Recap: "Professor Dumbledore announced me about your little…uh…adventure to the future." McGonagall said and Lily could have sworn she detected a tiny smile.
"And professor Dumbledore and I thought it would be a good idea if you would continue from where you stopped there. Please send me a note later; telling where you stopped in each subject and the teachers will give you material to do during class. You two will be at the prefects' room and do the work the teachers assign you there. I don't want to find you doing something…else…while you're supposed to study."
James stopped playing and looked back with surprise and saw Lily smiling at him. He kissed her forehead and put his guitar on his side, letting Lily jump into his lap and embrace. There were no explanations needed.
They hugged each other close, just finally realising how much they missed each other.
"I missed you J," murmured Lily, putting her head on his chest.
"I missed you too Lil." He said and kissed her cheek.
Chapter 17
"House keeping charms!" cried James in alarm, "Why do we need to learn that?"
Lily sighed; boys could be so dense sometimes. They were sitting of the floor of the Heads common room and looking at the roll of parchment professor Flitwick gave them with the assignments.
"Because we are seventh years and going to finish Hogwarts soon," Lily started, in her best know-it-all voice.
James interrupted her "What does it has to do with House Keeping charms?" he asked thickly with a confused look on his face.
"Because after you will finish Hogwarts you are an adult. You need to know how to do your own laundry and make food," Lily said in exasperation.
Realisation dawned on James's face and Lily rolled her eyes. "Oh."
"Yes 'oh','" said Lily amusedly, "Now please conjure a bowl with hot water so we can practice the Laundry Charms."
James did so with a wave of his wand, watching Lily's face. She's beautiful. Lily's face burned as she heard his thoughts.
"James…"
"All right, all right…" he said with a hint of sadness in his voice, "We need cloths. So, take off your shirt."
"James," said Lily indignantly, her face, that was yet to recover from the last embarrassment, was burning even brighter red. It only lasted a second before it was replaced by a dangerous glint in her eyes.
She waved her wand and in one swift movement, his shirt was off. James yelped in surprise and Lily laughed.
James turned into an interesting shade of scarlet that spread over his chest.
"You are blushing even below your face, now that's something to see…" teased Lily.
"I didn't realise you wanted to see me shirtless so bad, Evans," replied James cheekily. It was Lily's turn to blush.
She pushed his shirt into the hot water and hissed when her hands hit the water.
"Why didn't you levitate it?" asked James in confusion after performing a cooling charm on her hands.
"I'm used to doing that the muggle way" Lily said, examining her hands "Never mind, now let's see what's written about these charms."
She started reading it and James looked at her expectantly for a while before saying, "Uh…I'm here too, I need to know how to do it as well…"
"Oh!" Lily said, blushing again, "There are three charms in the Laundry Charms section, the Washing Charm, the Aroma Charm and the Ironing Charm," she read aloud.
"The Washing Charm should wash the cloths in soap and vanish the stains. The incantation is immunis," they both turned to look at the wand movements and tried the spell. Red sparks shot out of the ends of their wands.
The shirt, that was shabby and dirty, looked new.
"Wow, that is a very old shirt" said James in amazement.
Lily giggled "Well, with two people cleaning it, it should look new. Now, the Aroma CharMs" She skimmed through the page and started reading.
"The Aroma Charm is meant to give the cloths a smell according to the spell caster's favourite flower..."
"I know what my favourite flower is," declared James. And with a quick glance at the wand movement the shirt and everything around it began to smell oddly like Lilies.
Lily was beet red for the millionth time that day and James smiled at her cheekily. She faked a cough to hide her embarrassment.
"Ironing Charm next," she said.
"Ironing Charm is meant to iron the cloths and dry them. First levitate the shirt from the hot water and say facere ferrum."
They both muttered the incantation. Suddenly, Lily felt her shirt became a little stiff and warm. She looked and saw that her shirt was ironed.
