Hey, peeps! I know it's been like 2 months but I wrote a nice, long chapter…so please don't be mad at me! Enjoy…-PhoenixPlume
Ch. 14 Casserole, Calamity, and Caverns
Lily looked up uncertainly at the big house, having trouble believing that she was here, of all places. Just then, a short woman with fly-away black hair, hurried out the front door, down the steps towards Lily, who was still standing in the same place Mr. Potter had left her.
"You must be Lily Evans!" greeted the woman with messy, black hair, and a welcoming smile. Lily wondered if she were the Potters' maid. James was the type to have very distinguished parents, she was sure.
"Yes," replied Lily.
"I'm Eileen Potter. Paddy will be here to help you right about—" Mrs. Potter stopped when what Lily recognized as a house-elf, popped right before their eyes. So this lady was James' mother? Well, now she knew where Potter got his hair, although it looked different on a woman.
"Paddy at Miss Evans' service!" squeaked the tiny creature. It turned to Mrs. Potter, "Paddy is sorry for her late arrival but Master Potter just set off a dung bomb in Master Black's room and Paddy wanted to clean it up before a full stink bomb war started."
"Don't worry, Paddy," Mrs. Potter reassured the excited elf. "The only one who should be worrying is James. Speaking of which, where is that boy?"
Suddenly, a hand materialized out of nowhere, and started waving wildly at Lily. Lily shook her head, thinking she was seeing things, and then—
"James, stop scaring our guest right now! What did I tell you about using that invisibility cloak?" Mrs. Potter scolded her son, not letting their difference in height disturb her.
A fully visible James cowered slightly, and looking at Lily with something akin to embarrassment, answered, "Ever since I appeared in front of my cousin Marguerite, and caused her to faint (or so you all said), I am banned from using the cloak in front of guests, under penalty of having it taken away for however long you see fit."
"And you disobeyed! Honestly, James, you're impossible!" the little witch continued, while James looked more and more like he wanted to disappear. "Now, take Lily to the kitchen and give her something to eat while I make the arrangements for her room. Do you think you can do that?"
Paddy had already gotten Lily's bag and taken it inside, and did not seem surprised or disturbed at James' admonishment by his mother. Lily, however, was surprised, and decided right then and there, that no matter how messy Mrs. Potter's hair was, she already respected anyone who could make James Potter do what she said.
"Yes, ma'am," James replied, quickly leading the way for Lily, since he was only too glad to make the distance between him and his mother greater.
Breaking the silence, Lily said, "You have a very nice house, where is it exactly?"
"Well, I live in the village of Godric's-Hollow, and—" he lowered his voice, "There's a rumor that some of the houses here have some of Godric Gryffindor's belongings hidden behind secret panels, or buried deep in tunnels under the house."
"Wow," Lily replied, forgetting that James was her least favorite person, "Have you looked around?"
"Yeaaaaah," James drawled, smiling impishly. Lily rolled her eyes.
"And…?"
"I'm hungry—are you hungry?"
"James Potter, stop avoiding the question!"
"Lily Evans, whatever are you talking about?"
"You know exactly what I'm talking about!"
"Are you alright, Evans? I think your head is burning up! Oh, wait—it's just your hair!"
"Ha ha, that joke is so first year—Spikey." They both grinned, and then Lily realized she was grinning at James Potter and returned to her question before. "I'm serious—have you looked around your house?"
"Did someone say 'Sirius?'" asked Sirius, who had just slid down the banister, landing right by Lily and James.
"Yes, Sirius, we were just discussing how ugly and stupid you are," Lily replied in a light voice.
"That's not very nice, Flower-face," retorted Sirius, saying "flower-face" in a wimpy voice.
"Dog-breath," Lily countered scathingly.
"Lilliputian," Sirius said, looking down his nose at Lily.
"Hey! I am NOT short!" Lily cried out.
"When you ate those Fizzing Whizbees, your feet didn't reach the floor, so by that definition, you are short," responded James, laughing at the two's insulting match.
"I'm hungry," Sirius declared, running towards the kitchen, followed soon by James and Lily.
"I haven't eaten dinner," stated Lily, as she looked around the kitchen, and saw some casserole with pesto and sausage set out on the counter.
"Wow, no wonder you're in a bad mood," Sirius said in awe.
"We've eaten twice in the past half hour," added James.
