Seven – Last Will And Testament . . .
It is the truth, universally acknowledged, that any event one is dreading must arrive sooner than you think. For example, project presentations, examinations and orthodontist appointments always seem to suck up the time before them like vacuum cleaners. Similarly, anticipated events always crawl towards one at the rate of a drowsy snail. For example, weekends, the end of a school day and Christmas seem to deliberately prolong the longing for them to finally happen.
"Last practice before the match! If you don't actually know how to fly, this is your last chance to own up!" shouted James.
"I'm a bit shaky on turning," Sirius grinned, raising his hand.
"I dunno how to kick off!" shouted Keith.
"I have to hold the handle with both hands at all times!" added Verity.
"It should be an easy win for those Hufflepuffs tomorrow then, shouldn't it?"
Lily turned around to see seven, green clad Quidditch players leaning on broomsticks and smirking at the Gryffindors in a rather unsettling way.
"Do you mind?" asked James indignantly, "it may be a foreign concept to you lot, but we are trying to have a practice here."
"Oh don't mind us." Lily identified the speaker to be one Serverus Snape. "We'll just go over there, and you can tell us how much space you need for your massive Gryffindor egos."
"What are you even doing out of the hospital wing, Snape?" asked Sirius testily. "Isn't a twisted ankle enough to keep bed-ridden, squealing in agony?"
Snape ignored the jab, and hooked his eyes on Lily instead. All the Slytherins followed his gaze, among them the gaze of Darius Zabini, who was grasping a humming snitch.
"Got another girl on the team, eh, Potter?" he grinned. Lily felt his eyes linger like a child's when passing an ice cream parlour on the street. She curled herself into a hunch and dragged the scarlet fabric of her over-sized Quidditch robe back up onto her shoulder from where it had fallen. Zabini smirked.
"Yes, well, you don't seem to be having much luck with an all-boy team, so I thought it would be wise to go the other way," James shot back. The members of the Slytherin team narrowed their eyes and cracked their knuckles.
"Well, at least I didn't put them on the team just because I want to get off with them," Zabini smirked, looking condescendingly at the snitch he was pinching in his fingers. James made to reach for his wand but Lily put a hand on his arm. He froze at her touch.
"No, no, it's OK," she said to the Slytherin team. "At least I can still nick the snitch from under your nose, eh? Cant I?" she challenged, swiping the golden ball from the fingers of the Slytherin faster than you could blink.
Laughs and catcalls jeered from the Gryffindors as Ainsley and Keith put a protective arm each round their Seeker, should any Slytherin feel they should take back their Snitch and, while they were at it, a handful of Lily's hair.
They had no reason to worry, however, because the Slytherins were retreating back to the castle.
That Friday night, James sat in the Gryffindor Common Room, his brow frowning, fingers on his chin, hazel eyes intently focused.
He could either do that, or do that. But what would his opponent do? He hurriedly mapped out some strategies in his head, calculating risks and difficulties.
Finally, he decided on a course of action.
"Checkmate," declared Remus in satisfaction.
"Damn it!" answered James. Honestly, he was Quidditch Captain! He should have been able win at chess every single time! Even against a genius like Remus!
Maybe he should hire Remus to work out Quidditch strategies for him?
Apart from the Marauders, the Common Room was empty. Everyone had long gone to bed in order to get up early enough for the match tomorrow. Quidditch was one of the fastest games in existence and bleary eyed and sleepy fans often missed a goal or two in the process of a single yawn.
The Portrait Hole opened silently and James glanced up to see Lily creep in, in only her nightdress, dragging her purple quilt on the floor behind her.
It really should have worked, Lily thought, her plan to enter the Common Room without attracting the attention of the four boys. It should have gone down as smoothly as a pint of Irish beer. Unfortunately, she had forgotten that weird sort of radar that one James Potter had in his head. I mean, come on! How else would he know she had just entered? She was pretty sure there wasn't a third eye in the back of his head. (And in any case, he wouldn't have been able to see with it because his hair was so thick and messy.)
"What are you doing up?" the object of her musings demanded, jumping from his seat on the sofa as if he had tried to sit on a kebab stick.
