These Days
Chapter Two
**You say potato, I say vodka!**
"Training for a marathon ladies?" Sirius asked as he saw the heavily breathing girls enter the common room out of the corner of his eye.
"No, we were playing army." Caydence said, as she whispered something to Remus. Remus smiled and moved his wizard's chess piece the opposite direction he was planning on.
"And you didn't invite me!" Sirius said, offended. He then noticed that his opponent was cheating.
"Cheater!!" He screamed, as he sent a 'shocking' curse in Remus' direction. Remus ducked and the jet of purple light sailed into Caydence, sending her into a 30 second full body jolt. Seeing his mistake, Sirius scooped the chess pieces into their box and ran up stairs and slammed the door shut. They could faintly hear him screaming, "I'm sorry Caydence! I'm sorry!"
"I'm going to get him someday, I swear." She said, shaking her head after she recovered. The girls left Remus to coax Sirius out of his room, and headed up to their dorm where they began to get ready for the game.
"So," Denna said as she corn rowed the front 4 inches of Lily's hair. "I saw Dylan today."
She nudged Lily in an attempt to get her to follow along. "Yeah," Lily said, realizing her duty, "boy, is he hot. Nice too. What a catch that one, and a chaser on the Gryffindor team! I think that I just might go for him,"
"Well then why don't you?" Caydence asked, as Denna gave her a death glare.
"Because I like Jackson, and Dylan doesn't like me… He likes someone else." She finished her sentence by staring in Vanessa's direction. The whole room turned to her, as she stared at her nails.
"Didn't Sirius look hot today?" She asked after a minute of silence, still concentrating on her perfectly manicured nails.
"What!?" Denna half-screamed, pulling hard on Lily's hair.
"Ow!" Lily screamed and elbowed Denna in the crotch. Denna bent in half because of the impact.
"What's wrong with thinking that Sirius looked good today?" Vanessa asked innocently.
"What's wrong with it, is that you and Sirius are the most dysfunctional couple that have ever had the pleasure of meeting." Caydence said, while changing her shirt. She held up two, and asked Lily's opinion, "Yellow or red?"
"And we have been trying to get you interested in someone else, if you can't tell." Lily added onto Denna's speech. "Neither. Wear your white and red shirt."
"Ok," Caydence nodded as she headed back to the closet.
"What?" Vanessa asked. "Who've you been trying to get me interested in?"
Denna slammed down the hairspray that she was using on Lily. "Are you deaf!" She walked off to the closet in attempts to cool down. "Great oaf, don't even see the bloody things when they are right in front of you…" Her voice trailed off, as she got further away.
Vanessa had a questionable look on her face as she gestured towards Denna and shrugged.
"What?" Lily asked, "Oh! Denna? Well, she's just a little, well, stressed you might say."
"Who has she been trying to get me to like?" Vanessa asked, as Lily rolled her eyes.
"Um, Dylan???" She said, as Vanessa looked confused.
"Van, honestly, we have been going on about him for days now!"
"Days?"
"Well, ok, maybe minutes. But still, are you really that wrapped up in your own little, 'Sirius worshiping' world, that you don't even clue into our conversations anymore?" Lily fumbled with the zipper on her jacket as Vanessa pondered the thought of her 'worshiping' Sirius.
"I guess Dylan could be a possibility. But after tonight," she said after a moment. Denna ran from the closet, and stopped directly in front of Vanessa.
"Really!?" She asked eagerly, not even thinking about what 'after tonight' meant.
"Why are you so excited about this?"
"Because, if you like Dylan, Dylan might put in a good word for me to Matt!" Denna smiled and walked towards her bed and jumped on top of it. As she jumped up and down, a disgusted look crept up on Vanessa's face.
"Why??" Denna stopped jumping and just looked at her.
"Why?" Denna asked and looked at Lily. "What does she mean, why?"
"Matt Jensen." Lily informed Vanessa. "Not Matthew Thomas."
"Oh." Vanessa said nodding. "Oh!! Oh my gosh, Denna! Matt Jensen! Are you serious?!"
"No, she's just making it all up so that when we find out she's lying, we actually come to terms with the fact that she's a retard." Lily shook her head at Vanessa.
"Shut up, Lily." Vanessa said, and then moved on to Denna. "Oh my gosh, Denna, this is so cool!"
"I know!" Denna said, as Vanessa joined her on the bed. As they were jumping, Maleah walked in, flushed.
"Jesus." Denna said as she stopped jumping, and shook her head.
