Which, of course, she ignored.
The past year she had found out something quite interesting about the "Marauders". They went missing every full moon.
She already knew that Remus Lupin, a friend of James and Sirius whom was just as well behaved as herself was a werewolf. She started noticing the monthly disappearances and slowly began to cotton on. That didn't explain why the other two and a short (slightly dunce) boy names Peter Pettigrew went missing on those nights as well.
Still clutching the book under her arm, all three occupants of the room turned to the door as Mrs. Potter announced that lunch was served. James was already at the door when she pointed him away, telling him that first he had to wake Sirius.
Shrugging, he walked past Lily, giving her a small smile, and jogged up the stairs. A few seconds later they heard a loud bang and a muffled Sirius yelling about the absurdity about having to get up at all in the summer time.
He was still grumbling when they entered the kitchen a few moments later, taking a seat up at the nicely set table beside James' father, watching gloomily as the pot poured soup into his bowl magically before reaching to the middle of the table to snatch up a grill cheese sandwich.
Grill cheese sandwiches being one of Lily's favourite in her childhood, eagerly placed several slices on her plate, and thanked the magical pot (which caused Sirius to look at her strangely and James' mother to laugh) before digging in to her lunch.
Undoubtedly, James' mother was a really good cook, as she found out from the soup, and later on the cookies, so that by the end of lunch, she was contentedly stuffed, settling herself into onto a couch in the study and propped the book on animagi open in her lap.
She had only read the first sentence "Becoming an Animagi is one of the most difficult transfiguration to accomplish." and was briefly wondering how she possibly thought Sirius and James could do such complicated stuff when she was rudely shoved over from her spot. The book closed in her lap and before she could sit up straight again it was snatched from her hands.
"Animagi, huh?" Sirius Black smirked down at her after peering quickly over the front cover of the book. "You thinking about doing a bit of illegal magic now Lily?"
She glared furiously at him, sat up, making sure to move several inches away from him, and straightened her dress. "Where is James?" She asked, glancing over to the door to the study, hoping he would come in and save her any moment. A thought that actually quite unsettled her. Why would she need James Potter to "save her" from someone she could just as easily get rid of.
"Why?" He asked, his voice slightly singsong as he said it and Lily felt an ominous dread coming on. "Grown a soft spot for my little Jamsie?" He clutched his chest dramatically, his eyes twinkling.
Honestly, how could anyone find this man attractive. Yes... I mean, he was good looking... and his eyes were pretty nice... She glowered at him.
"Go away, Black." She snatched the book out of his grasp again. "I want to make this week as less painful as possible."
"Come on..." He snatched the book back, and she found her hand suddenly itching towards the cushion laying right next to her, completely forgetting there was a much more efficient form of punishment sticking out of her sock in the way of a wand. "You like us... admit it."
"I like when your nice to me, yes." She told him, snatching the book back quickly, getting up and stalking over to an armchair. Satisfied that he would not be able to squeeze in next to her. "But that's a rare occurrence isn't it?"
"I'm being nice now!" Sirius looked slightly put out. "This is my way of being nice."
"By being a complete prat?" She asked, narrowing her green eyes at him in irritation.
Sirius opened his mouth to retort but a voice from the doorway stopped him. "Children... lets all just get along." James strolled into the room, looking from Sirius to Lily with a small smirk on his face. He settled onto the couch beside Sirius, but almost just as suddenly jumped back up again.
"We haven't given you a tour have we?" He asked, his eyes twinkling in a way that she found quite dangerous.
She shook her head anyway. "No... why?"
"Always so suspicious!" Sirius wailed so dramatically James actually rolled his eyes at his friend.
"I thought... you being here to stay for a week, that you might want to actually see all of your surroundings." He told her softly.
With a small sigh, she placed the book on the coffee table at their feet, shot a dangerous look in Sirius direction and told him "This better be here when I get back," before stiffly following James out of the room.
They were going up the stairs when James spoke again. "I'm sorry about Sirius." She blinked at his back for a moment.
"What do you mean?"
He turned to look down at her, a small smile on his lips as he stopped at the top of the stairs. "His attitude... he's always been like that. It's just who he is."
She nodded, not really sure on what to say to that.
"He can be mature when he wants to be... and he's a good friend." He added loyally.
There we go, James Potter, loyal and caring. She had only seen this side of him a few times. Well... he was always loyal. Only a loyal friend would go along with all of Sirius' stupid pranks (she ignored briefly the fact that a lot of them were his as well). But speaking to her like this about his friends, about Sirius, in that loving tone. It almost made her change her mind about James. Almost.
Figuring that saying something rude at this moment would be inappropriate (unlike Sirius she could actually gage stuff like that) she smiled and told him. "Your a good friend for them."
He had been looking out the window on the other side of the hallway they had come to when she spoke, but now turned to look at her.
Lily Evans was suddenly feeling very trapped. One thing that changed last year besides James' behaviour had been Lily's behaviour around James. This was another factor in the terrible realization that she was stuck in this house with him for a little over a week.
Whenever she was in his presence, she had always tried to stay as far away from him as possible. After a brief incident involving an armchair and James' lap. And how was she suppose to know he was sleeping there? It was dark! And he should have been in his dormitory anyway.
Now that she thought about it, she should have sent him back up to his dorm as a prefect should, not run, blushing madly, back up to her own dorm never to speak of the incident again.
Now, pitifully, all she could do was stare up into his deep hazel eyes, feeling light-headed and fuzzy like, she was sure, half of the other girls at Hogwarts did in his presence. Damn him. Damn James Potter.
But the spell only got worse when he smiled, and whispered huskily, "Thank you."
She found herself wanting him to turn away, but another part of her wanted him to stay where he was. Maybe... brush the stray stand of hair that she just noticed now was tickling her nose.
That's what he was doing.
Right...
She jumped away, colliding painfully with the banister at the top of the stairs. Cringing and rubbing her back, she kept her eyes on the carpet at their feet, thanking Merlin that the banister was there to knock her out of her trance even though she was sure there would be a bruise there later.
"Sorry." His voice was still quiet, but not in that same tone he used earlier. This was more embarrassed. She looked up grudgingly as he turned away and motioned for her to follow him down the hall.
She noticed, with a twang of guilt that he looked slightly more tense then before.
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AN: All right the second chapter... I will be naming the days ontop when they change, so obviously this is still Day 1-saturday.
If you like? Please review! If you don't...erm...review anyway! How 'bout that? Sounds good to me.