TWO SIDES TO EVERY STORY

Part I

Thrill of the Chase

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the famous characters or the world of Harry Potter. I'm borrowing them from JKR's fabulous writing. I just own the characters you've never heard of and the ideas. ;P

A/N: I'm really angry right now. Child-of-scorpio's story, The Truth of the Heart, just got taken down. It was so beautifully written, had so many readers and reviewers and was so successful. I just wanna find the person who is the reason for the removal of the story because startsmumblingastringofinappropriatenamesandinsults and I wish I could mumblesabunchofthingsiwishicoulddotothem. OK, well, next reposted chapter.

"Every journey starts with a single step."

Chapter 5 A Proposition

"I can't believe this. This is going way too far. Is he ever going to grow up? I mean, he has to be James Potter right. He doesn't know when to quit. He had to get the first years to work with him. He had to start the stupid prank competition. He has to make my job a living hell. He's just so, so - "

Lily's friends lay sprawled on their respective beds, listening to their friend go on and on about James Potter and his twisted world for the last hour. It seemed so much worse when the only sound in the room was Lily's angry voice, the pitter patter of the heavy rain outside, and Latisha smacking her gum. It was enough to drive anyone mad.

"What did I do? Why me? What can I do to make it stop? McGonagall is getting really angry at my lack of control and responsibility. I'm always in control. I'm responsible. Right? He's ruining my reputation. I've worked so hard to become prefect. And I want to be Head Girl next year. I won't let him ruin my chances. It would just be nice and dandy if - "

"Make her stop," Latisha pleaded quietly, clasping her hands together and diverting her eyes to the heavens above. "Please. Anything."

Lily was oblivious to Latisha's slight gesture and continued on.

"And what about Remus huh? Where is he? Why is he never around? He's conveniently not around when he's needed, huh? It's ridiculous. How did he get the position of prefect anyways? I still wonder. He's one of Potter's best friends, for Merlin's sake!"

"Lily, please!" Latisha cried. "Enough. Mercy."

"I want it all to stop," Lily continued on. ("Me too," Latisha agreed under her breath about Lily). "I'll make him stop. I'm desperate here. Really desperate. I don't want my chances ruined. You guys don't know how much I want to be Head Girl."

"Enough to go on," Latisha mumbled again. She groaned as Lily glared at her and then continued on with her rant about James Potter.

Julie continued reading Teen Witch distractedly, flipping through the pages. Ashlynn stared blankly at her Potions essay, trying to work out what it was she needed to write about while still trying to listen to Lily.

"And McGonagall." Lily shivered. "I don't even want to imagine her angry. That would be extremely horrid. And yet, to lose to Potter seems even more unbearable. To give him the satisfaction. I would never."

---

"James, you really think this is the best way of going about to make Lily Evans go out with you?" Sirius asked as they lay in their dorm room. "She seems really angry."

"It's going as planned," James remarked, smirking. "In fact, it couldn't be going any smoother."

"Really?" Sirius asked sarcastically, tilting his head a little bit (used on any girl they would fall all over themselves). "I don't see the results of that. I don't even think you're any closer to winning her over."

Remus sat at the window, staring out into the rain through the darkened window pane. "You know James, Lily is going to wonder why I was never around to stop you."

James shrugged. "It's not your fault. And what can she say? You were sick."

"James, maybe you should cool it a little bit," Peter spoke up, scared of the reaction he was going to get and nearly quivering with fear. "And maybe then she'll think about it. I mean, you've been at it since the beginning of the year. And it's been almost a month."

James crossed his arms stubbornly and stared at his friends. "Nope. I won't stop."

"Look, mate, Lily Evans also shows no sign of wavering. If possible, it looks like she hates you even more. Do you get that?" Sirius asked, rapping on the top of James' head. "Anyways, I got to go help Keovanh."

Sirius headed over to his bed and promptly dropped to his hands and knees while reaching under his bed for his broom.

"Yes, how is she doing?" James asked curiously. "I hope she's doing better, I wouldn't want to have to cut her off the team."

"You wouldn't. You got to understand her situation right now. She's new to the entire country. It's going to take her a while to get use to the hang of things."

