SEQ CHAPTER \h \r 1Summary: Lily and James went to Hogwarts together. Unfortunately their memories are not all enjoyable. Their time was spent pranking each other senseless, while competing for the top grades in the school. Two years after graduation they bump into each other, again, and again, and again... Could it be that they have a combined fate?
Disclaimer: People like to make jokes out of these Disclaimers. I don't think its funny. What if you forgot the disclaimer on your fanfiction? Then where would you be? You'd be in court that's where. I think these should be taken very seriously. I don't own anything except for my plot!!
Author's Note: Thank you all so much for being patient about this chapter...I'm sorry about the wait! I did start school and I am not very happy about that...but hey what can I do about it? Nothing! Stupid laws of our country! Haha. Anyways have fun reading this chapter I hope you enjoy it!! I hope it isn't getting too cliche on you! I just had to have the events in this chapter happen for more comedy reasons. Oh I and reached 100 reviews! Yay! Parties!! Thank you so much...now we're headed for 200! Haha
Midnight Goddess1
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Excuse Me Miss Evans
Chapter Six: What A Brilliant Idea
By: Midnight Goddess
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"Where is James?" Arabella asked as she stepped cautiously into Sirius' apartment and glanced around the room to see if James was anywhere near her.
"I haven't seen him since yesterday afternoon when he stormed out," Sirius responded as he shrugged.
"Lily left without saying anything this morning," Arabella sighed as she sat down in a chair at the kitchen table as Sirius pushed a cup of tea out in front of her.
"They are such prats!" Sirius whined as he sat down across from Arabella and rolled his eyes.
"They're just confused," Arabella murmured into her tea.
"Everything they do is so obvious!" Sirius exclaimed as he put down his cup of tea.
"That doesn't mean that they are going to see everything clearly," Arabella explained.
"Why don't they like the truth?" Sirius asked Arabella.
"What do you mean?" Arabella answered.
"Whenever we bring something up that relates to them they get defensive and angry," Sirius said as he stared at the wall, as if he was pondering one of life's great mysteries.
"They're just scared," Arabella said lightly.
"What do they have to be afraid of?" Sirius asked rhetorically.
"Many things," Arabella said, as she began to become annoyed by the way the conversation was headed.
"Like what? They both have feelings for each other. They don't fight anymore," Sirius began listing before Arabella cut him off.
"That's what they are afraid of," Arabella explained.
"Why?" Sirius asked as he sank down defeated.
"They realized that their feelings have changed. They have strong feelings for each other and that frightens them because they've never felt this way about anyone before. It's even stranger because last time they saw each other, before this happened, they hated each other. They're just startled by how quickly their emotions changed," Arabella breathed out.
"How do you know that?" Sirius demanded.
"I can read Lily and James like a book. They wear their emotions right out where everyone can see them," Arabella answered quickly.
"They're never going to get together if we expect them to realize what is going on by themselves," Sirius complained.
"They'll come around," Arabella said as she stirred her tea.
"We need to do something to force them to see what they are avoiding and finally do something about it," Sirius said.
"What a brilliant idea!" Arabella shouted as she jumped up from her chair almost knocking it over.
"What?" Sirius asked timidly.
"We can get Lily and James to realize what they are feeling!" Arabella exclaimed happily.
"How do you plan on doing that?" Sirius asked skeptically.
"Haven't you ever played match-maker?" Arabella asked sarcastically.
"No!" Sirius yelled so loudly that it echoed off of the kitchen walls.
"Well, since you are that against the idea we will just have to wait until they get dizzy from all the circles they are dancing around each other," Arabella suggested.
"We're just going to let them act like this forever?" Sirius questioned slightly worried.
"You don't seem to want to do anything about it," Arabella said with a gleam in her eye.
"I never said that! James really needs to come out of Lily-land where he has been living the past few weeks," Sirius said urgently.
"We are going to need a plan," Arabella began with a smirk appearing on her face as Sirius leaned in closer to pay attention.
~*~
"Why won't you come?" Arabella whined to Lily's closed door as she took out her wand.
"Don't even try to hex your way into here," Lily commanded from inside the room.
"What is it that you are so afraid of?" Arabella asked as she tried to mask the teasing in her voice.
'Why does she need to know everything? Why can't I just live my life?' Lily wondered.
"I do not enjoy when James and I are teased as if we have emotional feelings for each other that do not exist. To tell you the truth, it makes things quite awkward," Lily shouted with a muffled voice.
'Awkward has to be an understatement. It makes things to unbearable that I can't breathe! I don't think there are words to describe the sudden flashes of terror that fill me when they bring up anything that relates to that topic.'
