Chapter Twelve

The Aftermath

At about one o clock the next day, all seven could be seen in the great hall, discussing the ball and eating brunch. The general consensus was that it was good but all had to be gone over in detail.

"So, James, I see you finally got Lily to dance with you," Lainie said while eating her large plate of scrambled eggs.

"Yip, I told you she would fall for my irresistible charm" he said, grinning down the table at her. She just rolled her eyes and said "Dream on James"

"Right, so not as successful as you'd hoped. Well I had a good time. Got to show of my incredible dancing skills alright, didn't I"

"You certainly were popular. In fact, you danced with everyone here. Wow. So who was your favourite dance of the night. Huh, Lainie" James said, grinning at her while slicing bacon.

"That would have to be me, wouldn't it, Lainie" Sirius interrupted with a grin.

"That would be understandable, as you did dance with him for a long time" James said, knowing that he was going to piss Lainie off by saying it.

"As he was so gallant in rescuing me from the company of myself. He made up that he was dancing with me as an excuse to not dance with someone else. God, I'm flattered." She added, sarcastically.

"So you should be, every female there was gagging after him ,except for Livvy and Lily, you gigolo" James said, sticking up for his friend.

"Thanks mate, I can't help it that all girls are irresistible to my undeniable charm, including you" he added, looking pointedly at Lainie.

"What........., hang on, I can so resist your charms." Lainie said indignantly.

"Sure, sure." James said.

"Stop teasing me, you evil child."

"Sure, sure"

"And stop bloody saying sure, sure" The others watched on amused, as Lainie and James continued to bicker. This was an everyday event, as those two argued like siblings.

"Steady guys, don't hurt each other." Remus, the sensible one, interrupted.

Professor Dippet cleared his throat up at the high table and said "What a magical ball it was last night. Such dancing skill." He said smiling at Lainie and James with his blue eyes twinkling. "Anyway, there will be a Hogwarts talent quest near over the last week of term. This will be a house competition and each house will be awarded house points. You may enter as many items as you like and each will be submitted to your house prefect for one of the following categories ; drama, dance, music ( singing included) and miscellaneous. I trust you will be enthusiastic about this new dimension to house competitions. Thank you. Just a notice about the quidditch cup match next weekend between Gryffindor and Ravenclaw. It will start at ten o clock. Thank you school"

Everyone went back to eating and talking about the upcoming events.

"Quidditch practice tomorrow, okay. We really need to work on some new stuff. Come guys, lets go" James said, standing up. Remus, Sirius and Peter left with him so girls were left by themselves.

"So girls, what are we going to do for the talent show. I was thinking a singing one and maybe we could get someone else in for a dancing one" suggested Livvy.

"Yeah, that's sounds good. I won't be singing though." Lainie said.

"Sure, sure" Lily supplied.

So the week went on. Classes dragged and then flew past in what seemed like a matter of minutes. Everyone was excited about the upcoming quidditch match, somehow people had heard about Alex's rejection at the hands of Lainie so people who weren't quidditch fans were interested in seeing him get his revenge. James, however, was fanatical. He had the team practice every second day. He would plan out all these drills and end up sleeping on them in the common room because he fell asleep while planning them. Whereupon Remus and Sirius would have to heave him up the stairs. Everyone despaired over him, what would he turn into when the real final drew close.

Finally it was Friday night. The boys were sitting in the common room talking. But upstairs there was a heated discussion going on. The girls were sitting upstairs, deep in discussion over the talent quest. They were discussing what song to do for the talent quest.

"I really think the Vanessa Carlton song was better. The piano accompaniment was flasher. It made me sound better. Please" pleaded Lainie

"But the other one was better. But........, fine. I'll do that. Just for you. Because I can see you will not let me win." Lily finally gave in.

"Cool, lets find that room with the piano and start practicing." Livvy said, heading out the door with her music in hand. When they arrived Lainie sat down at the piano and started playing, her fingers flew along the keys, nimble and graceful.

"God Lainie, we know you can play, stop showing off." Livvy said, ginning at her to show that she was kidding.

"Fine, then. Okay , you ready..... One, two three" She started playing piano intro, the notes rolling into the air. Livvy prepared herself to sing the first verse, making sure she was in time with the backing tape and Lainie.

"Making my way downtown, walking fast, faces passing, I'm homebound"

"Staring blankly ahead, making my way, making my way through the crowds"

At the end of the song as Lainie played out the last note. "Well, that didn't sound too bad. With a bit of practice we will sound better." Lily exclaimed.

