::Midnight Lily::

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter – it belongs to J.K. Rowling.

Chapter Eight

Lily and James made their way back to the Hogwarts grounds by themselves. They completely overlooked the fact that their friends were still waiting for them in the Three Broomsticks. They just wanted to enjoy each others company – for once. Lily didn't know why it seemed to relax her when she was around him all of a sudden. He just made her laugh, that's all. James felt entranced by how free-spirited Lily could become.

Most of the things they talked about were stupid stuff. Like Lily's unease to be a self-starter or how Bertha and Peter would make a funny looking couple. But once in a while they'd come to serious grounds.

"Since when did you have a crush on me?" Lily asked James inquiringly as the lake came into view.

"What?" James asked with a small smile.

"Come on," Lily laughed. "When? I'm curious, tell me." She turned around and walked backwards, looking at James with an effortless grin. Her red hair flew behind her like her head was on fire. But no one would have wanted to extinguish it.

"About, second year," James admitted. "Near the end of it, that is."

"So long?!" Lily asked with a sympathetic expression on her face.

"Yes," James answered, shaking his head. "I'm pathetic."

"No," Lily protested. She stopped walking and looked at the lake with a solicitous look on her face. "Can I tell you a secret?"

James caught up with Lily and looked at her as if she were kidding him. "Sure."

"Katie's had this crush on Sirius since first year," Lily told him. "So you're not alone."

It wasn't what he'd expected and it didn't come to him as a surprise either. "I already know that," James said irately. He took a couple of breaths and tried to cool down his growing temper. What had he hoped for her to say? That she had had a crush on him since the first year? That was a will-o'-the-wisp. It could never happen.

"Oh?" Lily asked startled. She turned her head to look at James.

"It's so obvious," James said, forcing a grin onto his face.

"I guess," Lily said with a shrug. "But think about this, Sirius just broke up with Sabina – for Katie it's hard to be kindly when she just has this opportunity open to her." James looked back at the castle but then turned around to face the lake hastily. "What is it? What's wrong?" She tried to turn and look but James forced her to keep her back on the castle door.

"It's Ailsa," James said through gritted teeth. "And I look like I've just came out of a grater."

Lily snorted. "You always look like you've come out of a grater," she remarked. "What do you want to do? Just stand here?" She took a quick peek and saw that Ailsa, copper brown hair flying, was making her way across the grounds hurriedly. By the expression on her face, Lily could tell that she was miserably upset. Ailsa sat down under a tree a few spaces away from them and hugged her knees close to her chest. "Oh, she looks so distressed."

James glanced down at his feet with a soft look on his face. "Should I go and comfort her or something?" he asked uncomfortably. "Maybe I should escort her back to the castle?"

"She wouldn't want any help from you," Lily said severely. "You have a girlfriend – the last thing she'd want to know is that you're cheating on me – with her." Lily sat down onto the cold snow and James followed. "I don't think we can do much for her."

"But there must be something," James replied edgily. "I can't pass up this opportunity – maybe I can curse you."

"Don't even dare," Lily said shrilly.

"It was only a thought," James said smiling a little. He took another vague look towards Ailsa. "I know – I can show her more of how romantic I can be." Offhandedly, he moved closer to Lily and leaned towards her with his right hand. Lily could feel her heart's pace quickening. "Don't worry; I'm not going to do anything stupid."

"You just did," Lily said protectively. She could feel her cheeks burning up despite the cold. She kept her eyes averted from Ailsa and she wished that James would too. "You want to make it seem as if you're more interested in her then me?"

James hurriedly looked away. "She's just so amazing, even when she's troubled," James stated. He shook himself out of his trance. "What do I do?"

"I don't know," Lily said. "You've picked the wrong person to blackmail; I've never been in love."

But James ignored this. "Shoot!" He cursed. Lily turned around and saw that Ailsa was standing up and taking small steps towards the castle. "She's going back! We have to distract her." He raked through his brain, thinking of any distraction he could use. He turned to Lily, closed his eyes and without thinking leaned even closer forwards.