"Have you ever thought about why the teasing makes you two awkward?" Arabella asked, before she realized that this comment was uncalled for.
'How can she even doubt the idea that I've thought of it, of course I have thought of it. I think about it all the time. It's all I think about. It controls my mind. Not that I would ever admit that I think about James.' Lily screamed in her mind.
"Have you ever thought about how much I hate it?" Lily screamed as Arabella heard a pillow fly across the room.
"You may hate the teasing but you know that there is truth behind every word that is spoken," Arabella said calmly.
'What is there truth to?' Lily smirked as she thought those words.
"There is no truth to anything that you say," Lily said harshly as she apparently stopped throwing items across the room.
"You know that there is and that is what makes you so mad," Arabella insisted.
"There is no truth to anything! I am not out snogging James and I do not think about him all the time!" Lily shouted through the door lividly.
"You may not be out snogging James and when you are lost in your thoughts you may not be thinking about him but I know that you feel something when you're with him," Arabella explained as calmly as she could.
'Arabella is the last person who could tell me exactly how I feel. Every single person on this earth is the last person. I am the only person who knows exactly how I feel and exactly how I think.'
"You will never know exactly how I feel!" Lily scoffed as she moved away from the door.
"You must be forgetting that I know what it's like to care about someone like you do. I can see how your face brightens when you see him and I can see how you smile when he looks your way. Everyone can see that. That is why everyone assumes what they do," Arabella explained.
'That can't be true. My face doesn't brighten when I see him! I don't smile when he looks at me!' Lily tried to convince herself in her mind, failing terribly.
"I do not have feelings for him," Lily insisted from behind the door.
"You can try and make your mind believe what you want it to believe, but your heart will never listen, and your heart will betray what you want everyone else to see," Arabella warned.
'I don't pretend. I live reality. The reality is that I don't have feelings for James!' Lily insisted.
"What is that supposed to mean?" Lily asked as her door flew open barely missing Arabella's nose.
"It means that you will eventually wake up and realize what you have been thinking this entire time was wrong," Arabella answered.
"You make me so angry!" Lily shouted, not directly at Arabella but more into the open space that occupied her room.
"It's not me that you hate, it's not Sirius, Remus, or anyone else who thinks that you two are or should be a couple. It's your own feelings that you hate," Arabella accused as she sat down on the bed.
'Maybe it's just me. Maybe I hate myself for allowing me to think about this all the time. Maybe I just can't stand myself because I allow myself to become angry with the jokes and the sarcasm!'
"I don't want to go to the dinner," Lily said flatly as she tried to leave the room.
"You just don't want Sirius or me to realize how you really feel. What you are really afraid of is James discovering your feelings. What would happen if James didn't feel the same way? It's much easier to try and stay level headed through the whole thing than have your heart shattered into millions of tiny pieces," Arabella said, causing Lily to stop dead in her tracks.
'Why does she have to try so hard? Why does she have to be almost right? Why do I let her be right?!' Lily asked herself.
"I'm not going," Lily commanded; her voice was beginning to shake.
"Yes, you are," Arabella insisted as she pulled Lily towards the middle of her room.
"I am not!" Lily shrieked.
"Be ready in thirty minutes," Arabella said as she closed the door, then quickly reopened it, "and try and look civil."
"What do you mean by that?" Lily questioned her eyes glinting.
"You might want to look good for Jamsie," Arabella shrugged with a slight wince on her face anticipating Lily's fiery temper.
'I hate the jokes!'
Instead, Lily slammed the door and began to throw robes across the room as Arabella stood outside the door with a stunned look on her face.
~*~
"Jamsie you need to come out of there now or we are going to be late," Sirius called as he knocked on the bathroom door.
"I can't go," James responded shakily as the door remained locked.
"You can't say that now!" Sirius exclaimed angrily as he paced back and forth outside the door.
"Obviously I am," James sarcastically replied.
"Why can't you go?" Sirius asked with an exasperated voice.
"I'm having a bad hair day," James replied softly.
"James, you are always having a bad hair day. It's no use trying," Sirius responded quickly as he tried to open the door.
"That's not what I mean," James answered slowly as if he were choking the words out.
"What is it then?" Sirius asked annoyed.
"I would rather not say," James answered quickly.
"James, you better come out of there right now," Sirius commanded, as a mother would do to a child.
"What are you going to do to me?" James asked with an obvious tone of sarcasm in his voice.
"Do you really want to hear the entire list?" Sirius asked.
"My spell backfired," James said as he opened the door to reveal himself. Although, now James' normally midnight black hair was a mass of electric pink.
