CHAPTER 11..:::::..
DISCLAIMER: You should know the drill by now. *Still despises disclaimer with a passion*.
A/N: Hand out of bandages now! (Still hurting horribly but still. I love you guys so much!) So here I am updating as quick as is humanely possible. HUGE thanks to Slick O' Brooklyn for helping me with the italics, bold, e.c.t. You're my hero girl.
Fashiondiva: *Begs fashion diva to cease the spastic movements as tests prove they are unhealthy*. But you see, I presumed cliffhangers would make my loyal reviewers review more!!! Lol. Don't worry. He is not dead. That would suck. And indeed, Sirius's cleverness surprised even me!
Miabubble: Muahahahaha *cringes at her pathetic evil laugh* well, no the tree wasn't in her garden, but still. It adds to the drama!
Templa Otmena: Thanks, I took the bandage off. It's still gangrenous mind, but hey. I don't let that get in the way of my typing!
Them Girl: *Rosie advises ThemGirl to continue to take deep breaths*. Lol. That's fine you can get as involved as you want!
Lily Adams: He didn't realise because he was so hurt! Sirius was the one thinking rashly, as he was not in love, *winks evilly and says 'not yet anyway'*.
Ilovehp: Ah yes. The joys of cliffhangers. Lol. Sorry.
Inkling: Lol no, I decided against amnesia; it would get too complicated! Hope you like this one.
GoddessMoonlady: Thanks for the long review. Lol, don't worry, everything's under control.
KewlKat: Hi, thanks for the review. Don't worry I post quite fast.
Kari: Calm it Kermit! Here you go!
Cheeky Girl: Ah, I don't know. It was dark. Lol.
LauraLou: Erm . . . lol. Sorry about that. Let's just uh, be imaginative here and say that in the land of Rosie, Owls take place in 6th year. Lol.
Laurie: I've tried to get James across as being hard on the outside to everyone he wants to project a good image too; but when it comes to Lily, the screen falls away and he sometimes gets over-reactive or even emotional. I think "stalker-ish" is a slightly harsh word as all he wanted to do was talk to her.
MeLissa: Lol, I know. Thinking about it now, Petty would have been a better nickname don't you think!
Avonlea Black: Hi, *Rosie begs Avonlea to not stop eating as thin reviewers do not review as much* Lol, yes I know that's a lie. But don't starve yourself; I update pretty fast!
Babygal: Lol, it's OK, people say that sometimes one works better under pressure . . .
*HITS PLAY*
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Sirius had his hands clasped firmly around the handle of his broom and was well on his way before he realised that he had no idea of where he was actually going. He didn't know where Lily Evans lived. Why would he? OK, it was true that he knew the residence of pretty much every girl in his dormitory, but Lily, having the class that she did, had been seemingly clever at the time and to not disclose it. How Sirius wished that he had once had a fling with her now. He could be there in a few minutes and stop James from making a big fat stupid mistake and yelling at the girl of his dreams.
He veered his broom around and for a split second thought of the map that Lupin had given James and him for a joint present – but James had taken it with him. He looked around helplessly outside James's bedroom window. Think, Sirius, think. His eyes rested on James's owl, currently asleep on it's perch in the dingy shadows of the corner of the room. An idea struck him.
He leaned in through the window and called softly to it. "Hey, Ermintrude," he whispered. The grey fluffy owl raised its head slowly and surveyed him sternly through sharp and clear yellow eyes. He felt very stupid talking to an owl. But they had to understand, didn't they? They went wherever you told them to go when it came to letters.
"Listen, uh, you don't remember delivering a letter to Lily, do you?" he asked, knowing it wouldn't answer, but hoping for some form of recognition.
The owl lowered its head slowly and sat still for a second. When it did not move, Sirius growled in annoyance in a very dog-like fashion. But no sooner had he done this, the owl stretched its fluffy grey wingspan and swept towards the windowsill on which he was hovering outside.
"Er, can you show me where her house is?" Sirius asked, feeling at last that the creature understood him. The owl hooted in an almost indignant fashion and swept soundlessly out of the window. Sirius followed it quickly, brushing a strand of elegant black hair out of his eyes and having a hard time keeping up.
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Lily had stayed up very late to watch television that night. She really enjoyed watching programs; she was deprived of this Muggle indulgence in the magical world. Of course it was OK for the pureblood children brought up by wizards who did not have televisions at their leisure to watch and were therefore not introduced to the unhealthy obsession that TV can bring, but she could not help the fact that she had when she was younger.
