Devoted
Chapter 5
The next week went awkwardly for Lily and James. When they were together she was constantly worried that he might try to do something again and he was afraid that she might have said something to Sirius.
Lily watched him through their Charms class, trying to delve into his mind. What is thinking right now? Is he thinking about me? Does he want to kiss me again? Did he kiss me just to get back at Sirius?
"Hey Lillian," Colleen called distantly. "What's up with you? Charms is your favorite class, why aren't you paying attention?"
To tell or not to tell, it was something Lily had been struggling with all week. It was not in her nature to keep secrets from Colleen. Actually, it was to not in her nature to have secrets at all. And the closer she got to Sirius, the harder it was to remain untruthful to him.
"It's just…I'm just tired, is all." Lily answered lamely. As much as she wanted to spill her guts, she didn't want to get James in trouble.
Colleen sighed. "I am too. But you know what? It's Friday and I think that we, that is all the girls from the old dorm room, should have a girl's night out…or in. We all need to just relax and catch up. Especially with you, I mean, I'm your best friend and I don't even know what's going on with you anymore!"
Lily pouted as she turned towards Colleen. "We really shouldn't… Do you realize how much homewo-"
Colleen slapped her hand over Lily's mouth. "Shut up."
Cautiously, she removed her hand.
"But, Colleen, seriously, we really nee-"
Colleen shook her finger. "No Lily. Be quiet now." The bell signaling lunch sounded and she stood up and collected her books. "I'll see you at 7:00 tonight." Then she turned on her heel and strode from the classroom.
"But my homework, Colleen!" Lily shouted at the empty doorway. "Oh, bloody hell."
"Miss Evans!" Professor Flitwick squeaked, making her jump.
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At seven o'clock sharp, Lily walked into the Gryffindor 7th year girls' dorm. Tina was stretched across her bed reading a Quidditch magazine lazily. She was the only one in the room.
"Lily, darling," she drawled, not looking up from her article, "is it possible for you to ever be late at all?"
Lily sighed, "You know I don't like being behind schedule for anything"
Tina read the last sentence and shut the magazine. "I think that you should be really daring sometime and come 5 minutes later than you had planned." She narrowed her eyes humorously.
The door crashed open as Lily set down her duffel bag. "Lillian!" Colleen cried kissing her best friend on the cheek. "I see you're on time as usual!"
Lily rolled her eyes and waved at the three girls behind Colleen. "Hello Kylie and Veronica and Mals."
The three girls were inseparable. Kylie and Mals, short for Mallory, looked almost identical. Both had shoulder length brown-blonde hair and light blue eyes. Kylie had tanner skin, though, and was about two inches taller. Veronica was a strikingly pretty black girl with dark eyes and thinly braided hair.
They smiled in sync at Lily and walked to their respective beds.
Colleen grabbed Lily and pulled towards her old bed. "Guess what the threesome and I snagged?" She yelled excitedly.
Lily exchanged glances with Tina and shrugged. "What did you snag?"
Colleen grinned and pulled from her book bag two large bottles of Firewhiskey.
Kylie, Veronica, and Mals giggled eagerly.
Lily threw her hands up. "Colleen! First you drag me here when I could be doing my homework or spending time with my boyfriend and now you're whipping out alcohol!"
Tina groaned loudly. "Give it a rest and have some fun for once, Lily!" Kylie, Veronica, and Mals all nodded solemnly.
"Besides Lillian, you're among friends! I promise that if you make an arse out of yourself, I won't tell anyone and neither will they. We'll even make a vow that anything that happens in here tonight will stay between the six of us, agreed?"
Everyone nodded, including Lily, though she did it half heartedly. Getting wasted was the last thing she needed.
Colleen's smile spread. "Alright, let's get this party started!"
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"You-know," Lily slurred, wagging her finger at the other girls, "I wasn't sure about this at first…but I'm-I'm really havin' fun, y'know?"
The six of them were sitting in a circle on the floor. They were half way through the second bottle of whiskey which was standing in the middle of the ring. They had been very large bottles.
Colleen nodded seriously. "I know what you mean Lilli…Lillia…Lillin." She took another sip from the bottle and blew out a breath full of smoke, amusing all of them. "I also know why they call this stuff Firewhiskey now. It kind of burns your throat, like fire."
"E-zactly what I was thinkin'," nodded Kylie. "O'ly more like a…a…what's it called? More like a flame or something."
They all nodded at this and passed the bottle around.
Colleen slammed her hand on the ground. "Okay, down to business. Waddya guys wanna do?"
Lily stood up, wobbled, and promptly fell back down. "Let's not go anywhere." She grabbed the bottle and took a swig. "I think we should jus talk 'cause tha's why we had this girls' night in, right? Don't you think so?"
"I think I did say tha' to you Lillin. 'Cause you're always gone now."
Lily nodded. "Yeah, well I'm going out with Sirius and all. He takes up a lot of time. But I always do my homework, 'cept for tonight."
"Tha's right, Lily, and a damn fine job you're doin'!" Tina called out raising the Firewhiskey. "How are things goin' for you and Sirius?"
"Oh, really good. He's, like, really nice to me and he calls me something. I don't know what it is but nobody else calls me that."
Colleen nodded, "I know what it is but I can't remember either."
"Yeah," Lily said. "But I'm 'fraid he's going to be mad at me."
Veronica took a drink and cocked her head. "Why'll he be mad atcha?"
"Well, I shouldn' say n'ything to you all but I was goin' to my room one night and James kissed me. Can you believe tha'? And he's Sirius's best friend kind of like Colleen is my best friend and if she kissed Sirius…well I'd be really mad."
Tina looked mystified yet nonchalant. "Why did he do somethin' like that?"