"What has James been doing to you?" Lily asked laughing.
"James? Nothing!" Maleah said, walking into the bathroom and shutting the door.
"My ass." Denna said, as Vanessa agreed.
"Yeah, I know that look. I always look like that after Sirius and I," she stopped and looked around, at Denna and Lily who were staring back at her, as if to say, "go on…"
"Never mind!"
Caydence walked out of the closet, in the outfit Lily told her to wear.
"Is Maleah back yet?" she asked, as Denna pointed to the bathroom.
"Yeah she went in there though."
"Ok, because this owl just came for her, I will just put the letter over on her bed."
"I will do that for you!" Vanessa said as she grabbed the letter and ripped it open, Caydence jaw dropping.
"Van!" Lily yelled, but ran over to see the letter anyway, along with Denna and Caydence.
Maleah~
I had a great time today, and I hope we can do it more often J ! Meet me tonight at 10, where we met today. See you soon,
Tyson
"Who is Tyson?" Caydence asked, as Maleah pushed her aside and tore the letter from Vanessa's hands.
"Private, letter! PRIVATE!!" She yelled as she went at sat on her bed and read the letter, her smile busting through her anger.
She looked to see all four girls a few inches from her face, eagerly awaiting her explanation.
"What?" She asked, Denna's jaw dropping.
"You had sex didn't you?" She accused, as Maleah's eyes got wide.
"No!"
"Yes, you did!" Denna countered. "I can so tell, you have that look!"
"Denna, I swear to you that I didn't!"
"You are such a whore." Denna laughed as she went and got her sweatshirt.
"Seriously, girls, I didn't have sex with Tyson, I just met him! I'm not Van."
"In my defense, that was only once, and I was a little trashed at the time." Vanessa said, trying desperately to clear her whore-ish name.
The rest of the girls rolled their eyes, and went back to their conversation.
"Then what did you do?" Lily asked eagerly.
"Well, nothing, I just was coming back from the tower, and I was trying to hurry, and I ran into him. And we just talked for a while, and totally hit it off. I think I'm in love with him."
Caydence eyebrow rose as Lily opened her mouth to speak.
"So, your in love with this boy? What does he look like?" She asked, even though it was superficial, everyone wanted to know what this child looked like,
"He is so buff, and he's tall, and he is a 6th year Gryffindor, you know, Tyson…"
"The hot black one!?" Denna half-screamed, as Maleah nodded eagerly.
"Ty?" Lily asked.
"Yeah, Tyson." Maleah said, as she walked towards the closet to change, in a dream state.
"How does she always get the hot black ones???" Denna asked bitterly.
"Because she has a big ass." Lily said, while filing her nails.
"What was that?" Maleah asked, leaning out of the closet.
"You, have, a big, ass." Lily said slowly, not looking up from her nails.
"Ok," she said simply and went back into the closet.
Decked out in their Gryffindor finest, the girls set out for the quidditch pitch, to watch their boys do what they do best.
(A/N: Forgive me, but I don't really want to write out the whole quidditch game here, so I will just skim over it.)
As they neared the Gryffindor student section, Lily's green eyes locked with a set of ice blues.
"Jackson." She said smiling as she sat next to him, and her friends surrounded them.
As the game wore on, it became more and more apparent that Lily and Jackson were infatuated with each other.
After the 8th time Denna tried to ask Lily a simple question, and her answer was either a "shh!" or a complete lack of attention, she gave up and went back to watching the game.
A few minutes later, Dylan put the quaffle through the hoop with ease, putting Gryffindor in the lead. Denna and Van jumped up, screaming and whistling, as he flew by the stands, shaking his head and laughing at them.
"DYLAN I WANT TO HAVE YOUR BABY!" Denna screamed, leaning over the railing.
The crowd laughed as Denna and Vanessa made their way back to their seats and sat down.
"He is such a stud." Denna said, her eyes brightening as Matt flew by them.
"He is, isn't he." Vanessa said, pondering the thought.
Denna smiled up at the clouds and mouthed, "Thank-you God."
A few moments later, JD finally saw the snitch and caught it in one brilliant move.
"WE WON!" Caydence, Denna and Van screamed as they jumped up and ran down the to the field, to congratulate the players on their victorious defeat of the Ravenclaw team. Lily ran down after them, Jackson lost in the crowd.
"Awesome game!" Denna yelled, flying towards the boys, capturing Sirius and Dylan in a bone-crushing hug.
