Disclaimer: I don't own anything…
A/N: I'm so sorry for the author's note last chapter… I waz being such a bitch! I'm totally grateful for the people who are reviewing! I thank each and every one of them!! I hope I didn't make anyone not want to read my story, so, from now on, I'm writing for the hell of it! If you like it, review, if you don't, oh well! I'll write either way! I like this story and I will see it through to the end whether I stay at 21 reviews or I beat "Unconditional Love" (My other L/J story which everyone loves, but I'm not very happy with), it doesn't matter… Sry if this went on a bit long, hugz! Hope you enjoy!!
A/N 2: Thanks in advance to all of you who reviewed chapter five re-visited… I probably won't have any reviews when I post this because I'm posting this back-to-back with five! Anywho, hope you like, here it is… Chapter six revisited…
James was depressed about losing the game for at least a week. He just walked around with his shoulders slumped over, looking depressed. He hadn't called a quidditch practice since the last one before the game. He felt like a complete failure and Sirius was sick of it, which is why he could be found walking up to Lily one day with an insane request.
"Lily!" Sirius said, jogging to catch up with she and Ava after their Transfiguration class. Lily and Ava turned around to see Sirius jogging up to them. He hoped Lily would agree. It seemed like the perfect way to cheer up James—perfect and only.
"What's up?" Lily asked when Sirius was walking with them. When she heard Sirius call her, she had hoped James was with him. She was worried. James had not been his usual egotistical self since the last quidditch game.
"It's about James, isn't it?" Ava asked with a raised eyebrow. She was worried about her pseudo-brother as well. James always got really mad at himself if he let anybody down.
Leave it to Ava to be blunt.
"As creepy as it is that you knew that, yes." Sirius said as he walked with them towards the Great Hall. He tried to look as irresistible as possible. Lily would never agree to this unless he major-ly worked the charm.
"What about James? Because I'm not going out with him," Lily said in an annoyed voice. She wanted to try and help James in almost any way possible, but going out with the guy to cheer him up was not an option.
"I'm not asking you to go out with him, though I know you want to, I'm just asking for a—" Sirius told her with a sigh. Lily cut him off. He knew he shouldn't have thrown in that last comment.
"What do you mean you know I want to?" Lily snapped… Stupid red head temper… She did not want to go out with James! He had to go and spread that stupid rumor! Now everyone thought they were either an item or would soon be one!
"I mean that I know that you like James. It's pretty freaking obvious," Sirius said as he rolled his eyes. He immediately regretted saying that. Pissing Lily off would not be a good way to go about requesting her help. He desperately needed her help. James was getting impossible to live with!
Lily looked away and instead looked at the colorful paintings on the walls. She felt her cheeks slowly turn red and hoped that Sirius and Ava didn't notice.
"Come on, Lily, the only person who doesn't know that you're just waiting for him to grow up is him," Ava said knowingly. She wondered briefly if she should tell James that if he grew up Lily would date him. Then again, Lily would kill her if she did.
Lily shot her a look. Stupid best friend.
"Anyway, Remus and I were a bit concerned and we were wondering if you could do us a tiny—miniscule favor," Sirius said in his sweetest voice. Actually Remus had said it was a bad idea, but Sirius thought it would work. Anything that would make James quit moping would be a good idea at this point. Even something that would knock him unconscious. Someone can't mope if they're unconscious, can they? He would have to look into it if Lily didn't agree…
"Like what?" Lily asked with a questioning look in her brilliant green eyes as she tilted her head to look up at Sirius who was nearly a foot taller than she. What could she possibly do that would make James feel better?
"We were, well, just me because Remus thinks that it's crazy, if you would perhaps consider snogging James," Sirius said, mumbling the last part and looking away. Maybe if she didn't understand him, she would just nod her head to shut him up.
Lily gasped when she realized what he had just asked. She couldn't. That would be almost as bad as dating the guy to cheer him up.
"She'll do it," Ava said quickly, before Lily could protest. Ava hoped that maybe if James and Lily would kiss, sparks would fly—or something stupid like that—and they would no longer be able to deny their love for each other. It could happen…
"Well, beautiful ladies, I'll be off now. Pleasure doing business with you," Sirius said as he walked off, satisfied that he had done something to make James feel better. Lily kissing him would make him so happy! Hell, just Lily talking to him made him practically float on air!
"Ava!" Lily shrieked, the infamous red headed temper showing itself. How could Ava? Why did people keep trying to interfere with her love life?
"What?" Ava asked as they entered the Great Hall for lunch. She hoped that if she pretended she didn't know what was going on that Lily wouldn't be too mad at her. It was a poor cover up, but it might just work.
"How could you?" Lily asked in a shocked voice. She could never-ever kiss James Potter. She could never-ever-ever snog a boy she wasn't dating.
