SUMMARY: AU. No matter what he did, James couldn't get Remus to help him in the pursuit of Lily Evans. He begged, he pleaded, he bribed, but Remus just flat out refused to help. Why? Well, would you help someone break the heart of YOUR sister?
DISCLAIMER: As you all know, everything is J.K. Rowling and I am insanely envious.
Chapter 3: All About The Karma
Lily smiled as the lady with the food cart entered. She hadn't eaten since breakfast and was STARVING. Taking some money out of her pocket, she paid for a few pumpkin pasties, chocolate frogs, and a slab of Honeydukes chocolate. She knew Remus would probably need some energy, he was always so tired near the full moon and she didn't want some stray spell or something to knock him out. Putting the food in her bag, save for a chocolate frog and the slab of chocolate, Lily looked at her watch.
After quickly eating a chocolate frog and handing the card to Izzy (she collected them and had around 600 or something), Lily stood a stretched. Sighing, she turned to the girl, who was currently muttering to herself about "Velcron the Victorious " or something along those lines.
"Well, I suppose he finally took my advice and fell asleep. I hate to wake him, but I can't patrol on my own. I'm going to go find him. Be back in around an hour, okay?" Lily's best friend Isabel Garcia, more commonly known as Izzy, just nodded absent-mindedly as she began to sort out her many chocolate frog cards, trying to make sure she didn't lose any.
Izzy was an average-sized girl, a little taller and curvier than Lily, with long, stick-straight raven hair that ended somewhere near the middle of her back. She had thick rimmed, square shaped glasses that fit well with her naturally, lightly tanned face and eyes lined with purple eyeliner to complement her light brown eyes. At the moment, she had on a pair of low slung black jeans and a comfortable purple t-shirt.
Lily smiled politely to the other girls in their compartment, the girls they shared dormitories with, who just waved impaciently, then quickly got back to their gossip. Lily was never one for chit-chat, which is one reason why she was really only close with Izzy. The other girls were nice, but she and Izzy just stood apart from them. Lily had a few friends here and there, people she might sit with in the classes she wasn't with Remus or Izzy or people she might study with, but really she wasn't close with all that many people. Lily didn't mind. In fact, it was preferable. Izzy and Lily understood eachother and were practically inseperable. Izzy and Remus were all Lily needed.
Every year, Izzy and Lily sat with a few of the girls they lived with, along with a few of those girls' friends. Every now and again, the pair would leave the compartment, walk around a bit or something, but they always sat with them. Why? Mostly to keep from sitting a a compartment full of Slytherins or something, but also because as long as they were there, the girls didn't bother them. They were kind of ignored so long as they showed up and sat with the giggling group, but if they didn't, question after question would be asked and it would never end. The other girls "worried" about them, but really, they just wanted to know every single detail about Hogwarts for the gossip train. It was easier to be left alone if they stayed within the vicinity of the group, proving they had nothing to hide.
Mostly, Lily and Izzy talked amongst themselves or read and kept themselves occupied. Lily smiled at the thought of Izzy's reaction when she realized she was in the compartment alone with the gaggle of girls they did their best to ignore. Laughing to herself, Lily walked to the end of the train, in no particular hurry. Hopefully, Remus would be up by now and she wouldn't have to be in there for long. Those boys had the tendency to stare at her when she spoke, as if she was speaking some kind of alien language, and it was quite unnerving. Plus, both Black and Potter were total gits who always had some smart remark... they all just bugged her. But, they were amazing friends to Remus, so she held her tongue.
When she reached the compartment, she slid open the door and was glad (and slightly annoyed) to see Remus asleep.
"Whad'dya want, Evans?" Black said, after Lily just stood there, not saying anything.
"Oh, I just came to get Remus." Lily said, shrugging. Already her skin was prickling. Without looking, she knew that Peter boy was staring at her, eyes unblinking. She felt goosebumps rise on her skin.
"Sorry, Lily. He's asleep. But I'm not. Would you like to go find an empty compartment and have a bit of fun?" James asked, eyebrows raised suggestively. Lily just ignored him, directing her words towards Sirius. She wished Pettigrew would stop staring, it was making her quite nervous and setting her on edge.
"I realize he's asleep, but we have to patrol." Lily looked over at Remus again. He still looked exhausted. Sighing, she realized she shouldn't wake him. He needed his rest.
"Well, Evans, I'm sorry but-" Lily cut Sirius off, dragging her eyes away from Remus' limp body, which would have looked dead if not for the slight rise as fall of his chest.
"Look, nevermind. I don't want to wake him up. I can handle it. Do me a favor and give this to him when he wakes up? Make sure he eats it all, ok?" Lily asked, handing Sirius the bar of chocolate. As soon as she produced the chocolate, she knew Pettigrew had stopped staring at her, much to her relief.
