Chapter 2: You Say You Love Me…

"Hey Lils," a voice called from the Ravenclaw table. Lily bid her friends goodbye and walked over to her boyfriend, Hunter Davies and kissed him affectionately.

"How was your summer?" he questioned.

"Ok. Petunia was a bitch though."

"Well, that's nothing new. Lily, I missed you this summer. Come one, let's get out of here," Hunter whispered, pulling Lily up from the table and dragging her giggling out of the Great Hall.

"I don't trust him," Carolina remarked to Emma.

"I don't either," James added, sitting down, followed by the other three Marauders. "There's just something about him that I don't like. I can't really place it, but I know he has some other ulterior motive. I just wish I knew what it was."

"Do you think it has got to do w-with…Voldemort?" Peter questioned.

"Don't be prat, Peter, he's a Ravenclaw, not a Slytherin," Emma snapped. Peter gave a rather dejected look and then shut up.

"Stranger things have happened," Remus responded, Peter's words playing over and over in his head. Remus had the horrible feeling that for once in his life, Peter might be right.

"Well, I don't know what he's into," James started, "but it's nothing good."

"Can I hex him?" Sirius asked childishly.

"Sirius!" Carolina blurted. "No! You just can't do that to anybody."

"But I did to Snape," he whined.

"But this isn't Snape," James barked. "The last thing I need is Lily mad at me over something stupid.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. This year is your year to gallantly win Lily's heart," Sirius snorted, followed by a cough that distinctively sounded like "yeah right."

"I heard that Padfoot," James called, getting up to head to Transfiguration. When Lily came in her lips were looking rather red and her hair a little messy and all she could do was stare at the ground. I wonder what she's been doing, James mused.

"Evans, you didn't grace us with your presence at breakfast," James whispered, as she sat down in between Sirius and him.

"Sorry, I was…busy," she responded, trying her best to look happy.

"We can tell," Sirius retorted. Lily playfully hit him on the arm and Sirius stuck out his tongue.

"Have you talked to Emma yet?" Sirius wrote in a note to Lily.

"No, why should I?"

"You know!"

"Sirius, she deserves for you to talk to her yourself."

"She's right Padfoot. Time for our little boy to grow up and do something for himself," James added.

"Stay out of this Jimmy boy," Sirius scrawled. "Please Lily."

"Sirius, this is something no one else can do for you. You hurt Emma last year—bad. She's not one who forgets easily either."

"I didn't mean to," Sirius wrote, giving Lily the puppy dog eyes. Lily sighed, trying to suppress a grin.

"Oh so you just accidentally ended up in bed with Cayla."

"I was drunk. Nobody can expect much from me when I'm like that."

"Well, your girlfriend expected more out of you. What makes it worse is that you know that Em hates Cayla."

"Mr. Black, Ms. Evans," McGonagall shouted. "Do either of you have anything to add to the class?" Lily flushed red, but Sirius did not skip a beat.

"Well Minnie, Ms. Evans and myself are having a rather important conversation."

"More important than N.E.W.T. Transfiguration?"

"Seeing as Transfiguration is easily my best subject, I bore quickly. I needed to find a way to better fill my time that was not disruptive to the class. So I called on a little bit of help from Ms. Evans here."

"Mr. Black, however advanced you may be at Transfiguration, you are not given the right to not pay attention and disrupt others. 15 points from Gryffindor for your lip. Would you like to add 2 night's worth of detention scrubbing bed pans?" Sirius shook his head.

"I'd rather not, Minnie, but if you insist, I might be able to fit it into my schedule." Right on cue the bell rang and Sirius scrambled out of the classroom leaving Professor McGonagall looking furious.

A few weeks later while Lily was in the Common Room studying, a small pecking noise at the window was heard.

"You gonna get that?" Lily questioned.

"It's not my owl," he replied. I never get mail, Lily thought. Who's owling me? She got up and went over to the window and let the owl in. He was rather hyper and pecked at her fingers the whole time she was trying to untie the letter from its leg. Finally she got it off, not without several cuts, and opened the letter.

Lily,

Mom made me write you and tell you I'm getting married over the Christmas holidays. I'm not really sure why though, it's not like I want you to attend my wedding. However, Mom feels that it is necessary that you attend, so I am inviting you. She also insists that you be a bridesmaid, but that would mean that you would have to find a date, which I'm sure you cannot. Try to find a suitable date, not one of those, weird guys. Oh, the dresses are pink, a color I chose knowing it would make you look horrible. Hopefully something horrible will happen to you between now and Christmas so that you won't be able to attend my wedding, but that would be asking for too much.

