Chapter Seven(Revised)
By Dinkee-Dino
Disclaimer: All the stuff (excluding characters you don't know and the plot) belongs to the richest woman in the UK until tax time.
Waiting downstairs, they could hear the loud yell before James came tumbling down with a thud. He looked up to find five people laughing, with Sirius having a particularly large fit, turning an interesting shade of magenta.
"Well, at least he got the aspirin," said Remus between a burst of chuckles.
Not thankful for the sad attempt to make things better James glared at all of them. "Ha. Ha. And you all knew about this. Thanks for warning me though. Great chums, you lot are."
"No problem! But I don't need the aspirin anymore. Severus wanted to try out a new charm he'd worked on last summer. Thanks though." Lily smiled.
James was near bursting. He chucked the aspirin bottle at the nearest portrait. A few other pictures looked huffed when the bottle bounced off the canvas to shatter a vase and roll under the fire grate. "Oh just send me up there. And when I come out of the chamber of horrors, tell me it wasn't really necessary for me to risk my mental stability in exchange of plastic. The whole thing was just to build character," he muttered.
"You just had to learn how to embrace your feminine side, Potter," Snape quietly intoned.
"What's that supposed to mean? If you want to say something to me, why don't you say it to my face!"
Seeing that James was clearly off, Lily assured him that Snape had just been playing around. "Honestly James, it was all my fault anyway. I'm really sorry and I know it was wrong, but it was too tempting and. . ." she trailed off.
James chose to ignore the apology, but turning to yell at his friends some more, found them staring expectantly at him. They obviously thought the watered-milk version of Lily's repentance seemed to do. He was now left with two choices. One, he could go on yelling at everyone and seem like an inconsiderate idiot. Two, he could force a smile and laugh it off. The laughing was probably asking too much, but he decided to go with the latter.
"It's not that big of a deal anyway," James managed through clenched teeth. Lily looked genuinely relieved. What was up with that girl? Who cared if you pissed someone off? Did it really matter? Great. His heartburn was starting up again.
The rest of the six watched as James patted his pockets and got down on his knees near the fire grate. "I think that he's trying to getting aspirin," Peter whispered in an obvious voice. Remus rolled his eyes. As if that wasn't clear to everyone.
"Ouch! Damn it!" James barked. He'd burnt his fingers on the iron pattern next to the fire, earning himself a very nice pattern to match the holiday decorations already put up around the common room. The yellow and gold tie around his neck was quickly turning gray from the soot, and the position wasn't helping his heartburn either. During a particularly boring Transfiguration lesson, he'd actually calculated that with the amount of acid reflux attacks he'd been having in the past weeks, an ulcer was bound to develop within in the next two months tops.
James pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and laid himself flat on the ground in an effort to get into a better position. "Uhm, James I think that you can leave the bottle where it is. It looks fine, really," he heard someone say. Just a bit more. . . There was a burst of orange light and he was rolling on the floor covered in flames.
Everyone panicked. Sirius impulsively threw half of the Oriental rug around his friend and started rolling the bundle around, something he'd seen in Muggle handbooks at the train station. It worked, with James nearly choking to death from the process. The rug was peeled back to reveal a still-smoking James with crooked glasses and scorched hair.
The questions started from all sides. "What were you thinking?"
"Are you hurt?"
"Sweet mother of Merlin, you smell like badly burnt ribs! It'll take more than a bottle of barbecue sauce to get that smell out of you!" (Sirius, who else?)
Severus was just off to one side, smirking. James saw him and had a fleeting thought of Snape somehow planning this, but it disappeared when he opened his mouth.
"Potter is fine. The fires here are student-proof, rather, they're fire-proof. You can stick your hand right into the flames, " he demonstrated, "and absolutely nothing happens. Of course, since the fires are only charmed to protect flesh, your hair is. . . hopeless." James could swear he said that last bit with glee. It wouldn't have been so bad to take if Snape hadn't always been right.
Sirius and Remus heaved James to his feet while Lily rushed over. "Are you alright? You look a bit red."
"I'm fine really, thanks," murmured James, still a little dazed.
"You know, we could take you down to the hospital wing. But if you're not up to it we coul-"
James was getting impatient. "I'm fine dammit! Geez! What's with this Florence Nightingale complex every girl has? You know, fawning over guys isn't going to get you any dates."
Lily drew back. "Oh. I'm sorry to be such a bother," but she said it with no bitterness. "Uhm. I think I'll go down to the Dining Hall now. I'll see you guys, I guess." She opened the portrait-door and quietly walked out.
"Good job, James," said Peter. And when Peter, who was usually too oblivious to notice anything, started to criticize, it was the cue to recognize that you'd done something terribly wrong.
But James, fed up with the stupid attention, the stupid criticism, the whole stupid fiery aspirin, just scowled. "I'm not hungry. And stop staring at me like that! Fine!" he said, thumping up the stairway to his room.
Once outside the common room, Lily had walked down the staircase pensively. James had been very wrong to say those things to her. But what if he was right? What if she didn't have what it took to attract guys? There was proof enough with Grayer. After asking her to be his dancing partner that one time in class, he'd basically disappeared, and she heard no more from him. Maybe she'd done something wrong, perhaps, without realizing it, and Grayer was just too much of the gentleman to mention it? Thinking about his thoughtfulness made Lily smile.
But it was now or never. There were loads of girls flocking around Grayer all the time, not to mention that one Nicole. And he was obviously interested in her, along with the rest of the raging hormones in the male student body. Yet Lily had made up her mind. She was going to win Grayer over because, of course, he knew that she was the warm, caring girl for him, even though he was being led astray by those other beauties. There was a lot more than looks, and she felt that she could love Grayer just the same if he weren't half so handsome. She knew she needed help, and lots of it, but the high of her resolve shut out any room in her brain for intimidation or common sense.
Reaching her destination, she flung open the door in triumph (for it had been a long time since she had made such a huge decision for herself), and strode in confidently.
James was half asleep in a chair when Lily opened his door with a bang. Lily, so sure of herself just a few seconds ago, now felt uncertain. Seeing James start to sit up, and wanting to tell him before she lost her nerve, the words tumbled out of her mouth.
"I want you to teach me how to make love."