"POTTER!" James heard his name being screeched across the dormitory.
"What is it now Evans?" he asked as he crossed the room to the door of the bathroom.
"Did you not even read the list I gave you!" shouted a very cross Lily.
"Yes, why did I forget something?" James said sarcastically. Lately he seemed to be doing everything wrong.
"I believe item 18a. In bathroom guidelines clearly states that you are not to leave the toilet seat up! Have I made myself clear?"
"Crystal" James said through gritted teeth.
"Ugh, and do you have to sleep in those?" Lily said, her voice dripping with disgust as she pointed to his red boxers. "At least put a robe on or something!"
James left the room seething. He'd had a long day… hell he'd had a long week, this was very much due to the fact that he had to spend this year living with the holy terror known as Lily Evans.
Living with her had sadly not caused his feelings for her to lessen, regardless of how annoyed he was with her or frustrated with her stupid "co-habitating guidelines" he still found himself pining after her, even after promising himself to give it up.
Frustrated and exhausted, he lay in his "Bed" (what was really a very lumpy couch) and fell to sleep.
When James awoke, there was something warm against him… and it smelled nice. He snuggled closer to it and felt a fine silk against the skin of his chest. There was something holding down his right arm and his left was draped over it. Still groggy with sleep, he began to drowsily caress the silky fabric. He heard a soft groan coming from the girl in his arms… wait there was a girl in his arms! His eyes sprung open, but his vision was obscured by a large mass of red hair… this wasn't just any girl, it was Lily.
For fear of Evans-inflicted bodily harm, James sprung from the bed. The violent movement jerked Lily from her sleep.
"What the hell is going on here?" Sitting up straight, she yelled as she saw James on the opposite side of the bed. He did not answer her; he did not even meet her eyes. She looked down and realised why, she was in her sheer light rose silk nightie… that was short enough to be considered a negligee. The part of the garment that covered her chest was made predominately with lace and left little to the imagination. She squeaked in embarrassment and dove for the sheets, pulling them up to her neck.
The lack of scenery caused James to snap back to reality. Using his better sense, James (showing a huge amount of will power) wordlessly handed her the robe she had draped over her chair the night before and averted his eyes as she changed into it. "I'm so sorry about this Lily" he said in his most sincere voice "I'm just as confused as you are… Let's go see Dumbledore before breakfast okay?" This was such a change for James, but he did just see Lily Evans practically in the nude… She was bound to be embarrassed and he definitely wanted to see that again in the future. There was no chance of that happening if he tried his "confident" (aka the sarcastic egotistical cocky bastard) approach.
Lily nodded, still blushing at her state of undress. The pair quickly donned their school robes over their pyjamas and headed to the headmasters office.
"Miss Evans, Mr Potter, what seems to be the problem?" Dumbledore greeted them cheerfully.
"Well headmaster…" Lily began "Potter and me went to bed last night in separate beds and separate rooms."
"I was on a couch…" James pointed out bitterly.
"We still went to bed separately!" Lily said exasperated before continuing. "When we woke this morning, Potter was in my bed! He says he's innocent but I tell you he did this on purpose!" Lily ranted.
"Evans, I did no such thing!" James defended himself "I fell asleep on the lumpy couch and woke up with a face full of red hair!"
Lily was about to break out in another rant, but Dumbledore spoke first. "I'm sorry, it's the room's doing. You've been sleeping separately for a week now?" They nodded in assent "Well, I suppose the room thought it had given you both ample time to start sleeping on the same mattress… Now it seems to be forcing that upon you. I'd suggest simply going along with it and while I do not encourage pre-marital relations…" (At this Lily made a face, James winked at her.) "This seems to be out of my hands entirely. I'm sorry. Now, you'd best be getting to breakfast. Off you go!" and he shooed them out the door.
Ophelia approached Remus at breakfast. "Hey Remus, I was wondering when you wanted to work on the runes assignment."
He turned and swallowed a piece of toast. "How about 4:30 after classes end?" he suggested.