"What do you do besides eat and sleep?" inquired Lily.
"Well, Jamesie here talks a lot about his lovely Flower-fa—" Sirius began, an mischievous gleam in his gray eyes, before James kicked him in his shin. "Aaaaah that hurt!"
"Good," murmured James under his breath. "We play Quidditch, and…eat."
"I said besides eating and sleeping."
"Well," James said brightly, "We eat more!"
"That's so unfair! If I ate that much I'd be obese!"
"Well, that's why you don't eat as much," Sirius replied helpfully.
"Can you just give me some casserole already?" Lily demanded desperately. "I haven't eaten since (she checks watch), five hours ago!"
"Here," Sirius handed her the entire container of casserole.
James gave him a look and said, "Padfoot! Lily doesn't eat as much as you do, and doesn't need the whole thing. Let me have that," James said, looking at Lily.
"You called me Lily!" Lily said, handing the container to him without a thought.
"That's your name, isn't it?" James replied, dishing a portion of casserole into a bowl for Lily.
"No—it's Flower-face!" Sirius chuckled.
"Ye-es, but that never stopped you from calling me Evans before."
"Well, now that you're staying here the rest of the summer, I think we should call each other by our first names."
"You're probably right," agreed Lily, taking the bowl from James, and setting it down on the small breakfast table nearby.
"Of course I'm right. I'm always right," James bragged, flashing a smug smile at Lily.
"Except for when you're wrong," Lily added, "Which is most of the time," giving him a superior smirk of her own.
"Mmmm, good casserole," Sirius let out admiringly.
"You took my food!" Lily exclaimed with irritation. "Mine!"
"Vinders heepers, wosers leepers!" Sirius said triumphantly through a mouth of food. Lily made a move to grab the bowl, but Sirius was too quick for her, and ran away with it. Half-way to the doorway, he decided to use his fork as a trebuchet for launching casserole at Lily and James, who had started getting too close for Sirius' liking. That's when Lily lost full control, since she was extremely hungry, and got another small bowl of casserole, and started launching hers at Sirius. James, who had lost control years ago, lifted up the entire container and threw casserole at both Sirius and Lily. The kitchen was beginning to smell very strongly of garlic, when the three heard a fateful sound: Mrs. Potter. They froze, and turned warily towards the direction of Mrs. Potter.
James soon wished they hadn't when Mrs. Potter shrieked, "WHAT IN THE WORLD HAPPENED TO MY KITCHEN?"
"Um—"
"You see—"
"It's her fault!" Sirius and James said together, pointing at Lily, who looked like she was going to have a nervous breakdown.
"Why don't I believe you?" asked Mrs. Potter, looking at each face. "Maybe because whenever DISASTER occurs, YOU and SIRIUS are nearby!" She turned to Lily with a benign expression on her face. "What really happened, dear?"
"Actually, it was all of us," Lily answered her honestly. Sirius and James looked at her in astonishment.
"Are you sure they're not putting you up to this?"
"I'm afraid not, Mrs. Potter."
"Well, then, you are all going to your rooms right now, separated from each other," Mrs. Potter commanded, looking around at the messy room in disgust. "Paddy and I can't keep up with the messes you create."
"But Mum--" James started, but Mrs. Potter cut him off.
"No excuses, James. I've had quite enough nonsense. I know your father puts up with this, but I cannot deal with the combined stress of running St. Mungo's, running this household, taking care of all of you, AND cleaning up all the disasters."
"But Mrs. Potter, Lily hasn't eaten yet," Sirius managed to say very quickly before Mrs. Potter could stop him.
Mrs. Potter looked at Lily, who looked very tired and dejected. She had not eaten in hours, had nearly been killed by deatheaters, and had caused mayhem at her benefactor's house--all in one day. Mrs. Potter relented, and smiled kindly at Lily. "Paddy will show you to your room, dear, and bring you something to eat soon."
"Oh, thank you, Mrs. Potter! I'm so sorry about the mess! I don't normally act that immaturely—really!" Lily said breathlessly.
"I forgive you dear—after all, you've had a very overwhelming day. Take a nice, hot shower. That always hits the spot." Mrs. Potter turned to Sirius and James. "And don't even THINK about trying to get into Lily's bathroom, young men." James and Sirius put on angelic faces.
"If you do, you die," added Lily, for good measure, green eyes flaring.