Eyeing the boys suspiciously, voice full of worry, she asked, "Can I trust you not to eat this? It's actually quite important that he gets this." Sirius nodded, losing his playful excitement at the idea of getting chocolate when he heard Lily's tone.
"Why is it so important?" James asked, curious at why Lily was so insistant that Remus eat the chocolate.
"It'll make him feel a bit better. It's supposed to be a remedy or something, I think for like exhaustion or when you get knocked out or something. Madame Pomfrey was telling me about it before." Lily answered, surprised James actually asked a question aside from "will you go out with me?". Turning around, Lily was opening the door when James suddenly called out to her.
"Lily?" James asked, Lily turned around. "Go out with me?" James asked quickly, almost as if he wanted to catch her off guard. Lily rolled her eyes and turned around, leaving the compartment. James smiled triumphantly as he leaned back in his seat.
"What are you so happy about? You just got shot down... again." Sirius asked, placing the chocolate near Remus, but away from Peter's piggy hands.
"Ah, ah, ah. Correction, my friend, she didn't answer. That leaves plenty of room for interpretation! No answer is a step up from a flat out 'no'!" James said, smiling knowingly at his friend. Sirius just shook his head
"Whatever you say, mate, whatever you say. Up for a game of cards anyone?" Sirius asked, smiling flashing as he brought out a deck of exploding snap. The three began a game as quiet as they could, to keep from waking up Remus, as they discussed possible pranks to start out the new school year.
Lily walked down the corridor and back into the compartment where Izzy was sitting, head against the window, trying to tune out the mindless chatter. As soon as she saw Lily, she smiled gratefully and the pair grabbed their robes, walking into an empty compartment to change. Lily pinned her prefect badge on her robes.
"Izzy, mind patrolling with me a bit? I'm supposed to go around with Remus, but he's been dead tired lately and he hasn't been sleeping, but he finally fell asleep and I didn't want to wake him-" Izzy cut her off.
"Say no more. I'd be happy to fill in. Let the boy sleep. I wanted to get away from all of them anyways." The pair walked out and began to patrol a bit, thankful that the corridors were mostly empty. That meant there probably wouldn't be any major commotions to deal with and their patrolling would go by peacefully.
"Oh, Lily, watch out!" Izzy warned, as she saw the door to a compartment open suddenly. But, the warning was a bit too late. Bang. Lily had walked straight into the door, her face facing Izzy. Both of them broke into a set of giggles as the poor first year who opened the compartment began to apologize profusely.
"Thanks for the warning, Izzy." Lily said sarcastically, her friend still laughing. Turning to the first year, Lily smiled.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to, honest. We just heard voices and they wanted me to check and I'm so sorry! Are you hurt? I can't believe I did that! And you're a prefect and everything, I'm so sorry-" Lily cut the little boy's babbling off.
"Calm down, it was my fault. Really, it's not a big deal, I run into things all the time, ask my friend here, she'll tell you." Lily motioned to Izzy, who was still laughing, for no particular reason. Izzy nodded.
"How did you know I was a prefect?" Lily asked curiously.
"Well, your badge, for one. My brother is in his fifth year and he just got one, this summer." The boy said shyly, looking down.
"What's your brother's name?" Izzy asked, who was now calm enough to speak.
"Oh, it's Daniel, Daniel Donavan. He's in Gryffindor. I'm Patrick, by the way." He extended his hand, now reminded of his manners. In turn, both girls shook his hand as Lily introduced them.
"I'm Lily Evans, and this is Isabel Garcia." Izzy cleared her throat. "Fine, whatever. This is Izzy, she doesn't like to be called Isabel. We're in Gryffindor, too. I think Izzy here tutored a Daniel last year, didn't you?" Lily turned to Izzy, who nodded her head. Patrick smiled, less nervous than before.
"I've heard about you. Daniel used to write me all the time, telling me about everything. He can write REALLY long letters. I remember he wrote about a girl named Isabel a LOT." Patrick said, smiling broadly. Izzy looked awkward and glanced at Lily, who was currently coughing in an attempt to hide her giggles.
"Here that, Izzy? Patrick here has heard all about you!" Lily said, teasing her friend.
"Oh, that's... that's really... sweet." Izzy said, trying not to sound too creeped out. She had tutored Daniel the year before, in potions. The boy was good at charms and spells and such, but was a mess with potions, so she helped him out a few nights each week. Lily often teased that he had a crush on her, but Izzy always told Lily she didn't know what she was talking about. Now, Lily was smiling knowingly at Izzy, "I told you so" written all over her face. Glaring at her slightly, Izzy turned towards Patrick.
"Well, we really must be going. See you at the sorting!" Izzy said, as politely as she could, and pushed Lily slightly farther down the corridor as the young boy closed the door to his compartment. Continuing to patrol, the girls laughed and talked freely, excited at the thought of being back to Hogwarts, their home.
