Lily walked away from the lake crying with more tears than she knew she had. She cried because she had finally said no. No means no. No going back, no do-overs, no more wondering, no more dreaming. There was no chance now that James would ever forgive her for saying no if Lily changed her mind to yes. Lily wasn't ready for a yes now, but who knows for next month, or the month after that? How was Lily to know?
Was Lily supposed to say yes and immediately go out with James? Would she go out with him and hope and pray that she had the same feeling for him as he did for her? Would she kiss him and hope that a spark would come? If it didn't? How could Lily stay with him then? How could she break up with him? If she had said yes, she might have been trapped in a relationship.
Now she could be trapped because she said no. What if she did start having feeling for James? Would she dream of him at night and have to ignore him during the day? If he still felt the same way, and she did, why should they be separate? Why should she choose now forever? Why wasn't he allowing any flexibility in their relationship? Why did he need an answer for everything?
No, I don't understand why, but at least I know that I do like you. James said he liked me. He likes me now in the present and I just said no. I don't get to go back and say, "I love you, you idiot!" like she had the sudden urge to do. She suddenly wanted to run up to him and say, "Yes! Yes, dear god James, yes! My answer now and will always be yes!"Then Lily thought of how cold James would be to her. She would be standing there with her arms around him. He would push her off into the mud and walk away saying, "You already said no, Lily. Deal with it." Lily would sit in the mud crying her eyes out again. James always seemed to make her cry.
Then again, James could wrap his arms around her and say, "I knew it! I knew you loved me because I loved you so much. I knew nothing could keep us apart." They would walk into the common room together to great cheer and life would be wonderful from then on. No more tears, unless they are tears of joy and laughter.
Lily continued walking. She went into the silent common room alone. She went up to her room where Norma was lying on her bed with a magazine. "Where have you been, Miss Naughty Prefect?" Norma asked.
"Just down by the lake," Lily replied. "I wasn't doing anything you would do."
"Used to do," Norma said. "I'm going clean, or at least, cleaner."
"That's great, Norma! I am so proud of you," Lily said, going over to give Norma a hug, but Norma stopped her.
"Okay, don't get all motherly on me," Norma said. Suddenly there were three knocks on the door. "That's Sara. She can come in, but I will not talk or make eye contact to her, got it?" Three knocks was the code Sara and I came up with so I could still see her without Norma getting upset.
"Thank you," I said and opened the door.
"I already heard the conditions, and I'll abide to them," Sara said. "So, Lily, uh…how are thing with...uh...James?"
"What's the gossip this time?" Lily asked.
"Oh, Lily, it's horrible! They're all saying James told you to say yes or no forever! Could you even imagine James doing that? Then, they say that you said no! No forever? I know you better than any of those fools, you would have said yes. Here's the worst part: they say they heard straight from James. They usually claim they heard it from you, but they actually feel confident enough to say James would have told them. Can you believe it, Lily? I mean, can you believe that?" Sara babbled on. She saw Lily's look of shock on her face. "Lily, that didn't happen, did it?"
"I can't believe he told them." Lily said and stormed off to James's room. "James! JAMES! James Potter, get out here right now!"
After some mumbling from inside the room, Sirius yelled out, "Uh, James isn't here right now, err, come back later?"
"Then you get out here Sirius Black!" Lily said. "Or you, Remus Lupin, or you Peter Pettigrew!"
"I'm afraid we can't do that, Lily," Remus said back.
"And why not?" Lily asked.
"Because Sirius and Remus are telling James what an idiot he is for letting you go…ow! What? You are!" Peter said, obviously being hit be the other Marauders for letting Lily know what they were doing and that James was there.
"Fine, if you are all too cowardly to talk to me face-to-face, I'll yell through the door," Lily said.
"Lily, I don't think this is such a good idea," a little 2nd year said.
"Shut up, she needs to stand up for herself," Norma said.
"Yeah, this is a good thing," Sara said. "Go on, Lily."
"Did we just agree on something?" Norma asked.
"Yeah, but haven't we always agreed James was too good for Lily?" Sara said.
"On some level, yeah, I suppose," Norma said.
"Excuse me, but may I continue?" Lily said aggravated.
"Lily…come on in," James's voice said. Lily looke4d surprised and looked at Sara and Norma for help.
"What are you looking at us for?" Norma said. "Get in there and kick his ass."
"What?" Lily said.
"Well, I don't know what happened, but I'm sure he needs a good ass-kicking," Norma said with her sexy little half-smile on her face.
"I'll catch her up, Lily, go on in," Sara said. Lily took a deep breath and walked into the room. She walked in and she saw Sirius, Peter and Remus, but no James.
"Look up," Sirius said. Lily looked up and saw James was magically hanging upside down.
"Hi Lily, you wanted to talk?" James said.
"Yeah," Lily said as she felt all her anger flow back to her. "Why did you tell everyone what happened outside? They are telling everybody the juicy new gossip that is actually true, but the worst part if you told them! People will know it's true when they say they heard it straight from the infamous James Potter! Why do you want everyone to know?"
"That way the thousands of guys who like you will hear more quickly and ask you out. You'll go out and have a new wonderful boyfriend and it will be easier for me to get over loving you," James said as Sirius let him down from his hanging.
"I don't want you to get over me," Lily said, finally admitting to herself and James that she did have feelings for him.
"You said no," James said sternly.
"I was mad," Lily said. "You were rushing me and I didn't know what to say. You got me so aggravated I said no without thinking. Please let me say yes."
"You said no," James said after a moment.
"But I want yes now and forever," Lily said. "I love you, you idiot!"
"One condition," James said. "Never scare me like this again. If you mean yes, then keep it yes."s
"Yes, James, yes," Lily said. James smiled and Lily ran towards him and gave him the biggest kiss in the world.
"So do I let in the rest of the Gryffindor House or not?" Sirius asked. Lily and James smiled and nodded. It seemed like trillions of people tried to cram into the tiny room until Remus put a levitation spell on Lily and James and floated them to the common room where the crowd followed. Sirius sneaked in some food and it was a grand party. Even Sara and Norma, after everything that had happened, were caught laughing and talking to each other throughout the evening. Lily's world was perfect again.
(Thanks for the reviews, even though I took sooooooo long with this chapter! Will Lily's perfect world stick? Please Review and I'll update sooner than this time!)
