A/n: hey all! Thanx 4 reviewing!!!!!!!!!
This chapter is dedicated to Lisa (PIGS*in*a*blanket - I GAVE HER THE IDEA FOR THE NEW ULTRA COOL PENNAME BTW!) just b/c i said so! U all should read her story LILY AND JAMES b/c it rocks!!! Its soo soo good!!! so read it right after mine!
Also when u review (please!) tell me if u would rather me write longer chapters but it would take longer to update or you would rather me write shorter chapters but update faster..Thanx!
CHAPTER 5
Lily looked over from over the table at the messy black hair and frowned thinking that if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't be in this mess. James, feeling her eyes on the back of his head, looked up to see her staring at him. Their eyes locked for a few seconds. He pointed to the same piece of paper she was holding and rolling his eyes, motioned for her to come over.
"I'll be right back you guys," she said distractedly to her friends, and walked over to where he was sitting.
"I suppose you read the article too," she said, staring at him icily.
"Look, before you kill me just hear me out," He said putting up his hands in a manner of surrendering.
She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and nodded, saying, "I'm listening,"
"First of all, this is just as much as my fault as it is your fault,"
"Yeah, that'll win me over. Just blame it all me," Lily interrupted.
"Will you stop interrupting and be quiet for a second? As I was saying, the only person I told about our little, what should we call it? Meeting, that seems about right. Well, anyways, then only person I told about the other night was Sirius, and I'm sure you told all your friends too. I didn't tell Rita about it and have no idea how she found out but it wasn't from me. Or Sirius for the matter. Sirius didn't tell her we're in love or anything. And if you think that either one of us told her, how do you know that one of your friends didn't tell her?"
Lily looked a bit thoughtful for a second and then nodded. He actually did have a bit of a point there. Her frown was replaced with a woebegone look.
"OK, so maybe it wasn't. But now what are we supposed to do? I mean did you read the whole article? Its the most embarrassing thing anyone has ever written about me!"
"Calm down, Lil. The solution is easy," he said imitating their potion teacher's voice "All we have to do is just show people our true feelings for each other. How much we despise each other. Or at least how much you despise me,"
"You despise me too," Lily exclaimed, "It takes two to be in a solid hateful relationship!"
"You see, I don't hate you," James answered her, smirking "I just don't like you all too much. And that's only because you despise me,"
"Which is only because you're mean to me," Lily cried with a look of disbelief on her face.
"Which is only because you despise me," repeated James, his smirk growing.
"Ok, I get the point," Lily said, "Continue, please,"
"Well as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, AGAIN I may add, it's just a stupid article and I bet no one believed it. Plus, we can always ask Rita to make a revision explaining her very disturbing mistake and viola! (Or how ever you spell it) Instant normalness. Though it's too bad though. I don't think it would have been to bad going out with you. Losing an enemy, gaining a hot new girlfriend...,"
"Is normalness even a word?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrow " I'm going to ignore that last comment though, and pretend you never said that. For once though, I think you may actually have been right. I don't even know why I got so upset after all. I mean just because a stupid article says something doesn't mean it's true. Though I still do have an urge to kill Sirius about what it said in that article. I know he some how had something to do with it,"
"No, he really didn't say that we made out in trees!" said James making a face. He looked thoughtful for a second and then began to chuckle "Wait! I just remembered he was singing this stupid little song that said we kissed in the trees or something like that,"
Lily doubled over in laughter, not really because of what he said, but from relief of finding out how simple the situation was. "I know that song! Lily and James sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," she began to say in a singsong voice.
"Yeah that's it," he said "I don't get it though. What does it mean?"
"Oh, don't bother. Its just a stupid muggle thing," said Lily with a wave of her hand "Well I gotta run. It's been nice to have a civil conversation. Actually this is our second this day. I hope it doesn't become to much of a habit,"
Lily couldn't believe it. Here she was, joking and laughing with James? JAMES POTTER? The thought alone made her want to laugh in a very insane manner. Though, she reminded herself, the only reason she was talking to him and ignoring his obnoxious comments and sexist jokes was because of the state of the emergency it had been.
She walked back to her seat smiling, because of the weight that had been lifted off her shoulders. It was all so simple! Things would be back to normal in no time. She didn't realize all the stares and murmurs she was getting because of the fact that she had just talked to James and had left with a smile on her face. For all those people who had just read what Rita had written, it was just a confirmation that two were in love, or at least going out.
"So how'd it go?" asked Lynn.
"Well, James made me realize how stupid this is! All we have to do is tell people WE'RE NOT GOING OUT! I mean, is that obvious or what?"
"K, so now that's settled, can we get a move on?" asked Annie "I need to get there early to ask Professor McGonnagol something,"
"Fine. Let me just go say bye to Peter," Lynn mumbled as she ran off to find him.
"She's obsessed," Joy said, rolling her eyes.
"She has mentionitis," Lily added.
"What is mentionitis?"
"Oh, you know, when you're obsessed with the person you're going out with you always mention them. It's like when Lynn says 'Peter this' and 'Peter said' and 'Peter that'. It can become horribly annoying," She informed them.
"Ok, Let's go," said Lynn, as she walked back to where the trio was sitting. As they began to walk to Transfiguration her eyes brightened and she said happily "Oh, you know what? Peter said the funniest thing before abo-"
"I told you, mentionitis," Lily interrupted.
"She has a horrible case of it," Joy observed.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"It's when all you do is talk about the person you're going out with and you keep mentioning them like, every second,"
"I do not have mentionitis," huffed Lynn in an annoyed manner "I don't mention Peter every second,"
"Well if that's what you think," said Lily linking arms with Lynn.