After bidding her parents goodnight, she tramped doggedly upstairs. Petunia's door was closed; Lily could hear her awful snoring from inside and made a mental note to herself to shut the door so she would not be disturbed by the abominable noise her elder sister produced. Lily's mind was not on her sister however as she walked along the landing to her room. She had almost made up her mind concerning James's previous letter. She was not going to lead him on. If she did that, she would most probably be leading herself on as well, and that could not happen. A nagging voice in the back of her head, which she knew belonged to James, said, "Scared of what could happen? Scared of something you've never even experienced?" In all truthness, yes, Lily was scared. She had never allowed herself to experience those kind of feelings for someone knowing that if she did, she would only get hurt. What did it matter if James was the first person that had made her tremble as he had done that night in the Common room? Really, what did it matter? He was just a boy, for Merlin's sake. And an arrogant egotistical boy at that. No. She would be quite polite, so as not to offend him, but decline the suggestion of a relationship. It was too much.
As Lily reached her room, the very first thing she noticed was that her door was more ajar than it had been when she had left it previously. Petunia was up here, she thought to herself, but that was maths homework. Lily knew how gullible a thought this was, but she couldn't bring herself to believe that Petunia would actually step inside a witch's bedroom alone. She pushed the notion of intrusion to the back of her mind as she saw that both her letters were lying innocently on the desk as they had done before, knowing full well that if Petunia had been in here, she would not have been able to resist the temptation to read them. But they were undisturbed. Settling herself in the chair behind her desk, she picked up her quill and began to write.
***
Perhaps it was that the hour was so late, or perhaps it was even the stress of not knowing how to put what she wanted to say down and on paper, but a combination of the two had caused Lily to fall asleep at her desk, head lightly resting on the parchment. Her red hair fluttered over the desk as she inhaled and exhaled, and she began to dream . . .
She was back in that room again, in that house, but the scene she had become so familiar with in the past few months was speeding up before her eyes, everything was happening at double speed this time. There was the feeling of dread as the safe person left the room, a pause and then a new person entered, but now, new things were happening. The feeling of dread intensified and she heard a harsh, cold laughter but could not see the face properly of whom the noise belonged to. Someone was crying, she had to help them. But it was too late, no one would save her . . . no one could save her . . .
Lily jerked awake. At first she could not see why she had awoken and put it down to yet another monstrous snore from her sister, but as she saw what had really caused her to wake up, she almost fell backwards off her chair with surprise.
Sirius Black was hovering outside her window, signalling that she should open a window and let him in. Lily opened her mouth a few times in complete surprise, resembling a goldfish out of water, blinking furiously as though the image would soon go away if she could only wake up properly. But as soon as she had done this a couple of times, she realised that Sirius was in fact still outside her window, still flapping his arms, if not more vigorously so.
Lily inhaled sharply and dashed to her landing to make sure her parents were asleep and then bolted her door. She went gingerly to the window, still marvelling at Sirius's white windswept face, and opened the window. He clattered noisily in.
"About bloody time, woman!" he said.
"Will you shut up! You'll wake up my entire family!" she said in a hushed, annoyed whisper. "What on earth are you doing here? You could have been seen! How did you know where - "
But Sirius was looking around the room. "Where's James?" he asked suspiciously, as though it were possible that Lily was hiding him under her bed.
"Where's . . . who? Sorry?"
"James! Potter!"
Lily blinked again. "Have you been drinking?" she said, surveying him sternly through a curtain of red hair. Sirius could see for a second why James was so helplessly in love with her; her anger only made her green eyes dazzle more, her hair appear more vibrantly red.
"Not since this morning," said Sirius.
"What do you mean, "where's James?" Why would James be here? And again! Why are you here?" she said.
"Well, after that letter," he held a hand up to silence her, as though he knew her answer already. "Yes, I know you didn't send it, but it was a bit of a dumb joke, if that's what it was supposed to be, because he was really upset and flew over here to – "
"He flew over here?"
" – Over here to sort a few things out."
"But it's nearly one-thirty in the morning for Merlin's Sake!" Lily said in a raised voice, forgetting her family for a second, and then lowering her voice as a grunt came from her parent's room. "Look, Black, I don't know how you and your friend have gotten all mixed up here, but you have somehow. I haven't sent any letters since a few days ago. In fact, I was just about to reply to that one he sent the other day – "
"Oh, I know you didn't send that letter," said Sirius, matter-of-factly.
"What letter?" Lily hissed in an exasperated tone.
"The one that told James he could never compare with your boyfriend," (Lily squinted in defiance) "and that you wished he was dead. Now, me, being the intelligent one of the group I hasten to add, realised that you could never send such a harsh letter to such a wonderful person. But James was so upset that he didn't really look at it properly. That's why he came over," he finished triumphantly, looking at Lily as though the situation should all make perfect sense now that he had explained it all so lucidly.
"So why are you here?"
"Well I came to stop James from making a stupid mistake by blaming you."
"But he's not here!"