When he first leant forwards, he didn't know what he was doing or whether he wanted to do it. But once he did, he completely lost himself. James himself had kissed a number of girls. But Lily was different. She had never been kissed in her life. Not a true kiss that is, not one on the lips and not one that lasted six seconds. She was new to it and that's what made James feel atypical, fresh.

The feeling that overtook Lily was enticing. She'd never felt anything like it.

When they released Lily and James went into a traumatic silence. They didn't know what to say to each other. James knew it was like any other ordinary kiss. But then why was his head spinning and his heart flying to the stars? He tried to fight off the feeling. He didn't want to be falling for Lily again. Not now.

Lily looked instantly at her hands. They were numb. It might have been because of the snow beneath her fingers but then again she had never felt so revered by James. For a second she realized Katie's thoughts of Sirius, Amber's thoughts of Wade, her thought's of James.

James turned and saw that Ailsa was walking away. She hadn't notice! He looked back at Lily and realized that he didn't care. But he must care! He had to care. Lily wasn't the one he had a crush on – Ailsa was!

"Was that real?" Lily asked faintly.

"No," James answered, trying to revert his feelings to Ailsa. He would deny that he had feelings for her. "It was an act for Ailsa to notice me and she didn't." He stood up and gave Lily a hand. "Go find your friends, Evans. I need to think of another plan." He walked back into the castle, leaving Lily with her worries and half her heart missing.

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The new term opened up in a great furore. Every one of the seventh years was enticed in studying and preparing for the end-of-year exams. Lily was especially edgy whenever anyone came and bothered her in the seventh-year girl's dormitory.

Another matter entirely came a few weeks after the term began. It sent all the Gryffindors and Slytherins in upheaval against each other and placed a heavy burden on Wade's shoulders.

The Quidditch Match; Slytherin vs. Gryffindor.

The points currently stood at a summit of which Gryffindor had two hundred and fifty points; Slytherin had four hundred and ten points; Ravenclaw had three hundred and ten and Hufflepuff had two hundred and eighty. The gap between Slytherin and Gryffindor was large. All the favors were leaning towards Slytherin but, as it was Wade's last chance in winning the cup, the competitive spirit between the two houses were mutinous.

So far the injuries from the Gryffindor team stood by; Amber sent to the hospital with a broken ankle, Wade was sent up with a broken nose, Martha Tilford was there for two days with an inflated head, Jamie Stuart suffered for a week with warts the size of cookies bubbling all over his body, and two second-year girls received two weeks in the wing after receiving a bad case of the Boogie Curse.

But the Gryffindors did strike back by; sending the captain, Mortimer, to the hospital with his legs tied in a knot, Keeper Alex Anderson with his hair growing an inch per minute, and Blake Kimmons, a sixth-year chaser, with an Aging Curse.

But all of them were prepared for the match ahead of them. De-inflated, wartless, Boogie ridden, and several years younger, both Slytherin and Gryffindor were hot on their heels and prepared to fight for their lives.

James didn't even have a chance to think about how to impress Ailsa through all the hard training he was being put through and Lily was too strained with studying to even care. Every time they bumped into each other in a corridor all they did was exchange glances. They couldn't think about the feelings they suddenly had for each other. Even if they did, it wouldn't make much of a difference, they couldn't express it.

Lily tried her best to wipe away the memory of that afternoon. But it was like a coffee stain on her shirt. It couldn't be removed. She could scratch and rub on it as hard as she wanted and it would stay the way that it was. Bitter, tempting and confusing.

Katie and Amber pressured Lily to think about a partner for the Graduation Ball, as many of the adequate seventh-year boys were already being taken, but Lily couldn't think of anyone she'd want to go with. Once or twice her mind moved over James but then she'd hastily push it away. He was going to be going with Ailsa and that was final.

