Thanks to all my reviewers – James-Padfoot, bBy x jUjUbee, TeenTypist, Jen Riddle, Hippie1212, ShanYuri, cocoyasha, Rose-Mariann-Johnston, SiriusSweetie7 & Evil-Angel-911. I LURVE YOU!!!
Okay, sorry for the delay. Also – I'll be leaving for camp this Sunday L (June 27) so all stories will be on hiatus for two weeks. I hope to get at least a few more chappies up before I leave!
"Hey, Abs, what's up?" Lily asked softly as she joined Abby at a table in the library, dropping several textbooks onto the table with a loud thump. Madam Pince, the librarian frowned in Lily's direction, but Lily pretended not to notice.
"Oh, nothing." Abby replied absentmindedly, doodling on a piece of parchment that was supposed to be her History of Magic essay. Beneath was a letter she was writing to Tom, but she was quite sure Lily wouldn't be too… supportive or happy about that.
"Come on, Abs. Talk to me." Lily pleaded, trying to catch her friend's eye. Abby, of course, continued to stare with concentration at her parchment.
"Lilibear… I… I think I still love Remus." Abby smiled weakly, finally meeting her friend's eyes. Abby had recently begun using the nickname 'Lilibear' or just 'Bear' for Lily, after a comment about Lily being as 'ferocious as a bear'. Besides, James refused for anyone else to call her 'Lils'.
"Then why are you writing to Tom and not with Remus?" Lily asked softly, a quiet, non-judging tone in her voice.
"I'm not going to be with Tom… much longer." Abby said sheepishly as she revealed the letter she had been writing beforehand and offered it to Lily. Lily took it and read through it quickly, her bright green eyes flying across the lines.
Dear Tom,
I hate to do this through a letter, but I'll be staying at school for Easter so I have no other way to do it. I'm not sure we, as a couple, are going anywhere, and I'm afraid I still have feelings for my old boyfriend, Remus. It wouldn't be fair to you to keep going with this. Thanks for being an amazing boyfriend, Tom. I'd love to stay friends.
Yours, Abby.
Lily smiled brightly as she looked up from the letter. "So what about Remus?"
"I… I don't know." Abby said softly, looking down at the wooden surface of the table in front of her to avoid Lily's eyes again.
"But you love him." Lily stated simply. Remus was like a brother to her, and she wanted him to be happy – he was when he was with Abby.
"I know, but it's not as simple as you and James… He lied to me Bear, and…" Abby trailed off again.
"And?" Lily persisted.
"Well, there's no real point. I honestly love Remus, and before I knew about his condition, I was planning the names of our children. But that will never happen, Lils. As much as I love him, I want to get married, have kids… After he told me, I looked some things up in the library – about lycanthropy. With his condition, there's a sixty percent chance that the… affliction will be hereditary, and the children will become werewolves. I've always wanted kids, so it wouldn't work."
Lily frowned, surprised by her friend's words, but hid her surprise under what she believed was a playful taunt. "You were planning the names of your children?"
"Oh, come on Bear!" Abby retorted in exasperation and embarrassment. "Don't tell me you've never thought about names you think are nice… What you'd like to name your kids."
"I s'ppose I have once or twice, you know, in History of Magic." Lily admitted. "But I never thought about who I'd be having the children with." That wasn't the complete truth though – she had, maybe once or twice considered what names James would like for children, but never too seriously. "I've always liked the name Harry for a boy. Sara or Laura for a girl." Lily added, trying not to make Abby feel like a weirdo.
"Harry James Potter." Abby said with a dazed smile. "Sounds nice."
Lily blushed a deep red and opened her mouth in protest, but Abby interrupted her. "Just kidding Bear!"
"What were you going to name your children then?" Lily asked snappily, trying to embarrass Abby a bit.
"Simple. For a girl, Marie or Claire, and for a boy Michael or Joseph." Abby admitted easily. Lily just muttered under her breath for a moment, before looking back to her friend.
"So, you and Remus are done?" Lily clarified.
"That's the problem. I want to be with him."
"You know, Abs… I think you're looking just a tad too far in advance. I, for sure, don't want to get married until I'm at least twenty-four. By the time you're ready for kids and married, the might have found a cure."
Abby smiled thoughtfully at this. "Maybe you're right."
"And maybe if you just chatted with Remus about your concerns."
Abby smiled. "You're a great confidante, you know that Bear?"
"Confidante?" Sirius interrupted as he joined the girls at their table, with a large spell book. "You've been spending way too much time with the Ravenclaws. Time to come back to your normal Gryffindor buddies."
"Wow Sirius, in the library. I had no idea you even knew of its existence." Abby replied swiftly.
"Oi! Shut it, will yah? Cass was givin' me enough about it already."
"Cass?" Lily asked, perking up and smiling suggestively at Sirius.
"Yeah, Cass, Flemmings, whatever. We were walking and I told her I was meeting you in the library and she started laughing and wouldn't believe me." Sirius explained, ignoring Lily.
"She's forgiven you then? For singing?" Abby asked, covering her letter to Tom with the parchment for her essay again.
"Nah." Sirius said smiling playfully. "But she's talking to me. Anyways, Lily, shall we get to work?"
"Never thought I'd live to hear Sirius Black say something like 'shall we get to work'." Abby muttered quietly to herself. "Work on what?"
"Sirius is helping me plan something." Lily replied nonchalantly. "Come on, Sirius, we need another book on Potions." Lily stood, and with a smile to Abby, she took Sirius's hand, and led him toward the Potions section of the library. In a few seconds, they had disappeared behind the bookshelves, just as the library door swung open and James stalked in. Immediately he made his way to Abby.
