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Chapter Eight: Hugs, Collisions, and Records

When James had first wrapped his arms around her, Lily tensed. She had to fight what seemed natural instinct-- to run away. But after a few seconds, she realized how calm his embrace was, how soothing, and how secure his arms around her were.

They stood there for a few minutes, and then Lily pulled away. Wiping the tears from her eyes and sniffling.

"Please don't tell anyone about this." she started, her voice shaky.

James nodded, although he could still feel the wet tears on his shoulder. "Don't worry. I won't tell anyone you were that close to me." he gave her a wink and attempted to chuckle. But neither of them felt much like laughing.

"It's not that." she interrupted, and then stopped herself. "Well I mean it sort of is. I…I just don't want people to know I broke down after a little name calling."

James studied her for a second while they continued to walk. "Lily, nobody can stand constant ridicule for years and not break down once in a while." Lily gave him a weak smile. "And anyways, on my break down meter, that was like a two."

Lily laughed a bubbly, tearful laugh. "On a scale of what?" she asked, resorting to the comfortable playful tone that all of their conversations seemed to take after they felt uneasy or vulnerable.

They walked for a few more seconds before James answered. "Thirty-three."

"How many break downs have you seen?" giggled Lily.

"Enough to know yours was puny." replied James in a tone that was trying to be playful, but Lily could tell there was some dark underlying meaning, and decided to change the subject.

"Do you want to go out to the grounds? I think that's where our friends are likely to be."

James shook his head. "I was going to go work on some homework. This weekend I'm going to be busy arranging plays for Quidditch…don't want to start the season off behind."

Lily smiled, determined not to let her disappointment show. "I'm going to go ahead, then. As long as Allison and Jacob aren't being too mushy."

"There's always Ellie to hang out with." replied James with a smile.

To his surprise, Lily made an exasperated face. "Between the two of us, I think she has a crush on Remus. She's going to be all over him until he realizes it."

"I think Remus likes her too." replied James. "Although it'll be hell getting it out of him. "

They shared a quiet laugh before James waved goodbye and went to find his way to his room.

Lily watched him walk away before -- with no reason apparent to her -- she let out a long sigh before she went out to the grounds.

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James reached his room in a few minutes and went to lie on his bed. He let out a sigh before rummaging through his bed stand and picking out a picture.

In it, was a beautiful woman in her early thirties, with black hair that rivaled James's, except for the fact that it was neat, she possessed very thin, fine facial features. Beside her was a man of the same age, with light brown hair and a small mustache, and between them stood two children, one, a young boy with features that indicated clearly that he was the man's son, and the second a girl in her mid teens, with the same black hair her mother possessed and clear blue eyes. The picture was of James's aunt, uncle, and two cousins. All but his uncle and female cousin were dead; they lived in France. His uncle, Darrel Delmore, was a Muggle, but his surviving cousin possessed magical ability and attended the French school of witchcraft and wizardry, Beauxbatons.

Marlon Malfoy's taunt had stung him worse than he had thought.

He glanced at the picture for a couple of minutes before sighing and putting it away.

His aunt and younger cousin had been killed by Death Eaters two years ago, Darrel and Charlotte were out of the house getting groceries. The deaths had been particularly hard on Darrel, who broke down and had to be put in a mental institution temporarily. Charlotte had stayed with her Uncle Edward, James's father, and his family. Darrel had recovered after nine months, and sent for Charlotte, and from what James could tell, they were starting to be happy again.

James studied the hard wood floor for a few minutes before looking for his bag. What he had told Lily wasn't a complete lie, he did have homework to do. As he pulled out his Charms book he thought of her and how well their relationship had recovered in that day. A part of him realized that Lily must have thought either he was innocent all along, or that she felt guilty to forget the whole thing so easily.