Groggily, Remus opened his eyes to see James and Sirius playing chess while Peter slept. Groaning slightly, he stood up and stretched, alerting James and Sirius that he was awake.
"Sleep well, mate?" Sirius asked. Remus nodded and looked around.
"I'm hungry. When does the trolley come around?" Remus muttered, partly to himself and partly to the others.
"Oh, well, it comes about... an hour ago." James said, amused at how disoriented his friend was.
"What? Oh, bulloks! Why didn't anyone wake me! Lily and I were supposed to go patrolling and she'll be so-" Remus was cut off by James.
"Mate, she came by after the trolley. Didn't want to wake you, said she could handle it. Look, she even left you a present!" James said, a little overbrightly (to hide his bitterness- HE never got any gifts form Lily.), handing Remus the chocolate, who accepted it gratefully. Even after his nap, he was still feeling a bit exhausted.
"And she made it very clear that it was important you eat ALL of that. And we get to watch you do it too." Sirius said, only a bit of glum in his voice. James elbowed Sirius.
"Don't listen to him, Moony. He's just a bit hungry." He handed Sirius a box of Bernie Botts Every Flavor Beans.
"There you go. Eat those." To Remus, James muttered, "That should keep him busy for hours." Remus snickered slightly and peeled the wrapping off of his chocolate. Taking a bite, Remus could already feel strength returning to his aching limbs. He thanked Merlin that something so simply helped make him feel that much stronger. Chocolate tasted much better than any of the other potions and medicines he might of had to take to get the same effect.
"Thanks. I should go find Lily and thank her for the chocolate. She's always looking out for me." Remus smiled and finished his chocolate.
"Hey, wait up, I'll come with you. Peter's asleep and Sirius is about to fall into that box. I'm bored out of my skull." Remus smiled uncertainly. He knew James was just coming to hit on Lily, again, and he'd have to listen to it. Sighing, he shrugged and the pair left. By then, Lily had returned to her compartment and another pair of prefects had taken over patrolling.
"And then, he was all 'No, don't' and I was all like 'But I have to' and he was all like 'But, I don't want you to' and I was all like 'But I have to' and then, he was like 'But you can't' and I was all like crying and sad and miserable and like 'I have to' and-" The air-headed, annoying voice was cut off by a groan, and Remus heard a familiar voice.
"Merlin! I can't listen to this anymore. We all know how it ends! He kisses you, you decide not to leave and the play ends! You've told this story already! I can't listen to it again. I think I'm going to go for a walk. Coming?" Lily asked Izzy, who followed her outside the compartment and straight into Remus and James.
"Oh, sorry. Wasn't looking where I was going and-" Lily had been brushing off her clothes as she spoke, but now she looked up.
"Remus! You woke up! How do you feel? Are you feeling better? Did they give you the chocolate?" Lily asked the last question, eyeing James with preemptive furiousness. Remus laughed.
"I feel fine...well, I feel better, at least. Don't worry about me. This one here wouldn't even let me leave the compartment until I finished all my chocolate, like a good boy." Remus saying, pointing at James. Lily smiled.
"Good. I'm glad. Thanks, Potter. Anyways, me and Izzy here are going to go for a walk, so we'll see you later." Lily and Izzy began to walk off, when James called out to them. Go for the sensitive angle, James thought to himself, apologize and be polite. She likes nice guys...girls like nice, polite guys who aren't womanizers. That's what she said before...isn't it? I can't remember. It's hard to listen when she's so pretty when she gets mad and its just- James realized Lily was staring at him, waiting for him to say something.
"Wait, Lily. I'm sorry if I insulted you earlier, but I was wondering if you'd maybe like to go out with me some-" James was cut off by a sudden set of squeals.
"Oh my Merlin! There is NO WAY James Potter was standing outside MY compartment and didn't first come in to say hello!" A voice shrieked from inside the compartment, trying to be funny. "Jamsie! I haven't heard from you since we ..well... got together last month!" She winked at him, "You haven't written at all, you cutie!" Annabell threw her arms around James' neck and kissed his cheek, whispering something in his ear that made his cheeks color slightly.
Annabell Martin, the leader (and virtually only member) of the James Potter Fanclub in the school, still had her back towards Lily and Izzy, who were currently pointing their fingers down their throats, pretending to gag. James caught Lily's eye and attempted to look apologetic, but Lily just rolled her eyes and waved, a smirk on her face. Izzy whispered something in Lily's ear that caused her to giggle so hard she had to stuff her fist in her mouth to stifle it.
Remus shrugged at James and mouthed that he'd see him later, ignoring the "please save me" look James was currently sending him, and walked off to go join Lily and Izzy. If James could get himself into this, he'd have to get himself out. Remus warned him meeting with Annabell over the summer would come back to bite him in the arse, and now it has. All about the karma, as Lily would say.