Disclaimer: Once upon a time, there was a little girl. She studied hard and became a genius. When she grew up, she invented Harry Potter, and became some-50 million dollars richer than the Queen of England herself. Her name was J.K. Rowling. But you see, we're not her. So we don't own anything, including the characters (except the original ones, of course), and the 400-something million dollars… aww… too bad for us.
Summary: (edited) James Potter, one of the most wanted guys at Hogwarts has his sights set on Lily Evans. She's thrilled... right? Follows the plotline of OotP
Blissful IgnoranceChapter 3: Wrong Move
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He is a fool who lets slip a bird in the hand for a bird in the bush.
—Plutarch
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Lily tucked a stray piece of hair behind her ear and concentrated on the parchment in front of her. It was the first day back to Hogwarts, and already, History of Magic proved itself the capability to kill brain cells. She was vaguely aware of the professor droning in the background, but was rather engrossed in what she was writing.
"…break up. I swear. She's onto him… well… Just be careful with Trystan, alright, Melly?" Just as Lily finished writing, words written in a different print began to materialize below her sentence, as if scripted by an incorporeal hand.
"You'd think she'd find someone better, but noooooo. She just HAD to choose him. Of ALL PEOPLE! Honestly," the parchment read. Lily looked up from her parchment and saw that across the classroom, Marlene was rolling her eyes.
A third handwriting appeared, "Hello. I'm still here, you know."
Lily couldn't help but let loose a small laugh.
"What, Ms. Evans, may I ask, is so funny about the death of Bodrod the Bearded?"
Somewhere across the quiet, but now attentive room, someone snorted, but attempted (with no avail) to cover it up with a slightly demented cough. Lily was almost sure it was Marlene.
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"Ugh! Need… food! Food…!" Melanie groaned as she, Marlene, and Lily joined the rest of Hogwarts to enter the Great Hall for lunch. She stopped talking as she received a dark look and a shrill "Shut up," from Marlene.
Melanie turned to Lily with wide eyes and raised eyebrows, and was met with a shrug of shoulders.
As the three neared their normal seats in the Gryffindor table, a male voice rang out, and the source of Marlene's moodiness was found.
"McKinnon!" James Potter yelled from halfway down the table, "Remember…"
"I KNOW!" Marlene shouted back, in the same high-pitched voice, as she slammed her books down on the wooden table, making the plates and utensils clatter. Some second years scooted away.
Lily gave Marlene a questioning look.
"Hesmakingmegonadiet," she mumbled incomprehensibly.
"What?" Lily and Melanie asked simultaneously.
"I'm on a diet!" she shrieked, "a DIET! DIET! CAN'T YOU UNDERSTAND?!" Several heads in close proximity turned in alarm.
Lily quickly tugged at Marlene's arm and made her sit down. Both her and Melanie tried to hold in a laugh, but ended up with painful expressions on their faces.
"Please, don't strain yourselves," Marlene said sarcastically.
Melanie cracked first. She burst out laughing and exclaimed, "He… he made you go on a d-diet?"
Marlene narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips.
It was common knowledge that a Seeker needed to be light in order to be swift at catching the snitch, but Marlene McKinnon, whom, Lily knew, has been on the quidditch team since second year, as been James, has never been restricted of her normal eating habits to affect performance on the quidditch pitch. Lily also knew that in someway or another, Marlene was going to find a way to make Potter pay, because to Marlene, she was being told (indirectly) that she was too slow.
"Yes!" Marlene steamed, "all I can have now is 'one sandwich and one goblet of pumpkin juice, preferably followed with one lap around the quidditch pitch'." Marlene mimicked James's voice as she reached for a ham sandwich.
"And you're actually going to listen to him?" Lily snorted. That was so unlike Marlene.
"No choice," Marlene answered bitterly as she bit into her sandwich, "he threatened to make the whole team go on 'eating restrictions', as he kindly put it, if I didn't follow it."
"Plus, he's the captain," Melanie added.
"Yeah, that too," Marlene rolled her eyes.
Lily didn't know why, but at that moment, she stole a look at the subject of their discussion. James Potter was eating and laughing with his friends, but felt Lily's gaze upon him, and caught her staring. Flustered, and angry with herself for being incautious, she turned her attention back to the platter of food in front of her. In an attempt to pretend all was well, she changed the subject.