"What spell were you using?" Sirius managed to laugh out.
"Nothing," James replied quickly, as if to brush off the conversation.
"Were you trying to gel your hair?" Sirius asked as his mouth turned upwards into a smile.
"Why would I be doing that?" James asked as he fidgeted his feet.
"Maybe because you finally found out that Lily was coming with us," Sirius shrugged as he turned to leave before James' anger boiled.
"What?!" James screamed.
"Oh, well maybe that wasn't it," Sirius mumbled as he tried once again to leave the room.
"When did this happen?" James asked as he advanced towards Sirius.
"Er, around the time the plans were made," Sirius winced.
"My hair is pink," James said in a deadpan voice.
"You know I've heard that women find pink hair incredibly attractive on wizards," Sirius told James as his eyes twinkled.
"Where in hell did you read that?" James asked angrily.
"Er, I can't exactly remember," Sirius said as he backed away.
"What am I supposed to do?" James asked furiously.
"Change your hair back," Sirius answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
James didn't even answer but glared at Sirius and flicked his wand. Instantly his hair was restored to its original color and without another word the two men apparated out of the apartment.
~*~
"Four?" The hostess questioned as Arabella, Lily, James, and Sirius entered the small restaurant.
"Yes," Sirius responded quickly before anyone could say anything else.
"It will be about ten minutes," The hostess replied as she smiled sweetly at the group. She handed over a buzzer and Lily reached out and grabbed it being the only muggle-born in the group.
"What is that thing?" Sirius asked quickly, and softly after the hostess had left to seat another group.
"It's just to let us know when our table is ready," Lily replied as she sat down on a bench.
"Lily Evans?" a voice questioned as the door opened and three young men walked into the room, all of their eyes turned on Lily.
James turned his hazel eyes on the three men that had addressed Lily. The three of them had a similar tall build. The three of them had identical eyes and their hair were various shades of blonde.
'Why are they talking to Lily? How do they know Lily? What gives them the right to talk to her? Why is the middle one looking at her like that?' James asked himself as he stood up out of his chair and began to walk over towards Lily.
"Who is this?" the middle man asked defensively as he moved closer towards Lily, which caused James to clench his fists.
"This is James," Lily responded happily as she smiled.
"How do you know him?" the man in the middle asked Lily.
"We went to school together," Lily answered clearly getting annoyed by his questions.
"What are you doing now?" The man in the middle asked.
Lily ignored his question and turned to James and explained, "This is Mark, and the two in the back are Greg and Aaron. We used to be next door neighbors."
James nodded his head slightly as he glanced over Mark questioningly.
"Lily we haven't seen each other in years how would you like to come over tomorrow evening. Greg and Aaron are going out and we could catch up," Mark asked as he took a step closer towards Lily, who then took a step closer to James.
"Mark, I'm sorry, but I have plans tomorrow," Lily responded somewhat shakily.
"How about another evening?" Mark asked as his eyes pierced into Lily's.
'Mark likes Lily. He likes Lily. Lily doesn't seem to like him. But he likes her. What is she going to do? What am I going to do?' James thought.
"Maybe you misunderstood," Lily said quickly as her eyes lit up with an idea.
"Misunderstood what?" Mark asked as he took another step towards Lily as if he was trying to entrance her.
"This is James, my boyfriend," Lily beamed.
James dropped the buzzer and it clatter on the floor.
'What did she just say?'
Lily bent over to pick it up and handed it back to James. Their fingers brushed and they quickly looked at each other and then tore their eyes away.
"Excuse me?" Mark asked slowly as he observed Lily and James' odd behavior.
"We've been dating for the past year," Lily smiled happily.
"I'm sorry I wasn't aware," Mark managed to saw as he reached his hand out to shake James'.
"It's been a while," Lily responded shakily as she reached out to grab James' hand when she realized that Mark was studying them.
"Are you two okay?" Mark finally asked.
"Fine," James said.
"Wonderful," Lily said.
"You just seem edgy," Mark added.
"We're fine," Lily assured as she took a step closer to James.
"Everything's normal," James added as he watched Lily out of the corner of his eye.
"Nothing's wrong," Lily responded quickly after James.
It was that moment that the buzzer decided to go off causing James to drop it once again on the floor in shock of what was happening. Lily bent down to pick it up as a young couple walked in through the door. They tripped over Lily, crashed into James, and pretty soon the four of them were sprawled out on the floor.
Arabella and Sirius showed up with huge smiles on their faces as they helped Lily and James and the other couple to their feet. The buzzer was still vibrating and Lily picked it up and the four of them walked to the counter without another word.