Amber was obviously going with her boyfriend Wade. Who had seemed to have completely ignored his girlfriend through all the Quidditch practices taking place. Amber was working just as hard to be the best beater she could but it was overwhelming.

Katie didn't have anyone to go with yet. Sometimes she'd look forlornly at Sirius and other times she'd be completely ignoring him. It was hard to understand whether she still wanted to be with him or not.

Sabina, however, had decided to go with a Hufflepuff boy named Thom. They met a week after the holidays and decided that they would just keep each other company. Lily, Amber and Katie could see that she didn't love Thom but they knew that it was good for her to just have a friend. It didn't matter if it was serious or not. But at least Sabina was moving on.

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"Lily, are you coming to the match?" Katie asked. It was the morning before the Final Quidditch Match began. "We're going to be late for the start up."

"I'm not going," Lily groaned. She sat at a table in the Gryffindor common room. Books were piled sky-high and rolls of parchment were everywhere. Lily sat in the middle of it all, bags under her eyes and her hair tangled and drooped. Her friends stood beside her and looked at Lily with worry.

"But Amber is going to be there," Sabina griped. "And Thom wants to meet you – I told him that you're coming."

"I'm not going," Lily repeated. "I still haven't finished revising my Charm notes; I need to finish that by today, so you guys just go ahead without me, please." She picked up a heavy-looking book and dropped it in front of her with a loud bang.

"This studying is going to your head!" Charlie said, goggling at the books in amazement. "You shouldn't be that concerned, Professor McGonagall expects you to have full marks in all of them anyway."

"I need to do this," Lily said through gritted teeth. "I have a responsibility on my shoulders." She tried to ignore the words that ran through her mind. The words that James told her on the Hogsmeade weekend. "Just go before I put a curse on you."

"You're turning out like Potter," Katie said under her breath. But they left anyway, leaving Lily to her work and washing the common room into dead silence.

Lily waited for the sound of their footsteps to finally disappear before packing up the books she had on the table and sitting down next to the fireplace. She didn't want to go at the Quidditch match just because she had a lot of studying to do. It was because of James. She couldn't look at him without feeling disheartened. What was she hoping for? For him to suddenly love her? No. The kiss was a stunt for Ailsa only.

Lily honestly didn't know what to think of James. Most of the times he was predictable – arrogant, bigheaded ... daft, but then sometimes he did things that were so unpredictable, it made Lily feel stupid herself. Like kissing her.

Why couldn't she remove it from her head? That was just a stunt for Ailsa. But the way it felt. She'd never had someone kiss her before. It made her feel secure and loved. For the first time she felt truly loved. Before that she didn't know why 'Midnight Lily' wanted to kiss Matt – what she felt for Matt. But then Lily realized that it was all for love. Take a chance. But Lily knew that James didn't feel the same way Matt felt for the Lily in the story. James had denied everything.

Lily played with her red hair for a while. Out of all the seventh year boys she had to fall in love with it had to be James. The one boy who wouldn't take her, love her. James was already taken by Ailsa.

"Matt and Lily go out to the front and sit down on a side bench, watching the lights inside. It was close to midnight, and Lily was soon to turn into a pumpkin, everything in her life was soon to be gone. There the two were, holding each other; Lily so much wanted to kiss Matt. So she does, slowly and passionately, and then midnight strikes. But nothing happened – the kiss had freed Lily from becoming a pumpkin, and she knew that she was with the one she loved most of all at that moment."

No. This time there was to be no happy ending. Lily was going to turn into a pumpkin and that was the end of that. Midnight Lily was just a tale. It wouldn't end the way she wished it to. Lily would never have the true kiss she wanted. Lily would never have the dream wedding she wanted. Lily was to never live happy ever after.

A/N: I'm sorry that Lily didn't go to the Final Quidditch Match. You'll have to find out the results in the next chapter! But how was this chapter? Was it alright? I know that it was kind of short. I didn't feel like embarrassing myself by writing down an inaccurate turn of events for the last Quidditch match. I'm not good at describing sports. LOL. Please R/R.