Siriusprotégé

A fine line between love and hate

Disclaimer: Every thing you read here belongs to the wonderful J K Rowling and not me! Everything you don't recognize as J K Rowling's' is mine! Thanks to the over-active imagination of a 15 year old girl.

Summary: Un-like many girls in her year Lily Evans did not fall for the good looks or charm of James Potter. However James did fall for the fiery red head. What's a guy to do?

Every star is a gateway to Heaven, which is why the living can't reach them… yet

Chapter 3

It had been a grand total of three weeks and James, Sirius, Remus and Peter still had no idea who had pulled that prank. Good as it may have been the Marauder's wanted revenge, and they wanted it soon.

They had immediately thought the Slytherins were the culprit but after a few subtle inquiries – mainly involving dangling Snape over the Great Lake until he told them – they had decided that for once the Slytherins weren't involved.

The 20th day after the prank James was staring morbidly out into space during History of Magic, thinking, as was becoming usual for him, about who could have pulled a prank on them. He had ruled out every one under fifth year because they wouldn't have known the spells necessary to pull it off. He had also ruled out the Slytherins and the Ravenclaw seventh years. He was very tempted to just rule out all of the Hufflepuffs on the grounds that they were too nice to do such a thing, however Sirius' last girlfriend was a Hufflepuff and James knew better than most that 'hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.'

Trying a different train of thought, rather than remembering the purple faced ex, James continued his process of elimination. 'Who was clever enough with an imagination to pull that prank? Who knew the Gryffindor password?'

Suddenly a piece of parchment hit him on the head, right between the eyes. Snapping him out of his trance and rubbing his forehead he smoothed out the parchment.

James

I know I'm good looking but I'd appreciate your affections more if you were a girl, I hear that Danny Hicks in Hufflepuff would like that sort of thing more. More simply – STOP STARING AT ME LIKE MOST PEOPLE STARE AT MY SISTER!

Sincerely

Tom Eliot

James scowled briefly before he suddenly had a startling epiphany.

"God, my subconscious mind is so clever" he grinned, unconsciously making Tom distinctly nervous. However, there was a slight flaw in his seemingly flawless decision that Tom was the culprit - his Ravenclaw group might have a bit of a reputation as pranksters, and they certainly had the brains - yet, they only pranked people for revenge. The perfect suspect had no motive.

"Come on James. Think" James muttered to himself, Tom began to worry about the Gryffindor's sanity "I'm thinking…I'm thinking…I'm thinking"

"It's time for lunch", a voice that sounded suspiciously like Sirius said joyfully in his ear, rolling his eyes he got up.

"Guys, I know who pulled the prank!" he said quietly to the other three as they left the stifling class-room.

"Who?" Sirius yelled excitedly, before looking sheepish as the other three shushed him. "Sorry," he muttered, "who?"

"Only there is a little problem…" James continued, obviously deciding to ignore his best friend

"Who?" Remus, Peter and Sirius spoke in unison, each getting a little impatient,

"I tried to figure it out but my mind went dead…" James persisted

"For Gods sake James spit it out!" Sirius shouted finally losing his temper. Not that it had taken long,

James grinned at his friend "Well…Tom Eliot"

"Of course!" Sirius muttered, mostly to himself, "They could have got the password from Eliot…ugh…Cat."

"True but James, you said…" Remus began

"How can I have been so blind? It all fits, stupid Sirius!"

"…that there was a problem?" he frowned

"Stupid, stupid, stupid Sirius," Sirius started to bang his head on the wall. The other three ignored him, being far to used to his melodramatic tendencies.

