A/N: I really have no note, this time. Not yet. Maybe I'll stop posting chapters until people post more comments… So there!
Bookworm: Here, you don't have to beg on bended knee! Thanks so much for the review, I hope you like the rest. I don't really plan on ending it for quite a while. insert hysterical laughter, as it's my senior year and even if I'm homeschooling it's driving me insane
Budgiebird: Son of a biscut? Isn't it 'biscuit?' Maybe just in my insane little world. You managed to spell 'thickens' correctly, though, so good job! I'll come visit again when it's not finals.
Disclaimer: J. K. Rowling owns all of these characters, lucky woman. I simply wish I owned one or two of them, and if you don't know which, I ain't gonna tell you here. However, I am adding random names in here so that the characters can have conversations outside the circle of friends, and not look crazy.
Summary: James gets the girl, and Sirius gets jealous. Who can ever say what the green-eyed monster of jealousy will do?
Chapter 4
Lily lay awake in her bed, regardless of how tired she was, and unconsciously ran her fingers over and over the spot Sirius had kissed on her hand. He was…a gentleman. There was no other word for it. She fell asleep with the feel of his lips still on her mind. Nagging at the back, however, was James and how he had spent his attentions on her for so long.
James laid in his hospital bed, wondering if he could get Lily to go out with him. The nurse had gotten him to feel a pinprick on his toe, so she said he could try walking later. And, hey, maybe Lily would come back and he could show her that he had feeling in his legs again. The idea really appealed to him. Maybe he should attempt to walk when she was there, and fake a fall so she could catch him. He would really prefer to catch her, but he would have to wait for that.
Lily's mind held few thoughts of James as she and Sirius walked along the edge of the lake. Upon waking this morning, she found Mignonette dressed and preparing to go find Remus. Lily didn't think she could be happier for her friend having found someone so sweet to care for, and knew that Remus would care for the French girl, too. They had gone down to the common room together, and found both boys waiting. Remus was planning to have Mignonette help him brush up on his French in the library. Lily and Sirius were just going to walk around the grounds, relaxing on the day before classes and the new week began.
Walking in silence, Lily wondered how to begin a conversation with Sirius. She disliked that he had tendencies that she felt he should not, such as bullying first years or hexing the Slytherins. "How was your summer?" she asked hesitantly, knowing the reputation of his family. A scowl darkened the handsome face. "I hate them," he said shortly. Lily nodded, feeling pretty much the same about her sister. Petunia just did not understand that Lily was not a freak, and would not abide the thought of accepting her sister as a witch as easily as their parents. Thinking of her sister brought a frown to Lily's face. "What is it?" Sirius asked. "Let's just say I know how you feel, to a point," Lily replied. Sirius nodded, and held out his hand to stop her, pointing the way around the Whomping Willow. Lily stared, horrified, as a branch reached to strike them, and Sirius quickly moved to push her out of the way, the branch slamming into his back and sent them both tumbling. Lily groaned, sore from the tumble, but managed to sit up. "Are you alright? Nothing is broken?" she queried, looking worriedly down at Sirius. "Nothing's broken, darlin', but it should be," he drawled. "That's the second time this weekend that damned tree has managed to injure me."
Lily smiled, and Sirius sat up. "Ugh, that will leave a beautiful bruise," he muttered, rubbing his back. "No it won't, here," Lily said, moving to sit behind him. "Er," she hesitated, "you wouldn't mind taking your shirt off, would you?" Sirius complied, and Lily watched the muscles of his back ripple with fascination. 'Does he work out?' she wondered, before getting down to business. Pulling out her wand, she cleared her mind and focused on the slight injury. "No hexes, Evans, I'm unarmed," Sirius laughed. Lily smiled, waving her wand over the boy's back to assess the damage. "You've dislocated a disk," she informed him, surprised. "How are you moving around? That must hurt something awful." Sirius shrugged, and Lily winced. "It happened months ago, over the summer." Lily understood what he wanted her to know, but didn't feel like saying aloud. "Would you like me to fix that?" she asked softly, running a gentle fingertip over the offending vertebra. "If you feel like it. I've gotten used to it by now. The knotted muscles, though, are a real annoyance."
