Tim Knispel: Just out of curiosity, isn't the definition of a cliff-hanger
something that makes you want to read more of the story, regardless if you
know what's going to happen or not? (And lol – I got the whole Bibbity,
Bobbity, Boo thing from DragonballZ I LOVE IT! – I spell "Buu" differently
than they do, though)
My "New Best Friends": mandy2cool, anniePADFOOT, and Romulan Empress . . . thanks guys! Your reviews made me laugh!
anniePADFOOT: nope, this fic isn't co-written, but you've definitely seen it before, because I used to have it under a different penname. Did you read it before, then?
Rena the Great: I MADE YOUR FAVORITES LIST??? faints from the shock thinking, "Quick! Someone use Ennervate on me so I can thank this lovely person!"
Disclaimer: I've gotten the last three chapters of titles from DragonballZ, so really, I should be saying that I don't own that either, along with Harry Potter.
Chapter Seven – Boo
Lily obediently turned around. And counted to ten. There was no noise behind her. 'He wouldn't leave me here, would he?' she thought. She had just finished counting, and was debating whether to turn around or not when she felt a nudge in her back.
She spun around. And gasped . . .
---
James was . . . well, he was . . . beautiful. There was simply no other word for it. He was beautiful. Lily stood a step back in awe. He certainly was big, but he was stunning. Gorgeous, even.
"You – you're – " She stopped, not knowing what to say. She couldn't very well tell him he was beautiful. After all, he did still have a human mind. Didn't he?
He was pawing at the ground, but still watching her intently. Lily walked up to him hesitantly. Would he run if she - ? She shook her head. This was James, right?
She lifted a hand up to him, and he walked towards her slowly. He appeared to be sniffing her. She stifled a giggle. James was sniffing her. She looked into his eyes. A normal stag's eyes would be brown, or some color like that . . . but James's were hazel, and so was the stag's.
"Well, you're definitely him," she muttered.
James snorted, as if to say, "Well, duh!"
Lily grinned. "You've even got his cocky personality."
The stag stared at her. "I'm serious!" Lily said. "Look at you. Strutting around like you're the king of the forest. Who would have thought you'd be a stag?"
James tossed his head. Lily laughed. "I still say you'd be better suited as a skunk." She touched him on the head, and James jumped at the sudden contact. Then, he was perfectly still.
"It's really neat, though," Lily whispered, patting him gently.
---
James shivered at her touch, although he was faintly annoyed. She could stand to touch him when he was a stag, but not when he was human? How messed up was that?
'Wait!' he thought. 'Where did that come from? I don't WANT Evans touching me. Do I?' He turned his head to look directly into her eyes. She was still petting him on his back absentmindedly.
What if she really WAS touching him like this – tenderly – as a human? He felt himself get hot at the thoughts. Merlin! He was getting aroused! As a stag! He felt momentarily sick. Then, without warning, he nudged her in the shoulder with his head, and stepped away.
"Ow!" Lily said, rubbing her shoulder. "What did you do that for?"
James hastily turned back into a human. "I'm sorry," he croaked, his voice not being quite normal yet. He waited a few seconds. "Sorry," he tried again.
She looked at him curiously. "What? Is it time to go?"
"Yeah," James replied, carefully not looking at her. "I think we should head back. Don't you?" Without another word, he headed out of the forest, leaving an intensely curious Lily to follow behind him.
---
"How did it go?" Remus asked, watching James's face. James scowled at him.
Sirius yawned, then grinned. "What happened?"
"Nothing," James snapped. "Nothing happened."
"Then, why are you so upset?" Peter asked.
James glared at all of them. "Because you're BOTHERING me!" He stormed out of the dorm and down the stairs, then sat pouting in front of the common room fire.
---
She was running through the Forbidden Forest. Something was chasing her, but she didn't know what it was. She was panting. It was gaining on her. It was gaining –
Out of nowhere, a stag jumped between her and that thing. She stared on in shock, as the stag fought it off, whatever it was. The stag defeated it.
Then it turned around to face her. Her heartbeat sped up. It's eyes were hazel. Just like his . . .
---
Lily woke up with a start, and looked around the room, her eyes finally settling on the alarm clock Pat had bought for their dorm. It was just barely four in the morning. Lily sighed. It had been a week since she went on that little nightly escapade with James, and she had been having nightmares like that ever since. Every time she would be in danger somewhere, then James-Stag would come up and rescue her.
