Disclaimer:When in doubt, not ours.
Summary: A James and Lily Story. They both led seemingly perfect lives – appearing like flawless portraits. In 6th year, everything began changing drastically, forcing them to leave childhood, and their perfect images, behind forever. Follows The Marauders Era's 6th year at school.
Author's Notes: We'd like to apologize for taking so long… and for the lack of quality….eh…onward!
Chapter 6: Twinkle, Twinkle
"Okay, I think I got everything I need. Non-frizzy, perfect hair. Check. Glossy, kissalicious lips. Check. Make-up done nicely and innocently. Check. Mai's books on career advice. Check." murmured Hestia as she stopped for the hundredth time on her way to the library and looked into her compact mirror.
Kevin had told her at lunch earlier in the day, that they wouldn't be able to get together for a scheduled stroll to the Astronomy Tower. Hestia had become extremely annoyed, as Kevin seemed to be canceling all their dates lately and she was going on a major snogging withdrawal. Normally she and Kevin would have ducked into an empty classroom, a broom closet, or anything comfortable and private at least twice a day for a refreshing and exhilarating snog. But nowadays, it seemed they only talked to each other once a week and only kissed when they said hello.
I'll put an end that, thought Hestia determinedly as she paced herself down the hallway. She had come up with an idea at lunchtime after watching how Sirius had charmed another girl (A Ravenclaw this time) from studying, to follow him into an empty classroom. She had decided to do the same thing with Kevin and hopefully it would work, since she had spent hours getting ready.
Hestia sighed heavily, knowing that her friends didn't really support her relationship with Kevin and secretly disliked him. They never said so or shown it openly, but Hestia could feel the tension between her friends when she mentioned him. Actually, now that she thought about it, there was the single one time that her friends had let her identify their dislike for her boyfriend. It happened that one day, when Hestia had rushed into their dorm excitedly to announce the news to her friends.
FLASHBACK
"Guess what?" Hestia shrieked as she burst into the dormitory and threw herself on Lily's bed, next to Kat who was reading a Muggle book Lily had lent her.
"What?" All three girls had said at once.
"KEVIN JARGLES ASKED ME OUT!" the girl exclaimed with excitement and looked around at her three friends expectantly.
She received an array of three confused looks. There was a pause of tense anticipation before Mai finally spoke up to break the silence. "Congratulations," voiced the Asian girl uncertainly. She turned away rather stiffly and resumed writing in her notebook, quill scratching furiously across its pages. She was frowning and her brow furrowed in a deep scowl. Hestia turned to look at Kat, who still held a confused look but was giving her an unconvinced smile. Lily alone, showed no emotion.
"Kevin who?" The redhead demanded, resembling McGonagall.
"Jargles." Hestia said patiently.
"The Hufflepuff?"
"Yes, Lily."
"Sixth year, Hufflepuff?"
"Yes."
"The skinny, gangly one with fuzzy hair and funny looking eyes?" Lily pressed further. Mai's quill ceased scratching.
"Yes. Wait a minute; he doesn't have funny looking eyes!" Hestia yelled, trying not to lose her patience with Lily who still eyed her impassively.
"Oh, wait a minute, is that the conceited idiot who's in love with himself and flirts with every single thing of the opposite sex, whether it's human or not?"
"Yes Lily, it is." Hestia said through gritted teeth.
"Oh. I don't like him," Lily said frankly.
"His description sounds like Sirius," Mai spoke up, receiving a squeak of protest from Kat.
Lily turned to the Asian girl and nodded, "Yes. But even Sirius has higher morals compared to that boy. At least he dumps the girls he dates before he decides to chase after another one. Not to mention, Sirius is much better looking."
Mai and Kat looked back and forth between Lily and Hestia uneasily. Lily was still looking intensely at Hestia, a grave look etched into her radiant features. Hestia look around at her friends, Mai who had gone back to her scribblings, and Kat back to her novel, but both were obviously only finding distractions to avoid meeting Hestia's gaze.
Finally, she snapped, "You know what? Fine! I guess I was wrong about thinking you'd be happy for me! "She yelled and flounced indignantly out of the room.
