Authors' note (actually important)

I accidentally changed Crystal's name to Sarah without realizing it. So from now on Sarah is her best friend and Crystal does not exist. Thank you to Lezah for pointing that out. Also thanks to truefariy lights and Cassie93 for reviews. Oh, and Cassie 93 who does like him. I'm planning on having James get revenge later. Yea.

Pretend Magic and Spiders

This chapter is dedicated to Lezah since she is the first one to point out my mistake.

The next morning Lily was woken up rather abruptly. Aimee had just dumped a bucket of cold water "You overslept idiot. Our first class is in an half hour." At that Aimee and Sarah ran out of the room to get breakfast, leaving Lily to clean up the mess. She was still half asleep 15 minutes later when she followed to grab something to eat. By the time she got down to the Great Hall the majority of the people had already left for their classes. The only other seventh year Gryffindor was James. He looked about as awake as Lily felt. "What the heck" Lily thought to herself. She went over to sit by James. James turned to look at her, "To what do I owe this pleasant surprise" he asked. "I overslept, then Aimee pored a bucket of water over my head to wake me up" James started laughing. At that point Lily glanced at her watch and for the first time realized exactly how late she was. She quickly grabbed her books, got up, and started to walk away. James reached out and grabbed her hand with the intent of telling her to stay. But when Lily flinched and pulled away he remembered why he had overslept. Instead he got up and walked with her. "So what class do you have next that you're in such a hurry to get to" he asked her, attempting to start a conversation. "History of magic. With Professor Binns" "You still take that class!" James stared at her in disbelief. "I gave it up after fourth year. How do you even stay awake." "Well some of us don't know everything without trying." "You should skip it for today. Hang out with me instead." Lily glanced at him. Her disbelief must have shown on her face because James quickly amended his offer, "I can coach you in Quidditch" Lily smiled, "Thanks, but no thanks" She walked away again. This time James just watched her go.

Lily hurried on to her class. There were only two other Ravenclaws in the class with her. There were only four people in her year that had actually passed the OWLs. The other one was James. Lily smiled at that thought. Five minutes later Lily was wishing that she had gone with James. For the first time even she could not pay attention. Five minutes after that she was asleep.

"Lily, Lily" Someone was shaking Lily awake. "Leave me alone." she muttered. "But class is over." At that Lily sat up with a start. "You can borrow my notes" offered the guy who had woke her up. He was a 6' 5'', one of the few guys taller then James and Sirius, brainiac. With green eyes, brown hair, and a six-pack, he wasn't bad looking either. "Thanks Chris" Lily flashed him a smile. "Copia" There were now two copies of notes. Lily stood up and started walking. Chris followed her. "So why were you so tired anyway. Late night?" "Yeah I was doing some studying." "Yeah, just like you." This time it was Chris who smiled, or at least started to smile. He was looking over Lily's shoulder. All of a sudden he turned to Lily, "I-I have to go." Lily turned around. "Hi James" she said hesitantly.

"I thought I would wait for your class to end. Why were you talking to him?" There was a look of disgust on his face.

"I fell asleep during class so he lent me his notes." she admitted sheepishly.

"Just be careful" James said.

"Why"

'cause I don't want to see you get hurt again. That guy is almost as bad as Jesse.' he thought. "You fell asleep." James said, effectively changing the subject. "You might have well as gone with me."

"I guess I got kept up to late last night with a game of truth and dare."

"Sorry about that. I'll make it up to you. Come with me now."

"Sorry. I have to go meet Aimee."

"Tomorrow"

"Quidditch practice, captain"

"Friday"

"What you don't have a date. Fine," Lily said with some reluctance.

"Great. When's your next class."

"Not for another hour and a half. Why?"

"Come with me"

"Yet again, Why?"