She looked up to meet James's smirk "James!" she yelped. James laughed out loud and Lily, as a revenge, started to tickle him.
To her disappointment he was not ticklish.
"Trying to tickle me, Miss Evans?" he asked mockingly. He rose on his elbows and started to tickle her.
To his satisfaction, she was ticklish. Very ticklish. She laughed and laughed, gasping for breath every now and then.
Tears were streaming down her face from laughing so hard "S-Stop…Oh….God…." she continued laughing until James fingers tired and he stopped. Lily managed to breathe a couple of steady breaths before she realised that James was partly on her.
He was lying on his stomach, one hand across her stomach, barely touching the floor and his face was close to hers. She didn't like where his thoughts were heading, but before she could say something he spoke.
"What did we do wrong?" he asked quietly.
Lily sighed, she knew they had to talk about it sometime; now was just not a good time to do it. "I don't know. It had to work. We did the spell right, I know we did. The prophesy probably ruined what we were trying to do there is no other explanation," she said reluctantly, as if afraid she might realise what they did wrong.
"What do you mean?" asked James.
"James, I-I Don't want to talk about it," she whispered, her eyes looked suspiciously moistened.
James stroked Lily's cheek when he saw the unshed tears.
"Ok," he said and kissed her forehead with an uncharacteristic gentleness.
"J" Lily said softly "Will you just hold me?" she whispered.
James lifted an eyebrow on the name but lifted her with his hands and sat on the sofa, putting her in his lap, her head on the crook of his neck, hands encircling his neck.
James held her around her waist, smelling her hair and enjoying the feeling of her slim body against his. He closed his eyes and leaned on the sofa.
"Why J?" asked James after a few minutes.
"Huh?" said Lily and got her hold on his loosened to look at his face. Their faces were extremely close and they yet to free the each other.
"Why do you call me J?" he asked softly, feeling Lily's warm breath on his face.
"Oh," she said quietly "I don't know, I guess I'm just lazy to call you by your full name," she said with a quivering smile.
"Are you?" he murmured, looking at her outrageously close lips.
"Yeah…" she said just as quietly.
He kissed her softly, as if afraid to break her, and drew back. Looking in her eyes, he tried to figure out if she wanted it just as much as he did.
He saw longing and sadness and read the silent message she was trying to give him. Not yet
He understood her will and although disappointed, he knew that she was his. He nodded in understanding and lowered his head.
Lily sighed and held him close, her chin resting on his head she stroked his hair.
Not yet.
"My dear fellow marauders!" said Sirius loudly that evening in the dormitory, "It has been a week since school started and we didn't prank even once!" he cried in mock disbelief.
"You know, you're right," said James.
"Who?" asked Peter shortly.
"Snivellus," said James venomously, not yes forgetting how awful he was to both himself and Harry. It is his vengeance.
They all heard the venom in his voice but only Remus gave it a second thought. "Ok, so what do we do?" asked Peter.
"I say…"
The next morning some of the Gryffindors noticed how giddy the marauders looked. They threw curious looks but the marauders eyes told them all you wait and see.
When Lily entered the hall, she immediately noticed how tense and excited the boys looked. She sat and started eating her cereal, praying into James's mind, what their prank would be.
When she found out, she snorted very unladylike into her cereal, catching James's eye, she knew he knew she knew.
He gave her a tiny smile and she smiled back, something that didn't go unnoticed by neither of the marauders or the Gryffindor table.
Suddenly, Snape rose from his seat and stood on the table, attracting all of the students' attention. His black robes transfigured itself into a ping tight dress with white lace, looking like the hairy, greasy version of a twisted Barbie doll.
The hall erupted into hysterics, but the prank didn't stop there. Snape jumped off the table to stand in front of the teachers table and faced the students.
He opened his mouth and to the horror of the students, Snape started to sing: "I feel pretty, oh, so pretty, I feel pretty and witty and brrriiight!"
