Harry Potter or any other characters associated with the book are the sole property of J. K. Rowling. Any original character created solely for this story belongs to me, Little C.
Reviews, comments and even flames are welcome. A big thank you to my beta reader Dorothy. Chapters 1 to 5 have been through a slight revision to eliminate typos and such.
The Things We Never Did or Said, Chapter One
"Hurry up or we'll miss the train," Lily called. Lindsey did her best not to tip over her trolley as she dashed along the platform at breakneck speed.
Ahead of her, Lily disappeared through the barrier to Platform Nine and Three Quarters. Lindsey hated crossing the barrier so she closed her eyes seconds before passing through the brick wall.
At the other side she opened her eyes and looked around at all the people, most familiar but also some new first year students.
"We made it," Lily said with relief as they both busied themselves with getting their trunks onto the train, ignoring the big crowd of people further down the aisle.
"I see the Fabulous Four is holding court," Lindsey said dryly.
"Maybe they've grown?" Lily suggested, sneaking a peak at the group.
"And their ego with them," Lindsey said bitterly. "I seriously doubt they've grown into them over the summer."
"I know what you mean," Lily said laughing. "Black has to grow another ten feet to fit his."
Once they had got their trunks into an empty compartment, they sat down and waited for the train to pull out of the station, thus beginning their seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.
Thirty minutes after the train had left the station; the door to their compartment was flung open. A boy about their age with messy black hair fell inside, landing on the floor with a thud, rigid as a plank.
"You'd better sleep with one eye open, Snivellus!" they heard another boy's voice shout outside in the corridor.
Lindsey sighed and rolled her eyes in annoyance as she recognised the boy on the floor as James Potter hit with a full Body-Bind. She couldn't help but smirk at his predicament and noticed that Lily automatically fixed her hair.
"You okay?" It was Remus Lupin that came into the compartment looking haggard as usual and a bit worried as he looked his friend over.
"That was completely uncalled for," Sirius Black muttered as he entered after Lupin. "You okay, Prongs? I managed to hit the snivelling grease ball with a Twitchy Ears Hex."
Lupin rolled his eyes at Black's comment as he released James from the Body-Bind and Peter Pettigrew entered as well.
"Well, if it isn't Lily Evans and Lindsey Bloodsworth," Black said sitting down beside Lindsey. Her body tensed at his intrusion. "The prettiest witches ever to have attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."
"Seems like someone kissed the Blarney stone this summer," Lily said blushing slightly as Potter sat down beside her with a dorky smile. Lupin sat down beside Black and Pettigrew next to Potter.
"More like eat it," Lindsey muttered and moved closer to the window so she wouldn't be sitting so near Black.
"The "what" stone?" Black asked confused.
"You okay, Lupin?" Lily asked.
"I'm fine," Lupin answered and all the boys tensed. Lindsey thought Lupin looked anything but fine, his skin was pallid and he had a half-healed cut across his left cheekbone. She even thought she could detect some grey hairs.
"He's fine," drawled Black. "He just had a little run in with a mean-spirited pixie."
This time Potter rolled his eyes in annoyance, though he also looked relieved.
"Would you boys mind leaving?" she asked.
"What's the matter, Bloodsworth?" Potter asked ruffling his hair. Lindsey thought it resembled those brushes chimney sweeps used to clean chimneys. "Got ants in your pants or what?"
"Maybe you should leave," Lily said urgently although she seemed averse to the idea.
"There is no hurry," Black said toeing off his shoes then cracking his toes which sent shivers down Lindsey's spine. Even his friends looked a bit unnerved. "We have a long trip ahead of us so we might as well enjoy it."
Lindsey took to staring out the window as the train inched closer and closer to Hogwarts. All the while she considered pouring undiluted bubotuber pus into Black's aftershave, if he indeed used that.
"Were we ever that young?" James said to his friends while looking over at a group of first year students that looked wide-eyed around the Gryffindor common room.
"What do you mean 'were'?" Sirius asked. "The only one growing old here is Moony. Seriously speaking, Remus, you're starting to look a bit grey."
"Well, I'm friends with you lot," Remus said sourly but they could hear the affection behind the words.
"Does anyone know what's up with Bloodsworth?" Peter asked.
"That time of the month, perhaps," Sirius suggested offhandedly.
"The way she was staring into her pumpkin juice at the sorting ceremony I'm surprised it didn't churl," James said. "Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen her smile."
"Sure you have," Sirius said, "remember that time in, no wait, it was when, no...oh I remember now, third year in Charms, we were doing the cheering charm."
"I believe that is the keyword right there, Padfoot, cheering charm," James said.
"We haven't seen her smile," Sirius said and sank down in a chair. "Seven years and no smile."
"Maybe she smiles when we aren't around?" suggested Peter.
"True," Remus said, "just because we haven't seen her smile doesn't mean she never has."
"What do we know about her, anyway," Peter said, "besides that she is best friends with Evans?"
