Disclaimer: Refer to previous chapters
Did You Find What You Were Looking For?
Chapter 8: On a Scale of...
By: Taiyourshoes
"You look distracted, Evans."
Lily shook herself out of her befuddled thoughts and snapped her head in Rosier's direction.
"Sorry. I'm just thinking a bit too much." She furrowed her brow and stared at the potion ingredients she was supposed to be chopping up and boiling. "What are we doing?"
A smile flitted across the young man's face as he gave her a look akin to pity. "What are you thinking about? I didn't think you could get distracted so easily."
For a moment Lily's eyes darted to the pair two desks away, where James Potter and Remus Lupin sat whispering under their breaths. Their expressions were strangely disturbed. "It... It's nothing, Connor. I..." Suddenly a picture flooded her mind; the one where she was standing at the foot of the marble staircase, hoping a certain someone would grace her with his presence and allow her to grind him on morals. She'd never gotten the chance through lunch and now...
"Evans?"
"Connor, do you know anyone by the name of Timothy Bones?"
James Potter climbed the stairs to his dormitory with particular lethargy that evening. He had been planning his outing with his friends—in light of the full moon—all day, whilst he avoided eye contact with the sour Lily Evans. He stood firm on his theory that her looks could potentially kill a man.
Especially if that man was he or Sirius Black.
"James!" came a shaky voice as soon as he, James, had turned the corner and seen his dormitory door. Timothy Bones, a boy five years his junior who, as James could tell from the boy's constant but never nagging curiosity about the house team, was a complete Quidditch fanatic, stood at the front of his door and was poised as if he had just been knocking before he spotted James himself.
"James, someone told me to put this snake under the Slytherin table in the Great Hall and of course I said I would because they promised I'd be showing Gryffindor spirit but that Slytherin prefect spotted me and I made a run for it but I'm pretty sure he told the head girl and she's been glaring all day and I'm afraid she might have me expelled or worse!"
James took a few seconds to register all that he'd heard. "W—what do you want me to do about it?"
Timothy looked uneasy as he glanced about conspiratorially. "Well, first off, Sirius was the one who gave me the snakes and, although I'd NEVER tell a soul that, I just thought I ought to give you and he a heads up. I mean, you were probably involved too."
James nodded in comprehension. "Yeah, I might have guessed Sirius would put you up to that as a lark. Don't worry, Lily has no evidence and she isn't the type to punish without three witnesses and a few key clues. But go on."
The boy took a breath and released it in a sigh. Obviously, he didn't like admitting whatever it was he was going to say. "Err, since you're head boy and all, I was thinking that maybe you could tell Lily... something to get my butt off the line. Not that I'm scared of her per say, but... okay, I'm a little scared of her. I've seen her angry and I really don't want to be the cow at the mouth of the Thestral, you know?"
James could have laughed out loud. All that worrying over Miss Lily Evans, sweetheart of their year?
"How's this? I'll talk to her if she has any evil thoughts of double detentions or something, but otherwise I think you'll be fine."
It looked as though the boy's face would split from smiling. "Thanks, James. I was just a bit worried that whatever punishment she'd give me would be far worse than usual, since she's been in a very bad mood because of Sirius's actions this morning."
That caused the humor to be sucked right out of the situation for James.
As the second year ambled away, significantly more light-hearted, those words echoed in his ears.
Afterall, when she'd find the many snakes lurking in the dark corners of her room she wouldn't feel all too forgiving. Fleetingly, he wondered if he could go into a protection program for those scared of abuse by a five and a half foot girl.
"Mr. Bones, it really wasn't necessary to bring his nose into the argument, now was it?" Lily sighed as she pushed back a strand of auburn from her face. Timothy Bones had stumbled down the boy's staircase only moments before, and when she attempted to find his reasoning behind his possession of a snake in the Great Hall that afternoon, he simply said that Snape didn't have any idea what he was saying. Except he hadn't called him Snape.
"Ma'am, it really isn't an argument. I was simply holding the snake for a close friend of mine, and I assure you I let the serpent go the second I learned he wasn't allowed in the Great Hall. Honest." He crossed his heart for emphasis and flashed her a pitiful doggy pout.