"Right" James roared, banging the door open "Ophelia Elena Robinson, get to bed, now. Quidditch tomorrow and if you're not good I'll......., I'll......."

"Okay, okay, James. No need to completely explode. Right guys, I better go" Lainie said, rolling her eyes as she left the room.

Saturday morning dawned fine and bright if a little windy. Lainie woke up and blearily looked at her clock, the light was streaming through the curtains which were moving in the breeze. She lay in bed looking around her room. The room was decorated three different ways except for the "stuff" corner, which contained three trunks, three chairs and a small fireplace. In Lily's section, it was all in pink and white, with a white duvet with a pink mohair blanket which was Lily's pride and joy. The pillows were evenly colored, two pink and two white. Next to it sat a chest of draws which Lily had hand painted, painstakingly during the holidays. Pictures hung in neat white frames over the bed, family ones with her mother, Emmeline, her father Hugh and her sister, Petunia. Lily hated her sister, who resented her for being a witch or resented the fact that her parents were so proud of her. The other photos were of her friends, some at school, a few of the summers they had spent at Lainie's country house. The next space over was Livvy's. Now this was decorated with, well white and flowers. All her linen was white but her cushions and pillows were flowered. She had strings of fake flowers hanging down over her bed. She loved shopping at antique shops and had a large antique mirror hanging by her bed. She had photos in antique photo frames which were slightly mismatched. In them were photos of her family, with her parents Claire and John and her brothers Sam, Matt and Hamish. Remus also featured strongly in her photos. Now Lainie's area was in extreme contrast. She had everything done in white and dark grey. For some reason she loved the darkness. She had white duvet with a large grey fur blanket and her bed side tables were dark wood. Above her bed were many photos in dark frames. These photos had a variety of characters. There was her family photos in one of the four long black rectangular frames over her bed. They were of her and her parents in Hawaii, skiing in Canada, wearing berets outside the Eiffel Tower and at her cousins wedding all dressed up. They all were smiling. Lainie traveled a lot as her parents worked hard while she was at school so they could take her on holidays. Also they had no problems with money. The next frame was of her, Lily and Livvy. Out of every photo the three of them smiled and laughed. There was only one serious one of them that was taken during their OWL exams. They were all staring at their papers and Lily was chewing her quill, Livvy was frowning and Lainie was chewing her hair while writing furiously. The other frames consisted of her and James doing various things and the last was just her. She loved having photos around her and changed them regularly.

As her room mates began to stir she got into the shower and got dressed into her tracksuit. When she finished she wandered out and waited for the others as she polished her broomstick. After breakfast, at which she didn't eat anything, it was a matter of habit. She never played on a full stomach. Then her friends wished her luck and headed off to the pitch with Remus and Peter. She walked out to the changing rooms with the rest of the team.

When they got there, they sat down and prepared for James team talk.

"I wonder if James will finish his team talk before school finishes, this time" Sirius whispered to Lainie

"Doubt it" Lainie answered, snorting behind her hand.

"I heard that, you two" James said severely from behind them

"Sorry, Dad"

"Well, you two, I'm going to shock you all and just say, go out and play well. You know what you have to do. I trust you" With this he grabbed his broom and walked out. This comment was greeted with shocked silence. Finally Sirius grabbed his broom and followed and everyone else filed out behind them. Lainie caught up with James when they were flying round the pitch.

"Well well well, Potter, you shocked us all." She said, flying her broom up to his. They flew about looking at the crowds.

"Thanks, Just hope it works."

"It will." Lainie said, looking straight into his hazel eyes.

"Thanks, now get down and do the toss." She flew down to Madame Harrier. "Right Captains" she said shrilly "Shake hands"

Alex and James shook hands, staring very hard at each other. Then Madame Hawkson blew her whistle and tossed the ball into the air. Lainie flew after it and her fellow chaser Sam grabbed it and passed it to the other chaser Jack. The flew towards the goal, then he passed the quaffle to Lainie. She caught it and flew forward. She dodged a bludger and took a shot for goal. She had a good long range goal scoring average as she and James had practiced it. The chasers were doing well and were leading sixty to thirty. They were doing all their plays and all was working well. Everything was coming together as James had wanted it to. Now it was up to him. He was on the look out for the snitch. Flying high above the stands. He just couldn't see it. Lainie, however was on fire. She was scoring at every opportunity and hadn't missed yet. She took a rest as a timeout was called. She felt a sudden breeze brush past her. Sirius flew past, bat in hand, he looked down at her grinning.

"You're playing well"

"Thanks, hey, get back out there, The games started again."

