Disclaimer: Don't own Harry Potter although I have taken the initiative to make up some stuff.
Edited version – New stuff concentrated in beginning with some changes in later (former chapter 10). I realized I completely skipped some necessary parts. Still may contain grammatical mistakes since I am not great with English
Chapter Ten: Entry into a FairytaleHolidays were never pleasant in the Evans household. Well, six years ago, the holidays were considerably more tolerable for Lily to the point of somewhat pleasant. The storybook tales of families getting together for an entire day of celebration was a mere night of hoorays since Lily's father was a barrister while her mother taught science and researched at the state university.
This year was certainly the same. From the moment Lily returned home until Christmas Eve day, 90-percent of the time was spent doing homework and dodging Petunia. Right after Lily explained her invitation to the Ministry's New Year's Ball, Petunia thought to spite Lily by announcing her engagement. It wasn't surprising Petunia forbad Lily to attend or be associated with the wedding in any way since Lily was "too much of a freak" to be invited. Tired of having to deal with Petunia's snide comments and displeased expression that made her look like a constipated giraffe, Lily chose to surrender in the four walls of her room doing homework when Petunia didn't have to run errands for the wedding planning.
The family tradition of Christmas Eve party from dinner until midnight basically became Petunia giving Mr. and Mrs. Evans her gifts after each one Lily gave. When the two sisters ran out of gifts to compete for their parents' favor, Mr. and Mrs. Evans distributed their presents to their daughters. When the gift-exchange between the immediate family was completed with both Lily and Petunia sulking about the fact that they got the same gift set – a diary, a photo album, and some money.
In hindsight, Lily admired how her parents were able to manage both Petunia and herself in the same house, in the same car even. Since Petunia had more errands to run on the day Lily had to return to Hogwarts, Mr. and Mrs. Evans thought it would be the best to just take one car. Petunia drove with her father in the passenger seat and Mrs. Evans excitedly talking to Lily about a ball in the magical world.
"Your first real ball," Mrs. Evans sighed. "My you are growing up. So is this a date event? Are you taking a date?" Images of James popped into Lily's head. Was she his date? She never said yes but nor did she say no. Then again, the time she answered James was when she wasn't even planning on going to the event.
"No Mum, I am going as a representative for England in the conference I was talking about," Lily explained. "They didn't say I should bring a date or anything. I'm sure if I wanted to they would allow me to do so."
The car following the command of Petunia, the Evanses arrived at the train at record speed even with the road being fairly empty during the holiday season. "Well, you must tell me about it when you come home."
"Bye Mum and Dad, Petunia!" Lily said as she discreetly tried to escape her family. It wasn't that she didn't love every member of the family; it was embarrassing to have her mother so curious about the workings of magic since she was a scientists governed by the supposed laws of nature that magic distorts. If her parents were less inclined to act like children regarding anything of magic, Lily would be more comfortable around them. Seeing as she was apart of the magical world, it was disconcerting to feel like she was a Neanderthal being analyzed and questioned by archaeologists.
Leaping into the wall between Platforms Nine and Ten, Lily was immediately engulfed by Sirius's flailing arms.
"Sirius, need to breath you know!" Despite her somewhat tall height, Sirius Black was well over 1.90 meters tall whilst Lily was merely 1.67 centimeters. [1] Perhaps the fact that Sirius's shoulder was at her neck was why the Gryffindor mischief maker's hugs always choked her.
Unfortunately for Lily, the tall James Potter decided to participate as well and Jon joined the group hug as he entered Platform 9 ¾ a few seconds after Lily made her debut. It wasn't until Aleia's orders and prying fingers did the three males stop cutting off Lily's air supply.
"Hello Lily," Mei greeted shyly. Their brief separation set back the former familiarity a few levels, but Lily was sure the girl would come around. From her initial impression of the two Chinese representatives, Lily had thought Feng would be the more talkative one, but a few hours with Mei proved the initial observation wrong.
The train's toot of impatience alerted the teenagers to make a speedy return to their compartments.
"It's all ours!" Sirius declared with glee. He ran back and forth down the aisles marking the territory as his own. "You think I could place some spells here to ambush the next passengers?" One glare from Aleia ended any plans for mischief, at least temporarily.
Once everyone helped Lily and Jon settle in the large compartment, it was like Christmas all over again. It seemed everyone figured they would see each other soon so the meeting on the train became a gift-exchange session for the two newcomers.