"Her parents are Muggles." James said. "Librarians, according to Lily."
"She's good with Charms," Peter pointed out.
"Not bad at Transfiguration either," Remus said. "She seems to have a bit of an Inner Eye too, since she got kicked out of Divination when she predicted the teacher would drop a crystal ball on a student's foot and then five minutes later it actually happened."
"Yeah, but the Divination teacher is an idiot," James said, "if that old bat really has an Inner Eye it is as blind as her normal eyes. Besides, there are Muggles who have the ability to see the future."
"Really?" Peter said in awe.
"Yeah, there was this guy called Nostradamus in France during the sixteenth century that was pretty good," James said.
"How did you know that?" Remus asked, obviously surprised over the fact James would know anything about Muggle history.
"Lily told me," he said with a shrug.
"That's it," Sirius said slamming his hand in the arm of the chair shocking his friends, "I'm going to make Lindsey Bloodsworth smile before we take our N.E.W.T.s." James, Remus and Peter burst into hysterical laughter and Sirius looked affronted. "You don't think I can do it?"
"You're a good wizard, Padfoot," James managed between gales of laughter, "but not even you can perform miracles."
"I'm going to make you eat your words, Prongs," Sirius said. "As I said, before we take our N.E.W.T.s I will have made her smile, without the use of magic."
"Two galleons says he'll do it," Peter said placing two gold galleons on the table.
"Two galleons says he won't do it," James said adding his two coins.
"Two galleons says she'll kill him before we take our N.E.W.T.s," Remus said adding another two coins to the pile. Sirius stared in utter dismay at the stack of golden coins lying on the table.
The Great Hall was filled with students at dinner time and as usually it was noisy. Lindsey was looking down at her plate trying to ignore the sounds of students laughing and talking. It had nothing to do with her; nothing in this world had anything to do with her. Her parents where Muggles so she couldn't understand why she wasn't.
Why couldn't she have been normal?
She had liked her old school; she had friends there and the teachers where nice and normal. She wished she were still there. Initially, she liked the idea of being a witch, and had really enjoyed coming to Hogwarts, but after the novelty wore off, it wasn't fun any longer. The only thing she was really good at was Charms and Transfiguration. Divination too, before she was kicked out.
"I think Black likes you," Lily said suddenly causing Lindsey to choke on her pumpkin juice.
"What? You got to be kidding?" she gasped.
"No," Lily said, "he was acting all nice to you in Potions, well, until you shut him up that is."
"I really don't think jokes like 'how many wizards does it take to screw in a light bulb' is funny," Lindsey said, "I don't even think Black knows what a light bulb is."
"Well, they are rather clueless about certain things," Lily agreed, "but you could at least be a bit nicer, you don't wish to alienate the entire school, do you?"
"I've lost my appetite," Lindsey said as she stood. Suddenly she felt an odd sensation in her ears as Lily gasped in horror.
The commotion slowly faded after Lindsey had been taken to the hospital wing to remove the leeks that had sprouted from each ear.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid," Sirius repeated as he kept banging his head against the table. "Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid."
"That's quite enough," Remus said grabbing hold of the other boy's hair, "there is no need to damage the table."
"How could I? How could I miss?" Sirius moaned weakly into the tabletop.
"You wouldn't have missed hadn't Bloodsworth got in the way," James pointed out. "And coincidentally, by the looks of it she won't be smiling for a long time."
"Not helping," Sirius hissed.
"Evans is back," Peter said and Sirius got to his feet.
"How are..." The rest was cut off by slap that echoed throughout the hall.
"How could you?" she screamed at him furiously.
"It wasn't supposed to hit her," he said apologetically while rubbing his stinging cheek.
"Like that makes it all better," she snapped at him, "she had leeks growing out of her ears. Leeks!"
"Would it have made any difference if it had been cabbage?" James asked and Lily turned to look at him with her wand drawn.
"Wanna find out?" she asked him and he ducked behind the table.
"Well, well," a voice said behind them. They looked around and saw Snape standing there. "Trouble in Paradise?"
"Get lost, Snape, this doesn't concern you," Remus said warningly.
"I must say, Black, that hex really did wonders for Bloodsworth," Snape said ignoring the warning, "I've never seen her look prettier."
Sirius whipped out his wand and aimed at Snape;
"Densaugeo," Sirius yelled. The effect was immediate as Snape's teeth began to grow. "Now your teeth match your nose."
Snape glared at him and hurried out of the Great Hall.
"That'll teach him not to speak ill about people," Peter said.
"I don't like the look of this," Remus said getting up from his seat to walk towards the door.
"Where are you going?" James called after him. Without turning or stopping Remus pointed towards the ceiling. They all looked up to see that it was getting darker. Night was approaching.
"Wait up," James called as he, Peter and Sirius hurried after their friend, leaving behind a thoroughly bewildered Lily staring after them.
Sirius looked back at the castle as they waited for the moon to rise so they could transform. He could see the lights were on in the hospital wing. James joined him.
