Chapter 19
(A/N) IIIIIIIIIIIIIII'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yes, after a month of writer's block, I have returned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
And it took me a report on Shakespeare to figure that out.
Wow… Did I ever tell you guys that you reviewers are best???
Particularly my most loyal reviewers who seem to review every chapter, despite the fact that I take eternity to update… You guys know who you are!
I can't stop smiling, because I finally found the song I have been wanting to listen to forever. It's on the Anastasia soundtrack… Quite fitting to L/J, actually. Can you guess?
Oh, and a note, read Past, Present, and Future by someone, I'm beta-reading it! Then there's all of Sierra Sitruc's fics, but I don't think she needs advertising.
Disclaimer: I own the plot.
*~*~*~*~*
"My life is not normal," Lily sighed as they pushed past the throng of students rushing to their next class. "Really, I didn't think my life could get any more abnormal since my eleventh birthday, and then, this-" she sighed.
"Lily, it's not like Dumbledore didn't give you an option," Remus reasoned as they walked to the prefect's meeting. "He was even generous enough to give you a trial period of having all the power until you made your choice."
"Trial period," she scoffed. "Sounds like something out of one of those cheap infomercials selling products."
"So you declined the generous offer, eh?" Remus smiled to himself. "Anyway, you have more important things to worry about," he continued. "Like the Valentine's Day Ball."
Lily frowned as they continued to walk, passing a few Hufflepuff prefects. "A social gathering for a lame holiday used as an excuse for card companies to make more money is more important than a decision that could affect the lives of the wizarding world? Interesting. Explain."
"Well, I don't think so, but," Remus frowned. "While you and James were out, they came up with plans for the ball. Since we weren't expecting you guys until after, they hadn't really thought about whether or not you would approve. But now that you're back, the 'substitute Heads' are back to being lowly prefects, and you and James need to look over their plans. And believe me, it's important, as if you don't, Hufflepuff girls will attack you, and you'll never live to make that life-changing decision of yours."
"Oh." Lily half-smiled, as they reached the top of the steps. "Well, that changes everything."
"Yes, it does," Remus answered, waiting for her to walk in.
"In we go, then."
*~*~*~*~*
James sighed as Minnie- or was it Missy? - continued to drawl on and on about the Valentine's Day Ball.
Pointless, really, since they would probably be doing the same thing as always- fountain of candy hearts, prefects, staff, and head students opening the dance… wait, he wasn't required to dance with Evans. Because of "developments", according to McGonagall. And, of course, Sirius's favorite part… the snack bars that lined the length of the Great Hall, containing assortments of candy, ice cream, sandwiches, turkey, chicken, salad bar on the other side of the Great Hall, with practically every type of dressing on earth, and then every beverage that existed known to man…
It was rather obvious as to why Sirius enjoyed the Valentine's Day Ball better than every ball with the exception of the Christmas Ball (which included a large smorgasbord of food…).
Lily, next to him, appeared, to the untrained eye, to be assiduously taking notes on every word flying out of Minnie's mile a minute mouth. But he, being a Marauder, took notice of things others did not. Instead of taking notes as Minnie the Hufflepuff Dunce talked, she was doodling on her notebook.
Suddenly, thankfully, the babble stopped. Lily looked up, capped her pen, and smiled at the girl.
"Thank you, Minnie, we will be sure to take your suggestions to the Headmasters. Any other questions or suggestions?" she smiled and looked around at the other prefects, who were slowly waking up from horrifying nightmares of being in Professor Binn's classroom for a second time in the day.
James, of course, knew that Lily Evans was the one person who kept them all from killing each other. If it had been him running the entire meeting, he would have cracked long ago, yelling, "SHUT UP, WE DON'T CARE!"
If anything, that was the one thing that made her admirable. She had patience that seemed to go on for eternity. And eternity was a long time, if James's opinion.
Another hand raised, another Hufflepuff… Gilderoy Lockhart. The prefects fell asleep again, Lily resumed doodling, and James let out a muffled groan.
*~*~*~*~*
"That was the dullest meeting I've ever been in," James said aloud, as the three seventh Gryffindors walked down the hall, the other Gryffindor prefect (Annabelle Zarks) trailed off to join her Ravenclaw friends.
"I rather liked the idea Lockhart came up with," Remus smiled grimly. "Little Valentine-delivering midgets going around the school."