"After classes is bad for me. I have tryouts." She said apologetically. "What about after dinner?" She asked.
"Good idea, that way we can have as much time as we need."
"What about curfew?"
"We're prefects, we'll just say we're patrolling." Remus smiled mischievously. After 2 years Sirius had finally whittled him down to abusing his power just a tiny bit.
"Alright then…" Ophelia said uneasily. "I'll see you at 7:00 then?"
"See you at 7:00" Remus smiled and watched Ophelia walk back to her table.
"Who's that Moony?" Sirius said slyly.
"My Runes partner, why?"
"Riiight, your runes partner… she's cute for a bookworm." He was watching her; she'd picked up a heavy tome that had taken up the space where her plate had been. Remus looked over at her and could see the gold printing on the cover "Collected Works of George Orwell" with his lycanthropy-aided vision.
"Hey Sirius, who's George Orwell?" The name seemed vaguely familiar, but he could not place it.
"No idea. Why?"
"No reason…"
After classes had ended, a fairly large portion of the school filed out onto the Quidditch pitch. The houses assembled around their Head teachers, McGonagall for Gryffindor, Sprout for Hufflepuff, Flitwick for Ravenclaw and Slughorn for Slytherin.
(A/N… I'm changing Quidditch tryouts… the teachers pick the teams and the captain, after that the captain coaches them like they do in the books time period. Oh and do keep in mind that Gender-equality was fairly new in the 70's)
All students were to sign in to their head of house and Madame Hooch would call up the hopefuls in groups by the position that they wished to play.
The chasers were first, they were tested along with the keepers, this took most of the tryouts as in each group of four (one keeper and three chasers) there was only one member from each house. James was trying out for chaser, a position he held last year. McGonagall seemed pleased at how he was the only one in his group able to get a shot passed Severus Snape, who was trying for the position of Keeper. A few girls did exceptionally well, but when the results were called, only one girl in all four houses had made Second-string chaser, on the reserve team.
The next up were the beater tryouts. This was a position traditionally dominated by men. But when Sirius looked around him after kicking off, he saw Ophelia in blue Quidditch robes flying around the far goalposts on the practice side of the pitch in a fast serpentine around the three.
"Oi! What's a pretty little thing like you doing out here!" Sirius called to her.
She pulled up in front of him. "What does it look like?" she said cheekily.
"These are beater tryouts. As in the roughest position on the team, you're sure to break a nail or something." He was in obvious disbelief that any girl would want to try.
"This is your first year trying for the team right?"
"Yeah, what of it?"
"Well if you had tried out before now, you'd know that I've been on the reserve team for beater since second year!"
"Well then, I suppose you're not very good now are you!" Sirius smiled triumphantly.
"No, the problem is that when it comes to Quidditch, Flitwick can't seem to accept the fact that a girl can play!"
"Whatever. Why don't you just go read a book or something?" Sirius said in his most condescending tone.
Just then, Madame Hooch released two sets of bludgers, they were enchanted to only stay on one end of the pitch. When the practice bludgers were released, Ophelia dove at the one closest to her and hurled it at Sirius, who was still laughing at his own joke. It his him on the right side of his chest and a sick cracking noise was heard. He painfully started to fly to the ground where Madame Pomfrey was heading to him.
"Tsk, tsk, two broken ribs. Well I'll have that fixed in a jiffy." With a wave of her wand the bones mended but a dull throb still remained where the bludgers hit him.
Sirius mounted his broom again and rose into the air, bent on revenge. He aimed one at Ophelia who had resumed her course around the goalposts. It hit her in the back of her shoulder, visibly dislocating it. She flinched and turned to glare at him. Grabbing her injured arm with her good one, she popped it back into her socket. "Your ass is mine Black!" she shouted to him as she flung another bludger at him. This time he was prepared and he hit it right back to her. This continued for awhile, and both parties received injuries, Sirius broke 3 more bones and although she was hit as many times as Sirius, the worst injury she had was a black eye from a cheap shot with Sirius' baton (he claimed this was accidental, this might have been believable if Ophelia had not just broken his wrist.)
