Love Meadowes: Love is like Chewed Gum
Dislcaimer: I do not own Harry Potter... It's a shame...
Dorcas sighed. She was sitting beside Lily in Potions class. She was curling a strand of hair around her finger, taking a few notes every now and then, as Lily scrambled to write down everything the professor said. Dorcas admired her hair for a while. She'd let it air dry, even though she hated the feeling of coldness dripping down the back of her pajamas, therefore, her hair was less puffy, and she placed a small Conditioning Charm on it.
Dorcas scribbled down something, not really listening, but knowing that she'd written down exactly what he'd said. Doracs glanced at Lily. That girl would write! She was already almost down with two feet of parchment in her neat, tiny handwriting. Dorcas looked at her messy chicken scratch on her parchment. Her 'a' wasn't connected at the top and looked like a 'u'. Her writing was a horrible cross between cursive and print, while she'd crossed a few of her 'L's and dotted a couple 'e's. Dorcas sighed again.
Her gaze wandered about the classroom. The rest of the students were either taking notes as furiously as Lily, or looking as bored as Dorcas. However, at the back table in the corner, the four Marauders sat. Remus was taking short notes, like Dorcas, while Peter was scribbling furiously, only to stop, peer at his parchment, and scratch it out again. James and Sirius were passing notes and using magic to attack each other with newt eyes.
Dorcas looked back at Lily, and was surprised to notice her staring at the Marauders. Well, it was more like glaring. She wrinkled her nose and scribbled something else down, dipping her quill so deeply at she left blotches all over the page neat page.
Dorcas scribbled a small note to Lily on the corner of her notes.
What's wrong?
Potter and Black aren't paying attention, plus they're attacking each other with newt eyes! I still can't believe Dumbledore made Potter Head Boy!
He is rather smart. He's top in Transfiguration. So is Sirius… I wonder if one copies the other...
I bet they do. I don't see how either could do well, though. He never pays attention, and I bet he gets all his notes from Remus.
You know Remus wouldn't do that.
Yeah… And why aren't you taking notes?
Dorcas glared at Lily, who was already busy again. She jotted down a couple words from the board and tried to pay attention for the rest of class. But class was extremely boring, as the Floating Potion could only make people float for about five minutes, and had no value whatsoever. Eventually, Dorcas was reduced to drawing stick figures beside of her notes.
-------
"Hey, Dory." James chirped.
"I told you that only my friends can call me Dory." Dorcas growled.
She'd been walking through the Common Room, to get to her dorm and find her books, but the Marauders had stopped her. She sighed. She was supposed to meet Lily in the library to do homework, and she'd gone to get all the rest of her books.
"We're hurt." Sirius replied, looking disgustingly cheerful.
Dorcas rolled her eyes. "What do you want?" She demanded.
"Well, I have successfully gone an entire week without letting a single profanity slip." James began.
"Expect that time in Transfiguration when Sirius put that lizard in your robes." Peter interrupted.
"And that time when Wormtail spilled some spider venom on your essay." Sirius added.
"And when that N-" Remus began.
"Enough!" James snapped. "So I said a few. But Lily didn't hear them, unless she has the ability to read minds, or can hear things from across the school."
"You know, Prongs, you did yell pretty loud and-"
"Well, good for you." Dorcas interrupted, tapping her foot. "But I have to meet Lily in the library and you're making me late."
"Ah, ah, ah." Sirius replied, wagging his finger at her. "You have to help James capture Lily's heart. We deiced to have a lesson right now."
"Why didn't you ask me first?" Dorcas demanded. "You know, I've already got plans so-"
"You won't get fifty galleons." Remus cut in.
Dorcas shut her mouth and frowned. Fifty galleons, or blowing Lily off? She really loved Hogsmead, but it wasn't any fun if she couldn't have a shopping spree. Her parents were expecting her to support herself with the money she'd made from her summer job, but she hadn't admitted to them that she'd used it all to buy a few pieces of jewelry.
"Fine." She muttered at last. "Let me find a first year or someone to tell Lily I'm not coming, okay?"
"Sure." James replied, grinning.
"What about them?" Peter squeaked, pointing a sausage-like finger at a small herd of second years heading towards the portrait hole.
Dorcas shrugged, trotting over to them. "Hey! Are you guys going to the library?"