The students that didn't recover from the sight of Snape, started gasping for air as they laughed even harder. Even some of the Slytherins were laughing.
"I feel charming, oh, so charming…" at this point Snape started dancing what most people would call a sexy dance, but when Snape danced, it looked like a very bad and amateurish drag queen.
"It's alarming how charming I feel! And so pretty that I hardly can believe I'm real!"
Clapping could be heard as well as the hysteric laughter from all over the Great Hall when Snape bowed to the students and then the teachers.
After a few seconds professor McGonagall's red face could be spotted. Lily wasn't sure if it was from trying to suppress her laugher or from anger.
"Black! Lupin! Potter! Pettigrew! Into my office immediately!" she yelled while professor Flitwick tried unsuccessfully to transfigure the dress into school robes.
Snape was so red in his face, Lily thought he might explode. She watched as James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were leaded proudly outside of the Great Hall by professor McGonagall.
James winked at her and blew her a kiss before shutting the Great Hall's doors. Lily turned a little pink but smiled a little nevertheless.
"What was that?" growled professor McGonagall when the boys sat in front of her in her office.
"I believe it was a prank," said Sirius cheekily.
"May I ask, why did you prank Mr Snape?"
"Well, it's been a week since we got to school and we didn't do a single prank yet, which is outrageously shocking. We had to do something, or else our reputations would have been ruined," said James in the most serious tone he could master.
McGonagall's nostrils flared – never a good sign.
"May I remind you Potter that you are Head Boy? You should set an example for the younger students."
James lowered his head, but answered her nevertheless, "I am not sorry," he said determinedly, "He deserved it."
"It has been a week since the school started, and he did nothing wrong to you during this week."
"Children pay for their fathers' sins" he said. This sentence sounded rather odd to the rest of the marauders, but James has managed to get McGonagall to understand his motives.
"You have a week of detention, separately. Dismissed," McGonagall declared to Sirius', Remus' and Peter's astonishment.
"What did you mean back there 'children pay for their fathers' sine?" asked Sirius in awe, amazed.
"Never mind" said James, not wanting to discuss his adventure to the future with them yet. He wasn't ready and he didn't want to ruin the fragile relationship he and Lily have.
"It was a very nice display of magic there," said a quiet voice behind them. The boys' bodies stiffened when they recognised the headmaster's voice.
They turned to him and relaxed when they saw his blue eyes twinkling merrily. "Mr Potter, can you please accompany me to my office?" he said in his deep voice.
At James's horrified face he smiled "You are not in trouble", James relaxed and followed him, leaving three confused marauders behind.
When James entered Dumbledore's office, small butterflies fluttered in his stomach. James was surprised; she never drew this kind of reaction from him.
He sat on the chair next to her and tried to focus on the headmaster even though he kept sneaking glances at her.
"I called you here to let you ask questions you probably have about your little…adventure to the future. But before I let you ask the questions, I want to ask you something." He peered over his half-moon glasses at them.
"What was the last thing you did or said before you were transported back?"
James lowered his gaze to his feet, shuffling them on the floor. He was not one to admit his weaknesses in front of people.
"Mr Potter?" asked Dumbledore, as if reading his thoughts.
"I-I'd rather not talk about it sir," said James.
"I see…Maybe a Pensive would do the trick?" he asked gently. James thought about it and nodded. "I would like you to come with us" he said and got up to bring the Pensive.
James shook his head. He wasn't ready to see himself crying in front of two Lilys and Dumbledore. "No thank you professor."
"Join me Ms Evans?" Dumbledore asked politely.
Lily understood James's motives not to enter the Pensive and in fact, she wasn't ready herself to see how she broke down. "No thank you professor" she echoed James's words silently.
"Perfectly understandable. Mr Potter, I daresay you already know how to use a Pensive. Please extract your memory and into the Pensive, that's right. Now, are you sure you don't want to come along?"
