Disclaimer: Ehehe I actually own something this time! XD Yes, it is true, the marvelous Swedish Screaming Scabapple Tree came from my own mind. So no stealing!

Chapter 4: Of Scabapples and Snowglobes

It was coming down in buckets. The rain, I mean. The rain was coming down in buckets. I leaned my head against the widow pane, and let the damp chill cool my forehead. It was still dark outside. In fact, I had almost missed breakfast this morning it was so dark. Really, I was fully intending on going back to sleep when a blasted dungbomb went off in the third year girls' dormitory. I can honestly say that the stink was the only thing that managed to haul all of Gryffindor House to the Great Hall in time for mail.

Most of us have been sleeping through the first two periods of the day. Herbology however, is impossible to sleep through, as you can see. Sodding Sweedish Screaming Scabapple Trees. We're supposed to be picking their fruit, because October is their ripening season or something. What I want to know is, how can they be ripening when there is no bloody sunlight to speak of? I wonder if that's why they've been screaming so bloody much. Seriously, the screams could knock you out they are so shrill. I'm willing to bet ten Galleons that Dumbledore paid Professor Sprout to give us these, just so that we'll wake up. Sadly, it's been working.

Even Sirius has woken up, after snoring through both Potions and History of Magic (not that he's ever been awake during History of Magic, mind you), and was wrestling with a particularly violent Scabapple tree. His tree seemed to be singing the school song. Very off-key and much too shrill, but recognizably nonetheless. It made me giggle. Meanwhile, James was clippingthe tree'syellow lumpy scabapples with...a muggle nail clipper? I can't even begin to imagine where he got that.

Or why he was using the blunt end to do it.

The tree that I was sharing with Alice was dejectedly moaning under the table, where we had shoved and gagged it. Cruel yes, but those little gits just won't shut up. Alice was polishing the twenty-three Scabapples we had managed to get from that blasted tree before it started to writhe in pain. Alice suggested we shove him under the table and let it rest before we had a go at the rest of the Scabapples. I suggested the gagging. It should consider this a favour that we didn't just kill it off (we decided that it would look bad on our grades).

"Alright there, Lily?" Alice asked, poking at a particularly lumpy Scabapple.

"I guess," I replied, just as the Scabapple popped and erupted a sticky brown substance all over my bag. Wonderful, actually.

"Sorry about that," she said hastily, attempting to wipe it off with a rag.

"Alice?" I said suddenly, looking off at a distant spot in the gloom.

"Hm?" She said. When she saw the apathetic look on my face, she forgot all about the rag and the unidentified substance dripped thickly off the edge of the table.

"Where's the Divination Department?"

She blinked at me, clearly thrown off. I knew she was expecting something deep and enlightening from my current state of vulnerability. Ha, I suppose she thought I'd say something about yesterday's detention with James.

"But you're not even taking Divination, Lily."

I handed her a note that had been sent to me this morning at breakfast, without turning to look at her. It still had bits of porridge on it, from the trip that the bloody owl took down the length of our breakfast buffet this morning. It was quite a sight, mind you, what with all the wet feathers on top of the pancake tower. A real masterpiece.

I've already memorized that bit of parchment. It was humiliating enough, without the fact that James probably received the same letter. Here goes:

Miss Lily Evans,

Following the unfortunate events yesterday night, I have decided that the rest of your detentions will take place in the Divination Department, under the vigilantsurveillance of Mr. Filch, our caretaker. I trust that this will be safer for the student population at Hogwarts and advise you to keep the windows firmly closed during the forthcoming detentions this week.

Yours, Minerva McGonagall

"Safer for the student population at Hogwarts? What did you two do last night? Oh wait, oh wait!Don't tell me - you shoved James out the window, right?" Alice looked at the letter, raising her eyebrows in confusion.

I mumbled inaudibly as my ears turned pink from the recollection of yesterday's detention. Especially the end of it. I've been puzzling over what it meant all last night. We were standing so close, I could smell the pepperminty scent of his robes. I could feel the tickle of his breath on my face. I could sense his knee brushing against my leg. It was all just so overwhelming that I hadn't fully understood what he had said to me until I had gotten back to the Common Room. I couldn't even walk straight, I was that dazed.

I would have puzzled over it this morning too,if I hadn't gone to the hospital wing before Potions to retrieve the library book I left there yesterday. It was horrible. Seeing that little first year boy, lying on his stomach with a bushy tail protruding from under the covers suddenlymade me think of McGonagall's letter. According to Madam Pomfrey, he was the boy that got transfigured into a chipmunk last night. The same one that the entire staff was chasing during my detention. Oh bloody hell!To quote Madam Pomfrey, he was "hit silly by a sudden shower of school supplies." School supplies! As in ink bottles and quills!