"Why, we would never do something as unchivalrous as that, Lily dearest!" exclaimed James in mock offense.
"Do you think chivalry is dead, dear madam?" asked Sirius theatrically.
"You certainly will be if you don't go to your rooms right now," retorted Mrs. Potter. ""Separated from each other means you stay in your rooms, and your doors will be locked this time." Mrs. Potter fired James and Sirius stern looks. "Paddy, show Lily to her room, please."
"Paddy would love to!" Paddy answered, scurrying up to Lily, waving her hand towards the kitchen doorway.
"What, Mother? We don't get shown to our rooms?" James inquired in a hurt tone.
"Good night, James," Mrs. Potter replied, ending the conversation.
"G'night, Mum."
"G'night, Mrs. Potter!"
"Good night, Sirius."
As the boys climbed the staircase, they began plotting on how to escape their rooms without opening the doors, since the locking spell Mrs. Potter used really worked.
Meanwhile, Lily had just followed Paddy into a lovely sage green room. The paneled walls had a green vine border, and her bed had a soft, green bedspread and white, lace canopy. Lily thought she was dreaming. "Pinch me."
"Paddy would never pinch Miss Evans!" Paddy cried out in shock. "'T would be improper!"
"It's an expression, Paddy—I didn't mean to offend you," explained Lily, smiling down at the insulted house-elf.
"Oh, well then. Miss Evans would like to see her bathroom? There's a lovely bath and shower for Miss to enjoy!" Paddy led her into the bathroom. It had pale green and pink stripes cascading down the walls, elegant green carpet with pink roses, a darling wooden vanity, a sink, and a shower and bath combined, with a million different taps for Lily to have fun trying. Lily was amazed.
"It's—beautiful!"
"Paddy will tell Mistress that you liked it. Paddy suggests that Miss Evans take a shower, and dinner will be set on the table by the window when Miss gets out."
"Thank you so much, Paddy!" Lily exclaimed gratefully. "Can I give you a hug?"
"Miss wants to give Paddy a hug?" Paddy asked incredulously.
"Is that alright?" Lily inquired, now unsure if her request was so very unorthodox.
"Paddy would love Miss to give Paddy a hug." Lily bent down and gave the house-elf and hug.
"Well," the house-elf said, as she headed toward the door, "Paddy will see Miss Ev—"
"Miss Lily," corrected Lily.
"Miss Lily?" repeated Paddy, eyes wide.
"Evans is so…dull."
"Whatever Miss…Lily wants."
"Thank you, Paddy."
Lily found her shower delightfully refreshing, and had to admit that trying all the different knobs was fascinating—almost as good as trying all the different samples of chocolate at Honeydukes—almost.
After drying herself off and putting on her pj's, which consisted of a tye-dye T-shirt (The Beatles) and lime green lounge pants, Lily opened the door from the bathroom into her bedroom, only to feel a tug in her chest, which she recognized as homesickness. But before she could over-analyze it, she walked towards the table, now set with chicken soup, rolls, butter, and tea. Just as she was about to sit down, she heard a very peculiar noise. Turning in the noise's direction, Lily could not believe her eyes: she thought she was seeing one of the sage green panels moving.
Shaking her head, Lily sat down, and took a sip of tea. It was chamomile, very relaxing to her frustrated state of mind. Unfortunately, unlike her mind, Lily's ears were not comforted—they heard the funny creaking noise again. Lily sighed agitatedly, and turned her head, and this time, she could not convince herself that she was seeing things—the panel was definitely moving. Scanning the room for her dirty clothes, in which she had left her wand; Lily was disappointed to see that Paddy must have taken them to be washed. Lily decided that she would deal with whatever it was later, and continued to eat.
When she had nearly finished, she saw that the panel had just given way, and dust clouded the area around the panel, so that she couldn't see what had caused the panel to open so strangely.
"I can't believe there was one leading into her room!" exclaimed a voice that bore striking resemblance to James'.
"Too bad there wasn't one leading into her bathroom," laughed another voice that sounded like Sirius. Lily smiled wickedly to herself, and decided to pay the boys back for worrying her and depriving her of food for so long, and any other inconvenience they had caused her in the past, by getting the water pitcher for her tea, enchanted to stay piping hot, and pouring it on them, just as they began to emerge.
"Aaaah! Why is it so hot?" James asked as if in pain.
