuase the Fat Lady was afraid that Lily'd crash right into her. She wasn't going to slow down for anything.
She sprinted right through the common room and up the stairs as something fluttered out of her book and landed softly on the floor.
Sirius had been sitting there, playing chess with himself when Lily ran through without even noticing he was there. "Lily! You..." She wasn't going to listen him. "...dropped something...Man, what's gotten into her?" He bent over and picked up the piece of parchment that she dropped. It was her paper for potions class.
He read: " 'A Love Potion is one of the most in-demand potions world wide. It is for those who think they have no hope of a love life, especially if the one they love hates them. Love Potions can be made many different way and in different strengths. They are very difficult to make and only great alchemists and doctors are able to brew a true, working potion. When a person drinks the substance, the first person they set their eyes on is the one they fall in love with.'" He took her report up to her room and slid it underneath the door and muttered "What rubbish..."
"What are you doing, Mister?" The Fat Lady wanted to know. "It's a bit past your bed time if you ask me!"
Sirius was under James' invisiblity cloak that his father had given him when accepted to Hogwarts. It was a family heirloom. "I...uh...the toilets are broken in our room. I'm going to use the one on this floor," he made up.
She sighed as he walked off.
Tonight was the night Sirius got his 'revenge'. He had a prank that would completely humiliate Snape! It was perfect. Lily wouldn't want to be near him.
"About time you're here Sirius!" Peter complained.
Sirius grinned. It was a good thing Peter didn't chicken out like he thought he would. "Ok, here are all the dungbombs. You know what to do."
"I put them in all of his clothes so he'll smell horrid tomorrow."
"Right, and put them in Malfoy's while you're at it."
"Why can't you help me, Sirius?"
"Peter! We've been through this! You're in Slytherin and I'm not AND you sleep in the same room as them! You won't get in trouble if you get caught."
"Fine, I have to hurry."
"Ok, and remember, don't tell James and Remus we did this. They'll be bummed that I didn't let them help." He turned on his heel and hurried back to the common room.
"Did these toilets work?" The Fat Lady asked him suspiciously.
"Uh...yeah." He replied and headed straight for bed. He wanted to be up early to see them walk into the Great Hall. They'd be smelling so bad. What a riot!
"Congratulations, Mr. Black on receiving a record of 63 detentions in a single semester. Your friends, Potter, Lupin, and Pettigrew are not far behind."
"Professor Dumbledore sir, may I ask why you're congratulating me for this?" Sirius inquired.
"Of course you may, and the answer is that I'm not at all happy."
"Oh, that's what I thought."
"You seem to have a knack for disregarding the rules."
"Yes sir. I'm sorry."
"And it seems that for the past couple of months, the only target has been Mr. Snape, and he has been suffering socially."
"Yes sir."
"And I was told by the Fat Lady that on the night someone put an absurred amount of dungbombs in Snape's ad Malfoy's clothes, you had left the common room in the middle of the night, claiming that the toilets were broken in your room."
Sirius looked at his feet. "That is correct sir."
"I hired a plumber and he assures me that there's nothing wrong with them." Dumbledore's eyes twinkled brightly like this was amusing.
"Oh..."
"I would like to ask you to please take notice of the rules. Your pranks are funny, but lets restrain from hurting other and disrupting class. Detentions can get boring and miserable after a while. I know from experience. I was quite a mischief-maker in my youth as well."
Sirius' eyes lit up. Dumbledore? A prankster? No way! "Really?"
"Really. In fact I..." Just then, an owl swooshed in through the window and dropped a letter in front of the headmaster. Dumbledore picked it up, opened it, scanned its contents, and threw it in the fire. "I am sorry my boy, but I'm am needed urgently at thte ministry. I am sure you can find your way out. Goodbye!" And he disapparated.
As Sirius was about to leave, Fawkes the Pheonix burst into flames, and his eyes set on an open cupboard door behind Fawkes. Inside was a jar with a smudged label. He walked over to get a closer look, making sure no one was watching. The writing on the jar was blurry, like it had been made years and years ago, but Sirius was almost positive that it read: "Love Potion".
Sirius strectched out his arn towards the love potion and realized that the 20 portraits of previous headmasters and headmistresses were just staring at him, not blinking. It was creepy. He was grinning insanely at the idea that he had just gotten as he slowly took the jar out of the cupboard.
"AWWWK!" Fawkes screeched loudly, apparently knowing that a theft was about to take place.