As they walked a 7th year that Lily didn't really recognize bounded over excitedly and " I think it's so sweet that you and James are going out! It's so cute because you used to hate each other and all and he saved your life. You are like, SO lucky to have someone like him,"
"Um, well actually," began Lily, straightening herself up, but before she could get out what she wanted to say another girl strutted over saying "I think its like, so risky to try to have a secret affair with someone. It's so cool, you know, sneaking around, and stuff. Did you and James sneak out at night to see each other?"
"Well," Lily managed to get out before the girl decided to answer her own question.
"But of course you did, right? That is sooooo Romeo and Juliet. Well, we'll talk to you later, Lily. We have classes to get to and can't afforded to be late," and the girls ran off before Lily got a chance to say what she actually wanted to.
"Aargh," Lily humphed,"They didn't even let me speak! And what about the fact that maybe we don't want to be late either!"
"Remember the plan, Lily," advised Lynn gently "Keep in mind. This will all blow over soon, right?"
"Easy for you to say," murmured Lily.
As those girls were not the only ones coming over to Lily to congratulate her on her newfound love, they arrived to class over ten minutes late. Lily meekly opened the door to Transfiguration and was greeted by Professor McGonnagal's stern face looking down upon them.
"I hope you came equipped with a good reason for being over ten minutes late to my class, if you don't want points taken off," she said sternly.
Lily didn't really think that saying 'Oh sorry Proffesor McGonnagol, but actually I was stopped by some annoying airhead girls who kept asking me about the romantic love affair that doesn't even exist between me and James Potter,' would be the best answer to her question so instead she remained quiet.
"All right, come in then and only one point from Gryffindor will be taken off this time since this is not habitual. Now let's continue," she said when she saw they wouldn't be answering her, closing the door harshly behind them. Or at least she meant to. Instead though, it ended up slamming into the person who had been trying to slip in unnoticed behind the girls. Except though he made his presence a bit more noticeable than he had meant it to be.
"OUCH!" he said loudly rubbing his nose.
Lily turned around to see who it was and upon seeing who it was realized it was perfectly stupid to have had to turn to know who it was. After all, for some reason, it was always James who caused the ruckus and chaos in her life.
"Mr. Potter. How nice of you to join us. Will you be seeing Madam Pomfrey for your nose?"
"Nah. I'm cool," he said, taking his seat.
"Well, I was saying that a few years ago Hogwarts had a debate with Durmstrang. Hogwarts won, and the winners took home a medal as well as fifty galleons. Durmstrang has re-challenged us this year and since we had a good turnout before, we accepted. This is not optional and will be completed if you want to even aspire the chance of graduating. I will be assigning partners, three to a group and you will each be getting a separate topic each,"
This sounded like it would actually be fun. Professor McGonnagol usually put her with her friends so at least she didn't have to worry about being with James or anything.
"Alright. Abbot, Golt, and Schulman," Professor McGonnagol began to call out the groups. As she called each one they went up to get their topic. She called out a few more people and then said "Anderson, Lupin, Notil,"
"Alright,' Lily thought 'that's not too bad. She'd probably be working with Joy and Annie.
Sure enough, Lily heard her last name being called a few seconds later "Evans, Moffat, Johnson, come up to get your topic,"
Lily looked across the room at them and smiled happily. They went up to get their assignment and then pushed their desks together and opened the piece of paper that it was said on.
"Should muggles know about the wizarding world?" Lily read out loud " Is it really more dangerous for them to know or not to know? You must research this topic thoroughly because you will not be told which side you are on until you get there, blah,blah,blah..,"
"Well, the con side should be easy but the pro side will be a bit trickier," Joy speculated.
"Quiet," Professor McGonagol said sternly to the people who had began to start talking about their projects. When they settled down a bit more she continued:
"Polk, Vanderbilt, and Campell. All right, and that leaves us with Potter, Pettigrew, and Black- Oh, no. That won't do," she said looking angry "I'm not going to have you three work together. Not with what happened last time. And every time I allow you three to work together,"
The boys snickered, because just as she said, whenever they had worked together in her class, it usually turned into a big mess with many brawls that Professor McGonnagol had to break up.
"No, this won't do at all. We're going to have to switch around the groups a bit,"
Lily's heart sank. She knew this had been to good to be true.
"Peter you'll be moving into Annie Moffat's group and.."
'Not me, Please not me,' Lily prayed silently clenching her fists.
"Well, why not Lily? I don't think I would ever be saying this with all the fights you to have but with the new development in your relationship," Lily felt her cheeks go red "I think that you Miss Evans can teach Black and Potter a thing or two,"
"But Professor.." Lily began to protest. She was NOT going to work with James.
"No buts! Don't interrupt me. Now go sit with your group.
Ok, Maybe she was going to. She trudged angrily to her group, shuffling her feet as she walked.
"Hey, I didn't ask for this either," James said, stretching his legs.
"Don't talk to me right now," Lily said, burying her head in her hands.
This was not going to be fun at all.
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"Bloody, bloody, horrible, gruesome, terrible day. First I get stuck with twiddle dee and twiddle dumb for our project and then I have to spend the rest of the afternoon warding off evil girls that want to gossip about my non-existent relationship with James even when I must have said at least a hundred times that we are not GOING OUT!"
"Somebody needs to take a chill pill," commented Lynn.
"Oh, shut up. Your just happy that you spent the whole afternoon snogging Peter,"
"Well maybe so but that's no reason to hold a grudge," lectured Lynn "Anyways, you do need to calm down a bit. Breath in, breathe out, in, out..."
