It's not mine; it's all J.K. Rowling's.
Chapter 8: In Which Lily Decides She Hates Secret Passage Ways
Or
In Which Lily Meets the Family
Damn! He knew her weakness.
"I do like snow angels," she said slowly.
"Uh-huh," he breathed in her ear.
"I guess if you promised there would be snow angels, I could make it."
James was kissing her neck now, which was really rather distracting. Hell, it was extremely distracting. She turned in his arms and kissed him right on the lips. Apparently he hadn't been expecting that though, because he lost his balance on the seat and, of course, both of them fell to the floor. They landed with a thud and James grimaced in pain. It didn't really bother Lily though, since James had cushioned her fall.
She giggled, "How romantic, you really swept me off my feet."
James started laughing too. "You're so wonderful," he said before pulling her back down for another kiss.
Did you hear that?
Yeah
Should we check?
Probably.
Ok, let's go.
The door burst open right in the middle of their kiss, much to Lily's annoyance.
"Holy shit!" Sirius said, "I didn't actually expect you guy to go at it!"
James tilted his head back, so he could see Sirius. "Well, you said to get a room."
"James," Lily said, lightly hitting his chest and turning bright red. "We simply fell off the seat and were going to get up...eventually...but we hadn't gotten around to it yet."
Ally was laughing, "Well, since you guys have been such a good couple, I guess we'll let you out."
James looked thoughtful, "No, That's ok. I kind of like it without you guys."
"I think I've been insulted," Sirius said in mock offense.
James laughed and gently started pushing Lily off of him. But Lily didn't want to get off. I mean, she was perfectly comfortable and it was such an effort to get up. She supposed she should get up, but did she really have to? Grinning, she latched on to James' neck and buried her face in his chest. She liked being able to feel his laugh as he struggled to get up against her leverage. Somehow or another, probably something to do with those mighty fine Quidditch muscles of his, he got them both upright with Lily sprawled across his lap. And that's how the rest of the train ride was spent.
When they arrived at Platform 9 and 3/4, Lily got off James and he grabbed their bags and his broom, pulling her toward the door. They got off the train and Lily hugged Ally goodbye while James had a few words with Sirius and Remus. Right as she turned to go Ally grabbed her arm.
"Be safe, Lils," she hesitated slightly, "I know you don't want to hear this, but James' dad is the head of Auror Defense. Maybe you should talk to him..."
"You're right," Lily said softly, yet firmly, "I don't want to hear that."
She turned to go again.
"Think about it," Ally said quietly and Lily pretended she hadn't heard her. Lily would, of course, think about it. She wouldn't do anything about it, but she would think about it.
James was standing with two people Lily guessed were his parents. They looked very kind in a slightly graying way and they were both smiling and laughing nicely at something Sirius had said. Lily felt a pang somewhere inside and proceeded to do something very stupid. She burst into tears for no reason at all in the middle of the platform. Luckily, no one really noticed. These were falling tears, not wailing tears. James, being the annoying and highly observant (at least when it came to her) person he was, immediately noticed and practically ran to her asking if she was ok; how he could make it better? Who did she want him to kill because whoever made her cry would pay? She just kept shaking her head. Hell, she didn't even know why she was crying, much less how to make it stop. He pulled her to his chest, holding her there.
"It's going to be alright," he whispered, "Whatever it is; we'll get through it."
Finally Lily's tears stopped; she still clung to his chest, sniffling. People were just starting to drift from the platform when Lily finally pulled away. Lily could see Ally and Sirius having a good-bye kiss, kisses really, over by James' parents, who were laughing at them along with Ally's parents. James wiped off her face with his robe sleeve.
"I must look awful," she whispered, embarrassed.
"No, you look beautiful," he said, fondly kissing her forehead. He hesitated a bit. "Do you want to talk about this now?" He asked clearly trying to feel his way through the unfamiliar territory of girls who cry without a reason.
"No," Lily said, shaking her head, "We need to get moving."
"Ok," James said, "But later?"