"Right then" Lainie flew down and saw the Ravenclaw chasers on the attack. She began to defend And he him, she knocked into him and tried to shove him off his course. She couldn't stop him from scoring though. The score was now one hundred and forty to one hundred and ten. Just as she was flying down towards the goal, she saw James streak after a small gold dot. The other seeker began to chase him. James was gaining on the snitch though. He reached out and grabbed it. Lainie began to cheer and fly down, when, thwack. Something hard hit her in the neck and knocked her off her broom. It was a bludger that no one had remembered about that was still hurtling round the field when James caught the snitch. She began to plunge toward the ground. James was just doing a victory lap, feeling particularly proud of himself, as Lily was cheering and clapping in the stands. Out of the corner of his eye he saw an object plunge toward the ground. He turned round and recognized Lainie's black hair trailing her bundle of red robes. He began to dive after her.

Up in the stands, Lily, Livvy, Peter and Remus stood up, their hands clasped over their mouths in anguish. They watched Lainie fall towards the ground. The stands were in uproar. She was nearly going to hit the ground. Lily covered her eyes. Suddenly Remus was telling her to look. She opened her eyes and saw that someone had caught Lainie.

"Who caught her. James?" she asked.

"No. Alex" Remus replied.

When Lainie got hit, she wasn't unconscious as she fell. She knew she was falling but she couldn't do anything about it. Her eyes were closed. When she hit something solid and stopped falling. She opened her eyes and they met a pair of chocolaty brown eyes. She recognized the eyes and her heart jumped. Hang on she thought, my heart just jumped for Alex. Does that mean I have feelings for Alex? She never began to ponder this thought because she fainted.

Alex saw her get hit he moved underneath her. This may have been both brave and stupid. He caught her and the impact nearly knocked him over but he managed to stay standing. He looked down at her. She opened her eyes and looked at him. Then she fainted. He turned round and found James and Sirius bearing down on him. Both glaring and glowering at him.

"Think you better hand her over there, Lloyd" Sirius said threateningly.

"Why, do you think you would have a better chance with her than me." Alex said mockingly.

"I wouldn't say that if I was you Lloyd' James said, grinding his teeth angrily

"Why not. It's the truth isn't it. Or has he tried and failed already" Alex replied.

Before James had a chance to reply he turned and walked off towards the hoards of teachers and students that her approaching.

"Don't worry mate. It's not true" James told Sirius.

Sirius only grinded his teeth in reply.

When Lainie walked out of the changing rooms (after the nurse had healed her neck and watched her eat a large slab of chocolate), she was surprised to see Alex waiting there for her. "Hi, do you want to go for a walk" he asked. "Um,sure" she replied hesitantly. James and Sirius walked out behind her, just in time to see her walk off with Alex.

"Lainie....." James called after but got no reply.

When Alex and Lainie arrived out at the lake he turned around and started talk to her. "Lainie, look, I'm just really sorry I took things to fast with you. I don't know what I was thinking. I shouldn't have done it because when we were together it was great. I felt so lucky to have you and I don't know why I ruined it and I have been kicking myself for letting you go." He said looking at her sideways. What compelled Lainie to do the next thing that happened, no one could explain especially not her (later she would say that she was still partly concussed). She leaned over and kissed Alex on the mouth. She placed her arms around her neck and pulled him in. He wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her back.

The rest of the group were sitting out on the girls balcony watching. Now that this happened there were cries of outrage.

"What...., she can't kiss him. But he was a sleaze" James said, quite distraught.

"No Lainie, this isn't right." Lily cried.

"What is she thinking" Livvy said.

"Maybe he said something really awesome which changed her mind." Remus said.

"But he is a jerk. And a dickhead. Just because he saved her from falling." Sirius said angrily.

"Woah Sirius, I see you don't like him very much' Lily said

"Yeah he made a few not nice comments today" James said

"Like what" Peter inquired

"Said that I couldn't pull Lainie or something of the sort"

"That's harsh, mate" Remus said.

"He's a complete dickhead. Why is she kissing him." Lily said completely mystified. They all continued to watch and all of them were wondering the same question. Why.

Oh my god, whoever read my story, you rock. it made my day getting five whole reviews. please review this one and tell me what you think. oh and yeah, no way is any of j.k rowling's work mine. but on a more personal note, a few personal replies to the lovely gorgeous people who reviewed.

Lise- i agree, had drunk too much coke when i wrote it, replacement in the pipes. and the name, what would you say, what about albus dumbledore, rubues hagrid and sybil trelawny.

charl- thank you, you guessed it. but j and lainie would be cool, i love best friends getting together but we know that j and lily have to get together.

sarah, thank you thank you thank you.