"I've always found that bit advice lame and horribly overused. You see if I didn't know how to breath I would be dead! Don't you notice that its used anytime someone hyperventilates just a bit? That can be annoying! But you know what? That not as annoying as........ working with James Potter and Sirius Black for a project that is worth half our bloody grade!"
"She's going mad," Lynn explained to Peter Patil who had just over to them and looked quite baffled. "She has to work with a hottie for a project and can't handle the pressure of possibly embarrassing herself,"
"Really?" Peter said brow raised. Lily hadn't been known for having crushes on people "Who's the guy? Maybe I can do some digging and find out if he likes her too,"
"James Potter,"
Peter's eyebrow rose even higher at the mention of him "James Potter? Could've fooled me,"
"Could've fooled me too because we are not going out! We are not going out, we are not seeing each other; we are not blissfully in love! Lynn told an interesting commentary on what happened. See, actually, I am working with James, but I also am horribly annoyed with the fact that I am and am in no way overjoyed,"
"Remember it starts with denial and then slowly changes to acceptance," Lynn said wisely, placing a hand on Lily's shoulder in a manner that only teachers would do.
"Yes, Lynn that is extremely good advice that I think you should be listening to yourself. You are in denial that I hate James, but that denial will slowly change to acceptance and you will realize it is all for the best," Lily let out a huge breath when she finished and wiped her forehead. Honestly, spending a whole afternoon with Lynn could be VERY tiring.
"Oh calm down, you person-who-can't-take-a-joke! I was only joking. Besides," Lynn continued on as if she was reciting something she found very boring "I know that you and James are as you say peanut butter and cream cheese-"
"Actually I like that combination," Peter interrupted.
Lynn gave him a weird look and said "Riiiighht. Well, anyways, the bottom line is that I understand that you and James don't work. Is that good enough for you?"
"Oh, perfectly," Lily answered, smiling sweetly. "I knew you would one day wake up with the gift of knowledge and come to your senses,"
"Um, I think I'll go now," Peter whispered to Lynn. Lynn nodded by smiling but when he left it quickly turned to a frown "Now look at what you did! You scared him off!"
"Ah, be quiet, Lynn," Lily put her hands on her hips "Do you know that I didn't start my Professor Binns essay yet?"
"Oooh, the horror," Lynn said in mock terror.
An unusual quietness filled the common room as Lily began to write her essay. She must have sat there for at least half an hour, quill poised in her hand, but nothing came to mind. It was as if someone had folded a blanket over her brain and she couldn't pull it off.
"That's it!" she shouted, startling Lynn and making her fall off the couch. She grabbed her parchment and ripped it in half. Lynn gaped at her.
She couldn't take it anymore! Lily usually wasn't this loud but the stress of school and James and everything had just been weighting her down too much.
"I can't take it anymore! I mean will it really matter in life if I don't know that Ogle started the troll rebellion? And why do I have to do this stupid essay anyways?! I do all the other homework!"
"That's the spirit! I mean honestly all you are saying is like, so true. Plus, you always do the homework so just blow this one thing off. No biggie,"
"Ok, great. So why don't we both rebel together?"
Lynn turned pink and mumbled something that Lily couldn't hear.
"Whatdya say?"
"I already did it," she said a bit louder playing with the fringe of her skirt.
"And when were you going to tell me that!"
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James hurried through the halls looking for a flash of red. He hadn't been able to find Lily after class and he needed to talk to her VERY badly in order to end this little fiasco they were going through. After the little speech McGonnagol had given which he would never live down by his friends, it seemed even more like he and Lily were going out. They needed to talk to Rita Skeeter and they needed to talk to her now.
All of a sudden he heard a feminine voice call "James, over here!"
He turned around to see Lily across the halls waving franticly while people around her pointed excitedly at the two of them about to have contact. He walked over to her pulling her away from the crowd that had formed. When the two of them were finally alone they both turned to each other and at the same time blurted out "We NEED to talk to Rita,"
James chuckled and said "Jinx,"
"Honestly, we don't have time for childish jokes," Lily said in an indignant voice, but her smile betrayed the feeling of seriousness she had been trying to portray "Our reputations are at stake!"
"You mean reputation," James joked, "Yours would be uplifted. Who wouldn't want to go out with me?"
"Riiight," Lily said sarcastically "I am going to ignore the little voice in my head saying 'Smack the jerk'. Now will you be serious?"
"You want Sirius? Should I go get him?" he said, making probably the most overused pun in hogwarts (and fanfiction) history.
Lily smacked him a bit too hard to use the term lightly, on his shoulder.
"I thought you were going to ignore the voice," he said in a wounded tone. He ignored the pain, pretending it didn't hurt.
'Though,' he thought rubbing his shoulder quickly when she turned away for a second, 'he would not want to get into a fight with her. She was not as weak as she looked,'
"I never said I'd ignore the big one. I'm still ignoring the small one, which is right now saying 'Chuck the moron out the window,' But honestly! I mean if your going to be annoying by making jokes in aspirations of achieving the class clown title one day, at least make clever ones! The Sirius thing is just WAAY to overused. I'm sorry but you have been declared officially lame,"
"Coming from you that's a compliment," he shot back.
"Now that's an example of a lame, stupid, and un-insulting I may add, insult. Do you want me to keep going or will you be serious, ie. thoughtful, not joking. In case you don't understand the proper meaning of the word," she said exasperatedly.
"Ok,ok. So where do you think Rita is?"
"Well, I already checked all the basic places except for the library so I'm guessing she's there,"
They trudged in the direction of it silently. James realized that aside from the insults and the occasional jokes passing between them, they really had never really talked before.
