Authors Note: Hey everyone!! Thanks for reviewing me!! 200 Reviews, wow! Anyway, I just got my comp fixed, so I'm gonna update.
Oh, also, to "the counter" I don't really know whether or not to be offended. I don't really understand what you mean. What page? And why did you say there is 17? Do you have something against conjugating verbs? Sorry, that was mean, I only said it because I am very defensive and feel like you did meant what you said to be an insult. Although I don't think that you actually read any of my story, so I'm not sure...
Okay, anyway, thanks to Katie and Sarah for saying what you said to my anonymous reviewer! Haha, you guys are the best. Oh, and I apologize in advance for this chapter, it's a little random. See more at the bottom, I didn't want to ruin the chapter.
Oh, and Charm 12, do you really have a James plushie? If yes, where di you get it and I want one!! Haha, I love James!
Oh, also, to Magic Crystal Rose, yes trashing Harry is what Reeta does to get back at James.
Hellena, is it really Rita in Sweden? Wierd. Do you read it in english or no?
Oh, and Yimin, I like your name, as I have already told you, so don't be embarassed!!
And Katie, I really wanted to come! Only I dunno, I decieded not to...dunno why really. If it makes you feel better Im having a terrible time at my current school...but im focusing on the long term, boarding and stuff...anyway,
Sarah, do they really want you to work at work? how random! Haha. Also, to yea, they are a little marysuish, but later on they are less so. And Janette is not that pretty. And Alice turns out to be a slut/bitch...and Lily is not that brave. Well, I guess she is since shes in Gryfindor...haha, listen to me trying to defend my characters! I know, they are all marysues. By the way, I love that saying. I've never heard it before, but I love it now! Haha, it took me like 5 minutes to figure out what it meant...
Oh yeah, and sorry when I said action I didn't mean action action, I meant stuff, fluff, whatever you wanna call it. I should have said Lily and James conflict...oh well, whatever.
Oh yeah, what is squarmling? And what is DS?
Lonleygirlem, im sure your story kicks...I can't wait to read it! A
nd of course I'm writing more-that goes to you too Ourlittlesecret7.
And Dark Huntress, thanks for your suggestion. I had already written the chapter, but upon your advice I went back and added another bit at the begginging. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it...if not, don't tell me...I can't handle it. Haha, kidding! I can handle it, if you say it nicely! Maybe...although I will try to defend my characters...
Taylor, I heart you time a bajillion to the infiniti power, u equal my favorite person ever...haha, even though you havent gotten here yet...oh well sighs
Oh, also, in the time that you're waiting for my next update, which hopefully will not be too long, why don't you help me with a little problem I'm having? How many OWLs are there? Because i thought there were 12, but I cant think of 12 classes. What classes do they have? And should Lily get all 12, or only some? I just don't know so if you could give me any suggestions you have, I would appreciate it.
Okay, that was the longest most rambling authors note I've ever written I think. And I know some of you just skimmed it...but that's okay, your loss! haha, now sarahs gonna go back and read it all over again...
Chapter 45
Advice
"Lils, what happened down there?" Holly asked, rushing in to the girls fifth year dormitory. Fortunately it was empty except for Janette, who was asleep early.
"Well, James basically admitted to me that he only kissed me because he was using me."
"What?" Holly asked, sounding shocked. "I'm sure he didn't say that."
"Well, not those exact words, but he said that he had been trying to find an excuse to dump Alice." Lily said, burying her face in her pillow.
"Wait, start at the begining. James wants to dump Alice?" Holly asked, sounding even more confused.
"Apparently. I don't know. He said that he was glad she was cheating on him, because that meant that-" Her voice muffled by the pillow and her sobs.
"Wait," Holly said, cutting her off, "you told him that she's cheating on him? Did you tell him about Professor Longbottom? Or did you just say she's cheating?"
"I think I told him about Professor Longbottom. I don't remember, but then he said that he's been looking for a reason to dump her anyway!" Lily said looking up, her face tearstained. Holly could see the tracks of the tears on her face.
"Lily, why did you tell him? Are you trying to ruin their relationship so you can get with him? Do you still like him?"
"Holly! No! It wasn't like that at all! Besides, shes already ruined their relationship, she ruined it the day she started hooking up with Frank." Lily said, wiping her face with her sheets.
"That's not the point, besides, are you sure you don't like him, because I kind of feel like you do." Holly said. "Which is fine Lily, it's perfectly okay. You just need to be respectful of him and Alice Just because she's cheating doesn't mean its okay. You get that right? Don't go off and hook up with James just because he knows that shes cheating." Holly said, stroking Lily's hair, which was all you could see of her as she was now burried in her pillow again. "Lil, why are you so upset if you don't even like him?" Holly asked, reasonably.