Lily nodded and pulled out her wand. She did a quick spell that would clear up her tear stains and get her hair back in some semblance of order. Then James was pulling her over to his parents.
"Hey, Mum, Dad, this is Lily Evans," he said, smiling happily and tucking his arm around her waist.
Mrs. Potter smiled distantly, "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Lily. And I do hate to ruin your goodbyes, but we really must be going." She was looking pointedly at James' arm around Lily's waist.
Lily started to blush; there was no going back now.
"You're right dear; we really have to hurry up," Mr. Potter agreed, "Come on boys!" He clapped his hands at Sirius, who was still kissing Ally good-bye, "You can invite her to New Years kiddo; we've got to get a move on."
Sirius looked rather out of it but he did come up with an answer, an embarrassing answer, the git. "I'm going to Remus'. James dear is bringing home his girlfriend so that he can kiss her everyday over break." Then in a conspiratorial whisper he added, "He's worried that she'll find someone who smells better than him if he leaves her to her own devices."
She shouldn't have dyed his hair pink; she should have just killed him. She was bright red now and James didn't seem to be in any better condition, shuffling his feet and refusing to look at anyone. Lily chanced a look at James' parents, expecting dark looks; instead they looked like Christmas and their birthday's had come early.
"You're his girlfriend!" Mrs. Potter exclaimed. "Oh, how exciting; he's finally brining home a girl."
Lily then found herself enveloped in a tight hug.
"This is going to be so much fun. Look at you; you're so pretty, no wonder James is worried someone will steal you away."
Mrs. Potter finally let her go, and as she was trying to get in a good few breaths, Mr. Potter grabbed her hand and began pumping it up and down. Grinning he told his wife that James didn't have to worry; no woman had yet to refuse the infamous Potter charm.
"Actually," James said casually putting his arm back around her waist and effectively fending off the hugging and handshaking, "Lily's the only girl I know who's immune to it."
"One of the reasons he's been in love with her since 5th year," Sirius interjected.
"You know Sirius," Lily said casually, "Maybe you better find the Lupins; wouldn't want them to leave without you."
"They wouldn't leave without me," Sirius said, not catching her drift.
"Yes, and wouldn't it be a pity if you had pink fingernails to go with that hair of yours," Lily continued, pretending she hadn't heard him.
Sirius blanched, "You know, that's a good point. I'll see you at New Years, Ally." He kissed her one more time and hurried off.
Ally grinned, "Till New Years, then," and left with her parents.
"Do I even want to know why Sirius dyed his hair pink?" Mr. Potter asked.
James and Lily both started laughing.
"Oh, he didn't dye it willingly. It's a great story. I'll tell it to you in the car."
They left the platform and made it to the 'car'. It was really more of a luxury suite on wheels, but Lily didn't say anything. She just looked out the window while James regaled his parents with the story of her pink hair dye adventure. His dad was laughing so hard, Lily was surprised he could hold the wheel straight. Oh well. It didn't surprise her that it was a magic car. Of course, James embellished the story, making Lily seem even more cunning than usual; all and all though, it was a nice trip.
Then they arrived at James' house. House probably wasn't the right word for it though. She guessed that a house would probably fit into his living room.
"James," she said as he helped her out of the car, "You know that list of things that you should tell people before you invite them over?"
"You mean the one with the fact I have 12 aunts and uncles on it?"
"Yeah, that one. You really ought to add that you live in a mansion too."
James grinned, "And ruin the surprise?" He kissed her cheek, "You'll love the library."
Lily didn't have a doubt that she would, but wouldn't one get lost in a house so big? She'd need a map to find the kitchen.
James pulled Lily up the steps and the door opened automatically as soon as they were within reach. Almost as if there was an invisible butler there. Lily glanced over her shoulder as he pulled her inside and saw the car being driven off to the garage by some sort of spell. James helped her out of her cloak and dropped it to the floor. Lily watched amazed as it flew through the air and hung itself neatly on a hanger. This truly was a pureblood house.