"I forgot to ask you earlier, how was camp?" Lily turned to Melanie.
"I should hardly call it 'camp'," Melanie replied with a humorless laugh, "all day, the ministry would tell the older Aurors to pop in and scare all of us that are still in training with Shocking Spells. So in addition to 12 hours of conditioning (in the hot summer sun, might I add), we would constantly get unfriendly spells sent our way. Plus, the Aurors talk perpetually about… about… Lord—about the Dark Lord, and his deeds."
"Oh, that's awful, Mel, but nothing's easy, is it? Healers too; I never knew it would be such a hard process. One girl fainted at the image of blood. I was going to owl you about that, but my letters were sent right back to me," Lily added as a second thought, "why won't they let you receive owls?"
"Real Aurors don't receive owls during assignments telling them to go party on Saturday night," Melanie replied simply.
"Oh, so that was why all my letters were sent back to me," a voice sounded behind Melanie. She turned in her seat and grinned. Trystan Beckley, Ravenclaw beater, and Melanie's boyfriend for two years leaned down and gave her a light kiss on the lips.
"God I'm going to throw up."
"Shut up, Marlene," Melanie said, face still drawn with a smile. She made room for Trystan to sit down, and as he did, he commented, "I thought you were going to wear the blue top I gave you for your birthday."
"Oh—erm—" Melanie looked to Marlene and Lily for help, but found none.
Marlene snickered in her goblet and Lily hid a smile behind her hand. The blue top was used to mop up the mess their dorm mate's cat made that morning.
"I assure you, Trystan, that Melanie can dress herself," Lily said.
"It was just an idea," Trystan replied, unconcerned, while filing his plate up with chicken pie.
Just as Marlene made a move to grab another sandwich, Trystan piped up again, "I don't think that's a very good idea."
"I'll give you an idea," Marlene muttered under her breath.
"What was that? No matter. Potter's watching you, that's all I'm trying to say." Four heads turned and sure enough, James was leering down the table at Marlene, whose hand was poised above the plate of sandwiches. Marlene quickly withdrew her hand, scowling, while James gave one last suspicious glance.
"Have you heard about Flanna's paren—" Trystan began, but was cut short when two other Gryffindors joined the table. A blonde girl plopped down near Lily, followed by a brunette.
"Faye got us kicked out from the Ravenclaw table!" The blonde announced, extremely vexed.
"I did not! If Clare would answer my question, then there would be no need for me to bother everyone within a 5 foot radius to me," Felicity Van Wyck argued.
"HA! Even you admit you're bothersome!" Clarisse Ballantine yelled, triumphant.
"I was just asking a question! What's so wrong with that?"
"You weren't asking a question! You were fishing for compliments!"
"What?!" Felicity turned to Lily, "Lils, do you think I'm fat?"
"Huh? No, of course no—" Lily began.
"Oh my God," Marlene had a look of exasperation on her.
"Don't you have somewhere to be, McKinnon?" Felicity asked coldly as she turned to face Marlene, "a lap to run, perhaps?"
Trystan laughed at this, but shut his mouth when he received a sharp nudge in the ribs from Melanie.
"Faye!" Lily was appalled at the frigidity in Felicity's tone.
"No, no, she's right; I do have to run a lap. At least it'll keep me from turning… fat," Marlene directed that at Felicity, who opened her mouth in protest, but Marlene has already left the table.
"No, Potter, I'm not sneaking into the kitchens," Marlene said obstreperously over her shoulder as she neared the exit.
"What's with her?" Felicity wanted to know once Marlene disappeared from the Great Hall, "this morning, when I asked for Lily's blow-drier, she chucked it at me. Is she on some permanent bad mood phase or what?"
"She hates cats," Melanie explained.
"Plus, she's on an eating restraint," Lily grinned.
"Yeah, that too," Melanie nodded, with a smile on her face.
"Eating… ok… But, what does my cat have to do with anyth—oh. Evie had a hairball! If she'd clean up after herself, she wouldn't have ended up with cat vomit on her shin guards," Felicity said in a matter-of-fact tone. "Oh, and sorry about ruining that adorable blue knit-top, Mel!"