"Soo......." he started, thinking of something intelligent to say. He couldn't think of anything to say, so Lily put in,
"Buttons on ice cream see if they stick,"
"What the hell?" he said, wondering how she could've gone mad in just two minutes.
Lily saw his confusion and laughed, scrunching up her nose, in a very cute way, he added to himself silently.
"Its a sort of joke thing," she explained as they walked up a flight of stairs "Someone says so, and then you say buttons on ice-cream, see if they stick. Meaning sew buttons on ice cream, see if they stick. You know, like with a needle?"
"I got that," he answered "I just don't think its funny,"
"Anyways," Lily said, in a business-like way "We need to start thinking about what we're going to do for the project. I think that you, me, and Sirius should meet tomorrow to discuss the criteria...."
James tuned her out as they kept walking. She would just repeat this whole tomorrow so he'd listen then. He busied himself thinking of quidditch. That was always an easy problem-solver for when he was bored. They'd lost one game but they still had a bit of a chance for the cup. The Ravenclaws were playing Slytherin next week. If they won them by at least 60 points and then Gryffindor won them by a 100 then they-
He was interrupted when she said, "Are you even listening??"
"Oh, yeah, sure," he lied, putting on an extra serious face "Great ideas. You did a lot of brain storming,"
"Thank you," she said looking please with herself "Now, what did I say?"
"Um...You said..," he thought racking his brains in hopes of remembering something but came up with nothing. "Uh.....Oh, look! The library!"
He rushed ahead so he wouldn't have to answer. Hopefully she'd forget about this on the way back. Right away he spotted Rita, who was sitting at a table obviously spying on a few people, half-hidden by a stack of books. She jumped as he called her name, obviously, shaken out of whatever she had been doing. She looked from James to Lily and then strode over exclaiming "Why hello, my little lovebirds," James saw Lily visibly wince from the expression "So how are you today? Did you see the little piece I did on you?"
"DID WE SEE?" Lily started. Her face slowly began to change to the color of her hair "HO-
James cut he off by saying quickly "Um, yeah we saw it. Actually that's what we came to talk to you about. We'd like you to put in a revision, as soon as possible, that the information was, well, false,"
"Oh, so you're not going out?" Rita said, this time in a voice of fake- realization "Well of course I can then. Next Friday, when my newsletter always comes out,"
*~*~*
Lily could not believe it! Next Friday? She'd die before that! A whole week to deal with this. Oh. no. This was not happening.
"Um, I think NOT," she exclaimed, "We need you to make one for tomorrow,"
"No," Rita said her facial expression not changing "You'll have to wait. It's horribly unprofessional to print only something like that. Sorry, kids,"
Lily clenched her fists together and ignored the look that James gave her, which clearly told her not to do anything stupid
"And exactly why do we have to wait?" Lily cried "YOU invaded OUR personal privacy WITHOUT getting permission for it in the first place! Not to mention the fact that it was all MADE UP! I don't care if it's professional or not. It's your own fault for printing it in the first place,"
That did it. Rita's fake smile was now replaced by an evil snare and her eyes had turned acid-like "You know, this isn't the first time you insulted my writing. Maybe if you hadn't I would be a bit more sympathetic. Your lucky I agreed to even write any sort of revision," and with that she stomped out.
James just raised his eyebrow at her and said dryly "That was just brilliant, Lily,"
"I'm an idiot, I know. I should never have opened my mouth," she said bitterly.
James did not object one bit.
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DONE!
Do you know that I had no idea what they would be working on the whole chapter? In fact I did the whole thing before writing what the project even was.
Now I never did thanku's but I decided to start. This is just for chapter 4:
PIGS*IN*A*BLANKET: Aww! Thanx!!!! See now that I finshed my chap. and posted it you have to post urs or else!!! MWAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CUTIE! AND I'M NOT GEORGIA!
E.M.C: thanx! I'm glad u like my Sirius!! he wasn't in this chapter a lot but he'll be in in the next chapter more.
NICOLEtheNIVETER: thanx! I know it took me a while to upload! I don't know how you're able to update so fast! It mystifies me. I love your fic GLIMPSE,btw. EVERYONE, GO READ IT!
QUACKQUACK88: thanx for the review! I know you can be a bit harsh sometimes(not in a bad way, just that you state the truth) so I'm happy u like it!
The ICECREAM PERVEYOR or w/e u r now: all i can say is I'm glad u didn't like my fic. I mean w/ what u write if u did like it, it would mean I write bad too. ( i never ever ever flame but this person really is quite a nusiance. Shes flamed really good writers for no reason when hers are 10 times worse. READ HER FIC IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT I MEAN. her other pen name is strawberrykoolaid)
FAIRYSPRITE: don't worry.like i said b4, The icecream perveyor's flame didnt bother me in the least. I'm glad you like my fic!
SOMEONE: sorry u think Lily's too much of a study freak. Hopefully she'll become less as this progresses. and ur story is really good btw!
Also thanx to: LUCKY121, FALULA, SATAN'S LITTLE PRINCESS(i love ur penname!), MIKALA, PRINCESS SWEETS, UP YOUR ZIGGY WITH A WAWA BRUSH, AMANDAPANDA, PRINCESS EVIL, LILY EVANS, MANDI, SAMIRALIE, QUITESIRIUS, SARCASM QEEN, CHICKQ, BEXIE, DOG STARS CRUSH(ur fic is so cute!)
Yeah thats it, now REVIEW!
