Coercive Measures
By Dimantrien
AN – Late! I did warn you…but at least it's the longest chapter yet, right?
Chapter 4: A Misunderstanding (in which Lily learns that one shouldn't pick up things without his/her name on it)
At dinnertime, everyone was peacefully eating his or her dinner (as peacefully as a crowd of chattering students can be, anyway), when one person stood up on his chair and made all others look up in mild curiosity.
"Ahem," James said, clearing his throat and scanning the room to see if he held everyone's attention. "I would just like to inform everyone, despite various rumors that are completely untrue, that Lily Evans and I are in fact, not dating." There was quite a long pause in which all eyes stared for a long while at the raven-haired boy, and then the whole Hall exploded with peals of laughter, save for a few Slytherins, who were too dignified to roll around on the floor sniggering or let fly particles of food from their mouths from guffawing so loud. Still, they had amused looks on their faces, probably relishing the fact that James Potter, a Gryffindor and the Head Boy of the school, was purposefully putting himself up to be the resident clown of the day.
"Good one, Potter!"
"Best joke I've heard all week!"
"I knew you and your gang haven't set off a prank in ages…but this is just as hilarious, I'd say!"
James clearly wasn't expecting this kind of reaction, and was prepared to shout his lungs out to make them all shut up and listen to him some more, when somebody kicked the leg of his chair and caused him to lose his balance and fall with a crash to the floor.
He looked up at Lily, who was standing over him with a smirk on her face.
"Evans, I hate you more than any words can possibly say," he said to her, scowling and rubbing his backside with a wince of pain.
"Too bad everyone's refusing to believe it," Lily replied. "I'm terribly sorry you didn't quite get your message across, but you have to admit, it was really funny." She laughed as James stood up.
"I don't see why you should be so amused. After all, this is about you, too." James shot her a smug smile as Lily's own dissolved quickly, replaced by a frown.
"I will not let this misunderstanding carry on further than tonight," Lily announced firmly, unconsciously extending her hand to help James up, but just as James gripped onto her hand and started to haul himself up, she realized what she was doing and quickly retracted her arm. James was sent crashing back to the floor with a painful yelp. Lily smiled innocuously at him. "So sorry. My hand must have slipped."
James gave her another spiteful glare, picking himself up as to avoid any further damage. "Don't worry about it. I know you had good intentions," he responded, voice dripping with sarcasm.
There was a glint in Lily's deep green eyes, and James could tell she was ready to launch into a verbal contest with him, when her two friends suddenly appeared behind her. Midori tapped Lily on the shoulder. "I'd hate to interrupt this lovely moment, but we really do have to get a move on," she said, taking Lily's wrist and tugging at it. "You two have already made a public spectacle of yourselves one too many times today, don't you think? What was the count again, Raine?"
Raine shrugged, absently enumerating them on her fingers. "Well…there was that scene in Transfiguration this morning…then the one in Potions…adding what happened a few minutes ago, it's a total of three rather interesting displays of Lily and James' supposed romance…"
Lily glared at them, clearly remembering the earlier embarrassing occurrences and trying to make them feel guilty for forcing her to do so. "You two are just so—"
But she was never able to tell them what they were, because right then Midori started dragging her away. "'Night, James," the Asian girl called to him over her shoulder, ignoring Lily's loud protests.
Raine shrugged and nodded to James before sprinting to catch up with her two friends.
As James absently watched them exit the Great Hall, an idea popped up in his head. He grinned.
Before the night was over, he would be rid of his "affair" with Lily Evans for good.
"I know it's here somewhere," Lily said, searching for her bag among the rows of chairs lining the Gryffindor table. In Midori's haste to leave, the redhead had forgotten to grab her book bag before they exited the Hall. There were still a fair number of people finishing up the last few bites of food on their plates, but most were starting to stand up and make their way out. Raine was waiting outside by the staircase, not wanting to be bothered by squeezing through the mob of students that she was sure would be emerging from the Great Hall by the time Lily managed to find her bag.
"Wasn't it right beside your chair a while ago?" Midori asked, yawning. She really wished Lily would hurry up so she could go to sleep.
Lily nodded. "Yeah, but somebody must have kicked it and sent it flying somewhere else when Potter was making an idiot of himself…not that he isn't already, come to think of it..."
