! ! ATTENTION ! PLEASE READ THE FOLLPOWING AUTHOR'S NOTE ! !
a/n: to kat-firefly; you have made a good point; how DID james know all that stuff about lily? i will not reveal that until later on in the chapters. so have patience for you will one day know. one day.
now as for the rest of you...please keep the reviews coming. i know i dont have a lot, considering as some people have lesser chapters than i do with over.. what.. say 200 reviews? well.. SCREW YOU!!! hahaha no, nevermind. some of that stuff's pretty good. i've finally took the time to actually read something on this thing, and it turned out pretty good. sadly, my story isnt as well seeing as it's my debut story.
check out my partner's work; mr nutters. i'm ms buggers incase you're still confused. there are two people to this account, so do not be fooled. i write only lily and james stuff, while mr nutters writes mostly about harry and hermione (!WHICH IS SUCH A CONSPIRACY COUPLE). you shall never catch me supporting those two. absolutely platonic.
other than that, please read some of his things; it's pretty good. many people would think that since it's a BOY writing, it wouldnt be good. well let me tell you something; what about philip pullman? or christopher paolini? or nicholas sparks? or garth nix? they're not women are they? i think NOT. so dont be prejudice and read it. (especially mimbulus madness - which isn't a one shot [!gasp] i know, i know)
anyhoo, i'm trying to squeeze in as many updates on this story before school starts. for my sophmore year, i have finally decided to take some action and try. yes - try. maybe i should start participating and doing my homework... not that my marks arent great. they're actually pretty good considering that i do nothing but sit there. i might not be a 90 grade point student, but my marks will get me somewhere (i hope.)
ergo; because of grade 10, the literacy test, homework, tests, essays and projects, i won't exactly be updating as frequent as before. never fear - i will never abandon this story. i cannot abandon something not fully finished; thus, no matter the consequences, you will read an ending to this. it might take a while seeing as i plan to make this up until their death. (yes, i do find their death quite sad, but no, i do not wish it didn't happen.)
so enjoy this chapter; i know, it cuts straight to the point, but... whatever.
disclaimer: didja jusss fart?!
Remember when I said that moping around the house was such a bore? Well, that's exactly what I'm doing now. Actually, it's what I've been doing for the past week. In my turtle pajamas, my hair in a frivilous craze, sitting around or dragging my feet everywhere. Constance says that I have a terrible eating disorder which I denied. Of course it's true! I've gained at least ten pounds this week, eating and drinking junk! I can't help it! I'm a disaster! I wasn't like this when I broke off with Jeremy! Or that... that... that guy... whoever he was. So why is this different? I don't know! Maybe I guess it's because Dex actually meant something. And he was taken away from me. Oh wait; I was taken away from James and then James had taken Dex away from me. So it all works out.
At the moment, I'm still a bit put out. Constance had tried to cheer me up by putting me up on dates, but Remus had come over and put a stop to it, saying that maybe, just maybe, James wouldn't be comfortable with it. The hell with that loser. Serene came and tried to set me straight too, but with a different tactic. Her method was to be as harsh as possible. Her exact words were "LILY, GET YOUR FUCKING FAT UGLY ASS OFF THAT FUCKING COUCH AND DO SOME PUSHUPS FOR MERLIN'S SAKE!" She was quite pitiless. But Sirius had come over and carried her off, saying it was useless to try to cheer me up because I was as stubborn as a dingus. However insulting that was, I was relieved that he pried her away from me; one can really take so much of yelling in their ear.
Not that Sirius and Remus themselves haven't tried - their method was just different. They asked me to make a list of Dexter Potter and James Potter - though I don't know why - and to list the positive and negative aspects of both of them. Yes, I did finish the list; no, I did not bother looking at it. I didn't even bother thinking of real reasons. Remus took the sheet from me and looked intently at me. Sirius on the other, started giggling like a school girl and slapped me on the shoulder. I walked away.
Right now, I'm really pissed off. I don't exactly blame James for the harsh actions, but he didn't have to reveal all those nasty things about me. By the way... how did he know all those things about me? Is he stalking me? Nah... he can't be that desperate. Anyway, I'm still mad at the little twinkie. He could've just asked me out if he wanted me so badly! Oh wait - he's been doing that for the past... let's see... fifth year, sixth year, seventh year... take away auror training year and add this year... wow. Four years he's been after me. And all this time I said no? If I were him, I'd get mad at me too. I mean, the only reason why I hated him so much was because he was such a pompous dick. No one was as cocky as he was - minus Sirius. He finally deflated himself after all those years, and when I finally find him decent enough, he just takes another rude spin at me and makes me hate him again. You know, this is all his fault. It really is. But really, aside from his old attitude, I'd understand why all those Hogwarts girls had liked him. Quidditch captain, good muscular structure, pure-blooded and rich, nice looking. Too bad I hate him eh?