"Have fun on your date!" Mark shouted to their backs.
'He just blew everything. Now James and I are going to be miserable. Why did I do that?!' Lily complained.
"Is there something you want to tell us?" Arabella asked with a smirk.
"Long story," Lily said and pushed around James and sunk down at the table.
~*~
"Where is our waitress?" Arabella finally sighed as she set down the menu.
"We've been waiting forever!" Sirius complained as he also put his menu down and rolled his eyes.
"Hi, I'm Sherry and I will be your waitress this evening," A slim brunette appeared behind James.
"Hello," Lily weakly replied.
"I'm sorry about the wait," Sherry said somewhat sincerely.
"It's okay," James answered as he looked up from his menu, in which he had been hiding his blushing face.
"How are you?" Sherry asked James as she knelt down to the level of the table and began to look James over.
'What is she doing?' Lily thought hurriedly. 'Why is James letting her look at him like that? Doesn't he realize what is going on?'
"I'm fine," James replied as he glanced down at his menu and rolled his eyes at Lily.
Lily smiled at his gesture and said, "I'm going have a water."
The rest of the table ordered their drinks and with one final glance at James Sherry left to go put their orders in.
"Thank you," James breathed once Sherry had left the table.
"You helped me earlier," Lily smiled back.
At this point in the conversation Sherry returned with the drinks and set them down on the table. Stepping between James and Lily and placing the drinks around the table unsteadily because of her frequent glances in James' direction.
"I think someone has a crush on you Jamsie," Sirius teased after Sherry had left the table.
"For the last time I don't like James!" Lily exclaimed, without moving her narrowed eyes from Sherry's retreating form.
"Sorry Lils," Sirius said as he bit back the urge to laugh.
After a while, which was filled with the idle chatter of a usual awkward dinner party, Sherry arrived with the food. She had brought another glass of water with her, which she casually knocked over onto Lily.
"Oh!" Lily shrieked as she stood up because of the sudden coldness of the water that had splashed over her. As she stood up she knocked over her chair, which fell with a clang on the floor causing the entire restaurant to turn and look in their direction.
Sherry who had been moving quickly away from Lily's direction tripped over the chair and spilled an entire salad onto James' head. James in turn just flopped his head onto the table in embarrassment until the rest of the diners had found the excitement to have simmered and they returned back to their meals.
"I'm so sorry!" Sherry shrieked as she moved over towards James in attempt to help clean up the salad she had spilled on him.
"Why don't you just bring out another one," James suggested as he moved out of her reach. Sherry agreed and went back to receive another salad.
"Nice hair, Jamsie," Sirius laughed out. James' hair was not only messy as usual, but it also contained salad dressing and vegetables sticking up in odd directions also. Lily laughed slightly at the sight of James as she reached up to take out a tomato slice out of his hair.
"Here's the salad," Sherry responded crossly as she broke up Lily and James' moment. Lily and James backed away from each other as usual and returned to their meals without another word spoken to each other.
"May we have the check please?" Lily asked politely as Sherry walked by. Sherry reluctantly brought the check to the table and as Lily reached into her purse her eyes grew wide.
"What's wrong?" Arabella asked as she watched Lily's frightened expression.
"I forgot to bring muggle money with me," Lily frantically whispered so that no one else in the restaurant would hear.
"Just transfigure it," James whispered to Lily.
"We can't just do it in front of muggles," Lily whispered back angrily.
"How many people do you think are going to see?" Sirius asked in an annoyed voice.
At that moment Sherry arrived to refill Lily's water glass. The table at once grew silent and once she had left they let out a deep breath.
"Go to the bathroom," Arabella suggested as she handed Lily a handful of wizard coins.
"I can't remember how to do it," Lily replied
"Have James go with you," Arabella said casually.
"Why me?!" James shouted above the noisy clattering of the forks on the table.
"You were the top student in Transfiguration," Sirius said as he rolled his eyes.
James and Lily finally reluctantly got out of their seats and made their way through the tables towards the bathroom.
"You do know one of them will have to be in the wrong bathroom," Arabella added as she turned towards Sirius with a smirk on her face.
~*~
"Which room?" Lily asked as she stopped dead in her tracks in the hallway between the two doors.
"What?" James gulped as he looked uncertainly between the two doors.
"We can't transfigure the coins in front of muggles," Lily insisted.
"Men's," James said without a pause.
"Why the men's?" Lily asked angrily.
"I'm not going into the women's," James complained.
"Well I don't want to go in the men's," Lily said.