"Thanks Den," Sirius said as he moved on to other fans, and Dylan hugged her back.
"You did great!" She said, as she winked and gestured towards Vanessa.
"Did you talk to her?" He asked expectantly.
"Yeah! I think that something might be able to be worked out with you two." She winked again, and followed her friends into the castle up to the common room.
"So where are the refreshments?" Sirius asked as he walked into the quickly filling common room.
"We have to go get them, our boy didn't come thru with the delivery." Remus answered, as he checked his watch. "I think that we better head out to get it now, actually."
"OK, sounds good." Sirius said as he followed Remus to the portrait hole.
"Hold it!" Denna yelled, as the two boys stopped abruptly.
She turned to her friends, "Are we really gonna let these two Betty Ford hopefuls go get the stuff by themselves?" The group looked at each other and pondered the thought for a moment.
"Ok, well then Vanessa can go with us, and she will make sure that the merchandise gets back ok." Remus suggested, as the rest of the group looked at each other skeptically. Vanessa nodded her head feverishly in agreement with Remus, as Denna consented.
"I guess," she said, but needed not. The three were already thru the portrait hole as soon as she opened her mouth.
"Do you think they will ever come back?" Caydence asked.
James shrugged and walked away, onto the already forming dance floor.
No sooner had the three left, had Lily approached Denna with some VERY good news.
"Den?" Lily asked as she led Denna away from the group of 4th year girls she was chatting with.
"Yeah?" she answered as Lily cornered her.
"I think you should go talk to Matt."
"What? Are you serious?" Denna said, almost dropping one of the only drinks they saved from the last quidditch after-party.
"Well, I just over heard him, and I think that you should go talk to him."
"Really!?" Denna said, becoming excited.
"Yeah, so go." Lily answered for the final time, giving Denna a hard push in the general direction of Matt. She watched Denna for a while, while Matt grabbed her and made her sit on his lap.
"So Matt's found a new victim, eh?" James said, coming from behind Lily while handing her a water, identical to the one he was holding. She was glad she found him, or he found her actually, because it was her turn to baby-sit.
"What do you mean?" Lily asked, smiling at the water in James' hand. That past spring, the friends had battled with James' alcohol addiction, and she was glad to see that he was trying to keep clean, even though she knew that it was tough, especially since some things have been hard for him lately.
"Never mind," he said, dismissing his previous statement as Jackson approached Lily, nervously eyeing James, as if to question his intentions.
"Jackson." James nodded, sensing the other boys' unease.
"James." He nodded back, and diverted Lily's attention to him.
James quickly became bored with their mind numbing chatter, and set off to find better things to do. He briefly watched Dylan take shots by the fireplace, seeing him become increasingly loud and crazy with each downed glass. His attention was then redirected to the couple making out in the corner. He watched for a second, finally realizing that it was Maleah and her newest crush.
"Been there, done that." He said to himself, desperately looking for something to get his mind off alcohol. Anything to get his mind off alcohol.
"Ah." He said, setting his sights on something distracting.
"Hey James!" Amy said sweetly, as he approached her.
"Fourth years are so easy." He said to himself as she led him to her dorm.
"We're back!" Sirius yelled nearly two hours later, as he stumbled in thru the portrait hole followed closely by Remus and Vanessa. Cam looked up at them and shook his head, Caydence leaning over to him and whispering,
"Oh Lord." The two stood up and walked over to the three drunken sailors for question and answer time.
"Hey guys," Caydence said while holding out her arm to steady Vanessa, who was swaying along the edge of the wall.
"Caydence!" Sirius said, lunging for her and wrapping her in a full contact hug.
"Sirius," Cam said, pulling him off Caydence.
"Yes?" He answered, turning towards Cam with a goofy grin on his face. Remus, who was standing a few feet away, seemed to just now realize that people were talking to him and Sirius.
"Huh?" He said loudly, stepping towards the group.
"How much did you guys drink?" Caydence asked, Vanessa clueing into the conversation.
"How many, did we guys drink, you ask?" She said, holding up her hands and counting with her fingers, Sirius shaking his head and grabbing her hands and placing them at her sides.
"Nevassa, silly," he said laughing and then turning towards Caydence, perfectly contained. "Caydence, if I recall correctly, we drank two bottles of Viola's Violet Vodka. The special addition kind, of course." He winked. Well, he tried to wink, but it came across as if he was mentally impaired, and trying to get the pretty girl across the room's attention.
Cam shook his head and led them over to the center of the common room. He looked at Caydence and shrugged, "They might as well have some fun."