As he saw the two teenagers shaking their heads, he smiled a bit. "Well, have fun than". He put his hand into the Pensive and disappeared with a flash of light.
Now, with nothing to distract them, James was more than aware to his surroundings. He saw Dumbledore's phoenix, Fawkes, gazing at them with interest, he saw Sirius's great-great grandfather, Phineas Nigellus snoozing in his frame.
He felt something warm near his palm. He looked and saw that Lily's hand was dangerously close to his. He took a deep breath and raised his fingers a little so they were slightly touching Lily's.
An electric jolt shot up his arm from the spot Lily's fingers touched his. Suddenly, he felt Lily's fingers moving a little as well; she was intertwining the tips her fingers with his.
James let out an inaudible sigh of happiness. He didn't see the portrait of Dilys Derwent smiling so widely her face could have been split into two.
A silent pop jerked James and Lily's hands away from each other's. Dumbledore was back and he seemed very pensive. After a few milliseconds though, he was back to his cheerful twinkling annoying self.
"Well, that certainly cleared things up. Now, shoot the questions!" he said cheerfully.
"Uh…How did we come back?" asked James, still feeling a bit breathless after the 'encounter' with Lily a few seconds ago.
"Excellent question dear boy, well, combining the things my future self told me and what I saw right now, it would seem that a strong emotion like anger caused a gap between two dimensions, one you may call the present and one you may call future."
"But why?" said James before Dumbledore had a chance to finish his explanation.
"And it would seem that a strong emotion like sorrow mended that gap. As for your question, the answer is fate, simply fate."
"What did your future self wrote to you in that letter?" blurted Lily before she could stop herself. It was a very personal question.
"A lot of things," said Dumbledore vaguely.
"That was obvious," said James with a snort. Dumbledore's eyes twinkled in amusement.
"Well, you might be happy to hear that I know the dates of your parents' deaths" both Lily and James paled.
James's father was killed by Death Eaters when James was 12 and it still hurt him a lot to think about it. "And that we will be able to save them, along with thousands of other people, muggles and wizards from a horrible fate. You should be proud of yourself."
"Yeah, real proud, we made Harry die," said James harshly before he could think. Lily paled again and tears filled her eyes.
"While we are on the matter, my future self was very interested what caused this," Dumbledore said gently.
Both teenagers were quiet. The wound was still to deep and raw. "A Pensive again maybe?" they both shook their heads, knowing that this time they would have to go into the Pensive.
"Very well, any other questions?" Dumbledore said gently.
"No sir," mumbled the teenagers.
"Very well, off you go".
Lily and James walked through the corridors in Hogwarts, attracting many curious glances from the students; since when James Potter and Lily Evans are friendly with each other?
"Look at them, they are all wondering what are we doing walking together without yelling at each other," whispered Lily to James after they passed a group of whispering seventh years.
James laughed silently.
"Let them wonder," he said and entered the Heads room.
It was about 10pm and the seventh and sixth years Gryffindor girls were wide awake in the empty common room. They were feeling very giggly to say at least.
"Say," called one of the sixth years "What do you say we play truth or dare?"
The girls cheered. Someone summoned a bottle and turned it. It pointed on a blond sixth year named Mandy.
"Who do you think is the sexiest boy in Hogwarts?" asked a brunette.
"Sirius Black," the girl said without faze.
The game continued for about an hour and the seventh years could not believe the bottle did not point at them even once.
"This is ridicules!" said Jenny at last "It's been an hour and the bottle did not stop on us even once!"
"Maybe we'll just ask you questions and you can answer?" suggested Mandy, also noticing the bottle's strange behaviour.
"All right," agreed the seventh years.
"So…Amy, what is it about you and Sirius Black always fighting?"
Amy shook her head "I don't know what's going on," she said truthfully, "I just can't stand it when he is so cocky. He thinks he's so sexy and it's so annoying!"
"He is sexy," pointed one of the girls.