Lily waved her wand over the strong, lean back before her, and saw the vertebra slip gently back into place, and the blossoming bruise paled to return to the normal skin color. "There, that does that. Now, for the muscles," she told him, smiling softly as she put her wand away. Putting her hands on the shoulders, Lily could feel muscles tightening in response to her touch. "Where does it hurt most?" Sirius tilted his head to the side, considering. "The shoulders, between the shoulder blades, and the lower back."
Lily removed her hands, and stood. "We should go further around the castle, then," she told him. "Fewer eyes to see, fewer questions to answer." Sirius nodded, picked up his shirt, and stood as well. "We could always go to the Forest," he offered. Lily hesitated. "We're not allowed, though." Sirius nodded, took her hand, and led her to the further side of the castle, carefully avoiding the Whomping Willow. Lily followed, a bit of excitement building in her, though she could not begin to imagine why. Sirius stopped in front of a little hidden nook of castle walls. "Is this good?" he asked, and Lily nodded. The taller grass and flowers here would hide them perfectly. Sirius led her in, and they sat in the shadows, Sirius with his back to Lily. She rubbed his neck, moving down to his shoulders, her hands finding and gently working loose any tight or knotted muscles. Sirius was slowly able to relax against her hands, leaning back when her ministrations had worked their magic.
Letting her hands slip down to his lower back, Lily felt herself grow a touch breathless. Keeping up the massaging, she couldn't help but inhale the pleasant masculine smell that Sirius emanated. The soft, musky smell entranced her, and she leaned forward slightly to absorb more. Shaking her head slightly and closing her eyes, Lily tried to concentrate solely on the task at hand. She felt Sirius shift slightly under her hands, and he turned. "Lily, you've got a message," he told her, and upon opening her eyes, she saw a little piece of paper folded into a bird gently flexing its wings. "Hm, it seems the nurse wants me to see how she takes care of an injury like James' today. How is your back feeling?" she asked, noticing her left hand still rested on his back, but her right was now resting on his side, from when he had turned. "Feels just great," the black-haired boy told her, stretching greatly to prove it.
"All right, all right, I believe you! Now, though, I have a philosophical question for you." Sirius looked at her curiously. "Are you ticklish?" the girl asked. "Yes, why?" Sirius responded, not thinking about how the question was in no way philosophical. He yelped as Lily began tickling him, and tried to turn the rest of the way to retaliate. She straightened, leaning forward, and did her best to keep him from getting his limbs all turned the right way to be able to tickle her. Sirius settled for merely catching her hands in one of his, pulled her upright, and, keeping her hands trapped, proceeded to get his revenge. Lily squirmed and writhed, twisting her hands against his hold, and tried to break free. "Mercy!" she cried, laughing, until her squirming brought her up against Sirius' bare chest. His tickling paused, and Lily noticed that his breathing had gone shallow. "Sirius, I—" she began, but he laid a finger across her lips. "Shh," he told her, gently cupping her chin with his fingers. He ran his thumb lightly across her lips, sending a shiver down Lily's spine. Feeling her hands regain their freedom, Lily laid them on Sirius' broad shoulders.
"Lily," Sirius whispered, running his free hand through her hair. "Would you have me for your own if I promised to be yours?" Lily couldn't think about anything save how she longed for a kiss, or even the next brush of his skin against hers. She crawled a little closer on her knees, and Sirius raised himself on his knees to meet her. "I would, if you promised," she whispered, and Sirius pressed his lips tenderly to hers.
Remus and Mignonette sat in a secluded part of the library, Remus with a book in front of him, and Mignonette smiling shyly across the table. She had long since given up trying to improve his French, but now sat listening to him reading in his soft, warm accent. She blushed as he reached across the table to catch her hand in his, but smiled and gripped his fingers gently with her own. Remus finally decided that he couldn't concentrate on the book for a long enough period of time to get all of the words right. As it was, he had already ad-libbed about half of what he had read. Mignonette realized this, and reached over to gently close the book. "Let's go visit James," she suggested, and Remus gave her a dubious look. "You haven't been to see him, and Lily said he had broken his back after the match." Remus sighed as he got to his feet. "All right, we'll go see James. After that, though, would you care to go for a walk?" The French girl's hair fell in a shimmering curtain around her face as she nodded. They left, neither remembering that they would each normally put any books away that they had taken to look at.