"Give me that!"
I feel a snatch of my bag of potatoe crisps. My crisps! They're being taken away from me! I turn sharply around and face an angry Constance.
"Gimme back my crisps!" I demand, reaching forward, but she holds them tightly.
"No, I will not!" she retorts, giving me a stubborn thump of the foot.
"I want my crisps!"
"I want you to stop eating and lose some weight!"
"Why are you putting me in such woe?! Give me my crisps!"
She says nothing. I stop reaching for my crisps. We're just... standing around, looking at eachother. I see her grip loosening on the bag of crisps, and take this opportunity to snatch them back.
"AHA! Loser, I got my crisps back!" I tease, sticking out my tongue and reaching in for a handful of the spuds.
"Don't you dare put that in your mouth," she warns, giving me her icy cut-eye. Like that's scary - I can make meaner ones. I give her my own cut eye but she does not back down.
I slowly raise my fist full of crisps, ready to put them in my mouth.
"Don't you dare, Lily Annalise Evans!"
"I'm daring, Constance Faye Kruberra!"
Before she can stop me, I shove the food inside my mouth, and give her a hearty smile with my cheeks bulging until I can see them. She looks scandalised, which makes me increase my smile even more. Her right hand seems to be shaking madly... I wonder why - !
Did she just slap me in the face?!
I stand there dumbly, my mouth open, still with crisps inside. The rest had fallen out onto the floor. Constance too stands there, with her mouth open, but she herself looks a bit flustered. Angry rage is boiling inside of me.
"You BITCH!" I screech, thrusting my fist inside the crisps bag, and throwing the food in her face. I'm not stopping; I'll show her! No one gives me no bitch slapping and gets away with it.
But as I'm throwing the crisps, she doesn't seem to be fazed. She quickly lunges for me and pulls my hair.
"Get a hold of yourself Lily!" she yells, not letting go.
"Let go of me!" I call, still trying to aim crisps at her.
"NO!"
At this, she seems to be pulling me by the hair to the living room, and pushes me to the couch. She stands there, panting and glaring at me. I sit there, holding my very aching head, as if I could push my hair back in. She is such a bitch sometimes! Suddenly, I feel angry at her. Very angry. Her back is to me. She's trying to catch some air...
Before she knows it, I launch from my seat, onto her back, pulling her ears. She cries out in pain.
"Does that hurt, Constance?! Because if it does, then good!"
"You are so going to pay for this Lily!"
So here the fight begins. She seizes me by the head and flips me over onto the floor, which I hit painfully. She take a pillow from the couch and starts whipping me with it. The only thing that will put a stop to this whipping is for me to kick her face. And so I do it. She screeches in horror.
"Don't kick me!"
"Don't whip me!"
"AUGHHHHHHHHH!"
"GET OFFFFFFFFFFFFF!"
We are now trying to hit each other, face to face; as if on a combat. I will show her; and I will win! She's way weaker than me anyways. Like that time when we had our first fight in thrid year. It was in Charms class and we were suppossed to be launching things from one side of the room to the other. She had sneakily launched the cushion in my face, and since I was mad at her for being mad at me, I retaliated. Before long, our wands were forgotten and we started throwing things at each other. I was stronger both with the wand and with my arms. But of course, Professor Flitwick called us outside and made us sit and talk. That solved our problem.
But it's not going to solve this one! I'm determined to win!
Although, while I'm thinking about all this, she uses it to her advantage and slips me onto my stomache and sits ontop of me.
"GET OFF! YOU'RE HEAVY!"
"NOT AS HEAVY AS YOU!"
And now she's hitting me with the pillow again.
"STOP IT CONSTANCE! I HATE YOU!"
"I HATE YOU TOO!"
"OUCHHHHHHHHH!"
"DOES THAT HURT LILY?! BECAUSE IT'S SUPPOSSED TO!"
"GET OFF!"
"NO!"
"STOP!"