"Trolls, Remus, trolls," Lily muttered, then stopped in her tracks before continuing. "Ugh, mental image."
James shuddered at the thought. Little midget trolls wearing little diapers and fake wings, and singing valentines, nonetheless.
"What class is it now?" Lily asked suddenly.
"Erm… electives," Remus answered, checking his watch.
Lily groaned softly. "Oh, please, walk slow. I have no desire to listen to Sybil Trelawney's cousin discuss with the class of how I'll end up dying prematurely in my own house."
"Aunt," James corrected. "Sybil's cousin teaches at Beauxbatons, remember? Remus, slow down. I have Divination, too."
The three trudged across the snowy courtyard (the longest route from the great hall to Trelawney's room), discussing their plans for the Valentine's Day Ball.
*~*~*~*~*
Professor Trelawney walked up and down to aisles, pausing to smile at her little fifth year Ravenclaw niece, who was already taking seventh year Divination.
She was growing quite restless, after predicting two broken bones, a dispute with tragic results, and the death of someone's relative. She smiled, hearing her niece predict Gryffindor's loss in the next quidditch match, with six broken bones, four broken noses and two broken arms. The little dear was learning fast.
"Sorry we're late, professor," James Potter's voice said in the doorway.
Professor Trelawney's face looked up in annoyance. Lily Evans and James Potter. The two were her worst students, yet they somehow managed to maintain high marks when the grades came out.
"Take a seat," she said stiffly. "And you two must partner up with each other, due to your lack of punctuality."
"Professor, we have an announcement to make, regarding the Valentine's Day Ball," Lily said, waving around her notebook.
The attention of the students was immediately directed on the Head Girl, with more respect than Professor Trelawney had received in a lifetime.
Seemingly miffed, the professor nodded and took a seat behind her desk, and began to grade the homework.
'Fail… Fail… Fail… Fail… 100%… Fail… Fail…'
Her chain of thought was rudely interrupted by the cheering of the class, happy about the approaching ball.
*~*~*~*~*
"You are cordially invited to the funeral of Marigold and Richard Evans. The funeral will take place in Dublin, Ireland, this Sunday. The service will start at 2:30, and will end at 5:00. Please come dressed appropriately and on time."
Lily stared at the creamy, off-white, invitation. Had it not been for the black seal, she would have thought it was a wedding invite.
Though she knew her father had wanted to return to Ireland someday (his mother, Lily's Grandmother, had been Irish), she suspected that the location of the funeral was her sister's way of saying, "Don't come."
If her mother were there at that very moment, Lily was sure she would have said, "Lily, don't always think the worst of people."
Good advice, but sometimes it just couldn't be helped.
The portrait hole door suddenly swung open to reveal a tired looking James Potter, who immediately collapsed onto the couch.
Looking up, he said a weary, "Hi."
Seeing his disheveled state, Lily quirked a smile. "Did a bomb explode at quidditch practices?" she asked.
James chuckled, wiping his brow, "Does it look that way?" he asked. "Actually, Professor McGonagall attended practice and I lost all control of my team, as they tried desperately to show her how great they were."
Lily laughed. "I was just going over some plans on the Valentine's Day Ball," she said, discarding the letter and picking up her clipboard. "You should see the ideas the school comes up with. I think these are the most bizarre suggestions I've ever seen in my seven years here."
As was known to students, the Balls were open to suggestions by all years attending, and every year, around a week or two before the actual ball, the students would send in suggestions by the dozen. Prefects would read the suggestions and send the best ones to the Head Students.
"I read a few on my way back from practice," James answered, showing her his clipboard. "I hope you don't count the first sixteen regarding food. They're from Sirius."
Lily shook her head. "Two of them are from Peter, actually," she smiled. "His weren't as outrageous as Sirius's."
"No one's ideas are ever as outrageous as Sirius's," James replied. "You should know that by now."
*~*~*~*~*
Lily Evans was curled up in a chair next to the window, staring as the rain fell steadily outside, listening to the raindrops hit the windowpane.
She remembered when she was a little child… about six, probably, when she had woken up from a nightmare, because of the thunderstorm outside.
"Daddy, the rain's scary," she had said. "And the wind. It's yelling at me."
Mr. Evans had been interrupted from his late-night reading by his little six-year-old daughter, who was looking up at him with big, round, eyes, clutching to her teddy bear tightly.
Smiling, he answered, "Honey, the rain's not scary. I think it's calming."
"Daddy?"