Dear Merlin! The ink bottle I had accidentally thrown out the window hit a first year chipmunk senseless! I was a horrible, horrible person! ...who couldn't aim and happened to have terrible luck as well.

Oh, God. Story of my life.

"I almost killed a fist year with my ink bottle, but could we please focus? I don't even know where the sodding Divination Department is. No one I know takes that wretched useless course anyway."

Alice blinked at me for a while before deciding to let the ink-bottle-homocide story drop.

"Well, look at it this way: you can just follow James. He takes Divination in the afternoon."

Before I could argue, that bloody tree knocked the table over and started to fling its branches all over us. Needless to say, amid all of the screeching and whipping and us whacking it repeatedly with our textbooks, the conversation was cut rather short. I knew we should just have killed it.

The bloody North Tower. Up the bloody infinite stairs of the bloody North Tower. That was where the Divination Room was. Who knew Hell was so high up?

I am so grateful that I took Study of Ancient Runes instead of Divination. So grateful.

I came up on the seventh bloody landing. I was quite dizzy and disoriented. Why didn't they make normal stairs that go straight? Is it that complicated an idea?Why did they have to make them spirally? Really, I'm sure our old school founders were brilliant at magic, but architecture? Not so much.

Detention was less than five minutes away and I still didn't know how close I was to the Divination Room. I wandered aimlessly down a corridor to the left.

"Lily where are you going?"

I turned swiftly to see James coming onto the landing as well. Unfortunately, I must have turned a little too fast because next thing I knew, I was sprawled on the ground in an all too graceful manner. (sarcasm, sarcasm)

My head was spinning and every time I tried to stand up, my eyes would blur out of focus. Ho hum, I guess the ground would have to do.

"Um…need some help?"

"No actually, I'm fine right here," I said and looked up at him, without showing the slightest indication that I wanted to get off the cold hard floor. He was looking at me quizzically. He knelt down to my height and offered me a hand without a word.

That was when it happened. Oh for the love of God, why did I have to start turning pink then? I suppose it was only because he was looking so sincere offering me his hand and the fact that he didn't make any of his witty comments. I mean, what was a girl to do?

Blush, of course. Blushing was the only thing I managed to do and it wouldn't go away no matter how much I willed it to! I must have looked like a hot pepper!

So...it was very awkward and I was fumbling around deciding how to get out of this situation when I realized I was still sitting on the floor in the middle of a deserted landing and thatJames was still offering me his hand. So I took it and then, I blushed some more, if that were even possible.I didn't really notice the walk up the rest of the tower. I noticed thatevery so often, my hand would brush against his or his knee would bump into mine.I figured out that if I reajusted my bag, my elbowwouldtouch his arm three out of five times.Everytime that we arrived on a new landing, I only had to stop abruptlyandhisknee would knock into my legs. Everytime we made contact, we mumbled a small 'sorry' and I made it a game to see who could say sorry first. As entertaining as this game was, it made me lose control over myself completely.The only other thing I could focus onwas not tripping over myself and breaking my neck. I couldn't seem to look at him though. Everytme I peeked out at him from underneath my hair, my cheeks would immediately catch fire. (Figuratively, of course.) Why was James able to look so nonchalant while I was a wreck? Surely, this wouldn't have anything to do with what Alice was saying…?

Of course not! The day that I fancy James Potter will be the day pigs sprout wings!

We arrived at a long, slim ladder leading into the Divination Room. Oh goody. After getting disoriented from those sodding stairs, now I get to fall off a ladder. How convenient.

I bravey climbed up the ladder, trying to ignore James and my flushed face. The moment I opened up the door though, I caught a huge whiff of something that smelt like a flower explosion mixed with sweat. Sickeningly sweet but burnt and bitter at the same time. That was enough to send me tumbling down the ladder. Luckily, James was down there and caught me before I completely killed myself. Actually, I'm not sure that it was entirely lucky. He was certainly looking at me with an odd smile on his face. Was he laughing at me? Pompous Ass!

Just as we were…ahem…caught in a passionate embrace (sarcasm, sarcasm), Filch decided to stick his head down and yell at us.

"You two are already five minutes late! Hurry it up, or you'll be here until morning!"

Grumbling, I elbowed James out of the way and climbed back up the ladder. I was prepared this time and held my breath.

