Coercive Measures
By Dimantrien
A/N – To the person who asked about the cm cm cm things… they were used to divide the different scenes because doesn't want me to use asterisks or other special characters. Stands for the title. Sorry if it was confusing.
Thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday! That day certainly was fun, if you should know. My friends were the one who threw a party for me instead of the other way around…nyehehe…XP
Chapter 3: Operation Breakup (in which it is revealed that all students have selective hearing)
Lily cleared her throat, scanning the room and the activity of every person in it. The seventh year Gryffindors were situated in the Charms classroom, and Professor Flitwick was sick (actually, he got in the way of a particularly strong Reduction Spell while trying to stop Lily and James' impromptu duel that morning, and was currently stuck inside a glass jar for safekeeping inside the hospital wing). For this reason, the class was ordered to have an 'independent study' which, in simpler words, was translated to 'do whatever you want s long as you don't blow up the classroom.' Sirius Black showed his superiority to the concepts of independent study by lighting a couple of Filibuster Fireworks and blowing a hole straight through the middle of the blackboard.
Amidst the chatter of several different conversations, Lily and James stood in the center of the room. Lily was looking a little sick, and James was glaring at her.
"Can you hurry up? I don't have all day to do this, you know," James hissed at her.
"Um…right," Lily said distractedly, temporarily occupied with glowering at their classmates, who weren't paying the least bit of attention to the,. Lily cleared her throat again and arranged her face into what she hoped was a regretful expression. "Look, Po—James," she began, sounding like she had just said a vile word, "I'm really sorry but…"
James was staring vacantly at her, mumbling in an awed tone, "Wow, that's the first time you've ever apologized to me before…" Lily stomped hard on his foot, and he forced himself to convulse inconspicuously as waves of pain washed over his toes. "I mean," he said through gritted teeth, "What is it? Is there something wrong, Lily…honey?" James twitched.
Lily's complexion turned from pale to a light green. Still, she managed to keep an even glare on the other people in the room, who appeared to not have taken in a word of what they were saying. "I'm sorry, but we have to break up," she said loudly. Nobody even looked up.
James tried to change his countenance from revolted to confused, ending up with looking constipated. "But why? We've been getting along so well…"
Earlier on, Lily and he had had another fight over who got to dump who. James said that he had been victimized enough just by having to stand in Lily's presence close enough to smell her light perfume ("What kind of smell is that? Is it called 'Devil's Halitosis' or something?" after which he was promptly whacked over the head with a wand); Lily retorted that she wasn't any less unfortunate for being forced to try engaging in a civil conversation with him (which in her opinion was humanly impossible). James demanded to get the upper hand because he was tired of being as the good little whipping boy and didn't want any more degradations to his image. Lily pointed out that since that was the way students portrayed him already, it would be more believable if he played the part of the clingy and pathetic idiot. Lily won.
Which was why she was delivering her lines a little bit more convincingly than James, who was having enough trouble keeping the bitterness out of his voice as it was.
Lily snorted quietly after hearing James' reply. "No, we haven't. We've been fighting too much the past few days…and…er…it's not healthy for a couple to always argue. So I think it would be best if we go our own separate ways for a while." More like for all eternity, she added mentally.
James tried to focus his imagination into the near, Lily-free future where he wouldn't have to interact with her everyday to discuss how to make people understand that they weren't together, and took a deep breath, steeling himself for what he was about to say next. "But Lily…you can't. I need you," he whined, or tried to. He had never said anything more unspeakable in his life. And he did it of his own free will. He glanced outside, as if to make sure the sky wasn't falling on them yet.
"I'm sorry, but it's over," Lily said firmly. James didn't make a move to say anything in reply. "I think this is where you hold onto me now," she whispered, sounding revolted herself at the very idea.
James gladly obliged, latching his left hand onto her upper arm in one swift movement. "OW! Not so hard, you moron!" Lily half-yelled, stepping back and tripping over a chair, making James stumble and fall to the floor half on top of her in the process. There was a loud crash, and one of their classmates who was milling around the classroom looked down at them.
"What are you two doing?" she asked, puzzled.
"We're breaking up," Lily said sourly, pushing James out of her personal space. James muttered darkly about stupid klutzes who had no sense of gravity whatsoever.
The girl standing above them didn't say anything for a moment. "Oh. That's nice," she said finally, before walking away. Lily and James groaned simultaneously.
Just then, the door swung open and Professor McGonagall stepped in. "Seventh years! Will you please tone it down a little? There are other classes down the hall, if you were left unaware," she snapped. She glanced at the still-smoking hole in the blackboard, "Detention, Black," she said sharply, and Sirius stood up, sputtering "But how would you know I did it?!" McGonagall gave him an exasperated look, as well as the rest of the class, before turning on her heel to leave the room. Just as she was about to close the door, she added, "Oh, and Potter and Evans, do please try to restrain your urges until later. This is still a classroom, after all."
