Disclaimer: Most of it's not mine, and if it's yours I apologise for stealing it... unless you're J K Rowling, the theft was completely unintentional. If you are her... um, I'm sorry?
Chapter Six
Lily was standing behind a closed wooden door. It was cold, even though she was wrapped in warm clothes. Then she closed her eyes and opened the door. A hand took her left one, and she opened her eyes. She was staring straight into the brown eyes of James Potter. But it wasn't the James Potter she knew. It wasn't the annoying egotistical one she had hated, or even the witty, funny, intelligent one she had come to like. This was a sensitive James, a caring, good-looking, trust-worthy James that Lily would go to the end of the world for. And his eyes told her that he felt exactly the same about her. Her knees felt weak, but James held her up. The real James, the one he from the world but showed to her now. The one that she loved.
She could see the yearning in his eyes, the longing and the love that he was suppressing by sheer strength of will. Was it the same thing that she was feeling? She leaned in closer to him, so her nose was only inches from his. He did not move back, and Lily took that for encouragement. She tilted her head sideways and kissed him. He was still for a moment, rigid with surprise and wonder. Lily stopped immediately… had she been mistaken? Did he not love her? Did he even like her?
She tried to move back, hurt visible in her eyes, but James's arms that were holding her now would not let her go. He had a smile on his lips as he drew closer and kissed her himself. Lily responded immediately. So he did like her! Somehow they moved to the main room and onto the floor cushions. Eventually, Lily drew back and looked at James. He was smiling.
"Lily?" he asked.
"Yes, James?"
"I think I'm in love with you. Love potion or not, I think I always have been." He bit his lip, a little nervously, waiting for her to reply.
She grinned. "That's how I feel." She felt another wave of love and gratitude wash over her, and kissed James again. "Love potion or not," she whispered. "Let's not forget this when the potion wears off." She leaned forward once more to capture his lips with hers.
Lily awoke slowly. The sun was streaming in from the window, making interesting patterns on the roof. She was so warm and comfortable. When she amassed enough energy to look over to her right, she saw James next to her. He was much closer to her now than he had been the night before. He was right up against her. As she looked at him, Lily remembered the dream. She began to blush hotly, and just at that moment, James opened his eyes.
"Hmm… Lily…" he said sleepily, "Love you…" Then he shook his head and woke up properly. "I didn't say that! It was a dream!"
Lily smiled uncertainly. "It's okay. I think I had the same dream." She rolled onto her side so that she could look at him without twisting her head uncomfortably. "It was real, wasn't it?"
"Yes." James said. "Of us under the love potion. It felt so real… it must have been real."
"Yeah." They didn't say anything else for a while, but lay there in the warmth of the bed, dreading getting out into the cold. Strangely, Lily didn't feel embarrassed. She moved her wrist up, to see what time it was. Ten o'clock! They had slept for a long time.
"I know the only place we can sleep is together, but it's gonna be kind of embarrassing if we're found like this. Maybe we should get up?"
"Okay. I'll go and talk to Dumbledore, you can stay here and get changed." He thought for a second, and then added, "Unless you want to talk to Dumbledore?"
"No, that's fine." Lily grinned. He had come to know her pretty well.
"I'll get up then." But he didn't. He lay in bed and looked at her for another thirty seconds before finally getting up. After he had gone, Lily stood up. She went over to the cupboard and opened it in search of clothes, thinking how badly she wanted a nice warm shower. The cupboard opened fully, and gave Lily the shock of her life. It had opened onto a bathroom!
In wonder, she closed the door and opened it again. Sure enough, the bathroom was still there. She closed and opened it again, thinking this time of clothes. There were clothes inside. She repeated the process, thinking of a pile of chocolate frogs. All she came across was an empty cupboard. Then she conducted a real experiment. Blankets? Yes, the cupboard had them. Pillows? Yes, them too. Food? No such luck. A toilet? Yes! No more chamber pots! A room with an extra bed? Yes. A room with a desk? Yes, that too. A dining room? Yes. A garden? No, the magic didn't seem to stretch that far. There was a knock on the door. Lily heard the amused voice of James through it.
"You're taking a long time to change in there!"
"I'm not changing!" Lily called back. "Come on in!"
"What's up?" James asked as he walked into the room. He saw her standing next to the closed wardrobe door and his face creased into a perplexed frown.
"The wardrobe isn't only a wardrobe!" Lily said as soon as he reached her.
"Huh?" James said in confusion. Lily grew impatient and opened the wardrobe to reveal the bathroom. "Oh!"
"We're monosyllabic today, aren't we?" she asked him.
"Excuse me," James replied, slightly hurt.