"She'll get over it," he said reassuringly.
"I don't think she will," Sirius said, "I think I should sleep with one eye open."
"Lily might be able to persuade her not to use any deadly hexes on you," James said.
"I deserve the Cruciatus Curse," he said.
"No, you don't," James said, "you're not worth it."
Sirius caught James in a headlock and they tumbled to the ground in a heap laughing.
"Come on guys, it's time," Peter called catching their attention and they walked to an area just outside of the Whomping Willow's reach. Peter transformed into a rat and sneaked beneath the branches of the willow and pressed the knot to immobilize it. Sirius and James
crawled into the passageway that would take them to the Shrieking Shack.
Occupied with their own little mischief they didn't notice the Snowy owl leaving the Owlery.
In the weeks that followed, Sirius tried in vain to apologise to Bloodsworth, but she seemed determined not to allow him to get near her. After several Silencing Charms, various hexes, including being transformed into a squealing piglet - twice - he gave up trying to apologise and set about finding another way of getting her to smile.
"You're becoming obsessed," James said placing his hands over the pages in the book Sirius was reading.
"It's not pretty."
"I'm not obsessed," Sirius said removing James' hand from the pages.
"Yes you are," James said. "Honestly, Sirius, at first it was kind of fun, but now its getting creepy. All the girls are starting to fear you, not to mention the fact that all this running after Bloodsworth has made you look like a horny old man."
"I know what I'm doing," Sirius said impatiently.
"I don't think you do," James said as he looked up at the sound of approaching footsteps. "Evans."
"What's wrong with you?" Lily asked Sirius. "You some kind of stalker? Lindsey is afraid to be in the same room with you!"
"I was only trying to apologise for what happened in the Great Hall," Sirius said.
"Apologise?" Lily's voice went up a notch. "Last time I checked apologising didn't involve chasing someone through the castle."
"She wouldn't let me talk to her," he said holding out his hand.
"At first I thought you liked her," Lily said, "but now I'm starting to wonder if you are really right in the head."
"He is trying to get her to smile," James said, causing Lily to look at him.
"What?" she asked completely confounded. "Why?"
"Because we've never seen her smile and he wanted her to," James explained.
Lily looked between the two of them as though seeing them for the first time, then she sighed and pinched the ridge of her nose.
"I really shouldn't tell you this but it seems like I must," she said leaning forward. "What I'm about to tell you stays between us, okay?"
They nodded.
"Lindsey's mother died this summer," she said. "She took it pretty hard as did her father, so bad that he had to be hospitalised."
"Oh no," James said, "poor Lindsey."
Sirius said nothing as he closed his book and got up from where he had been sitting. James opened his mouth to say something when his friend walked past him but the closed off expression on Sirius face made him change his mind. Both Remus and Peter entered as Sirius left and they both looked at James for an explanation of their friend's odd behaviour.
"He found out something about Bloodsworth," he said. They nodded in understanding and let the rest be unsaid.
"Will this make him stop?" Lily said. "I would love nothing more than to see Lindsey smile again, but he is going about it the wrong way."
"I doubt it will make him stop," James said, "but I can't say whether he will continue as he has done or change tactics."
Lily walked over to the window and looked out at the grounds as James came up behind her.
"What a big dog," Lily said pointing to where a big bear-like dog was running toward the Forbidden Forest. James nearly had a heart attack as he recognised his friend's Animagus form. "Hope he won't get hurt inside the forest."
"He looks strong enough to be able to handle himself," James said wondering if he should go out and chase after Sirius before deciding against it. Seeing a stag running over the grounds in broad daylight might raise some uncomfortable questions.
"I guess you are right," she said.
"You planning on visiting Hogsmede next week?" he asked.
"Why do you ask?"
"I was wondering if we maybe could do something fun together?" he asked her, convinced that she would flat out refuse.
"Sure," she said, "I would love too."
James felt like fainting from happiness.
Sirius sat in a tree in the Forbidden Forest pondering the information Lily had disclosed. No wonder Bloodsworth didn't smile; he couldn't even begin to understand how it would feel to lose a parent. He knew that if his own parents had the decency to die he would be over the moon, but he suspected that Bloodsworth really loved her parents.
He wondered why he wanted her to smile so badly, she wasn't that pretty, the only real reason he had taken any notice of her was because she was friends with Evans, and James wanted to be really good friends with Evans.
She was rather plump without being fat and it gave her face a roundness that was actually kind of appealing. He bet her cheeks would dimple if is she smiled; she looked like that kind of person.
He shook his head. When had he started thinking like this and why? There were prettier girls at Hogwarts. Nicer too. Bloodsworth was a plain girl, with ash-blonde hair she wore in one long braid that reached to her waist. She had grey eyes that reminded him of storm clouds, but they seemed rather dead unless she was angry.
"Maybe I should lay off her," he said quietly to himself, "for awhile at least."
To Be Continued…