"I can't find a motive" James sighed in exasperation, while Sirius continued banging his head against a wall, "Tom and his friends only play pranks for revenge and Bang we haven't done anything Bang to them recently. I mean not Bang since we declared a truce after the war last term.Bang"

"We did do something to Evans though." Peter mused, "She's basically considered part of the Eliot family, it would make sense,"

"Sirius mate don't Bang do that you'll Bang kill all your brain cells," James muttered in Sirius general direction, as the pieces which had been bothering him started to fit together,

"I have brain cells to spare!" Sirius declared defiantly,

"You're missing lunch" Remus wheedled. Instantly Sirius paused his head mere millimetres from the wall and rushed off towards the Great Hall. James, Remus and Peter followed at a more sedate pace, not because they didn't want lunch, but because they wanted to act superior and follow him shaking their heads.

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"So," Sirius mumbled through a mouthful of potatoes when the others finally entered the Great Hall, much to their irritation he hadn't even noticed they were missing and had been happily chatting to the empty seats around him as if they were there, "what are we going to do about Eliot?"

"Let's not rush into anything. We don't know for certain that it is Eliot," Peter said rationally,

"He does have a point," Remus mused, "Tom usually only helps Cat get revenge if she asks for it."

"Right so we have two plans of action. One: We get him to confess that he pulled the prank and that his sister and her friends asked him to or Two, my personal preference: We just assume he did it and re-declare war?" James smirked

"I think we should go with the former, no reason to start a prank war again, we almost lost last time, so you know what that would do to our reputation?" Remus muttered.

"I agree with Remus, we should see if Eliot pulled the prank before doing anything." Peter mumbled through his half finished mouthful.

"I agree." James looked at his Sirius in obvious shock, he was never one to turn down an opportunity for a good prank, "What?" Sirius cried defensively, "I'm all out of dung bombs." James shook his head,

"Right. So we corner him after classes, and somehow get him to admit that he was the instigator of a prank, which he pulled in retaliation for our minor prank on Evans. Now that's sorted…what lesson have we got next?"

"Double Division" Remus groaned.

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"Why?" James asked for what seemed to be the hundredth time, "Why did we have to pull that ridiculous water prank on Professor Davis?"

"We wouldn't if we'd known she would assign us new partners," Sirius groaned.

"It's not that bad a punishment Padfoot, you could have been given a months worth of detentions." Remus grinned,

"Not that bad? Not that bad?" Sirius spluttered.

"Moony, you're partners with Wormtail, you're fine. I'm partners with Lucy Everett; I'd take the detention any day. If I have to hear one more thing about dress robes I'm going to curse my own ears off."

"Well I would prefer Everett to Eliot any day of the week…"

"You're just saying that because you're terrified of her!" Peter laughed

"How would you like it if every week some vicious girl predicted you gloomy and gory death?" Sirius accused, his friends just laughed – they found Sirius' fear of Cat highly amusing.

"She is not normal, I swear her eyes change and she kind of hisses at you! STOP LAUGHING!"

"Whose eye's change?" the four boys whirled around to see Cat and Lucy waiting for them.

"O… er… James's." Sirius said brightly and he threw a pleading look at James as Cat narrowed her eyes at him.

"Oh...um…yeah" said James, "It's an old family trait, eyes change shape when we…um…eat vanilla ice-cream." Cat appeared to be holding back a smirk, and the other three Marauders' shook their heads in disbelief. Quickly Sirius decided to change the subject

"So Eliot figured out how I'm going to die today?"

"I just say what I see," Cat replied smiling innocently, Sirius made a face.

"Right now class, take a deep breath and open your inner eye…" Professor Davies started the class in her usual monotone voice. "Apparently any enthusiasm in your voice would make pupils actually enjoy your class." James thought "And that would be a travesty."

"Right," Cat started, "Well I see, a baby… a short man… an explosion… bars and … the sea?" Cat looked puzzled. Oh I get it! It all makes sense now!" Cat assured him, for some reason Sirius did not look reassured,

"I really would prefer not to know." Sirius started but Cat didn't appear to be listening,

"You see, you get this girl pregnant. Obviously her husband, that was the short man by the way, isn't too amused. So he blows you up and then…" She paused dramatically, and Sirius tried to remember the spell to curse your ears off "He gets sent to Azkaban for murder."