"Oh, I'm sorry! I'm just in need of a hot shower. Do you mind if I go first?"
"No, go ahead."
"Thank you! See you in a bit!" James grinned and left, and Lily closed the wardrobe. She re-opened it to get out fresh clothes, and then she closed and opened it again to get into the bathroom.
Twenty minutes later, Lily stepped out of the wardrobe/bathroom and performed the charm for drying her hair. She loved magic! She went into the main room, and told James (who was lying on some cushions reading a book) that it was his turn for the shower. He went off, and Lily began to get breakfast. She had just finished setting the table when James re-emerged.
"You were quick!" It had barely been five minutes.
"I know. But I'm clean. Let's eat!" Lily rolled her eyes but did not remark.
They sat down and ate their breakfast. They were clearing the table when Dumbledore called in via the fire. With the pop that Lily was now accustomed to, he appeared.
"The virtues of muggle science are indeed full of wonder!" He was looking very happy, so Lily guessed that the salt idea had been a full success. "Are you two coping?"
"Yes, professor," Lily and James said at the same time. They grinned at each other.
"Good, good. Now, would you like to hear the state of things at the school?" Both head students nodded their heads eagerly. "The snow has all been melted, and the plants in the greenhouse are doing well. Your mooncalf dung could not have come at a better time. Without it, Professor Sprout assures me, the plants may not have lasted through the snow. We still have not determined the reason Voldemort kept the school frozen in, but we have ascertained that it was indeed he who placed the spells on it. The ministry is trying to find out his reasons as we speak, but based on their record I doubt they will have much success. As to getting you two out, a few of the professors who have no classes today are on their way.
"They will be there shortly, and will spread the salt around. However, I suspect the salt will take a while to melt the snow. Can you two continue to keep each other occupied for the remainder of your time together?"
"We'll be fine, professor," Lily reassured him.
"Yeah, we've already done the plans for the Christmas ball and most of our homework!" James answered truthfully. Dumbledore smiled.
"You must have been desperate! Will you be able to keep from dying of boredom in the next few hours?"
"Yes. We'll be fine," Lily repeated reassuringly.
"Yeah, professor. If we do get bored, we can always go back to insulting each other." James grinned
"I would rather you didn't!" Dumbledore said, serious for a moment. "Oh, when you get back to the school, would you two please report to my office? The password is 'fudge flies.'"
"Sure, professor. We'll see you!"
"Goodbye, then." Dumbledore grinned, and was gone.
James turned to Lily and grinned. "So now what?"
"We might as well make the potion invisible now."
"Okay. Right."
They very carefully made the potion bottles invisible, and then settled down for the rest of the day. They read a bit, and then they played monopoly. James did not like the game. He claimed he wanted to stop because it was boring, but the real reason was because Lily had bought Mayfair and Park Place. Either way, they stopped playing monopoly and went onto wizarding snakes and ladders. It was interesting, because whenever your piece landed on a square with a snake, the snake really did eat it. James won one game of that, and Lily two. They went back to reading, and then had sandwiches for lunch.
After they had finished, Lily noticed that the snow had subsided considerably. In fact, it had gone down so much that the window would now open. Unfortunately, the door still would not. James went over to the window and opened it, with Lily close behind him.
"Hello?" he called out, loudly. There was silence for a second, and then four professors came out of nowhere on broomsticks. It gave Lily, and James too by the look on his face, the shock of her life. "Wh… where did you come from?" James asked, stammering slightly.
Professors McGonagall, Sprout, and Flitwick were there, accompanied by Hagrid. They were all on broomsticks. Lily was surprised that Hagrid had not broken his, but it was still in one piece despite the ominous creaking that it was emitting. "We were on the roof, Mr. Potter," McGonagall replied primly. Despite her words, Lily could tell that she was glad to see the two head students.
"Um, professor?" Lily asked. "Can we just climb out of the window, or do we have to wait for the door to open?" Although Lily had addressed her question to McGonagall, it was Flitwick who answered.
"Come now. Is there anything you brought with you?"
"No," James said, as Lily replied,
"I don't think so."
"Good," Flitwick said. "Accio broomsticks!"
"Climb on!" Hagrid said cheerfully, "an' we'll be off!" Lily and James did as they were bid, and soon they were flying high above the treetops back to Hogwarts. Lily had never imagined Professor McGonagall on a broomstick, but to her surprise the Transfiguration teacher flew very well. As they were flying, Professor Sprout updated them on the situation of things at Hogwarts.