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Lily had found her friends outside enjoying what was likely to be the last warm day until Spring, Jacob and Allison were talking affectionately under a shady tree, Ellie was talking to one of her sixth year friends, and looking over at Remus, Sirius, and Peter every five seconds. Sirius was trying to talk to a pretty blonde fifth year, but Peter was distracting him, as every few seconds he would shoot bubbles out of his ears, nose, and mouth, Remus, she noticed, was trying hard to do a counter jinx for it. She decided she might as well go and help.

"Good afternoon, boys." she greeted as she pulled out her wand. Remus acknowledged her with a smile, Peter with a bubble, and Sirius ignored her and went on talking to the blonde girl.

"Remus, that's one of the bubble charms. Counter jinxing won't work. You need to use a charm."

Remus nodded and thought for a second before applying a charm. Peter's bubbling instantly stopped with one last gigantic bubble out of his mouth. It popped and he smiled happily.

"Thanks, Lily." he started. "I've been blowing bubbles for hours."

One glance at Remus and Lily knew it was true.

"Who did it to you?" asked Lily.

"We think one of the Slytherins." answered Remus. "We saw them laughing awfully hard at least. We don't really know."

"Of course it was a Slytherin." scoffed Peter. "They always hex me."

"Yes, but they usually use something darker than bubbles, and they usually claim what they've done." argued Remus. "And we didn't even see them do it."

"Whatever." dismissed Peter. "As long as I'm not bubbling over anymore." He smiled weakly and pulled a sandwich out of his pocket. He offered some to Lily.

Lily shook her head. "No thanks…dinner is in an hour."

He then offered some to Remus, who turned it away as well. Remus looked closely at it. "Didn't they have tuna fish sandwiches for lunch Tuesday?"

Peter nodded and continued to eat. Remus looked at Lily in disgust.

Lily laughed. "I'm going to go say hello to Ellie…want to come with me?"

Remus nodded a little more excitedly then he intended he tried to play it off by pointing at Peter. "Anything to get away from him."

Peter stopped eating, glared at Remus, sat down on the grass where Sirius was standing, and continued to eat.

Ellie, Lily noticed, stopped talking immediately as she saw Lily and Remus approaching. Her dark eyes darted from Lily to Remus, where they stayed for a second longer, before she waved them over.

"Hello, Lily, Remus." she started.

"Hey, what have you been up to?" greeted Lily, Remus stood silently beside her.

"Oh you know, just talking…we were just talking about when the first Hogsmeade trip will be." she tried. "Any guesses, Miss Head Girl?"

"Next weekend." replied Lily. "We just posted it."

"Oh great!" exclaimed Ellie excitedly. "I don't know what I'm going to do."

Lily stole a look at Remus. Was he stupid? Did he realize what Ellie was hinting?

"What are you planning on doing, Remus?" elbowed Lily.

"Oh, um." he started. "Probably…um, I think Sirius was saying how we needed supplies…so I guess we'll be, um, getting them." he stammered before looking at the ground. "I'm going to go see how Peter is doing…make sure he didn't get sick off those sandwiches…" He looked back up, grinned at Lily and avoided Ellie's gaze, before walking backwards to where Peter sat.

"What is his problem!" retorted Lily in exasperation.

Ellie laughed. "I think he's nervous." She looked around before focusing back on Lily. "Maybe he'll get some nerves before next Saturday."

Lily nodded, although she doubted it. "Maybe." Lily looked at her watch. "I think I'm going to go up and get some work done before dinner. See you."

Ellie waved Lily off and went to separate Allison and Jacob.

As Lily walked across the grounds, her mind mentally scheduling what she had to do that afternoon before dinner, she felt her body collide with something hard, solid, and human. Being smaller than the person she ran into, she tumbled down onto the ground.

"Excuse you." muttered the student in front of her, who Lily recognized as Emerson Burton, a Hufflepuff seventh year.

He looked down at Lily with his shiny blond hair glowing in the sun, his tan skin reflecting every light particle, and his yellowish brown eyes piercing into her.

"Oh, I am so sorry. Lily. I didn't know it was you." he apologized before offering a hand. Lily blushed and took it.

