Disclaimer: I don't own this. You know that. I know that. My stuffed bear knows that.
Author's Note: I'm so sorry. Did I mention I'm sorry? I just was completely unable to write on this story. But I think it's getting I'm thankful for all your reviews! They make me smile. I'm so sorry it's been so long. Enjoy the chapter. It's longer than the last one. Like twice as long. I think.
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Chapter 12: A Notable Charms Class
James walked into Charms ten minutes late, with his hair still wet. It was a tragedy and quite a strike against his dignity to walk into a room with his hair soaked and dragging down his back, but he really didn't need Lily to be any madder at him than she already was. Besides, he knew at some point in time this week, he would find the perfect revenge. He just wasn't sure when or where. Maybe he could set up a date between her and Snivellus. Ew, no. Then he'd actually have to flirt with him to get the date. Not going to happen.
He looked up at Professor Flitwick, forgetting that he was disguised as the man's star pupil.
"Take your seat, Lily. Alice has already kindly informed me as to the cause of your delay." He shot a look at the person who appeared to be James, then he smiled at the real James. "Take your seat," he squeaked again.
James sat down by Remus. Remus was good at charms. Not as good as Lily of course, but Sirius had seen fit to sit by her today (of course Sirius thought Lily was James when he chose the seat).
The lesson went on and just as James was about to get the new charm right, a ball of paper hit him on the head. He looked around for it and found it by his foot. He opened it up and read it.
Why were you late? Alice is annoyed at me. She keeps shooting me dirty looks. What did you do?
James glared at the paper and wrote underneath her message.
I had to clean your lunch out of my hair. You've got to stop doing that stuff. It's bad for my image. You dump lunch all over her best friend's hair and wonder why she's mad? Honestly! I thought you were supposed to be the smart one.
He crumbled the parchment up and threw it at her, hitting her in the back. He went back to his spell.
Lily looked around for what had hit her. Sirius pointed to the balled up parchment at her feet. "You've got mail, Prongs. Who sent it?"
Lily opened it and read the new message silently. She looked over at James as shot him a death glare.
"Ah, I see. It's Miss Evans who troubles you."
Lily picked up her quill and wrote back to him.
You shouldn't have made such a stupid suggestion then. You and I will never go out. Back off.
P.S. Talk to Remus about tonight.
Lily gave a backhand toss and the note landed in front of James on his desk. He read the note and looked at Lily, who was pointedly ignoring him.
James asked, "Remus?"
"Yeah?" he said. He'd been watching the note pass between James and Lily (or rather "Lily" and "James") out of the corner of his eye.
"Can you take charge of the Chess club tonight? I've got to finish my detention with McGonagall, and then I've got that Glee Club meeting."
"Alright. I'll be there anyway."
"Thanks."
James picked up his quill.
I'll back off. Stay out of my way.
P.S. Remus said he'll do it.
He crumpled the parchment up one more time and threw it at the back of her head. When she turned around to pick it up, he stuck his tongue out at her.
She read the note and made a face back at him. Then she just set the crumpled ball of parchment on the desk and went back to her work. She didn't notice when her elbow knocked it to the floor. Sirius did.
Sirius could hardly suppress his glee and almost crowed in triumph. "James" was paying no attention to him, so Sirius just bent down and picked up the note and stuffed it in his pocket to read later. Now maybe he could finally get to the bottom of this.
Classes continued to pass without incident through the remainder of the day and Lily and James avoided each other as though both were afraid the other had some contagious disease.
When the last class ended, James had to report to McGonagall to finish his detention and grade papers. She let him go hardly half an hour before dinner was to start, so by then his fingers were sore and cramped from so much writing.
Lily used the time after class and before dinner to do some homework.
As soon as the last class was over, Sirius conveniently slipped into an old, unused, empty classroom nearby. He saw Peter in the hall and abducted him, dragging him in with his hand over his mouth.
"Wha—" started Peter, but his voice was muffled.
"Ssh!" Sirius said.
Catching sight of who had him, Peter relaxed. Sirius wouldn't hurt him. Probably.
Sirius let go of Peter and sat on top of one of the desks. "I found it!"
"What did you find?"
"The answer to our questions about Lily and James. About why they've been so weird this week!"
"What's the answer?"
"I don't know yet," he said, as though it were obvious. "But they were passing notes in Charms and I found the note."
"What's it say?"
"I haven't read it yet." Sirius took it out of his pocket and read it. He read it again. And a third time. Finally Peter snatched it out of his hands to read for himself since Sirius didn't read it aloud.
Sirius threw his hands in the air. "This makes absolutely no sense! It looks like James is refusing to date Lily."
"And like Lily wants to date James."
"But this makes no sense? Why would she want to date James and not me?"
"And why would James turn down a girl like Lily Evans?" sighed Peter.
"Well, I don't see how any of this makes sense. There's only one person to talk to."
"James?"
"No."
"Lily?"
"No."
"Then who?" asked Peter, exasperated.
"Remus. It says, 'Talk to Remus about tonight' and then Lily wrote back the Remus will do it. What is it they want Remus to do? Besides, Remus may know things about this that we don't."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. Let's go find him."
"Where is he?"
"My bet would have to be the library. Let's go." Sirius pocketed the note again and together went with Peter to the library.
As expected, Remus was there, studying.
Sirius and Peter sat on either side of him and Sirius snatched the book away. "Moony, I'm glad we caught you."