"The rest of the family's in the kitchen," Mrs. Potter said, "They're all going to want to meet you."
She grabbed Lily's arm and dragged her through a maze of hallways at warp speed, barely allowing Lily time to catch a glance at the high ceilings and antique furniture. Finally, they arrived in a warmly lit kitchen that could have come from any muggle home, except for the lack of appliances.
"We're home," Mrs. Potter crowed happily as Lily tried to take in the large number of people seated around the kitchen table. She guessed there were probably 12. This was going to be harder than she'd thought. There was no possible way she'd ever remember all of their names. Every single pair of eyes in the room focused on her and Lily fought the urge to fidget nervously. She tried to put on a happy smile; this was James' family and she wanted them to like her.
"This," Mrs. Potter said dramatically, "Is James' girlfriend, Lily!" The way she said it Lily felt a bit like she was being auctioned off; obviously Mrs. Potter wanted to make sure the rest of the family liked her as well.
The room exploded with voices. It appeared that all of the relatives agreed that they'd never thought it could happen; they were all extremely happy, and they all wanted to pinch her cheek and give her lectures on not letting that rascal do anything inappropriate or chastity being the best course of action where Potter men are concerned, depending on the respective sexes of the well wishers.
Lily just stood still and tried to smile, but she must have come off as a bit scared because James shouted, "Ok, ok, I get the point. You're all surprised a girl would even dream of going out with me. But you wouldn't want to blow this amazing once in a life time chance by scaring my girlfriend to death, would you?"
"Quite right," Mr. Potter said, smiling, "We're lucky Ms. Evans is here at all." He pulled out a chair and gestured her into it. James sat down beside her and entwined their fingers.
"So," a woman with blondish gray hair said, "You go to Hogwarts?"
"Yes, I do," Lily said.
"Lily's head girl," James informed everyone, beaming proudly.
"Really now? So she's a smart one, then," a portly man who sat to the left of the blondish gray woman said.
James, clearly intent on extolling her virtues, launched into a long description of all the classes she was number one in, which was pretty much everything except for transfiguration.
"James, of course, has me beat in transfiguration," she interjected eager to change the subject.
"Of course, James was always one for transfiguration. Just like his uncle Robert," The blonde gray woman said gesturing to the portly man. Ok, so his name was Robert; she needed to remember that.
Suddenly Mrs. Potter said, "Oh dear, how rude of me. You haven't been introduced to everyone."
So Lily was give a whirlwind of names, the only one of which she caught was Reese. Odd name really, it reminded her of Reese's Cups...yum. After the introductions the conversation turned to talk of jobs Lily had never heard of and jokes she didn't get. All and all, she felt rather stupid. She really should since she'd thought a pureblood family might be like any other. When she tuned back into the conversation everyone was telling James to take someone on a tour. Oh wait; they wanted him to take her on a tour. That didn't sound too bad. So James took her arm and guided her out of the kitchen followed by enough hearty winks to make your eye twitch.
Once they reached the hallway, James immediately started apologizing, "I'm so sorry, Lils. They're crazy, I mean absolutely insane. I should have told them to be good before you got here. They're never going to behave themselves now. It's not that they don't mean well, it's just..."
Lily cut him off with a kiss, which James deepened and pulled her into what he referred to as the 'drawing room'. So they sat on the couch for a while trading kisses until James decided that they really needed to get moving with the tour or else the relatives would get suspicious.
"So what does one need to know about this house," Lily prompted after they'd walked down several hallways without going through any of the many doors.
"Oh, well there's really not much to the house." James said, shrugging.
"Umm...James, it's a mansion. How can there be nothing to it?"
"Well, we never even use most of the rooms."
"Ok, so show me what you do use. And then get me a map, so I don't end up lost in some dark forbidding corridor."
"Ah well, that I can remedy. Not the map, but if you ever want the lights to come on you can pull a spell chain which are pretty much everywhere or call 'lights on', although the spell's really old, so sometimes it doesn't work."
"Ok, so now it'll be a light forbidding corridor."
"Yep, aren't I a great boyfriend?"