"Remus!" James said, heading over to his friend for a high five a few minutes later.
"Prongsy, what's crackin?"
"You ever gonna quit drinking Remus?" James asked, as Remus took another shot from his supply.
"Never!" He said strongly, shoving the bottle into James' clenched fist.
"No Remus, I can't." James shook his head and pushed it back, as Remus smiled.
"Yeah you can Jamie! It's easy, and it feels so good."
The bottle was shoved back into the unreceptive party's hands, as he pushed it back to Remus.
"No man, I can't."
Remus looked at him and shrugged. "You sure?"
James looked around at the room full of people. People having fun, people just relaxing, hanging out. He wanted to be one of those people. He is one of those people.
"Hand it over Moony," he said, grabbing the bottle.
"Attaboy Prongs."
About a half an hour later, when Caydence had round up Denna, and the two had gotten Sirius and Vanessa calmed down, they set out for Remus.
"He's over there with James," Denna pointed, while bitterly recounting her brief, but blissful moments with Matt. Before she was brutally torn from him, to take care of her idiotic trashed friends.
"Good, James is taking care of him." Caydence said, looking at the two boys. Her and Denna were silent for a moment, watching the boys, when Denna spoke up.
"What's Remus doing?" she asked, as Caydence narrowed her glare.
"Let's see." She said, as the two girls walked closer, so that they could hear the boys' conversation.
"Moony, just a little more!" James said, trying to pry the bottle from Remus' hands.
"James! You've nearly drained the whole God damned bottle! Let me have the last of it! It's mine!" Remus said, yanking the bottle back from James' drunken hands. James stumbled forward as Denna ran to help him regain his balance.
"James, come on sweetheart, lets go get something to eat, and maybe some pumpkin juice." He didn't put up a fight, but didn't go easily either. Denna put all her strength into supporting him as they walked away from Remus.
"Remus!" Caydence said sternly, as he looked up and smiled.
"Caydence, always a pleasure." He nodded towards her, as he went to the nearest chair and slumped over into a drunken sleep.
Caydence spotted Cam, who was looking around in a worried state.
"What's wrong?" She asked, as he half-laughed.
"I accidentally lost Vanessa and Sirius." He said honestly, shrugging.
"Don't worry, they are probably just fucking in a dorm somewhere, you know, the usual." He laughed and nodded, and looked at her.
"Where's Remus?"
"Passed out in that chair, right over that way." Cam saw him, and laughed, as he sat down to relax.
"Well then our job as the sober people is over, time for some of our own fun."
"Not quite," she said, spotting Denna and James across the room.
"Who else is left? Is Maleah trashed or something, because I have everyone else accounted for…" He drifted off into his own thoughts, trying to remember who drank that night.
"Who was supposed to watch James tonight?" Caydence asked, as she walked towards the food table by the fireplace.
"Lily, I think. Why do you ask?" He got up to follow her, as his question was answered.
"Denna, stop it! I'm not hungry, just go away!" James yelled as he pushed Denna, hard, from him, Caydence ran quickly to catch her, but was too late. Denna fell into the table, the table itself buckling from the commotion. The room turned to see what happened, but quickly got over the mishap, and went on with the party. Denna's eyes started to water as she felt the blood trickle from her arm. Caydence stared angrily at James, as Cam snapped.
"James." Cam said firmly, as he grabbed his friend. Cam was a bit taller than James, and almost as strong. But he even had a hard time restraining James when he was drunk.
"Cam, let me go." James said becoming annoyed at being bossed around by his friends.
"James," Cam said thru clenched teeth as he led him away from the table, with a grip that could quite possibly leave marks that would last much longer than the alcohol would.
"What?" James yelled angrily, as they made there way up the stairs. They staggered into the boys' dorm, as Cam shoved James onto his bed.
"Cam, what the hell is your problem?" James slurred, as Cam's eyes lit with anger.
"James, seeing as though you were STUPID enough to drink tonight, knowing full well that you can't handle it, I will not yell at you, because I'm sure that you will feel like a real jack ass in the morning. I know you have a disease, and I regret that your 'babysitter' was less than reliable tonight." Cam took a breath as James just rolled his eyes.
"When you realize what you did tonight, and you still decide to drink again, I will not only think you are stupid, James, but I will lose the remaining respect I had for you." He started to walk away, as he heard James try to get up. He swung around and hit James hard in the chest, knocking him backwards onto his bed.