"There are less guys," James explained as he grabbled Lily's arm and with a final look around he peeked into the bathroom and pulled her quickly in.
"We should go in a stall," Lily said as she glanced around the bathroom with a frightened look.
James threw the door open of the first stall they came to and pulled Lily quickly inside with him, locking the door.
"You need to stand on the seat," James said.
"What?" Lily shrieked.
"Quiet," James whispered.
"Why do I need to stand on the seat?" Lily whispered harshly.
"There aren't usually four feet in one stall," James said as he rolled his eyes.
"Why can't you stand?" Lily asked with her eyebrows raised.
"You have very...feminine shoes on," James gulped as he glanced down at Lily's high heeled sandals.
Lily looked down and with a smile she hopped up on the toilet seat. She looked uneasily around the tiny stall that she was in with James and became quite flushed.
"Here are the coins," Lily said as she handed them over to James.
James easily transfigured them with a flick of his wand, which he quickly placed back into his pocket, and handed over the muggle money to Lily.
"We should go out now," James said as he paused, as if waiting for Lily to respond.
"Probably," Lily responded as she gently stepped off of the seat causing her to brush up against James.
"Sirius and Arabella will wonder what happened to us," James explained as he reached backwards to unlock the door.
"Anyone could walk in," Lily added as she instinctively leaned in placing her hand on James' shoulder and causing him to bump into the door sending it flying open as another man entered the door of the bathroom.
"Lily?" the man asked as he turned the door around to make sure he was in the correct bathroom.
"Mark!" Lily exclaimed out of fright as she looked back and forth between James and Mark with a face as red as the setting sun.
"Hello Mark," James added, his face equally as red as Lily's.
"We were—you see—I mean—James and I," Lily tried to explain but her words kept getting caught in her throat.
"What Lily means to say is—what we want to say—well," James also tried to explain, but unfortunately he was also at a loss of words.
"Please don't explain," Mark said as he looked at James through narrowed eyes.
"We'll be going then," Lily said as she dragged James out of the bathroom and back to their table awkwardly.
As they approached the table, Lily and James became aware of their faces turning brighter and brighter with the embarrassment and the memory of the event that had just unfolded.
"Did you change the coins?" Arabella asked with a smirk as if she had expected them to have forgotten the task altogether.
"That is why we left," Lily replied angrily as she plopped down in her chair immediately, inching away from James' lingering gaze.
"What's going on?" Sirius asked as his eyes darted between Lily and James expectantly.
"Nothing!" Lily and James exclaimed in unison quickly.
"Then why are you avoiding each other?" Arabella asked.
"I'm not avoiding him," Lily shot at Arabella as she quickly converted her eyes from James' to the white tablecloth.
"Can't you two just sort everything out?" Sirius asked with a suggestive wink thrown in James' direction.
"We have always had our differences. Why are you trying to change that now?" Lily asked angrily as she dropped her purse with a clatter on the tile floor. James bent down to pick it up for her and set it lightly on the table and drew his hands away quickly, to avoid any unnecessary contact with Lily.
"You two seemed to have pushed those differences aside quite quickly," Arabella responded innocently with her eyebrows raised in Lily's direction.
"For a day or two," Lily mumbled as she tried desperately to create a plausible excuse.
"Just tell us what happened!" Arabella exclaimed.
"When did you snog?" Sirius asked at the same time as Arabella cracked a smile.
"What?!" James exclaimed as he nervously glanced around the restaurant as if he was afraid someone was watching him. By switching his eyes back to the table he noticed that Lily's bright green eyes were locked on his figure with a somewhat wanting manner.
"Just drop it," Lily pleaded as she tore her eyes away from James' paranoid ones.
"This is a subject that will not be dropped," Arabella sternly announced.
"Yes, it will be dropped," Lily commanded, her green eyes flashing with bottled up anger waiting to explode and shatter the glass orb it had been contained in for so long.
"Not until you and James stop acting like idiots and are at least civil towards once another again," Arabella reasoned.
"Why is it so hard for you to grasp the fact that James and I cannot hold a civil conversation every minute of the day that you force us to spend together?" Lily questioned as her eyes began to fill with tears of frustration and anger.
"That's not what we want," Sirius cut in.
"Well, you two might be surprised to find out that you don't know anything about what I think to the extent that you think you do," Lily blurted out as she wiped a lone tear away from her eyelashes.
"We may not know what you are thinking but we know that something is going on!" Arabella announced, quite loudly as the restaurant seemed to fall into a hush and look in their direction, before returning quite quickly to their previous conversations.