"Because, Holly, he was using me. He only kissed me so that he would have a reason to dump Alice. He totally led me on!" Lily said, sitting up and staring at Holly, a hurt expression on her face.
"Well, that's true. But after he kissed you, did you consider getting back together with him?" Holly asked.
"No!" Lily said, but after seeing Holly's expression she yielded. "Yes." Lily admitted.
"Ah-ha. So you are trying to get back with him." Holly said, sounding triumphant.
"No, because now I know that the kiss was just fake. He was pretending. And also, he's been using Alice this whole time too! He doesn't even like her, he just uses her to hook up with someone." Lily said, trying to make it sound even worse.
"Why do you even care about that little slut?" Holly asked.
"Because Holly, just because of one fight and a few bad judgement calls doesn't mean I can just forget about five years of friendship."
"I could." Holly said. Talking about Alice always made her angry.
"Are you mad at me Holly? Just because I might have liked James before I knew that he was dating Alice?" Lily asked, confused by her friends reaction.
"No, what James and Alice did is wrong, but that doesn't mean that you should do something you're going to regret later Lily. remember that, okay?"
"Allright, thanks Holly, you're the best." Lily replied, hugging her friend.
"I know, and, by the way, James is an ass."
"Thanks." Lily said, laughing half heartedly. "By the way, how are things with Sirius?"
"Things are great! He's so sweet." And from there the convorsation moved on to lighter topics, such as Sirius.
"Sirius, I don't know what to do, every time I think that I'm close to having a breakthrough with her she goes and twists around everything I say." James complained to Sirius, lying on his back with his legs stretched out. He was staring at the ceiling of the boys fifth year dormitory, and Sirius was sitting up on the next bed over. James rolled on to his side to face his friend. Sirius was looking sympathetic.
"What happened this time?"
"Don't you mean what did I do?" James asked sarcastically.
"Listen mate, don't take it personally. It's true, it's always the guys fault. And even if it isn't, pretend that it is. What happened?"
"Well, this time it was my fault. There was kind of a misunderstanding." James said slowly.
"I'm listening." Sirius said.
"Well, I kissed Lily after the Quiddich match that time, right?"
"Yeah, otherwise you made that up, which is just wierd and desparate..."
"Well, I did, and then tonight Lily told me that Alice was cheating on me with Professor Longbottom-"
"Those two things seem rather unrelated." Sirius interupted.
"You told me you were listening, so just listen okay?" James said, giving Sirius an evil look.
"Alright, you have my attention. Alice is banging the professor. I wouldn't take it personally though, she probabally needs the good grade." James ignored this coment and continued explaining what had happened.
"So then I told Lily that I didn't care, I had been looking for a reason to dump Alice for a while." James said.
"You didn't!" Sirius said, standing up and slapping his forehead. "James, you idiot. I'm sorry, but you should have known better. Alice and Lily have been friends since the first year. Not to mention girls hate that kind of thing. I don't know, feminism or whatever. But you should not have said that."
"Well, I was trying to explain that I wanted to break up with her anyway because I still like Lily. And I was going to tell her that, except she imediately jumped to the conclusion that I had only kissed her because I wanted to use that as an excuse to break up with Alice. So now she thinks that I'm just using both of them." James concluded.
"Sorry mate, I just have to say though, that isn't that big of a leap. It sucks, but maybe you should just explain it to her." Sirius said, sitting down again.
"If she ever talks to me again." James said despairingly. "Which I doubt she will."
"Of course she will." Sirius said cheerfully.
"You seem extremely faithful. Especially considering I just broke the laws of feminism or whatever." James said moodily, chucking a pillow at Sirius, which he deftly caught with one hand.
"That is because I have a plan." Sirius said, returning the pillow to James's skull. "And you did break the laws of feminism, just because they aren't written down doesn't mean there isn't a strict set of rules and pnishments...not that any man actaully knows what they are, but you just have to guess sometimes. What would you do without me? Honestly James. You would never get another girlfriend again."
The next day Lily woke early and went down to the common room. She was still a little shaken by her confrontation with James last night, and Holly had been all sympathy over the entire situation. She had joined Lily in calling James names, and then they had proceeded to bash Alice for being a slut and for dating him to begin with, as well as for cheating on him with Professor Longbottom. They had stayed up talking in to the small hours of the morning, and Lily awaoke bright eyes and alert, as only one who has just opoured out her soul to a sympathetic listener can look.
