Sirius entered his empty dorm room feeling sick with worry over what had just happened. He had left Lily without a word obediently making a direct journey back to his room. After the day he'd just had he was ready to bury himself in his covers and close the thick curtains of his bed about him to shut out the world. He knew though that to his room mates drawn bed curtains were a sure-fire way to draw attention to one's self unless you were truly ill.
Slowly Sirius changed into a soft pair of navy blue drawstring pajama pants and a loose gray sleeveless shirt with a small lion embroidered on the left of his chest and bounced roughly on to his bed. He situated himself rumpling the smooth blankets that been so meticulously cleaned and straightened since he had seen the bed last. Gazing around the cold quiet dorm room Sirius was left to face his thoughts alone.
He sighed to himself starring up at the ceiling wishing that he had not been so bold as to try anything with Bella right there in the middle of the open arena for anyone to discover them. It seemed that so many times since becoming involved with Bellatrix he would act as if he had no control over his actions, in fact that was exactly how he felt around her. He was so utterly swept away by her bewitching eyes and her precious smile, the way she whispered his name allowing him to feel her words blowing against his skin. He would do anything just to be near her able to hear the sound of her voice. Sirius closed his eyes tightly bringing his hand to rest on his brow and rubbing his eye lids slowly.
"Could things be any worse?" He groaned pulling both hands up to rest in his hair.
"Oh yes, Master. Things can always be worse." Came a gruff little voice from the foot of Sirius' bed. A fierce scowl came over Sirius' face upon realizing he had an intruder. Lifting himself to his elbows his eyes fell on a small dark figure peering around the curtains draped at the tall thick bed post.
"I thought I told you never to come here Kreatcher." Sirius said with frustrated commanding in his voice watching the small knobby house elf fidgeted with the cloth tied about him. Kreatcher bowed his head in shame but Sirius was positive that he could see a great smile on the sinister little house elf's face and hear the mirth as he spoke his apologies bowing low to the ground.
"Kreatcher is ever so sorry young Master but my Mistress insisted that I bring you a message, a message that she would only entrust to Kreatcher, not a message for the fat stupid owl!" Kreatcher scowled now thinking of his own grievances then realizing that Sirius was looking at him in cool disdain he grinned causing the nostrils of his snout like nose to flare.
"The Young Master should not let his room grow so cold." Kreatcher said shuffling over to the cold iron hearth and creating a perfectly warming fire where only ash had been before.
"Pathetic, lazy, Hogwarts house elf's letting my Young Master's room go untended, disgusting…" Kreatcher's grumbling was quickly cut off by Sirius who was now severely annoyed.
"So give me your message and be off!" Sirius said loudly pulling the pillow from under his head and smashing it over his face. Kreatcher seeing the anger that he caused in Sirius smiled in delight now that his master's eyes were hidden.
"Oh yes." Said Kreatcher, slyly his eyes growing wide unsure if Sirius was peeking at him, he waved a hand with no reaction from Sirius, grinning wildly Kreatcher inched closer to Sirius' bed side.
"My Mistress sent me to tell her ungrateful and shameless son to focus on staying out of trouble and leave young Miss Bella alone." As Kreatcher finished he pulled his mouth wide with his fingers and stuck his tongue out at Sirius wagging his head wildly. Sirius without warning threw his pillow down to land hard on Kreatcher knocking him back several feet.
"If that's all you have to say then you can go. Aunt Gwendolyn has already been here today to tell me that very thing so you can let your Mistress know that she's a bit late." Growled Sirius feeling the biting ache in his chest that his mother possibly suspected anything had been going on between he and Bella, also hating when anyone demanded him to keep away from her. Kreatcher looked horrified at the mention of Gwendolyn Black's name and Sirius noticing this smiled cruelly at the conniving elf.
"Seems my mother's spies have become slow and unreliable." Sirius smirked, causing Kreatcher to gasp.
"Kreatcher is a most reliable spy for his Mistress." The house elf said wringing his small thin hands with a worried uneasy look on his face, suddenly perking at the realization of his admission and grinning innocently.
Just then there came a great commotion from beyond the door to the dorm and Sirius grinned knowing that it was his friends returned from Quidditch practice. Kreatcher stood frozen in fear in front of the door not knowing what was coming, a moment later the door to the dorm room swung open right through Kreatcher who disappeared just in the knick of time to avoid a hard blow. The trails of smoke that were left behind from his former presence were swirled and scattered as Gideon and Frank came racing through the door followed by James, Remus, Benjy, and Peter all yelling excitedly.
Sirius sat in the center of his bed watching in interest as the flushed windblown boys all gathered about the fire warming their hands and pulling off their robes. James fell in front of Sirius on to his bed panting in laughter at Peter who had hopped on to his own bed holding the post and speaking into the hilt of his wand as if it were a microphone.
