a/n: Yes! It is finally here! About five months overdue, so you all totally have the right to throw mushy vegetables at me. I won't even try to duck. Scout's honor. So, without further ado, presenting (drum roll please) the NEW! And IMPROVED! Thrice Defied.
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Chapter 1
Everything had been going too well. Dumbledore's speech was inspiring and no-one talked through it. Dinner was delicious and didn't make pus-oozing pustules erupt on my face. Dancing with James was very romantic, and my feet were not trodden on. This was why, when James went to "get something to drink, stay here, flower, I'll be right back, don't move", leaving me against the wall furthest from where the rising star, Celestina Warbeck, was singing her heart out, I was very apprehensive. Visions of myself with green hair and teeth danced in my head.
"Hey, Lil."
I turned at the sound of my name to find a witch in turquoise robes smiling at me. "Hi, Dannie. Where did you leave Remus?" I asked, accepting the butterbeer she passed me with a suspicious glance at its contents. My best friend, Dannie (or Danika, as she was known to some) Bones, took a swig of her own half-full butterbeer.
"He's talking to Professor Slughorn. Something about a potion to make his...condition more bearable."
I nodded comprehensively. Remus Lupin, one of James's friends, was a werewolf. We were quite good friends ourselves, ever since we were anxious First Years studying for exams months early in the library. I suppose I was the first school friend he told about his condition, after all, we trusted each other completely, and I, in turn, told him all my problems and insecurities. We were thicker than thieves, just the way I liked it. We both had total faith in the other, and Remus was always there to give advice, or offer a tissue ("After all," he told me one winter night last year, "Tears stain. The cost of dry cleaning is horrendous."). He was a rock in these insane times, what with Death Eater attacks and exams, and preparations for our life after Hogwarts.
"These are safe to drink," Dannie said, gesturing to the still-closed bottle clutched in my right hand, mistaking my silence for apprehension. Shaking my head and blinking, I twisted the cap off and took a gulp. Inspecting the amber-colored liquid, I asked, "Don't you think this whole night is going a little too well?" Glancing at the swirl of different colored robes that was the dance floor, I continued, "The Marauders haven't tried anything."
"Yet," Dannie nodded, long silver earrings swaying as she had another swig of butterbeer.
"It's insane," I said, "eerie. Like the calm before the storm." She hmm-ed an agreement, flicking sandy blond hair out of sea green eyes before cracking a large grin.
"Though, Lillers, your fantasy of a perfect evening is somewhat ruined by the fact that Lissa is off in some broom cupboard snogging Amos Diggory senseless."
I snorted. "That girl has been breaking hearts since the first minute we got here in First Year." Indeed, my other best friend, Lissa Wood, was what a boy would call damn sexy. Girls just call her gorgeous, this comment often accompanied with jealous sideways glances. Lissa, or Melissa, had perfect, loose, bombshell curls, a dark chestnut brown. Her eyes were the warmest, richest brown, her lips plump and pink, and perfectly white, straight teeth. Boys had been chasing her forever, even when she had that muggle invention, braces, on her teeth. She was easily the most beautiful girl in the school. Many boys had attempted to score a date with her by using idiotic pick-up lines that generally resulted with them in the hospital wing and Lissa in detention.
Dannie laughed. "Remember The Broomstick Incident?" This particularly dim boy had asked Lissa if she wanted to go for a ride on his broomstick, and not in the innocent way, either. This, of course, had disastrous results. Lissa had been in detention for weeks.
"How could I not? That poor boy had his broom stuffed so far up his bum that it took Madam Pomfrey ages to get it out again. He walked bandy-legged for weeks."
We howled with laughter. The sad part was that that boy was one of the lucky ones. Another disappeared for weeks, and then turned up on one of the (full) bedpans in the Hospital Wing. With a giggle, Dannie said, in a voice hoarse from laughing, "There's Remus. See you later, Lils." And with a little waggle of her fingers, she plunged into and was swallowed whole by the pulsating crowd on the dance floor.
As I leant on the wall, waiting for James to return, I glanced at the couples dancing. I saw Lissa and some Ravenclaw boy (Amos was, probably, locked in the broom cupboard, his escape somewhat hampered by the fact his fingers seemed to be missing) dancing very sensuously. Just wait, I thought, that boy will be cursed faster than he can say, "Hey, baby, wanna do the horizontal tango?" Just as I predicted, as my eyes moved onto Dannie and Remus dancing happily, a scream echoed through the hall. The dancing couples turned to look as Lissa advanced on her previous dancing partner. Uh oh, I thought, pushing myself off the wall and striding quickly through the mass of people milling about.