"I couldn't sleep," muttered Lily, exactly like the response of a sulky teenager who had been caught sneaking out. "Too nervous."
James tutted. Sirius pulled a cringe, that was a mistake.
"You're up!" Lily shot at the Head Boy testily. "So don't you tut at me, mister I-don't-follow-my-own-advice."
"But Lilo, you're my star player!" James said, leaning over and putting his hands on her shoulders. "Everyone else is expandable . . ."
"Ouch, Prongs! Beaters have feelings too, you know," Sirius interrupted, "Now you've gone and wounded my emotional and sensitive soul."
"Oh shut up, you're wounding my soul," muttered Remus, frowning.
"But there is only one of you, and you're going catch the Snitch for us, aren't you? You're going to win us one hundred and fifty points, aren't you? You're going to get the match in the bag for us, aren't you?"
"Say yes, he's not of stable mind," advised Sirius.
"I'm going to see Verity," Lily said warily, slightly concerned by James's resolve in her position. She freed herself from James's grasp and hurried up the Girls' staircase, nearly tripping up on her quilt and making James cringe.
"Don't get even minutely injured in the next twenty-four hours!" he shouted after her, waking up half of the house while he was at it. "No twists, no pulls, no bruises, no pinches, no paper cuts, nothing! And no talking to Hooch! Lights out, straight to sleep!"
"Oh, go get shoved off a broomstick!" Lily shouted back, waking the remaining half of the house while she was at it.
"What in the name of Cleansweep is going on?" demanded Verity as soon as Lily had entered the seventh year girls' dorms. The other girls, Harriet Wicket and Daisy Bass were sleepily removing their eye masks and earplugs.
"Potter, (stupid hypocrite), was getting up his own arse about me up at this hour when he's probably going to be up past midnight!" fumed Lily, throwing her quilt onto Verity's four poster and sitting down on it with a bad-tempered thump.
"Oh, bloody hell," muttered Harriet wearily, replacing her eye mask with a snap of elastic and throwing her head back onto her pillows. "Would you just snog him and get it over with?"
"I beg your sodding pardon?" asked Lily, in a bit of a shock.
"Honestly, Lilo," Harriet began to explain, ("Would everyone stop calling me that?") "It's all that repressed sexual tension. It's enough to make anyone as loud as a sonorous charm at this hour."
"I have no idea what you are talking about," Lily said, with as much dignity as anyone whose blood flow to the face was probably draining most of it away from the brain could.
"What she means to say," Daisy amended, trying to keep the peace and in turn get a little peace, "is that if we don't see you, good luck tomorrow."
"Thank you, Daisy," Lily smiled.
"Ta, Daisy," Harriet said sarcastically.
"Come here," Verity said to Lily, drawing the curtains around her bed again as Lily crawled towards her friend's pillow. The girls snuggled down under two quilts, arms round each other, Lily's head nestled under Verity's chin.
"Ver," Lily whispered, "if I die tomorrow . . ." she began, but was cut off by Verity's burst of giggles.
"Lily, you are not going to die!"
"It's not funny!" Lily insisted, waiting grudgingly for Verity's hysterical laughter to ebb, "if I die, I want you to make sure Potter doesn't let the school sink into complete disorder, will you do that?"
"Whatever helps you sleep at night, Lilo. Ouch! Did you just pinch me? Or has that family of South American Claw Tweakers gotten in through the window again?"
"And there's something else I would like you to do as well, but only if I die, d'you hear?"
"Fire away," Verity said patiently.
"I want you to . . ." Lily began, and bit her lip. Verity rolled her eyes, if this was the way things were going to progress, they were going to be up until tomorrow's match was over! "I want you to thank Potter on my behalf, for being tolerable in my presence over the past few weeks."
Verity's eyes were just drooping closed, when they widened with an almost audible snap.
"Ha! What?" she exclaimed, loudly.
"Shut the frig up!" Harriet slash Daisy shouted back.
"Only on the condition that I'm firmly six feet under!" Lily insisted with an urgent tone.
"All right, all right, Lily," Verity said, half giggling.