"Be quiet bird!" Sirius tried to hush it. He had no idea what it was. It looked like it used to be pretty, but it now had some brown spots. Weird.
It continued to make a lot of racket and then it darted across the room and clutched its claws around the jar.
"Let go!"
"Awwwk!!!"
"Stupid bird!"
They were fighting over the potion and Fawkes almost had it from Sirius' grip, but just then, it burst into flames.
Sirius jumped and almost screamed out of reflexes. "I did NOT do it...I didn't kill the bird...it wasn't me..." He looked at the jar in his hands and remembered what he was about to do. "I've better get out of here."
He threw the jar in his bad and ran out into the hall, reviewing his newly-developed plan in his head.
"Ok, in Lily's paper for Snape, it said that there's different strengths of potions, so maybe if I give her only a little, she won't fall head-over-heels in love with me...just start to like me again. If she really loved me like that, I think that'd be too weird and obvious." He stopped at the water fountain, dumped out over half the potion, and filled the rest with water, hoping it was tasteless. Now, he needed to get to the kitchens.
"I'm kind of glad that bird blew up...it was annoying and probably would have told Dumbledore about me...but now Dumbledore'll think I killed it...but I didn't! It blew up itself! For all I know, it spontaneously combusted..."
Finally, he reached the portrait of the giant fruit. "Tickle tickle tickle..." The pear started giggling. "Ho there, Mr. Black!" A voice called out.
"Great...now what?" He hid the jar.
"Stop tormenting that poor pear!" It was King Arthur who had just galloped into another portrait.
"Oh, sorry...It had an itch..."
"UH-huh. Well, if that's all, I must depart! I have to chase down that damnable Sir Cadagon. He's been challanging students to duels to the death as of late..."
Sirius laughed at this. Sir Cadagon's such an inbacle. He tickled the pear again and a door was revealed, leading to the kitchens.
"Ahh, Master Black is here!" A little female house-elf waddled quickly over to him, her long ears flapping against the yellow rags she wore. "Good evening Master Black, sir! Where is Master Potter and Master Lupin? They is always with you, me thought."
"Hello Vinnie! No, they aren't here today."
"That's dandy still! Me is delighted to be seeing you, me is. Now what food is you wanting?"
Sirius smiled at her generosity. "No food today, thanks, but I do need to ask a favor."
"Anything for Master Black!"
"Thank you, Vinnie. Here, take this and be very careful. Instead of putting my normal juice in my goblet in the morning, I want you to put this in it. It's a special drink...from Dumbledore..." Well, it wasn't a lie, he told himself.
"Ok sir! Me is happy to serve you."
"Vinnie, you can not make a mistake. This is very important to me, understand? And you remember exactly where I sit?"
"Of course Master Black! Yep! Twelfth seat on the right side away from the head table. Master Black can count on Vinnie!"
"Thank you Vinnie. You're a real friend for helping me."
Vinnie gasped. "WOW...A FRIEND! Vinnie has never been a friend before..." She looked as if she could have fainted from all the glory. "Thank you master! Master Black is so good to poor Vinnie! Here! Vinnie is giving you a whole gallon of your favorite Peanut Butter Fudge Icecream as a friendship gift. Please take it! It is from Vinnie!" She hauled a huge tub of icecream over to him and Sirius took it with glee. He loved food.
"Thank you Vinnie!"
"It's my pleasure, Master Black!"
Sirius walked over to the door to leave and yelled, "Goodbye Vinnie! And please don't call me Master Black. Call me Sirius."
After he closed the door, she fainted from being asked such a request.
He heard her gasp loudly and fall. "Poor elf..."
Sirius needed to hurry back to the common room, because him, Peter, Remus, and James were going to sneak out that night and explore more of the castle. While making his way back, he ran his plot through his head once more, making sure everything would work out.
"Ok, I need to get down to the Great Hall kind of early, but no one's going to sit in my seat anyway. James and Remus and I are the only ones who sit at the Gryffindor table because Lily sits with Snape...ugh...so, I just need to drink it and meet eye contact with Lily...piece of cake." ...or so he thought...
He set his clock an hour early that night, just in case, and fell into a smooth, dreamless sleep.
"BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!"
Sirius yawned, stretching his arm to turn off the buzzing alarm clock. He about died when he saw it. It read "8:30" instead of the expected "7:30" and Remus and James were already gone.