At this, we both freeze and become silent. I lift my sweaty head to find Remus and Sirius there, looking at us with confused face. But After the brief pause, Constance goes back to hitting me and I go back to yelling.
"STOP ACTING LIKE A PIG AND CLEAN YOURSELF UP LILY!"
"YOU SHOULD BE TALKING CONSTANCE!"
"I SHOULD BE TALKING, BECAUSE I'M NOT THE DIRTY ONE HERE!"
She continues hitting me, but then all of a sudden it stops. I roll over on my back to see that Remus had lifted Constance off me and was holding her above his head as if she weighed nothing. Constance on the otherhand was flailing her arms, still trying to aim for me. Sirius came over to me and picked me up, holding me above his head.
"Put me down, Remus!" Constance screams, trying to wiggle her way out of his grip. Because of some super strength he has, it's not working. As I watch her useless attempts to be freed, I laugh merrily to myself.
"What?!" she asks scathingly. I continue my stream of laughter, and finally she gets why I'm laughing. Her scowl turns into a grin as she too now begins to laugh.
Confused, both Sirius and Remus let us down, but keep steady hands alert on our shoulders incase anything happens. Nothing is happening except that we're laughing our asses off at something that isn't even that funny.
Our laughter eventually dies down, and we're standing there panting, avoiding each other's eye. Remus and Sirius still have their hands on our shoulders, but their grip loosened. I look up at Constance and feel a twinge of guilt. I make for her direction but Sirius' grip suddenly increases.
"Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt her," I say hastily. He raises a brow but says nothing. I walk over to Constance. "I promise that I'll stop this stupid eating disorder and start working out again. And I'll try to act normal."
Constance looks at me suspicioulsy, but then smiles again. "I promise to not be such a bitch."
We stare at each other for a long time, and then start laughing again, hugging each other.
Sirius looks over at Remus who shrugs in reply.
"Girls," they mutter together, shaking their heads.
- - - - - -
The good thing about me and Constance is that with our every fight, we don't exactly apologize. Apologizing just isn't neccissary because we both have unspoken apologies. I love my best friend more than anything in the world.
As promised, I stopped with my horrible habit and regained composure. I'm now back to my normal self (almost) and am feeling great! I had a talk about my breakup with Seren and Constance which really helped because I needed to get things off my chest. Now, I'm more of a social person.
Constance and I got a call from none other than Damien Vector, who invited the both of us to his wedding. His wedding! Honestly, isn't he moving a bit too fast? Didn't he and Constance just break up? Oh well, as long as he's happy right? Constance doesn't seem to mind at all; infact, she's thrilled for him. He even asked the marauders to attend. Apparantly, his new fiance is Marisa Luenne. Yes, Marisa from Gryffindor, who's mirror I broke. She too took a job with Arithmancy, and got offered a job at Hogwarts. I felt a bit mad that Constance wasn't accepted, but she said that she was offered it first. She had declined, saying that she had another job offer at some foreign wizarding school. Anyways, it's good that Marisa's with Damien. They both fit together fabulously. And Marisa Vector sounds much better than Constance Vector. But now that you think about it, Constance Lupin really isn't too catchy itself is it? Well, maybe Constance will stick with her own name. Nothing really goes with her name anyway. Although we were invited to the wedding, we all declined to go, seeing as we wouldn't really be comfortable. Constance had insisted that she wasn't the least bit bothered, but the rest of us were. Remus especially, but he didn't say anything. And neither did we.
Well, here I am, at my office. I still haven't spoken to James. I've seen him around, casually flirting with the office girls or just lazing about with Sirius. The only thing he says to me is 'hello'. I stiffly reply a hello, and that's about it. Serene has tried to get us back on talking term,s but I think that's a flop. He's too busy being the same old arrogant jerk he was back in fifth year with his stupid office girls.
I walk to the coffee machine, trying to make myself a cup of tea. It's really stupid; half the office drinks tea yet they don't both to install a tea machine do they? No. So as a result, I bring my own teapot and tea leaves, filling it with hot water from the machine. I carry my pot of boiling water carefully down the hall back to my desk when...
"AIIIIII!" I screech, suddenly filled with pain on my stomache and legs. My skirt and blouse are wet, and my skin is scalding. Hot tears excruciate from my eyes, as a wince, not moving. I can see my pot from the corner of my eye; it's all smashed and broken. I look infront of me to see James.
"You!" I say in distress, giving him an evil look.