Midori's almond-shaped eyes surveyed the immediate area. No James. Good. As much as she thought that Lily and James quarreling was a highly entertaining thing to watch, she'd rather not deal with any more antagonism than she had already witnessed that day.
"Oh, here it is!" Lily said, spotting her leather book bag five seats away from where she sat a few minutes ago.
"That must have been some kick," Midori commented with a smirk, mentally measuring the distance between Lily's seat and where her bag was. "Although I don't envy whoever did that, seeing as his toes would be in a sorry state for colliding with the ton of thousand-page books you always have stuffed in that thing."
Lily slung her bag on her shoulder and rolled her eyes. "Come on, Raine's still waiting for us. And it's starting to get pretty crowded at the exit…"
Sure enough, a mass of students was already swarming out of the Great Hall, some people shoving and pushing to get their own right of way. The two girls rushed into the mob and took a while to step out into the wide corridor without other people pushing at them from all sides. Lily frowned, finding it strange that it was still so crowded. Everyone ahead of them had stopped.
"What the…who's causing this holdup? Excuse me, I'm the Head Girl, sorry, coming through—"
"James? Is there something you want? Hey, what are you doing—!" Raine's voice. There were several loud gasps heard, and Lily's eyes narrowed as she pushed through the crowd with Midori at her heels, but it turned out that there was no need. Everyone cut them a wide path to the scene right before them.
James had his arms around Raine, holding in her in what was unmistakably a kiss.
Everyone stared at Lily, waiting for her reaction, and immediately got their wish.
"JAMES THOMAS POTTER!" Lily exploded, her face flushing in anger. That—that sexual harasser! And victimizing her own best friend, too!
James released Raine before turning around slowly towards Lily. Raine stumbled back, a dazed expression on her face.
James was smirking. Why, the nerve of that—!
"You dirty, obnoxious pig! How dare you?! My own best friend—you, you're…" Lily was seething, her usually pale cheeks red with rage.
"Something wrong, Lily, dear?" James asked in an infuriatingly pleasant tone.
How dare he ask her what was wrong?! He just violated her best friend with that foul mouth of his, that was what was wrong!
"Chauvinistic bastard! You just get your stupid plan backfire in your face, and this is what you do?! Is this your idea of a sick joke, Potter?! Shoving your tongue down my best friend's throat? Well, if you think you're going to get away with this without a beating, then you—" There was a tap on Lily's shoulder and she turned around to find Midori shaking her head and gesturing for them to go back upstairs. "What? Don't tell me you actually approve of what he just did!" Lily glanced back at James and saw Raine hurrying up the steps and out of sight.
Midori shrugged and gave Lily what was supposed to be a calming smile. "This is the fourth public spectacle you've made of yourself, and it's just been a day, Lily. Less than twenty-four hours, in fact. Cool down a little, who cares if James Potter just snogged Raine—"
"I CARE! HE WAS HITTING ON MY BEST FRIEND! HOW CAN I NOT CARE?! AND THERE'S NO WAY I'M GOING TO FORGIVE—" Midori gave her a knowing smirk (her back was to the crowd of people so only Lily saw) and the redhead's eyes grew wide for a split-second as understanding dawned on her. She whirled around and stomped up the stairs, her friend putting an arm around her and whispering something in a calm, soothing voice.
Their departure had an instantaneous effect. All the witnesses were buzzing excitedly over the latest turn of events, and in the midst of all the confusion James slipped away unnoticed.
IIIIIIIIII
Midori and Lily found Raine sitting down on her bed, downing a glass of water.
Lily was beside herself with anger and worry, flitting to her friend's side as soon as she stepped into the room. "Raine, are you all right? Did Potter do anything else to you? He wasn't trying to molest you, wasn't he? That scumbag! Just wait till I get my hands on him…and don't do that, you need more than water to get the taste of his putrid mouth out of yours!"
"Of course I am, no, certainly not…and I'm perfectly fine, Lily, you don't have to worry," Raine responded to her questions in order, looking a little exasperated with Lily's mother hen antics.
Midori grinned. "Oi, Lily, how would you know that you need more than water to get rid of the taste of James' mouth? You've kissedhim already?" she asked, her almond shaped eyes widening in feigned surprise.