I emerged into an attic full of little round bistro tables and huge fluffy armchairs. The sweet smell was combined with lavender coloured smoke and a stuffy heat to make the entire place look foreign and out of proportion. The chairs were easily three times larger than the tables. The odd, opaque crystal balls were teetering on the frail tables. Large armoires on the sides of this classroom contained slanted, broken, and/or crooked shelves that held a mess of parchment, books, tea sets, packs of cards, more crystal balls, voodoo dolls, etc. The whole surprise and unfamiliarity of the place made my head spin even faster.

"DON'T JUST STARE OFF INTO SPACE! GET STARTED! I WANT ALL OF THESE TEA SETS POLISHED AND NEATLY STACKED ONTO THE SHELVES! SANS MAGIQUE!"

He tossed us each a pail of murky lake water and a sponge.

God, his French was terrible.

Okay, it was nearing midnight, and there were less and less tea sets lying around. I was completely exhausted and my braid had long fallen out. All this, this should be considered child labor!

It's no wonder I've been fainting everywhere. I'll be lucky if I get out of these detentions with half my limbs left.

And James. I was agonizingly torn between wanting to strangle him or to laugh with him. He was taking the whole detention thing so well, although I must admit he's had much more experience with this sort of thing than I have. Unfortunately for me, "taking it well" with James meant either throwing things or torturing me. Sometimes, it involved both.

He's already taught himself to juggle five tea cups at a time while balancing a crystal ball on his foot during just this onedetention, for God's sake!

"Hey Lils?"

"Please, James. No more of your circus shows. Spare me."

"No, it's just, well, look at Filch."

"No thanks, I might die from the shock."

"Lily, he's asleep."

"What?" That caught my attention. I turned to look at him. He was indeed asleep and with his mouth widely open too. "Ugh. Finally." Relieved for a rest, I plopped down on the nearest armchair, massaging my wrists.

"Don't you realise what this means?" James pressed on, throwing his sponge aside.

"That we can finally rest from the slave labor?"

"Well, that too. But I was more thinking about finishing the rest of this with...what had he called it?Magique."

I bit my lip. Certainly, that would be the logical thing to do. And I obviously had no desire to stay here into the wee hours of the morning polishing bloody tea cups. But...suppose someone found out?

"Come on Lils. With your charms skills, you could probably finish the rest of them with a single flick of your wand!"

"What! That's ridiculous! What would Filch think?"

"Lily, Lily, Lily…" He shook his head exasperatedly. "Filch doesn't think."

"James!"

"Come on, I'm really enjoying washing tea cups with you and all but I've got Quidditch practice tomorrow morning!"

"Well, charm them yourself then!"

"I'm not as good as you are at them," he reminded me in an annoying sing-song voice.

"Oh, sod off," I said, wondering just why our arguments always started when he complimented me. Surely this was one of those bogus reverse psychology things?

"Well then," He said, sighing deeply as he got closer to where I was sitting. "I guess we'll just have to spend more time with each other. That's fine, I'm enjoying it very much, but I had no idea you liked it this much as well."

"What! That is so beside the point!"

"Oh? But it's still there, is it?"

"James it won't work this time. I can't risk McGonagall finding out about this. Yesterday's detention was already enough of a disaster plus," I glared about darkly "I'm already failing her class."

"Oh please. Gotninety-nine and a halfon the last test?"

"Try fifty-nine," I threw back, before realizing who I had just told this to. Bloody hell, why was I so stupid?

He looked speechless.

"You can stop gapping at me now!" I snapped and hopped off the armchair to keep him from seeing me blush again.

"Well, I can help you…if you want that is…I mean…uhh..."

He was actually looking abashed! He was running his hand through his messy hair frantically and staring at his shoes! Well, knock me over with a feather!

Now, since it is the second time he's offered…I might as well take him up on it. But only because he hadn't been a total jerk for most of the night. Well, that and because I really was failing.

But obviously he wouldn't be this kind. I knew him better than that.

"At what price?" I asked suspiciously

He seemed a bit taken aback that I was even considering it. Then, he went back to his arrogant, prat-likeself again.

"Well, for starters, how about clearing up the rest of these teacups?"

I glared at him. In the end, either due to the fumes in this sodding room or because I was so desperate to get some help in transfiguration, I swished my wand and the rest of the dirty tea cups, saucers, teapots and coasters flew back to the shelves, sparkling like new.

"Happy?" I snarled, narrowing my eyes in his direction.