"How dare you." Lissa seethed. "How dare you! You little slug!" She pointed her wand at the quivering lump of what used to be a seventeen-year-old male. A jet of violet light shot out the end of her wand, and the lump of gelatin sprouted masses of dirty, brown hair, so that what lay on the floor in front of her looked like some horrible mutated orangutan. Another vicious wave of her wand and the results of the bat bogey hex were winging their way towards the unfortunate boy. Lissa shrieked angrily.
By this time, I had reached her. I pulled her wand arm down, pointing her wand tip down towards the floor. "Liss," I said calmly into her ear, "calm down."
"How can I calm down? He asked me if I wanted to have sex, he leered at me, and he grabbed my butt!" she shrilled, volume increasing on every word. I looked at Dannie. Your turn, she mouthed. I groaned and put a silencing charm on the screeching Lissa. "Come on," I said firmly, holding her hands behind her back and pointing her out of the Great Hall. "March."
After what seemed like ages, I managed to calm her down and returned inside. Suddenly acutely aware of my thirst, I cast a glance over to the drinks table and noticed James and Sirius lurking about. James pulled a small glass bottle with a lurid pink label out of his pocket. Shooting a furtive look around the Hall, he unstoppered it and poured the entire contents into the bowl of ruby-red punch. Abandoning the dregs of my butterbeer, I narrowed my eyes and set off across the dance floor. Sirius spotted me and muttered something to James, probably along the lines of,
"Prongs, mate, your girlfriend is on the warpath and wants your blood."
As a diversion, I suppose, Sirius swept towards me and whirled me in a circle. "Lillers, how lovely to see you today!" He twirled me around before dipping me so low that the tips of my hair brushed the stone floor.
"Sirius Black, what did you two put in the punch?" I asked, furiously, as he whipped me back up again, so fast that blood rushed to my face. He laughed his bark-like laugh, storm-cloud grey eyes sparkling with mischievousness, and spun me so I was facing away from him, and pushed the small of my back gently, propelling me forward, so that I collided with James's toned chest. Wrapping his arms around me, James twirled me off to the dance floor. He leaned down to nuzzle my neck and whispered, "Have I told you how beautiful you look tonight, flower?" His gentle, caressing tone sent lovely little shivers dancing down my spine.
But I was not to be deterred. I was on a mission.
"James, what did you put in the punch?"
He smiled and laughed quietly. "What makes you think I put anything in it?"
"I saw you," I hissed, groping around in his pocket for the bottle. As my fingers brushed the smooth surface of the container, James pulled my hand out of his pocket. Kissing the tips of each of my fingers, he whispered, "Just a little love potion."
"What?" I screeched, stiffening. At the inquiring gazes of the dancing couples around me, I lowered my voice to a hiss. "You spiked the punch with a love potion?" I whipped my head around to view the drinks table. "James, these people won't know what hit them! One second, they're innocently drinking punch, the next; they're flirting with Mrs. Norris!"
A Hufflepuff girl I knew from potions was ladling the strawberry red juice into a crystal glass, while Sirius watched with glee. "James!"
"Yes, my gorgeous flower?"
"That girl is drinking it!" I said furiously, eyes focused on the girl, who was now tipping the glass against her lips…
"Lil, you know the antidote for all the Zonko's potions is water. And the effects will wear off in a week, otherwise."
The girl was now flirting shamelessly with and awkward-looking Hagrid, her glass of spiked juice in her left hand. "Do you think that that girl wants to remember the night of her graduation as the night she flirted with Hagrid?" I asked lividly. Hagrid had now tried to excuse himself, and the lovesick Hufflepuff was following him around like a pouting puppy.
James laughed, and I could feel it reverberate in his chest. "That's the best part. Watching people flirt outrageously with someone three times their age, or someone they hate."
"You're the only person who could find that funny," I said, exasperatedly kissing him on the tip of his nose. "Well, and Sirius," I said, indicating where Sirius was slumped against the wall, howling with laughter. "What am I going to do with you?" He just smiled and pulled me closer.
Through eyes half-closed in bliss, I noticed something very potentially appalling.
"James!"
"Yes, my love?"
"Is that who I think it is drinking your spiked punch?" I asked, pointing. James turned.
"Oh. Merlin." His jaw dropped and his eyes widened in horror. Professor McGonagall was spooning a large dollop of the punch into her crystalline glass, and lifting it to her lips…
"Professor!" James shouted, taking off running towards her, "don't drink that!" Too late. McGonagall had drained half of the goblet. Before James could reach her, she set off across the dance floor, to where the headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, was chatting with Professor Slughorn. With a glance at each other, James and I elbowed our way through the crowd. When we reached the professors, McGonagall had gone into full flirting mode, with Dumbledore.