"Is it so hard for you to let Lily and I live our lives the way that we want to?" James asked as he looked mournfully in Lily's direction, where tears were falling down freely from her eyes.
"We will let you live your own lives when you two realize that this is what you want," Arabella explained as she shot a sensitive look to Lily.
"You need to stop forcing us into positions we aren't comfortable with!" Lily shouted as she finally was able to gain enough strength to tear her eyes away from Arabella's strong questioning ones and stand up.
"Lily," Arabella warned softly as she glanced nervously around the restaurant, sighing after noticing that every table was focused intently on their meal, at least attempting to ignore the outburst. Lily tossed her napkin down on the floor and with a quick pace walked out of the restaurant. Sirius, Arabella, and James watched as the swinging doors came to a halt.
"Can you please tell me what just happened?" Arabella asked Sirius as she finally let out a deep breath she had been holding captive within her lungs.
"Lily needs to learn to control her temper," Sirius smirked as he glanced at James who was glaring in his direction.
James didn't respond to their comments but instead, followed Lily's example and tossed his napkin down on the table and stood up without a word, leaving Arabella and Sirius with stunned expressions on their faces.
James felt the cool air blow upon his face and kiss his hair as he stepped outside into true freedom away from the controls that were kept over his every move. He spotted Lily standing on the top step with her head leaned up against the railing. As the moon moved out from behind a cloud he could clearly make out the exact trail that each tear had left shimmering upon her cheeks.
"Lily?" James asked tentatively.
"What?" Lily sighed out as she dangled her feet onto the next step and glance down the tall flight of stairs she was standing at the top of.
"Don't let them get to you," James tried to console as he sat down next to Lily on the brick step, perhaps a little closer than anyone normally would have considered doing.
Lily did not reply but instead looked up at James with an annoyed look dancing in her tear filled eyes as she promptly lowered her eyes once again to the flight of stairs.
"You're strong enough to realize that no matter what they say what you feel is true," James explained softly as i it took every fiber of his being to push those words out of his mouth.
Lily opened her mouth to respond but apparently thought better of herself and instead pleaded, using her eyes for James to stop.
"You are the one with the ultimate say," James said as he began to get up and return to the table where Sirius and Arabella would be waiting for him with more teases waiting to jump off of their tongues. Just as he was straightening his legs Lily's small hand reached out and landed on James' causing him to stay put.
"James," Lily murmured but once again closed her mouth as if she were afraid of the words that invaded her mouth.
"If you don't say something nothing will ever happen," James explained to Lily with a smile as he sat back down next to her on the step.
"What if what I want to say frightens me?" Lily asked as she quickly turned her head away, too frightened to see the surprised, but yet ecstatic look upon James' face.
"Why does it frighten you?" James asked shakily as he contemplated on what action he should take.
"I'm not sure," Lily admitted.
"You must know what part haunts you," James insisted, his voice wavering slightly.
"Haven't you ever been worried or afraid of something and not had the slightest idea of what is causing you to become so shaky and nervous?" Lily questioned with a lost look written upon her face.
"Not entirely," James responded.
"What do you mean 'not entirely'? Lily asked as she narrowed her eyes.
"Somewhere in the back of your mind you are completely aware of just what is causing you to become frightened. You're just too frightened to look and see what it is," James explained as he too dropped his feet and allowed them to dangle over the step.
"I just can't find what it is!" Lily exclaimed loudly, above the gentle lulling of the crickets in the bushes nearby.
"You know what it is," James accused as he watched Lily fidget her foot underneath the moonlight that was streaming down through the leaves of the trees.
"I really don't know!" Lily pleaded as she stood up and ran her fingers shakily through her hair.
"You don't need to tell me," James said.
"What?" Lily asked, confused.
"I just want you to realize what it is so maybe you can take control of your emotions and create the world that you want to live in," James explained as he turned to begin walking away.
Although as James walked away Lily was continuing to pace and she tripped over his leg and began to tumble down the flight of stairs that she had been sitting on. James looked down with a frightened expression of guilt and fear as he bolted down the stairs after Lily and met her at the bottom as he crouched down next to her limp form.
"Are you okay?" James asked as he pushed her vibrant red hair out of her closed eyes.
"I'm fine," Lily insisted as she sat up slowly and began to stand until she lost her footing and fell straight into James' arms.
"Let's get you back inside," James whispered as he began to help her walk up the flight of stairs.
Sirius and Arabella quickly turned around to head back inside as if they were just leaving.
"They're taking so long," Sirius complained.
"Just give them time. All they need is time," Arabella smiled as she watched them limp up the stairs together, hand in hand.