Trystan turned his head sharply, "What blue top?"
"You know, the one you—" Felicity started.
"—the one that you thought was hideous," Lily finished, receiving a thankful glance from Melanie. The answer apparently seemed acceptable to Trystan, as he turned back to eating, but not to Felicity.
"Huh? I thou—"
"Well, you thought wrong, Faye," Clarisse caught on.
For a Ravenclaw, Lily mused, Trystan wasn't really all that bright.
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When lunch was over, a very happy and flushed Marlene joined Lily and Melanie.
"A run around the quidditch pitch took you that long?" Melanie asked.
"She took a run then got a drink, I'll bet," Lily said, mystified by Marlene's sudden mood swing.
"No," Marlene grinned widely, "I met Caradoc half-way, and..." She shrugged her shoulders.
"Dearborn?" Lily asked.
"The one and only," Marlene said, still with a ridiculous smile on her face. The trio entered the Transfiguration classroom and as soon as they were seated, Marlene resumed talking.
"He's changed a bit," she smiled, "now he's even hotter."
Lily laughed slightly and shook her head. "Here we go again," she said. It was bad enough last year when Marlene started to gush about how wonderfully handsome Sirius Black looked, but now…
"Don't get me wrong though," Marlene leaned in close and dropped her voice, "I still think Black is absolutely fine."
"Who is?" Felicity asked as she and Clarisse sat down. Melanie jerked her head towards the boy sitting a row in front of her with a roll of her eyes.
"Sirius Black?" Clarisse asked loudly, and as she did so, he turned around.
"Heard my name," he grinned.
"Hi Sirius," Marlene said, smiling flirtatiously, but not for long, as Lily just gave her a painful stamp on her foot. To Lily, anyone associating with Potter was as bad as he was. Marlene was about to open her mouth, but at that moment, Professor McGonagall rushed in the door, her pointed hat slightly askew.
Marlene gave Lily a frown, but settled down.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, an important situation came up," Professor McGonagall said as she hurried past the rows of students to the front of the classroom. When she took her place near her desk, there was a second of silence, in which she surveyed the room with a grave expression. Lily was familiar with the professor's countenance. Almost in an instant, the professor composed herself.
"Now," the professor clasped her hands together, "please pass forward your essays."
A collective groan sounded and a disturbance of paper rustling filled the room as everybody scrambled to add last-minute details in their works. Lily reached in her bag and pulled out her Conjuring Spells essay. She wasn't the best at Transfiguration, but managed to scrape by with an E (and it was only because Melanie and Marlene decided to spend two straight weeks helping her study). She felt confident that her Conjuring Spells essay was fine—fine enough to not get a D—but she had a little, or—rather—a big doubt with her human transfigurations essay. She reached in her bag again. She spent countless days polishing the transfiguration essay and was extremely aggravated when it still turned out to be hopelessly dreadful. Speaking of which… instead of grasping a coarse scroll of parchment, her hand hit bare books. What…?
"Melly, do you remember where I placed my essay?" Lily asked, perplexed. Melanie shook her head.
Lily grabbed her bag and placed it on her desk. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw James Potter turn his head slightly in her direction. Arrogant prick, she thought. He probably had his essay all perfect and—
"Now, you've had all summer to fine-tune everything, so I would expect only the best quality in these papers. As you all know, of course, we are going to spend a great deal of time to deepen our studies on the complications of human transfiguration this semester, and this essay—" Professor McGonagall held up a parchment—"is very important," the professor announced.
Lily checked over her entire bag for the second time and felt her heart stop. All the happiness of the day faded away, as a nervous sensation rushed through her. It took a moment for Lily to react.
"I can't find my essay!" Lily said quite hysterically. Melanie turned her head sharply.
"Are you sure?" She extended a hand and helped to rummage through Lily's bag.
"Yes, I'm sure!" Lily answered. She was always so organized. Seven years of organization and hard work, blown on one account of thoughtlessness. Some Head Girl she was. Marlene reached over and dumped the contents of Lily's bag on her desk. Books… another book… two scrolls of parchments: one labeled Potions, another labeled Defense Against The Dark Arts. Nothing on Transfiguration.
Marlene raised her hand in the air. Professor McGonagall peered at her from above her glasses.