"I'll show you"

And they were off. James was in the lead and Lily was following. "I found this place in my first year. It became my secret haven." "Who were you hiding from" Lily teased. "The other Marauders" James said in a deadpan voice. Lily came to an abrupt stop. "Really, you have to get away from the people you are stuck to at the hip." "No, don't take stuff so seriously." Lily resumed walking. "I first went here when my Aunt and Uncle died a couple years ago. And, I don't know, it was nice. There was no one around. I've never shown anyone else where it was before and I doubt that anyone other then Dumbledore knows that it's here." "So why did you decide to show me." "Cause after last night I figured that you might need a place to go to also." "Thank you." Lily's voice was filled with gratitude and her eyes welled up with tears. "It's nothing to cry about." James seemed suddenly embarrassed. They walked in silence for about ten minutes.

"Well here it is" James said with a flourish, breaking the silence. Lily looked sceptical, "A wall" James tapped a brick with his wand. "Ladies first." Lily walked in. All it was, was a circular room with a window. The walls were grey stone and it gave off a depressing feel. James waved his wand and a couch appeared. "It's not much but much out the window," he instructed. Lily walked over and looked. She immediately got a headache. The view was amazing other then the fact they were about 150 meters off the ground. The entire grounds were visible. You could see the lake and the Quidditch pitch the best. At the very least the view was breathtaking. It was one of those views that people spent their entire lives looking for. Lily wished that she had a camera. She could stare out this window for hours just watching the world around her. "Lily" James said, breaking her out of her trance. "You like it," it wasn't a question. "I love it. So what do you do to amuse yourself up here." "Well normally I only come up here when I'm sad so I just stare out the window." Lily was amazed she had never seen this side of James before.

"But since there is two of us let's play cards."

"No way. I know how you and Sirius hustle the younger years."

"No money"

"Okay, what's the game?"

"Strip poker." Lily pulled out her wand. "Okay, okay" James held up his hands in defeat. He magicked up some chips and for the next half hour they sat there, just playing cards. The game finally ended when James bet all of is money on a pair of two's. Needless to say Lily won that round and all of the money. "So since I'm the winner, what do I get?"

"You get to choose where we go on Friday."

"That's a horrible prize. So what do we do next?"

"Talk" "Talk." Lily said sceptically. "About what"

"About anything. Tell me one thing I don't know about you"

"When I was younger I used to believe I could do magic."

"So what, every little kid knows that."

"You forget that I was a muggle. So anyway, I went around for weeks carrying a plastic wand and saying nonsense spells. I even wore a cape and hat. My friends all thought I was insane and stopped talking to me until I was back to normal. I suppose they would bow down to me now if they knew I was actually a wizard. Jesse made me tell them that I was going away to boarding a school that is completely cut off from civilization." James scowled at the mention of Jesse. "So tell me one thing I don't know James."

"When I was a little kid I was afraid of spiders. Sirius knew that. So one day he charmed a spider to follow me everywhere. I was so scared of that spider that I wouldn't even get near enough to squish it. I stated running around trying to get it to stop following me. Eventually I struck on the brilliant idea that it was afraid of heights. So I ran to the tallest room in my house. The spider obviously followed. I then decided to jump out the window and it would die trying to follow. It didn't even occur to me that I might die. You have to understand how scared of this spider I was to get why I did this. So anyway I got on the windowsill and jumped. The spider just used a thread of it's silk to float down. I had run to the tallest room of my house so I had been four stories up. I fell to the ground and was immediately unconscious. I woke up about three days later. It turns out that my father had just gotten home and he had saved me from actually. He is-was a Healer. Sirius was banned from my house for a week after that." Lily started laughing hysterically. Tears were rolling out of her eyes. "Hey, don't laugh. I was emotionally traumatized after that. I wouldn't talk to Sirius for two weeks nor would I go in that room for over a year. I still can not stand spiders."

Lily stopped laughing. "I am sorry that it was so traumatizing for you Potter." she said sarcastically.

"So you're back to Potter."

"I refuse to be on a first name basis with a wimp."