Lily sighed. She had also been avoiding James ever since. She hadn't told Kathryn or Patricia about her little adventure, but she knew they suspected something was up. How could they not? She hadn't exactly been acting normal. In fact, she was pretty jittery. She had overheard Kathryn earlier in the week discussing how coffee overdoses could get to a person. Lily had just shaken her head and passed it off as an "American-transfer-student- thing."
Knowing she wasn't going to go back to sleep, she got up, showered and dressed. By the time she was finished, it was only four-thirty. She sighed, and grabbed a book, then went downstairs into the common room.
"Ooof!" Lily stopped. She had bumped into something, or someone. "Who's there?" she asked, wearily.
A second later, James and Sirius appeared. "Hi," Sirius said, grinning.
Lily sighed. "Sneaking out?"
Sirius frowned. "You gonna tell? Come on, we're hungry!" James was being strangely silent.
Lily started to say something, then shook her head. "Why bother?" she mumbled. "You're just going to do it again, aren't you?"
"Of course," Sirius replied. "Thanks, Evans!" She watched as they re- covered themselves, then continued to watch as the portrait door opened and closed, seemingly of its own accord.
She sighed again, and opened her book. She had read it before. It was about a princess who befriended a horse in an enchanted forest. Then, when the princess was in trouble one day, the horse saved her, and turned into a human. Lily slammed it shut after a few minutes. It sounded too familiar, somehow.
"You're up already?" a soft voice said from behind her.
Lily turned around to face Remus. She smiled. "Yes, I couldn't sleep. You?"
"The same," Remus admitted. He smiled back. "What's that you're reading?"
Lily sighed for the third time. "It's just a made-up story. It's about this horse and this girl who fall in love . . ." She grinned at the look on Remus's face.
"A horse?" he asked, looking faintly green. "With a human?"
"Well, the horse is really a human, too, but she doesn't find out until the end," Lily explained. "It's just a fairy-tale. It doesn't even really make any sense, you know? Animals don't fall in love with people."
A strange look flashed across Remus's face. "If you say so," he replied, looking slightly hurt.
Lily realized what she had just said, and she gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh, Remus! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that, I promise."
"I know you didn't," Remus said. "It's just . . . sometimes I think of myself as more a werewolf, than human."
"I don't think so," Lily said. "You're the most human out of all of us."
"How so?" he asked, one of his eyebrows lifting up slightly.
"You're the nicest," Lily remarked, grinning at him.
Remus smiled back. "Well, of course," he said smugly. "I have to be. Who else would keep Sirius and James in line?"
Lily laughed. "Yeah, I know. If anyone, they're the animals," she said.
He grinned. "Tell me about it." After the laughter died down, and Lily was trying to catch her breath, Remus said, "So, do you still think people and animals can't fall in love?"
"I guess they can," Lily muttered. "You know, you have a strange way of turning things around."
"It's a part of my charm," he said, standing up, and offering a hand to her.
She shook her head. "How so?" she asked, in confusion.
Remus grinned. "You know, the way I get people to change their minds without having to resort to an argument."
"I suppose," Lily said, thoughtfully. "It's a good idea."
"Yes, it is," Remus said. "Now, I don't suppose you know where Sirius and James went off to?"
Lily nodded. "They went to the kitchens. Said they were hungry."
"And you let them go? Just like that?" Remus asked, looking surprised.
He looked so shocked that Lily blushed a little. "Well . . ." she hedged.
Remus shook his head. "My dear Lily, I think you may be growing soft."
Lily turned even redder. "No," she insisted. "It's the fairy-tale. It's making me mushy."
"The fairy-tale is making you mushy?" Remus asked, rolling his eyes. "That's completely believable."
"You know, MOONY, you can be fairly annoying when you want to be," Lily scowled. "Does that come with your charm, too?"
"Yes," Remus said, after pretending to think for a bit. "It does."
They both laughed. Neither of them noticed the portrait hole open, or James and Sirius creep through in the invisibility cloak. And no one noticed that James's fists were clenched inside the cloak.
---
James stared at her from across the History of Magic classroom. There she was sitting there, between her friends, Kat and Pat. She appeared to be listening, and taking notes, but James had been watching her long enough to tell that she was passing all of her notes to her friends, so they weren't exactly classroom notes.