After about 15 minutes of this, Madame Hooch sounded her whistle signalling the beaters on the practice end of the field that it was time for them to try out. Ophelia and Sirius made their way over there but were stopped by McGonagall and Flitwick.
"You two have done more than enough." Said McGonagall "We watched you from the other end of the pitch, go and sit with the other students" she said as she gestured to the group of boys who had just finished trying out.
"Oh, Ophelia" Flitwick called her before she left "You've made first string, only two applications for beaters this year. Congratulations."
She faked a smile and walked to join the other beaters. Sirius was cheering on his dorm mate Frank Longbottom who did rather well. Sirius cheered very loudly when Frank broke his brother Regulus' arm.
The results were announced and both Sirius and Frank made the Gryffindor team but Sirius stopped cheering abruptly when Ophelia's name was called. He looked over, expecting to see her smug little smirk that she had whenever she landed a hit on him, but instead she looked rather uninterested by the whole thing. He walked up to her to see what was wrong.
"So you must be pretty happy huh?" he said trying to sound bitter, but was too happy with his own placement on the team.
The pensive but slightly bored look she had was gone at the sound of his voice. "Do yourself a favour Black, stay out of my way." She said smirking at him then she walked away towards the change rooms.
After the seeker tryouts were finished, Sirius walked up to the changing tent and stripped down to his boxers, taking a towel with him he headed towards the crowded showers. In front of the door to the showers, Ophelia was leaning against the wall with a towel around her. Two blue straps of fabric came over her shoulders from beneath the white terry cloth.
"What are you still doing here?" Sirius asked her.
"I'm waiting for the shower to be free." She said casually
"Why didn't you just shower with the other girls?" he asked.
"Because they all showered during beater tryouts, since there are no female seekers trying this year, I'm going to have to wait until the shower is deserted."
"I see, well I'm off then" and Sirius headed into the shower. He came out as few moments later. "It's full; I have to wait until they're done."
"Well, you're after me!" Ophelia said cheekily.
"Oh HELL no! Women take forever in the shower. I get first shower."
"No way! I've been sitting out here for a half hour!"
"Well then, what do you suggest?"
"We go in together."
Sirius smiled devilishly "I like where this is going…"
Ophelia rolled her eyes. "Don't make me ill… You go on one side of the shower room and I'll go to another. We'll have our backs turned. I'll be wearing my swimsuit and you'll keep your boxers on. Can you agree to that?"
"I preferred my idea… but okay." After a few moments of uncomfortable silence Sirius spoke. "So why do you even have a swimsuit with you anyway?"
"Hogwarts does not have a girl's change room or shower. I wear this in case I happen to be rudely interrupted while showering." She said simply. They faded into silence again.
Sirius took this opportunity to really study her. She was shorter than most girls he knew. But (from what he could see) she had nice legs, even if they weren't all that long. Her arms were sleek and slightly on the muscular side from being a beater but still feminine. Her skin was tanned and her dark hair fell in loose waves to her shoulders. It still had the ruffled appearance that suggested she had just taken it out of its ponytail. By now, the black eye he had given her had bloomed with a dark purple colour with yellowing edges. Pomfrey had been able to take down the swelling, but her eye was still red. Her shoulder was also bruised from where he had dislocated it with his bludger.
"Hey Ophelia…"
"Yeah?"
"How did you fix your shoulder in the air like that?" Sirius asked.
Ophelia smiled and grabbed the upper arm of her injured shoulder. She jerked it upward and a sickly popping noise was heard. A round protrusion was moving beneath her skin that he only guessed was the bone.
Sirius visibly shuddered. "Okay, that was just plain gross!"
Ophelia smiled. "Want to touch it?" she said mischievously.
"Ew! Hell no I don't want to touch it!"
"Awww… don't be such a baby!"
Stepping forward, Sirius took his hand and lightly touched her skin, when she moved the bone beneath his fingers, he removed his hand quickly. Satisfied, Ophelia popped her arm back into its socket.