They snuggled down again, pulling the covers back over their heads and sharing out their mutual warmth. Lily closed her eyes and felt that her duty was done. If she should die in the match tomorrow, (which Lily knew there was a very small chance of happening, but still worried her inexplicably), then she was safe in the mind that Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry would not be thrown into a state of absolute chaos and anarchy . . . probably.
And she would be able to show the small amount of gratitude that was due to the Head Boy, and it would be made easier by the fact that she would not be there to see him gloating. If she were alive, she was sure she would never be able to live it down.
"Bloody hell, Lilo, I'm half hoping you'll die just so I can tell him and see his face! Ouch!"
"I have only one thing to say to you people: Go beat some badger arse!"
To tell the truth, Lily was in a bit of a trance as she was herded out of her seat by Sirius and Verity. As the team lined up in pairs just inside the changing rooms, Lily stood in front of everyone next to James, who was peering out onto the pitch and muttering under his breath.
"Cloud cover: none, wind: none to speak of, sunny, firm ground, absence of wildlife: check." Lily was temporarily wrenched out of her daze by his last words.
"Wildlife?" she asked incredulously, briefly contemplating the possibility that the captain may have lost his mind out of nerves.
"Hippogriffs, nineteen sixty-eight World Cup, disaster," James explained, "Took them ages to re-grow the grass."
After that, Lily had no time to be scared skinless because Remus's voice had resounded all around the pitch, leaking into the small corridor where the Gryffindor team where gathered.
"Witches and wizards, boys and girls, creatures of any other category, welcome to Hogwarts' first Quidditch match of the season!"
The sheer volume of the cheer that followed this introduction was massive. The banners and cloths that adorned that stands rippled with the huge wave of sound that the crowd produced, and Lily was sure that absolutely everyone out there was screaming as loud as they possibly could.
"Hmm," Remus said into the microphone, the smile evident in his tone, "is the popularity waning?" Lily heard Sirius snort behind her, "No matter! For I shall introduce the Hufflepuffs! Playing today are Diggory, Myers, Hopkins, Sapper, Ferrous, Dregs and Hurst! Sapper's back on the pitch after his ban last year following some very risqué rumours about his dealings in the Ravenclaw showers."
You wouldn't think it to be an intimidating colour, but at that moment, Lily couldn't think of a more terrifying or vicious shade than canary yellow.
"And today their opponents will be the Gryffindors! A team made up of Potter, Black, Hooch, Tall, Barker, Kipping and Evans! The newest addition to the team being Evans who was discovered at the last minute by Potter after the mad scramble he had to endure at last year's try-outs."
Watching the teams line up opposite each other was so much more nerve-wracking when you were there, opposite the opponents, rather than watching from the stands. Mr Richards, the flying teacher, was refereeing, one real leg, and one wooden leg preparing to kick off from the grass.
Freezing glares were exchanged between the Gryffindor and Hufflepuff captains as they were required to shake hands. Lily saw that Diggory's knuckles emerged from the gesture decidedly whiter than before.
"Mount your brooms!" Mr Richards requested, and everybody on the pitch complied. Right then, Lily's brain was a complete blank, only filled with a strange buzzing sound, characteristic of a bad, low watt light bulb.
"There's the whistle!" declared Remus, after the said sound had propelled the crowd into another burst of cheering. "Hufflepuff in possession! Ferrous grabs the Quaffle and makes about twenty yards progress down the pitch, dodges a bludger, passes to Diggory, who skirts round Kipping and darts towards the Gryffindor goals. Diggory's career as a Hogwarts Hufflepuff Chaser is now in it's fifth year, and the role of captain has been his for two."
Just because Remus decided to give the first years some history while nothing drastically interesting was happening on the pitch, Diggory turned to smile at the crowd and took one hand off the Quaffle to wave. Not for the first time, James was thankful for the Hufflepuff Captain's big headedness, and took the opportunity to fly straight up to Diggory, flick the Quaffle out from under his arm and fly off in the opposite direction.
"The Quaffle is taken by Potter, putting Gryffindor in possession! Mind that Bludger!"
James ducked and heard a whistle pass speedily over his head. The Hufflepuff Chasers had ganged up on him while his head was down, quickly, he looked around while they closed in and passed to Verity, who'd sneaked up behind him.