"Wimp, huh?" James said this with an evil tone in his voice. He leaned over on the couch and started tickling her. "Take it back." "Mercy, mercy. I take it back." she screamed. All of a sudden there was a loud crash and scream. Lily stood up, nearly causing James to fall to the floor. She opened the door and ran out of the room. After eight minutes of hard running she reached the Great Hall. She stared in dread at what she saw. James gasped at what he saw.

Lying on the floor was Professor Serirgro, dead. "Calm down, calm down everyone." Dumbledore shouted in a scary calm voice. "We will find out how this happened. His death will not go un avenged. However until then I would like to ask everyone to return home for one week well we straighten this out. I do not know how this happened and until I find out everyone would be safer at their own homes. If you can not return to your own house please ask a friend. No one may stay here. I am deeply sorry that this had to happen so close to the beginning of the school year. I assure everyone that all will be back to normal as of next week. This will not happen again." Dumbledore walked away carrying Professor's Serirgro's body. Tears were streaming down his face. James turned to Lily. He saw her lips move. "Jesse," she whispered. Her voice full of fear and hate. James grabbed her by the hand. Lily lost in her own private nightmares didn't even flinch. He dragged her to a secluded and spoke with a low voice. "Lily would you like to come to my house for the week. I mean I know it isn't much, but at least I'm better then that guy. I mean it would be just you and me, since my parents are well. But still. I'm just offering since you friends might be suspicious that you don't want to go home for the week." he rambled on "Stop James. I would love to go to your house. Thank you." her voice betrayed how much gratitude.

An hour later all of the students were packed and ready to go. They loaded onto the bus. Since this was a special occasion and not a regular trip the Heads and Prefects didn't have to patrol the corridors. The Professors were doing that. When they got on the train Lily headed towards the Marauders' compartment, forgetting that her friends did not know about her recent friendship with James. "Where are you going Lily?" Sarah asked in a have-you-gone-insane voice. "To sit with the Marauders." she answered automatically. "Since when do you sit with them. Only three days ago you were swearing revenge at all costs." Aimee pointed out. "Well we recently bonded." Lily said trying to figure out how to explain with out revealing to many secrets, especially Jesse. "Over what" Sarah asked, this time her voice was more of a are-you-under-a-hex-and-should-I-commit-you-to-an-insane-asylum voice. "Over Quidditch" Lily said, relieved to have thought of an excuse. Sarah and Aimee looked a her suspiciously but they followed her with no further complaints.

"Hi" Lily stepped into the compartment. She took a seat next to James. Aimee still staring at her suspiciously took one next to Remus, unaware of his crush on her. Sarah, the flirt of the group, took a seat next to Sirius. She struck up a conversation with him and pretty soon they were talking like they had known each other forever. Aimee was shy but soon enough Remus had her talking. That left Lily to talk to James the only other person in the compartment. (Wormtail had a mysterious illness that required him to be stuck at St. Mungo's for a week and a half. His entire body had turned right blue.) They talked about everything. Well everything they could talk about in front of the others. Finally Sirius got bored, short attention span, and suggested a game of exploding snap. That kept him entertained until the train ride ended. When the train ride finally everyone jumped off with relief to stand up. The other two Marauders rushed off to various means of transportation, Sirius had his Harley and Remus was apparating to his house. Sarah and Aimee were slower at saying goodbye but eventually they left with their parents. As far as they knew Lily was going to her parents house by means of apparating and shortly after the entire family was taking a trip to France. As soon as they left James walked over to her. "Shall we" he said offering her his arm. Lily refused the physical contact but said "We shall"

A/N

It is 1:30 A.M. so I have to stop writing and go to bed. I think this is my longest chapter to date so please give me some props for that. I know that Dumbledore would never actually shut down the school, but I really wanted Lily to have to go to James' house. Thank you for the reviews. Please give me some more seeing as I've been writing this chapter on and off since 7 p.m. and got my family mad since I was hogging the computer.

Your loyal writer

Magicgirl557