"We have used salt on the Quidditch Pitch, the area directly around Hogwarts, and the paths to Hagrid's hut and the greenhouses. We didn't melt the snow everywhere for two reasons. Firstly, that much salt is hard to get, and secondly, it would badly damage the ecosystem of the Forbidden Forest. As it is, if we don't do something soon the salt will get into the soil and kill of all the grass. So, everyone in fourth year and above will help to remove the salt in his Herbology lessons this week."
It seemed that Herbology was going to be even more boring than usual. James was looking gloomy. Then Hogwarts came into view, and soon they were once again flying over a sea of white. At last, they reached the castle. Six metres around Hogwarts were clear of snow, and that was where the group of six landed. The professors all left, either to their offices or to teach classes, after they had reminded Lily and James to find Dumbledore.
They arrived at Dumbledore's office without mishap, and the password that the headmaster had given them was correct. Once inside his office, Professor Dumbledore smiled warmly and asked them to sit. They did so.
"It appears that you did not kill each other. Did anything significant happen in the last two days that I'm not aware of?"
"We got along pretty well, professor. And we've done the plans for the Christmas ball." Along with a kiss or five and a love-potion accident, she added silently.
"Oh!" James said. He hit his forehead. "We left them on the table in the hut!" Dumbledore tried unsuccessfully to stifle a smile, and Lily rolled her eyes.
"Can we summon them here, professor?"
"In a normal case, whether or not it would work would be doubtful," Dumbledore told them gravely, "However, you are the best students in the year, and the school. You may try, Miss Evans." Lily glowed with the praise from the headmaster, and she went to the window and opened it. She summoned the paper with the Accio charm, and prayed that it worked. For a few seconds, she thought that it wasn't working, but soon she saw a piece of parchment approaching rapidly. She moved her wand slightly, and it decelerated. The parchment swept smoothly in through the window, and into Lily's outstretched hand.
"Very good, Lily." Dumbledore approvingly. Lily smiled, and James frowned slightly. Dumbledore grinned. "I will call you to my office when I have the ministry verdict as to why Voldemort snowed us in. Meanwhile, you may occupy yourselves for the rest of the afternoon. Unless, of course, you would prefer to go to classes?" It was two o'clock, and Lily and James would ordinarily be having double potions around now and then history of magic, before dinner.
"No!" they said at the same time. Dumbledore suppressed a smile, and this time he succeeded. With only his eyes twinkling to give away his amusement, the headmaster gave them permission to go. They whiled away the afternoon by finishing homework due for the next day. Then they chatted for a bit, and went down to dinner. At first, the Great Hall was empty, but after only a minute the doors burst open and Gryffindor fifth years poured in.
In no time, the Marauders, Lily, and her friends were all sitting together, talking. Well, not quite talking. They seemed to have grown accustomed to having Lily and James on speaking terms, but there were a lot of questions about how they had spent the last two days. It seemed that none of the teachers had thought to tell the school where their head students were. Lily and James gave an account of their last two days, leaving out the game of 'Truth' and the love potion. Their friends were satisfied with their accounts of the time, but spent a long time teasing James and Lily unmercifully about sleeping in the same double bed. In the end, the two fled from their 'friends.'
"Going off together, are we? Is there something about your new friendship that we should know?" Sirius called out teasingly. All who were seated laughed, apart from James who was already rising. They walked out together, with their friends calling out remarks. Neither James nor Lily looked back, walking haughtily. As they got outside, Lily said,
"They'll be after us as soon as they realise we're not coming back."
"So where to?"
"Head Girl bathroom?"
"I've never been in there!" Lily started walking, and James paced her.
"I should hope not! What's the Head Boy bathroom like?"
"Like the prefects' one. Big bath, toilet, not much else."
"Really? The Head Girl's is like a sitting room. I take Trinity, Lisa, Mia and Kate there when we want to escape our gossiping roommates. Or to gossip about our roommates."
"Don't you like the other Gryffindor girls?"
"Yeah, they're nice enough. They can just be annoying sometimes." James raised an eyebrow at her. "Okay, they can be very annoying, most of the time. They keep going on about how good-looking you are!" James grinned.
"And you keep contradicting them?"
"But of course!" James laughed, and Lily joined in. She couldn't help wondering, however, whether or not she would contradict them if they said he was good-looking now. That dream had certainly made Lily think. Lily arrived at the bathroom, a seemingly blank wall halfway down a little-used corridor.
"Cover your ears!" she told James.
"Do I have to?" he asked whiningly.
"Let me think about that one." Lily pretended to think it over. Then, "Yes!"
"Fine, fine." James covered his ears.
Lily whispered the password, "James Potter is an asshole!" The wall disappeared, and Lily pulled James through the opening. It became a door behind them. He withdrew his hands from his ears. "Did you hear?" she asked.