Amy blushed, "Look, I won't deny it, he is very good looking but, I don't know, he always says something that flares my temper."
"He said he likes you," pointed out Jenny under Amy's glare.
Amy blushed even harder, "I don't know how true it is, but if he'll ask me out I don't know what I'll do; he is such a player."
"That he is," agreed Lily, "like James Potter." She didn't really know what made her say that, she was getting along very good with James.
The sixth year girls looked at her in shock and then burst out laughing.
"What?" Lily said in confusion, "What did I say?"
"James Potter? Player? Are you blind Evans? He has his eyes only on you," said Mandy a bit bitterly, "He didn't date anyone for the last three years."
"What?" said Lily in disbelief, "No way!"
"Way," said the brunette, "You were too focused on hating him to notice."
"I do not hate him!" exclaimed Lily, shaking her head.
"You don't now," said Amy with a frown, "But you did. I don't know what happened to you on the Hogwarts Express. One minute you hated him and after the prefect meeting you didn't."
"Yeah, I noticed something was wrong on the prefect meeting," said the sixth year prefect named Liana.
"I- look, if I tell you something do you promise not to tell anyone?" said Lily. The girls nodded and got closer to Lily, eager for some gossip.
Lily took a pillow in her hands. "Do you remember on the Hogwarts Express when I yelled at him?" the girls nodded, "Well, when I got into the Heads compartment I…uh…yelled at him a bit more."
Some of the girls giggled "And then he yelled at me back," the girls' expressions turned to shock; James Potter yelled at Lily Evans!
"Then the Head compartment started to spin and-"
"Lily stop!" a yell was heard from the stairs to the boys' dormitories.
On the bottom of the stairs, James stood with his arms crossed and his eyes glazing. Although he was in pyjamas, no one dared to move or giggle.
"Lily, please don't tell them anymore," James said almost pleadingly.
"Why not?" snapped Lily suddenly annoyed with him for interrupting her spilling her heart out.
"Because you can ruin everything we achieved by doing this!" he snapped back, apparently still aware to the other girls' presence.
"What do you mean?" she asked suspiciously.
James looked in her eyes trying to pass her a message; but she didn't want to see what he meant.
She turned to the girls who were looking on the argument with open mouthed. She opened her mouth to say something to them but-
"Do it for Harry," he said softly. Lily's eyes glazed with anger and she stood up.
"Shut up Potter, and don't you dare mention him" James cringed when she called him Potter and the hurt was very obvious in his eyes.
"You weren't the only one who lost him," he said coldly.
"Shut up," she said and faced him.
"No-! Lily I won't let you do that!"
SMACK
Lily slapped James with anger but immediately her hand flew to her mouth. And she started to apologise, "I'm so sorry-"
"Never mind," he said in a strained voice, "I'm used to it. I just can't believe I'm the fool again," he turned and climbed the spiral staircases to the boys' dormitories.
"James-" said Lily weakly.
"Forget it Lily," said James's voice.
But Lily wasn't about to let him go again. She climbed the stairs after him, not noticing the gasps from the girls.
He was near his dormitory door when she put her hand on his shoulder and turned him. His eyes were full of hurt and a red mark of a hand was on his cheek.
"I'm sorry" she said tearfully, "I never meant to get out of control."
"But you did," he said, "I understand that you didn't want to share your feeling with me but you can't tell them where we went," Here he lowered his voice "One of them can be a Death Eater and you'll never know," he whispered urgently.
Lily saw that he was sincere and sighed. "Look I'm sorry I slapped y-"
"Forget it," he said and entered the dormitory as fast as he could, shutting the door after him.
Lily sat in front of his door a few more minutes, thinking for the first time that she did not deserve a person like James. He was too good for her.
She sighed sadly, walked down the stairs, and saw to her surprise that no one was there. She sat in front of the fire and let a few tears slid down her smooth cheeks.