Lily felt embarrassed by the gifts she had for them. She always gave gifts that were handmade for her friends that were along the lines of stationary sets with pressed flowers, photo albums decorated by herself, journals, or pottery made from the pottery wheel her parents gave her when she was six. In comparison to the elaborate items money could buy, she felt outshined. It seemed Feng and Mei came from old wizarding families whose good fortunes came from allying with the victorious group and obviously, Potters and Blacks were well-known wealthy families. As for Jon, Lily knew from a long time ago that his Prewett grandparents showered him with galleons on every occasion possible.
From Mei and Feng, Lily received a large collection of Chinese items – good luck charms, a fan with ink wash painting, a porcelain lily, and a book of Chinese potions. Aleia gave Lily a charms book that was a follow up of the one James lent her. Sirius, to Lily's surprise gave her a somber gift compared to his personality: it was a book of developing one's own spells. To everyone's awe in the compartment, Jon grabbed a large item from his trunk and handed it to Lily. It was the latest version of the Cleansweep, which was Jon's hidden message to try and get Lily to join the Ravenclaw team.
The most precious gift was from James. In actuality, it was more of a multiple gifts stuffed in one large box. It was almost like a scavenger hunt in which Lily had to dig through the stuffing to find presents. The first she found was hairpin of gilded Lily. According to James, it was a real Day Lily that was dipped in gold while it was in full bloom and decorated with silver after the gold hardened to a point. The second was a protective charm, designed by the Marauders. It was supposed to protect the wearer from any pranks by the mischief-makers. Knowing divination was one class Lily was interested in but didn't attend, James bought her a self-learning set complete with a crystal ball.
"We checked," Sirius added when everyone looked at the set skeptically. It was known divination was a flaky sort of magic. "It was fairly accurate. I mean, there was a check of quality from Delphi."
"And there's more," James added. "I missed your birthday since you wouldn't tell me it was November 15th, so the next one is like a birthday present as well." Lily blushed profusely and wondered how James found out her birthdate. Seeing Jon try to hide behind the shorter Aleia, Lily knew her surrogate brother must have leaked the information. She didn't really celebrate her birthdays when she entered Hogwarts. It felt wrong without her parents and a friendly Petunia since they did share the same date of birth, but not the year.
Lily took out a large and heavy box from the bottom of the gift box. It was wood encased with intricate engravings. Inside the box was a magical camera with the set to develop it.
"Wow, I feel like I am five and learning about the new world!" Lily exclaimed. She noticed James frown and quickly clarified the meaning of her seemingly double-edged comment. "I love this! Now I can take pictures at school."
Photography was an art Lily became interested in while modeling. She remembered her first photo shoot where the photographer was late. She suggested for her father to take her picture just as the man was entering the room. Fortunately, the professional photographer wasn't offended. He chose to teach Lily about the art of photography and how to take a picture showing a person's best side.
The lady with a trolley came around with sugary snacks and the day's newspaper. "Treats anyone? And I thought some Daily Prophet would be good companion pieces since you are going to a Ministry event." To Lily's surprise, everyone eagerly took a copy. As her hand reached to get one, other hands shot forward and took all of the mere tree copies of the newspaper.
"Here, we'll share," James supplied when Lily frowned at the speed in which what she wanted was out-of-stock. Before she could reply, she was sandwiched between Sirius and James and was now holding a print shop-smelling Daily Prophet.
The front page had holiday greetings, talks of various celebrations. Amidst all the happy titles, a large portion – not notably large – of the page had a more dismal title: Possible Terror in the Holiday Season. It noted the rise of activity in the sectors of dark wizardry. Particularly, ministry spies in Knockturn Alley heard about the rise of a dark lord.
"Do you think this is because of the regular meeting of the International Warlocks?" Sirius asked with unnatural and unsettling somber tone. "I mean, those disillusioned wizards and witches always reacted negatively to the formation of the group."
Lily felt James shrug. "Either way, it's not a good sign." Instead of feeling the two boys next to her tense up, both of them huddled forward leaving Lily with no personal space. "Who wrote this? Oh Marcus Reeley, I guess it's serious. He's one of the editors of the Daily Prophet and one of the media that my father actually trusts."