"Stay, there, James!" He yelled furiously, while walking into the hall and locking the door on his way out. As he was heading to the girls' dorm, he noticed that people were starting to go back to their rooms, because the crowd was considerably smaller now that he re-entered it.
He knocked on the girls' door as he entered, his eyes immediately focusing on the girl in extreme pain.
"Shouldn't she go to the hospital wing, or something?" Cam asked, as he stared at her bloody arm.
"I don't think that would be a good idea," Caydence said, as she cleaned the cuts and put bandages over them. "Then we would have to explain how it happened."
"Well, its not so bad, you could just say…"
"We could just say what, Cam?" Caydence said looking up at him, after she finished bandaging Denna. "That our friend is all cut and bruised from falling into and breaking a glass punchbowl that wasn't ours? That our friend who was too drunk to realize his own strength pushed her? And that this all occurred at an illegal party?"
Cam thought about what she said, and looked over at Denna who was nodding in agreement.
"Your right." He said as he sat next to them on the bed.
"Who was supposed to watch him?" Denna asked as she popped a few muggle ibuprofen into her mouth and washed it down with a swig of water from the bottle on her night table.
"Lily." Caydence and Cam said flatly.
"Well then where the hell was she?" Denna said, becoming angry, as Maleah walked into the room.
"Sorry! I was up in the tower with…" Maleah began, and then stopped when she saw all the bandages and bloody cloths. Hers eyes became wide as she ran over and kneeled next to Denna.
"Oh my God, Den, what happened?" She asked as Denna shrugged.
"James got a little excited and accidentally pushed me into the table where the glass punchbowl was. I got a little scratched up, that's all."
Caydence rolled her eyes, as Cam began to talk.
"I guess James got a little tired of being the sober one, so he took a few shots to loosen up." Maleah's stare narrowed as she looked down at her hands uncomfortably.
"And after those few shots really had no effect, he preceded to drink the whole damn bottle and get trashed. And after Denna told him what to do one too many times, he got a little mad and pushed her." Caydence finished, as Maleah closed her eyes and shook her head.
"I'm so sorry, Den." Maleah said, as Denna nodded.
"Well it's all done now." She said, as the four talked for a moment about what they were going to do with James.
"What time is it, Mel?" Cam asked, as she looked at the clock behind him.
"Half past 3." She said as he started to get up.
"I better get going then, try to find all the boys and coax them up to the dorm. I will see you ladies later," he leaned over Denna and kissed her on top of her head, "and I hope you feel a better, a little bit later in the morning." She smiled and nodded as he walked out of the room.
"Do you think Lily will get back soon?" Caydence asked as she got underneath her covers.
"Let's hope not." Maleah said as the other two looked at her sideways, "or else I might have to kick her ass, right here, right now."
The girls laughed as Denna remembered something, "hey, where's Van?"
Caydence shrugged and Maleah laughed.
"What a whore, honestly." Denna giggled as she laid her head to her pillow, and fell asleep as soon as her eyes drooped closed.
Well, a year and a half later I come out with the next chapter! Geez! I'm sorry! I got discouraged with this story, but I was determined to make it past this chapter! I hope none of you forgot about it, but if you did, its understandable. Well ok, I hope that I will have the other chapters out quicker than this one, but I make no promises. Did you like the second chapter? I know its rather long, but I think its ok… please review with your thoughts.
In the next chapter, Lily comes back and gets ignored by the girls (you know how girls can be…) and we find out a little more about James and his battle with alcohol. And James and Lily MIGHT have a romantic little encounter… but you will just have to read and find out.
To all of you that reviewed~~~ I LOVE YOU!
Lilbird~ thank-you for liking the story, and I hope you liked the second chapter as well as the first.
BoPeep~ Thank-you as well! You are so enthusiastic, you make me happy! Lol! I hope you like this chap too…
Roxy-punk-princess~ thanks for the review! Have you ever heard the song 'punk rock princess' by something corporate? J/w, because of your SN.
Littlegoober~ do you really think its funny? Thank you!
Quack Quack 88~ hopefully its still not cliché, im trying to make it original, but if you have any ideas I am totally open to hearing them.
Millie*A~ Sorry for not being very quick about the update, but I hope you like the second chapter!
Frozen-Petal~ Thank you so much for your review! I'm trying to get to the L/j, but it may take a little while… hopefully I will be quicker with the updates, so the story progresses a little faster… lol.
Lily Rowling Potter~ Thank you very much! I'm sorry this wasn't quick… but I tried. I hope you like it!