James was in his bed rubbing his eyes and sighing. Lily hurt him bad, for the second time so recently, and he felt his heart constricting with pain every time her angry face surfaced in his mind. He didn't know she knew how to slap so hard.
But the slap meant more, he thought. She is closing the doors to me. I have to get her.
But she already slapped you and left your heart in pieces every time said the nasty voice in his mind.
She apologised.
YOU apologised said the voice.
But she kissed me and hugged me plenty of times.
The other voice didn't answer. James sighed with irritation and got up, put on his slippers and went downstairs.
Then he saw her, she was sitting in Harry's favourite armchair near the fire and tears leaked from her eyes.
His heart started beating fast and painfully and in that moment he regretted the way he treated her earlier. He swore in his heart never to make her cry again. Ever.
"Lily?" he whispered loud enough for her to hear.
When Lily heard his voice she turned and jumped from the chair "James!" she called in a tearful voice.
She ran to him and hugged him so fiercely she thought she could hear his heart beating rapidly.
He hugged her back just as fiercely and she started sobbing.
"I don't know what I was thinking, this su-subject is so painful, I can't believe we let him down. What did we do wrong?" she sobbed.
"I don't know" he said quietly.
"He and Ginny were so happy. He proposed to her, they could have been living together and have children and-"
Lily gave such a large wail it broke James's heart. He sat on the sofa and held her close. His shirt was soaked but he didn't care – she's finally letting it out.
A burden carried for over a month had been released. He felt as Lily's sobs subdued and after a few minutes, her breaths came in slow rhythm.
James looked at the girl in his arms and saw that she is sleeping. He lied down as gently as he could, Lily still in his arms and she snuggled into his chest, burying her face in his pyjamas.
He hugged her close, pleading in his mind to hold her like this forever. He kissed her head and after a few minutes, he fell asleep.
Not noticing Amy and Jenny who were looking from the bottom of the staircases, grinning from ear to ear.
But something kept bugging the girls' minds:
Who was Ginny and who was she supposed to marry?
A/N: Hi guys! Thanks for the reviews! Sorry it took me time to update, I was at my grandmother's house from Friday and just got home, I really wanted to update so here it is. ONE MORE CHAPTER until my grand opening of chapter 19 (which no one saw, not even my old readers) so stay tuned!
Jinxeh- You killed Jack Sparrow? I'm not a big fan of this movie, but even I wouldn't want to deal with angry Orlando Blum (spelling?) fans...--admires--
Daniele - Chapter 13 was not forgotten by any means, it is just that in my last account chapter 13 was an author note, and since it is forbidden, I decided to skip it :D, btw, did you check out The Next World's Yahoo!Group? Link in my bio.
petrynronlover- Well, it means that you'll see in the next chapter :) Anyway, about a sequal, let HBP come out, we'll see pairings and stuff and I'll see then.
Hannanora-Potter- Kill Remus? But he and James didn't really talk while James was there, the time gap was just too big and Remus wasn't around too much.
JoyaSagrada- Usually I don't answer to reviews who weren't from the last chapter, but I must answer this one to correct you. First of all, James was a chaser. Look here:
Question: What position did James play on the Gryffindor Quidditch team? Was it seeker like Harry, or something different?
J.K. Rowling responds: James was Chaser.
So that's that. And about James and Lily being aurors, we don't know that yet.
pandas rule the world, Coco-Pop, Tirionelf, serious-writer, Tigoamy, Mrs.KristinePotter, Hazel Maraa, Maykwa, cherokeegirl47, EmotionalSoul, BeachHn332, CrystalKisses, pandabears05, gluetastesbad , Lily-900121, IamSiriusgrl, Shinigami-Sama1, vea rose, lemmingally, Annmarie Aspasia, yogithedog9.
Again, thanks for your reviews, I won't update till there will be at least 20. Anything else? Oh yes, THIS STORY IS NOT FINISHED.
Love you very much,
Lily