"Sure, James," she said, rolling her eyes.
James pretended to look hurt, so she gave him a kiss.
"Other than that," James said, pulling back, "The only other things I can warn you about are the secret passage ways."
"Secret passages ways? Like the ones they have in horror novels that the heroines disappear into and never come out of?"
"Yeah, kind of like that, but I know my heroine would come back. Since I would go get her if she didn't."
"OH that's comforting. So if I get myself locked in a secret room you'll come find me, preferably before I die."
"Of course, dear lady of mine, although I won't make any promises about the time frame. There are a lot of secret passage ways, and some I don't even know about."
"You, not know about secret passage ways? I'm shocked. In fact, I do believe I'll faint right here." Lily grinned and pretended to fall on him. He caught her, scooping her into his arms.
"Right this way, my lady," he said carrying her into a library. It was huge. "This," he said, setting her down, "Is the small library."
The small library. Whoa, she didn't even want to think what the big one would be like. She walked over to look at the empty fireplace. The entire thing was decorated with mosaics of different animals and plants. Some she had never even dreamed of before. Like half platypus, half butterfly, and half fish, wait that's too many halves, oh well.
"This is amazing," she said running her finger over the wings of the butterfly. Suddenly, she felt sick, like she had been spinning for to long. She leaned on the wall to maintain her balance, and then the world was black.
She blinked a few times. It was completely black; there wasn't a smidgen of light, anywhere. Damn! She'd known this was going happen as soon as James had mentioned the secret passage ways. It was just her luck that she'd end up trapped in one of them. Come on, who, in there right mind, makes a secret passage that pulls you into it when you run your finger over a butterfly wing? That's just sick.
No need to panic though. She was a smart independent girl and she could certainly get herself out of a measly secret passage way.
"Lights on," she said hesitantly. No lights came one. The spell obviously didn't work in secret passage ways.
Not a problem, after all, she wasn't a witch for nothing. And every good witch has a wand that can easily light up the darkest of secret passage ways. All one has to do is whisper, "Lumos," and, voila, you can see.
All she had to do was pull out her wand...
Her wand that was in her pocket...
Her pocket which was part of her cloak...
Her cloak that was hanging in the downstairs closet...
DAMN!
This was turning into a bad day.
----
Hey! Sorry this took so long to get up, but I'm really swamped with school work. I'm still going to keep posting, but it's just going to be a little slower than it used to be. Sorry.
James' Family (every pair is married)
Krista – mom, sensible, counselor
Tristan – dad, head of auror defense, 1st son
Lauren – blonde gray hair
Robert – portly man, good at transfiguration, 2nd son
Edna – spindly, rather pure blood happy
Walter – (he doesn't really do much), 3rd son
Marie – healer
Charles – Charlie, 4th son
Liza – (haven't decided yet) but nice
Matt – nice fellow, gives good advice, 5th son
Reese – brash, occasionally gets drunk, nice enough though
Andrew – outgoing like his wife, 6th son
Mary – pretty young, trim
Joe – baby of the family, 7th son
If you want to ignore all that; go ahead, but in case you like knowing exactly who everyone is, there you go.
Thanks for all of the reviews!
Daystar – Ugh, too much school work. I say we drop out and become traveling acrobats. What do you think?
prongs312 - Sorry the last chapter was confusing. If you want you can just pretend it didn't happen. There's nothing really important in it besides the fish, but they're not even that important, I just like them.
Crazayladay – I figured the green might clash with her eyes and you can't have that. Although green is an awesome color.
Seren Lunar Echo – Kathryn's are awesome, we really ought to take over the world.
JamesLvr4eva – I'm sorry it wasn't as long. It really is my fault because I got a smaller journal and now when I fill up the same number of pages as I did in the last one there are less words, so the chapters get shorter. I'm trying to work on it though.
Hannah – Sorry, but don't worry I'll keep posting even if it takes a little longer to get out.
DK Lili, short-tempered, siriusforeva, Sam, warrior of tortall – Thanks for reading!