"I'm shocked. I wasn't sure you remembered where the library was," chirped Remus, slightly annoyed.
"Come on, he's not that stupid. He just had a detention here 2 weeks ago," Peter said.
"Right. I forgot about that," Remus said.
"If you two don't mind, I was trying to say something," Sirius said.
"We don't mind. Keep talking we'll keep ignoring you."
Sirius smacked him. "Have you got a minute? We need to talk to you about something."
"Alright, what is it?"
"Top secret information. We'll see you in the Charms classroom on the fourth floor in twenty minutes," Sirius said.
Twenty minutes later, Remus, Sirius, and Peter were all in the Charms classroom on the fourth floor.
"Now what did you want to see me about?" Remus asked.
"What are you doing tonight?"
"I've got a Chess club meeting I'm leading and then Quidditch practice."
"You're leading the Chess meeting?"
"Yes. Lily asked me too. So I won't have time to go with you to spy on Lily and James in Glee Club, if that's what you were wondering."
"A lot of bloody help you are," muttered Sirius.
"Do you know what's been going on with her and James? Why they're acting so weird?" asked Peter.
"So that's what this is about. No. I don't. Neither of them has mentioned anything to me. Why?"
"Did you see them passing notes in class?" asked Sirius.
"I thought Lily was acting a bit off in Charms."
"Well, from the looks of the note, I found it, Lily was asking James out and he said no. She was practically begging him," Sirius said.
"I can't believe that."
"Really, read it and see for yourself."
"No. That's an invasion of their privacy. It's none of our business."
"If you won't read it, then I'll just happen to read it out loud," Sirius said. He read the note out loud and Remus listened.
"That does sound weird," admitted Remus.
"Weird, it's bizarre!" Sirius insisted.
"If you'll excuse me, I'm going to dinner," Remus said, pushing past Sirius and going out the door.
James finished "Lily's" detention with McGonagall and went to the great hall. It was just about dinnertime and his hands were sore from all writing he'd been doing.
He saw where Lily was sitting and decided to go sit at the other end of the table. Lily was probably still mad at him.
Sirius, Peter, and Remus came and sat down by James.
"Do you have the list of everyone paired up for tonight's tournament?" asked Remus.
"What tournament?"
"The Chess tournament that we've been planning for 3 weeks. You can't possibly have forgotten."
"I think I might have lost the list."
"Lost it?"
"I don't think so. I'll go check in my dorm right after dinner."
"The meeting starts almost right after dinner and you've got Glee Club. Are you sure you don't have it?"
"I said I'll have to look for it. Don't worry about it."
"He loses the paper and he says not to worry," Remus mocked, a worry line growing on his forehead. "I better start a new list in case you can't find that one." He stood up and walked out without touching his dinner once.
"Evans, are you coming to the Quidditch game on Saturday?" asked Sirius. "I'll score ten points just for you." He gave a "charming" wink.
"I don't know. I don't think so." It might be too nerve racking to be at the game and not be able to do anything when Lily messed up.
"Are you sure? James would probably like to see you there."
"I don't think so. Look, I've got about a billion things on my mind right now. Leave me alone. I've got to go find some aspirin." James had barely touched his plate, but he got up and left the table.
He was two yards from the door when two rather short kids blocked his way. They stood, arms folded, like brick walls in front of him.
"Out of the way," he said.
"You let us down."
"You were supposed to help us with our Potions homework yesterday."
"I failed the quiz today," continued the first one.
"Me too," added the second one.
James wondered vaguely who these kids were. He was pretty sure he'd seen them around.
Lily had come up behind James, deciding just maybe she should forgive him. Then she heard this conversation. There was no way she was forgiving him now. "Don't worry. We'll talk to Professor Turpin and fix things for you. Come on, Evans," Lily said icily. She took James by the wrist and practically dragged him out of the great hall.
"Who was that?" he asked.
"Nikki and Alex. You were supposed to tutor them yesterday!"
"You didn't remind me. Besides, thanks to you, I spent several hours of last night in the hospital wing."
"Only after we were in a detention that was your fault to begin with!"
"You make me so…mad!" James stamped his foot angrily. There didn't seem to be any other way to convey his emotions.
"Where are you going anyway?" she asked tartly.
"Remus asked where the pairs for tonight's chess tournament were. I told him I lost them."
"Ugh! I didn't lose them, I just didn't finish them. They're almost done. Why did you tell him I lost them?"
"Because I figured it was safer than telling him I didn't know anything about them," said James, glaring at her.
"Go get them. Now! The parchment is under my bed in a neat little pile. Go or I'll chase you there."
"Go get it yourself."
"I would but I can't get in that dorm."
Eventually, James went up and looked for the parchment, while Lily paced anxiously at the bottom of the stairs.
He found the parchment without too much trouble and brought it back down. He gave it to a much relieved looking Remus. "It's almost done. Not complete. I'm sorry. I've had a really rough week."
"Don't worry about it," he said, looking really relieved.
James walked over to Lily. "Come on, Potter, we've got a meeting to go to."
Sirius and Peter, who had been watching them from nearby, got up and followed them.
Not the next chapter, but the one after that, Chapter 14, will be the torture chapter that seems to have been greatly anticipated! I just hope it lives up to everybody's expectations. My boyfriend cringed when he started reading it, if that gives you any sort of idea about how awful this will be for James. I'll try and update soon. Until then, I leave you with one word: REVIEW!