He wished he could see what she had written. From the way she was blushing, he guessed it was about a guy. Then, again, her friends were blushing, too.
"Hey, James, you okay?" Sirius whispered, tapping him on the shoulder.
"Fine," James said quickly. He removed his eyes from Lily Evans. "I'm fine."
James stared at her again in Potions. Did anyone else notice the way her hair swung whenever she turned her head? Or how prettily she raised her hand to answer a question? Or how her eyes snapped with annoyance every time Sirius threw bits of paper at Patricia, then pretended to look innocent when the girl turned around to grin at him?
"Does Evans look different to you?" he asked Remus quietly on their way to the Great Hall for lunch.
Remus shook his head. "No. Why? Did she cut her hair or something?"
James shook his head. "No, I just – " He stopped, mortified. He had been about to say, 'No, I just started realizing how pretty she was, and I wanted to know if anyone else had noticed.'
"What?" Remus asked.
"Nothing," James said quickly.
"Hey, let's sit over there!" Sirius said, pointing to the end of the Gryffindor table, where Pat, Kat, and Lily sat.
James turned slightly red. "Why?"
"Because!" Sirius said, tugging James along with him. "I wanna sit there, that's why!"
"Stop it," Remus said quietly. "You two look strange." James glanced back at him, and was surprised when Remus's face was slightly red as well.
So, the three boys went over and sat down. Remus was across from Kathryn, Sirius was across from Patricia, and James was across from Lily. The boys were busy talking/flirting with their significant others, so James stared at Lily until she finally looked up.
"Hi," she said, gazing into his eyes.
"Hi," he replied, wishing he weren't here, doing this. "So, uh, how's life?"
She gave him a strange look. "It's okay," she replied. "Yours?"
"Couldn't be better," he said in a strangled voice. 'What is wrong with me?' he thought. 'This is Evans! Pull yourself together, man!'
They didn't say anything for a while. She seemed to be debating whether to say something, or not. Finally she choked out, "You're a really pretty stag."
James felt his face getting hot. "Thanks," he replied, thinking, 'You're a really pretty person.'
They avoided each other for the rest of the day.
---
A/N: and the question I always ask – WHAT DID YOU ALL THINK???
My "New Best Friends": mandy2cool, anniePADFOOT, and Romulan Empress . . . thanks guys! Your reviews made me laugh!
anniePADFOOT: nope, this fic isn't co-written, but you've definitely seen it before, because I used to have it under a different penname. Did you read it before, then?
Rena the Great: I MADE YOUR FAVORITES LIST??? faints from the shock thinking, "Quick! Someone use Ennervate on me so I can thank this lovely person!"
Disclaimer: I've gotten the last three chapters of titles from DragonballZ, so really, I should be saying that I don't own that either, along with Harry Potter.
Chapter Seven – Boo
Lily obediently turned around. And counted to ten. There was no noise behind her. 'He wouldn't leave me here, would he?' she thought. She had just finished counting, and was debating whether to turn around or not when she felt a nudge in her back.
She spun around. And gasped . . .
---
James was . . . well, he was . . . beautiful. There was simply no other word for it. He was beautiful. Lily stood a step back in awe. He certainly was big, but he was stunning. Gorgeous, even.
"You – you're – " She stopped, not knowing what to say. She couldn't very well tell him he was beautiful. After all, he did still have a human mind. Didn't he?
He was pawing at the ground, but still watching her intently. Lily walked up to him hesitantly. Would he run if she - ? She shook her head. This was James, right?
She lifted a hand up to him, and he walked towards her slowly. He appeared to be sniffing her. She stifled a giggle. James was sniffing her. She looked into his eyes. A normal stag's eyes would be brown, or some color like that . . . but James's were hazel, and so was the stag's.
"Well, you're definitely him," she muttered.
James snorted, as if to say, "Well, duh!"
Lily grinned. "You've even got his cocky personality."
The stag stared at her. "I'm serious!" Lily said. "Look at you. Strutting around like you're the king of the forest. Who would have thought you'd be a stag?"
James tossed his head. Lily laughed. "I still say you'd be better suited as a skunk." She touched him on the head, and James jumped at the sudden contact. Then, he was perfectly still.