The two boys started discussing the history of threats and what they had heard from their parents. Sirius seemed to be reluctant to discuss his family, but made generalizations about the darker news he heard. Lily felt out of place among the political discussion and sense of justified paranoia. Looking at the others who were reading, Lily noticed the same somber expression on Aleia's and the Chinese representatives faces. The fact that Mei and Feng had a dictionary by them added a sense of normalcy and comfort to Lily's unsettling heart. Somehow, she seemed to notice the darker air around her.
"I guess the threat is not something new?" she decided to join in the mumbled discussion. If she were to represent England in the discussion of world's affairs, she should take an active role in analyzing the threat. It hadn't occurred to her until then to be more active in getting to know the current events. She was interested in life in the muggle world, but news in the magical world didn't always seem like news.
Sirius shook his head. "Remember Grindelwald from History of Magic?" Lily nodded. "And you know that there are wizards who are what we call extremists. They dislike muggle and muggleborns and believe the world needs to be purified – much like why muggles had witch hunts and burnings."
"There have always been groups of magical folk that are like that scattered about the older colonies of magic," James added. "Grindelwald helped unite the Europeans extremists."
Sirius continued his explanation, "The fall of Grindelwald didn't mean all those extremists were gone. In fact, many are thirsty for revenge while others decided to hideout among the more tolerant folk until another leader arrives."
"So this threat is because there is a new leader?" Lily asked feeling frightened. She belonged into the targeted groups. Both boys nodded. The news felt surreal. She was in a magical world with fairies and elves and the typical dark and evil element of a bona fide fantasy story. What happened to her life?
"But don't worry!" Sirius's sudden change back to his usual perky and loud self somehow brought comfort.
"Right," James declared, sharing a smile with his best friend. "We'll protect you from all harm."
"We'll be your knights in shining armor," Sirius added with a grin.
"We'll rescue the damsel in distress from her prison atop a tall castle tower."
There was a slight pause as James waited for Sirius's next line. "And when we do rescue you," Sirius decided with a saccharine grin, "you'll have to decide which one of us you'll marry!"
Lily had laughed along the train of Marauder dialogue that she was becoming used to but suddenly stopped at the last pronouncement.
"WHAT?" she couldn't help but yelp and mock-glare at the Gryffindor. "You do realize I still own you, right Sirius?"
"But James still owns you!" he replied. "So I guess you'll have to marry him. See, I have my eyes set on . . ." his eyes landed on Aleia and then Mei. "Well, Mei!"
The Chinese girl looked up from reading the newspaper with a frown, "What did I miss?"
Sirius shrugged in what Lily supposed he thought was a charming way – more of a Charlie Chaplin shrug. "Oh, just that you're going to the Ministry Ball with me, remember?" Mei's blush that turned to reddish anger made Lily wonder what she had missed the few days she was away from school. The change of topic successfully maneuvered everyone's thoughts away from the dark and impending doom Reeley's article predicted.
"No, I did not say I would go to the ball as your date!" Mei and Sirius continued to scream at each other. Sirius and Mei had been debating the logistics of their so-called relationship for the ball since the Sirius's return from being actually serious. Since then, one of the two would glare and reignite the argument every twenty minutes. After the first round of arguments, Lily learned Sirius had asked Mei in a roundabout way to the ball and the girl replied with an equally vague answer. Seeing as this was the third round arguments, their voices was loud enough for the whole world to hear the discussion.
"Yes you did!" Sirius said. Mei glared at him and Sirius softened his stance, "Oh fine, but you implied you wanted to go to the ball with me!" Sirius's accusation was lost in the sound of the door being slammed shut. Aleia and Jon was the second group to leave.
"Wha?" Sirius asked when his train of thought was suddenly interrupted by the sound of the compartment door closing. He automatically wiggles his eyes at James, who remained in his seat next to Lily while Sirius moved to sit across from Mei.
"Don't even go there. That's my sister! Ew!" James replied shuddering. "Even that's way to much information." Lily shook her head at the two boys' immaturity and turned her gaze onto Mei. The other girl was staring out the window, annoyed. She looked as though she wanted to kill something outside.
The ride to what should be a joyful occasion became a tense event. Mei was fed up with Sirius due to their difference in culture, particularly the different opinions on male and female relationships as well as social codes of behavior. While Mei was rather open, the girl still held back from the public. If Lily weren't used to acting so with her personal history, she wouldn't have noticed the Chinese girl's actions. After observing Feng, Lily generalized that all Chinese were like that since they culture was of a more rigid form.