This chapter is dedicated to Lisa (PIGS*in*a*blanket - I GAVE HER THE IDEA FOR THE NEW ULTRA COOL PENNAME BTW!) just b/c i said so! U all should read her story LILY AND JAMES b/c it rocks!!! Its soo soo good!!! so read it right after mine!
Also when u review (please!) tell me if u would rather me write longer chapters but it would take longer to update or you would rather me write shorter chapters but update faster..Thanx!
CHAPTER 5
Lily looked over from over the table at the messy black hair and frowned thinking that if it wasn't for him, she wouldn't be in this mess. James, feeling her eyes on the back of his head, looked up to see her staring at him. Their eyes locked for a few seconds. He pointed to the same piece of paper she was holding and rolling his eyes, motioned for her to come over.
"I'll be right back you guys," she said distractedly to her friends, and walked over to where he was sitting.
"I suppose you read the article too," she said, staring at him icily.
"Look, before you kill me just hear me out," He said putting up his hands in a manner of surrendering.
She tucked a piece of hair behind her ear and nodded, saying, "I'm listening,"
"First of all, this is just as much as my fault as it is your fault,"
"Yeah, that'll win me over. Just blame it all me," Lily interrupted.
"Will you stop interrupting and be quiet for a second? As I was saying, the only person I told about our little, what should we call it? Meeting, that seems about right. Well, anyways, then only person I told about the other night was Sirius, and I'm sure you told all your friends too. I didn't tell Rita about it and have no idea how she found out but it wasn't from me. Or Sirius for the matter. Sirius didn't tell her we're in love or anything. And if you think that either one of us told her, how do you know that one of your friends didn't tell her?"
Lily looked a bit thoughtful for a second and then nodded. He actually did have a bit of a point there. Her frown was replaced with a woebegone look.
"OK, so maybe it wasn't. But now what are we supposed to do? I mean did you read the whole article? Its the most embarrassing thing anyone has ever written about me!"
"Calm down, Lil. The solution is easy," he said imitating their potion teacher's voice "All we have to do is just show people our true feelings for each other. How much we despise each other. Or at least how much you despise me,"
"You despise me too," Lily exclaimed, "It takes two to be in a solid hateful relationship!"
"You see, I don't hate you," James answered her, smirking "I just don't like you all too much. And that's only because you despise me,"
"Which is only because you're mean to me," Lily cried with a look of disbelief on her face.
"Which is only because you despise me," repeated James, his smirk growing.
"Ok, I get the point," Lily said, "Continue, please,"
"Well as I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, AGAIN I may add, it's just a stupid article and I bet no one believed it. Plus, we can always ask Rita to make a revision explaining her very disturbing mistake and viola! (Or how ever you spell it) Instant normalness. Though it's too bad though. I don't think it would have been to bad going out with you. Losing an enemy, gaining a hot new girlfriend...,"
"Is normalness even a word?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrow " I'm going to ignore that last comment though, and pretend you never said that. For once though, I think you may actually have been right. I don't even know why I got so upset after all. I mean just because a stupid article says something doesn't mean it's true. Though I still do have an urge to kill Sirius about what it said in that article. I know he some how had something to do with it,"
"No, he really didn't say that we made out in trees!" said James making a face. He looked thoughtful for a second and then began to chuckle "Wait! I just remembered he was singing this stupid little song that said we kissed in the trees or something like that,"
Lily doubled over in laughter, not really because of what he said, but from relief of finding out how simple the situation was. "I know that song! Lily and James sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G," she began to say in a singsong voice.
"Yeah that's it," he said "I don't get it though. What does it mean?"
"Oh, don't bother. Its just a stupid muggle thing," said Lily with a wave of her hand "Well I gotta run. It's been nice to have a civil conversation. Actually this is our second this day. I hope it doesn't become to much of a habit,"
Lily couldn't believe it. Here she was, joking and laughing with James? JAMES POTTER? The thought alone made her want to laugh in a very insane manner. Though, she reminded herself, the only reason she was talking to him and ignoring his obnoxious comments and sexist jokes was because of the state of the emergency it had been.
She walked back to her seat smiling, because of the weight that had been lifted off her shoulders. It was all so simple! Things would be back to normal in no time. She didn't realize all the stares and murmurs she was getting because of the fact that she had just talked to James and had left with a smile on her face. For all those people who had just read what Rita had written, it was just a confirmation that two were in love, or at least going out.
"So how'd it go?" asked Lynn.
"Well, James made me realize how stupid this is! All we have to do is tell people WE'RE NOT GOING OUT! I mean, is that obvious or what?"
"K, so now that's settled, can we get a move on?" asked Annie "I need to get there early to ask Professor McGonnagol something,"
"Fine. Let me just go say bye to Peter," Lynn mumbled as she ran off to find him.
"She's obsessed," Joy said, rolling her eyes.
"She has mentionitis," Lily added.
"What is mentionitis?"
"Oh, you know, when you're obsessed with the person you're going out with you always mention them. It's like when Lynn says 'Peter this' and 'Peter said' and 'Peter that'. It can become horribly annoying," She informed them.
"Ok, Let's go," said Lynn, as she walked back to where the trio was sitting. As they began to walk to Transfiguration her eyes brightened and she said happily "Oh, you know what? Peter said the funniest thing before abo-"
"I told you, mentionitis," Lily interrupted.
"She has a horrible case of it," Joy observed.
"What the hell are you talking about?"
"It's when all you do is talk about the person you're going out with and you keep mentioning them like, every second,"
"I do not have mentionitis," huffed Lynn in an annoyed manner "I don't mention Peter every second,"
"Well if that's what you think," said Lily linking arms with Lynn.