"It's really neat, though," Lily whispered, patting him gently.
---
James shivered at her touch, although he was faintly annoyed. She could stand to touch him when he was a stag, but not when he was human? How messed up was that?
'Wait!' he thought. 'Where did that come from? I don't WANT Evans touching me. Do I?' He turned his head to look directly into her eyes. She was still petting him on his back absentmindedly.
What if she really WAS touching him like this – tenderly – as a human? He felt himself get hot at the thoughts. Merlin! He was getting aroused! As a stag! He felt momentarily sick. Then, without warning, he nudged her in the shoulder with his head, and stepped away.
"Ow!" Lily said, rubbing her shoulder. "What did you do that for?"
James hastily turned back into a human. "I'm sorry," he croaked, his voice not being quite normal yet. He waited a few seconds. "Sorry," he tried again.
She looked at him curiously. "What? Is it time to go?"
"Yeah," James replied, carefully not looking at her. "I think we should head back. Don't you?" Without another word, he headed out of the forest, leaving an intensely curious Lily to follow behind him.
---
"How did it go?" Remus asked, watching James's face. James scowled at him.
Sirius yawned, then grinned. "What happened?"
"Nothing," James snapped. "Nothing happened."
"Then, why are you so upset?" Peter asked.
James glared at all of them. "Because you're BOTHERING me!" He stormed out of the dorm and down the stairs, then sat pouting in front of the common room fire.
---
She was running through the Forbidden Forest. Something was chasing her, but she didn't know what it was. She was panting. It was gaining on her. It was gaining –
Out of nowhere, a stag jumped between her and that thing. She stared on in shock, as the stag fought it off, whatever it was. The stag defeated it.
Then it turned around to face her. Her heartbeat sped up. It's eyes were hazel. Just like his . . .
---
Lily woke up with a start, and looked around the room, her eyes finally settling on the alarm clock Pat had bought for their dorm. It was just barely four in the morning. Lily sighed. It had been a week since she went on that little nightly escapade with James, and she had been having nightmares like that ever since. Every time she would be in danger somewhere, then James-Stag would come up and rescue her.
Lily sighed. She had also been avoiding James ever since. She hadn't told Kathryn or Patricia about her little adventure, but she knew they suspected something was up. How could they not? She hadn't exactly been acting normal. In fact, she was pretty jittery. She had overheard Kathryn earlier in the week discussing how coffee overdoses could get to a person. Lily had just shaken her head and passed it off as an "American-transfer-student- thing."
Knowing she wasn't going to go back to sleep, she got up, showered and dressed. By the time she was finished, it was only four-thirty. She sighed, and grabbed a book, then went downstairs into the common room.
"Ooof!" Lily stopped. She had bumped into something, or someone. "Who's there?" she asked, wearily.
A second later, James and Sirius appeared. "Hi," Sirius said, grinning.
Lily sighed. "Sneaking out?"
Sirius frowned. "You gonna tell? Come on, we're hungry!" James was being strangely silent.
Lily started to say something, then shook her head. "Why bother?" she mumbled. "You're just going to do it again, aren't you?"
"Of course," Sirius replied. "Thanks, Evans!" She watched as they re- covered themselves, then continued to watch as the portrait door opened and closed, seemingly of its own accord.
She sighed again, and opened her book. She had read it before. It was about a princess who befriended a horse in an enchanted forest. Then, when the princess was in trouble one day, the horse saved her, and turned into a human. Lily slammed it shut after a few minutes. It sounded too familiar, somehow.
"You're up already?" a soft voice said from behind her.
Lily turned around to face Remus. She smiled. "Yes, I couldn't sleep. You?"
"The same," Remus admitted. He smiled back. "What's that you're reading?"
Lily sighed for the third time. "It's just a made-up story. It's about this horse and this girl who fall in love . . ." She grinned at the look on Remus's face.
"A horse?" he asked, looking faintly green. "With a human?"
"Well, the horse is really a human, too, but she doesn't find out until the end," Lily explained. "It's just a fairy-tale. It doesn't even really make any sense, you know? Animals don't fall in love with people."
A strange look flashed across Remus's face. "If you say so," he replied, looking slightly hurt.
Lily realized what she had just said, and she gasped and covered her mouth. "Oh, Remus! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it like that, I promise."