Lily saw a notice on the bullitin board that she had not noticed yesterday. She approached and read it, it had the names of the people who had not yet had their Career Consoltation and the times they were scheduled to meet with teachers. Lily ran her fingure down the lists of names until she reached her own name. She would be missing half of double divination to meet with professor Inkbeat.
The day went by in a blur, she skipped lunch to prepare for her meeting by reading up on the potential careers available to her. Most of the year were looking in to becoming aurors, but as Lily had given up on Defense Againt the Dark Arts she was not elligable. The idea of chasing down dark wizards did not really appeal to her anyway.
She knew James was going to try for it, and Holly had mentioned being interested in looking into it, as was Sirius. Lily had not really spoken to Caroline about it, Janette did not know what she wanted to do, and Lily did not know Alices plans as they were not on speaking terms-although Alice asumed that she would be continuing Defense Against the Drk Arts.
Lily skimmed the pamflets that had been placed on the tables in the common room about a week ago. There were jobs such as a magical chef, a career Lily hadn't even thought about. There were also extremely random jobs such as a magical book-binder. Lily chuckled to herself at the idea of becoming a book-binder. Of course it was a very important job, but the thought of binding The Invisible Book of Invisibility or The Monster Book of Monsters was quite entertaining.
When Lily finally arrived outside the door to Professor Inkbeats office she paused, slightly wary of what Professor Inkbeat would say about her ambitions.
"Yes?" Professor Inkbeats voice came in response to Lily's knock. Lily opened the door tentatively, peering around the side of the door.
"Ah, Lily, yes, I've been expecting you of course." Professor Inkbeat said, shuffling papers on her desk and capping her ink bottle, looking somewhat flustered and not as if she had been expecting Lily at all. "Gracious, is that the time allready? Well, I must have gotten so absorbed in perusing these, er, files that I lost track of the time." Professor Inkbeat said, rushing across the room to an overflowing filing cabinet and bringing out a file labled with Lily's name.
Lily was slightly surprised that Professor Inkbeat had a file on her. Lily was in Gryfindor, after all, and Professor Inkbeat was not her head of house. Slytherin and Gryfindor houses had always been very closely linked of course, they were very similar, always fighting for what they wanted and very opinionated. That was why they always had their lessons together during doubles.
"Yes, well, I'm a little early actually professor." Lily said, giving her professor and easy out of her akward situation.
"Well yes, you are aren't you?" Said Professor Inkbeat, accepting this excuse for being unprepared. Lily was not, of course, early at all. She was right on time, well, one minute late actually. "So, do you have any ideas on what you want to do with your life Lily?" Professor Inkbeat asked, still slightly flustered, but grasping at a thread of convorsation.
"Yes, actually, I was considering Healing. I know it said Defense Against the Dark Arts, and I know that I gave that class up, but I was thinking maybe if I did some extra work or started taking the class again. Or maybe I could start as just a minor nurse at Saint Mungoes, do an internship or something, I'm sure that I would be great at it."
"I'm sure you would Lily, and I can tell that you are obviously passionate about this, but I doubt they would hire you, someone without the requirements and fresh out of Hogwarts, over the tons of other qualified aplicants." Lily did not like the emphasis that she had put on the word qualified. "Perhaps you have a back-up career, just in case that doesn't work out..."
"Yes, I was also looking in to a job at Gringots, it talked about traveling opportunities, and all I would need is Charms and Arithmancy, which I have." Lily said, quickly saving herself from any furthur embarassment. Professor Inkbeat started talking about the comments her teachers had made, and the grades she had been getting in the past. Lily had Excedes Expectations and Outstandings in every class, and all of her teachers had wonderful things to say about her, so Professor Inkbeat was very hopefull about her prospects.
"You are of course very capable at magic, as is apparent in your grades, and you are also very adept at potions. Any reasonable career that you take into consideration should be within your reach. If you are seriously considering banking, you should of course continue with arithmancy and charms. I also recomend that, if you want any hope at all of becoming a Healer, you continue with potions, herbology and transfiguration. I will speak with Professor Longbottom, perhaps he will be able to work something out so that you can take this last year of his course. There is still room for you to take the OWL in Defense Against the Dark Arts, if you are really serious that is." Professor Inkbeat smiled at Lily. Her face lit up. She would work as hard as she possibly could to get in to the OWL testing room and to pass that exam. Lily had never wanted anything more than she wanted to be a healer. There was just something about it that appealed to her in a way that none of the other careers did. Not even becoming an auror appealed to her.