"How do you do that?"
"My mum was hit with a wayward curse when she was carrying me. Now I'm double jointed in several spots."
"Where else?" Sirius asked.
"I'm not telling you Black!"
"Why not?"
"We're on competing house teams; I'm not telling you any of my secrets!" she said playfully.
"Fine then, have it your way."
After another ten minutes, the Sirius checked the shower and saw it was empty. He went inside and gestured for Ophelia to follow him. He walked to the nearest showerhead and turned it on. Ophelia walked across the room and took off her towel.
A few minutes after the water started running, Sirius' curiosity got the better of him. He looked over his shoulder and snuck a glance at Ophelia. She was in a blue halter-top bikini. Her Brown hair was piled atop her head as she lathered it up with shampoo, her eyes closed tightly to keep the runoff from stinging her eyes. She moved under the shower again and the shampoo began to rinse out of her hair, the lather running down her back, down her chest, over her swimsuit-covered, relatively small but perky breasts down her flat stomach…
Stop it Padfoot! His mind screamed at him. But he could not tear his eyes away from her. He walked up to her slowly and quietly her eyes were still closed as she reached for her bottle of conditioner but Sirius was quicker. He grabble the bottle first and poured some of the pearlescent substance on his palm. He gently touched her shoulder with his empty hand and felt her stiffen before he gingerly lathered the substance in her hair.
"Black, what are you doing?" She asked breathlessly with a quiver of fear in her voice.
"What does it look like?" he said as he felt her hair grow silkier under the water. When it was sufficiently rinsed she turned to face him, her breathing shallow, her face flushed from the hot water.
He smiled at her and touched her cheek lightly before bending down and kissing her half-open lips. She eagerly returned his kisses and wound her arms around his neck. He pushed her gently so she was against the tile of the shower and moved his kisses down her neck. His skin felt so warm on hers, his arms enveloped her small body and she could feel his developing arousal through the thin fabric of his wet boxers against her stomach.
She pulled away from the wall and pushed him against it. Sirius had never kissed someone so dominant before, but as she wrapped a leg around him and ground against him as she kissed him fiercely, he decided he liked it.
Before they could get much farther, they heard a noise from outside the showers. They broke apart quickly. Grabbing their towels they ran from the showers. They went to the change room and grabbed their things before going their separate ways.
Sirius still walked with a slight limp when he went to dinner that night.
"What happened to you?" James asked.
"Ophelia happened! I broke 5 bones thanks to her at tryouts."
"Ophelia, as in my quiet female runes partner?" Remus asked sceptically as he pointed her out to James. She was sitting there with her "George Orwell" book again.
"Yeah, believe it or not. She broke two ribs with her first shot, later she got my shoulder blade, then my wrist, I got her back for that one, I got her in the eye with my bat, but she got me back by shattering my kneecap. She managed to break another rib before McGonagall and Flitwick made us sit down."
"Aside from the eye, what else did you do to her?" James asked.
"I dislocated her shoulder once, but she popped it back in her socket, she says she's double jointed. I got her hard a few time, but she came out of it with all her bones whole!"
"Tough break Padfoot, being beaten by a girl… you're going soft."
"No I'm not, I got her back after tryouts" he smirked.
"What did you do?" Remus said warningly. Aside from a black eye she had, she seemed alright.
"I snogged her in the showers. If I can't break her bones, may as well break her heart!" he said winking.
Remus shook his head disapprovingly and went back to his food. He just hoped Ophelia would still want to work with him once all was said and done.
When the librarian showed Remus to his and Ophelia's private study, he found it unlocked. Ophelia was already inside reading that large book again. At this distance, he could see how dark her eye had become.
"'And though she be but little she is fierce'" Remus quoted.
"Midsummer night's dream, Act three, scene two, Helena's speaking." She said without looking up. "I suppose Sirius told you what happened at Quidditch today." She marked her page and put down the book.
"And what happened after…"
Ophelia blushed. "I don't know what came over me…"
"Sirius has a certain charm, or so I've been told."
"What did he say about me?"
Remus tried to think of a good way to break it to her. He figured the best way for his partnership to not suffer would be to tell it to her straight. "I'm only telling you this because I don't want you hating me for being friends with him and this affecting our work."
"Only telling me what?"
Remus hesitated for a moment but he knew he had to tell her. "Sirius told James and me that if he can't break your bones he'd break your heart." He looked at her sympathetically. When she didn't say anything he was worried.
She sighed. "I figured as much, after all, when has a guy with "nothing but good intentions" gone from beating the shit out of a girl with a bludger one moment to snogging her against the wall in the Quidditch showers the next? He's just so infuriating!" she spat out the last part bitterly.
Remus blushed with her detailed recount of what happened "Are you okay?" he asked.
"I will be." She said with a mischievous glint in her eye.
Remus knew that look, it was the same one Sirius got whenever he was plotting something. "What are you planning?"
"Nothing…" she said innocently.
"I hang out with Sirius James and Peter; I can tell when someone is plotting something."
"Speaking of James, does he have a girlfriend?" She asked, changing the subject.
"No. Why?" Remus asked suspiciously.
"No reason. Did you remember the runes box?" she asked as she cleared the table for them to work.
"I have it right here" Remus said as he took it out of his bag. "I took a look at it earlier, but the problem is, there are no runes visible, I have no idea where to start."
Ophelia grabbed her parchment. She'd borrowed a note taking quill from her dorm mate, Rita. Touching it to her tongue and dipping it in ink it began to dictate for them. "Okay, did you try a revealing charm?" she asked
"No, I figured all she'd want us to do is break open the box, not do charms work."
"Do you think that all rune-inflicted curses would be visible?"
"No I guess not…" with this Remus did a simple charm and glowing green runes shone on the dark wood of the box. They read 'password, fruit, pasture, eternal, bug, sing'
"Does that make any sense to you?" he asked her.
Ophelia thought about it for a moment, when she realised what it meant she blanched. "We need a password; it's Strawberry Fields Forever by the Beatles. One of us needs to sing it."
"I'm not doing it!" Remus said immediately.
"I will; Morgan gave us this box for a reason."
"Why?"
"Well she does make me sing this song at every possible opportunity, in front of the class is an opportunity for her to embarrass the shite out of me."
"Well we need to open the box, so just do it now and maybe she won't make you do it in front of the class."
"What do I have to lose?" She took a deep breath and straightened her posture before she started.
"Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to strawberry fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry fields forever.
Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out, it doesn't matter much to me.
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to strawberry fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry fields forever.
No one I think is in my tree, I mean it must be high or low.
That is you can't you know tune in but it's all right, that is I think it's not too bad.
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to strawberry fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry fields forever.
Always, no sometimes, think it's me, but you know I know when it's a dream.
I think I know I mean a 'yes' but it's all wrong, that is I think I disagree.
Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to strawberry fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hungabout.
Strawberry fields forever.
Strawberry fields forever."
Her voice was beautiful and she sings the song with a graceful ease of a trained singer. The box had opened but Remus paid no attention to it. "Where did you learn to sing like that?" he asked her.
"Instead of primary school, my parents educated me in as much magic as legally possible, when they were not teaching that they introduced me to the fine arts, Music (mostly singing opera, but some piano and guitar too. I was beginning to play flute and clarinet when I came to Hogwarts.), acting, and some dancing. I also was introduced to "the greats" of muggle literature, Shakespeare, Homer, Dickens, Mark Twain, you name it. I could not read wizarding literature because most of it is spell books. I also started playing
Quidditch with my sister and my cousins; it was my one break form my studies." She explained as she reached for the box to see what was inside. It was a note form their professor Morgan
The following are instructions on how to re-ward the box, bring this note with you outside of the box to prove you opened it. You will demonstrate for the class how you opened the box and explain your thought process. See you Wednesday
Ophelia groaned; she'd have to sing for the class. Remus sympathized with her but was secretly happy he'd get to hear her sing again.