"Ah, yes. I realise that now."
Lily opened her mouth yet again to speak, but shut it again. Finally, she said, "This still doesn't make sense. The letter wasn't from me! I don't even have a boyfriend!"
Sirius looked exasperated. "I . . . know . . . it . . . wasn't . . . you," he said slowly, as though Lily were stupid. "Now, if you ask me, which I know you're not, I'd say it was a Muggle."
Lily was about to shake her head at Sirius and tell him to get off his high Hippogriff and get out of her bedroom when the clogs in her brain slowly began to tick. She looked slowly up at Sirius, but not really seeing him at all.
"Do you have the letter with you?" she asked.
Sirius pulled the crumpled letter out of his pocket and handed it to her. Lily began to read, and as she did so, her expression slowly darkened. Sirius actually took a step back from her. One word escaped her lips.
"Petunia."
"Bless you."
Lily paused and looked at him. "No, this is Petunia's writing. She must have been in here tonight."
"Who's Petunia?" he asked.
"My sister."
"You have a sister?"
Lily frowned. "I have a dead sister," she said, moving towards the door.
Sirius began to chuckle. "Petunia? Who'd call their kid after a flower?" he asked, as the laugh steadily grew stronger.
Lily stopped at the door and looked scathingly back at him.
"Oh, right. Yeah, sorry, Evans."
She opened the door and made for Petunia's bedroom.
"Didn't you say that your parents are here? Don't wake them up! Oi! Evans, what are you doing?"
Before Lily left her room, she reached into her trunk and pulled out her wand. Petunia's door had been closed, most probably to further drown out her snores, but Lily pushed it open and looked down at the ugly form of her elder sister. Petunia stirred as Lily's shadow fell over her and sat bolt upright.
"Who's . . . I'm not . . . what are you doing in here, Lillian?" she said sleepily, obviously just awaking from a dream. Her gaze fell to the wand held in Lily's hand and she froze. "Don't point that . . . that thing at me!" she hissed quietly. "I'll tell mum and dad!"
"No, you won't," said Lily more quietly. She had absolutely no intention of actually using the wand on her sister. That would be breaking the Restriction of Underage Sorcery outside of school and under the age of consent. Lily could not wait for another few months when she would be 'of age' and therefore allowed to use magic whenever she saw fit. Petunia, on the other hand, was not aware of this rule. "Get up," she added, and Petunia slowly swung her legs out of bed, still eyeing the wand with a cold and beady eye.
Lily frog-marched her into her bedroom and shut and bolted the door behind them once more.
Petunia gasped at the sight of Sirius in the bedroom. "What . . . who's he?" she hissed at her sister.
"Never you mind."
Sirius however, looked faintly amused and held out his hand. "Hello, flower," he said sweetly. Petunia jumped backwards.
"Don't talk to her," said Lily firmly.
"Secretly sneaking boys into your bedroom at night, Lillian? I'm going to have to tell mum about this, you know," said Petunia in a very unconvincing voice.
"I think it's you who's got some explaining to do, Tune," said Lily.
"And as a matter of fact, you've just underlined one of the key-features in said investigation," said Sirius professionally. "Lillian. Could you tell me, Petunia, is it? Who calls Lily 'Lillian' apart from you?"
Petunia looked shocked at being addressed this way. She did not answer. Instead, she adopted her scathing personality to avoid questions. "I don't have to speak to freaks like you!" she spat. "I expect you're a . . . you're a . . . a wizard are you?"
"Indeed I am, my dear."
"I thought so. You can tell the type a mile off."
"Petunia, shut up," said Lily.
"What on earth are you doing at this time of night?" asked Petunia.
"Well, as a matter-of-fact, I was asleep until Sirius here, informed me of something which, surprisingly enough, involves you."
Petunia blinked. "M – me?"
Lily held out the letter. "Recognise this?"
Petunia's expression changed dramatically. Her skin went the colour of sour milk, and she wore an unmistakable expression of someone who has been caught in the act. "N – no," she stuttered.
"Oh, come of it, Tune," snapped Lily. "I know your writing. Maths homework last night, was it?"
Petunia's audacity snapped. "And if it wasn't? What if I decided to get back my annoying, freak of a sister whose life is devoted to making mine a misery?"
Lily took a few breaths. "Petunia, you make your own life a misery because you refuse to accept what I am. You refuse to see that being a witch or wizard is not being a freak, but being unique. It's your blindness to this that makes your life so un-needlessly difficult!"
"Oh, spare me the speech, Lillian. So I sent the letter. So what?"
"So what? I'll tell you what, someone I care about has been hurt!"
There was silence. Sirius shifted his foot a little. "You care about him?"