James shrugged. "Let's hope that it's in time for the first match."

Sirius remained silent as he pulled on a thicker sweater and grabbed his Quidditch gloves. In a few moments he was gone out the door. He went down the steps to the common room, lost in his thoughts. He was broken out of his little world when a voice greeted him at the bottom of the stairs.

"Hey Black. Ready to go?" Ashlynn stood by the window smiling. Her dark, long hair was pulled up in a loose ponytail.

"Only if you are," Sirius grinned. The two of them walked out of the portrait hole, slowly making their way down to the Quidditch pitch. Honestly, Ashlynn was adapting to Hogwarts and the students and staff quite well. She wasn't as quiet as before, now that she knew a lot of the people and became comfortable around them.

"Why do you still want these out of practice practices that we've been having?" Sirius asked suddenly, breaking the silence between them.

Ashlynn shrugged. "Well, I still really want to prove James wrong, that I'm as good, perhaps better than he thinks. I hate people telling me what I can and can't do."

"I know what you mean," Sirius replied, thinking of his own life for a brief moment. "Don't you hate it when it feels like you're being suffocated?"

Ashlynn nodded before she awkwardly changed the subject. They both knew how it felt.

---

Lily hurried out of the library. It seemed that she was always in the library, and if she wasn't, then she would be hanging out with Julie or Ashlynn, but not the not the both of them together. They didn't say it, but Lily could feel the tension between the two and it was almost clear that they both did not get along well together for some odd reason that she could not see. She met up with Julie along the way back from the library and they joked about how she was turning into a bookworm, always in the library. It was all in fun though, they always teased each other playfully.

"Hey, who's that?" Julie asked suddenly, and Lily stopped, blinking hard.

There was a familiar profile just down the corridor, and the undeniable skip in the person's walk could be no other than -

"JADE!" Julie and Lily yelled together, rushing towards the brunette and clasping her into a bone crushing hug. Poor Jade was already bombarded with a thousand questions.

"How are you?"

"Oh my god, I can't believe you're back!"

"What's been happening?"

"How'd you get here?"

"When did you get here?"

"How's your family?"

Jade looked up, her light brown eyes shining with tears. "I can't believe I'm back. I thought I wouldn't see you guys again in Hogwarts." She laughed as they continued asking questions that she couldn't possibly answer all at the moment.

"You look great," Lily complemented. Jade's hair had grown a bit longer and was shoulder length with light brown streaks.

Jade was the social butterfly of the group. She got along with nearly everyone. She always had time to listen to her friends' problems and was always there for them. She listened to both sides of stories before she sided and came to a conclusion. She was the voice of reason, the girly one and the one who barely ever got angry, quite opposite to Latisha's nature.

And thus, Jade was reunited back within their group of friends. Latisha had the same reaction as Julie and Lily and nearly crushed her in the process. Ashlynn was shy at first (she always was), but after a few nights they were soon laughing and talking. It seemed just as if Jade had been there all along. She laughed at Lily's fights with 'Potter' and couldn't help grinning at the way Lily was reacting to it. Lily however, didn't think it was the least bit funny and even though Jade was back, she could not help boiling over every single time Potter annoyed her. Yes, things were back to normal.

The second time Lily got in trouble by McGonagall was another one of James' atrocious ideas of making her job a living hell, in which he was succeeding quite well and yet, Lily was not willing to back down.

This time though, he had managed to get many first and second years outside after hours, wandering the corridors and playing games. No matter how much Lily tried persuading them to get back into the common room, her threats were going unnoticed on temporarily deaf ears. She then angrily stomped back into the common room and had a go at James, who was laughing uncontrollably at her expense. McGonagall had angrily burst in though the portrait hole seconds later, to see James and Lily arguing, and Lily holding her wand out threateningly.

"Miss Evans!" McGonagall had boomed. "There are students outside after hours and you are in here arguing with Mr Potter and holding out your wand? What sort of example are you setting? You know very well that duelling is not allowed, especially by a prefect! And isn't it your turn to patrol the corridors?"

Lily hastily thrust her wand back into her pocket and turned to face McGonagall.