"I definitely would have preferred not to know…"

"Now there is Katie from Ravenclaw - she's blonde, there are a couple of Slytherins who are too, although that maybe bottle…"

"O shut up and give me your hand!" Sirius snapped. Grinning Cat held out her palm up for inspection, "I see" Suddenly Sirius' entire demeanour changed, rather than trying to come up with the most horrific and painful death he could think of, a series of images streamed through his mind. There was a hallway, apparently somewhere in the castle and a huge fight was taking place, he saw a large cat in the middle of the room, wild with anger. People were screaming and running away from it.

"What?" Cat snapped. Sirius snapped back to reality,

"What? Oh, um, sorry. Must have dozed off, there's going to be a huge fight, there was a cat – really huge and wild – it was attacking people. So, did you really see me being blown to pieces?" Cat just grinned mysteriously, although it was slightly smaller than her usual toothy smirk. Looking around the room to avoid the awkward silence which had appeared between them she suddenly laughed and pointed to the other side of the room.

"Look at James!" turning around Sirius saw that Lucy seemed to have bored James to sleep, his head resting on Lily Evan's shoulder. She did not look happy about her temporary job as a pillow and was trying to get James to wake up with a series of rather vicious pokes. Lucy didn't appear to notice that she had lost her audience.

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That afternoon Sirius's stomach gave off a loud grumble as they searched the school for Tom Eliot, "Guys can't we take a detour to the kitchen? I'm starving"

"For the thousandth time, NO! Not until we find Eliot!" James replied in exasperation

"Don't worry Padfoot it won't be much longer." Peter supplied helpfully.

"How the hell do you know?" Sirius snapped, rubbing his stomach hungrily,

"Because he's right there," Peter replied nodding towards a corridor where a boy with black hair and amber eyes was slipping a long arm around his latest girlfriend.

"Tom," Sirius called out pleasantly, "Can we have a word? In private?" he added when he saw the girlfriend.

"Sure," Tom replied cautiously. He apologised to his girlfriend before allowing Sirius to drag him off into an empty hall way, were the Marauders circled him and glared menacingly. Tom didn't look that intimidated, though he did look at James a little oddly.

"Can we ask you a question?" Remus began politely before Peter butted in,

"Did you pull that prank on us?" James looked quizzically at his friends as Tom started laughing.

"You think I pulled that prank? I'm honoured guys, seriously, but I'm sort of missing a motive. Can't you think of anyone else who would want to humiliate you?" Tom started to walk off a huge grin still on his face. Sirius grabbed Tom by the front of his robes and shoved him hard against the wall, "Look Eliot I have no time for your games. I'm extremely hungry and if you don't answer the question you are going to be my next meal!"

Sighing slightly Tom looked at his robe "Black, let me down this is a new robe." Sirius seemed to disregard the comment and Tom's eyes flashed, and Sirius could have sworn that they changed shape, "Fine. Like I already said, I'm extremely flattered that you think my lot pulled that prank but we had no reason."

"But we played a prank on Evans… " James started.

"Lily's a big girl she can take care of herself. She doesn't need me to get revenge for her. I think she's proven that enough times don't you?" Tom smirked at the Marauders.

"What are you doing?" a voice that sounded very much like Cat's echoed down the hallway towards them, turning around they saw Cat and Johnny Eliot watching them. An expression of amusement was on Johnny's face and the corners of Cat's mocking mouth were twitching.

The Marauders stood there with their mouths open; finally Remus got his voice back, "What are you two doing here?"

"Well we were waiting for Tom so we could set up the Race for tonight. We figured he was held up and so we came looking for him." Cat replied calmly

"Race? What race?" Sirius asked

"The Hogwarts race?" still seeing their blank expressions Cat elaborated, "The one my brother started, which the teachers still don't know about and breaks 89 school rules?" understanding began to dawn on the Marauders' faces.