Lily glared at Midori before continuing with fretting over Raine. "At least brush your teeth to disinfect it! And you'd better do it ten times over just to make sure," she added, taking the liberty of dragging the blonde girl to the bathroom and shoving a toothbrush and a tube of toothpaste into her hands. She barely heard Midori calling out from the bedroom that she was just going to step out for a little while.
"Lily, it was just a kiss; I'm not going to die, seriously—" Raine was cut off from talking as Lily inserted the right end of a toothbrush heavily laden with strawberry-flavored toothpaste into her open mouth.
"Now brush," Lily instructed, giving Raine a do-it-or-else kind of look which vaguely resembled an expression Raine's mother might make. Lily would make a good mother, Raine thought dully as she mechanically followed Lily's command. An image of Lily holding a baby in her arms which looked uncannily like James Potter entered into Raine's mind and she choked on the foamy substance in her mouth, spitting it out onto the sink. Laughing while brushing one's teeth was not a good combination.
"That's it, just spit it out and hopefully after a few more times your mouth will be completely clean again. I'm sure the overpowering flavor of strawberry will win out in the end," Lily assured her. She made a face at the mention of strawberry though, suddenly reminded by the cause of this whole madness that had got her tangled in a problem with James Potter.
Poor Raine was unfortunately forced to repeat the same process ten times straight (Lily insisted that she systematically brush her teeth in three-minute intervals, which resulted in the two of them being stuck inside the bathroom for a little over half an hour. The sudden closing of the door to their dorm room jolted Lily back to her senses and both girls (Raine with a toothbrush still in her mouth) walked out of the bathroom to see Midori.
The raven-haired girl looked at them in mild surprise as she went to sit on her bed. "You two aren't done yet?" she asked. Raine glared at her, then at Lily, before retreating into the bathroom and rinsing off her mouth.
"Where did you go off to?" Lily asked her as she monitored Raine's movements. She seemed satisfied already, though, of which Raine was thankful as she felt that her teeth were already stripped of their outermost coating, what with all the brushing she was forced to do. The redhead plopped down onto her bed and for once looked completely at peace.
Midori shrugged. "Just thought that I'd give you some good news. I went around the school while you were…busy and I managed to catch a few tidbits about the latest things everyone's been saying about your and James' status." She paused. "Well, actually, I didn't exactly have a hard time finding out because most people were practically shouting their theories out to everyone they passed by—"
"What did they say?" Lily interrupted impatiently, just wanting to find out how things turned out.
Midori stared at her for a moment then smiled. "It's happened. Everyone thinks you two have broken up." Lily's eyes widened before she started jumping up and down and pumping her fist in the air.
"Alright! It's finally over! For once, James Potter has done something useful!" the redhead exclaimed, an expression of utter euphoria on her face. She went on along this vein for some time before she stopped and said, "But I'm still going to kill him for defiling Raine like that," she added in a dangerous tone.
Raine put her hands over her ears, scowling at Lily. "Argh, will you stop using words like that? Defile, violate…you make it sound like I got raped or something!"
"James Potter is like a disease. If he touches you even in the slightest way then you'll be instantly corrupted," Lily said matter-of-factly.
"I can see why. You've spent so much time with him that his mental instability is starting to rub off on you," Raine said dryly. "But you have to admit, he's a pretty good kisser," she added, her eyes twinkling.
Lily looked revolted. "Ugh! How can you say that?! I forbid you to mention anything more than platonic about Potter in any way." She shuddered and paled slightly. "The nightmares I'm going to be having after all this…"
"It's relatively hard and complicated to get a disease out of your system once it touches you," Midori muttered slowly, looking contemplatively at Lily. "And if James Potter is like a disease…"
"What are you mumbling about?" Lily suddenly asked her, noticing Midori's thoughtful expression.
Midori merely smiled slightly, shaking her head. "It's nothing...just thinking." She stood up. "I have to talk to someone." Walking briskly to the door, she went out of the room again and swung the door shut behind her.
As they heard the sound of their friend's echoing footsteps going down the staircase, Lily and Raine exchanged puzzled glances. What was that all about?
IIIIIIIIII
There were still plenty of people in the common room, some still excitedly discussing the events that had just occurred half an hour ago, but when Midori glanced around she couldn't find the person she was looking for.