"And James Potter catches the snitch! Gryffindor wins the game by 500 points" Peter yelled breathlessly, James turned and grinned at Sirius adjusting his glasses and pulling his hand roughly through his hair. The fabric of his Gryffindor Quidditch uniform still cold from the chilled night air.
"You missed a great practice!" Said James, Sirius smirked down at his friend smugly.
"Well it's not every night that I get to watch beautiful girls battle in the practice arena just for me…one of them being a certain Gryffindor prefect, and no I'm not talking about Remus." Sirius said with a lordly glint in his eyes suppressing his laughter at James' stunned look. Remus scowled at Sirius as he flopped down on his bed removing his shoes and chucking a dirty sock in Sirius' face.
"Wait a minute! Lily was in the arena with you tonight?" James said sounding confused yet still excited, all of the boys heard the comment and gathered around while Peter dumped a pillowcase full of sweets on to the bed between James and Sirius. The boys began picking through the assortment of brightly warped candies awaiting Sirius explanation.
"Well yes and no, I was there when she and Bella began dueling." Sirius said with a grin all of the boys sat looking stunned. Remus was the first to begin laughing in astonishment.
"I swear you are the only person that I know who could go to detention and end up watching a floor show featuring Lily and Bella! Unbelievable! How the hell do you do it?"
"So what happened, you have to tell me everything!" James insisted tensely.
"I wanna know who won!" Said Frank, "Your cousin seems like the kinda girl you wouldn't want to be on the other side of the wand of."
"Yeah who won?" James asked in intrigue. Sirius' grin grew huge and confident.
"The Gryffindor of course!" The entire lot of the boys cheered in rowdy pleasure at hearing this reaction causing Sirius to laugh hard only to be interrupted by a knock at the door. The room went silent as Sirius grinned down at James knowing that it was Lily come to check on him.
"Grab the door Peter, it's a delivery for James. Sirius snickered never leaving his friends questioning eyes. Peter opened the door revealing the lovely young prefect Lily standing solemnly in the hall, she peeked into the room and surveyed the scene with delight a smile washing over her face to see the boys so comically gathered. James' mouth dropped to see Lily peering into the room unable to hide his nervous discomposure, his friends all noticing and trying hard to stifle their laughter by looking away and shoving sweets into their mouths.
Lily's eyes met Sirius' who quickly looked away in shame wanting badly to ask if Bella was alright he swallowed hard no longer feeling the happy light hearted atmosphere. Her eyes then traveled to James who gazed at her as if she weren't real, her smile softened as all of the boys voiced their hellos to her, Remus nudging James to follow their lead.
"James could I talk to you for a moment…in privet?" Lily requested ducking back out into the hallway. James glanced at Sirius apprehensively as if looking for an answer, the rest of the boys sat stunned at what was happening. Sirius grinned innocently as Remus pushed James up off of the bed towards the door.
James stepped through the doorway out onto the landing of the curved stone staircase of the Gryffindor dorms pulling the door shut behind him just in time to hear spouts of laughter issuing from within. James closed his eyes in humiliation letting his head lean forward to rest on the door, then he glancing down the twisting stair where he saw Lily standing, gazing out the deep-set window in the curved wall.
James smiled to himself as he glided down the stairs closing the distance between them, hopefully she had been far enough way not to have heard the eruption of laughter from his friends. He leaned easily back onto the deep stone window sill quickly taking Lily in. Her vibrant hair calm and shining in the dim light of the stair, her brilliant green eyes reflecting the sea of stars beyond the window pane.
Noticing his lingering on her Lily turned her eyes to meet his. As their eyes met James suddenly realized how vulnerable he felt sitting so close to this mature, perfect beauty. His heart began to pound and he was forced to look away from her quickly unable to say anything worth saying.
Lily could feel the blood rushing to her skin noticing how uncomfortable James was with being so close to her. She had never seen him act in this manner before, most of the time he seemed to be such a show off but now she could see that some of the things Bella had said to her were possibly true.
Bella was obviously not interested in James after what Lily had just witnessed between her and Sirius, but what was it that Bella had said to Sirius in the Defense chamber, that she felt I needed a push in the right direction? Lily wondered to her self. It was all too much information to try to digest in one night, she had no idea that James had these feelings. Lily's heart began to pound hard in her chest as she tried to remember the reason that she had asked James into the hallway as she watched him gazing out the window.
Lily averted her eyes to the windowsill where she began to trace the uneven surface of the stone. She had still not recovered from breaking up the cozy situation that she had so wrongfully spied. She had gone after Bella but was unable to reach her before she had gone through the portrait hole to the Slytherin common room. Lily did not think that Bella had noticed her for being so far behind and understanding how upset she must feel being caught by a prefect in the arms of her cousin, refused to call out to her.