"Potter passes to Hooch, who joined the team four years back and is currently flying on the fifth model in the Eagle series, after discarding her long loyal Silver Arrow, a model rumoured to be facing termination of production."
"Anyway, Hooch nears the Hufflepuff goals, shoots and scores! The first goal of the match goes to Gryffindor, making the score ten-nil."
The red and/or gold banners in the crowd shook with delight as the owners screamed as loud as they could.
"Crickey, don't spend it all at once," Remus told them, in a bit of a shocked voice, "it's not over yet, people."
The Quaffle was back up the end of the pitch near the Gryffindor goals, after the Hufflepuff Keeper had chucked it to one of the Chasers. Taught a lesson by his earlier lapse in concentration, Diggory held onto the Quaffle almost religiously, making it extremely hard for the Gryffindor Chasers to tackle him.
"Diggory guides the Quaffle into the Gryffindor scoring area, shoots . . . and brings the score up to ten all," Remus told the pitch. The yellow and black banners in the crowd waved with renewed vigour.
As soon as Hufflepuff scored, Ainsley passed to Simon who passed to James, who passed to Verity, who passed back to Simon, who passed back to James, who passed it on to Verity. This was one of the more uncommon tactics used by players. Simultaneously, every Hufflepuff Chaser rushed towards Simon, trying to be the one to intercept to Quaffle. The crowd wasn't really surprised when the Quaffle was passed to James instead, who subsequently had a clear shot at the Hufflepuff goals.
"Twenty-ten!" announced Remus into the microphone. "Gryffindor in the lead by one hoop; Hufflepuff will have to come up with something post haste if they want to even it out or tip the scale in their favour. Hopkins in possession . . . Whoa! Just missed a bludger, smacked his way by Barker. Hopkins drops the Quaffle straight into Potter's hands. It was too close the Hufflepuff goals for comfort, Gryffindor up thirty-ten."
Ten minutes later, the score was forty-twenty to the Gryffindors.
Lily was flying high above the game, not really doing anything other than being scared witless. She bit her lip, taking a bit of a break from looking for the Snitch by looking at James playing. James looked like he was comfortable on the pitch, James looked like he belonged on the pitch, James looked like he was born on the pitch for Merlin's sake! She must look like she would rather have just been sucked through the door of one of Gringotts' top security vaults, she imagined.
"Hooch makes her way back up the pitch from the Gryffindor goals, watch out for that bludger! Nope! Nicely saved by Black, smacking that Bludger straight towards . . ."
Breath hissed in through Lily's teeth as she watched the wheeling black ball zip off and hit Mr Richard's leg. For an instant it was not clear to the audience which leg it had hit, then it became apparent that it was the wooden one, because a loud crack was heard through the pitch and a large chunk of wood went spinning off over the stands in an explosion of splinters, leaving only a jagged stump hanging on one side of the flying teacher's broomstick.
"That was a 1936 Vintage Nimbus 100!" the lamed man bellowed at Sirius, his face growing steadily purpler by the second.
Sirius held up a palm in a mild apology.
"Sorry!" he hollered over the appreciative roar of the crowd.
It may just have seemed that way to James. But he got the distinct feeling that things weren't as willing to go the Gryffindors' way after Mr Richards had sent a startled first year to retrieve his leg from where it had landed of the fringes of the forbidden forest. There was a timeout while he established with Madam Pomfrey that she could not reaffix the baseball bat-like piece of wood.
"Bone, tissue, nerve and skin I can deal with, Mr Richards, this job requires a carpenter!" she dismissed irritably when he persisted in pleading with her.
Before the Gryffindors knew what was happening, it seemed, fouls were given to the Hufflepuffs for the most trivial things, (such as Simon waving to his girlfriend in the crowd or James being close enough to Lily to be able to tip the end of her broom down because she was about to be hit by a Bludger).
Soon, the score went from a comforting forty-twenty to a distressing ninety-fifty to the Hufflepuffs.