"Almost," he said, picking up his bag and unrolling the sleeves of his robes. I cautiously walked up to him.

"What more do you want?"

"Oh I don't know, how about…" He looked at me innocently. That bloody blackmailer. "a date?"

"A what!" I looked at him blankly. Was he joking?

"A date. For the next Hogsmeade trip?That would be nice. Or perhaps a kiss?"

"I'd rather kiss Filch!"

"Oh, that hurts," he said, mockingly putting a hand over his chest.

"Your heart is on the left side, James," I reminded him with a sigh.

"Hey, my right lung hurt too!"

I rolled my eyes.

"Seriously James. Can't you think of something a little more creative?"

"Like snogging in the astronomy tower?"

"Please!" I gagged, repulsed at the very idea.

"Alright, I've got it."

"Ooh, enlighten me." I said, positively thrilled. (you know how it goes now: sarcasm, sarcasm)

"Let me take you on a broomstick ride."

I stood, stunned into stupor. I didn't know what to say. This was so unexpected – James Potter asking something of me that wasn't humiliating, demoralizing, or obscene in any way? Completely out of character. He must have been smoking Floo Powder!

"Okay," I agreed simply, too surprised to think of something witty.

"Great! So, how about a study session next Monday?"

He opened the door and lowered himself down the ladder.

"But, you might want to check that crystal ball there before you leave," pointing at the table where he last stood. Then he disappeared from my view.

I peered down at the crystal ball he had indicated and was surprised to find a little snowman inside, with swirling snow all around it.The snowman even danced around!He had charmed it into a snow globe! I smiled in spite of myself.

Carefully, I slid the crystal ball inside my bag and scurried away before Filch woke up.

Author's Note:

I'm really pleased with the way this chapter turned out. I find that the thoughts in this chapter are more casual and organized, which is quite an improvement from my last chapter, I must say. I was rereading it just now. Blah anyway, as some on you may know, my computer has eaten upthe internet connection since last Friday. I've been doing all my summative projects and writingon my dad's laptop and it's really hard to type on here.

Now about reviews. I. Am. Bloody. Impressed! A total of 16 reviews from you for all three of my previouschapters! And I've been added to two C2s! Teehee, it really made me want to update sooner, as I was intending on updating this weekend, so here is a new chapter! Also, I'd like to point out that I have gotten many reviews from new readers (or just people who haven't bothered to review the first few chapters :P). So, thank you very much to everyone and keep reviewing!

Love, Cassie

PS I just love the snow, don't you? X3

divya kajendran: Funny enough, I'm not from the US! My spell check is just stuck on American for some reason (I do usually spell rumour, favourite, and favour with 'u's LOL). I do think it's cool over there too. Well, minus the terroists. u.u; Also, I haven't decided when they kiss yet. But I think it's much more fun to see Lily going into denial than to have the whole story solved with a kiss right away, wouldn't you say? Don't worry, there'll definitely be one though XD

kitkatgirl11: I'm glad you like my version of Lily. I really wanted to make her bitter and sarcastic, plus it's not fun to write her being perfect in every way. Thanks for the review!

illusion100: LOL Thanks a lot for saying that the story is funny. I personally think I'm rubbish at humour but it's always nice to get a compliment like that!

-ShIvErInG sMiLe-: I know, I love denial too. It makes for great self-conflicts XD. Wow, you've reviewed every one of my chapters, hope you keep reviewing!

wishingbutterfly: I'm really happy you like it! I reviewed one of your stories, didn't I?

themaniac: You meant unusual as in 'unique', right? XD Thanks though!

Keahi Spitfire: That's really sweet, hope you keep reading!

marg: Thank you! And here's another chapter for you!

Swishy Willow Wand: Yes I do find Sugar Quills sound delicious, which is why I used them. I know the feeling though, when you have something funny and no one gets it. And you laugh while everyone stares at you. It's just, well, crappy and ruins the effect when you explain it, right? LMAO And of course you don't babble. I loved your review!

Katie: Eek, thank you! ;D

MarauderQueen: Thank so much, and here is another chapter!

Trinity Day (3 from you!): Thanks a lot for the reviews! I'm really happy you liked it:D About chapter two, the dialogue in Potions was intentionally supposed to be mostly guesswork. I thought it added a bit more humour while getting the information across. But I am rubbish at humour so, sorry about the confusion. >>;

Ruby: You've reviewed all of my chapters as well! Ah and thanks a lot for you comments of James!

Prince Aoshi: Thank you! Here is another chapter!