"Yes, sweetie?"
"You're wrong," the six-year-old insisted. "The rain's scary, the wind's mean, and the thunder's too loud."
As if to prove her point, a loud clap of thunder sounded. Terrified, Lily squealed and jumped into her father's lap.
Grimacing, she asked, "Is it over?"
Mr. Evans chuckled. "You know, thunderstorms aren't that terrible. Why, just look out the window and tell me what's so scary."
"No!" the stubborn little girl insisted. "The window's going to break, Daddy! Can't you hear that awful noise it's making? I'll fall out!"
"Come on," Mr. Evans said, picking her up. "Up you get."
"Daddy!" his daughter squealed. "Put me down!"
Mr. Evans laughed lightly, as she pounded at his back. Setting her down in front of the window (though she drew back a far as possible), he opened it.
"Hold out your hand," he said, guiding her hand out with his.
"Daddy, it's wet," she had complained. "And cold."
"But there's nothing scary about it, is there?" Mr. Evans asked, as she held her hand out.
Lily Evans squinted her eyes. "Daddy, it's dark. That's scary, isn't it?"
Mr. Evans laughed again, though young Lily couldn't understand why. The dark was a perfectly good reason to be scared, wasn't it? Monsters and bats and… and witches could be hiding in the dark.
"Look up in the sky, honey," Mr. Evans said. "What do you see?"
"Stars, Daddy. But still…"
"That's right, Lily," Mr. Evans smiled. "Stars. And just think, each of those stars is carrying someone's deepest wish. Don't you think that's special? To be able to carry someone's secret dream?"
"I guess," Lily shrugged. "But it's still dark."
"But the stars are there to keep you company in the dark," Mr. Evans said. "And with them, somebody's dream. Maybe even some angels' dreams. Wouldn't that be nice?"
"I guess," Lily said reluctantly. "Oh, Daddy, you come up with the funniest stories."
Mildly surprised, her father asked, "What?"
"You don't think I actually believed you, did you?" Lily patted her father's back comfortingly. "Don't worry. Mommy says that I'm… ma…maturing, and you're afraid of losing me, so I'm supposed to… to… humor you. Am I right, Daddy?"
Mr. Evans laughed. "Go to sleep, tiger."
Lily smiled slightly.
She had always tried to sound older than she really was, just because she liked the way her parents would laugh and smile, then say, "Oh, Lily, what are we going to do with you when you grow up?"
She'd always respond, "Oh, I won't. I'll never grow up. I'll go to Neverland with Peter Pan and Wendy, and I'll-"
"Wendy grew up, remember?" Mrs. Evans had reminded her.
"Oh," Lily's brow had furrowed in thought. "Jane, then. I'll go with Jane."
Mr. Evans had laughed, overhearing the conversation on his way down from breakfast. Giving his wife a kiss on the cheek and taking his toast out of the toaster, he ruffled her hair. "Jane grew up as well, Tiger. They all grow up eventually."
"Besides," Mrs. Evans added, "We'd miss you far too much."
"Oh, phooey," Lily had plopped back onto the kitchen table. "But just for the record, I'm just staying 'cause you'd miss me. Don't think I couldn't do it. 'Cause I just might someday."
"Do what?" nine-year-old Petunia Evans had skipped into the kitchen.
"Fly," Lily said dreamily. "Really, don't you think it'd be wonderful, Petunia?"
Petunia had rolled her eyes. "Mrs. Larrimore says that you can't fly because of gravity," she said, grabbing her plate of pancakes. "Right, mum?"
"I don't know," Mrs. Evans sighed. "I think our Lily just might have enough will to go right out and do it."
Lily grinned at her sister, showing her two missing front teeth. (the "tooth fairy" hadn't left her money, since "she was broke". Instead, she had left a note saying that she should be glad, since the tooth would be "helping the Toothville people build their communities for the next generations")
"But if you tried, we'd try harder to keep you with us," Mr. Evans said, setting down his milk glass. Directing his speech at his wife, he said, "Delicious, dear."
"I told you I wouldn't go," Lily said. "Just 'cause you'd all be lost without me."
Lily sighed, leaning her head against the windowpane, listening to the rain continuing to fall.
*~*~*~*~*
Life was not going well.
Not for Lily Evans, not for James Potter.
No one, of course, knew the exact reason, as the three were surprisingly good at revealing naught but surface emotions, and a few words that were just for show, what other people expected them to say.