James was beginning to worry. This was a Quidditch player's worst nightmare. You could do nothing to combat a biased referee, and arguing would probably make it a lot worse. He hardly blamed Mr Richards for being slightly pissed off about losing a valuable classic broomstick, but who in their right mind would have their synthetic leg made out of such a valuable wood, then go flying around, refereeing Quidditch matches with it?
As he had been doing at intervals throughout the match, he cast an eye around for Lily, just to make sure she was all right.
Oh Merlin.
To make matters worse, it looked as if Lily had frozen stiff . . . either that or she just wasn't moving. James panicked, not being able to fathom what could be wrong. She was staring at a little point someplace in the distance and James quickly flew over to her.
"Lilo? Lil? Are you all right, what's wrong?"
"Sh!" she hissed angrily out of the side of her mouth. James followed her line of vision and saw she was looking avidly at the Hufflepuff Seeker.
"What in the name of Zonko's are you doing staring at Hurst?" asked James a little anxiously.
"Isn't he dreamy?" Lily hissed, a cruel smile tugging at the edge of he lips.
"What?" demanded James.
"I'm joking, you pillock! I'm not staring at him! I'm waiting!"
"What for?" asked James, baffled and a little relieved.
"I'm waiting for you to go and do your job and leave me to do mine!" Lily hissed furiously, still refusing to look at him. James was just about to take her advice, when he glanced back at the Hufflepuff Seeker, who had spotted Lily and her ardent attention, and was looking a little disturbed by it.
Hurst started to fly forward to escape Lily's piercing stare and that was when James saw it - the golden Snitch. It had been hovering just behind the Hufflepuff's head and as soon as Hurst had moved an eighth of an inch, Lily had shot forward at an alarming speed.
Consider, if you will, what it must be like to have a five foot three and a half redhead on a broomstick come speeding towards you at eighty miles an hour. It was hardly surprising that Hurst did twice that speed in the opposite direction. Or course, he was also doing twice that speed away from the Snitch.
Who do you think won the game?
"You know, mate?" Sirius slung an arm around James's shoulder and breathed something that smelled strongly of Ogden's in his ear. "You may be Head Boy, out of our dorm, all responsible and all that bollocks, but I believe this is the best party we have ever had within the walls of the Gryffindor common room."
James sniggered at the sight of his best friend, who was a little under the border of the term: 'completely plastered'.
"I think you're right, Padfoot," James agreed, noticing his friend had gone a bit purple in the face. "Here, are you all right? I think you need to sit down."
"Nah, I'm fine, what are you talking about?" Sirius asked incredulously, having the odd sensation that his feet were made out of Strawberry Jelly. "I don't need to sit . . ."James watched as his friend spotted a pretty sixth year girl sitting on the edge of her circle of friends with an empty arm chair beside her. Sirius paused. "Actually, to tell you the truth, I do feel a bit squiffy . . ."
Once he had deposited Sirius in the afore-mentioned armchair, James continued his former search for his star player. Casting around for the shock of dark red, he spotted Lily making her way towards the Portrait Hole.
"Oi! Lily! Lilo! Wait!"
She turned to see him battling his way through his fellow Gryffindors, all of whom seemed intent on either shaking his hand, patting him on the back or challenging him to a Butterbeer drinking contest. She opened the Portrait Hole and stepped out, and James was struck by how much of an improvement this was. Usually she'd be just starting to run.
Finally, he reached the Portrait Hole and scrambled through, (damn entrance was just too undignified for anybody over five foot eleven).
"Yes, what is it?" she asked, a strange, superior smile on her face.
"Er . . . I just wanted to say . . . well done," James said, following when she started down the corridor. "Where are you off to? There's a party just in the next room, if you hadn't noticed," he teased, grinning.
"I have to get up early tomorrow, early meeting with Madam Pince," she explained.
What an unnerving conversation, thought James, Lily was talking to him as though she were talking to Verity. A few moments later he decided it was very nice. She still had an odd, happy smile on her face.
"Well, I . . . I'm tired as well, so . . ." James began.
"Potter, it's half past nine, it's Sunday tomorrow, and there's a party just in the next room, if you hadn't noticed," Lily replied incredulously.