"Professor! I - "

"Well?" McGonagall had her arms crossed and was staring intently at Lily, making Lily lose all the words she was going to say.

At that moment Remus had run down the stairs, hurriedly trying to do up his tie. He stopped in his tracks as soon as he saw Lily, James and McGonagall, and then his eyes trailed outside the portrait hole where a couple students had run by. He put the pieces together and immediately realized what had happened.

"Actually Professor," Remus interrupted, a cheesy smile on his soft features, "It was my turn to patrol the corridors, and I was uh, caught up in some...circumstances."

"Is this true?" McGonagall turned to face Lily and all Lily could manage was to stare back dumbly. "Even still, Miss Evans should be filling in if Mr Lupin is not able to perform his duties. That is why there are two prefects assigned, and not one. I am disappointed in both of you."

Lily watched as McGonagall strode outside and bellowed at all the students to get back into the common room and not to be out after hours again. She felt helpless and extremely stupid and turned to see James, smirking like a madman and Remus, the threat of a smile on his face.

---

"I need something to really boil her over, throw her over the edge, make her really desperate," James thought aloud, as Sirius continued snogging a sixth year Gryffindor by the name of Lauren Giles in the common room. He glanced at Sirius in disgust. "Can't you save it for later?"

"You heard the boy," Sirius mumbled, a bit out of breath. "We'll continue later." Sirius blew her a kiss as she reluctantly disappeared from their view and James turned to him.

"Well?"

Sirius shrugged. "She boils over every time you annoy her. What more can you do?"

"Any ideas Remus?" James threw a glance in Remus' direction.

Remus looked up from over his Defense Against the Dark Arts textbook and shrugged in the same way as Sirius. "I think you should leave the poor girl alone. You've done enough."

"No can do," James retorted hastily. "Until she admits defeat."

"Which will be never," Peter muttered under his breath.

"Unless - " James leapt up from his bed as if he sat on a tack. "I've got it!" he said excitedly. He jumped off his bed and fell onto the floor, entangled in his mess of blankets and robes.

"Got what?" Sirius asked. "The picture that you have no chance?"

James merely ignored him and hurried out the door. Sirius, Remus and Peter exchanged worried glances and flew out the door hot on his trail. As soon as they reached the common room they slowed down and casually walked over to a group of sofas, all their eyes trailed on James and what he had planned. The other students in the common room gave curious stares to the Marauders as Sirius just smiled and stared back.

Lily, this time, was sitting at a table with her friends, working on homework. She looked up suspiciously though when the Marauders came thundering down the stairs like a herd of elephants. She caught James' eye, glared, and then turned back to her friends.

"Don't you hate jerks?" she asked aloud, emphasizing the words jerks and stealing a quick glance over in James direction. James wasn't dumb, he knew she was referring to him. James waved away this comment and launched into his own, extremely loud conversation.

"Professor McGonagall comes for her monthly evening checks on the first Friday of every month," James said, unusually loud. "I would hate for something to go wrong. Imagine how it would look on the prefects." James smirked so that Lily was able to see him perfectly clear and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"James, no," Remus said in horror. "Did you forget that I'm a prefect too?"

"Just a little louder James," Peter whispered. "I'm sure a couple students upstairs haven't heard yet."

"Hmmm," Sirius acted, catching on. He glanced down at his wrist (where a watch would be but wasn't). "It's about time." Everyone watched as Sirius stood up and headed over to the portrait hole, standing in between the doorway where everyone was able to see him and looking over his shoulder down the corridor outside, exaggerating every one of his moves. "No sign of her yet."

"What are you guys doing?" Lily asked, a hint of panic in her voice. She didn't want to mess up anymore with Professor McGonagall. Her reputation was being questioned (or so she thought).

All eyes were on James as he innocently walked over to the fireplace, which was roaring with bright red flames. "It would be a shame if someone dropped this bag of fireworks in there. Imagine the chaos. Or wait. What if someone levitated these dungbombs over the portrait hole, so that they would explode on the person that walked through next?"

Sirius had moved out of the portrait hole now and was standing in the corridor outside, a smirk apparent on his handsome features as he helped his partner in crime. Lily wondered for a brief moment what was keeping the portrait hole open but did not have much time to dwell on it as she knew what James was insinuating.