Feng was the first one to move when Sirius and his sister started to argue. If Lily's observations about the boy were correct, he probably was in a different compartment studying. After Feng's departure, the rest of the group was fairly tolerant until the conversation was somehow programmed to loop around and around. Aleia and Jon were able sustain the repetition twice. Lily considered moving as well since she didn't know how long the cycle would go on before both are exhausted on the subject. She might join Feng and study for her upcoming exams. It was never too early to study. If she started now, she could study less right before the exams and actually enjoy the rare sunny side of the British Isles in the spring.
Sirius and James's conversation regarding the legitimacy of knowing their sibling's romantic interlude ended Sirius and Mei's argument on whether or not she was his date to the New Years Ball. With the boys distracted by their years of friendship, Lily decided to join Mei in looking at the scenery outside. Traveling by train in the wilderness had its own relaxing quality.
"So," Lily started, hoping Mei was interested in a conversation. "What's China like?"
"It's different," Mei mumbled succinctly. She was probably irritated with Sirius and wanted time alone. "Strangers are a lot more reserved. The climate of the place differs on different parts of the country. On the coast, it could be tropical or wintry. In the middle of the country, it's very green and has lots of water. Up in the northwestern corner, there is the Gobi desert. On the geographical characteristics, China is a bit more interesting than the cloudy wet British Isles." Lily waited for more information, but the Chinese girl seemed to have stopped speaking for good. Attempting to rectify the situation, Lily smiled at the common lack of appreciation for the isle's humidity and watery nature and tried to steer Mei away from thinking about what piqued her.
"Well, I wish to visit there someday," the redhead declared with wide grin. "My lifetime goal is to live in at least 50 different countries. I think being a photojournalist would be interesting. Maybe I'll spend three years traveling around before I become a doctor and then after retirement, I'll travel around for the rest of my life. It's fairly easy with Europe, seeing as all the nations are close together so I could do that after I retire, but I want to be on all the other continents as well!"
Mei laughed at the dreamy expression on Lily's face, "Even Antarctica?" Lily wrinkled her nose, but nodded.
"I did say all the other continents . . . I guess I should go there before my joints get old." For the duration of the trip to wherever the ball was to be held, Lily and Mei chatted happily about their five silly but plausible goals in life. Eventually, the topics digressed into unrelated subjects, as they needed something to entertain themselves. From their goals, to their beliefs, to their favorites, to their fears, Mei and Lily didn't notice Sirius and James had left to get lunch.
"I still can't believe you don't like dogs," Lily complained in disbelief. "I know you had one bad experience with a big dog, but there are other kinds. Dogs in general are the most adorable animals in the world. My grandmother's Ruskie, a Scottish terrier -- don't ask me why she named a dog of Scottish origin a nickname for Russians – is the essence of adorable."
"What does a Scottish terrier look like?" Mei asked, completely confused. "I only know the basic nouns so you need to describe the distinct features of the dog to me." She got out a pencil and a notepad, "Here, draw it." Lily blushed and pushed the notepad away. After a couple of pushes and shoves, the action became a game to the bored passengers. It wasn't until James and Sirius returned with food did the two stop their mindless game.
"Woah, watch the salad!" Sirius yelled as the pencil flew towards him. "Here, we brought you lunch seeing as you two were so engrossed in girl talk." Lily thanked James, who gave her a salad and sandwich and glared at Sirius.
"Excuse me, we were having a decent conversation, not girl talk. Besides, you and James were talking about similar subjects. If discussing plans for life and the books are what you consider girl talk, I believe you and your friend have masculinity issues," Lily retorted. James laughed while Sirius snorted in indignation.
"Well Miss Lily, quidditch happens to be more manly than whatever muggle books you two were discussing. Like what was it called? Pride and Prejudice? From what you two were discussing, that's book is a romance. It's girly." No one looked defeated. The silence that rang after his comment signaled no victories. Sirius pouted and crossed his arms when even his best friend didn't support him in the retort. "James, you are a traitor."
While Sirius excused himself to recover from his bruised ego and self-confidence, James participated in the girls' chat about dogs.
"I can't draw anything!" Lily whined when Mei was persistent.
