Wow! This next chappie out so early? All you guys will be so proud of me (or at least, I hope!!)! This chappie shows yet another insight into the Ice Lily! Enjoy!
Chapter 7- Early-Morning Encounters
Lily walked quietly up to the Headmaster's office, though inwardly she was seething. Those stupid snowflakes kept falling, and wherever she walked, a trail of frost sprang up that vanished a few seconds later. To make matters worse, the fairies were still there, though she had to admit, they were kinda cute. She put her hand up to one, and it giggled, landing softly on her palm. She smiled at it, before shooing it off again to join the cloud following her. *The 'Marauders' must be losing their touch.* she thought wryly, arriving at the gargoyle. Hearing footsteps behind her, she waited, knowing that the person would probably be Potter.
"Uh, er, hi." he stammered. "I kinda don't know the password...do you?" he asked, sounding slightly startled. *Well, he would be, if he was just following me and suddenly found me staring at him.* her conscience rationalized.
She turned around slowly, and placed her hand on the gargoyle's head. The statue came to life like always, and opened the stairway. Without a word she continued, leaving Potter to fend for himself. *He's a big boy, I'm sure he can.* she thought sarcastically, as she arrived at the door. Knocking softly, she let herself in and left the door open.
"Ah, Lily, welcome! Is James coming?" Dumbledore asked jovially. Lily merely stared at him before answering.
"I assume so." she answered, her voice cold. At that moment, James walked in, paused, and sat down in the chair next to Lily, albeit slightly nervously.
"Hello, Professor." he said, and Dumbledore smiled.
"Now, onto our meeting. You two will co-ordinate the Prefect's meetings, you have the final say on all balls or activities and you must meet together at least once weekly to evaluate school morale or any issues that may come up. You have the authority to remove points and it is you the students will look to as an example of leadership. The rules are in place not to amuse myself or any of the other professors, they are there for a reason. Your main job is to make sure rules are upheld, and to uphold them yourself." he finished sternly, looking at James. James merely looked puzzled and innocent.
*What a lying little bastard.* Lily thought, amused.
"Now, I will leave you two now to get to know each other a little better because you need to have a functional, working relationship." Dumbledore continued. "That means trust and co-operation, as well as an understanding of how your partner thinks. You may stay here for as long as you wish, though it would be a bad example to have our Head Boy and Girl breaking curfew!" Dumbledore got up and left, leaving the room eerily quiet.
"So..." James said unconfortably. Lily turned to face him.
"I am sure you know enough about me, Potter. And I do not wish to know any more about you." Lily said in a cool voice. She got up and headed for the door, but was stopped.
"Wait!" James called. She turned. "My name is James Potter. I am the Chaser and now Captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team, I enjoy pranks, and my best friends are..."
"Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew." Lily finished, interrupting. James looked at her oddly. "I knew you once, Potter. You were not the person I thought you were, and I can see you have not changed since third year. You know my name, my owl, all the rumours about me...why do you need to know more?" she challenged, her eyes hard and angry. James swallowed.
"What happened to the Lily Evans I once knew?" he said softly.
"You never knew Lily." she said harshly. Taking a deep breath, she calmed herself down. "That Lily was naïve, innocent. She could not survive here. That Lily is dead." Nodding curtly, she turned to go. "Good evening, Potter." Lily left in a swirl of red locks and silvery snowflakes, as James sat for another five minutes, simply stunned.
* * *
"And then, she's like 'That Lily is dead.'" James finished describing his odd encounter with the redhead to his friends. Remus shook his head.
"She's been so strange since third year. She never played that game of chess with me either!"
"Chess?" asked Peter, rolling over on his bed. Remus shrugged.
"Yeah, I levitated her up the stairs when she was really tired from doing...something, I dunno what. I said I would if she played a game of chess with me, she agreed...but then she was so busy with that idiot Malfoy and then she turned into Evans the Ice Block so..." he shrugged.
"She was probably fucking some other guy." Sirius said lazily, staring up at the ceiling. Remus shook his head.
"Nah...not like sweaty-tired, more like exhausted-tired...like she had been working out or something..." he drifted off, each boy preoccupied with their own thoughts. James was thinking about the difference in her eyes.
/flashback/
Lily was not the only one to wake up early. James had been unable to sleep for the latter half of the night(probably the byproduct of his gorging at the feast), so he decided to go fly. As he did several loops and dives to let off steam, he noticed the oddly familiar redhead walking down towards the pitch...Spiraling up towards the sky, he dove suddenly towards the stands and stopped mere inches from the seated Lily's face. *Whoa...those eyes...* he thought dazedly as he stared into the jade pools. So full of emotion, so warm, they reminded him of a calm tropical ocean...* You idiot! * he raged at himself after a few moments. * Hovering there staring at her is not a good thing! *
/end flashback/
Shaking himself out of his reverie, he remembered Evans' eyes now. *Like agates...so cold and hard, with no feeling whatsoever. What happened to make her like that? Wish to God I knew...*
"Boys, I think tonight's the time to work some more on the map." Sirius announced and James eagerly agreed.