She left Gryffindor Tower, absently thinking of going to the library where she could sort out her thoughts properly, away from the gazillion people running around and spreading gossip in the halls. When she reached the second floor and was just turning the corner, a blur of black crashed into her and left her sprawled on the ground.
"Itai! Why can't you watch where you're—oh, it's you," Midori said, looking up at her offender.
Sirius Black stood over her, extending a hand to haul her up. He smiled sheepishly as Midori righted herself. "Sorry 'bout that. See, I was running—"
"Quite obvious," Midori interjected, wincing as she touched her hip and felt the mark of a bruise.
Sirius winced too, as if he were the one who fell to the ground. "Well, anyway, I have a valid reason for running in the halls, you know. You didn't break a bone or anything, did you?" Midori opened her mouth but Sirius barreled on. "I've just been to the dungeons. The Slytherin tower, to be exact. Did you know how easy it is to get in there? The poor idiots who made the password to open the hidden door in the wall were pretty daft. And you don't even need an invisibility cloak to walk around—the common room was practically deserted and the few people who were in there didn't even pay the least bit attention to me—not that I'm complaining, but—"
"What on earth were you doing in the Slytherin common room?" Midori asked, although she could probably guess the answer.
Sirius grinned. "Remember when everyone was at dinner? I went up to Snivelly's room and let loose a cage of innocent little bunny rabbits into it. Then I put on the invis—I mean, I hid and waited until he came in and watched his reaction. It was hilarious, he looked like he was going to pee in his pants!" he related gleefully. He noticed the blank look on Midori's face and said, "Oh? You didn't know that Snape's scared dumb of bunnies?"
Midori stared at him oddly and said, "I…don't think I wanted to know that…" Setting aside the disturbing mental image of Severus Snape squealing like a terrified little girl as a bunch of little bunnies frolicked at his feet, she continued, "Anyway, I was just looking for you."
"Wanna see the pictures—? What do you mean you were looking for me?" Sirius' eyes widened and he took a few steps back. "Oh no, you're not going to maim me because of what Prongs did to your two best friends, are you? I'm completely innocent! I did not take any part in Prongs' plan to beguile Evans with his charm so that I would be free to execute the prank I just did!"
"Wait a minute, you thought that James was pretending to be in love with Lily so that he would be in complete control of her and you would be free to do whatever you wanted?" Midori repeated, suppressing a snicker.
Sirius gazed at her confusedly. "What, isn't that what he was doing? I mean, not that I had anything to do with what he was doing, I was just taking advantage of the fact that he was distracting Evans, and…"
"Whatever you say, Sirius," Midori said, rolling her eyes.
"You mean you're not going to inflict debilitating physical injury on me?" Sirius asked hopefully, pocketing the photographs after realizing that Midori wasn't at all interested in looking at them.
Midori's eyes twinkled. "Well, no…" she said, smiling mischievously. "But I need your help. Do you still want James and Lily to be together so that—er—you can do all your pranks without suffering serious consequences from the Head Girl?"
Sirius looked relieved that he wasn't going to land himself in the hospital wing anytime soon, and even a little pleased that things were taking a turn to his advantage. "Sure thing," he chirped. "Wait…there's no catch in this, right? And you're not going to tell Evans that James isn't really in love with her? Or that I encouraged him to do it?"
Midori stifled a laugh. "Of course not. Why would I?"
Sirius regarded her dubiously. "Well, you're her best friend…and it's kinda suspicious that you want her to get back together with Prongs when he broke her heart and everything."
Midori shrugged. "Let's just say I also think that Lily needs to loosen up a little. And James is exactly what she needs for her to stop being so uptight about the rules...and anything that concerns your circle of troublemaking friends," she replied sweetly.
Sirius, finally reassured, grinned and swung an arm over her shoulder. "You know, you're nothing like Evans. I'm starting to like you already," he declared seriously. "Oh yeah…and don't tell anyone that I was the one who nearly gave Snivellus a heart attack. McGonagall would hit the roof if she found out I did it."