Now everyone had the politeness to glance down at Lily and James. They turned into varying shades of red as they scrambled to their feet and kept a five-foot distance between each other.
And then the bell rang.
IIIIIIIIII
"It wasn't that bad, Lily," Raine tried to reassure the redhead as the latter violently stabbed at the peas on her plate with her fork.
"'Course it wasn't that bad," Midori said in a muffled voice as she swallowed a bite of chicken. "In fact, it actually sucked royally." She had the decency to quail under Raine's glare.
After mutilating the helpless peas, Lily's fork moved onto the piece of chicken. "Why is it that when we don't do anything, people find something utterly disgusting to talk about us when they see us, but when we actually want them to look at us, they mysteriously turn blind???"
"So you're referring to you and James as 'us' now, are you?" Midori said innocently, glancing sidelong at James, who was just a few seats down and appeared to be being berated by Sirius.
Lily scowled at her, flicking a bit of peas in her direction. "What do I do now?" she asked, addressing her question to Raine.
Raine shrugged. "I dunno. Operation Break Up doesn't seem to be a very effective plan…"
"It was your idea," Midori pointed out.
"Do you have to antagonize everything I say?" Raine said exasperatedly.
"No, but it's fun watching your face twitch like that," was the cheerful reply.
Lily and Raine exchanged I-don't-know-how-the-hell-she-became-our-best-friend-so-don't-ask-me looks.
"Don't look like that," Midori said quickly, pretending to look offended. "I just think you and James really should get together."
There was a lengthy pause in which Raine put her fork down and Lily coughed violently to try to dislodge the piece of chicken she had suddenly swallowed the wrong way.
"Are—you—insane?" Lily said, emphasizing each word with a pause. Raine glanced at Lily, then at James, then back at Lily.
Midori shrugged. "Well, if practically everyone in Hogwarts is egging you two on to get into a relationship, then why not give it a try?" she pointed out matter-of-factly.
"Because I would be subjecting myself to mental and emotional torture twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week if I did, that's why!" Lily replied, still eyeing Midori as if she were quite mentally unstable.
Midori shot her a Cheshire-cat grin. "Ah, but don't you two do that already?"
Lily felt her face heat up. "That's only because we need to put our heads together to find a way to reverse everyone's sudden and severe case of idiot complex! It's not like it's permanent!"
"Whatever you say, Lily…" Midori singsonged.
Lily threw her hands up in vexation. "Ugh! You are so…"
Raine laid her right cheek on her palm, her elbow propping up her arm on the table. "This is going to be a long day…"
IIIIIIIIII
Although Lily was currently in a very bad mood, it might have given her some pleasure if she had known that James didn't have it any easier either. As Midori had seen earlier during their conversation, James was indeed being lectured by his best friend.
"How could you do something like this, Prongs? We haven't even started on any of our pranks yet! Do you want your sacrifice to bear no fruit? You can't break up with her until we show everyone the proof that Snivellus is terrified of little bunny rabbits!" Sirius paused. "Man, that was really funny. I can't wait to see everyone's reactions when they find out."
James rolled his eyes, still brooding about the disastrous 'breakup.' "I told you, Padfoot, she isn't really my—"
"Just hold on for a little bit longer! I know it's hard to manage under the strain of it all, but you can't crack now! You've put too much effort into this to just throw it all away!" Sirius rambled on, completely unaware of what James was saying.
James glared daggers at Remus, who had his fist in his mouth to stop from sniggering out loud.
"Don't be so hard on him, Sirius. After all, this is his worst rival he's pretending to be in love with. This kind of work must be very…tiring to keep up, right, Prongs?" Remus said innocently, looking in James' direction. James scowled in reply.
"Just remember that when it gets too hard for you, we're always here when you need us," Peter chimed in.
Sirius nodded in approval. "See, Prongs? Don't think that we're going to let you shoulder the entire burden. You can count on us when it gets too much for you. Just don't make one of us get into a broom closet with Evans," he said, looking aghast at the thought. "I don't know how you did it. I mean, Evans is pretty and all, but she's such a shrew, you know? I'm supposed to have the chick magnetism in this group, but even I wouldn't dare to snag her. You just blow me away sometimes."
But James' mind was already on other things, mainly, how to bring about threatening to feed Sirius to the giant squid to knock some sense into him. Not that Sirius had that much sense to begin with, anyway.
At least Evans doesn't look too happy either, he thought with a sadistic smirk as he watched Lily being teased relentlessly by her Asian friend.
As he tuned back in on what Sirius was saying, he sighed. This is going to be a long day…
IIIIIIIIII
They had Potions in the afternoon, and they worked in pairs. Lily and James were partners, much to their dismay. Unfortunately for them, their Potions professor found their being a 'couple' extremely cute and decided to do them a 'favor' and just pair them together on the activity.