"You don't know James, he's very depressed and as obvious as it is to everyone except for you, you're the only one who has a hope of cheering him up," Ava said as she sat down at Gryffindor table and picked up a bread roll. On to plan two, guilting Lily into not being mad at her.
Lily sighed and sat down beside Ava. She would just simply not snog him. It's not like she had said she would. Ava had said she would.
"You did what?" Remus asked in a discouraged voice when Sirius walked up to him and sat down across from him in the Great Hall during dinner. He had told Sirius not to interfere. Told him to cheer up James in another way. Told him not to get Lily involved unless she wanted to be. Had Sirius listened to him? No, of course not.
"I asked Lily to snog James, it'll totally make him feel better, right?" Sirius asked, sounding very much like a six year old who was learning to read. Sirius was excited. Remus was a great friend and all, but he just wasn't the same as James. James was still James, he just wasn't the same when he was depressed.
"Sirius, Lily's not going to snog James. She doesn't want to have anything to do with him until he starts acting his age," Remus said with a sigh. Why was it that the only two people who didn't see why Lily wouldn't date James were the only two people who had the power to change it?
"She agreed!" Sirius protested, mouth full of food. Sure, she hadn't technically agreed, but Ava had. That was good enough for Sirius.
"Did she really?" Remus asked with his head in his hands. He knew Sirius had good intentions, he always did, but…
"Well, Ava said she would," Sirius said. Remus started banging his head on the table. "Hey, quit shaking the table. My pumpkin juice will splatter! Where is everyone?" Sirius asked, looking around and noticing for the first time that James and Peter weren't around.
"James is in our room. Sulking. Similar to what he's been doing for the past week and I have no clue where Peter is. I think he might be in remedial Potions or something. He wouldn't say, he just mumbled something and ran off," Remus said, taking his face out of his hands. James had hardly eaten anything since the game. Remus had tried to convince him to come down to dinner, but he had refused.
"Awesome," Sirius managed to say.
Or Remus thought he said. It was really quite hard to tell, what with the way Sirius' mouth was full of food. And, sadly, Sirius' mouth was always full of food. Or orange juice, of course.
James sat in his room on his bed staring at the wall. He was a bit hungry, but felt too depressed to get up and go find food. Remus had tried to convince him to go down to the Great Hall for dinner. He had said that eating some food and being in light would help him. James had refused and turned back off the dormitory light. Dark was better for the depressed.
"I'm such a screw up," James said bitterly to himself as he rolled over and stared at the dark ceiling. Lily would never like a screw up. He had to screw up everything. He let everyone down.
It had been hell for James these past few days after he and Lily's detention. The more he knew about her, the more he wanted to know, but knew that if he came on too strong, she would freak out and run. So, he had had to pretend like everything was the same as always. Then, just when he was getting used to things being normal, bang, he lost the quidditch match. As if feeling awkward around Lily weren't enough, he had to go and loose the quidditch match. Now, the entire team was mad at him as well as all of Gryffindor house.
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"Lily, I thought you had promised Sirius you would go snog James?" Ava asked later that evening when the two of them were sitting in front of the fire, doing homework. Well, Lily was doing homework. Ava was currently braiding her own golden hair.
"Ava, that's insane." Lily began as she snapped her head up and looked at Ava. "First off, you promised Sirius I would snog James. Second, I'm not going to do it. I'm sorry, but our first kiss will not be this way. I'll talk to him, but I won't snog him."
"Ah-ha!" Ava shouted causing some first years a few chairs away to jump in surprise. She ignored them. She was, after all, Ava Labeau. She didn't care what they, or anyone else for that matter, thought. "So you're admitting that you like James?"
"I said nothing of the sort. What about you and Sirius, huh? You seemed awful quick to please him this afternoon," Lily said in an accusing voice. There really was nothing going on between Ava and Sirius, but it felt good to annoy Ava the same way Ava always annoyed her. But, she had forgotten. Ava doesn't get annoyed over the small things.
"Please, I'm Ava, I don't fall for guys. I use them and then drop them, it's more fun that way. I just want James to be happy. He's like the closest thing to a sibling I've ever had," Ava said, sounding fully convincing. It was true. She did not fall in love with guys. They were fully for entertainment purposes. Some might call her a more noble Bellatrix, but she just said it was necessary for survival.
"Yeah, ok, whatever," Lily said rolling her eyes. Ava would fall in love one of these days and she would fall hard. Lily could see it coming. She would fall harder than Lily would ever fall because Lily had never refused to fall.
Ava let out a sigh.
"Fine! I'll talk to him when I'm done with my homework!" Lily said in an exasperated voice. If everyone would keep pestering her, she would just go talk to him. Just to shut them up, that is…
"Would you hurry up with that? I need to copy it," Ava said as she went back to braiding her hair. Ava rarely did her own homework. She just didn't need to. She did well in her classes whether she did it or not.