Latisha chuckled and Lily rounded on her, glaring at her. Latisha immediately shut up and Lily looked at each one of her friends before turning back to James.

"You wouldn't dare Potter!" Lily hissed angrily. "You would get detentions."

"Oh no, detentions," James sang, levitating a couple of dungbombs over the portrait hole and holding the bag of fireworks dangerously in his hand. "You know I don't care what punishments I get. But what about you? What will Professor McGonagall say about you letting it happen?"

"James," Remus said in a warning voice. Lily knew at once that James was not joking. Unless Remus was faking it, and was extremely good at faking it.

Sirius gave an exaggerated gasp, making everyone's head whip towards him, some seemingly amused by the show and enjoying it. "I hear footsteps." He put a hand up to his ear and tilted his head slightly. Immediately, a bunch of girls sighed with longing.

"Potter please! Get rid of the dungbombs and put those fireworks away!" Lily pleaded. She knew very well that he would do it without a second thought.

"Closer," Sirius sang, looking down the corridor.

James smiled innocently at Lily as he dangled the fireworks closer to the fire. Lily had not realized that she had stood up so abruptly that her chair had fell over. She was getting really desperate to stop James at any costs. Imagine what would happen if the dungbombs exploded on McGonagall! What would McGonagall say? How would she react? How could she explain?

"James," Remus warned again. (At least he was the sensible one right now).

James shook the bag and locked eyes with Lily and then diverted his eyes to the dungbombs floating above the portrait hole, making Lily glance over too. Lily could hear faint footsteps outside and wondered if it was really McGonagall, her blood pumping through her ears, or if it was someone else and this was the Marauders' idea of a twisted prank or joke.

"Potter!" Lily had taken a step towards him but James immediately stopped her.

"Na uh uh, Lily dear," he threatened. "Come any closer and I'll drop these in before you can say Expelliarmus."

Lily stopped dead in her tracks, torn between the options she had and stuck in the moment.

"Potter, er, James, please stop. I'll uh, do anything! Well um, depends on the anything of course," she added hastily, backing up what she just said.

James raised his eyebrows but did not make any move to back down.

"Hello Professor!" Sirius sang out cheerfully down the corridor. "In for your monthly check already? I hope nothing smelly's going on. We might be in for a blast."

Lily quickly looked from Sirius back to James, a tortured and panicked expression on her face, one that James was relishing at the moment as he held the bag tightly in his hands. Both boys were wearing almost identical smirks on their face and it was no doubt that they were partners in crime.

"Black!" the familiar voice of McGonagall barked as she drew nearer. "What are you doing out in the corridor?"

"I'm just, you know, standing around," Sirius answered lamely and flashing one of his charming smiles that Lily had come to hate. "I thought it would be nice to have the portrait hole open for you. Because we're all awaiting your visit."

Lily closed her eyes as panic coursed through her veins. James showed no signs of wavering as he looked at her, his hazel eyes twinkling, waiting for her next move.

"Lily, Lily, Lily, however are we going to explain this?" James teased, shaking the bag. A few red sparks jumped from the bag but James did not flinch.

Sirius turned his head and mouthed "Ever closer," as McGonagall's footsteps echoed louder.

"James, please! Stop them! I'll do anything," Lily begged, becoming incredibly desperate.

"Anything, you say?" James looked off for a second, as if considering it. He then grinned evilly and locked eyes with Lily again. "Go out with me?"

Lily's face screwed up in horror as she thought about it and the consequences. Usually she would answer no without any hesitation or even a care, but this time she really thought about it. Was it really worth it? The wrath of McGonagall or the cockiness of James? His satisfaction of knowing he won. She knew she really couldn't stand James cockiness, and just couldn't bear the thought of giving in or giving him the satisfaction. She gritted her teeth. She wanted to punch somebody, preferably Potter's face.

"Time's ticking," James replied, turning to the fire and taking a step closer. "I can stop it all if you go out with me. Go on Lily."

Lily closed her eyes and took a deep breath before slowly releasing it. She could feel her friends' stares and knew their shock at her answer.