"Oh, that race." James grinned, "That's tonight?"

"No, we just thought we would randomly set up the race 6 months in advance." Johnny muttered sarcastically.

"I'm going to beat your brother this time," James said nodding at them arrogantly

"Which one? If I remembered correctly you haven't beaten any of them, or me for that fact." Cat smirked every bit as conceitedly, "Anyway Black would you mind letting go of my brother before you strangle him to death?"

The three Eliot's walked off together murmuring together before they all burst out laughing, "That's odd" Peter commented.

"Yeh, now can we please go to the kitchens?" Sirius asked. Laughing the Marauders headed off to the kitchens discussing animatedly their tactics for the race.

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Lily looked up from her book as Cat came stumbling into the Gryffindor common room about two hours later.

"What's up with you?" she asked, grinning at Cat's maniacal laughter.

"It's just something that happened before: Johnny and I were waiting for Tom outside Gryffindor common room about ten minutes after class, because we needed to talk to George by floo, to make sure everything was right."

Lily nodded after all they did the same thing every year. George, being the creator of the race, always felt the need to take an active part in the now annual event.

"Anyway after a while I heard something very interesting and Tom still hadn't appeared so we went to find him, only to discover him pinned against the wall by the Marauders!" Cat had to stop as she burst into hysterics.

Lily chuckled silently. Even if she could have, Lily would never have done anything which could potentially anger an Eliot. She and Jo had discovered the family secret by accident in their first year. Cat's brother Charlie, who was then Head boy, had sworn them to secrecy, not that it had been necessary – Lily was about as likely to tell on her friend as she was to jump out of the Astronomy tower.

"Do you want to know why Black had pinned him against the wall?" Lily nodded "Because they thought that he had pulled the prank on them." She giggled uncontrollably,

Lily found the whole situation hilarious "The race set up?" Lily asked eventually,

"Yeh. To perfection. George would be proud!"

"I'm sure. So are all the Eliot's racing today? You lot cheat so much you don't give anyone else a chance."

"We do not cheat!" Lily threw a look at her, "Fine, we do not cheat more than anyone else would cheat if they could."

"Sure you don't." Lily said sceptically,

"Anyway, no, I'm not racing. A new rule has been added to say only one Eliot can participate per race. Apparently it's not fair for all of us to race at once. Tom was not amused."

"Is Potter still trying to beat George's time?" Jo asked, joining the conversation as she sat down opposite them

"Yes! Stupid prat. George timed that so carefully. He wanted to finish on a time that would seem humanly possible but as the same time couldn't be beaten. That reminds me; have to go clean up the school for snitches." She headed off quickly,

"People who will tell teachers what's going on." Lily explained patiently in response to Jo's confused glance. "Apparently that's the last two rules which the race breaks: locking people who will tell in a cupboard and giving them a sleeping potion."

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At exactly 1 o'clock in the morning of October 31st everyone who was anyone at Hogwarts, and even many people who were no ones, were waiting at the top of the stairs in the main hall, ready to cheer on their house team.

The teams were as large as the houses wanted seeing as it was the fastest individual time which actually counted. However, there was a minimum of four runners per team and they were normally members of the Quidditch team.

The teams started at the top of the Entrance Hall's staircase and went all around the castle where the runners had to run through jinxed corridors and down trick staircases before arriving back at the bottom of the stairs as quickly as possible.

Cat was grinning like a maniac even though she couldn't take part. Lily and Jo were either side of her. All three were completely kitted out in Gryffindor colours – even if the team consisted of Potter, Black, Johnny Eliot and Will Harper (another seventh year).