As they walked a 7th year that Lily didn't really recognize bounded over excitedly and " I think it's so sweet that you and James are going out! It's so cute because you used to hate each other and all and he saved your life. You are like, SO lucky to have someone like him,"
"Um, well actually," began Lily, straightening herself up, but before she could get out what she wanted to say another girl strutted over saying "I think its like, so risky to try to have a secret affair with someone. It's so cool, you know, sneaking around, and stuff. Did you and James sneak out at night to see each other?"
"Well," Lily managed to get out before the girl decided to answer her own question.
"But of course you did, right? That is sooooo Romeo and Juliet. Well, we'll talk to you later, Lily. We have classes to get to and can't afforded to be late," and the girls ran off before Lily got a chance to say what she actually wanted to.
"Aargh," Lily humphed,"They didn't even let me speak! And what about the fact that maybe we don't want to be late either!"
"Remember the plan, Lily," advised Lynn gently "Keep in mind. This will all blow over soon, right?"
"Easy for you to say," murmured Lily.
As those girls were not the only ones coming over to Lily to congratulate her on her newfound love, they arrived to class over ten minutes late. Lily meekly opened the door to Transfiguration and was greeted by Professor McGonnagal's stern face looking down upon them.
"I hope you came equipped with a good reason for being over ten minutes late to my class, if you don't want points taken off," she said sternly.
Lily didn't really think that saying 'Oh sorry Proffesor McGonnagol, but actually I was stopped by some annoying airhead girls who kept asking me about the romantic love affair that doesn't even exist between me and James Potter,' would be the best answer to her question so instead she remained quiet.
"All right, come in then and only one point from Gryffindor will be taken off this time since this is not habitual. Now let's continue," she said when she saw they wouldn't be answering her, closing the door harshly behind them. Or at least she meant to. Instead though, it ended up slamming into the person who had been trying to slip in unnoticed behind the girls. Except though he made his presence a bit more noticeable than he had meant it to be.
"OUCH!" he said loudly rubbing his nose.
Lily turned around to see who it was and upon seeing who it was realized it was perfectly stupid to have had to turn to know who it was. After all, for some reason, it was always James who caused the ruckus and chaos in her life.
"Mr. Potter. How nice of you to join us. Will you be seeing Madam Pomfrey for your nose?"
"Nah. I'm cool," he said, taking his seat.
"Well, I was saying that a few years ago Hogwarts had a debate with Durmstrang. Hogwarts won, and the winners took home a medal as well as fifty galleons. Durmstrang has re-challenged us this year and since we had a good turnout before, we accepted. This is not optional and will be completed if you want to even aspire the chance of graduating. I will be assigning partners, three to a group and you will each be getting a separate topic each,"
This sounded like it would actually be fun. Professor McGonnagol usually put her with her friends so at least she didn't have to worry about being with James or anything.
"Alright. Abbot, Golt, and Schulman," Professor McGonnagol began to call out the groups. As she called each one they went up to get their topic. She called out a few more people and then said "Anderson, Lupin, Notil,"
"Alright,' Lily thought 'that's not too bad. She'd probably be working with Joy and Annie.
Sure enough, Lily heard her last name being called a few seconds later "Evans, Moffat, Johnson, come up to get your topic,"
Lily looked across the room at them and smiled happily. They went up to get their assignment and then pushed their desks together and opened the piece of paper that it was said on.
"Should muggles know about the wizarding world?" Lily read out loud " Is it really more dangerous for them to know or not to know? You must research this topic thoroughly because you will not be told which side you are on until you get there, blah,blah,blah..,"
"Well, the con side should be easy but the pro side will be a bit trickier," Joy speculated.
"Quiet," Professor McGonagol said sternly to the people who had began to start talking about their projects. When they settled down a bit more she continued:
"Polk, Vanderbilt, and Campell. All right, and that leaves us with Potter, Pettigrew, and Black- Oh, no. That won't do," she said looking angry "I'm not going to have you three work together. Not with what happened last time. And every time I allow you three to work together,"
The boys snickered, because just as she said, whenever they had worked together in her class, it usually turned into a big mess with many brawls that Professor McGonnagol had to break up.
"No, this won't do at all. We're going to have to switch around the groups a bit,"
Lily's heart sank. She knew this had been to good to be true.
"Peter you'll be moving into Annie Moffat's group and.."
'Not me, Please not me,' Lily prayed silently clenching her fists.
"Well, why not Lily? I don't think I would ever be saying this with all the fights you to have but with the new development in your relationship," Lily felt her cheeks go red "I think that you Miss Evans can teach Black and Potter a thing or two,"
"But Professor.." Lily began to protest. She was NOT going to work with James.
"No buts! Don't interrupt me. Now go sit with your group.
Ok, Maybe she was going to. She trudged angrily to her group, shuffling her feet as she walked.
"Hey, I didn't ask for this either," James said, stretching his legs.
"Don't talk to me right now," Lily said, burying her head in her hands.
This was not going to be fun at all.
*************************************************************************
"Bloody, bloody, horrible, gruesome, terrible day. First I get stuck with twiddle dee and twiddle dumb for our project and then I have to spend the rest of the afternoon warding off evil girls that want to gossip about my non-existent relationship with James even when I must have said at least a hundred times that we are not GOING OUT!"
"Somebody needs to take a chill pill," commented Lynn.
"Oh, shut up. Your just happy that you spent the whole afternoon snogging Peter,"
"Well maybe so but that's no reason to hold a grudge," lectured Lynn "Anyways, you do need to calm down a bit. Breath in, breathe out, in, out..."
