The room of Requirement M'Lady…
The week that followed was a mess of making up classes, and time spent in the library. Lily was up until late at night, searching the books for traces of information that could show her whatever heliotropes was, or give her the remotest idea as to where she could find the bloodstone. She knew that if she could remember where she had heard all this before everything would make sense. She lay awake each night, straining her memory, travelling back to even before she had come to Hogwarts, just trying to remember where she had heard about the legend. If James had heard it too, though, it had to be something in the wizarding world…but then again, he could just be saying this to make her feel less crazy…
James was another reason that she was having trouble sleeping. The way she felt about him seemed to be even more confusing than the heliotrope. She couldn't deny that he was the sweetest guy she had ever met in her life; he had changed over the summer, and he certainly was good-looking. It also helped that he was crazy about her. However, she couldn't admit to herself that she liked James Potter, and so, for the moment, that was the way it had to be. Lily would feel herself begin to fantasize about the boy, and would immediately stop herself, and try desperately to control her thoughts. He was, at the moment, just a friend, though nothing else.
As the weather became colder, and the days became shorter, Lily, Ella, Dani and the marauders could be seen more frequently beside the Griffindore fire, Lily and James normally pouring over books, 'studying', Ella and Lupin deep in conversation, and Dani and Sirius either arguing, or sitting with their backs to one another, signifying that they were in the middle of a fight, and wouldn't speak to each other for a very long time.
One night, like any other, Lily put down the book that she was poring over (a rare occurrence) and groaned in frustration. James looked up from his, grinning at her.
"You two hey?" he asked quietly. She nodded.
"I can't sleep James! This is getting so frustrating! I know that I've heard it somewhere before, but I have no idea where!" she sighed, and leaned back in her armchair. James chuckled slightly.
"It's not funny Potter!" she said huffily. James merely laughed again.
"I know, you just looked funny then, you know. We're pretty crazy, doing all this research for something that doesn't even concern us remotely." He said. Lily did indeed look quite comical, with her book in her hand, sprawled out over the squashy little chair, strands of hair escaping her ponytail and falling over her face. She tried to blow them off in vain, which only made James laugh all the more.
"Why don't we have a break tonight Lily?" he said. Lily nodded sadly, and looked out the window. They had searched all the sections of the library that they could, and even asked for help from Madam Pince, the irritable librarian. Nothing had worked, yet something nagged at the edge of Lily's brain, something that they hadn't tried yet…
"James!" she said suddenly, sitting up straight in the chair, and sending the books sitting on her lap flying onto the rug where Dani and Sirius sat arguing, hitting Sirius on the head.
"Ow!" he complained.
"Sorry." Said Lily softly. Then she smiled at James.
"Feel like an adventure?" she asked and smiled at James.
"What did you have in mind?" he asked cheekily, winking at her suggestively. Lily laughed, and threw a book at him, hitting him on the head much more purposefully than Sirius, shaking her head.
"Shut up James! We're going to the library." James looked at her curiously for a moment, before he caught on.
"You had better mean the restricted section Evans, because if that's your idea of an adventure…" James trailed off, teasing her.
"Invisibility cloak?" she asked him hopefully.
"I'll be right back." He said, and sprinted up to his dormitory. The others looked at Lily questioningly, but she shook them off with a laugh. When James returned a moment later, he threw the cloak over them, after waving goodbye to their friends.
"We'll be back soon." Said Lily's voice, from mid air. They all laughed, as James invisibly stole Sirius's quill, and ran off, out the door, Lily's hand tightly grasped in his…
"I'm guessing we're going to look for the heliotrope…" said James, once they had snuck past Madam Pince while she locked the door to the library. Getting back out was going to be another story. Lily nodded at him. It was late at night now, and the library was closed, so they threw the cloak off of them, and started up the aisle of the restricted section. The only problem was, they had no idea what a heliotrope was, let alone the information to find out what it could be used for.
"I have no idea Lily." James said to her after an hour of searching. "But if Dumbledore doesn't know then I guess it can't be found in any book at Hogwarts. Lily was just about to leave when a small, emerald green coloured book in the bottom shelf caught her eye. It stood out from the rest of the dusty volumes in the shelves, as it was the newest book in the section. Lily didn't know they even purchased new books for this part of the library. Yet here it was. In her hands she clutched the small, intriguing book, and it seemed to call out to her. Like she had seen it before, though she knew in her heart that this was the first time that she had ever laid eyes on the tiny book. For some reason, she pocketed it.