"Lily, is something wrong?" James asked with concern in his voice, he had turned to see her so preoccupied in her thoughts that his worry for her superseded his feelings of shyness, the pentameter of his voice immediately soothing to her troubled mind she looked up to meet his eyes with a smile.
"I'm alright, it's just been a strange night." Lily answered her smile faltering on her smooth pale face.
"Have I done something Lily?" James asked nervously, Lily gave him a questioning look. "Am I in trouble for something, I've been racking my brain and I really can't think of a thing that I have done today that would have gotten me in trouble." James explained innocently, Lily laughed suddenly at James' concern that he was being busted for some prank.
"I'm so sorry James, I didn't ask you out here to assign you detention." Lily said with a smile, her eyes sparkling. James' face lightened immediately at her smile as his heart pounded harder to know that Lily had noticed him for something more than his standard rule breaking.
"So what did you need me for." He asked cautiously. Lily furrowed her brow looking uncomfortable and gazing back towards the skies, James noticed immediately the subtle changes that had come over her at the mention of what she had called him out for.
"There's that face again…please Lily tell me what's wrong I will help you any way that I can." Lily' eyes looked huge and guilty as she began to speak.
"It's Sirius…he's acting a bit careless about certain things. Do you know about his current family situation?" Lily asked trying to feel out James to be sure that he knew about the relationship between his best friend and Bella before she continued on.
James' eyes grew wide and he said nothing, Lily grinned with one side of her mouth.
"I'll take that as a yes, I assumed you did but I didn't want to involve you if you didn't already know." James sighed loudly and pulled his hand roughly through his dark brown hair gazing down at the floor as Lily continued.
"I'm afraid that I caught them together in the Defense chamber, and while I'm really embarrassed that it had to be me, I'm so thankful it wasn't someone else. God forbid it had been Malfoy doing a late night check of the corridors I shudder to think of what he would have subjected them to." Lily said all of this with the utmost concern in her voice, which surprised James who had always thought that she hated Sirius and himself.
"So you aren't going to turn them in?" asked James a little shocked.
"God no! I don't want to be responsible for the expulsion and possible destruction of two people because they love one another no matter who they are or how odd it is." Lily said with strong conviction then feeling a little self-conscious she composed herself, James began to grin his eyes twinkling as he pulled his hand through his hair once more.
"I would have never pegged you for a hopeless romantic Lily." He said sweetly, Lily shot him a nasty look, she could now see that over confident self-absorbed attitude breaking through the surface of James' facade.
"I just thought that you should maybe reign your friend in a bit before he gets an innocent girl in much deeper than she should be. She has a lot more to loose by being caught than he does and if he really does care about her he should back off!" Lily snapped at James her overloaded feelings spilling forth, as she turned in a huff to head down the stairs her anger rising in her cheeks.
James slipped quickly from the windowsill panicked that he had caused such a reaction in Lily. He grabbed her hand causing her to turn suddenly coming face to face. They both inhaled in shock to be so close but James didn't falter or pull back from her forcing her to look directly into his lovely gray eyes.
"I'm sorry Lily, I didn't mean to make a joke of any of this. You are right and I will defiantly talk to Sirius, although I'm not sure how much I can do, but…thank you for coming to tell me, and for not turning them in." James spoke in a hushed voice letting himself become lost in the emerald and jade of her huge, honest, angelic eyes. Without a thought James slipped his arm about her waist just wanting to hold her to chase any bad feelings from her mind.
Lily feeling utterly out of control of her self, reached her hands up to James' face pulling him gently down to her lips hesitating for a moment as if her mind was trying to get the better of her their lips barely touching. James completed the decision by leaning in to her and kissing her ever so gently wanting to remember every moment for the rest of his life, there hearts pounding in unison not wanting to break away from one another.
After a moment Lily's eyes shot open as if in realization of what she was doing, she pushed herself away from James' embrace bringing her hands to her lips and looking completely unsettled.
"Lily are you okay?" James asked in fear of what he had just done but reveling in the opportunity that he had not let get away. Lily blushed violently backing away into the wall.
"Um, it's late…we should both get back to our rooms." Lily said looking extremely uncomfortable, James nodded his head letting his gaze drop to his feet in disappointment.
"Good night Lily…I'm sorry." James said turning to head back up the stairs feeling his excitement at kissing Lily mingled with the heartbreak of her reaction to him. As he turned to go Lily reached forward to grab his hand causing James' heart to leap turning side ways to look hopefully down on Lily
"James…please don't mention this to anyone." Lily pleaded looking desperate. He made a slight frown and nodded heading back to his room where he would now be forced to face his friends who would surely have endless questions which he could not and did not want to answer.