"Me!" he announces with pride, but he doesn't get up either. I look at his oxford which is wet on the whole left side of his arm.
"Watch where you're going Potter!"
"I should say the same thing with you, Evans!"
"I was!"
"No you weren't! You had your eyes on the stupid pot the whole time!"
"Well, you weren't looking either! You were too busy making googly eyes with that girl!"
At this, I hear a gasp ahead of me but I choose to ignore it. We sit there breathing heavily in pain, but I feel the hotness wavering away. I'm about to lift my fingers to press on my burnt skin, but James stops me.
"Don't do that," he says, grabbing me by the arm. At first, I let him hold my wrist, feeling his warm fingers against my skin. But I realise what's happening and pull away.
"Why not?" I ask defiantly.
"It can ruin your skin. Just wait a bit."
I can see where he's going with that; it's true. I hastily put my arm down, still in a numb pain.
James heaves a sigh and looks at me. I choose to turn away from him. His stupid face can talk to my cheek.
"Look, Lily. I'm sorry I said all those things infront of everyone."
I say nothing.
"And I'm sorry that I caused you and Dexter to break up."
Pfft. Yeah right.
"And I'm sorry for ignoring you or being mean to you. I didn't mean half the things I said."
I finally look at him. He expects me to feel bad and forgive him, but no! I do not forgive that easily!
"If you didn't mean them, then why did you say them?" I ask grudingly.
"Because I was mad at you," he replies.
"Why?"
"I felt like you betrayed me."
"How?"
"You knew I liked you, Lily. And I know that you knew for ages. After all those years of solid rejection, I still didn't give up. When you finally agreed to go out with me, you even had to make our friends come along. But then Dexter strolls in, and you waltz away with him. It's a bit of a punch in the face isn't it? You've been trying to get someone for years and all it takes is your cousin to take it away."
I look at him. I do feel guilty about this. He really does look sad.
"Dexter knew I liked you. I've been telling him about you for ever. And then he just comes along and takes you away from me. And the worst part is, you agreed to go along with him. What do you see in him that you don't see in me?"
Wait a second... is this James Potter talking? Because it seems quite unbelievable.
"James, the thing is - " I say, but am interrupted by him.
"No. The thing is, I don't know why, but maybe I'm just not right for you. I mean, I really don't see much of a difference between myself and my cousin. We're both pure bloods, we both have the Potter hair. He's just older, a bit taller, with no glasses and a Healer. Okay, maybe he's a bit more mature too, but that's all I see. Maybe you see something else. I don't know."
"James, I don't hate you. I like you... just not that way."
"Yeah... I understand."
"Well, Dex and I aren't together anymore. So that shouldn't bother you."
"I'm sorry."
"Its okay."
"Really?"
I dont know if I'm okay with it. Do you just forgive a person for taking away something that meant so much to you?
"Did you forgive Dex?" I asked curiously.
"Well, yeah. I mean, he's my cousin and all. No matter what, he'll always be family. And besides, he was really sorry."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"I forgive you James."
"Seriously?"
"I guess. I mean, Dex and I aren't even together are we? Why get mad at something that isn't even something?"
"I really am sorry Lily."
I look at him straight in the eyes. I see sorrow and guilt there. For the first time in my life, I knew that James was being hand-on-heart honest with me.
"I know you are James."
"So... are things gonna be awkward with us?"
"I won't let them be."
"Friends?"
Friends? That's something I never exactly considered to be with James Potter. I continue to look at him as he looks shyly at me with his hand held out. James Potter shy?! Anyway, I think back to all those times we've shared together since he came into our Auror building. All those laughs and inside jokes we shared, the dinners we tried to make, the times where we'd just sit and talk about anything or nothing at all. And at this point, it just hits me that no matter how much I've denied it, James Potter had become my friend. A friend. I smile at him.
He seems to be giving me a funny look as I smile over at him. But eventually, his famous grin returns. I ignore his hand, and instead, lean over to give him a hug.
"Friends."
James Potter and I are friends. Something I never thought would happen. Call the pope people, because you've just witnessed a miracle. Hey... something seems to feel funky. Infact, it's starting to hurt now... okay, this isn't cool.
"OUCH!"
Not only did I scream that, but so did James. With our bodies pressed together on the burnt parts of ourselves, we have just ruined our skin. That's not cool. We look over at each other and burst out laughing.
I think I'll be enjoying this.