"Yes, but . . . well . . . I want to walk back with you," he admitted good-naturedly, "so you'll just have to put up with me for the next . . . ten minutes," he smiled, checking his watch.
Not many boys Lily knew would admit something like that. James seemed to be a lot more lenient with his dignity these days. Probably because you often have a go at shooting it to pieces, Lily told herself, smiling ruefully.
"Merlin, Lilo, when I say something like that, I hardly expect you to smile!" he laughed.
"You didn't think I could do it, did you?" she challenged smugly, stopping in the corridor they were currently walking down.
"Do what, Lil? Smile? Well, at one point during fifth year I really did wonder . . ."
"No, catch the Snitch, you twit!" she corrected, giving him a light smack on the arm. "You didn't think I could do it! That's why you got all worried the moment I looked as though I was about to loose it."
James stared at her for a moment. Lily stared straight back, smiling smugly. Then James made only a short 'tisk' noise and carried on down the corridor. Lily's smile vanished and she started after him, baffled at the sight of a smile now in place on the Head Boy's lips.
"Well?" she demanded.
"Not up to your usual logical standard, Lilo," James told her, sticking his hands in his pockets.
"Whot?" she said, very unladylike.
"If I didn't think you could do it, why would I put you on the team? Unlike Zabini so elegantly put it, it is not 'just because I want to get off with you', it's because you really can do it. And you proved it this very afternoon."
Lily gaped and didn't even notice when they arrived in front if the Heads' Dorms.
"After you," James said, after reeling off the password and opening the door. Lily wasn't showing any inclination to actually move, so James gently pushed her through the door, across the hall and positioned her in front of the door to her staircase.
"What I wanted to say back there was that you did a very good job," James told her earnestly. "I suppose it's hard to believe I think that, because I also give you daily proof that I like you very much indeed . . ." Lily stared at the wood of her door, trying to figure out what it was in his voice. "But I suppose you'll just have to trust me on that one," he said, maybe a little apologetically. "Good night, Lily," he said, and leaned down to peck her on the cheek.
Next second he had disappeared back through the entrance, and Lily, like a sleepwalker, had entered her own room with a jolt.
So it turned out that he didn't think her completely incompetent in the field of Quidditch after all. He obviously doesn't like you enough to endanger his Quidditch team, she thought decidedly (and completely wrongly, for reader purposes).
However, he had kissed her, she realised, and had the urge to curse him for touching her.
Oh well, she thought, un-strapping her arm pads, she'd do it tomorrow.
a/n Thank you to everyone who wished me luck for my exams! Apparently it worked because the Chemistry exam, the one I was dreading, wasn't actually that bad. Exams began yesterday and will finish a week on Tuesday. I thought I'd get this one update in that I was thinking about just before I went to Florida and typed up in record time. For this reason, it might be a bit crap.
Please review. It cheers me up and combats exam syndrome. Thank you.
Tsusetsu: Well, I dunno what else to say. Good luck with whatever you end up doing.
limbo-gal: Wow, thanks for you nice comments on the whole Lily/Amos thang. Yes, Lily was relatively cool about it, wasn't she? I wonder why that is? Heehee.
MissMrprk: Merci, ma cherie. (I don't even know whether that was right.)
Tracey: Flight was 9 hours there, and 7 back. Urrrrggggg. Life would be so much easier if I could sleep on planes. Nevermind. You were right. The weather was beautiful. Thank you for your nice comments about my stories. Yay! And yes, Lily is beginning to think about taking her heart out of the freezer.
helloshanti2: Heehee, you and me both, honey.
Flame Of Desire: James should have his own theme music when he goes to the rescue. Now, that would be cool.
shortywithbrains: What's so funny about the word 'hanky'? I got this all the time in Florida. People were always like: 'Oh, isn't her accent delightful?'. I thought the novelty would wear off, but it didn't. Grr. There was a tiny bit of hurricane damage in Disney, (I heard,) but they fixed it. Obviously, they knew I was coming. :D
FrighteninglyObsessed: I tried to give Sirius and Remus a bit more floor time, such as you suggested, but NO! I flatly refuse to put my pen (or keyboard) near the twisted inner workings of Diggory. That's where I draw the line, buddy. Ew. Thank you for you compliments, though. I luff you really.
