The Imperius Curse

Peter lay in his bed trying to ignore the burning on his forearm. Trying not to wake his roommates from slumber, he got out of his bed and exited the portrait hole.

He walked on the familiar route to the Slytherin Common Room. Right by the portrait hole he found Lucius waiting for him.

"Don't try to ignore it anymore, lord Voldemort will always find a way to bring you here."

Lucius whispered the password for the portrait hole and entered.

"Tonight his lordship (A/N: does that word make ANY sense? LOL! whtvr- keep reading) won't be able to come but we'll be able to communicate with him through the floo system." Lucius said.

And sure enough Peter saw Voldemort's head in the fire, his expression looking impatient.

"I have better things to do than to wait for your lazy ass to get here! Either you're in it or you're not, next time you will be killed." Voldemort said angrily. "Now, your instructions this time is to perform the Imperius Curse on James Potter. And please don't act stupid and do it correctly. I will give you further instructions in a week, but for now get used to controlling him. And don't make it too obvious." Immediately his head disappeared from the fire.

Back in his room, Peter quietly looked at James, flashes from the pat immediately came to his mind. He shook it off and with all the courage he could muster, he whispered, "Imperio."

He crept into bed, feeling the power he now had in his hands. He began sucking his thumb for comfort. Right before he fell asleep, Peter noticed that Remus' bed was empty.


James woke up early the next morning and decided to visit Lily. On his way out of the Common Room, he saw Remus and Sarah sitting on one of the couches in the corner, trying to look invisible, all though it was quite obvious that they were deeply immersed in their snog- fest. He cleared his throat rather loudly and hurried out of the portrait hole.

At the hospital wing he looked for Lily but couldn't find her. Her bed was empty, flowers taken, and chocolates eaten.

"Looking for your girlfriend?" Mark Abbott asked. As usual, he was in the hospital wing with one of his body parts in a cast or a sling. "Lovergirl left two hours ago."

"Thanks." he wanted to run upstairs and grab her and kiss her and tell her how much he loved her and missed her presence. But something stopped him, as much as he tried to fight it off he felt like he was a puppet on strings.

Instead he ignored the feeling and decided to start on his homework so that he could have the rest of the weekend off.


After working for half an hour in the what-he-thought-empty library he heard someone smack their book shut and swearing under their breath.

Lily was sitting behind one of the shelves looking like she was ready to kill anyone who had the nerve to bother her at that moment. When she saw James she tried to smile, wiping her cheek from her tears of anger.

"Hey"

"Hey"

"Care to tell me?"

"About what?"

"Well, you look like you haven't slept in ages, your face is stained from all that mascara, clearly you're distressed, and yet I haven't seen you look more beautiful in my whole life."

She smiled, sniffling.

"I can't do healing anymore, I don't get ANYTHING, and I'm piled with homework and exams. I can't do this!"

She sank back into her chair and started crying again.

James took a handkerchief out of his pocket and softly wiped her tears. He lifted her chin with his finger and kissed her softly.

She felt paralyzed.

He wanted to continue the kiss, to make up for all the time that she was in the hospital wing, but he drew back.

Lily looked at him strangely.

"Are you okay?"

"I'm fine. Let's go get some breakfast, then start worrying about Healing."


A few hours later, after breakfast, a walk around the lake, and a visit to Og (Look at the first few chapters, he's the keeper of the keys.) Lily and James were in the Great Hall, decorating for the Senior Halloween Masquerade.

"James, would you pass the tape- its right next to you."

"Hold on, I'm busy"

"You're reading that Quidditch book. Come on James, we have to do this."

"It's not like I didn't see you read that Love Story book by, who was that again, something Seagal in middle of Binn's class today."

"That's different. Please give me the tape."

"Hold on."

"Whatever, I'll get it myself. Accio tape!" The tape flew to Lily, she caught it and cut off a piece.

"You are so lazy!" Lily said playfully. She got off the ladder she was standing on and wrapped her arms around James' neck from behind. He loosened her grip.

"Seriously James, what is up? You've barely kissed me all day, you were silent throughout the whole afternoon, and you look like your being tortured just by being with me. What is up?" Lily said angrily.

James didn't know what to say, he himself didn't have explanations for his antics.

"I- I'm just really tired, I went to sleep really late last night and you know exams, homework…"

Lily looked strangely at him, but dismissed her thoughts, after all she also was having trouble with school and was totally stressed, maybe this was the way he was when put under too much stress.

"Anyway, I have to go discuss my schedule with McGonagall, please finish decorating here, tomorrow is the masquerade, and I'll be busy all day. Thanks so much." She leaned in to kiss him, but thought the better of it and went back to her room.

A/N: Sorry it took me forever to update, high school is impossible. Thanks to ALL of my reviewers! A very special thank you to Sharon S. She gave me ideas for this chapter. Luv Ya! Rachel- I love you!!! Thanks so much for helping me with ALL this (and 4, and muscle boy, and pizza guy, and orli, and prince charming, and school, and homework, and benhabib, and life, and boredom…the list goes on and on) About the rumors of Rowling's eighth book, I could be wrong but I heard it from a few sources which include Z100, Rowling's web site, and Sharon. PLEASE, PLEASE, R&R!!! BTW, I bought Ryan Cabrerra's CD- it is SOOOOO unbelievably awesome, and Ryan is INCREDIBLY talented.