END OF FLASHBACK
Hestia stopped frowning when she finished thinking of that memory and looked at her reflection again in the mirror as she turned a corner, and remembered how she had refused to speak to her friends for weeks afterwards. Midway through her thoughts, she heard a few…disturbing sounds, and made a few assumptions on what they were. Looking up, she noted her guesses to be right when she saw too obviously hormone deranged teenagers against a wall, kissing and touching each other very passionately, too passionately for that matter. Hestia wrinkled her nose in disgust at them before she noted that the male's curly brown hair looked oddly familiar. She froze. No, it can't be, she thought wildly, it just can't be. It's not…
"Kevin?" She croaked out, and after a few painful seconds the head turned around and stared into her widened eyes.
"You're not joking?" Lily asked, and burst into more laughter when Remus nodded.
Lily and Remus were coming back from a Prefect meeting and Remus entertained Lily with a story of how one day Sirius saw a toaster at a Muggle Shop, bought it, brought it home and plugged it in, then tried to take it apart with a fork and nearly electrocuted himself. The saddest thing about that story, it had only happened a month earlier. In a way, it explained why he was very touchy about his hair though Lily would not admit it to anyone.
She stifled her laughter as the image of Sirius sticking a fork in a toaster floated in her mind, as the two of them passed the library, then gasped when they turned a corner. She shoved Remus back behind the corner, signaled him to be quiet, and peeked around the corner to the horrifying scene before her. There was Kevin, Hestia's boyfriend, and some blonde making our a little too keenly in the middle of the hall. So those were all those hours he was putting in the library, she thought grimly and felt Remus look at the scene from behind her.
She muffled a gasp when she saw Hestia turn around the corner. Lily saw Hestia not give the "couple" too much attention at first, but then she recognized the mop of curly hair and did a double take.
"Kevin?" Hestia croaked out, her voice barely recognizable, and after a few painful moments, Kevin Jargles turned around and looked into the wide, frightened eyes.
"Uhh…Hestia…baby…what are you doing here?" Kevin said, his usual smoothness appearing into his voice.
"What am I doing? What are YOU doing?" Hestia said loudly and evenly, trying not to cry.
"Uh…well you see…Kathy here…was…uh…having some problems breathing!" He said stupidly, and gave a nervous laugh.
"And you needed to make out with her because of that?" She asked, gaining some composure as she looked at the two of them, together.
"I wasn't making out with her, cutie pie!" Kevin cried. The girl called Kathy gave a shrill snort.
"Then what were you doing?" Hestia asked, pinching herself lightly to wake up from whatever nightmare she had stumbled into.
"I was giving her CPR sweetie!" Kevin grinned and looked proud of himself at coming up with his excuse.
"And you needed to grope her while you were giving CPR?" Hestia growled, trying to hide her real feelings inside and be an actress.
"I…wasn't…uh…groping her…I was...feeling her body parts…to ensure her lungs, liver, and… uh…funny bone were working properly. Those nasty funny bones…" he gave a lame chuckle, but panic reached his eyes.
"Kevin… how could you?" She managed to cry out, the ears beginning to overflow, as she could not keep herself bottled up this time.
Kevin seemed to finally decide to drop his act and groaned, "Aww baby…it wasn't really working out for me, I wasn't… satisfied with our relationship."
Hestia paled choked back a sob, though the tears could not be held back and they trickled silently down her face. The blonde hussy named Kathy threw her head back and laughed shrilly, "Honey, all men want the same thing, and if they get it out of you, they're happy, and they like you. Why do you think they all love me?"
"But you're like… a hooker!" Hestia cried out.
"Now, don't use such ugly words on me, sugar. I am not a hooker; I don't get paid doing what I love most. I just do it, and Kevin is quite good at it as well." Kathy smiled as she said this, knowing she had gotten Hestia quite well.
Hestia turned her attention back to Kevin, and saw to her enragement that he was smiling expectantly. What was he waiting for, an apology on bended knee? A slap on the face? A hissy fit or a fight between the two of them? She couldn't take this any longer and had no choice but to run. She flew out of the hallway and back up stairs, much to the relief of Lily and Remus who did not want to be spotted.
Lily was clearly very angry with this and uncharacteristically, before she could stop herself, she pointed her wand towards Kevin's mouth and whispered "Scourgify." A small jet of pink light exploded from her wand and into Kevin's mouth, making it fill with bright pink bubbles, just as he bent down to kiss Kathy again. Suddenly, he began gagging, spitting out everything – spewing all the bubbles onto Kathy's skimpy garments.