Lily shrugged. "I dunno, he just said he liked me but you never know because he could 'ave been drunk or stoned, I dunno. But you can't tell n'ybody 'cause it's a secret. Shhhhh!"
Even in her drunken stupor, Lily had the feeling that this had been the best time out of any to release her secret and her conscience. None of her friends had looked in the least bit surprised by the information and the chances of them remembering were slim to none. Still, Lily could not help feeling relieved as Tina changed the subject to Quidditch.
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Meanwhile, in the boys' dorm, James and Peter were lazily playing Exploding Snap. Remus was not around because tonight was the start of a full moon. There had been no adventure planned for the Maurderers tonight because James and Sirius had been at such loggerheads and they had hardly spoken two words to each other since the last week.
The door slammed opened and Peter screamed effeminately because his cards had exploded and singed his eyebrows.
Sirius marched in, grinning from ear to ear. "James, I'm really sorry that I yelled at you for standing up to Snape. I guess it was something I should have been doing and tonight I've set up a prank to get back at that slimy prat."
James smiled; glad to have his friend back. "Excellent! What did you do?"
"You know how curious he is about what we're up to once a month? Poking his enormous nose where it doesn't belong, more like!" Sirius chuckled mischievously.
James's smile became plastered on. "Yeah…" What was Sirius planning? Anything involving Remus during the full moon was dangerous.
"Well, I just sent him an anonymous note," Padfoot continued, "telling him to simply prod the knot under the Whomping Willow to see what we did!"
The smile on James's face was now replaced with a look of horror. "You realize that he will come face to face with an unsafe werewolf when he does that, right? What if Moony bites him?"
Sirius scoffed. "Oh, come on, it'd serve the git right!"
James didn't say anything but simply rushed out of the dorm and the Gryffindor tower hoping that no one would hear his feet pounding against the stone.
Finally he reached the main door and threw it open, trying to catch his breath. He quickly glanced across the terrain and saw Snape sneaking towards the ominous Whomping Willow.
"Snape!" James cried, startling the figure creeping across the grounds. "Stop! Don't go in there!" He couldn't continue this conversation yelling for the whole school to hear so he ran towards his enemy.
"Listen to me; you can't go in that passage. It's more dangerous than you could possibly imagine."
Snape sneered and continued walking. "Why don't you fuck off?"
James grabbed Snape's arm and pulled him back.
"Get your hands off me, Potter!"
James tightened his grip. "If you walk down that tunnel you will meet a full grown and extremely treacherous werewolf."
Snape's face paled but he continued with his façade. "Sure I will, Potter." He snapped but no longer struggled against James's hold.
"No, you've got to listen to me…" The minutes passed slowly as James tried to come up with a reason that would get Snape to give up his search. Suddenly-
"What are you two boys doing out here?!" Screeched Madam Pomfrey, the school nurse. James let out a sigh of relief. "You are both severely past curfew and these grounds are unsafe after dark! Fifty points from both of your houses and your lucky I'm not one to give out detentions! Now, both of you inside and to your dorms at once!" She looked absolutely furious- and terrified.
The three of them walked quickly to the castle with Madam Pomfrey continually whispering things like, "Merlin, when I think of what could have happened." James knew what she was thinking because he was thinking the same thing. What if Remus had bitten one of them? The Whomping Willow is a protection, not a solution.
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The best thing about really good friends is that they are able to laugh off mistakes and differences. And even though they still get angry with each other over stupid things like boyfriends and girlfriends, they are willing to forgive and forget.
But all the same, James could not help feeling relieved when Sirius laughed off his misguided attempt at a prank. It was nice having his friend back.
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Monday morning, Lily walked towards the Gryffindor table with a blatant grin. It was incredibly, indescribably wonderful to see everyone on the right footing once again. Colleen was sitting across from Remus, flirting shamelessly. James was sitting to the right of Sirius engrossed in some conversation, though he appeared just happy to be on speaking terms again. Peter was trying his hardest to join into their discussion.
She watched them for a minute before sliding next to Sirius and kissing him on the cheek.
Lily liked to kiss him in the morning when his face was smooth and soft from being freshly shaven. In the evening, his face had a light layer of stubble that prickled her face.
James's face hadn't been stubbly that night that he had kissed her. It was soft and his lips were as smooth and wonderful as Sirius's cheek.
"Hey Lilybird, do you want some pumpkin juice or something?" A charmingly deep voice interrupted her thoughts.
Lily jumped, "Wha… Oh, sure, pumpkin juice." She could feel her cheeks blush deeply. As if Sirius could see what she was thinking about.
She watched James as he chatted animatedly with Remus. His eyes were so brown they looked black and they sparkled when he laughed. With a startled lurch of her heart, she remembered how his kiss had made her weak.
Please kiss me again, make my senses disappear, make my world disintegrate.
Lily's stomach flipped with this unwelcome thought. She was falling in love with Sirius Black. Wasn't she? Wasn't she?
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Hey! I just wanted to write a chapter that would incorporate some of the actual Harry Potter book. So, what do you think of Lily abandoning all principles and getting drunk off her ass? And what about her spilling James's kiss??? And wanting to kiss him again???? Da Da Da! Cool beans. This was just a buffer chapter to get some conversation in there and I promise that you will see some more Lily/James action soon!
Once again, 10 reviews for a new chapter!
Thank you:
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Eihwaz and Lourdaise
MasterDeath
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THANK YOU MasterDeathand Eihwaz and Lourdaise for very correctly pointing out the passage in which Hagrid tells Harry that both Lily and James were Head students. You definitely proved me wrong!! However, I won't be changing the story just for that. At least not right now. I might get back to it when I completely finish the story. Thank you once again!