A small blonde girl looked at Dorcas nervously. "Um, yes." She said.
"Okay, can you tell Lily Evans, the Head Girl, that Dorcas can't come study with her because…" Dorcas thought for a moment. What would be a good excuse that wouldn't get Lily suspicious? Obviously, not saying she had to do homework would do the trick. Maybe… "She was hit by a stray spell while walking by the Defense Against the Dark Arts room, okay?"
A burly boy nodded. "Head Girl. Dorcas. Hospital Wing. Spell. Got it."
Dorcas smiled. "Thanks!"
The second years exited the portrait hole and Dorcas found the Marauders had approached her once more. She frowned at them, as they grinned.
"What?"
"Well, let's get started! Let Lily-ology lessons begin!" Sirius replied, thrusting a fist in the air triumphantly.
"Wouldn't it be better to do it somewhere else? More private, maybe?" Remus objected.
"Why, Moony, you old dog, are you suggesting we go to the R.R.?" James said brightly.
"I suppose that would be adequate." Remus replied.
"What's the R.R.?" Dorcas inquired.
"It's a secret." Peter replied.
"Okay… So why are you telling me?"
"We're not." Sirius said.
"Right. Then how are we going to get there?"
"Just follow us and watch." James replied brightly. With that, they disappeared through the portrait hole.
With nothing else to do, Dorcas followed.
------
Dorcas frowned, her brow furrowed as she watched the boys pace back and forth. Their faces seemed strangely set in concentration. Suddenly, a door appeared in the wall. Dorcas's eyes grew so wide they resembled a fly's.
"What did you do?" Dorcas demanded in shock.
"Sorry, Marauder trade secret!" Sirius denied jubilantly.
Peter pushed back the sleeve of his robe, which was strangely long. He tapped a grubbily finger to his watch, blinking his watery eyes at it. He glanced back up, and no one had paid him any attention.
"Uh, guys, I need to go..." He muttered.
"Alright, have fun, Wormtail." Sirius replied, grinning devilishly. Peter scurried away, glancing over his shoulder at them, looking wistful. Then Sirius made a sweeping bow towards Dorcas, holding open the door for her to enter.
"Where's he going?" Dorcas said curiously.
James waved her question aside. "Tutoring."
"In what class?" Dorcas asked, frowning. "Why aren't you guys helping him?"
"It's Muggle Studies." Remus informed her patiently.
"You don't take Muggle Studies?"
"It's a waste of time." Sirius replied airily.
Dorcas scowled. "I'll have you know, my mother is muggle-born! And Lily's whole family are muggles, you know."
"I knew that." James replied. "Are you getting in the room, or are we going to stand out here arguing about the necessity of Muggle Studies all day?"
She sniffed, acting rather annoyed as she stepped into the room. To her surprise it was the exact same color as Lily's eyes. The emerald green seemed to consume the room, side from a rug and the furniture, which was about the same color of Lily's hair.
Dorcas was stunned, fascinated, and deeply unnerved all the same time. She blinked, wandering around touching things, just to see if they were real.
"What is this place?" She asked, once she'd finished inspecting the room.
The Marauders all shared mischievous smiles, but remained silent.
"Well?" She demanded.
"Marauders Trade Secret." They sang.
Dorcas sighed and rolled her eyes. She went poking around a bit more before sitting down on the lounge chair behind a large desk. The boys scrambled over to the desks, much like the ones in class. Dorcas frowned in confusion.
"Well?" James mimicked in a high-pitched tone.
Dorcas scowled. "What do you want me to do?"
"Begin the lesson." Remus said.
"What lesson?"
"You're supposed to be teaching us Lily-ology." James replied. "I'm paying fifty galleons for this, so you better know your stuff!"
Dorcas's scowl deepened. "I was just going to give you tips and hints! I'm not becoming a bloody teacher!"
"If you want those fifty galleons, you will." Remus replied placidly.
Dorcas sighed and twirled around in the chair. Finally, she stood again and came around to the front of the desk. She hopped on it and stared at them.
"Alright." She said at last. "Let's start by seeing how much you know about Lily."
"Oooh! Pick me!" James crowed. He waved his hand in the air like a little kid who was asking to go to the bathroom.
Dorcas raised her brows. "Hmmm… Let's see…" She said slowly, pretending to take a long time to choose, despite the fact that Remus and Sirius seemed to not know anything about Lily, except the stuff that James would gush to them in their dorm.