Really, Lily Evans didn't feel as though she had lost the two most important people in her life, however true it was. James Potter wasn't devastated at the prospect of his mother's pending death.
James Potter had never been the best at revealing what he felt. Instead, he had been the best at hiding it. He wasn't just the laughing, joking, boy, nor the famed quidditch star, or the excellent student everyone perceived him to be. To know someone was to know them when they were a child, for that was when they truly a free spirit, untarnished by the woes and troubles of worrying constantly about tomorrow, unmarked by the presence of constant pressure. But few people had known James as a boy, so very few were able to figure out the mystery of James Potter. In fact, the few flashes of the core underneath the gilded surface were shone when he was flying, on his own, and with Lily Evans.
Lily Evans. A girl filled with so much passion for life, so much spirit, that she could make the emotionless James Potter feel. But she herself was not untouched by trouble, either. Rather than Lily Evans, the Head Girl, Lily Evans, top student, or Lily Evans, epitome of perfection, she was, simply, Lily.
Lily. She did recall, once, as a student in finishing school, she had been embroidering her namesake on a pillow, but hadn't had the patience to carefully do stitch by stitch. In the end, she'd even left out the stems. She liked it better that way, she'd decided, the idea of being rooted, stuck in the mud, was too confining.
To gild the lily was to perfect perfection, and Lily Evans had no desire to strive for perfection. James Potter had always been taught to reach for perfection.
What was the other saying? Oh, yes… Opposites attract.
*~*~*~*~*
"Hi," Remus greeted.
Lily looked up from her clipboard and smiled. "Hi. I'm reading a few of the suggestions sent in from the students. Interesting and creative, though I highly doubt McGonagall will jump at the chance of dousing Sirius with love potions. A suggestion from one of the fifth years, I think."
"How's the planning coming along, by the way?" he prompted. "Inquiring minds want to know."
Lily reached for another clipboard. "Well, if you ask me, it'll be a pretty extravagant occasion, considering the fairies that'll be flitting around, blessing people and such. Two artificial brooks will be running from opposite sides of the Great Hall, ending in a little pond filled with carp and goldfish. In magical water, of course. There's some sort of cute little meaning behind it, I'm sure," she flipped through the clipboard. "Ah. It symbolizes the two different paths that love may take, ending in the same place. Sweet, really."
Remus laughed. "Betty Thomas spread a rumor that Dumbledore would be importing sixteen unicorns from Paris, three hundred doves from Venice, and eight hundred butterflies from Brazil. Please, separate the facts from the fiction."
"Twenty six unicorns, and eighty hundred butterflies," Lily corrected. "And we shall have an Eden. A waterfall, a maze of flowers and shrubs, and seventeen fountains. Fairies will be staying in the garden, so they'll be illuminating the place. Dumbledore really outdid himself this time."
"Swing music," Remus's eyes twinkled, "will be featured. Do you, Miss Evans, know how to dance anything aside from the waltz?"
"Of course," she shrugged. "It was my choice. Your Head Boy decides the next one."
Remus sighed. "Two weeks to go before the Ball. Are you excited?"
"No," Lily answered, putting the clipboard back into its place. "If my appearance isn't required to open the dance, I don't believe I'll be going."
*~*~*~*~*
Her appearance was, apparently, required. Any prefect or Head was required to serve some time at the snack line, as one could not trust dozens of teenagers to wait for their food in a civilized manner. Chaos would break, food fights would ensue. So, each Head or prefect had to attend to the food.
Lily was less than happy.
"If I am not required to dance, I am required to wait on people?" she demanded. "What sort of rubbish is that?"
"The kind Hogwarts uses," Sirius answered happily. "With James and you on snack duty, I might be able to slip some of my potion in the Slytherin's plates after all!"
A glare from Lily silenced him. Deciding to switch to a safer subject, he asked, "So, Lillers, who's asked you to the Ball so far? Mind you, I can always go to the Hospital Wing to check your answer."
"None," Lily sniffed disdainfully. "I appear to give off a sense of… unapproachability to our fellow peers. Returning to the years as a wallflower, I am."
Sirius chuckled. "Not very likely. Flower you may be, Lily, m'dear, but a wallflower is not you. Otherwise you'd be named Ivy," he laughed at his own lame pun. "Somebody always plucks the flower from the stem prematurely when it's a lily."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily asked sharply.