"So what do we do now?" Lily asked as she set up their cauldron.
"Add an eye of newt…" James muttered vaguely as he stared at the textbook, and he felt something slimy come into contact with his hair. "What the—I meant into the cauldron, Evans, or did you forget that that's where we normally brew our potions?" he said irritably, realizing (in horror) that it was said eye of newt that was tangled in his unruly locks.
"I wasn't asking about the potion, pinhead," Lily retorted, the jar of newt eyes in her left hand, while her right was on the ready to hurl another one at James if needed.
"Did I mention that I really, really hate you Evans?" James hissed at her, getting goo all over his hand as he extracted the newt eye from his hair and threw it in the cauldron. "And what did you assume I was supposed to think? This is Potions class, after all."
"There are some things more important than schoolwork," Lily replied placidly, replacing the cap of the jar and setting it on the counter.
James twirled his wand at the side of his head, successfully making himself look like a lunatic. "Never thought I'd hear you say that—Scourgify," he said, and all traces of eye of newt vanished from his head.
"I care about my grades as much as the next person—" Lily started (James let out a cough which sounded a lot like "more like obsessed"), "—but when it comes to matters where you're involved, then that's another issue."
"Why, thank you for making me a first priority, Evans. I feel so special," James quipped.
"Oh, I didn't mean that as a compliment. Anything which involves you, in my point of view, is simply repugnant, which is why it needs to be rectified in the fastest way possible." They glared at each other, and they proved their expertise in that particular art by doing it while simultaneously throwing in the ingredients for their potion into their cauldron.
"Well, I'm not going to stand for being mistaken for your boyfriend—" and here James shuddered "—beyond this evening, if I can help it. I'm surprised anybody could even think that you could get somebody, especially someone like me—"
"Someone brash, impertinent, narcissistic and with a head the size of China, you mean? I'm surprised people would actually consider me being desperate enough to make do with someone as low as you..."
"What did you just say, Evans?!"
"Look who's talking, smartass!"
By this time thick clouds of a sickly green-colored smoke were rising up from their cauldron, throwing everyone near them into a fit of coughs and wheezes.
"Potter! Evans! What are you two doing?!" Professor Goldwin said frantically, waving her wand around as she walked briskly toward them. The smoke cleared and what she saw were her two students staring intensely at each other, their faces so close that their noses were almost touching. The lecture that she was about to unleash on them died in her mouth, which she put a hand over in pleasant surprise. "Oh! I see…" She beamed at them, and as if on cue Lily and James noticed her presence.
Lily's immediate thought was that they were in trouble for not minding their potion, and failed to see the knowing smile on her teacher's face. "Wait, Professor, I can explain… We were doing the potion right so far, but Potter here—" she glared at James "was distracting me—"
The redhead realized that this was the wrong thing to say when Professor Goldwin's smile widened. "Don't worry a thing about it, dear; I know that you youngsters are so easily distracted, especially when there's something—or someone—constantly on your mind…Just remember that you've still got classes to finish, all right? Now, since you two are just in the first phase of things, it's understandable that you're not yet used to not keeping your minds off each other…so I forgive you this time." She winked at them before returning to her table up at the front of the room.
"Wait, Professor, it's not what you think—" both Lily and James sputtered, and Professor Goldwin just waved a hand at them.
"I said don't worry about it. Now go fix up your potion. I'm sure you two will be able to do it excellently if you first concentrate at the matter at hand before…other things." She looked quite pleased at herself and gave them an encouraging smile before returning to grading the first years' homework assignment.
As an instantaneous effect of the previous scene they made, whisperings and murmurs broke out over the students, which, unfortunately for the two Head students, included the Ravenclaws whom they shared Potions classes with.
"Great. Bloody brilliant, Evans," James said, slumping down on the floor and leaning against the counter of their work area.
"And the same goes for you," Lily responded disconsolately, mimicking his movements and sliding down next to him.
They sat there for a while, looking quite like the dejected pair for a few moments amidst the continuous mutterings and glances courtesy of their classmates, before a strange new resolve hardened in their eyes and they said together:
"This ends now."
IIIIIIIIII
A/N- Shorter than usual, I know. Does anybody even read this? Because nobody acknowledged what I said about not being sure about updating fast…and most people told me to update soon. Hence, the result is this chapter, which is only half as long as the previous one. I really don't have much time to write (unless it's schoolwork, which I'm forced to accomplish anyway). And speaking of school, it leaves me brain-dead, which contributes to the lack of ideas I come up with whenever I park my butt in front of the monitor to continue this story. I'm really lazy when it comes to writing down important things like plotlines. Read my bio and you'll understand.
Till then (and expect a much LONGER update date),
--::Dimantrien::-