"Oh no...this is not good..." He threw on his clothes quickly (so quickly, in fact, that he had put on miss-matched socks and didn't even realize it) and sprinted down the 7 hallways and flights of stairs to the Great Hall, the whole time, praying that neither Remus or James would be sitting in his seat.
He entered, scanned the Gryffindor table, and fear struck. Lily was sitting in his seat, with Snape next to her. He walked over to them like he was walking the aisle of death...slowly and not blinking. He got to them and managed to find his voice.
"Lily, you didn't happen to drink out of that goblet in front of you, did you?"
Lily and Snape stopped talking and looked at him like he was crazy. (Perhaps he was, but that is of no importance.) They had no idea why it was such a big thing.
Lily held her hand in front of his face and started 'speaking' in sign language.
"Y-E-S--I--D-I-D----W-H-A-T-S--I-T--T-O--Y-O-U--M-O-R-O-N?"
At those silent words, Sirius, even though he thought himself a man, could have cried. "Oh my God..." What had he done? He had just inflicted upon the Lily, the worst type of unneccessary punishment there could be. Lily had drank the Love Potion and had looked into the cold eyes of Snape whom she was conversing with. She would fall in love with Snape because of him...she'd never again be their friend because of him...In his opinion, he had commited the worst possible sin imaginable. He couldn't make himself believe the truth. "This is terrible, and there's nothing I can do..."
He covered his red, sweating forehead with his hands, sighed heavily, and went to sit down on the bench and surrender himself to damnation.
Lily saw him sitting down and she immediately kicked the long bench out from under him and laughed.
Sirius fell, almost in slow motion, but the weirdest thing was that he seemed as if he hadn't even noticed that he had fallen. He merely lay on the floor in the crumpled position that he landed in and silently cried out in despair. It was the worst possible feeling...knowing that the girl who had dumped him and now hated him was falling in love with his worst enemy...all of it being his fault.
He lay there for quite a few minutes, Lily completly ignoring him, until James and Remus came into the Great Hall and saw him.
"Hey man. What they heck are you doing on the floor?"
Sirius jumped at the sound of their voice.
"Oh, I fell."
"And you just stayed there instead of getting up?"
"Apparently. Isn't that what your senses would tell you, seeing as I am on the floor?" He snapped.
"Woah! Watch it there. I wouldn't go making any more enemies than you've already got." Remus advised. "By the way, we set your alarm so it was right. You had it set too early for some odd reason."
Well, there was an answer to one thing. His alarm went off late because they set it forward. "Thanks for fooling with it. I had it like that for a reason, you know."
James and Remus looked at him strangely. They felt a little hurt.
"Sorry. I'm feeling a little depressed." He apologized.
"You have been since Lily stopped speaking to you."
Sirius pushed himself up and glanced at the empty headmaster's seat. Good, he wasn't here. "I don't want to talk about it. Let's just get to class."
He stopped in his tracks. "On second thought, go to our dorm and get my stuff. I'll meet you in Charms. I need to do something first."
"Sure." And they walked off.
As soon as they were out of sight, Sirius went back over to Lily. "Why aren't you sitting at the Slytherin table? That's where you were put in the first place! Don't you think you belong there instead?" He knew the instant he said that, that it was the wrong thing to say, and he regreted it. It just slipped. He really didn't mean it.
Lily's eyes lit with fire and she did something that she hadn't done for a long time. She talked to him. "GET THE HELL AWAY FROM ME!!!" She stood up and screamed, causing all the teachers to tsk and all of the students to stare. She ran out of the room, leaving Sirius alone with Snape.
'Wow...she must really be ticked. I've never heard he say anything like that. Obviously, I'm not going about the right way of getting her back , that's for sure. But she did talk to me. That's a step in the right direction...naw...I don't think that outburst of insanity counts...especially one like that.'
"Great job Black! You're doing my work for me! Keep up your stupidity and I'll have her as mine even faster than I thought!" Snape thanked him disgustingly.
"What do you think you're doing, trying to steal her?" Sirius spat.
"Stealing is no option. She wants to be with me. You can't say the same for yourself. She hates you. I guess the best triumphed this time."
"Get your slimy-self away from the Gryffindor table. Go back to where you came from."
"I was invited to sit here, so no one, especially not you, can make me leave, but I will only because I need to find Lily and comfort her in her time of need. I've won. I've got the girl."
"As they say, you may have won a battle, but the war is just beginning." Sirius threatened.
"Get out of my sight, Black."