"No, I didn't. Will you tell me what it is?" he said hopefully.
"It was something offensive about you. I haven't been in here for a while." James pouted and Lily laughed.
Then James seemed to notice his surrounding for the first time. His face was a picture of surprise and admiration. Lily looked around the familiar room. The small couches on one side, the dressing table complete with magical make-up (it wasn't Lily's; it had already been there when she inherited the head girl position), and the bathtub. The room was painted sky-blue. When she had first come, the colour scheme had been a sickly pink and lavender. She spent a weekend in the library researching the necessary charms to change the colour of everything, and it had been worth it.
James stopped gaping enough to say, "Wow!"
"Nice, isn't it?"
"I'll say! Much better than mine!"
"Do you want to sit down?" Lily asked. They made their way to the sofas and sat.
"I thought that it would be… oh, I don't know… more pink. You know, being a girl's bathroom and all." Despite his smile, James was serious. She grinned guiltily.
"Um, actually, it was. I just sort of got sick of pink after a while." He laughed. They chatted for a while, getting to know one another better. James learned that Lily did not get on well with her sister. Before Lily's parents had died, they had forced the sisters to be nice to each other. Now, Petunia was not so nice. Lily would not elaborate, but James had the feeling that Petunia had said or done something soon after their parents' deaths that had really hurt Lily.
Before they knew it, it was eight o'clock, and dark outside. Lily could not believe that they had talked for an hour and a half. She had spent a lot of that time laughing, as James spent the time recounting his more ingenious pranks. Finally, James said,
"Do you want to do the love potion thing tonight?"
"I guess. Just to show them that we haven't wasted the last two days!"
"So we'll summon the potions now?"
"Might as well." They got up and Lily opened the window. She summoned one bag, just to see if it would work or not. She saw a slight blur in the air in front of her, and remembered that it was invisible. She flicked her wand, and the blur of air slowed down. Then it thumped into her hands as Lily caught it. James was looking at her as if she had gone crazy.
"The bags are invisible! You can only see them as a blur of air."
"Oh, right! So we'll summon the other two now?" Lily nodded and said, for the second time,
"Accio love potion bottles!"
Lily saw the blur, slowed it down, and caught the bag of bottles. As she was doing so, Lily heard James say, "Accio potion bottles!" She bent down to place her bag next to the other one, and heard James shout, "Close you eyes!" Lily did so immediately, and had a feeling of déja vu as she heard a smash and then got completely soaked.
"It was my fault, this time," James said.
"So now what do we do?" Lily straightened up.
"Uh…"
"Let's move to the couches and think this over. Follow the wall on your right. You'll eventually come to the sofas. Don't open your eyes – yet, anyway."
"Right," he said. If Lily had her eyes open, she would have seen a strong blush on his cheeks.
They made it to the couches. "Right, I'm sitting. Are you?"
"Yes." The voice came from her left, so Lily assumed that he was sitting next to her. She put out her hand, and it came into contact with a face.
"Lily!"
"Sorry, sorry," Lily said. "You didn't open your eyes, did you?"
"No, I didn't. So…"
"So what happened?"
"I saw the blur, but I couldn't control it. Instead of slowing down, it sped up. I guess my charms need a bit of work." His tone was apologetic. "So what do we do?"
"I guess we don't have much of a choice. Open our eyes?"
"Yes. Where's your hand?"
"Here." Lily put hers out, below the level she had last time, aiming for his arm. She got his shoulder… close enough. She felt downwards, feeling the slight blush creeping into her cheeks as she did so. They gripped hands.
"Open your eyes… now." Lily did so, and found herself looking into James's eyes again. She continued to look into James's eyes, waiting. Three minutes passed, then four, then five. Still, nothing happened. Surely, last time she had felt dizzy, and she had thought she was falling. What was going on? Had they woken up already?
Lily looked at her watch, but it told her 8:16. Wasn't the potion working? Lily looked back up at James. "Are you… did you feel it?"
"Why isn't the potion working?" James asked her, "Is it working for you?"
"No, at least, I don't think so. I don't feel any different about you than I normally do." How did she normally feel about him?
Last month, she had hated him. On Sunday, she had liked him. But today… how did she feel about him today? With a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach, Lily finally realised why the potion didn't seem to be working. She looked at James, a lump forming in her throat. He looked back at her, into her eyes.
Slowly, James said, "I know why the potion isn't working on me."
A/N II: My, was I pleased about this cliffhanger the first time around. Hope it's not too bad this time – and don't worry, I'm not being quite as predictable as this chapter leads you to believe.