"So you're telling me that they'll just let me borrow any one of these books? I don't have to pay or like, leave a kidney on deposit or anything?" Sirius asked that evening when he and Remus were in the library. Sirius was looking around in wonder.
Remus hadn't told Sirius about the checking out book thing during his first visit a few weeks ago. He figured it would be better to let Sirius adjust to the idea of a room full of books first. Baby steps…
"Yeah, pretty much," Remus confirmed. How anyone could ever make it all the way to sixth year without having to go to the library was beyond him. Then again, Sirius had never really done any homework. He had always copied from Remus or James.
Sirius looked around in wonder. There were just so many books. He had never known that there were this many books in the entire world let alone the Hogwarts' library.
"No one has ever trusted me that much before," Sirius said in awe. You kill a cat once and you're branded irresponsible for life.
"How exactly did you and James become animagus if you never set foot in a library?" Remus asked having just realized this fact. They had become animagi without his knowing until the last year of their studies. He had always figured that they had all been spending nights in the library, but if Sirius didn't even know where the library was until a few weeks ago…
"Oh, James checked out all the books and we worked on it in the dorm room," Sirius said simply. James had really done most of the work. He was really brilliant at Transfiguration. Sirius had helped a lot, but… "Leave it to James to do it himself."
Lily stormed up the stairs to the boys dormitory. She had never been up there before, but Frank had told her how to get there. No, she wasn't planning on snogging James. She knocked on the door.
James jumped when he heard a knock at the door. Who on earth would be knocking? He looked terrible and smelt a bit funny… It was probably just Frank or someone else on the team anyway…
"Come in," James called out weakly. He didn't really feel like talking to anyone right now. Hopefully, they would get the message.
The door opened and Lily walked in.
James' stomach flip-flopped as he jumped off of his bed and subconsciously started to ruffle his hair. He silently wished that he had taken a bath this morning, but it just hadn't seemed important at the time…
"Hey, James," Lily said casually as she sat down on the bed on the side of James', Sirius' bed. She looked around the room. Half of it was filthy. Half of it was neat. The entire room had a stench to it as though someone hadn't bathed in days.
"Hey, Lily," James said uncertainly. Why did she have to choose now, of all times, to come into their dorm room? Peter and Sirius' side was a mess and the whole room smelt funny because James hadn't bathed in quite some time.
Lily looked around for a couple more seconds before talking.
"So, I hear you've been a bit depressed lately?" Lily asked, stopping her looking around and looking James straight in his beautiful, hazel eyes. She figured the straight up approach was the best way to go.
"Little bit," James said quietly, avoiding her gaze. Little? More like a ton. He despised letting people down. It just wasn't the James Potter thing to do.
"Sirius begged me to come and snog you to cheer you up," Lily said with a smile playing on the corners of her lips.
James almost grinned at this. Leave it to Sirius to try and help in his own screwed up way.
"That seems about right. Are you?" James asked hopefully. Honestly, Lily snogging him because she was being forced to or guilted into it would not make him feel better. He wanted their first time snogging to be sincere and perfect.
"James, don't you think you're overreacting a tiny bit? I mean you—" Lily started to say. She realized the harshness of her words. If she was ever depressed, someone telling her that it was stupid would just hurt her more.
"I let everyone down?" James asked bitterly. She did not understand. She might never understand.
"No, you tried you best and because of things out of your control, your best didn't win the game. It happens to everyone," Lily argued with her voice calm. She hoped that reasoning with him would get him to see.
"I don't lose. The only games I've ever lost were when I was unconscious." James said bitterly. It was true. He had never lost a quidditch game in his life unless he were unconscious.
"Well, you must have known that you would eventually lose. Even I can't believe you're thick-headed enough to think you'd never lose," Lily said quietly as she looked at the books on James' bedside table. She once again realized how harsh her words were and shuddered.
"I don't enjoy letting people down," James said simply. Not only did he not enjoy it, it tore him up inside.
"I think you don't enjoy letting yourself down. Look, if you want to stay in here and sulk, have at it, but I think you could be having much more fun spending times with your friends and focusing on winning the next game—which I know you will," Lily said as she stood up and walked out the room, leaving James staring at her retreating back. She hoped that what she had said had gotten through to him.
~~I hope you liked it! Sorry if it was a bit corny. If you liked it, go review! Thanks for reading! BTW, if you want to read something I wrote that's a bit funny, I wrote a fic about James when he was younger entitled "Groundhog Day" The next chapter should be out later tonight! Thanks for reading! Hugz!~~
Aurora_Borealis~ I'm glad you like! Thank you for taking the time to review!
PotterChick1~ Thanks for always reading! When I read your review, I realized something important. I should be happy that I have such loyal reviewers! Thank you! Every time I write something, I look forward to reading your review! Thank you soo much!!
Lindsay~ I don't know when you're going to read this, but thanks again for helping me! Sorry, I can't seem to remember your penname… Lol! Thanks for all the help!!