Just saw clips of GOF and the teaser trailer, and it looks awesome! Emma looks quite pretty in her Yule Ball dress, and I must admit that Dan and Rupert look very cute. (Yeah, Suzanne, I said DAN)
In the days after the Halloween Ball, news traveled very quickly about what had happened to Alice. The students in Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, and Ravenclaw avoided the Slytherins even more so than usual. News also got around that, like Gari had predicted, the three Slytherins responsible were only suspended.
"What the hell is his problem?" Lily asked angrily about Dumbledore to Gari one afternoon. "Why can't he just expel them?"
Lily's sentiments were shared by almost every student at Hogwarts, with the exception of the Slytherins. In truth, Bellatrix, Rodolphus, and Snape had become something of heroes to the rest of the Slytherins. They all jeered at Frank as he walked by, and when he was allowed back in classes, Snape was looking for a moment alone with Sirius to hex him. In the time he didn't spend mocking Sirius, he joined in with Bellatrix and started in on Gari.
One morning as Gari made her way towards Defense Against the Dark Arts, in just so happened that the two Slytherins cornered her in the hallway. Fortunately, Professor Flitwick strolled by and they were forced to put on a nice face and let her go. However, the confrontation made Gari a few minutes late to class.
Gari tried to go into the classroom quietly, silently praising God that Sigismund's back was to her as he wrote notes on the board. She quietly sat down in her seat, and began to sigh in relief that she wasn't caught, when Sigismund's voice reached her ears.
"Tell me, Miss Bennett, when does this class start?" Sigismund kept his back to her and continued writing, annoyingly calm.
"Ten o' clock," Gari muttered, cursing him under her breath.
"Sorry, what was that?"
"Ten o' clock," Gari replied, loudly and with a less friendly tone than many would not dare take against the professor.
"And what time is it now?" Sigismund asked, still not looking at her.
"Five past ten," Gari said, taking out her quill and parchment, deciding to be as cool as him about the matter. She started taking down the notes she had missed as Sigismund spoke again.
"Then tell me, has your sense of Gryffindor chivalry gotten in your way of telling time?" Sigismund said coolly.
Gari ignored him, though the snickers of all the Slytherins reached her ears. When Gari did not reply, Sigismund continued, "I'll see you in detention tonight, then, Miss Bennett."
Gari's head snapped up. "That's ridiculous!"
Sigismund turned toward her for the briefest moment, and Gari saw the look of slight amusement on his face. "Six o' clock, Miss Bennett, unless you meet some more pathetic little girls you must attend too."
Gari stood quickly. "You're disgusting! Alice Bell gets practically tortured for God knows how long-"
"Tortured?" Sigismund raised an eyebrow and put down his chalk. "I would hardly call petrificus totalus and a few harmless blemishes torture."
Gari stared at him in amazement.
"Take your seat," Sigismund's voice was still calm.
Gari sat down, but muttering loud enough for him to hear, "No wonder she left you, you heartless bastard."
Sigismund froze, and the rest of the class whirled around in their chairs to look at Gari in shock. Then they turned to Sigismund, waiting to see what he would do. When Sigismund spoke, his voice was very soft, "I'll see you in detention every night this week, Miss Bennett."
With that, he returned to writing down the notes, and the rest of the class quickly began scribbling them down.
"Bastard…wanker…prat…" Gari muttered curses under her breath after leaving Sigismund's class. She shuffled her feet and walked rather slowly. She was in no hurry to get to Professor Stiffien's class after her hatred for her ex-lover had increased so much.
"Ugh! I hate him!" Gari cried loudly, drawing many amused and surprised glances in her direction as she walked down the hallway. As several people stopped and stared, she glared at them, "What are you looking at?"
They quickly looked away and moved about their business.
Lily was avoided him. There was no doubt of it. Not that James could blame her, but it seemed that on the rare occasions that he saw her, she looked embarrassed rather than annoyed. He prayed to God that she hadn't seen him when he was completely drunk at the Ball, though he doubted that anyone who was there hadn't seen him acting like a prat. James sighed and ran a hand through his naturally messy hair as he climbed the steps to Astronomy. Lily would be in this class, but she would most likely not meet his eyes. Anytime she had to talk to him, it was always "James", but it a stingingly polite way.