"Oh, shut up, you," said Lily to Sirius, mentally kicking herself for what she had just said out loud. "Your actions, Petunia, nearly caused someone to make a total fool of themselves and it's only because Sirius here that . . ."
She broke off. "What?" said Sirius.
"He – he didn't come here. He never showed up. You say he left before you did?"
Sirius nodded, the realization dawning on him.
"Then where is he?"
"I – I don't know."
***
James regained consciousness gingerly. He was still seeing stars; all objects around him were outlined with a strange kind of white line for some reason. He knew he couldn't really move, even if he'd wanted to, his broom was currently lying in pieces, littering the foot of the great oak tree. Fantastic idea, James, smashing headlong into a tree. That was a really seeker-like idea, you arse. He found he was able to move his right arm somewhat, and grappled in his robes for his wand. Hoping, praying that Sirius had not taken the whole don't follow me thing seriously, his fingertips grasped the handle of the wand, and he dragged it back to his eye line. It was still intact. That was something, at least; it didn't matter if he wasn't all intact, just as long as his wand was.
He held it up to the black night sky and muttered the first incantation that came into his head. He forced himself to think of he and Lily getting married, happy and together, and said feebly, "E – Expecto Patronum!" It was too much, and he blacked out.
***
Sirius turned quickly and reached for his broom. He was already pushing the window open before Lily spoke.
"What are you doing now?" she asked.
"What do you think I'm doing? I'm going to look for him!" he said indignantly.
"Oh, come on. Potter can look after himself. He probably had the brains to stop on the way and turn around again; unlike some people," Lily added nastily. Sirius chose to ignore the sarcasm.
"I would have seen him or smashed right into him. And anyway, you didn't see him. He was so upset. He's not himself when he's upset. I mean – well. You saw him with Snape."
"Oh what, so he turns into a humiliating, bullying toerag when he's mad? Is that what you're trying to say? Because you're no better, Black . . ."
"Look, Evans, surprisingly enough, I know James better than you do. He wasn't thinking straight."
"Well why did he get so upset? It was only a letter, for Merlin's Sake!"
"My point exactly," piped up Petunia.
"SHUT UP," snapped Lily and Sirius simultaneously. "Look, all this is your fault anyway," added Lily to Petunia.
"Right. Well, I'm off. Nice seeing you in your pyjamas, Evans," said Sirius in a brisk fashion and was about to fly out of the window.
"And how exactly do you expect to find him yourself?" she said wearily, as though she had no choice.
Sirius stopped and looked back out of the open window. "What are you suggesting, Evans?" he asked with a wry smile.
Lily sighed, annoyed that he was making her say it. "I suppose I'll have to come with you, won't I?"
Sirius smirked. "Right. Well, come on then."
"I'm not going like this!" she said in surprise, signalling to a frilly nightdress she was wearing and suddenly feeling embarrassed. She hadn't thought about it once all the madness had started, but now, she hated standing in front of Sirius Black, joker, and prankster, like this. "Give me a second."
Petunia followed her into the en-suit bathroom, hissing at her like an angry goose. "You are not seriously considering what I think you are, are you?
"Don't tell me what to do," said Lily through gritted teeth as she changed her clothes and hurried back into the bedroom. Lily reached under her bed and grabbed her own broom, (a Shooting Star,) whilst Petunia looked at it in horror.
"You can't go out on that . . . that thing!" she said.
Lily ignored her, and put her foot on the windowsill. Sirius looked highly amused.
Petunia made one last final stab at being the mature figure. "Lillian, you are NOT to go out that window! I shall tell mum and dad and they will be so angry that you will NEVER go back to that school again! You'll be grounded!"
Lily stopped and looked maliciously back at her sister. "This is what you're going to do. If mum and dad wake up and see that I've gone, you are to tell them exactly what you have done and why I am going. You are not to lie so you do not get in trouble, or twist the truth. If you do, I'll turn you into a bullfrog. The same applies if I ever find you in my room again." Lily's tone was final and slightly dangerous. Despite the fact that she was the younger sister, her tone unnerved Petunia. Sirius marvelled at the heat she seemed to radiate when angry.
At this, Sirius muttered quietly under his breath, "Wow. You know, you and James are made for each other."
Petunia swelled with repressed anger, knowing that she was helpless to do anything else. She could not lie; Lily would turn her into a bullfrog. Petunia did not know, of course that Lily was allowed to do nothing of the thought, (Lily had cleverly kept this information from her sister.)
Without so much as one more scathing look, Lily and Sirius swept out of the window.
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*A/N: There you are. Less of a cliffhanger, *moans that the suspense is lost*. Just incase I get loads of flames about this, I am NOT setting up a Lily/Sirius romance here! It's just the rocky path to the friendship they eventually develop! Let me know what you think by reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing reviewing.
Rosie x x x