Petunia

Lily re-read the letter horrified. She's awful. How she ever found someone to marry her is beyond me. She'll only get married once, hopefully, so I won't have to do this again. I hope that Hunter is up to going to her wedding with me. Thinking about Hunter again made her cringe and she almost began to cry. She slammed down her books and got up, knowing she would not be able to do any more studying after Petunia's letter and her incident with Hunter earlier that day. It's not like I can concentrate anyways. Potter's chasing that bloody snitch around the room.

Quietly, Lily exited the room and began to make her way to the front doors. Once outside, she realized she was not alone. The figure came walking towards her and she recognized him to be Remus Lupin, the most level headed of all the Marauders.

"Hiya Remus," she called, wiping away her tears.

"What are you doing out?"

"Just walking…thinking."

"Oh…Lily, are you happy?" Remus continued after a short pause.

"Huh, what?" she queried, wondering where this conversation was going.

"What I mean is, are you happy with Hunter? Do you love him?"

"Yeah, we're great," she replied, defensively.

"Lily, that's not what I asked. Do you love him?" Remus reiterated.

"Not that it's any of you business, but yes, I do love him," she lied.

"Lily, I don't trust him. Emma and Carolina don't trust him. There's something dark about him. You remember what he did to that Ravenclaw last year, Brittany Price, don't you?"

"He's not like that anymore. Hunter's changed. He's every bit of a gentleman. If you're trying to make me break up with Hunter to date James, you've got another thing coming. I've already had this talk with Sirius a few days ago. I'll talk to you later." Lily brushed by Remus, fighting back the tears and leaving Remus awestruck at the way Lily had just talked to him. Massaging her hands over the bruises on her arms, she wept. He knows. I don't know how, but he knows. I can't believe he hurt me. All I did was ask him if there was something going on between him and that slut Cayla Carmichael. He grabbed me by my arms—hard. Is there something going on between them? He's throwing her suggestive glances when he thinks I'm not watching, but I am. I see those looks. That Slytherin whore. Do I love him? I mean, I thought I did, but after today, I'm not so sure? Thing have been going downhill since the start of the school year.

Lily quickly made her way back up to the castle, realizing she was late for her rounds with James. She tried to hide her tears, but she knew it was probably a lost cause. When she reached the Common Room, James was already waiting outside.

"Where've you been?" he inquired, angrily. Noticing the hurt in her eyes and her tear-strained face, he reached for her arm. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing James. Just leave me alone," she snapped, pulling her arm away from him. The rest of their time checking the corridors for nighttime strollers was spent in utter silence, James knowing that this was not the time to question Lily further. Once back inside the Common Room, James tried again to find out what was bothering her.

"What's wrong, Lily?"

"I told you earlier, nothing," she sputtered, beginning to cry again.

"You can't lie to me Lily. I know you better than that."

"Oh you think you know me do you?" she exploded, letting go of all her emotions. "Do you even have a clue? Petunia hates me. Hunter and I are fighting. My grades are falling. And I have to deal with you every waking moment of my life. Well don't even try, Potter. I don't need your pity."

James moved closer to Lily, putting his arm around her. She flinched slightly at the contact of his arm to her bruises, but hoped that he didn't notice. "Lily, I don't pity you. I—I love you." Lily just gasped in awe for a few minutes before recovering her senses.

"Do you realize what you just said? Stop playing with my emotions. James, you just said you loved me, but do you even know who I am? What you're feeling isn't real, it's just a stupid crush you've made believe is love."

James sat there looking rather hurt, thinking. "Lily, this isn't make believe, it's true. I love you so much. You aren't just a game to me. You never were, even though you made yourself think that was all I felt for you. And you say I don't know you? I know so much more than you know. Lily, I've been watching you for the past 5 years of my life. I know you have two wonderful friends who you love very much and that love you too. I know that however much you may get on to Sirius and I for our pranks, you really do find it entertaining. I know you love your family, even your sister who hates you. You can't hate her because you don't have the capacity to hate people, it's not in your nature. You love walks in the rain and you love to read. You've always wanted to go to the beach. You have a fear of flying and you can't stand Potions because it's not your best subject. You're smart, funny, beautiful, the list goes on and on. Most of all, I know you are scared. You are scared to take the risk and love me back. You can't handle not being in control of your emotions, you are too afraid to let go and see where things take you." Lily just got up and stormed into her bedroom, crying, trying to forget the conversation she had just had with James.