"Alright, Mr. Potter, tells us what you know about Lily."
Jahis hand and took a deep breath, and then he spoke very quickly, as if trying to fit all of Lily's good qualities into one breath. "Lily is beautiful, kind, nice, not to me of course, but she's still helpful, intelligent, lovely, outgoing, and has the most lovely laugh, and eyes, and hair, and face, and she has really nice lips, too, and-"
"Alright!" Dorcas broke in. James's eyes had come to resemble glazed donuts, plus the last part was a bit too much information for her. "Right then, thank you James. How about you tell me something about her besides the fact that she's a goddess. It greatly lowers my own self-esteem, thank you."
"She's muggle-born." Sirius piped. "That's all I know. No! Wait! She's Head Girl. That too."
Dorcas sighed and rolled her eyes.
"Doesn't she want to become a Healer when she's older?" Remus inquired thoughtfully.
"Yes!" Dorcas cried. "Good job, Remus!"
Remus grinned and James glowered. Meanwhile Sirius had begun to busy himself with scribbling furiously on a piece of parchment he'd drawn form his pocket. Then her grinned and held it up.
"What's that?" Dorcas demanded.
Dorcas squinted at it from her seat and saw Sirius had drawn an ugly stick figure labeled 'Lily'. In somewhat more detail were her 'finer points' each labeled accordingly.
Dorcas gasped and stomped over to wretch the parchment from Sirius's hands. She stared at it before crumpling it up.
"Even if I did agree to do this, I'm not going to stand for you talking, or drawing, about my best friend like a thing!"
"Then why don't you have a seat?" Sirius offered. The others laughed.
Dorcas rolled her eyes and stuffed the wrinkled parchment in the pocket of her robes.
"Obviously, none of you know anything useful about Lily."
"Obviously." Remus remarked dryly.
Dorcas sighed and wondered where she could find some parchment. To her surprise, the drawers in the desk were full to the brim with clean, white sheets. Dorcas drew one and out found an assortment of quills in the next drawer. She quickly created a chart.
"Alright." She began. "I have made a chat for each of you, including Peter. You will fill it out every time you see Lily."
She passed them out. James and Sirius exchanged incredibly amused looks. The parchment read:
Person(s) Interacting w/ Flower:
Topic of Conversation:
Class:
Flower's Mood:
Other:
Key: Flower Lily
"This is just spiffing!" Sirius crowed.
"But why's Lily called 'flower'?" Remus asked.
"Honestly, Remus. Aren't you the smart one here?" Dorcas replied sarcastically. "We can't go around talking about Lily without her knowing, now can we? So, everyone knows what 'Flower' means, right?" Without waiting for an answer, Dorcas waved her wand and the key vanished. "Don't forget to tell Peter." She added.
"Right-o!" James said brightly.
Dorcas rolled her eyes and headed towards the door. "Have fun with the charts. Fill them out and do what you can. I'll be going now-"
"When's our next class?" James inquired brightly.
"Next class?" Dorcas exclaimed.
"Yes. Our deal said you'd teach Prongs how to get Lily." Remus said.
"So?"
"That means you have to keep teaching until I snag her." James replied.
"But- but- I have homework to do! And I can't keep blowing off Lily!"
"Sorry, Love, that's the way it goes." Sirius replied.
"So, how's next Sunday sound?" James asked.
----
Love is like chewed gum, Dorcas decided as she strolled back to Gryffindor Tower. At least, James Potter's love was. It was so old and used, that the flavor had already gone. It'd blown so many bubbles that it didn't even pop anymore. And no one paid attention when it burst anymore. So basically, it'd been reduced to some recycled crap.
And it wasn't going to be recycled again, so it was time to throw it away. But James was as stubborn as a mule. Who wants old gum, anyway?
Aside from her dorky cousin, who collects used gum from under desks. Ew.
----
"DORY!" Lily squealed, running over to Dorcas and flinging her arms around her neck as she entered the Gryffindor common room.
"Dory! Some second year told me you were in the Hospital Wing! They said you were hit with a stray spell. What happened? Are you all right? I went to see you, and you weren't there. I thought maybe you were already gone, so it wasn't so serious. I waited for you at the Library, since I thought you'd come if you were all better. Where were you?"