She shrieked and jumped out of the way while Kevin tried muttering spells and incantations to get rid of all the bubbles, but instead, it made them come out faster. "What the hell are you doing? Look at me! You were on her side all along!" Kathy shrieked, slapped Kevin's face so hard he reeled over and choked, and ran down the hall.
Though Lily and Remus had both immensely enjoyed watching the scene, they both tensed up again thinking about Hestia. "Lily, you'd better head back to the common room, it's almost lights out. Tell Mai and Kat what happened."
"But what about you? And how will you find her? She could be anywhere," Lily said before attempting to hit Kevin with the counter-curse, but missing.
"I'm a Marauder, don't worry about me," Remus muttered, as if that plain fact was a golden ticket to everything.
They separated at the foot of the stairs and Lily ran back to the common room.
Remus watched her disappear, and then turned around suddenly, a determined look on his face. Looking outside through the stained glass window, he could feel his wolf sense kick in. On alert, he followed his instincts and began to navigate dynamically through the corridors. He had finally reached the place where his senses had taken him, the empty east tower. He had come up here several times during last winter to watch the stars by himself.
Opening the door hesitantly, he peeked in to see Hestia curled up in the far corner. Trying to be as silent as possible, he tiptoed to where she was and lowered himself gently down beside her. He sat there with her for several minutes, listening to her shaking sobs. Anger rose in him and he gave a deep breath out before placing his hand tentatively on her shoulder for comfort. Hestia, was now clinging to him, weeping into his shirt.
After awhile she finally decided to look up and stopped crying. They both sat there silently for several minutes before she said whispered suddenly, 'I was so stupid; the signs were there in front of me."
Remus looked out towards the lake, "You were and are not stupid. Have a little more faith in yourself."
"But, I thought I knew him so well! And all along he was just using me! I thought he loved me."
The last sentence stung Remus and hung in the air as they both fell silent and gazed out into the setting sun. Stars had begun to appear and twinkled merrily. After sitting motionlessly for a full ten minutes, Remus looked over at Hestia to find her leaning against him, eyes closed. Remus looked slightly shocked as to wonder how she could have fallen asleep so fast, but before he could wonder anymore, her piercing blue eyes opened suddenly.
Her head turns towards the heavens as she whispered quietly, "The stars must be so lonely, yet still they glimmer."
Remus joined her in looking at the stars, stars aren't the only ones who are lonely tonight. He turned back to watch her. Standing up unexpectedly, he offered her his hand. "Come on; let's head back."
Hestia took his took glumly, and they both said nothing else to each other as they walked side by side back to the Gryffindor common room.
"You guys go on without me; I can't go to class today… not after…" Hestia's voice broke and tears began welling up in her eyes as she looked up from her bed at her three friends.
Lily looked pityingly at her friend.
"Please, come Hestia,"Kaitlyn tried coaxing, "If you want I'll …um…set his hair on fire…I am pretty good at that, as Sirius can tell you. Or if you want, Mai can karate chop him so bad he won't be able to have any more kids, or walk properly for the rest of his life."
At this, Hestia sobbed harder. "I don't want him to be hurt! I want him to be mine again!"
Lily and Mai both looked at each other while Kaitlyn jumped on Hestia's bed and tried coaxing her a different way. They didn't understand how anyone would want their boyfriend back after he cheated on them.
Hestia who had stopped momentarily stopped shaking with sobs looked up at her friends curiously, something had dawned on her, "Wait, how did you know...? You were spying on me!"
Lily's mouth dropped open wordlessly before she became defensive, "I was not."
"Then what were you doing?"
"Me and Remus arrived at the scene just as you did and we saw what happened."
"Well are you happy now?"
Lily was aghast, "What? Why would I be happy?"
"You said you didn't like him. I know you think that I should have listened to you." Hestia turned to look irritably at her two other friends, "You all think I should have listened to you. You were right. I was wrong. So go on then. Scold me."
They decided not to say anything about Kevin or their boyfriends in case Hestia started sobbing harder. Finally, Lily had had enough.
"Hestia Jones, if you do not get out of bed this instant and get ready in ten minutes I swear that I will not let you borrow my charms notes anymore!"
"What does that matter? I don't care if I fail charms. It's stupid class anyway."
Though slightly offended, Lily was unstirred, "Then I suppose I can use one my 'stupid' charms on you? Wingardium Leviosa perhaps?