SnakeEyesHannah: You are so very, very flattering, with such nice comments. I had that song in my head for a long time too. So I put it in the story to get rid of it. Worked a treat. :D Let's hope Lily does come around, otherwise all of James's efforts would be a bit of a waste, hm? I like that little exchange in the pub too. Heehee. Fear not. Tall will be appearing more in the fic, and so will his hair. Thanks again for the fabulous review.
Red-Emerald: ARRRGGG!! Damn typos! They're everywhere! They plague me! Thank you muchly for pointing it out. I can't believe it's been there for so long. Practice papers of any kind are brutal, just like the ones I will be taking for the next two weeks. (Sigh.) Score.
Shuichi66: Thank you much, luff.
Downstream Kat: No problem, I like drawing. Keep reading!
soccerchic1989: I was in Fort Lauderdale for a bit. Then I went to Oralndo. How did your exams go? I suspect it seems like a very long time ago now. Anyway, thank you very much for the review and I hope your holidays were happy.
ebony-plays-the-viola: Gosh, celebrate Christmas? What a bummer. :D Maybe Lily is out of character, but she can't be mean all the time, right? I love hearing nice stuff about me. It doesn't happen often enough, if you ask me. :D
kaiyana: fantastically IS a word! And your review was fantastically flattering and nice. Thank you very much.
Call-Sugarhigh-Police: NO, YOU CAN'T! YES, I CAN! NO, YOU CAN'T! YES, I CAN! NO, YOU CAN'T! YES, I CAN. YES, I CAN. YES, I CAN!!! (cough) Sorry.
mika-mitch: Sure, laugh at James. Be my guest, he doesn't seem to mind it so much any more. Yes, about the whole pranking thang. The school would know that she and Amos broke up because stuff gets around at Hogwarts. Lily was over reacting because she's not really mad at James, she's mad at Amos, but can't seem to get it all sorted out in her head. Poor dear.
LJstagflower4e: Wow, nice character commentary. Respect.
kat-firefly: Thank you, luff.
milky way bar: Thank you, I'll need the luck. (Mwah)
geckaclark: Yeah, Amos deserved it. (Blows raspberry)
charbar: Heya. Good holidays? I hope you're not revising. I haven't been.
foxyie xox: But it was crying in a good way! And he didn't mean to! And he gave her his hanky!
Anne-Janet: Ah, Christmas music. Hoorah. I want it to be Christmas all over again.
She-Who-Snogs-Weasly-Boys: You have the coolest name ever.
The ORIGINAL Meathead: Yes . . . Rita Skeeter is MAD. Be afraid, be very afraid. :D
She Devil: I really hope she kicks Rita's hiney too. Go, Lily!
vickiicky: If your family look at you weird, I think that's pretty normal. It's if they look at you like you're normal, that's when you should worry.
Laney-Wood: Urg, no, thank you, one sibling is quite enough. Although yours sound cute. Thank you very much for the review!
warrior of tortall: Thanks, luff.
Victoria87: Wow, you've pointed out so many things that I was doing, but that I didn't even notice that I was doing, if that makes sense. You're so completely right. Go you! I love your war cry. (Sniff.) All the house-spirited little Quidditch fans make me so proud. As for your story: why don't you try writing a one shot? That often gets me going again.
Telwyn Dubois: At least wait until the story is over before you kill off my characters! . . . Oh, to hell with it. (Joins in bashing Rita's head). I'm stupid, please tell me what RS is. You probably don't mean religious studies.
Lyss: Lol, thank you so much. Keep reading!
breziebear; Haha! Don't worry, if they had kissed, I would have definitely told you. Wanna hear a secret? Well, let's just say their first kiss won't be what you expect at all. (Sniggers to herself).
Lastly:
h t t p : w w w . o w h . n e t / (delete spaces)
Just click one of the buttons, there's a good chap.
Next Chappy:
I know Christmas is officially over, but not in MY story! Hell, in fandom, it's Christmas every day!
James gets out his binoculars and does some stalking. Lily gets out her minions and does some avoiding.
The lake is frozen. What do we do? Push people on it, of course!