"I know you didn't," Remus said. "It's just . . . sometimes I think of myself as more a werewolf, than human."
"I don't think so," Lily said. "You're the most human out of all of us."
"How so?" he asked, one of his eyebrows lifting up slightly.
"You're the nicest," Lily remarked, grinning at him.
Remus smiled back. "Well, of course," he said smugly. "I have to be. Who else would keep Sirius and James in line?"
Lily laughed. "Yeah, I know. If anyone, they're the animals," she said.
He grinned. "Tell me about it." After the laughter died down, and Lily was trying to catch her breath, Remus said, "So, do you still think people and animals can't fall in love?"
"I guess they can," Lily muttered. "You know, you have a strange way of turning things around."
"It's a part of my charm," he said, standing up, and offering a hand to her.
She shook her head. "How so?" she asked, in confusion.
Remus grinned. "You know, the way I get people to change their minds without having to resort to an argument."
"I suppose," Lily said, thoughtfully. "It's a good idea."
"Yes, it is," Remus said. "Now, I don't suppose you know where Sirius and James went off to?"
Lily nodded. "They went to the kitchens. Said they were hungry."
"And you let them go? Just like that?" Remus asked, looking surprised.
He looked so shocked that Lily blushed a little. "Well . . ." she hedged.
Remus shook his head. "My dear Lily, I think you may be growing soft."
Lily turned even redder. "No," she insisted. "It's the fairy-tale. It's making me mushy."
"The fairy-tale is making you mushy?" Remus asked, rolling his eyes. "That's completely believable."
"You know, MOONY, you can be fairly annoying when you want to be," Lily scowled. "Does that come with your charm, too?"
"Yes," Remus said, after pretending to think for a bit. "It does."
They both laughed. Neither of them noticed the portrait hole open, or James and Sirius creep through in the invisibility cloak. And no one noticed that James's fists were clenched inside the cloak.
---
James stared at her from across the History of Magic classroom. There she was sitting there, between her friends, Kat and Pat. She appeared to be listening, and taking notes, but James had been watching her long enough to tell that she was passing all of her notes to her friends, so they weren't exactly classroom notes.
He wished he could see what she had written. From the way she was blushing, he guessed it was about a guy. Then, again, her friends were blushing, too.
"Hey, James, you okay?" Sirius whispered, tapping him on the shoulder.
"Fine," James said quickly. He removed his eyes from Lily Evans. "I'm fine."
James stared at her again in Potions. Did anyone else notice the way her hair swung whenever she turned her head? Or how prettily she raised her hand to answer a question? Or how her eyes snapped with annoyance every time Sirius threw bits of paper at Patricia, then pretended to look innocent when the girl turned around to grin at him?
"Does Evans look different to you?" he asked Remus quietly on their way to the Great Hall for lunch.
Remus shook his head. "No. Why? Did she cut her hair or something?"
James shook his head. "No, I just – " He stopped, mortified. He had been about to say, 'No, I just started realizing how pretty she was, and I wanted to know if anyone else had noticed.'
"What?" Remus asked.
"Nothing," James said quickly.
"Hey, let's sit over there!" Sirius said, pointing to the end of the Gryffindor table, where Pat, Kat, and Lily sat.
James turned slightly red. "Why?"
"Because!" Sirius said, tugging James along with him. "I wanna sit there, that's why!"
"Stop it," Remus said quietly. "You two look strange." James glanced back at him, and was surprised when Remus's face was slightly red as well.
So, the three boys went over and sat down. Remus was across from Kathryn, Sirius was across from Patricia, and James was across from Lily. The boys were busy talking/flirting with their significant others, so James stared at Lily until she finally looked up.
"Hi," she said, gazing into his eyes.
"Hi," he replied, wishing he weren't here, doing this. "So, uh, how's life?"
She gave him a strange look. "It's okay," she replied. "Yours?"
"Couldn't be better," he said in a strangled voice. 'What is wrong with me?' he thought. 'This is Evans! Pull yourself together, man!'
They didn't say anything for a while. She seemed to be debating whether to say something, or not. Finally she choked out, "You're a really pretty stag."
James felt his face getting hot. "Thanks," he replied, thinking, 'You're a really pretty person.'
They avoided each other for the rest of the day.
---
A/N: and the question I always ask – WHAT DID YOU ALL THINK???