"You can't give me only half of the facts. You're the one trying to convince me a Scottish terrier is nice and cute."
Lily noticed James shifted in his seat and wondered why there were only three people in the compartment. It didn't matter how they were seated, the way they had been sitting forced him to be surrounded by girls. From Lily trying to hide and Mei pushing the notepad towards the Ravenclaw prefect, James somehow ended up in the middle of the crossfire.
"Here! I'll draw it!" James declared looking like he was about to go insane at the activity around him. Lily took the notepad and gave it to James. "I'm supposed to draw a Scottish terrier?" Mei nodded. "Okay."
Lily watched James draw intently, but she managed to get lost observing. It shouldn't be possible to get lost watching someone draw something. The lines didn't follow each other. It seemed as though James was drawing lines in random places. Lily looked up at Mei and she seemed just as confused as well.
"Where are the ears?" the Chinese girl mouthed as they half watched James draw a Scottish terrier.
"All done!" the Potter heir announced, displaying his masterpiece on his lap. Lily's widened at the dog featured in the drawing. It certainly looked like a Scottish terrier. The adorable quality of its pointy ears radiated from the painting. Even Mei, the skeptic about the gentility of canines, gushed about the cute subject of the drawing.
"Cute? Are you guys talking about me?" Sirius entered with a giggle. Lily showed the picture to the other Gryffindor and to her surprise, Sirius said, "Why was James drawing a Jack Russell Terrier?"
"Jack Russell Terrier?" Mei gulped. "How many kinds of terriers are there?"
Sirius ignored the girl's outcry. "You see a Scottish terrier is more like this." James handed Sirius his drawing and allowed the other to make changes. A few lines here and there, some harsh strokes on each side, Sirius waved the pencil across the notepad flamboyantly with his lips pursed in a comical fashion. "That, my ladies, is a Scottish terrier."
The picture was, in short, of a dog from hell. Mei gasped in fear while Lily and James crossed their arms in disbelief. The ears were more pronounced in its sharpness while the nose was extended to make the god look a lot like a fox. The supposedly sweet twinkle in the dog's eyes now had a menacing edge to it.
"That is a Scottish terrier," Sirius repeated, proud of his masterpiece. "It is an evil little bugger whose bark is a whole lot better than its bite. Little annoying yip-yips and then its sharp vampire teeth sinks into your leg. I don't know how many times my aunt's terrier ripped my pants." Lily noticed her Asian friend's frightened expression and immediately went to comfort her friend.
"You know, like all living things, dogs have different personalities. Some are quite nice," Sirius declared as though nothing was amiss. He doodled on a new sheet of paper, "Like this one, see?" Everyone took another peek at the new creation.
"What is that?" Mei asked, still confused and skeptical since the new canine looked rather bearish. "It doesn't seem like it would be cute." From the corner, James snickered at the outraged look of his best friend. "Why?" the girl continued, which caused James to laugh harder. "Why is he laughing?" Lily shrugged and took a more careful look at the picture herself.
"Oh. Um, Sirius, that thing is supposed to be nice?" Lily questioned with a tone of surprise. "It is a grim of all things!" Her comment only made James laugh even harder while Sirius spluttered in indignation.
"He is not a grim!" Sirius cried with a red face. "He is just a very large and intimidating dog that is rather cuddly." The prankster finished with a pout directed at the three other bodies in the compartment. Lily gasped at the description of the living and crawling omen while James fell off the seat clutching his stomach like a madman.
Ignoring the howling of a certain messy-haired Gryffindor prefect, Lily gaped at Sirius's lack of judgment. Certainly believing the presence of ominous creatures seem frivolous, but since witches and wizards and magic actually existed, a bearish canine monster bringing death omens weren't completely illogical.
"Sirius, a grim is the bringer of death omens. When you see it, you will die soon!" Lily corrected in a McGonagall type of tone. "Oh yes, the victim cuddles with the grim and then dies a few days later; some proof of its cuddliness. Anyhow, I highly doubt something with such a dark and gloomy aura can be cute and cuddly."
Sirius pouted, "Have you seen one?" The statement left Lily choking.
The more or less naïve girl regarding the intangible subject of omens and dogs replied in Lily's defense, "Well, since grims are creatures of death and Lily is alive, doesn't that mean she has never seen one?" Sirius looked injured both mentally and physically as Mei's comment caused him to fall head first into the ground. Immediately, the girl jumped to him and started fawning over – as Sirius later proudly exclaimed – him with James and Lily each wearing worried expressions.
