IT ENDS IN A BEGINNING
James got up late the next morning, extremely tired and trying to rub the sleep out of his eyes. He was quite during breakfast. Although Sirius was telling James about Snape lying in the hospital wing taking blood replenishing potions since the bat ears seemed to be blood sucking ones, James just forced a smile and went back to staring at his food. Remus and Peter were missing. Remus had been summoned by McGonagall to her office and Peter was at Slughorn's office (the rumor was that he was getting remedial potions).
But it seemed like the Slytherins were having a good time pointing openly at James and laughing.
So Snape had told them about him had he? He would deal with him later.
"Hey Potter!"
James looked up to see Lestrange looking down at him, a bright smile plastered to his face.
"Heard you just got ditched! That's gotta hurt!"
The Slytherins around himguffawed next to him, which made Lestrange smile more widely.
"Speaking about getting ditched," said James lazily but his hands were white as he was clutching the table tightly "heard that you got dumped by Bellatrix! Again!"
Lestrange's smile vanished from his face to be replaced by shock.
James grinned. He was just guessing. All he knew was that Bellatrix Black and Lestrange were in an on again-off again relationship.
"Sirius told me!"
Lestrange looked at Sirius, so did the rest of the rest of the Slytherins.
"Ah, you're wondering how I know? I know… Sirius Black always knows." Sirius said mystically.
"Who do you think you are? The Dark Lord?" asked Lestrange mockingly. All the Slytherins giggled softly.
"Who?"
"The Dark Lord! Lord Voldemort! Don't you read the Daily Prophet?" asked Lestrange incredulously.
"Lord Mouldyshorts? Isn't he the nutter whose servants are called Snuff Swallowers or something?"
"Lord Voldemort! And his followers are Death Eaters!"
"Yeah whatever" said Sirius.
But James looked at him Lestrange closely, he was breathing heavily.
"Why are you so angry Lestrange?" James asked "Do you want to be a Dead Beater too?"
"DEATH EATER!" Lestrange shrieked.
"Yeah that's what I said" said James yawning widely.
"Anyway, Bella didn't dump me! We mutually decided to cool off for a while…"
"You mean you mutually decided that Bella seems to fancy that git Roosevelt? What's so great about him anyway?"
"What!" exclaimed Lestrange.
"Well maybe it's because he has what Bella calls 'boyish charm'" continued Sirius pretending to not hear Lestrange, as if in a trance, thinking very hard "Anyway, she said that he snogs quite well. Ha! Like a Slytherin could do that!"
"She did NOT say that!" said Lestrange fiercely.
"What?" asked Sirius apparently snapping out of his reverie "You didn't know…? She didn't tell….? O er… I shouldn't have said anything. Me and my big mouth! Talking about family publicly like that!"
Now Lestrange looked alarmed. Sirius was mumbling under his breath apparently very embarrassed.
"What is it Black? What else did she say?"
"Well… er.. Look!" he said pointing behind the Slytherins "Professor McGonagall!"
The Slytherin turned in unison. Sirius and James got out of their seat before the Slytherin realized his bluff.
James and Sirius ran out of the hall laughing heartily. They were off to potions with the Hufflepuffs.
As they started off to the classroom, Sirius and James spotted Bellatrix Black shuffling along the corridor with apparently stolen potion ingredients hidden in her cloak. Sirius looked at James who nodded.
"Hey Bella!" called Sirius.
Bellatrix immediately looked up and on seeing Sirius, her eyes narrowed.
"Lovely day isn't it?" asked Sirius brightly "You look pretty lovely yourself!"
"What do you want?" she asked shortly.
"I just wanted to say that I hate Lestrange too. Can I please be there to watch when you hex him?"
"Why would I hate him?" asked Bellatrix in spite of herself.
"Don't tell me you've forgiven him for calling you a fat cow! Since when have you become so understanding?"
"Wha-"
But Sirius didn't wait for an answer.
"I mean I would definitely hex my ex- boy friend if he called me a fat and unfaithful cow in front of the whole school!"
"When did he do this?" asked Bellatrix severely.
"What?" asked Sirius pretending to come out of a trance again "Weren't you in the Great Hall?"
"No! Did he say it then?" asked Bellatrix clearly furious.
James saw that the damage had been done, Sirius didn't need him. James tactfully excused himself and walked away. He needed to be alone. As he neared the stairs, James heard a cry of anger-
"Come back here Sirius! What else did he say?"
James turned around to find a cackling Sirius running up to him, followed by Remus who didn't know what was happening but was laughing just the same. James grinned; maybe this day wouldn't be that bad after all!
Professor Slughorn was already in class and so was Peter. Lily and Alice entered the class after a few minutes. Lily caught James's eye for a second and James looked away hastily.
After instructing his class Slughorn took a seat and watched everyone for a while before getting up and looking at their work.
Lily hadn't talked to Alice the whole day. She was too embarrassed about the previous day. Why did she tell Alice anything?
"So…. Are we going to talk about what you said?" asked Alice "About you thinking James's is vulnerable!"
"No!" she hissed bending over her work not looking at Alice's face.
"Ah-ha!" exclaimed Alice triumphantly "You do like James!"
Lily looked up so fast that Alice drew back a little.
"I do not like James! I do not like James! I do not like James! I do not like James!" Lily repeated over and over again.
"Yeah I heard you the 1st 3 times!" said Alice with a slight smile.
Lily got a far away look on her face and she giggled softly.
"Sirius said something like that. During detention you know…" then with a small laugh she continued "James and Sirius were fighting over something and then… James said this really funny thing, he said-"
She broke off at the look on Alice's face.
"What?"
"I rest my case." said Alice smiling widely.