~*~
"How is your leg feeling?" Arabella asked as she removed a shopping bag from Lily's arms and preceded to watch Lily walk around without the limp that she had been using for the past few days.
"I told you I'm fine!" Lily exclaimed as she continued to walk away from Arabella.
"I just wanted to make sure," Arabella said with concern as she kept a tight clutch on Lily's bag.
"Don't be so concerned about me. I can live my own life," Lily said, as a sudden flash of independence filled her eyes. Just as quickly as it had come, it disappeared leaving Arabella wondering if it had ever really existed at all.
"What exactly happened?" Arabella finally worked up the courage to ask, as Lily was finally truly calm and relaxed since the indent that had occurred a week ago.
"Do you ever let anything drop?" Lily questioned, still in a good-natured tone, but completely skipping the question as she walked on.
"Would you like to look in here?" Lily questioned pointing to a small store tucked away.
"Lily," Arabella warned.
"Yes," Lily asked innocently as she began to pull the door of the shop open.
"Stop avoiding the subject!" Arabella shouted.
"Stop prying into my life!" Lily said lightly as she turned around sending her bright red hair spinning around and catching the rays of the sunlight. Her hair sent rays of golden light across the sky and Arabella couldn't help but smile.
"Why won't you let anybody realize what goes in inside of you?" Arabella questioned lightly as she tapped Lily's shoulder as if she were afraid of a bite.
Lily sighed but instead turned away and began walking in the opposite direction. She closed her emerald green eyes off from the world and listened as her mind went spinning in directions and angles that only exist without time or space.
'I can't let anyone inside of me. I can't let anyone realize what I really think or feel. It's dangerous to trust someone with your soul. Possessions are only possessions. They can be remade, bought, or even fixed. If your soul shatters than it can never be repaired completely. It will always have a tiny sliver of the shadow missing and it will always be fragile and shaky.' Lily reasoned as she shook her head with anger at what Arabella wanted her to risk.
She began lightly bumping into people and she smiled as she realized what she must appear to look like. Her hair swinging behind her gleaming in the light and her eyes clenched tightly with a look of anger and frustration on her face.
Then she felt the hard brick that belonged to the ground she had been skipping across only moments before. The light-headed feeling that comes when you fall began to fill her senses and she opened her eyes and squinted in the sunlight.
"What a surprise to see you here!" Sirius exclaimed as he bounced over to where Lily and James were now standing trying to back away from each other awkwardly.
"I need to go," Lily mumbled as she turned around, right smack into an older witch, who kept her balance, whereas Lily fell once again.
"Sometimes I have to think that the younger generation has become blind," the witch scolded Lily as she waved her finger and walked away without helping Lily to her feet.
~*~
Author's Note: There you go I hope that you all enjoy the chapter! I have to thank my wonderfully amazing betas who help me so much! So thank you Brenda, Natalie, and Amanda! You guys are wonderful!
I also have to thank everyone who reviewed and everyone who I know will review in this chapter! You guys motivate me to keep writing and help me to keep trying to make every chapter better than the one before!
TheStek: Yay! I'm glad that you enjoyed that chapter! I didn't blame them for becoming angry in that chapter either. They get more and more fed up with their friends in this chapter also...don't worry...it will all be resolved eventually. Oh and what fun would it be if they weren't stubborn? Answer that! Haha. Thanks for reviewing!!
Hermione101888: Thank you for reviewing!! I'm sorry that you are in the same position as her. Do you like a guy and your friends tease you because you do?
Donzabobo: Thank you so much for the nice review! There isn't much fluffiness in this chapter but hey, there's comedy! Hopefully you'll find it funny!!
elvencherry07: Thank you for reviewing. I'm sorry about the long wait for the update. I just don't have much time to write and then once I get it off to my betas they don't have that much time to check it quickly. Then when I get it back I don't have time to make corrections and then I don't have much time to post...haha then it starts all over again!! Sorry!
Smile28: I agree they are very thick! But if they were so quick would it be fun? No way! I hope this chapter keeps up the trend and is even funnier! Sorry about the wait for the update!
midnights shadow of insaneness: haha! Thank you for that very amusing review! I'm glad that my chapter made you laugh...well hopefully it was a good kind of laughing. If it was I'm honored!!
chewy1: Thank you so so so so much! I'm so sorry about the long wait for the update but I hope it satisfied you!!