James never thought he'd live to see the day when he would kill to hear Lily call him a jerk or ponce or prat; he wasn't picky.
When he went into the classroom, Lily was already hard at work making notes of the planets. She glanced up when James opened the door, but flushed and quickly looked away.
Her hatred of him after the whole jello incident had gone away, most likely because of something Gari or Rayven had said to her. But it had faded into that annoying, clipped polite air that said "I'm not going to speak to you anymore than absolutely, positively necessary. Period."
James held his breath and took the seat next to Lily.
"Hey, Lily," James greeted, pulling out some parchment and his quill.
"Hi, James," Lily replied.
'Damn her and her sexy clipped voice,' James thought, half angrily, half something else.
For moment, neither of them spoke. Then:
"Listen, Lily-"
"James-"
"I didn't mean to hurt you-"
"I'm sorry I was so horrible to you-"
"I want you to know-" James paused. "Wait…you're sorry?"
And then Lily, Lily Evans, little miss perfect and Head Girl, actually blushed. "Yes, well, I am sorry…" She took a breath and finally looked him in the eyes. "I know you didn't mean to hurt me. I mean, you may act like a prat half the time, James, but you're not…you're not cruel, you know?"
James smiled softly. "I should hope not."
"You aren't mean…at least not to most people," Lily cast a glance across the room at Snape. "And you're rather funny and smart…and loyal…"
"Not that I'm complaining or anything," James began tentatively. "And this is very good for my ego, Lily, but what exactly are you trying to say?"
"Well…er…" Lily blushed again. "I guess…well, will you go out with me?"
James jaw dropped. "Wha…wha…what did you say?"
Lily blushed yet again. "Will you go out with me?"
"Um…I can't believe I'm pushing my luck on this, but, why?" James asked, raising an eyebrow. "Lily, a few weeks ago you said you hated me."
"I did," Lily admitted. "And I'm still rather cautious about all this…but I think we might give it a try."
James smiled. "Yes, Lily, I'd love to go out with you."
Lily smiled too. "Alright then."
They went back to their notes, both of them smiling slightly, before James asked, "Did you decide to do this because of what happened to Alice?"
"What do you mean?" Lily frowned.
James shrugged. "I don't know…sometimes when people feel like their in danger or something terrible is going to happen, they do stupid things." He paused and smiled a little. "Like ask me out."
Lily laughed, a real genuine laugh. "No, it's nothing like that. But I guess a little bit of this has to do with Alice. I overheard you in the hallway the other day. You know, when you were telling off Snape for laughing about what happened to Alice. You didn't need to stick up for her, but you did. It was a very nice thing to do."
"Alice is one of the best people I know," James replied easily. "You should have seen me after Sirius told me what happened. I was about ready to strangle Snape. Alice didn't deserve that to happen to her."
"I know," Lily said softly. "But really, it's just a preview of things to come, isn't it?"
James was slightly taken aback, but only a little. "Yeah…I guess it is." He glanced around to see if Professor Deline was watching them. He leaned close and whispered, "It's not like the Slytherins aren't going to become Death Eaters, you know? We'll be fighting against each other the second we're out of school-"
"And they act like we shouldn't do anything," Lily finished, with a passionate fire in her eyes that James had never seen before. "It's ridiculous."
"I wish we could do something," James sighed. "I hate being stuck here in times like these."
"I know what you mean," Lily replied.
"Are you two quite done?"
Professor Deline, an elder woman in her seventies stood over them, glaring. Pretending to look terrified, the two students nodded tremblingly. Satisfied, Professor Deline walked away with an imperial air. Lily and James caught each others eyes and stifled a laugh.
Little boring, but necessary stuff. Gari's detention with Sigismund is in the next chapter, as well as Lily and James' first Hogsmeade date together. I know things are moving rather slowly, but the next chapter takes place over the course of November and most of December.