Lily made a face and went back to her work.
Meanwhile Sirius filled in Remus on the events of the morning.
"You really missed something good!" said Sirius concluding "Why did McGonagall call you?"
"To tell me that it was irresponsible of me to not report James who is getting detention." said Remus with a sigh.
James looked at him in alarm.
"What for?"
"Yeah what did he do that I didn't do?" asked Sirius annoyed that he wasn't in on it.
"Hex Snape" Remus said simply.
Comprehension dawned on James's face. But who saw him do it?
"Who told?"
"McGilcrud"
James turned around and shot Alex a filthy look, which he received with a gloating smile.
Why would he do that to him? He was already going to Hogsmead with Lily!
"Git!" muttered James bitterly.
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At lunch, Sirius and James were eating quietly. Both were clearly upset. Remus tried to talk to them but they didn't respond. Peter was quite as usual.
"Hey James." said Sirius suddenly "looks who's back"
Sirius was looking at the Slytherin table, following his gaze, he saw Snape.
"Where is Lestrange?" asked Sirius surveying the Slytherin table.
"In the hospital wing mate!" said an excited voice behind them. They turned around to find Frank Longbottom grinning at them "Bellatrix hexed him!"
"Really?" asked Sirius gleefully "because of what I told them?"
Frank nodded.
"But they're stupid! Couldn't they tell that Sirius was setting them up if they argued?" asked Remus his eyebrows raised.
"Do you think that Bella would let him talk?" asked Frank smirking "It was just –'How dare you!' BAM!"
Everyone laughed appreciatively. During this entire exchange Alice was watching them turning steadily pink. At first Lily thought she was staring at James to tell her what he was doing to annoy her. But when she saw the expression on her face, it was suddenly clear who she was really looking at, it was-
"Frank!" asked Lily incredulously crashing Alice back to earth "You like Frank? How come you didn't tell me!"
"Well, I guess we both keep stuff from each other then." said Alice blushing.
They had defense against the dark arts at the end of the day. Lestrange being admitted in the hospital wing did nothing to stop the Slytherins make fun of James. They hissed sarcastic condolences at him when the professor's was turned. He sat gritting his teeth throughout the class not saying a word and forcing Sirius to do the same.
"You know what I heard?" asked Sirius trying to stop James looking so mutinous.
"What?" asked James non-committaly
"McCrud told on you because he heard Lily say that she had no idea you were so 'vulnerable'!"
Then he broke into fits of laughter.
"Are you serious?" James asked chancing a look at Lily who was resolutely ignoring the Slytherins.
"Yeah, I cornered him after lunch… anyway it doesn't matter does it? You're over Lily aren't you?" asked Sirius slyly
"Yes, yes" James said quickly "completely."
After class, James walked out dreamily. Vulnerable. Great!
But the Slytherins weren't done with him yet.
"Aww… look at little old pot-ter! Walking with the same old people… does he have any female contact?"
James ignored them; he didn't have to prove anything. But Lily who was just walking around the corner was angry as she heard them.
That scum Snape, she thought, wish James had transfigured him completely into a bat! Then she would have sent Ozzy Osbourne after him! She sniggered lightly; she knew what she had to do.
"There you are!" she cried emerging from the corner running to James.
"Huh?"
The Slytherins were staring at them with their mouths wide open.
"I did it!" she said brightly to James
"Did what?"
"Told McCrud that I'm going with you, he took it ok, and so we can go!"
And incredibly she threw her arms around James and gave him a peck on the cheek.
James looked even more shocked than the Slytherins turning pink.
Luckily,James had his back to them so they couldn't see his expression.
Then, as if she'd only just noticed the group gawking at them said-
"What are you staring at?"
They hastily turned away to talk to their common room.
"You didn't have to do that" said James quietly.
"I had to, I… wanted to" then she blushed.
James raised his eyebrows, he'd never seen blush like that.
"So… I thought I should apologize, you know for yesterday…"
"Yeah well, I guess I shouldn't have yelled at you either…"
"So, do you er- forgive me?" she looked at him with apprehension.
James had half a mind to flatly accept her apology and walk away, just to make her miserable, but then he realized he didn't want Lily to be miserable.
"Yeah, of course I forgive you!" he said his face breaking into a smile.
She beamed at him letting a long breath out.
"So, do you want to go to Hogsmead with me?"
James felt a stab of annoyance at this.
"I can't now, can I? I have detention on Saturday because McGilcrud told on me!"
Lily's face fell a tad.
"But-" he said quickly, "We can go sometime later, right?"
"Right," said Lily, smiling once more, "So, er…I'll see you around, then."
She turned around and started to walk away.
"Yeah, who knows, I might become less vulnerable, Ma'am!"
Lily turned around to gape at him.
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To my Reviewers:
Well, that's all folks! Okay, it's been a long (not really) and hopefully successful run, and it's been loads of fun for my first fanfic. Hope the ending wasn't too abrupt.
Well, as for my reviewers, obtaining all your feedback has been great! All your opinions, good, bad or correcting- its been nice to know! A hearty thanks to all those who bothered to review- I checked my hits, and about 900 people had checked out the story and not reviewed! Especially my faithful readers (you know who you are!), I love you guys!
Okay, I'm sorry to end it so soon, but stay tuned for the sequel, C'est La Vie II- Another Tale, an Alice/Frank fic, another fascinating attempt to be hilarious.
Till then, for those of you who want more, click on the pen name and check out KITCHEN TIME CHAOS, my cousin's fic. Also stay tuned for two more fics, one on R.A.B.(a serious one) and a hilarious one 'bout Voldemort and his ….son!
Please Review! It's my birthday this Sunday (hint, hint!)
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