"Erm…" Dorcas began, wondering how she was going to explain not meeting up with Lily. "I- er… It wasn't a bad spell… It kinda… Just… Uhhh… Oh! I felt tired so I decided to take a nap."
Lily frowned. "Why didn't you stay in the Hospital Wing, then?"
"I-I came back here to sleep! And I'm really sorry… And it was just really bad but-"
"Then where did you just come from?"
"I- Er…" Dorcas began. Lily narrowed her eyes suspiciously. "I was… Oh, I umm… Oh, all right, you caught me! I went for a er… Walk! Yeah, walk, outside you know? To clear the mind and stuff… It's really nice out, you know, with the leaves and stuff. So I kinda got tired and… Fell asleep under a tree…"
Lily raised a brow. Dorcas sighed and wondered if Lily would pursue the topic further. To her surprise, Lily just grinned and shrugged it off.
"All right. But you were never one for taking naps, you know."
Dorcas grinned. "My old age is catching up to me. Pretty soon I'll need more wrinkle cream, I'm almost out."
Lily rolled her eyes and they laughed.
"Sooo…" Dorcas began. "Did you get any homework done while you were searching frantically for me?" Even though it was rude, Dorcas hoped she hadn't gotten any done, so they'd be behind together.
"Oh, well I got half way through my Charms essay before I went looking around half the school for you." Lily replied.
"Oh. You want to do the rest now?"
"Now? But it's almost dinner!" Lily replied, looking around at the many students already heading towards the door.
"Well, how about we grab some food and eat it while we do our homework?" Dorcas offered. She knew Lily wouldn't have any problems getting up early to do her homework, but Dorcas's mind would be muddled beyond belief, therefore, out of thinking service.
"We're not allowed to take food out of the Great Hall." Lily protested. "Besides, can't we just do our homework there?"
"You know I can't think with everyone talking so loudly." Dorcas complained. "Besides, someone might start a food fight and ruin our homework!"
"You know that doesn't happen often. Besides, it's only been a few weeks since school started."
"And there hasn't been any food fights. James and his crew are probably cooking something up."
Lily scowled. "Yeah. Something involving innocent students!"
Dorcas frowned. Has she just hurt James's/her cause? She cut a sly glance at Lily as the girl busied herself with collecting her books from the table. Dorcas paused and shifted into "Lily Vision" no matter how much she liked to act self-assured, by wearing strange clothes and shamelessly changing her hair colors, she wasn't all she was cracked up to be. She was horribly insecure with her looks, despite Lily's consoling, in fact, it probably made it worse. Honestly, if a beautiful girl told you that you were pretty, would you believe them? Aside from that, she had a completely dull love-life.
In Lily Vision, she saw the world like on big book. Everything could be figured out and easily categorized just given some thought. Logic had a place everywhere! And in Lily Vision, Dorcas and James's deal was horribly stupid and annoying.
But, she had to remind herself rather sadly, that she was not Lily, and she was Dorcas. Dorcas liked doing stupid things. Why did she have to be Dorcas? Her life sucked. Oh well. Didn't everyone's?
"Come on." Dorcas said. "We'll grab some finger food and no one will notice!"
"Dory!" Lily snapped at last. "I'm a Head Girl now! I have to set a good example, that means I can't go around sneaking food and handing in late assignments."
"Fine. We'll do it during dinner." She muttered grudgingly.
Why was it that Lily always seemed to out think her?
----
"How many kneazle hairs do you need to add?" Dorcas asked in between bites of her mashed potatoes.
"Seven." Muttered Lily, who was keeping her parchment amazingly clean of food.
"Right. Okay, what's after that?"
"Four black widows. Simmer for three minutes, stir two hundred and three times."
"Windows… Sitter…" Dorcas muttered, scribbling furiously. "Three hundred and two? Merlin! I'll get a hand crap!"
Lily sighed and set her own parchment aside. She picked up Dorcas's and looked it over. She pulled out some red ink and a fresh quill.
"Hey! I'm not done yet! Don't read it!" Dorcas screeched.
"Oh, hush." Lily replied, scratching something out.
Dorcas pouted, but took the opportunity to eat. Lily was immersed her correcting Dorcas's essay, and didn't notice when a note zoomed across the room and Dorcas rebounded on the back of the head, into her mashed potatoes.