Every year at least 20 students tried for becoming an auror, but most quit less than halfway through after finding out all that being an auror required. Most of Lily's year were trying for it, what with all the talk that had been going around about what was happening outside of Hogwarts. Besides, although Defense was required for being a healer, Defense was imparative for an auror, their entire career was practically based on it, so it would be silly for Lily to try. As she had looked through the pamflets she had realized how many of the careers required Defense, and had almost wished that she hadn't gotten special permission from Dumbledore to drop it.
He had advised and advised against it, but she had begged him until he gave in, insisting that the class was of no use and that she was more interested in picking up Muggle Studies, Arithmancy, and Ancient Runes. Lily had had an over loaded course schedule as it was, and after her thirdand fourth years she had finally conceded that even she could not handle the two extra classes and had asked to drop Defense. Lily now regretted this, as most of her career persuits would require Defense Against the Dark Arts.
Lily resolved to go right then to speak with Professor Longbottom on the issue of make up classes. Lily approached the door to his classroom and did not hear any noise from within. She knocked hesitantly to no avail. There was still no sound from within. Lily knocked again, this time more firmly. There was still no reply. Perhaps he was in his office, or the staff room. Just as Lily was preparing to walk away she heard murmuring from behind the door.
"Excuse me, professor?" Lily asked nervously.
"Yes, yes come in." Came Professor Longbottoms gruff reply. Lily was nervous not only because she had dropped his class, and not only because his 'girlfriend' hated her, but also because what she was about to ask was probabally a highly unusual request and would involve a lot of extra work on his part.
"Professor?" Lily asked, taking a step into the classroom.
"Yes?" He asked, looking up from a stack of papers he had been correcting.
"Well, I know this may seem a bit unusual of a request, but I was wondering if there was any possibility that I would be able to..." Lily trailed off, not knowing exactly how she should phrase her question.
"Yes?" He asked again, sounding more than a little impatient.
"Well, I was wondering if maybe I could," Lily cleared her throat. His apparent boredom and cold stare did not make this any easier. "Well, how shall I put this? I was wondering if there was a chance that I could take the Defense Against the Dark Arts OWL, and if you could maybe give me this years sylibis so that i would know what to study." Lily asked, rushing the words and looking at the floor. She could only imagine what Alice must have told him about her. And she could only imagine how he felt about her when this was compounded with how he probabally felt about her for dropping his class in the first place.
"You're right." He told her. What am I right about? I didn't answer a question. She looked at him blankly. "That is an odd request." Lily sighed, knowing that it had been a long shot to hope that he would be helpfull. "Sit down Ms. Evans." Lily sat. "I am under the impression that you dropped this class Ms. Evans. Is there a reason for your sudden change of heart?"
"Well yes, actually. I am seriously considering a career in-"
"Becoming an auror?" He asked, interupting her and sounding bored again. "I just have to tell you that it's hard work and I doubt the Ministry would take kindly to the fact that you skipped an entire year of Defense Against the Dark Arts."
"No, not becoming an auor professor. Becoming a Healer. I want to help people. I know that catching dark wizards is help," she continued quickly, remembering that he himself was an auror. "Only I want to help people in a more tangible way. I like caring for people and making people feel better. I really want to be a Healer, only I can't without your help." Professor Longbottom set down his quill, looking at her curiously, as though seeing her clearly for the first time.
"That is a very noble profession for you to want to persue. There can never be too many healers, I will help you in whatever way I can. I know that I can give you a sylabis and whatever text books you need, and I will do my best to get you in to the exam, but the rest is up to you. It will be difficult, and I will of course answer any questions you have, but I cannot devote all of my time to you. I have seventh year students studying for their NEWTs, and many students who have done the work all year long who also need my help. I'm not guarenteeing that you'll make it, Ms. Evans." He told her honestly. Lily assured him that she could hope for nothing more, and left clutching the sylabis to her chest along with a classroom copy of the textbook.
Authors Note: Okay, well, an explanation is required I feel. Okay, I wanted for Lily to be a healer, because I felt like everyone was being an auror. But then I realized that she had dropped Defense Against the Dark Arts (yes, I know that that is not really done at Hogwarts until after OWLS- but I made an exeption for Lily, which is why I explained about how she had extra courses and all that.) so I had to have her get the Defense credits. Enter James- oh, no, you havent gotten there. Woopsie! Review!
Oh, and also, at this time (bear in mind voldemort isnt in power yet) Gryfindor and Slytherin are very closely linked. Next year voldemort will be on the rise, tension high, loads of conflict, and lots of entertainment for you!! Haha, oh and remember the whole marauders thign starts i nthe 6th year as well...just remember that. Speaking of which, if any of you have really good ideas for pranks you want the boys to play, give me a shout! Press the button and you'll het a chapie soon...