Her eyelashes fluttered seductively. "Albus. I quite like your robes. I find them…manly." Dumbledore's jaw dropped, and Professor Slughorn's eyes widened. My head fell into my hands. This was not happening. My teachers were not flirting. No, no, no. That is just nasty. To my left, James shook with suppressed laughter.
Professor Dumbledore looked flustered. "Why, thank you, Minerva. I quite like yours as well."
Professor McGonagall giggled girlishly. "Thank you, Albus. Would you care to dance?"
I had had enough. I could not bear to watch this any longer.
"Alright, Professor," I said taking her by the arm, "that's enough." I looked at James; who looked quite put out that I had stopped the flirt fest, and at Dumbledore, who looked relieved. I plucked the half-full goblet from her fingers and dumped the contents on the floor. Just as I was about to fill it again, this time with water, she launched herself past me and threw herself onto the very frightened looking headmaster. Dumbledore staggered with the sudden extra weight, and attempted to dislodge her arms from around his neck and her legs from around his waist.
"Albus," she purred, lacing her fingers through his long, grey hair. "I'll be your everything…"
"Oh, for the love of God!" I cried, circling around the back of my startled and very pale headmaster. "Don't worry, sir, just make sure she drinks this," I shoved the crystal glass into his hand, which was now full of water into his trembling hand. He took a deep breath.
"Come now, Minerva, drink some water…That's it, good…" he said, in a voice that shook ever so slightly, tilting the water down her throat. "There we go…"
Professor McGonagall's eyes glazed over slightly, before she stiffened, eyes clear again, and pushed herself away from Dumbledore. She shrieked, looking both horrified and disgusted with herself.
"Albus! I'm sorry! I do not know what possessed me…"
By this time, I felt I had to leave before I would spontaneously combust, so I grabbed James's elbow and marched him away through the crowd. We exited the Great Hall and seated ourselves on a stone bench located in the magical rose bushes conjured for the event. Fairy lights twinkled in the dark, clear night. I laced my fingers through James's, and leaned my head on his shoulder.
"I am scarred for life."
James chuckled. "When she jumped on him…"
I shook my head to dislodge the horrific memory. "Don't even talk about it. I'm going to have nightmares for weeks."
After sitting in silence for a few moments, James stood and asked, "Dance with me?"
I looked around. "Out here?"
He smiled his crooked smile. "Why not?" Taking my hands, he pulled me to my feet, and to his chest. I giggled. "James!" He twirled me around and dipped me low. Laughing, we spun around the garden until a couple snogging in a clump of rose bushes shouted at us to not barge in on people. Giggling, we stumbled back to our original bench. Before I had the chance to sit down again, James caught my arm.
"I have something for you," he whispered, pulling a long, rectangular box out of his pocket. I took it from him and pulled off the lid, and gasped. Inside was a fine silver chain. Lifting it by the clasp, I gasped again. Hanging in the vee of the chain, swaying slightly, was a perfect, beautiful emerald, the size of the nail on my pinky finger. It sparkled in the light created by the fairies perched in the rosebushes.
"Oh, James." Tears pricked the inside corners of my eyes.
"Do you like it?" he asked worriedly, a frown crinkling the skin of his forehead. I reached up and smoothed out his brow with my fingertips.
"I love it."
"Here," he said, taking the chain from me and undoing the clasp. He moved behind me and I lifted up the ends of my hair. After fumbling with the clasp, he managed to get it on and turned me to face him. I sniffled.
"Oh, flower, don't cry," he sad, enfolding me in his arms. I snuffled again, and buried my face in his neck.
"Lily?"
"Yes?" I said, lifting my head from his shoulder. There was something I had never seen before in his beautiful hazel eyes as they met mine. He reached up and caught my chin between his thumb and forefinger. With his other thumb, he brushed away the tears that had tumbled down my cheeks. Tilting my face up to his, his lips met mine. Sighing into his lips, my hands found his messy black hair and tangled themselves in it. His hand, on the small of my back, pushed me closer to him. When we broke apart to breathe, he rested his forehead on mine and said, breath ragged,
"I love you."
My heart swelled. I suspected that he loved me before, but he had never said those three little words. Those three beautiful, wonderful, lovely words.
As I pulled his head down to kiss me again, I whispered,
"I love you too."
a/n: Better, no? And longer. Now you may throw rotten, moldy vegetables at me for taking so long.
Please review.
xoxo
PS I decided I will be taking down the Original Version. I read it over yesterday and I was shocked at how…bad it seemed. To me, anyways. So I'll leave it up for a week or two, so you can read it again if you want, then I'll delete it. If I delete it before you have the chance and you still want to read it, e-mail me (my email addy is in my profile) and I'll send it to you. Thanks.