She cocked an eyebrow at him. "Which... 'close friend' would this be?"
"Err..." Bones said, thinking fast. "Well, this friend isn't really a close friend, but sort of distant. You know, different house, different school, different country. It's a very distant relationship."
"Right," she responded dryly. "And by other country, school, and house, do you mean James Potter or one of his deviant cohorts?"
The boy gave an overdramatic gasp. "Oh, of course not! How could you even SAY that when the seventh year boys have been nothing but good all term!"
"The term started today, Bones."
"Yes, but 24 hours is an awfully long time to be perfect little angels."
Lily narrowed her emerald eyes at the young Gryffindor, which provoked him to take a step back.
"You will have a detention, in fairness to the Slytherin Prefect's request and your colorful name for him. Now get along and finish your homework or something; it's close to nine."
Timothy frowned again as he pivoted the other way and began heading up the stairs. However, he didn't get far, for James Potter revealed himself from behind the curve of the stairway at that very moment, where he'd been listening basically the whole time.
James leaned into the boy's ear and whispered at a volume that Lily, who seemed taken aback to see him so suddenly, could hear. "Next time, try come up with something more believable. After all, Miss Evans seems to be under the impression that anything not from her mouth must be a cold lie to cover up for little old me."
Lily was quite sure she would have at least thought of a proper retort, but a piercing scream coming from the girl's dormitories distracted her profoundly.
Tabitha Hawkins came running down the stairs on the other side of the commons with amazing alacrity. "Lily!" the girl breathed, "Lily there're snakes in my bed and under it and everywhere! They're just... sliding all over!" Tabitha continued to shriek as she danced in a little circle and kicked out her legs to remove the snakes she was sure were there.
Lily gave her a disgusted expression. "Snakes?" She tossed the direction of her gaze at James and Timothy. "Snakes?"
James had, for reasons unknown to him, turned a fascinating shade of red.
And Lily did too... before she pounced.
When Professor McGonagall finally came in to break up the fight two minutes later, Lily had James pinned to the ground at the bottom of the stairs as she attempted to ring his neck. James was just as red in the face as before, but from laughter this time as he weakly tried to remove her from him. Sirius had entered the picture and was telling Lily she shouldn't provoke contact after she told them not to touch her just that morning. And Timothy was staring, open mouthed, at where the head boy and girl were at his feet.
Abashed, Professor McGonagall yelled over Tabitha's shrieks (which had softened thanks to someone's hand cupping over her mouth) and Sirius's catcalls. "Miss Evans! Mr. Potter! Get off each other this instant! Get off each other and—"
Either Lily or James's wand went off from where it was feet from them, from where their wands fell when the fight first ensued. And the sparks headed in a terrible direction: right at the woman's head.
The headmistress ducked just in time, but her hair was left singed and smoking. The woman's nostrils flared and her expression was unmistakably furious. That look stopped Lily's boxing as she and James stared, open- mouthed, at the professor. Lily's arms dropped limply to her side in horror and James stopped trying to push her off of him.
"You two," Professor McGonagall began, voice shaking uncontrollably, "that's a week's worth of detentions for the both of you. I'll see you in my office in five minutes to discuss what EXACTLY it means to hold the positions of Head Boy and Girl at Hogwarts."
When she finally retreated out of the portrait hole, Lily and James dared a disbelieving look at each other.
"On a scale of one to ten, how dead are we?" Lily asked slowly.
"We're cremated already, love."
With that, they both erupted into laughter that, while unexpected, the rest of the house could share. Besides, how many times would they get to see the headmistress's hair smoking?
"Err, Lily?" Tabitha began cautiously, hoarse after screaming for so long. "You do realize there are still snakes slithering around in our dormitory, right?"
Taiyourshoes: Hey, I wrote ALL of this today for a friend, and while it may not be the best chapter thus far, it was fun and moves the story line along quite nicely for me.
To come...
Lily and James in detention!
Defense against the dark arts: friend or foe?
AND more on the pleasant Amelia Cavendish and Charlotte Edwards.
Stay tuned. Review, I know the blue button is calling to you.