"You know?" the fallen Marauder started, "Since she's never seen a grim, doesn't that mean she could say the picture I drew really was a grim. Because you see, no one really knows what it should look like since it is a death omen . . ." Sirius trailed off on his actually logical argument.
Aleia's presence in the compartment interrupted Sirius's intelligent period, "We're here!" Her eyes scanned the compartment as though she was making sure there weren't any optical charms placed over the seats to hide the damages made by her brother and his best friend. The head girl turned her attention to Lily and Mei, "Make sure there are no traps in the compartment that those two hoodlum left. Just please double check everything. The last time those two were in any form of transportation together ended up destroying everything wherever they went."
Both James and Sirius squealed indignantly and attacked the older girl with Lily and Mei inched their way out of the compartment without being caught in the cross fire.
From the train station to the little inn that was reserved for the New Years Ball, the scenery was picturesque. Only English guests were arriving them and most hadn't arrived, so the Hogwarts students all meandered through the vicinity getting better acquainted with their residence. Lily decided to take a break from people and wandered to the gardens on her own.
The gardens weren't extraordinary; it was like an ordinary English picturesque garden made popular in the romanticism era. Both magical and non-magical plants were present since its apparent role was to be aromatic. While the lightly natural scents wafted around the gates, the inside was much more green than any other colors. If there weren't daylight and the gates didn't have a sign with the words "Garden" shown in French script, the green dominance made the small sector of the beautiful land seem like a forest.
What was spectacular was the entire landscape. The garden's harmony with wild nature around it and the manmade building truly made the scene breathtaking. Looking out the gate towards the inn, Lily found herself wondering if she was walking in a Monet painting with the trees topped with spring green, the flowers blooming with bright light colors, and the English sky so clear and blue.
"This isn't England," she mumbled wistfully feeling the breeze brushing her hair out of her face. "It's a fairytale."
"You could say that," Lily felt someone answer from behind her. She turned and found James Potter barely touching her left shoulder. Surprised at their close proximity, she jumped backwards by reflex. Luckily, James didn't take notice of her strange reaction. "This is the field where the fairy folk and the wizards made an alliance in the fourteenth century. The ministry now uses it to welcome dignitaries of any sort when the climate in England is not so pleasant."
As though on cue, a pixie looking very much like Tinkerbell in Disney's Peter Pan fluttered towards them with more grace than the cartoon depicted fairy. Instead of a wand, the pixie held a tightly rolled up piece of parchment, "You're room numbers are on this sheet. It's all ready." By the time Lily looked up from the parchment, the pixie was gone without leaving a trace of evidence of her presence.
"Um?" was all the redhead could muster. Hogwarts was magical enough, but walking in fairyland with pixies serving them?
Lily felt James lead her towards the inn.
"That's normal," the Minister's son explained while dragging Lily gently with him, "The caretakers of the landscape and certain responsibilities of the inn belong to the fairy folk. They aren't all conniving like what our textbooks say."
"Oh, house elves?" Lily muttered, still in shock from seeing a pixie serve them.
"House elves take care of the food. The Pixies are the owners of the place." Lily nodded and decided to concentrate on moving her feet to catch up to the long glides of James's much longer legs.
"So is the Ministry borrowing the inn for a bit?" Lily asked, after James stopped dragging her along. The Gryffindor nodded. "So we all have to behave or we'll be kicked out?" another nod in affirmative. "So you and Sirius aren't planning anything?"
James stopped abruptly. Since he still held her elbow, Lily was once again dragged, this time, to a stop. "Oof." Her arm felt like it was dislocated.
"Sorry," James said with a blush and a chagrined but scheming grin. "I should kiss it better." With a ceremonial pause for permission, he bent down and kissed her elbow up to her shoulder. Lily felt her cheeks burn and wondered whatever happened to the wit Ravenclaws should have to deal with the situation. Thankfully, James's mouth didn't touch her skin since she wore a long sleeved sweater due to the cold temperature of a December day.
Her good fortune was short circuited when a perky screech of an eleven-year-old echoed in the open field surrounded by tall trees.