Hestia's eyes looked round and fearful and she immediately jumped off her bed, knocking Kat off on the floor and making her crash into Mai, and ran to the bathroom. She was ready in the ten minutes Lily gave her, not taking that much time to get ready as she usually did.
The girls got very protective over her the second they left their dormitory, and Common Room, Lily going as far as giving Ian Fawcett (the school gossip) detention for being a nosy git. Charms went pretty well for all of them, Lily and Mai ended up giving Gryffindor a total of fifty points for their amazing work on Bubble Head Charms, Kat didn't have any accidents even though Sirius called her a hurricane for the millionth time, and Hestia was so busy trying to figure out how to make a Bubble Head Charm look good that she forgot all about Kevin for several minutes. Professor Flitwick was so proud that he gave her ten points for showing such dedication towards her work.
Before anyone knew it, the bell ran signalling the end of class and there was a mad rush of activity and a competition to see who would get our first. The four girls however, took their time hoping to not run into anyone who would question Hestia since the news of what happened between her and Kevin had spread around school like wildfire, thanks to Ian Fawcett who later on that evening felt that he was getting his punishment's worth when he was cleaning bedpans in the Hospital Wing with a toothbrush.
The Marauders were also lingering, but that may have been because James and Sirius had an irresistible temptation to produce a Bubble Head Charm big enough to fit all of Severus Snape's body in it, and make him float around the room, and crash into various pointy objects. After Professor Flitwick realized what had happened he immediately ordered the two of them to set him down, which he regretted immediately after Snape fell from where he was floating near the top of the ceiling, to and crashed onto the floor, breaking his leg and spraining his wrist in the process. Of course, the whole class had laughed loudly, with the exception of Lily who was furious because even though she hated Snape, he could have been killed; and Kat because she was too busy noticing that Sirius' eyes crinkled up when he laughed.
"What on earth were you two thinking?" Professor Flitwick yelled, as he stood on James's desk in front of the two grinning boys.
"Sir, it was an experiment and not a terrorist action." Sirius began explaining, proud that he had used a Muggle term to describe something, "You see, James and I wanted to see how big you could make Bubble Head Charms on someone, or something. It was not our fault that Snivellus-I err…mean Severus began floating around in mid air."
"I do not care what you two were doing! You could have hurt him! How could you have let him come crashing down?" Flitwick jumped on the desk slightly, which made Peter, who was standing with Remus behind James and Sirius, snicker slightly.
"But, sir," James began protesting, flashing his trademark grin since Lily was still in the room, "You did not specify how Severus should be let down. And besides, we did not have time to slow his fall down, or to transfigure anything into a cushion to prevent him from hurting himself."
Flitwick sighed, not pleased with the excuses the two were giving him. "Detention, tonight, I'll see you two in my office at eight." He said before hopping off the table and heading towards his desk.
The two friends grinned slightly and began packing their things up so they wouldn't be late, and get another detention from McGonagall. Then Sirius noticed Kat walking towards the door, her arms over laden with some books. "Oi Hurricane! What are you still doing here? Waiting to finish burning my hair off?" He called out cheerfully and Kat immediately dropped everything she was carrying and tripped over it, causing him and Peter to burst into laughter.
"You two make me sick!" Lily cried as she and Mai helped Kat up and walked out the door, followed by Hestia who suddenly remembered why she did not want to go to class.
She was the first one out the door however, not choosing to listen to another argument that had broken out between Lily and James, but stopped dead in her tracks very suddenly, and gasped. Peter who had been walking behind her, did not see her stop, and ended up crashing into her and falling down just like Kat had done moments before. This caused everyone to stop what they were doing and look over at Hestia, and then what made her stop.
There, leaning against the wall was Kevin, looking amused at all of them. Lily quickly noted that he had recovered from Lily's Charm work, though there was a pink hand mark on his left cheek. He gave a grin and walked towards Hestia.
"Baby, how are you? You don't look too happy." He began while the whole astonished group watched.
"Where's Kathy?" Lily asked snidely when she finally recovered.
"Shh…Lily, you have to let Hestia handle this on her own, no matter how she chooses to," Remus said softly, even though he too wished he could curse Kevin.
"Ahh…well you see…after everything that happened yesterday, I realized that Hestia was everything to me. I need her. I love her. Hestia," He said, and then bent down on one knee, "Will you forgive me for making an ass of myself?"