Dorcas looked at it and glanced around curiously. At the other end of the table, the four Marauders were grinning. Dorcas sighed and unfolded it.
Please tell the Flower that she has a bit of pudding in her lovely hair.
XOXO Your Loving Students Who are Eternally Grateful
(Except Sirius, who is too damn hott for that)
Dorcas frowned and looked at Lily, while stuffing the note in the pocket of her robes. There was nothing in her hair… Oh Merlin.
Lily screamed and jumped up from her seat as Peeves poured pudding on to her head. The poltergeist disappeared, cackling wildly. Lily's face grew steadily redder as she yelled after the long gone ghost. Meanwhile, the rest of the Great Hall had broken into hysterics. Including the Marauders.
Dorcas snatched up their essays, which had been spared of pudding, then helped Lily mop up a bit of the pudding. Then she steered Lily out of the Great Hall.
----
Lily gave the password to the Head's bathroom. Dorcas and Lily both washed out her robes and left them to soak, before Dorcas helped Lily wash out her hair.
"If Peeves wasn't already dead, I'd kill him!" Lily snarled, still in a sour mood.
Dorcas sighed and dunked Lily's head under the faucets again.
"There, there, dear." Dorcas consoled. "Besides, you can't kill him. You'd be charged with murder."
"Under provocation!"
"If it makes you feel any better, I bet he was killed under the same circumstances. Maybe they wanted him to go away."
"Didn't work though." Lily muttered.
"Lily, what did I tell you about being in a bad mood all the time? You should think positive! Like me!"
"Oh yeah… You know my dad?"
"Hm… I think I've heard of him."
Lily rolled her eyes and continued. "Well, he showed me this article from some research department. It was called 'Are the Happy Too Happy?' and it talks about being happy all the time is like an imbalance in the brain, like depression."
Lily giggled and Dorcas laughed.
"Well then, maybe I do have a problem. I should take depressants so I can be like you." Dorcas offered.
"You've always had a problem!" Lily said, still giggling.
"A problem? I thought I had more than one…"
"You do."
"What little brain I have left is starting to fry. You're so confusing."
"Aren't I?"
"That's what I said."
Lily sighed and rolled her eyes. Dorcas (feeling pleased that she'd restored Lily's good mood, for the most part) was wringing out Lily's robes.
"Feeling better?" Dorcas asked.
"Yeah. I guess. Are our essays alright?"
"Yep. Snagged them on the way out."
"I'm sorry I go you into this." Lily sighed.
"Don't be silly. I have to put up with this, or else who will do my homework?"
Lily grinned at her. "Yes. I'm your homework heroine."
"Nu-uh! You're my best friend!"
"Who does your homework?"
"That's what best friends are for!"
"Touché!"
A comfortable silence fell between them, aside from the trickle of water as Dorcas rung Lily's robes out. There was a faint splashing as Lily began to dry her hair.
Dorcas still didn't look up from the robes as she spoke. "Sooo… Do you like James?"
"WHAT?"
A/N: I really disliked this chapter; it was very boring and was mostly a transition chapter. Also, I had to get rid of the song lyrics because FF has some new stupid rule that you can't have them.
Mangamaniac: Thanks! But I'm afraid that chapters won't be getting any shorter. I don't know about you, but I often feel disappointed when people post short chapters, because you always have to wait so long for that little itty bit. However, if you're having trouble reading the small font, up in the right hand corner (at the top of the site) there's a little thing that looks like this: B s : A A A. The B makes the font larger, and easier to read if you need to make it larger.
Justdream: Thanks! I really like the plot I've come up with, but… That's just me.
Auburgine: I know what you mean. I hate those perfect, lovely, smart, amazing best friends Lily has, who, somehow, always managed to end up dating Sirius. I can proud to say that this story will be (almost) cliché free! And, as much as I'd like to claim it as my own, I did not make up the name Dorcas. In book five, Moody mentions that Dorcas Meadowes was killed by Voldemort himself, while showing Harry the picture of the Order.
Mrs.KristinePotter: I'm sorry this chapter wasn't as interesting. I tried. But this is a very transition-y chapter.
Iamari: Oh… Gracias (which is thanks to any of you non-Spanish speakers out there)
Kick Ass Ass Kicker: I'm glad people are so excited about my story! This is my baby, and I've dropped everything else to work on it.