"Where's Lily?" James demanded, looking quite angry.
"Hello to you, too." Abby replied cheerfully.
"Come on, Abs, do you know where she is?" James asked impatiently.
"She's looking up potion things with Sirius." Abby replied shortly, annoyed at James for being so rude.
James didn't even bother to go to the Potions section and look for his friend and girlfriend, instead, he cleared his throat, and standing firmly, yelled. "LILY EVANS! SIRIUS BLACK! COME HERE!"
Madam Pince, the librarian looked extremely upset, and made her way to James and began to tell him off about keeping his voice down while in the library and asking him to leave. Since James was distracted, Lily and Sirius were able to peek at him from behind the bookshelf.
"He looks mad." Sirius commented. "What did you do, Lillers?"
"Nothing!" Lily replied in annoyance. "Obviously, you did something."
James turned and caught them, gesturing for Lily to follow as he was shooed out of the library by Madam Pince. Ignoring Sirius's smug look, Lily obeyed, and followed James out into the corridor. As soon as the library door shut behind her, James burst.
"When were you going to tell me?" James demanded, clutching a piece of parchment in his hand.
"Tell you what?" Lily asked, looking quite confused.
"About your sister's wedding!" James replied in exasperation.
"I did tell you about it! I'm flooing back to my house for the wedding and staying for the weekend!" Lily protested, the volume in her voice rising slightly.
"But the wedding is this weekend!!" James replied, the volume of his voice rising too.
"So?"
"It's…"
"Oh god! It's Valentines Day! I'm so sorry James! I'd forgotten!" Lily exclaimed, pulling herself closer to James and looking exceptionally upset with herself.
"It's fine." James reassured her, hugging her closely. "Just send your parents a note saying you can't come – "
Lily pulled away and looked at James as if he were crazy. "I can't to that James! I promised Petunia I'd come!"
"Petunia hates you!" James protested, looking just as astonished at Lily's behaviour as she did at his.
"So? Missing her wedding would make her hate me more!"
"So? Not like she's important or anything."
"JAMES! She's my sister! I can't believe I'm having this conversation! I'm going. I'm sorry I didn't realize I'd be missing Valentines Day, but I've made a commitment."
Lily turned on her heel and stormed off down the corridor. She left for home the next day, while she and James were both still stubbornly mad at one another. The sun rose into a clear sky that Saturday, Valentines Day and the day of Petunia's wedding, but James wasn't in a good mood. He had been woken up by Sirius Remus, who had insisted in escorting Abby (who was sleeping over in Lily's bed) and Cass down for breakfast. Both Sirius and Remus had armed themselves with chocolates and flowers for the two girls, and they now walked a few steps ahead, arms hooked respectively. Cass was laughing at one of Sirius's stupid Valentine jokes, and Remus and Abby were talking quietly. James just sulked.
"Remus, can we chat for a mo?" Abby asked timidly.
Remus frowned slightly but nodded, and the two broke away from the Gryffindors and into the empty History of Magic classroom. Abby looked exceptionally nervous, and so Remus was nervous too.
"Remus… I…" Abby began slowly, trying to find the right words. "I still… love you."
Remus was silenced by shock, and stood there dumbly with his eyes wide. "But – "
"I was thinking about my future when I said no to you, Remus. I have nothing against your lycanthropy – I think it makes you more unique and stronger – I was thinking about my future, and wanting children. Lily helped me realize that I was overanalysing our situation. I'm in love with you, Remus, and I shouldn't be denying my feelings. I'll worry about kids when I have to, it was stupid and childish of me. I know you probably don't want – "
Abby was silenced as Remus's lips met hers.
"Where the hell are they?" Sirius asked as he and Cass sat across from James in the Great Hall. In the spirit of Valentines Day, the hall was decorated in pink and red hearts, and cupids flew about the hall, shooting people with magical arrows just for a little fun.
"Abby wanted to talk to Remus about something." Cass explained nonchalantly, biting into her toast.
"Something? What's that mean?" Sirius asked with a frown.
"What's with you James?" Cass asked brightly, attempting to change the subject even though she already knew James's reasons.
"Nothing." James muttered darkly.
Sirius groaned. "Oh, lighten up already. So Lily couldn't stay for Valentines Day, it's just a cheesy holiday where you buy chocolates and flowers for girls – "
"Like you did for Cass?" James interrupted.
Sirius was silenced and Cass frowned, looking at him oddly. James smirked, stood, and left the Great Hall to leave Cass and Sirius in their awkwardness.
"So… if you bought me chocolates and flowers, does that mean that you like me, Sirius Black?" Cass asked playfully, smiling at a very embarrassed Sirius and breaking the silence that had been in place for about five minutes.
Suddenly, Sirius leaned forward and kissed Cass hard on the lips. She was shocked for a moment, but quickly she returned the kiss. Sirius's mind was racing, he couldn't believe he was finally kissing Cassidy Flemmings. It felt so right, but at the same time… This was Cass. And he was Hogwarts' infamous bachelor. What am I doing?
Just as Cass was wrapping her arms around his neck, Sirius pulled away, taking a deep breath. A small frown appeared on Cass's face. Had she done something wrong?
"I think I got hit by an arrow." Sirius explained lamely. "Sorry. My mistake."
Cass nodded slowly, hiding her disappointment behind a weak smile. "'Course. Just a mistake. I think I'm going to write to Lily. Since James obviously won't."
Cass stood swiftly and gathered her things in record time. Stumbling slightly and fighting back tears, she too left the hall, leaving Sirius alone for breakfast on Valentines Day.
- The prank (I PROMISE!)
- Will Lily and James make up?
- Will Valentines Day get better?
- How tacky with Petunia's wedding be?