The Race started with the Slytherins; in the end they got an impressive time, unfortunately for them it was far off from the current record set by Gryffindor, 2 minutes 30 seconds. However, they still did far better than Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw. Even though Hufflepuff actually came second last year, this year their star runner, an Amos Diggory, was injured in the Hospital Wing. Finally it was Gryffindor's turn. Both James and Johnny beat the fastest times set by the Slytherins however much to James' irritation Johnny won, barely missing his brother's best time by 5 seconds. Several people in the crowd commentated that it wasn't really fair that the Eliot's got to take part as they set the race up yet it was the cry of a tall Slytherin girl who caught Lily's attention,

"Notice that no Mudbloods participated in the race?" The girl said haughtily from next to her Boyfriend, smirking at Lily, "And they try to tell us that mudbloods are just as good as the purebloods." Although used to the insults Lily still found herself retorting

"Black, any muggleborn could beat your pureblood arse any day."

"You wouldn't be able to beat a pureblood if your life depended on it."

"I could beat you any day I chose, Black. I'd even prove it."

"You mean you'd race me" Bellatrix scoffed.

"That is what I said, are you stupid as well as slow?"

"Prepare to lose MUDBLOOD." Bellatrix shrieked, her eyes flashing.

A loud growl suddenly came from behind them, Lily whirled round, eyes wide, to see Sirius Black and James Potter. Both boys were glaring at Bellatrix, both absolutely furious.

"What?" Sirius snapped at Lily

"I'm going to beat your dear cousin into the ground, Black." Lily replied smoothly, trying to push away any doubts about this idea.

"She is not my cousin." Sirius barked, just as Bellatrix shouted, "He is not my cousin."

Cat quickly grabbed Lily by the arm in order to avoid the war of words about to break about between Bellatrix and Sirius. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes. Anyway, it's only a race."

"Lily this is the race!" Cat looked at her fiery friend before taking a deep breath, "Ok, now if we're going to win this thing you need to listen to me.

Cat began to whisper hurriedly in her ear, and Lily felt her eyes widen and her eyebrows rise up her forehead. "Cat!" she hissed "I can't do that, it's cheating."

"Black knows most of them too, don't she will be using every trick in the book." Lily turned around and saw Bellatrix having the same kind of talk with her boyfriend.

Cat clapped her on the back and Jo shrieked in her ear, enveloping her in a hug

"Go on Lils!"

A thousand snitches seemed to be flying around in Lily's stomach, as she squared up on the starting line she shut her eyes quickly and breathed in deeply, trying to push away the nerves and the voice screaming for her to forfeit, that this was stupid.

Remus Lupin stepped forward; he winked at Lily and raised his arms in the air, signalling for quiet, "On your marks. Get set…"Bellatrix started running.

"Bugger" Lily thought as she began to run after the taller girl as fast as she could, ignoring the shrieks and cries of outrage and approval from the crowd.

Soon Lily was just about caught up with Bellatrix, and as they turned a corner Bellatrix cried out in anger as her foot sunk into a white tile and she was stuck. Lily heard Cat's advice in her head "Remember to run diagonally and only across the black tiles…"

Taking advantage of the situation and Lily sprinted across the room, turning the corner just as Bellatrix was released. She ran as fast as she could to the second corridor, here the tiles turned to water if you stepped on them, Lily looked for the tile Cat had spoken about "Jump on the middle tile in the first mosaic, it will carry you across…" Cat's words echoed in her head as she ran and landed on the middle tile.

It whizzed away with her, as if it was one of the carts at Gringotts, she had just enough time to see an infuriated Bellatrix before she came across the stair case, she heard the sound of the whizzing tile, hoping Cat was right she took a deep breath and…

Jumped over the side of the railing sure enough, the stair case below moved to catch her. The stairs had disappeared and she slid along to the bottom of the staircase. She looked back up and saw Bellatrix jump onto the stairs and slide down beside her, Lily took off for the last corridor.

When she got there she stopped repulsed by the sight of the snakes in the pit below.

Bellatrix had caught up with her as she paused. The black haired witch ran towards her, seemingly intent on pushing her into the snake pit, Lily gulped in fear and jumped sideways. Bellatrix smirked at her and jumped right into the pit.