"I've always found that bit advice lame and horribly overused. You see if I didn't know how to breath I would be dead! Don't you notice that its used anytime someone hyperventilates just a bit? That can be annoying! But you know what? That not as annoying as........ working with James Potter and Sirius Black for a project that is worth half our bloody grade!"
"She's going mad," Lynn explained to Peter Patil who had just over to them and looked quite baffled. "She has to work with a hottie for a project and can't handle the pressure of possibly embarrassing herself,"
"Really?" Peter said brow raised. Lily hadn't been known for having crushes on people "Who's the guy? Maybe I can do some digging and find out if he likes her too,"
"James Potter,"
Peter's eyebrow rose even higher at the mention of him "James Potter? Could've fooled me,"
"Could've fooled me too because we are not going out! We are not going out, we are not seeing each other; we are not blissfully in love! Lynn told an interesting commentary on what happened. See, actually, I am working with James, but I also am horribly annoyed with the fact that I am and am in no way overjoyed,"
"Remember it starts with denial and then slowly changes to acceptance," Lynn said wisely, placing a hand on Lily's shoulder in a manner that only teachers would do.
"Yes, Lynn that is extremely good advice that I think you should be listening to yourself. You are in denial that I hate James, but that denial will slowly change to acceptance and you will realize it is all for the best," Lily let out a huge breath when she finished and wiped her forehead. Honestly, spending a whole afternoon with Lynn could be VERY tiring.
"Oh calm down, you person-who-can't-take-a-joke! I was only joking. Besides," Lynn continued on as if she was reciting something she found very boring "I know that you and James are as you say peanut butter and cream cheese-"
"Actually I like that combination," Peter interrupted.
Lynn gave him a weird look and said "Riiiighht. Well, anyways, the bottom line is that I understand that you and James don't work. Is that good enough for you?"
"Oh, perfectly," Lily answered, smiling sweetly. "I knew you would one day wake up with the gift of knowledge and come to your senses,"
"Um, I think I'll go now," Peter whispered to Lynn. Lynn nodded by smiling but when he left it quickly turned to a frown "Now look at what you did! You scared him off!"
"Ah, be quiet, Lynn," Lily put her hands on her hips "Do you know that I didn't start my Professor Binns essay yet?"
"Oooh, the horror," Lynn said in mock terror.
An unusual quietness filled the common room as Lily began to write her essay. She must have sat there for at least half an hour, quill poised in her hand, but nothing came to mind. It was as if someone had folded a blanket over her brain and she couldn't pull it off.
"That's it!" she shouted, startling Lynn and making her fall off the couch. She grabbed her parchment and ripped it in half. Lynn gaped at her.
She couldn't take it anymore! Lily usually wasn't this loud but the stress of school and James and everything had just been weighting her down too much.
"I can't take it anymore! I mean will it really matter in life if I don't know that Ogle started the troll rebellion? And why do I have to do this stupid essay anyways?! I do all the other homework!"
"That's the spirit! I mean honestly all you are saying is like, so true. Plus, you always do the homework so just blow this one thing off. No biggie,"
"Ok, great. So why don't we both rebel together?"
Lynn turned pink and mumbled something that Lily couldn't hear.
"Whatdya say?"
"I already did it," she said a bit louder playing with the fringe of her skirt.
"And when were you going to tell me that!"
***************************************************************************
James hurried through the halls looking for a flash of red. He hadn't been able to find Lily after class and he needed to talk to her VERY badly in order to end this little fiasco they were going through. After the little speech McGonnagol had given which he would never live down by his friends, it seemed even more like he and Lily were going out. They needed to talk to Rita Skeeter and they needed to talk to her now.
All of a sudden he heard a feminine voice call "James, over here!"
He turned around to see Lily across the halls waving franticly while people around her pointed excitedly at the two of them about to have contact. He walked over to her pulling her away from the crowd that had formed. When the two of them were finally alone they both turned to each other and at the same time blurted out "We NEED to talk to Rita,"
James chuckled and said "Jinx,"
"Honestly, we don't have time for childish jokes," Lily said in an indignant voice, but her smile betrayed the feeling of seriousness she had been trying to portray "Our reputations are at stake!"
"You mean reputation," James joked, "Yours would be uplifted. Who wouldn't want to go out with me?"
"Riiight," Lily said sarcastically "I am going to ignore the little voice in my head saying 'Smack the jerk'. Now will you be serious?"
"You want Sirius? Should I go get him?" he said, making probably the most overused pun in hogwarts (and fanfiction) history.
Lily smacked him a bit too hard to use the term lightly, on his shoulder.
"I thought you were going to ignore the voice," he said in a wounded tone. He ignored the pain, pretending it didn't hurt.
'Though,' he thought rubbing his shoulder quickly when she turned away for a second, 'he would not want to get into a fight with her. She was not as weak as she looked,'
"I never said I'd ignore the big one. I'm still ignoring the small one, which is right now saying 'Chuck the moron out the window,' But honestly! I mean if your going to be annoying by making jokes in aspirations of achieving the class clown title one day, at least make clever ones! The Sirius thing is just WAAY to overused. I'm sorry but you have been declared officially lame,"
"Coming from you that's a compliment," he shot back.
"Now that's an example of a lame, stupid, and un-insulting I may add, insult. Do you want me to keep going or will you be serious, ie. thoughtful, not joking. In case you don't understand the proper meaning of the word," she said exasperatedly.
"Ok,ok. So where do you think Rita is?"