NiNaPoP: Thank you so much! You might have a while to wait until they confess their undying love but we all know that it is coming. So I hope you will keep reading until then! I'm glad you like my story and Joey! I love Joey so much. I'm so glad that everyone else does too!
cara-meLisSa: Thank you for the review! I'm glad that you'll read my fanfic after Lily and James kiss because the drama won't be over after that! They will still have troubles in their life! Again, I'm glad that you like Joey! I'm also glad that you are happy I brought in Remus! He's so awesome! I'm not fond of Peter either but who is? He has to be in there somewhere after all he was very important in the books! Sorry about the wait for the update!
ElegyStar: I rather like reading stories with longer chapters which is why I write them that way! Plus it helps with the fact that I can't update very often.
bibby10: Thank you! I'm glad that you read my other stories! I hope to hear from you more in reviews for all of my stories! I love hearing your opinions! Sorry about the update being late!
izzybell4life: I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter and that you found it funny! Don't be worried that's my goal! Trust me it's tough getting teased...it's even rougher when you know you don't actually like the guy. Trust me I know! I'm sure all my characters are proud of themselves at the moment...and I'm sure once something finally happens they will be even happier. I'd tell you how many chapters but then where would the suspense be?
LENAk: Joey is there to make everyone smile! He's so annoying that he's cute. Or at least that's my opinion of him! Of course they won't ever find an end! That would be no fun! I'm so glad you love this fic and I'm so happy you reviewed!
Lily Kat: You must know that the fic would be nowhere nearly as fun if they had kissed already! The waiting is all part of the fun! Thank you for reviewing! I'm glad you love the story!
EbonyQuill: Joey is a genius! Not really, Lily and James are just being a tiny bit dense. I'm so glad the story made you laugh! That was it's purpose! Thank you so much for the review! I'm so honored that you think that my story is going to be a classic! I've always wanted to write a classic fanfiction!
bebe-chrissy: Thank you for reviewing. I'm sorry about dragging it out but it's supposed to be comedic and if they had confessed their feelings to each other already there would be not much left to the story! Just keep waiting it will happen eventually! Hope you keep reading!
Takako: I love Remus too! I'll be sure to add Remus more in other chapters he just didn't have much of a place for a role in this chapter...although he was mentioned a few times I believe...I can't really remember. Thank you so much for the great review! I think Joey is damn cool also! I can't wait to hear from you again!
Victoria: I'm so happy you were able to review! Thanks so much for reviewing! I miss you being one of my betas but I hope that you keep reading and if you ever have time to beta again just tell me and I'd love to work with you again! Keep in touch!
Tribal Leader: wow! Thanks so much for the wonderful review! I believe there are going to be about 17 chapters in this story and after that I think I will just end it instead of writing a sequel unless a muse jumps out and gives me an extraordinary idea. Thank you for the compliments! I hope you enjoy my other fictions just as much! I love them all! Thank you for adding me on your favorites lists!
padfoot luvr 134: Thank you! I love Joey and I'm glad you enjoy Joey also! Don't worry I will keep writing until the story is completed!
Kellie: I'm glad you liked chapters 4 and 5! I missed your review for chapter 4 but I'm glad you reviewed on chapter 5! I love hearing from you! I love Joey too! I'm so glad most people seem to love him! I'm sorry about the wait for the update but I just didn't have enough time!
ICE: Here is the next chapter! I'm so sorry about the long update but I don't have that much time to write at the moment with school and dance and sports and all that junk. I barely have enough time to sleep!!
Kanariya: Thank you for reviewing! Lily and James' friends are quite pushy but the story wouldn't be as exciting if they weren't that way. Many friends tend to be pushy about their friends' love lives. Or at least mine do! Thank you!!
emily63: Thank you so much for reviewing! I hope you review again!
tim_tam_monster: I hope I'm a kind enough author I do update! I just don't have a lot of time to update so I don't usually do it quickly. Don't worry I will finish the story and I won't just quit on you!
sports-girl: Thank you so much for reviewing! I'm glad that my story is original I try to make most of my stories original! I'm glad you like Joey! He's so popular I'm so happy! Sorry about the wait for this chapter!
Geets: I'm so sorry that I wasn't able to update fast! I just don't have enough time with school and everything! I'm sorry please don't hate me! Lol!
Islandgirl: Thank you so much. Once again I am sorry about the wait but I don't have that much time to update right now!
lilblondie2182: Thank you so much for the nice review! I'm so honored to have written the best fanfic you have ever read! I'm sorry that I don't have much time to update at the moment but I promise that I will continue to update even though it might be a while before I have time.
Mep1: Thanks for reviewing. I'm sorry about the wait but I barely have any time to update and I have 4 other fics to update and an original fiction that I am writing. So just stay with me and hold on because I will eventually get the next chappie out...