"Perfection is the first thing to go when it comes to life," Sirius answered.
"I'm not perfect," she said testily. "If that's what you're implying."
"Sure you aren't," Sirius agreed, lest he end up in the hospital due to some incurable, undiscovered, curse. Smoothly, he changed the topic, "So, what's for eating? At the ball, I mean."
*~*~*~*~*
Adele Windsor smiled contentedly, resting her head on the strong shoulder of James Potter.
He tensed a little, though he didn't object. Adele was his third date in the past few days, and he was already uncomfortable. It had been his father's doing, telling him of some business associate whose daughter attended school with him. In Ravenclaw, my associate says, so she must have some mind of her own, as you wished.
Ravenclaw she may be, but James felt as though she wasn't the intellect-filled girl his father claimed she was. More like a blonde in disguise of a brunette.
Not that he'd ever had anything against blondes. His mother was, after all, blonde, and she'd been witty, sharp-tongued, and had conversation enough for everyone. But it seemed Hogwarts didn't have any of her sort there…
With, perhaps, the exception of a select few he had ever dated, though even they had paled in comparison to a certain lily…
Not that he'd ever want to date her. Lily Evans was, in short, not his type, much to the pleasure of his fan club. She was, as anyone could see plainly, the one girl he ever paid that much attention to.
A few had thought that hating him might be why she received so much attention, so they, in turn, tried that. For a full week, James had had to endure nonstop taunting and teasing, and tempers everywhere. The plan had failed when a certain Lily Evans had not only laughed at them, but had also laughed with him.
So the girls had to face the facts: James Potter would never pay as much attention to any other girl as Lily Evans.
James himself was so oblivious to all this that it only made him even more desirable, if that made any sense.
But then, mindless little Hufflepuffs chasing after James often had no sense.
*~*~*~*~*
Evelyn looked in the mirror grimly as the Leslie and Bella crowded around her. "Lily, the verdict?"
They had been deciding which dresses were suitable for the Ball in the fine afternoon warmth (or as warm as it gets in early February) in the shop during their Hogsmeade weekend.
Lily glanced up from her chair in the corner of the small clothes shop. "Red," she noted observantly. "Satin. Accentuates the waist, thank goodness you have a small one… hourglass figure. Sleeveless, three-quarter length gloves… Black choker…" She nodded her approval.
"And me?" Bella demanded Lily's attention as she whirled around in front of the mirror. "What d'you think?"
"Too pink," she answered. "Try the crushed velvet. It makes you look thinner."
"What about me?" Leslie asked.
Before Lily could answer, the little bell that announced a visitor rang, and James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter walked in.
"And me, what about me!" Sirius squealed in a high, girly, falsetto. "Oh, fashionable Lily, what do you think? Do you think the color of my eyes will match the color of my socks? And the shoes! Double shine or Triple shine? I wouldn't want it to outshine the shine of my ever-so-shiny new watch! Oh, what tragedy that would be!"
He staggered back, pretending to weep.
James joined him in the act, practically blubbering. "Oh, no, I just realized something," he said in a surprisingly accurate imitation of the high, peppy, squeals of the Hufflepuff girls. By then he and Sirius had been reduced to tears pouring out by the gallon. "I ordered the black suit instead of the dark black suit! How shall I ever go on! I think I'll die of embarrassment! And my watch! The numbers are on a cream faceplate, instead of the beige faceplate! Ack!"
He and Sirius doubled over crying… laughing, actually, with tears of laughter streaming down their faces.
Lily, apparently, was not amused. "Not funny," she crossed her arms.
"Oh, come on, don't be such a stick-in-the-mud," Sirius said, still in peals of laughter. "I'll be your best friend…"
Lily quirked a smile at the childish promise, while James punched him lightly on the shoulder. "I thought I was your best friend," he complained. "Just because she has nice boo-"
"I trade loyalties," Sirius answered, grinning at James's near slip. "Like a dog."
Lily rolled her eyes and pushed the troupe out, James making a hasty, insincere apology, claiming it to be "male chauvinism" before Lily smacked him loudly and sent him on his way out.
*~*~*~*~*
(A/N) Short chapter, but I couldn't think of too much. Don't forget to tell me your favorite chapter and least favorite chapters!!!!! Cookies and Snow Wars Parts I and II are in the lead for faves!!!!!!
To Come: More tête-à-têtes to come between Lily and James, and… that's it. Maybe more stuff with their friends, as well.