"Well, I already checked all the basic places except for the library so I'm guessing she's there,"
They trudged in the direction of it silently. James realized that aside from the insults and the occasional jokes passing between them, they really had never really talked before.
"Soo......." he started, thinking of something intelligent to say. He couldn't think of anything to say, so Lily put in,
"Buttons on ice cream see if they stick,"
"What the hell?" he said, wondering how she could've gone mad in just two minutes.
Lily saw his confusion and laughed, scrunching up her nose, in a very cute way, he added to himself silently.
"Its a sort of joke thing," she explained as they walked up a flight of stairs "Someone says so, and then you say buttons on ice-cream, see if they stick. Meaning sew buttons on ice cream, see if they stick. You know, like with a needle?"
"I got that," he answered "I just don't think its funny,"
"Anyways," Lily said, in a business-like way "We need to start thinking about what we're going to do for the project. I think that you, me, and Sirius should meet tomorrow to discuss the criteria...."
James tuned her out as they kept walking. She would just repeat this whole tomorrow so he'd listen then. He busied himself thinking of quidditch. That was always an easy problem-solver for when he was bored. They'd lost one game but they still had a bit of a chance for the cup. The Ravenclaws were playing Slytherin next week. If they won them by at least 60 points and then Gryffindor won them by a 100 then they-
He was interrupted when she said, "Are you even listening??"
"Oh, yeah, sure," he lied, putting on an extra serious face "Great ideas. You did a lot of brain storming,"
"Thank you," she said looking please with herself "Now, what did I say?"
"Um...You said..," he thought racking his brains in hopes of remembering something but came up with nothing. "Uh.....Oh, look! The library!"
He rushed ahead so he wouldn't have to answer. Hopefully she'd forget about this on the way back. Right away he spotted Rita, who was sitting at a table obviously spying on a few people, half-hidden by a stack of books. She jumped as he called her name, obviously, shaken out of whatever she had been doing. She looked from James to Lily and then strode over exclaiming "Why hello, my little lovebirds," James saw Lily visibly wince from the expression "So how are you today? Did you see the little piece I did on you?"
"DID WE SEE?" Lily started. Her face slowly began to change to the color of her hair "HO-
James cut he off by saying quickly "Um, yeah we saw it. Actually that's what we came to talk to you about. We'd like you to put in a revision, as soon as possible, that the information was, well, false,"
"Oh, so you're not going out?" Rita said, this time in a voice of fake- realization "Well of course I can then. Next Friday, when my newsletter always comes out,"
*~*~*
Lily could not believe it! Next Friday? She'd die before that! A whole week to deal with this. Oh. no. This was not happening.
"Um, I think NOT," she exclaimed, "We need you to make one for tomorrow,"
"No," Rita said her facial expression not changing "You'll have to wait. It's horribly unprofessional to print only something like that. Sorry, kids,"
Lily clenched her fists together and ignored the look that James gave her, which clearly told her not to do anything stupid
"And exactly why do we have to wait?" Lily cried "YOU invaded OUR personal privacy WITHOUT getting permission for it in the first place! Not to mention the fact that it was all MADE UP! I don't care if it's professional or not. It's your own fault for printing it in the first place,"
That did it. Rita's fake smile was now replaced by an evil snare and her eyes had turned acid-like "You know, this isn't the first time you insulted my writing. Maybe if you hadn't I would be a bit more sympathetic. Your lucky I agreed to even write any sort of revision," and with that she stomped out.
James just raised his eyebrow at her and said dryly "That was just brilliant, Lily,"
"I'm an idiot, I know. I should never have opened my mouth," she said bitterly.
James did not object one bit.
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DONE!
Do you know that I had no idea what they would be working on the whole chapter? In fact I did the whole thing before writing what the project even was.
Now I never did thanku's but I decided to start. This is just for chapter 4:
PIGS*IN*A*BLANKET: Aww! Thanx!!!! See now that I finshed my chap. and posted it you have to post urs or else!!! MWAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CUTIE! AND I'M NOT GEORGIA!
E.M.C: thanx! I'm glad u like my Sirius!! he wasn't in this chapter a lot but he'll be in in the next chapter more.
NICOLEtheNIVETER: thanx! I know it took me a while to upload! I don't know how you're able to update so fast! It mystifies me. I love your fic GLIMPSE,btw. EVERYONE, GO READ IT!
QUACKQUACK88: thanx for the review! I know you can be a bit harsh sometimes(not in a bad way, just that you state the truth) so I'm happy u like it!
The ICECREAM PERVEYOR or w/e u r now: all i can say is I'm glad u didn't like my fic. I mean w/ what u write if u did like it, it would mean I write bad too. ( i never ever ever flame but this person really is quite a nusiance. Shes flamed really good writers for no reason when hers are 10 times worse. READ HER FIC IF YOU WANT TO SEE WHAT I MEAN. her other pen name is strawberrykoolaid)
FAIRYSPRITE: don't worry.like i said b4, The icecream perveyor's flame didnt bother me in the least. I'm glad you like my fic!
SOMEONE: sorry u think Lily's too much of a study freak. Hopefully she'll become less as this progresses. and ur story is really good btw!
Also thanx to: LUCKY121, FALULA, SATAN'S LITTLE PRINCESS(i love ur penname!), MIKALA, PRINCESS SWEETS, UP YOUR ZIGGY WITH A WAWA BRUSH, AMANDAPANDA, PRINCESS EVIL, LILY EVANS, MANDI, SAMIRALIE, QUITESIRIUS, SARCASM QEEN, CHICKQ, BEXIE, DOG STARS CRUSH(ur fic is so cute!)
Yeah thats it, now REVIEW!