"Yes, Miss McKinnon?"
"Sorry, professor, but if, erm… one were to not do the human transfiguration essay, erm… what would… er… happen?"
The professor sorted through the stack of parchments in her arms and paused before answering, "I don't see what the problem is, Miss McKinnon. Unless I am very much mistaken, your essay seems to be right in front of me."
"I was just wondering…" Marlene trailed off, casting a cheerless look at Lily.
"Who," the professor said louder, "can tell Miss McKinnon what I told the class last year, when I gave out this assignment?"
A girl sitting on the Slytherin half of the class raised her hand.
"Miss Morgan?"
"The professor said," the girl sneered at the Gryffindors as Professor McGonagall turned her back, "this essay would be worth one-third of our grade."
"Thank you, Miss Morgan. Miss McKinnon? I hope that answers your question." Marlene was red in the face, but her embarrassment ceased when Felicity gave her a pat on the arm. They both directed their attention back to Lily.
Lily could not believe herself. If her grade in Transfiguration dropped anymore than it did, she would lose her chances of becoming a Healer.
"Its okay, Lils," Melanie whispered, "its you. McGonagall will still accept your essay, even if it's late. We'll just run up to our dorms and find your essay right after class is over."
Lily nodded, but for the rest of class, she could not concentrate on what the professor was saying. Once or twice, James looked over at her and that proved to add more fuel to the fire. She wanted to jump up and scream at him. Why did he have to be so bloodly brilliant at this class? Her face felt hot and her eyes stung. So stupid, she scolded herself. She absentmindedly twirled her bracelet around her wrist and it made a soft jingling sound as metal charms tapped metal. Her fingers grasped around the heart-shaped locket. For the second time in one day, Lily pushed the professor to the back of her mind and was absorbed in her own thoughts.
"… Conjuring Spells are used… think of that item… wave your wand… 'Inferorum Animas'… object will appear…"
Lily stared at Professor McGonagall. What was she saying? Lily shook her head. What was with her? Why couldn't she concentrate? CONCENTRATE.
"… while invisibility… must have good wrist movement… William Ralph Goddard turned half his body invisible… never realized…"
Lily looked down at her table. It was a mess… she had to clean it up… she…
"Lily…? LILY!" Melanie tugged at her arm, which successfully jerked Lily out of her reverie. She looked around and noticed that people were filing out of the room. Marlene was waiting for them at the door and was carrying Lily's bag. At this point, Lily remembered where she was and what she needed to do. Without further telling, Lily and the twins rushed out of the classroom and towards Gryffindor Tower.
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A/N: omgosh… we haven't updated for… like… 8 months!!! (Or is it 9? 10? 11? A year?) Yes, we're still alive and we're SO sorry for the erm… lateness. Honest. Me mum insisted that I go on vacation with her because it'll be fun.... ::rolls eyes:: And goodness… 20 reviews!!! Wow… you guys seriously rock our world. We didn't expect so much… (To all of you who reviewed, we send you our love!!!) Anyway… So yup. There you go. Chapter Three in all its glory. Hopefully, this chapter was good enough to have been pushed off for almost 1 year. (Maybe it's not that good, but, eh.) Please review!!! Merci beaucoup! Oh! There are a couple of important things we need to throw out there. Firsty, there's going to be some stuff in our fic that may seem… ridiculous (for lack of a better word), and unmatched to JKR's telling of Lily and James, and the rest of the miscellaneous people she mentioned, but bear with us. The story will eventually straighten itself out and match everything (or almost everything) JKR has told us about Pre-Harry Potter. We promise! (Like the whole "Lily being a Healer" thing… yeah. It's weird… but we just needed her to do something… Also, since JKR never really mentioned what Lily did, I figured it was fair game.) Another thing is… we're revealing information very slowly… and it might be kind of nerve-racking, but (once again), we promise the story will get moving faster once we introduce everyone and everything… You know how it is, right? The first few chapters of a story always move slowly… Ok… know what? This note is getting too long. We're hoping for at least 7 reviews before we continue… beggars can't be choosers. Kk… I think I covered everything that needed to be said. Alrighty! Until next time (which, I hope, will be soon)! Au revoir, mon chers! C:
