Late Night Chats

Down in the kitchens, the four marauders were busy stuffing their faces with treats that Glenda, the head house-elf, had gladly ordered made for them. It was late, but the boys didn't seem to notice, or to care. Once they were satisfied, James turned to get his invisibility cloak from the table nearest them. As he turned, he almost collided with Amy, his girlfriend. She and Lacey were standing there, not looking very pleased.

"Who in the hell do you think you are, James Potter," Amy said, almost shouting, as she stepped forward.

"Half the damn commonroom heard that shit you said, you bastard!" added Lacey, who was almost yelling as well.

"Yeah, you jackass, I never slept with you, you dirty pig!" said Amy, now really shouting. James' face turned beet red and Sirius looked at him quizzically, raising his eyebrows at him.

James' eyes narrowed. "How did you two know where to find us?" he asked.

Lacey smirked. She pulled a roll of parchment from within her robes. "This," she laughed.

James made a dive for the parchment, but Lacey yanked it just out of his reach.

"Uh uh uhhh!" she chided. "Careless, leaving such a document lying around, aren't we? What do you think, Amy? Would Mr. Filch be interested in this?"

"Hah, sure he would. These assholes deserve it."

"Wait, no, don't!" squeaked Peter.

"Haha, and are you going to stop us?" asked Lacy, grinning.

"The dark Lord stops everyone he dislikes." (A/N – before L.V. came to real power and most people did not yet know the name or anything…)

"Hahahah, good one, Peter," laughed Remus, "you always come up with those kind of jokes!"

Peter clasped a tiny hand over his mouth, but quickly slipped it away. "Yeah, that was funny, huh? No, seriously, ladies. You could…use that to your advantage. You know? You obviously already know how to use it, if you got here, r-r-right?"

"No, dumbass Potter left it just as it was on the sofa. Anyone could just use it, or turn it in. What use could this be to us? If we were to get caught with this"? NO way," said Lacey.

Sirius rolled his eyes. "It's not just any map! There's enchantments on that thing to protect us, obviously. Did you honestly think we didn't think of protecting our asses? Pfff. We are not that stupid."

"Well, well, well we'll just see about that," Amy hissed. "I still think Filch would like this…"

James rolled his eyes and mocked the two girls as they turned around, magical map in hand. "Thanks for being a bunch of bloody sluts!" he shouted after them. The other marauders looked upon him curiously, but he figured on coming up with a master plan to retrieve the map later.

"Accio map" shouted Peter, out of nowhere. The marauders turned to look quizzically at him as the enchanted piece of parchment zoomed from the unsuspecting girls and into James' hand. Peter blushed a strange shade of crimson as the girls angrily stopped where they were and turned to face them.

"You assholes will pay I swear it," Lacey retorted. Maybe it won't be one of us that seek revenge, but assholes always get what's coming to them. You will see." With that, the girls left the kitchens and Sirius turned to face James.

"What, in the hell, was that!" James asked Peter, utterly flabbergasted.

"Er…I don't know. I just, wanted the map back?" Peter's response seemed to be hiding something, but the other three marauders weren't sure what it was.

Sirius cleared his throat. "Well, gentlemen, let's head back to the common room," he suggested.

"You got the cloak?" asked Remus.

"Shit!" yelled James. "It was with that map. We're screwed!"

"WHAT!" shouted Remus, Sirius, and Peter all at the same time.

"Hah, just kidding. It's right here," laughed James.

Sirius grabbed James by the neck and proceeded to give him a noogie. "Why. You. Doozler," joked Sirius. (A/N – doozler, that's my new word…hehe :-D)

The four marauders got under the cloak and began their way to the common room. Once there, they removed the cloak. Remus, Peter, and Sirius all started up the stairs to their dorm. Remus, noticing that James was not following turned around to see him standing in front of the fireplace with a long face.

"You coming, James?" asked Remus seriously, worried about James by the look on his face. By then the other two boys had turned around to see James standing there.

James cocked his head towards the boys' dormitory. "Naw, I'll be up in a little while. I'm going to sit down here for a bit."

Remus shrugged. The remaining three boys went up to the dormitories, leaving James staring into the fire. As he sat there, he recalled his first meeting with the mystery girl, Lily. She had been singing a song that day. He began to hum to himself, realizing the oddity of remembering it.

He remembered very clearly, in fact. Lily's face had been puffy with tears. She was obviously upset about something. He wondered what had happened, why she was suddenly at Hogwarts. He figured she was having a hard time adjusting, especially with her mother being the biggest bitch out of all the teachers. She was even worse than McGonagall. James sighed and flopped down onto the sofa. He heard a creaking sound. Turning to see what it was, he realized that Lily was creeping down the stairs of the girls' dormitories. He hunkered down on the sofa so she wouldn't see him, and continued to watch her. She clearly wasn't headed in his direction, which he was grateful for. Instead, she headed toward the armchairs near the other side of the room. She flumped down into the one closest to James, wiping her face with her hands. As he looked closer, he realized that she was crying again. Looking at her, he felt sorry for her. Looking down at his feet, he decided that he should go over to her and see what was going on. He rose and walked towards her. She didn't seem to notice him until he was almost right in front of her. Her face was in her hands and tears were streaming down her face. He noticed that she was slightly convulsing as well.

"Lily? Are you ok?" he said, and she looked up.

"James, right? What are you doing down here?"

"Oh, I've been sitting down here for a while, thinking I suppose. Sirius, Peter, Remus and I just got back from a little dirty work in the kitchens, and I didn't feel like going to bed. I was just staring into the fire, and I saw you come down. I wasn't sure if you'd like it if I came over here, so I waited. But, I thought, what the hell, if she hates me well then she'd just be joining the club."

"Wow, who would hate you?" Lily asked and stopped shaking as much.

"Oh, you'd be surprised. Girl troubles," he added when she raised her eyebrows.

"Sorry to hear that," she said, tears still dribbling down her face. "I'm uh, glad you came I guess. It's been a while since people actually talked to me. I don't know what the deal is, but all the teachers address me as 'Miss Evans,' and since they hate my mom, they all well, hate me or something! Except McGonagall. She thinks I have talent and she tries to stick up for me, but it's horrible I just want to go back to my friends and my old life!"

James was aching for her inside. He didn't know how it felt to be her, or why he was feeling as he did, but he supposed that for Lily it must be terrible. His feelings, however, were unexplainable, for he had just really met the girl and hadn't talked to her longer than three minutes before. "Can I er, ask what happened?" James asked. For some strange reason he longed to console this new girl, but wasn't sure how. "If you don't want to talk about it, that's ok too." He added.

"No, no, thanks. Actually it's probably good if I get it out. Can we go for a walk? I don't really want to sit here," she said.

"Sure," James responded. "But, actually, we have curfew here. We can't be out late. Never fear though, I have this cloak, see, its an invisibility cloak. So we're all set."

James grabbed the cloak off the sofa and gestured towards Lily. She slowly rose from the chair and took one end, wrapping it around herself and James. She had a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach, but pushed it away.

James, though she had no idea, acquired a funny set of goose bumps as her skin brushed his. Lily had long ago shed the Gryffindor robes, for after hours they were not necessary. She had changed from the outfit she had on before, donning a light blue spaghetti strap tank top with sparkles floating down from around her chest and a pair of green pajama pants. Her large amount of bare skin continuously brushed James', making it hard for him to rid himself of the goose bumps. He hoped she didn't notice.

She wanted to hate it there. Yet as she and James walked down the stairs and down a corridor, she felt strangely soothed, utterly pleased with the situation she was entering. Lily followed James as he walked. She had no idea where he was going, but she figured it was somewhere that they'd be alone and no one to hear her pour out her mind to him.

When they finally stopped, they stood in front of a fountain. The fountain was of a great unicorn, looking up at the sky with doves flying around its head. Wow, Lily thought, this is beautiful. It's almost, romantic. I wonder if he did that on purpose… No of course he didn't. He's just trying to be nice and help me because I'm so upset. Silly girl, why am I so stupid?

"No one really knows that this place is here." James finally spoke as he let his cloak slip from him and Lily. "I come here sometimes when I need to calm down or think or whatever. Especially after being near that tool Severus. Kid really gets to me. He's smarter than he looks, though. I always thought he was an arse, yet, he does have some brains. Of course, he can't really outsmart me, but that's besides the point. Anyways, you said you would like to talk, so here we are," he said as he sat along the fountain, patting the space next to him. As she took his silent invitation, James slid over a little closer, yet Lily didn't mind. (A/N - yes guys I know that lily and james hate eachother, but u will see! It happens, just waaaiit lol.!)

"I suppose I should start from the beginning right?" she began. "Well, when I arrived at Owlhorn's, I had no problem making friends. I was really popular. I mean, I had a lot of great friends, and we all had boyfriends. I don't mean to be stuck up, or arrogant, or whatever you want to call it. That's just the way it was. I dated the captain of our school's quidditch team. He was very good looking, but quite the prat. Also, we don't have houses, everyone is all-together. Well, the quidditch captain started being a jerk, so I dumped him. He didn't accept that too well, and he took some love notes I wrote him and magically made copies. A lot of people read them. Sort of, well, ruined my reputation. Everyone thought I was sleeping with all of the rest of the quidditch players, since I play as well. Or, I played. Can't say I do that now. I don't even really care to play here; it would bring back too many uncomfortable memories. But all of that rubbish went away. And my friends stuck by me. But then the quidditch captain told me he needed my playing skills on the team, and I was beginning to falter during games because of a lack of concentration. He said he'd cut the immature crap, if only we hooked up again. So I did it, and gave in. A few nights later, I snuck out and got caught. I, unlike u, do not have that cloak. To make a long story short though, I attempted to exact some well, revenge. A prank really, but alas I got suspended. That's another story if you'd like to hear it, but it's not really something I'd care to talk about right now. My mum decided that was it, and it was time to change schools. I was absolutely devastated. But then I suppose it is my fault." The tears were streaming down Lily's face again. James felt the urge to put his arms around Lily again, to console here. This time he succumbed, and wrapped her in his arms. She rested her head on James' shoulder. Still crying, she began again.

"She's…she's not even my mom! Once I got the Hogwarts letter when I was eleven, my muggle parents got rid of me. Professor Evans adopted me! My parents, they didn't want me. I had been raised by muggles for eleven years. No one knew at my old school that I'm a muggle born. What if people here find out? And…call me that awful word? I mean, suddenly, I'm a witch, and its goodbye to you Lily from my muggle parents. They don't even want to see me anymore. My sister, she begged me to stay, and forgo the magic education. She called me a freak when I decided not to stay. She hates me now. What does it matter? I'm in another place where I sure as hell don't belong. —"

"I think you belong, Lily." James interrupted her, looking serious. He gazed into her pretty green eyes, eyes that made him think he could never leave her side. Even through her tears they seemed to sparkle with life. Her beautiful auburn hair that now cascaded down her back was slightly wavy; he had never seen anything like it. When she had rested her head on his shoulder he had been able to smell the deep scent of coconut that seemed to radiate from her long locks. Just looking at her took his breath away. She just had an air about her that just seemed to draw in his soul.

Lily turned to look at him, shocked. "You do?" she asked, her voice slightly quivering. James nodded. "I wish I really felt like that. People treat me like I'm some kind of freak here. It's like being back with my muggle parents. Freak this and freak that. I did want to make something of myself. I suppose I'll just, get on. I hope things get better.

"Sure I do," he answered. "And things will get better, I know they will. You're a brilliant girl. I heard from Sirius what talent you have, and I must say I was extremely impressed." James paused. "You know what Lily? You're beautiful. Even when you're crying. Everything about you, really. Your voice, your smile, everything," he added, wiping tears from her puffy cheeks. James heard a strange sound from the corner, making him jump. He whipped around, but saw nothing. He was about to ask Lily if she, too, had heard the noise, but the look on her face told him that he had better not. She was beginning to look somewhat more relaxed, and he didn't want to ruin it quite yet.

"Thanks," Lily sniffed. "I can't believe you just said that. It was, amazing."

Well, if you knew how amazing I though you were, James thought. He wished he could tell her the thoughts swirling through his head, but found he was at a loss for words. It wasn't quite the time to tell her such things. What if he scared her away?

"I suppose we have been out late enough, though, as much as I'd like to stay here with you. We should go back," Lily proposed, wishing she didn't have to leave this boy's side. "Thanks for listening to me; I don't know what I'd do without you! Oh, and, er, James? Can you promise me something? Actually, two somethings."

"Sure, if it's reasonable I can," he responded.

"First, can you, er, please not tell anyone about all this? You're the only one who knows almost all of that stuff. I couldn't bear it if people taunted me about being…muggle born. And all of the things that happened; it hurts. And well, the other thing is I saw how you were taunting that boy before. He does look a bit…greasy. And he's not that good looking, but he didn't even do anything! Would you please, not do it again? For me?"

"Severus?" James sighed. "But he's a slytherin! Slytherins are nasty creatures, dark if you ask me. They just ask for a beating by existing. But, I suppose if it's for you. Alright, Lily. Let's go back." He looked down at her, and realized that she was sleeping with her head perched on his shoulder. She hadn't even heard anything he had just said. Smiling to himself, She is absolutely beautiful, he thought. I can't get enough of her, but I can't rush into things. Soon enough, soon enough.

He lifted her sleeping body into his arms, realizing that he forgot the cloak that was resting on the edge of the fountain. He stooped over, picked it up and flung it around the two of them while balancing Lily in the other arm. Luckily, she did not stir. Back to the dormitories he carried her gently, and placed her on the sofa in front of the dying fire. As he fixed the fire, he wondered what the noise was that he had heard near the fountain. Had it just been a rat? The memory of the sound worried him even so. When the fire was crackling quietly, he strode over to the armchair Lily had been sitting in only an hour before, and watched her until he too dozed off.

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