"JAMES!" a little girl shouted, jumping and skipping towards them. Within seconds, the girl stopped in front of Lily and James with a hop. "Hello," she said to Lily. As fast as she transferred her attention to Lily, she turned back to James, "You forgot to owl me every week. And even then, your promise was to owl me at least three times a week."
The same cherub grin that usually got the Marauders out of trouble shined on the girl's face. Instead of having black hair, hers was light brown with ringlets. A thin white ribbon that was losing its knot from the little girl's skips held the bundle of jumpy hair back.
James shifted, almost as though he was trying to hide behind Lily, "Hello Athena. I apologize profusely, but I do have a wonderful present for your birthday." When he stopped shifting, Lily felt her back come in contact with something hard when James pulled her back. Another round of blushing was starting as Athena's angelic smile turned cuter and somehow more demonic and Lily's head lightly smacked into James's chest. The little girl stared at Lily as though she was the judge and Lily was the defendant.
"Is it because you have been busy writing love letters to your girlfriend?" the younger girl demanded, eyeing Lily when she said the word "girlfriend". "Mummy said you should never put a girl in front of your family unless you were going to start a family for her because then she would be apart of our family so you won't have to place her above the family anyhow." Athena's rant left James gaping like a goldfish without water since Lily could feel his jaw drop on her hair.
"And this is Lily Evans," James continued, ignoring whatever insinuations his little sister had. "Lily, this is my demonically angelic or angelically demonic little sister, Athena. She is as ruthless as the goddess she was named after as you have heard from her introduction."
The younger girl stuck her tongue at her brother. "Nice to meet you Miss Lily. I pity how you have to deal with my brother. But you're pretty so you should be able to shut him up. Of course, I could relieve you of his presence if you would play with me. Sirius is busy with the nice Chinese representative. I think he likes her a lot. And Aleia is busy with her boyfriend somewhere doing something Tony said I shouldn't know. James doesn't have a life and I don't have a sister to play with right now. So out of us, I think you would do better being my companion than his."
Lily laughed at the little girl and her barb at her seemingly on-a-pedestal brother, "Sure I'll play with you." When she tried to get to the little girl, the pair of arms that found their way on her waist kept her from moving.
"James let go of her," Athena demanded with her arms on her hips and the light breeze blowing her ringlets completely out of the grasp of the ribbon. To Lily's surprise, James didn't. He only held on tighter.
"Tony? Antonia's here?" Athena nodded with a happy smile.
"And also Abby. Tony's nursing her twins right now and Abby is trying to talk Chris into having children soon while watching Little Madison and Henry crawl around."
James shifted, "Well in that case, you should go play with our sisters. I need to talk to Lily. About prefect stuff." Athena didn't seem to believe him at first, but she glared at her brother's arms that were keeping Lily next to him and ran back to the inn.
Lily moved out of James's grasps. "Prefect stuff?" She tilted her head in confusion. "What prefect stuff?"
"It's nothing," the boy corrected looking straight past Lily. "I just needed to get my little sister away so I could ask you a few favors." He waited for the redhead's sign of consent before continuing. "Okay . . . I am making a present for Athena. Apparently I have some troublesome charms so the present isn't exactly functional right now."
"I could help," Lily exclaimed happily. It was widely known around school that the Marauders developed spell combinations for their owl pranks. Helping James in a magical creation meant she could see the ingenuity of the infamous scheming mind of the Marauder leader.
James looked up with a grin. "Really? You'll help? That's great because you are the best student in Charms." Without any hint, James launched himself at Lily and placed many kisses on her while she was trapped once again in his arms. "Oh thank you thank you THANK YOU!" James exclaimed picking Lily up and spinning her around like a sack of potatoes.
"James, I'm getting dizzy, and when people get dizzy, they tend to VOMIT!"
Gently, Lily felt the ground on her behind and signed in relief. The spinning world of green and blue wasn't helping her mind settle. James supported her back while she tried to blink away the twirling motion everywhere she looked.
"Okay, so what were your other favors?" she asked, closing her eyes.
"Um, right. The other favors . . ." James stuttered. "Well, only one more . . . If I don't play any pranks, would you be my date for the ball?" Surprised by the question but still happy at the fact that the suave James Potter was stuttering in front of her, Lily giggled. "I know, only as friends and all those rules and regulations on what I am allowed to do. Dance, entertain, and hug," James continued, making Lily laugh all out.