James looked vaguely disappointed when he realized who had come to visit, Remus noted. It was as if he was expecting someone else. Indeed, the nurse seemed to have expected someone much sooner, for in the short time he and Mignonette were there, she sent out two little fluttering notes. "So, James, why did you choose until after the game to get hit by the bludger?" Remus queried, smiling slightly as James looked indignant. "Are you kidding? The Ravenclaw seeker would have won, then!" Mignonette laughed softly. "Is it always about winning, James?" she asked. "Eventually, you will lose, and you'll find it's not such a bad occurrence." Remus frowned slightly at the foreboding words and tried to lighten the mood by saying, "James will probably only lose when he's 80 years old and getting hexed by teenagers that he aggravated by challenging them to broom races." James smiled slightly, but was still inwardly worried by the girl's words, Remus could tell.
"Potter," the nurse snapped, "I'll be out for a moment. Don't you dare try to stand up or I'll break your back again and I'll leave it broken." She left in a whirl of white robes and James followed her leaving with a rude hand gesture. Mignonette looked puzzled, but Remus felt his face grow red. "James, do you really have to do that in front of Mignonette?" he asked, exasperated. James smiled, seemingly apologetic. "I suppose we should stay to be sure he listens to the nurse?" Mignonette asked, also smiling. Remus sighed. He really wanted to go outside because, if the view through the windows was anything to go by, it was a lovely day. "You don't have to stay, but I'm glad for the company if you do," James told them.
Remus nodded. "We'll stick around for a while." Mignonette smiled and sat herself on the chair next to the bed, and Remus stood awkwardly beside her. "I wonder where the nurse had to go," Remus wondered.
Lily jumped at the sound of the nurse's voice calling her name and pulled away from Sirius. Blushing at the thoughts aroused by his sexy half smile, she opened her mouth to apologize for having to leave. "No," he said, laying a finger tenderly across her lips. "No apologies. Just help me find my shirt," he added, laughter in his eyes teasing her. After a short hunt, they located his shirt laying crumpled against the wall. Just as he finished pulling it on, the school nurse came around the corner. "Miss Evans, where have you been? I sent you two notes saying that you were to come see how I heal a paralized broken back patient." Lily looked up from where she was kneeling among wildflowers. "I only received one note, and I was picking flowers for James," she replied, holding up a handful of flowers. "I think this is enough, though, so I'm ready to go see how this healing is done." The nurse nodded brusquely, and lead the pair back into the castle and up to the hospital wing.
"Remus?" Sirius asked in surprise at seeing his friend standing by James' bed. "What are you doing here?" "Visiting his friend in the hospital wing," James answered, irritated that Lily had walked in with Padfoot. The nurse bustled out of her office with a vase, which she thrust at Lily, who placed the flowers in it and set on the bedside table. "You three," Madame Pomfrey barked, "out of the way. Miss Evans, step up to the other side of the bed, but don't touch him." As the nurse proceeded to show Lily how the healing was done, James felt a tingling in his left foot. The tingling soon grew to a horrible itch, but he couldn't reach down to scratch it. A second itch began in his right foot, and both ran up his legs to the small of his back where they melded in a blazing pain before nothing was left of itch or pain. He let his head fall back, his breath harsh and his heart pounding. Turning his head, he glared at the nurse. "That hurt!" he yelled, however she didn't bat an eye. "What did you expect? Feathers? Now get out of my hospital, Potter, you've been here quite long enough." Lily helped him stand, and they made their way slowly to the door, Lily on one side, Sirius on the other. Mignonette saw Sirius' hand nudge Lily's waist, but said nothing as she figured it was just awkward to be helping James walk. "I hope that's all," she thought, as they sidled James out the door.