"Yeah, sounds great. I'm sure there are loads more passages then the ones we discovered!" Remus and Peter nodded, and the four boys got ready to go out. Later, all four of them were creeping down the familiar hallways in Hogwarts, Marauder's Map in hand.
"James, cast the spell." whispered Remus, and James, staring carefully at the map, whispered the incantation.
"Revealio celo cuniculus creatrix maleficium." he said, waving his wand in a complex mnemonic gesture. A series of glowing dots appeared on the floor, and the boys eagerly followed. The dots lead straight into a mirror near Dumbledore's office.
"This is a secret passageway?" Peter asked. James shrugged.
"Now all we have to do is find out the password." he said, and stood gamely in front of the mirror. Taking a look at the map, he noticed a tiny speech bubble next to his image. He bent down, rubbed his eyes and looked closely.
'Password unavailable'
"Crap!" he swore softly. "The Map's never failed us before!" Sirius shrugged.
"Hey, I don't care. Maybe the spell just screwed up." he said idly. James shook his head violently.
"It can't! There's a passage down there, I know it!" Remus looked at James oddly.
"Jamesie, maybe we should head back. It's almost 1:00."
"NO! I have to figure this out!" With that, he stalked off to the mirror and sat down defiantly. Peter gestured helplessly.
"James, we can come back tommorrow night. But c'mon, I'm sure that there are loads of other passages and we still have time!" Sirius said cheerfully.
"Hey, you guys take the cloak, I'll figure this out eventually. Have fun." James said, then whispered the incantation again. The dots appeared once more, but this time lead out of the hallway. Torn between adventure and leaving James there, the boys hesitated.
"Guys! Go!" James said, slightly exasperated. Remus shrugged, picked up the cloak and flung it over his two companions.
"Have fun, I guess." came Peter's whispered voice, and the sound of footsteps receded. Sighing, James stood up.
"Mirror, mirror on the wall? No, er...candy? Fizzing Whizzbees? Chocolate Frogs? Um, animals? Hippogriff? Kneazle? Chizpurfle? Uh, weird things...Bits n' bobs? Yarmulke? Crup snout? Fiddle-dee-dee?" James queried. The mirror stayed closed. "Guess not...fruit? Apple? Orange? Kumquat? What the hell IS a kumquat anyway? Aagh..." James slumped down on the wall facing the mirror. "Gonna be a long night. Okay, from the top: Butterbeer? Mulled mead?..."
James stayed at the mirror the rest of the night, saying anything that came into his head. The piece of glass stayed stubbornly immovable, no matter what he tried. At around 6:00, however, someone came.
"...Snuffluphagus? Treacle tart? All Hallow's Eve?" he was saying lazily, when soft footsteps interrupted his stupor. Had there been any noise, he would not have heard them at all. Jumping up and retreating into the shadows on instinct, he watched and waited for the person to appear, all the while still pummeling his brain for answers. *Yeti? No, I tried that when I listed all the animals. Leprechaun? Hmm, gotta try that...WHAT?* For none other than Lily Evans had walked confidently up to the mirror.
"Password unavailable." she said confidently, and with a groan, the mirror swung open on it's hinges. She walked in, and the mirror swung shut almost instantly. James stood there, mouth open.
"Holy shit." was all he could say, staring blankly at the mirror. It took all of his willpower not to face the wall and start banging his head. *Well, I feel stupid. At least I know the Map was right!* he thought sheepishly as he walked up to the mirror. He grew more and more curious as he stared at it. *What the fuck could straight-A, never-broke-a-rule-in-her-life Evans be doing? More importantly, how would she know how to get down there?* Finally, his curiosity overcame him and before he really knew what he was doing, he had gone to the mirror, spoken the password, and started down the stairs. *Hope to hell I'm alive by the end of this.* he thought wryly, reaching the bottom.
* * *
Lily had just begun her morning workout with her most difficult pattern dance, made harder by the new sword that she was not accustomed to yet. Beginning the first turn and slice, a loud footstep startled her. Without even pausing to think, she turned and leaped, bringing down both her would-be attacker and the sword, stopping only at the throat of one...*POTTER?* she thought, stunned, staring into the equally shocked chocolate-brown eyes of the boy. Standing up and sheathing her sword, she waited.
"On your feet, Potter." she ordered, trying to keep the rage out of her voice. He scrambled upright, and smiled nervously.
"Lily! Fancy seeing you..."
"Cut the crap, asshole." she snapped. "What the hell are you doing down here?"
"Uh, well, I, er, uh..." he stammered. As much as she enjoyed Potter reduced to a blathering idiot, she wanted an explanation, and she wanted one now.
"Explain." she said curtly.
"Well, I couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk and saw you coming down to the mirror. I, er, overheard the password and, uh,...decided to come chat with you?" he said questioningly.
"Nice try." she said scathingly.
"Damn." he smiled his trademark grin, but she merely turned away.
"Now, I wish to get back to my pattern dance, so, good morning." she turned, took a deep breath and was about to begin when Potter broke in again.