Lily gawped as the snakes began to slowly part and suddenly she realised this must be the other passage way through this corridor, "In the last corridor there's two routes. Remember run across the walls, you won't fall, it's quicker than the other way…" Lily realised that Bellatrix must not know about the walls, praying that it would work Lily started to crawl against the wall. Thanking whoever was listening that it held her, she stumbled to her feet. Shaking her head she ran as fast as she could, and reached what seemed to be a deserted entrance hall, Looking around she couldn't see Bellatrix or anyone else for that matter. She caught a flash of someone hair, and ran over, but before she reached them she heard a voice she disliked more than anyone else's,

"Everyone's up stairs," Turning round slowly she saw non other than James Potter, lounging in the corridor she had just come from. She stared at him, half caught between fury and shock before he spoke again, "Of course if you jump over the railing it's a lot faster to finish the race."

She turned to run up the stairs but suddenly had the feeling that Cat had told her not to, but she couldn't remember the advice. It was gone.

It went against every fibre of her being to listen to James Potter, "but" she reasoned, "he wouldn't want Gryffindor to lose, not when he'd seemed so angry before." Holding her breath, and ignoring Potter's eyes willing her over the edge, she jumped.

She landed on something soft and saw that she was crouching in the entrance hall. She ran up the last flight of stairs, seeing the finish line. She saw everyone, but they weren't moving or cheering just standing as still as statues, she ran to the top and looked around in shock…

There was a pop and Lily saw Bellatrix land in the entrance hall, "You need to press the Hogwarts coat of arms…" Cat's voice rang in her head. Turning round she ran towards the coat of arms on the wall, thankful that she could remember the advice again; she could hear Bellatrix following her.

Lily slammed her hand on top of the crest and was suddenly drowned in screams and cheers. She could hear Bellatrix standing behind her, obviously infuriated, she hissed "this isn't over mudblood." Lily ignored her.

Looking around in a daze Lily was only slightly conscious of the fact that Cat and Jo had their arms around her shoulders and were screaming loudly in her ear. All Lily was completely aware of was that she had won. Smiling at her friends she allowed herself to be guided to the Gryffindor tower.

By chance, she caught sight of Potter, their eyes locked and he gave her a small smile, and winked before walking up the boys' stair case. Lily shook her head in confusion, remembering how he had appeared at the bottom of the stairs in the last corridor.

Dragging Cat up to the girls' dormitory Lily asked quietly "Cat why do you see the person you see, in the last corridor before jumping over the second staircase?"

Cat made a face, "I'm not entirely sure. George said you usually see someone you think about a lot or who you have a bond with, I always see my brothers. I suppose it could just be someone you think will help you in such a situation. Who did you see?" She asked curiously,

Lily didn't answer her, she was thinking about what she had just found out. Potter tortured her regularly so he was usually on her mind yet for some reason she didn't think that was why he'd appeared, before he had come into view she was sure someone else had been standing there.

"Lily!" Cat called again, "Who did you see?"

"Potter." She replied absently.

A/N Hey ok I don't really like this chapter. I tried my hardest but I don't think it came across very well so I would really appreciate your views on the race. I might redo it if I have time but I'm really busy at the moment because I have my GCSE's coming up really soon so it might take me even longer to up-date than I did last time! However don't worry I promise I will get better at this up-dating business for both my stories.

Thanks to everyone who reviewed my second chapter. I LOVE YOU ALL! Especially Ivyclimbing, because I feel like a real shit asking you to read it and you didn't have to but you did and you reviewed so thank you!

O and I hope you will read my beta Tweeny-weeny's story fatal incompatibility it's under my favourites if you can't find it. And it is way better than mine so you should. Also you might like my other story Oblivious. It's very AU so you might not but read it anyway.

Thanks a lot. Love you guys

SiriusProtégé