"I'm disappointed in you, Pot—James," Lily said mockingly, "I could have sworn you would have said it's hot in here because of you!"
"Hey! You stole that from me, Prongs!" accused Sirius from the bathroom, where he had run like a chicken with his head cut off, in order to find a towel. "I get to use your 'I'm good at everything' line since you stole my 'It must be me' line."
"Honestly, you two need to be more original," Lily remarked. "How about this one? My head is so big it won't fit through the portrait hole? Or—I eat so much a giant's appetite doesn't hold a candle to mine?"
"Awww…Lily, I didn't know you cared," James responded, smiling once again, now that he had taken Sirius' towel and dried off the hot water.
"Butter!" called out a gleeful Sirius. But Lily snatched it away from him triumphantly.
"Not until you tell me how you got here!"
"Well you know how I told you that some houses in Godric's- Hollow have secret tunnels?" James began, relishing Lily's unhidden curiosity and impatience.
"Yes…"
"What am I doing? Here—I'll show you!" James exclaimed, pulling Lily towards the opened panel enthusiastically, and shutting the panel with a resounding thump, while Sirius took this opportunity to sit down and eat Lily's rolls and butter.
"Where are we—" Lily was cut off suddenly as she stepped a little too far, and fell down about ten steps.
"You weren't supposed to fall down the stairs," James remarked knowingly.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Lily replied scathingly, "Maybe if you hadn't shut the panel I could see in here."
"Oh, blast," James muttered. Then, deciding it would be fun to spook Lily some more, James pretended to try to open the panel. "It won't budge either," he added in a disappointed voice, hoping she wouldn't think of trying to push it also.
"Oh, great," Lily said, slumping against the wall of the tunnel. "You could try yelling to Sirius."
"These walls are sound-proof."
"Darn."
"Soooo…been practicing Quidditch?" James inquired, sitting down next to her. He had tried to think of an appropriate conversation starter, since he had discovered that talking about himself might go under the infamous title of being a self-centered prat.
"Yes, P-James," Lily replied sarcastically, "I've really had time since I got home from the Hogwarts Express. I mean, in between threats from my messed-up sister and deatheaters, I've really had time."
"Oh, right—sorry,"James said quickly, sensing a sore subject, "I forgot about that."
"Oh my gosh, James—did you just apologize?" Lily asked, in a slightly more friendly voice.
"Uh—yeah…I guess I did," James said slowly, as if he had just made a discovery.
"I forgive you," Lily said, sighing. She was very tired.
"What happened exactly? What about your sister—I didn't see her at the station," James commented.
"Oh, Petunia never comes to pick me up. We don't really get along; when we were little, she was always very bossy and difficult, and when I left for Hogwarts…it just got worse."
"But she threatened you?" James demanded in disbelief.
"Yeah…she really hates the fact that I'm a witch. She thinks witches and wizards are freaks. So, she didn't want her boyfriend, a really ugly brute that resembles a troll, in both appearance and brains, to know about my being a witch."
"That's crazy! Doesn't she care that you're her sister? Man, I've always wanted a brother or sister. And I bet you'd make a great sister," James declared, smiling warmly towards Lily at his last statement.
Lily smiled back, and said, "It's not easy being a Muggleborn: I don't really fit in either world. The Slytherins think I should go back to the Muggle world, and my sister thinks witches are freaks."
"You're not a freak," James told her, suddenly really wishing he could put his arm around Lily and protect her. "Don't believe anyone who tells you that. And if someone is enough of an idiot to say that, I'll make sure they don't say it ever again."
"Thanks, James—but I can take care of myself, you know."
"What about those deatheaters then?" asked James. "Weren't they planning on killing you?"
"And my family," Lily added quietly. "That's why your father took me here—so that they couldn't find me."
"Is your family okay?"
"Your dad said that they wanted to kill me; my family was just a bonus. And, the ministry is putting wards around my house. So hopefully…" Lily drifted off.
"Don't worry, Lily. They'll probably be okay."
"I'm tired, James…it's been a long day…"
"You can lean on my shoulder—I won't do anything—I promise," James told her softly.
"I know, James," Lily said back, resting her head on his shoulder. "Because, if you did, I would do a lot more than pour boiling water on you."
James chuckled. "G'night, Lily."
"G'night," she murmured sleepily, wondering how James could go from being so arrogant and immature to so kind and reassuring.
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