"Yes, as friends." James hugged her and mumbled how she was saving his life, completely unaware of the audience that formed around them.
"Say, did Lily ever say anything about James?" Sirius's voice shook the two. "I know James has said much about Lily!"
"Really?" a foreign voice replied.
"Oh dear that's Antonia," James gasped and jumped from Lily but somehow managing to help her stand up as well. "Um, hello Tony, Tony's twins, Abby, Chris, Mother, Father, Aleia, Sirius, Mei, and Athena," James grunted, his face beet red. Lily looked at the crowd and her insides shriveled up in embarrassment. Admitting that she was in a situation in which her hand was caught in the cookie jar, Lily decided to smile as though she was in front of a camera and there was nothing wrong with the fact that James's family saw them hug and maybe James kissing her.
"Wow, she is pretty!" the woman Lily identified by voice as Antonia exclaimed with a grin. "Athena's right. Now wonder he was too busy to welcome us when we told him we would be here at noon. Oh well, I guess we taught him the right way to treat his girl. Oh when is the wedding date? How long have you two been dating? Don't they look beautiful together?"
TBC
I am so, so, so, so, so, so, so . . . so, so sorry, once again! I guess life does get more hectic as we get older. Stupid standardized tests, tests of any form, work, classes, and people making me drive! But thank you, jegan and flamin-phyininx and the girl that chats with me on AIM who might be one of the two aforementioned reviewers or not for your lovely encouragement.
Okay, individual replies . . .
Hannah (Lololchik): I believe I addressed your question via e-mail, but thanks so much for the compliment. Personally, I don't know if this chapter will make the wait worth it. Oh well, please let me know if something is not to your liking! And how did your last review not make sense? Either I completely interpreted it wrong or my logic is just screwy, as it has been proved many times by my friends.
Tyster: WOW, finals start in late March? I couldn't handle that. Just AP exams in early May and finals following it was bad enough for me. I got sick right after school was out . . . knocked out for about a week and then I started my internship so I'm keeping busy again. In twelve hours, I will have my first art history class. Ooh, can't wait. Maybe I could apply something to whatever I am writing.
The One Hobbit: Ooh, South Africa? I have been United Kingdom and Cote d'Ivoire. The conference I was so worried about was little naïve me representing UK in a security council that was open agenda. Really intimidating shudder but our school got best novice school! Anyhow, our next conference will hopefully be the one in Stanford in late October. Maybe I'll see you there, depending on how far your club travels.
Lily-Rose-Evans: Thank you, although I think my creative writing skills are decreasing as I write more academic papers. Meh, icky stuff.
Jegan: Oh, all the readers must thank you and my other reminders for this chapter. I felt so guilty – not your fault but definitely your doing – so I decided to post it. I probably will upload revisions sometime later.
Musicizdbest: Many wows for me? I feel so special!
Tash: The world will find out soon enough. To tell you the truth, I have several scenarios planned. I wouldn't find people's input on how it should be.
Beauty Eclipsed: Thank you so much for your words of understanding. I hope all the studying I did for my AP exams will deserve your review. pleasepleaseplease let them be above a four . . . overachiever, I know
Vicous Pixie: The link you provide me gave me hours of entertainment. Do you know how hilarious those clips were when you are sick of studying for Calculus and Physics?! Oh my, so many study breaks it's entertained.
Sophianwin: Thank you for reading. I do hope you read and enjoy more.
flamin-phyinix: Hmm, new chapter a few days after your review. Aw, thanks so much for the e-mail and review!
Popppincorn: Does this chapter answer your question?
LillyEvans13: Well, this chapter answered your question. They did go to the place of the ball together and she will be his date, but knowing me, things might make a drastic change.
Wow, fourteen reviews from thirteen reviewers. You are so wonderful! Anyhow, I have a new Marauder era ficcie ready. This idea sort of popped out when I had a day where my parents teased me about boys and my friend and I sort of denounced members of the opposite gender. So a quick summary:
After a disastrous first relationship, Lily Evans swore off dating and men/boys. With James head over heels in love with the redhead and moaning about the loss of hope, the other Marauders and a reluctant James develop a way to revive Lily's romantic bone.
I have yet to think of a title, and that's why I'm delaying it. Any suggestions?
Love you all,
Omnifarious
Endnotes
1. Sirius is around 6 ft. 3 inches and Lily is around 5 ft 6 inches.