"How did you learn that?" he asked, and Lily had some very violent visions of what she could do to one James Potter. *Okay, calmness, breathe in, breathe out...* she chanted in her mind, turning to face him.
"Professor Aquila began to teach me in my first year. Any more questions?" she said curtly.
"No, thanks for talking, though." he said, smiling. Lily almost smiled back before she caught herself. *What the hell are you doing, girl?* her mind screamed as she gave a swift nod. Turning around and stalking back to the centre of the floor, she sighed, before giving up all thought except for her breathing, her movements and her sword.
After she had finished her workout, she left the castle and went for her daily run around the Quidditch Pitch. Finally done, she decided to try and find the Head Girl dorms. Last night, she had been so tired that she had fallen asleep in the Infirmary. Now, however, she needed a shower and a change of clothes. She walked around aimlessly until she met a familiar portrait.
"Francesca, Edelfritha, how nice to see you ladies again!" she exclaimed to a painting of two nuns. They both nodded, smiles breaking onto their normally stern faces.
"How are you, miss Evans?" Edelfritha asked, and Lily smiled.
"Okay, I guess, except for one teeny little problem..."
"Well? What is it, child?" asked Francesca.
"I need to find the Head Girl dorm." The two nuns smiled knowingly.
"It's behind the statue of the unicorn, in the hallway right behind us, though we don't know what the password is." they said in unison, and Lily laughed.
"You two, always could read each other's minds!" The two nuns exchanged pleased glances. "Thanks ever so much!" Lily hurried off, and sure enough, found a huge statue of a unicorn. The statue was so big that it's horn just barely missed the high vaulted ceiling.
"Aren't you pretty?" she said, reaching out to stroke the cold marble. As soon as her hand touched stone, the unicorn's eyes glowed a sapphire blue. The statue nodded once, and stepped sideways, revealing an archway. "Uh...thanks." she said, still a little shocked, and hurried into the room.
"Wow..." was all she could say at the sight that met her eyes. A small common room, with two desks, bookshelves and squashy armchairs was cheerfully illuminated by a crackling fire. Walking further into the room, she noticed staircases up to the left and right and a large door in the corner of the room. Heading to the large door and opening it, she was delighted by the large bathroom with a bathtub (that looked more like a swimming pool), two showers and two separate vanities. Next, she hopped up the staircase to the right and saw a small plaque on the door that read 'Head Girl'. Opening the door, she walked into the room and felt as if she had walked into Heaven instead.
Everything was an ethereal white. The large double bed had a white comforter with golden embroidery, white pillows and small golden accent pillows. A white loveseat sat next to the thick white rug in front of the fireplace, which was coated in (you guessed it) white marble. A large mirror, framed in gold, hung on one wall. There was a long row of golden drapery covering one end of the room, and Lily excitedly rushed over to open it. It revealed a row of floor-to-ceiling windows, looking out over the lake and a small piece of the Forbidden Forest. Lily jumped on the bed and lay back, almost in shock. *Wow, it's almost worth becoming Head Girl just to have this room!* she thought giddily, staring up at the ceiling, which had been painted like a sunrise. Singing happily, she skipped down the stairs to the huge bathroom. *I am going to have one looong bath, and then breakfast!* she thought excitedly, and swept into the bathroom.
Jumping eagerly into the bathtub(which was already filled), she turned the different jeweled taps around the bathtub on and off, giggling at what she found. One fountain gave off little pink bubbles, another put golden glitter into the water, yet another perfumed the water with the scent of cinnamon...Lily lounged in the bathtub for almost an hour before jumping out. Her skin felt soft and she felt the cleanest she'd ever been. She performed the drying charm quickly, got dressed and left the room accompanied with a cloud of heavenly-smelling steam, the snowflakes(which were fading fast), the remnants of the frost and one little fairy who had decided to stick around.
Gathering her books, she left the common room and headed to the Great Hall. A loud uproar greeted her as she pushed open the double doors, as what seemed like every single student was clustered around a notice pasted on the wall. Walking over to read the notice, she noted idly that as she approached, people fell silent, and a path appeared for her to the front. *I feel so loved...* she thought ironically as she scanned the notice. Her jaw dropped. *I am going to fucking kill her...* was all the coherent thought she could manage.
MUAHAHAHAHA!!! Cliffy! Aren't I mean? At least I gave you guys a longer chappie. I laughed my head off when I was writing about James and the mirror. Sooo...now time for my (few) devoted reviewers! (At least, I hope there's few because the rest of you guys haven't realized that I replaced the AN with a new chappie!)
LillixRox'09 – Sorry I skipped your review last chappie! I'm glad you luv it-hope this chappie is just as lovable!
LillyNyx – Thanks! Yes, Lily is definitely the fighter chick. Ooh, wait till you read the ending...;-) hehehehe....
Rei - *gasp*You actually liked the Sorting Hat song? Wow! Yes, I love fightin' Lily too. Hmmm...10 thumbs...well, it could work, if you're clumsy(all thumbs...*snickers* very bad joke, I know)