Everyone held their breaths and looked over at Hestia who was trembling. She knew what her answer would be, and knew that within moments she would find herself back in Kevin's arms. She could imagine them on trips to the Astronomy Tower, walks around the lake, sneaking off into the kitchens, or out of Care of Magical Creatures lessons to have a rendezvous in the Forbidden Forest…
You were and are not stupid. Have a little more faith in yourself; Remus' words came back to her, and she suddenly remembered him sitting with her quietly while she cried yesterday. Kevin had never sat with her while she cried, or tried to comfort her, he just made pretty speeches that knocked her off her feet and kissed her like crazy. Despite the fact that they had been going out since last year, Hestia realized all she and Kevin ever did was make out, and didn't know each other at all.
And now, after cheating on her, and breaking up with her, and now he wanted her back. Suddenly anger she had never felt before entered Hestia's body. She had loved and trusted him, and he let her down. And he expected that she would just be his girlfriend again. Was he ever wrong! With one swift motion, she slapped the other side of Kevin's face hard, and knocked him to the ground.
"I will not take you back, or accept your apology you…you…you…" Hestia's voice faltered since she was unable to think of a mean enough name to call him.
"Filthy scum of the earth," Hestia whirled around to see Sirius looking pleased with himself.
"I'm only calling him what Evans calls Prongs on a regular basis. OW!" He yelped as James punched his arm. "Prongsie! What was that for?"
Hestia rolled her eyes at the two of them and looked back at Kevin who had gotten up and was rubbing his cheek. "You ugly, big cotton haired prat! You cheated on me with … with… HER…because I would not sleep with you! And then when she got tired of you, you come running back to me! How dare you!" She yelled before starting and ran towards the Transfiguration Wing, followed closely by her friends and Remus who realized that the bell was about to ring.
"Oi mate! You know what that means! I can finally have a good snog with her in the Astronomy Tower!" Sirius barked joyfully as he and James and Peter tried to catch up with Remus and not risk getting another detention.
"Late again you three, you'll have to serve detention with me tonight." Professor McGonagall said as they ran into class, ten minutes late.
"But we've already got a detention with Flitwick!" James cried.
"Tomorrow night in my office then."
Twenty minutes later, everyone was busy trying to Transfigure large stacks of books into convincing hiding places, while McGonagall was wandering around the class giving them hints. "So what'd you say about having a snog with Hestia in a broom closet?" Peter squeaked excitedly.
"What?" Remus said sharply, looking up from his large stacks of books and at Sirius.
"It's the Astronomy Tower not a broom closet Wormtail. Snogging in broom closets went out of style years ago." Sirius said impatiently.
"Padfoot, you can't go and make out with Hestia in the Astronomy Tower." Remus whispered as soon as McGonagall was out of earshot.
Sirius had reached his end. "AND WHY NOT!" he bellowed.
"I'll tell you why not. Because if you don't, you shall fail my class. Now what is the matter?" McGonagall swooped before him.
"Nothing professor." Sirius said, before he realized that McGonagall was not going to take that for an answer.
"Ten points from Gryffindor, Black, for causing a racket in my classroom."
"Way to test his patience, Moony. You know Sirius doesn't like to be questioned when it comes to girls," whispered James while Sirius shot daggers at McGonagall.
"Now answer me. Why can't I snog her! Tell me a reason. I demand a reason for this madness!"
"She just broke up with Jargles…"
"Damn it Moony! Since when does that matter? When are you ever going to learn?" Sirius cried as the bell rang, and sparks shot out of his wand.
"BLACK! When are you ever going to learn! You should take an example from Mr. Lupin here. And detention for the rest of the week starting tomorrow!" McGonagall cried shrilly.
"Y'know Moony I think McGonagall has a thing for you or something…OW MOONY THAT WAS MY OTHER ARM!" Sirius yelled after Remus, not usually the violent sort, took a leaf out of James' book and punched him
"What's with everyone today?" Sirius asked Peter as they walked out of class.
Peter chose not to answer as he appeared to be thinking hard about something. Then without warning, he reached out and punched Sirius' arm.
"WORMTAIL! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" Sirius yelled, and Peter began walking quickly away.
"I felt left out." He squeaked before breaking into a run.
Fin.
Wooh. We are SO SO SO SO SORRY that it took so LONG. School, homework, y'know… business… anyway… look forward to the next chapter soon. We promise. But until then, Read and Review please!