Chapter Twelve Times Changing
Ash leaned her head on Dominic's strong shoulder as she listened to Sirius and Ava carry on a muddled conversation at the small table. He look so different now; so different from the boy she once knew from school. He was a fallen man. It was his eyes that betrayed him. He was a man who had seen and experienced many things. Yet there was still a hidden fire veiled by two gray curtains.
Every time she unexpectedly caught those eyes her heart jumped a bit. It was quite confusing have him and Dominic in the same room together. She couldn't be sure if that jump was one of a friendship trying to be rekindled or something more.
Dom's hand on her leg brought Ash out of her thoughts. She looked up at him into his light smoke eyes. He was so like Sirius, in many more ways then in the flesh. With a soft smile, he lightly kissed her forehead. She smiled back at him.
Lily stirred from Ash and Dom's bed, mumbling something.
Ash jumped up, "Lily's waking," She stared at her eyelids flutter open exposing two very emerald eyes. She let an uncomfortable cough and gave her a weak smile, "Feeling better?"
She felt someone staring at her, the hair on her neck pricked slightly but she merely shook it off.
Dominic had his hand safely on her shoulder and she reached out to touch him. On the corner of her eyes, she could see Sirius look away. She almost felt...bad...
No. Why are you going to feel bad? Did you forget what he did to you? This would be him if he wasn't the high-and-mighty domineering overweening bloke he was!
"Oh god, I am so sorry," Lily managed weakly. "I didn't mean to get all weird on you guys, I usually start to feel this way when I'm trying hard to remember something."
"Don't feel embarrassed, I mean you just gave us a shock was all." Ava said, already warming up to her. Ash just kept her head high and her smile on.
"I'm Dominic, Ashtyns fiancé." He said giving Lily a broad smile, sticking out his hand warmly. He turned away and gave Ash an accusatory look, as if saying 'Can you be any ruder?'
Ash stared nervously at the frail Lily on the bed, even she caught on. She darted her eyes from Sirius to Dominic and then smiled, a little smile that Ash used to see her make.
"Oh yes, sorry. My fiancé. Don't you love hearing it?" She said, nudging Dominic playfully.
Lily smiled graciously, "So last night, the last thing I remember hearing, was about Severus..."
Sirius made a coughing fit and stared deep into Ash, "I'm not sure that's something we can help you with."
Lily stared at him like he was an infectious bug, Ash gave him a bewildered look, "What?"
"What he means is," Ava said, walking around, thinking over her words. "Is that, we don't know the fine details. We're guessing that James knows the whole story but we doubt it, because he hardly liked to get involved with your love life, but the most we know is that you were with him for a long while and all of a sudden you weren't."
"All of a sudden?" Lily repeated, confused and frustrated.
"All of a sudden." Ava repeated, shooting Sirius and pained expression.
Lily felt as if every time she conquered an obstacle, another lied ahead. Making her life more complicated then it already had to be. She felt like a lab rat, every time she thought she caught the scent of the cheese she ran into a dead end.
She felt Ash's eyes on her and she looked up, "So James would know?"
Ash shrugged, not meeting her eyes, "If anyone knew, it'd be him. Like Ava said, we didn't know the finer details."
Sirius stopped his glaring at Dominic's hand on Ash's lower back enough to add, "If you want, I can bring him--"
"No, take me to James. It's about time, I give him a visit." Her voice sounded dark and dangerous.
"She should know," Ava hissed to them outside Lily's room. "It's her life; just because she gets hit in the head doesn't mean we could play with her life."
"I'm just saying, maybe there's a reason she didn't remember in the first place," Ash snapped at her, she turned to Sirius for support, "Don't you think it would have came back to her if it was so important? And if it wasn't for your arse, she wouldn't have needed to know."
Ava sighed impatiently and stared into the pits of both of their eyes, "If I knew about the details of her relationship with Severus, without a doubt, I would rush in there and tell her everything. But as luck would have it, I don't. So there's basically nothing I could do but try to convince you Ash to do the right thing."
Ash's eyes turned into venomous slits, her fists balled until her knuckles turned white. She stepped forward and snapped nastily, "The only right thing to do in this situation is to just not mention this at all. You're right about thing though, Ava, you don't know the details so you don't know what you're risking to tell her. It's better off this way, trust me."
"I agree. I remember when they were together," Sirius said in a very low pensive voice. "It was like he had a hold on her, it wasn't healthy and what if she goes back to him? There's something not right about ol' Snivelly. There never has been."
"I'll drink to that." Ash agreed, putting her hand on his shoulder and then quickly removed it when she realized what she was doing. She felt her face blush; maybe people were right when they said old feelings never died...but maybe she was mistaking memories for feelings? Maybe the rush of everything was making her feel this way.
Ava gave up her hands exasperated, "I give up with you two. But this isn't the end. I'm taking her to James."
Sirius put her hand on her shoulder, "Think about what you're doing, before you do anything foolish."
"Ha--what are you doing giving that advice?" Ava scoffed, shaking his hand off. "If there was anything that had hypocrisy written all over it--that sentence would be it. Maybe you should follow your own advice before you start preaching it."
Sirius and Ash watched her storm into Lily's room, without a glance back. Ash started to feel very aware of her surroundings; she felt the heat of his skin radiate close to hers. She realized that Dominic went out to get something to eat and that he might be back any moment.
Sirius sighed and leaned against the wall; he shook his hair and ran a hand through it smoothly. He still had that boyish charm that did him so well during school.
Typical Sirius Black, always getting her blood boiling without even saying anything.
"So, these are some interesting turn of events." Sirius scoffed and then added a smirk. Ash let out a weak chuckle. "Like a couple of weeks ago, she was just a girl who worked for me and now she's Lily?"
"Funny, how some things turn out to be bigger then they seem." Ash replied smoothly.