"What's that?" James asked her, as they went to leave the library.
"I don't really know, but it was a new book, and it was in the restricted section, it just seemed…" she trailed off. She didn't know herself why she had pocketed the book; she certainly couldn't find the words to explain it to James.
"O-k…" he said, and walked over to the door of the library, tugging at the handle. It came open easily, and James threw the invisibility cloak back over the two of them. They walked down the hall, hand in hand, James looking at the little book, and Lily disappointed that their excursion to the library hadn't been more successful.
Lily and James reached the portrait hole, and stopped, open-mouthed. The portrait was empty. Where the fat lady normally sat was nothing but blank canvas, and a sticky situation. Lily groaned.
"I should have known. Go walking round the castle with James Potter at night and something like this is bound to happen!" she cried. James laughed at her.
"Yep, I'm doomed even before I begin." He commented. It was Lily's turn to laugh.
"Well what are we going to so now then? Sit here and wait till she comes back?" said Lily, looking up and down the corridor. They couldn't both sleep under the cloak easily, and sooner or later Filch wound find them.
"No, I know a place…follow me." He set off at an alarming speed, and walked her all the way to a place of the castle that Lily had hardly ever visited. On one side of the corridor there was a large, quite silly tapestry of a mad man teaching some crazy trolls how to dance ballet. On the other side was an oddly blank stretch of wall.
"I need somewhere comfy for Lily and I to sleep, I need somewhere comfy for Lily and I to sleep, I need somewhere comfy for Lily and I to sleep, James repeated over and over again, ignoring Lily's protests and abandoning the invisibility cloak, walking back and forth. Lily thought for a moment that James might have been going crazy, but the outline of a door soon appeared on the blank stretch of wall, and Lily's mouth dropped open in amazement.
"The room of Requirement M'lady, "said James grandly, mocking a deep bow as he opened the door to the room. Lily gasped. The room was a large, warm room, with simular furnishing to the Griffindore common room; large, crimson cushions covered armchairs that sat around a blazing fire, and behind them, a mahogany, four-poster bed.
James laughed. And not at Lily's expression.
"It gave us one bed!" he roared, his face screwed up in laughter.
"What do you mean it gave us? James what is this place?" Lily asked, looking all around her, and moving towards the fire to get warm. James followed her.
"The room of requirement." James carried on to explain to her how the room worked, and told many stories of the times he and the marauders had used to room. Lily was in hysterics by the end of the conversation, by which time it was very late at night, and she was lying on the ground next to the fire, covered wrapped in a blanket from the bed. James sat besides her, laughing himself, reminiscing about the adventure he was illustrating.
"And then…" James couldn't control his laughter, and the last sentence was punctuated by short bursts, "The Remus runs past, and tells it to turn into…"he rolled onto the ground, clutching his side; "Into a bar! And we opened it up, and…and…" he rolled over to face Lily, tears of laughter streaming down his face, "And we opened the door, he was all excited, and he rushed right in, and ran into a big metal bar that the room had! That was it! Just a concrete room with a metal bar!" Lily too, started to laugh as hard as James, and by the time they were done. They were very out of breath. Lily and James lay beside the fire, smiling at each other. Lily was very tired, but she didn't want to admit it, even to herself. She didn't want the night to end. She was having so much fun.
"You're tired." James said quietly, smiling a little. Lily shook her head.
"No! No I'm not, keep talking!" she urged him, but James laughed.
"I know you are Lily, you can hardly keep your eyes open." He drew closer.
Lily smiled, and reluctantly gave in to her closing eyes.
James waited until she had dozed off, and her head had become limp. He lifted her off the ground, and onto the double bed, then climbed in beside her, grinning from ear to ear. He had, without her noticing, stopped his ritual of asking her out each day of the school year, and in return, she seemed to be on the verge of saying yes. That was what James hoped, anyway. Maybe he was just imagining things… James let his eyes close, as he watched her smiling, sleeping face.