"No, no, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking or looking where I was going." she replied. He was looking at her the way most people looked at a meal after being starved for days. It was beginning to make her uncomfortable.

He grinned, showing perfect white teeth. He stretched his hand out and reached for her hair. Lily looked at him with her mouth agape. His smile broadened as he pulled a leaf from her hair.

"I must get going." started Lily. "I'll see you later."

"We have Arthimancy together Monday." replied Emerson. "I'll see you then."

"Okay." waved Lily. "See you."

Lily walked away hurriedly. What had just happened there? As far as she knew, Emerson didn't even know she existed. Well of course, he did, she thought. He had to; she was Head Girl. But he had never acknowledged that they knew each other. Merlin he was beautiful, somewhat of a sleaze. Nevertheless, beautiful.

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Once in the security of her bedroom, she threw her shoes off and went to her bookshelf and looked through her records. Finding her favorite Grateful Dead album (American Beauty), she placed it on her record player and began to rummage through her books.

Once in her 'homework zone', as Allison called Lily's trance of studying, Lily could not be disturbed.

That's why she screamed when a hard tap was felt on her shoulder.

She yelped, turned around and faced her disrupter, James Potter. Who was looking somewhere in between terrified and highly amused.

"Merlin, James!" she exclaimed. "You scared the living daylights out of me!"

James looked at her bashfully. "Sorry. I knocked several times, but, you…um…didn't answer."

"People usually don't answer when they're busy." snapped Lily before she could help herself. She clamped her hand over her mouth and looked at James apologetically. "Sorry."

"It's perfectly okay. I'm sorry I disturbed you." He peered over at her cluttered desk. "Working on that Transfiguration essay?"

Lily looked at her work and the ink on her hands. "Yes…well trying." She gave a weak laugh.

James smiled and walked over and picked up her blotchy parchment and began to read. Lily snatched it from him.

James looked at her questioningly.

"I don't like other people reading my work…I always feel so stupid writing, because I use words I'd never use in everyday speech..." She glanced at James, who was just looking at her, with out any apparent emotion. "Anyways, I'm almost done." She slid it in a folder and stood up.

"I'm assuming you had a reason to come in here?" she asked.

James nodded. "Yeah…I was going to say that it was an hour past dinner time. I missed it too…homework."

Lily looked at her watch. "Oh my. The last time I looked at the clock it was only five." She smiled at James. "I suppose we deserve it. Doing homework on a Friday."

James laughed and looked around her room. "What's that you're listening to?"

"Grateful Dead." replied Lily without missing a beat. "American Muggle band. Brilliant musicians."

"Oh, yes. I do believe I've heard the name once or twice." he responded and walked over to look at her records.

"Do you have all of these at home as well?" he asked, fingering his way through her Grateful Dead, John Lennon, Bob Dylan, Van Morrison, and Janis Joplin albums.

Lily nodded. "Yes, well most of them. I don't have my own record player though, my sister does…but yikes, her music is terrible. And she never lets me borrow it. I usually have to steal it when she's visiting her fiancé. Don't know what I'm going to do when she finally gets married and takes all her things." Feeling that she had revealed too much information, she stopped there and went to clean up her desk.

"What does she listen to?" asked James.

Lily shuddered. "ABBA."

"No way!" retorted James, obviously appalled.

Lily raised an eyebrow. "You don't know the Dead but you know ABBA?"

James nodded. "Of course, they are wizards and witches after all."

"No way!" scoffed Lily.

"Yes way!" argued James with amusement. "I mean come on, they try to cover themselves by wearing Muggle clothes. Look what they pick. For Merlin's sake who would choose white spandex suits in their right mind?"

Lily laughed. "It all makes perfect sense."

James nodded. "Yes it all does." he started for the door. "I'm going to go to dinner. Are you coming?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah, in a while. I have to finish up some stuff here."

James glanced at her and nodded before leaving her alone, wishing she would realize he had been waiting for her.

chikichiki, Kaolacancan, CaptainOats+PrincessSparkle and all previous reviewers: Thanks for your reviews!

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