He nodded at her words, "So, wedding plans coming along nicely?"
She nodded uncomfortably, this wasn't her ideal conversation she wanted to have with a man she used to have an intimate relationship with. "Date is set, arrangements made...just have to finish passing out some last minute invitations." She started to scrimmage through her purse and finally pulled out a heavy parchment envelope with gold embroidered on top and gold letters that read 'Mr. Sirius Black, AKA Padfoot.' She passed it to him, blushing a deep crimson.
He looked at it and gave it a laugh; he stared at the letter like it was a piece of stone... He couldn't believe it... What happened to the days he used to have back at Hogwarts? When he could lie in bed with Ash all day, be with his mates, not have to worry about rent or dying because of the Dark Lord...without a care in the world? When he could play quidditch all day long, know that everyone was safe and call Ash his?
Those days were gone forever; he might as well just let 'em go but...
"What's up mate? Kind of lost you there for a second." Ash let out a nervous laugh.
"Huh? Oh, yah, well... I was just thinking of some stuff." He grinned at her, and looked away. "You know, school memories and all."
She laughed, "Thinking of me, are you?" She blushed immediately as the words escaped her mouth.
Sirius wasn't going to let her be ashamed to talk about them so he stared, "Actually yes, I was. I can still see you, your brown skin shining in the sun. You have your hair combed back. Sunglasses on."
Ash let out a laugh, "I still have those you know, and the sunglasses you gave me. The big ones that cover my eyes completely...yah, still have them. But sadly, no longer brown, now I am a tad bit pale."
"A tad bit? Ash, you need to reintroduce yourself to a little thing called sunlight. And have you eaten anything in the past four hundred months? You're skinnier then my little finger."
Ash shoved him and was about to reply.
"Ashtyn, we have to go—we have to still do some things." Dominic's voice rang through her ears, kind of like a wake up call to reality. This wasn't Hogwarts anymore. He wrapped a hand nurturingly around her neck and gave her a big kiss on the lips, her whole body tingled with emotions. She stared deeply into his eyes and searched for something that made him different then Sirius, something she can call her own and hold on to it incase she did anything...she'd regret.
"Okay babe, let me say good bye." She turned to face a crest-fallen Sirius. "I have to go love," She reached for his hand. "Take care, will you? Keep out of trouble. I'll see you when I see you." She gave him a kiss on the kiss like some people do when they're being introduced. "Bye, tell them I said so too."
She grabbed hold of her fiancé and walked away from her past, slowly but surely without looking back no matter how much it killed her not to.
Lily nervously stormed through James front door with Ava closely tagging along behind her, this moment was triggering a memory Lily had of her and Ava storming in the boys common room to yell at Remus.
She found James in his living room placidly making himself a potion while listening to his radio.
His eyes widened when he caught Lily's. His mouth started to feel sultry; he cleared his throat to try to make out words but nothing.
"Hello to you too, James," Lily said dangerously to him, her eyes were like two bowls of green flames yet her face was expressionless. "I know I must have shocked you a bit with my unexpected visit, but there was no time you use to the telly." She motioned at the muggle machine next to his kitchen. "I was just wondering if you can help me with a few minor details of past that I can't remember, but you being my best friend at the time, would know, wouldn't you?"
James, taken aback by the sheer arbitrariness of the question, became hesitant in answering. He nodded his head slowly.
"Very well," Her eyes brightened. "Ava has mentioned to me a few things about me that I wasn't aware of and when they were brought up with Ash and Sirius, they told me that if anyone knew it'd be you."
James cleared his throat and smiled at her.
Lily gave him a small smile back and edged near her, "You'd tell me if you knew, right?"
James nodded, "I'd try my best."
"Great, great, great. So how about telling me how my relationship with Severus ended?" Her eyes turned into slits and her expression toughened.
James eyes widened but he remained still, "I'm sorry, I can't say I know anything about that."
"What?" She spat. "You were my best friend!"
He nodded in agreement, "But I refused to ask questions about that, I just knew that it began and ended." He then furrowed his eyebrows, "Did you say that Ash told you she didn't know?" She nodded, devastated by his answer. "That's complete rubbish. She counseled you throughout the end. He left you for some plain as the nose on your face reason and she knows it, she was with you the entire night you cried." His tone was dead and pungent.
Lily sighed, "How was I when I was with him?"
He licked his lips and closed his eyes as he answered with sullenness, "Happy."
She scoffed, "That must have been a good feeling."
Ava felt ill at ease standing there so she apparated without saying a goodbye.
"I forgot how much of a coward she was."
James nudged her, "Don't feel so blue, I'll help you figure everything out. This is just another obstacle, one more." She looked up at him and smiled, an obstacle--that's exactly how she had described it. She kissed his cheek and watched him blush. He tried kissing her on the lips but she pulled away.
"I'm not sure how I feel about you for you to be kissing me that way again, last time, I let my feelings get the best of me and I won't let that happen again." Lily said with a hand on his knee. "And besides, you didn't bother writing me or anything. What did you think I was? A scarlet woman?" She fumed.
James smiled shamefacedly at her, "You're right, I'm sorry. No excuse can make up for it except for the fact that I'm a coward."
Lily stared at him skeptically, "That doesn't sound like a James Potter answer to me."
"Well, missy, times changing." He scoffed at her.
She sighed, "Yes it is."
A/N- Twist in the plot. No James and Lily yet? Nope, not yet. Would you all of a sudden get in a relationship when you just figured out who you were? No, I don't think so.---An idea, whatever ever happened to Heather--Flowers best friend--next chapter. More Severus in the next chapter. Remus next chapter too. Ashs weddings coming up.
If you notice "Boys of Summer" quote somewhere in the chappy.
NO FLAMING. constructive crticism.