The oriental girl rolled her eyes. "If that was your plan, then maybe you shouldn't have babbled the whole story to the first person you ran into after your little escapade." She knew that Sirius Black was one who couldn't keep a secret if he tried, unless it was a matter of life and death. But she decided to trust him on this one. And if she was going to get any cooperation from a boy she barely knew (she didn't associate with James and his friends much to give Lily some peace), she had to keep him happy. "I would never dream of ratting on you, Sirius Black," she deadpanned.
Sirius nodded in approval. "I think we're going to make great friends," he announced. "Now what's your plan?"
IIIIIIIIII
A week passed. The rumor mill spun another chapter in Lily and James' romance saga, claiming that James had tragically fallen in love with Lily's best friend and that he tried valiantly to get rid of his guilty emotions (Midori couldn't stop laughing as she relayed the interpretation to Lily and Raine, and Remus was found to have a serious bout of snickers whenever he heard the words "James," "Lily," and "betrayal" used in the same sentence). Unfortunately, James, with all his efforts, couldn't extinguish his heart's burning passion and yearning for Raine (Raine gagged and Lily had the sudden urge to go to the bathroom; Peter was awash with sympathy for James' 'troubled heart') and finally declared his love for her in front of the entire school…and Lily, who flew into a rage and emotionally broke down because of the treachery the two people she trusted the most had done to her (Sirius was the only one among the friends of the parties concerned who believed this part of the story. Aside from Peter, of course.). Raine, who didn't know anything about James' feelings, had to suffer through Lily's cold enmity even though she was completely innocent. She refused to get together with James and the poor boy was left with the agony of going through unrequited love, but nobody blamed him, really, because it was the fault of his out-of-control emotions.
In the end, Midori and Remus ended up being confined in the hospital wing for having a severe stomachache. Madame Clementine also demanded that whoever cast an overdone Cheering Charm on them should own up immediately.
Lily was forced to exhaust her acting skills by pretending that Raine was now her most hated enemy, and the matter also required a bit of Raine's cooperation as she had to play the role of the innocent victim. James didn't exactly like the way the rumor turned out (it made him look like an emotionally and mentally unbalanced tortured soul) but was resigned to the fact that he had to appear as if he were brooding all the time. Being assumed to having an interest in Lily Evans' best friend was better than being assumed to having a relationship with Lily Evans, after all.
Lily had no problem acting like she thought James was the scum of the earth (she already did, anyway), and for the past seven days she was reminded of just how much she despised him, whenever she headed for the shower and remembered that the water wouldn't be able to come into contact with her skin. Thankfully, one week passing meant that James' little spell had worn off and that she was finally able to soak herself in water, so she zoomed straight to the prefects' bathroom for a much-needed hot bath.
As she turned on her favorite taps and filled the pool with soap and bubbles, she remembered a slightly bothering conversation she had with her friends the previous day.
--flashback--
The wide corridor was empty, and it was for that reason that Lily and Raine were free to walk side by side without acting as if they were mad at each other. They were talking about ways to stage how they could "make up" because frankly, both were tired of keeping up the charade. It was really unfair that they had to act at all, seeing that they didn't do anything wrong in the first place. It was ironic to think that they were keeping up an act for the benefit of the very people who caused the problem.
The two were nearing an intersection with another corridor when they saw Midori skipping along said hallway, looking like she was in high spirits.
"Hey, Midori!" Lily called out, effectively stopping the girl in her tracks. Midori spotted them and jogged over, and Lily could now plainly see the familiar twinkle in Midori's ebony eyes—it set off warning bells in Lily's head that something was amiss, although she couldn't tell exactly why.
"Where've you been? You look pretty happy about something," Raine observed, taking in the bouncy girl's current mood.
"I do?" Midori stopped bouncing up and down. "I mean, of course I do! I'm always happy about something or other!" she grinned at them, and Lily was vaguely reminded of Sirius Black on a sugar high.
"Well, don't rub it in too much. Lily and I still have a problem and we can't just jump around for joy like what you're doing right now," Raine replied, pretending to be irritated.
Midori's grin widened. "Oh, don't worry, you won't be needing to keep up your act for much longer," she said confidently.
"It's certainly reassuring that you actually spend time thinking up ways to get us out of this mess. I thought you'd forgotten all about us," Raine jibed.
"What did you have in mind, anyway?" Lily asked, not having a very good feeling about this.
Midori winked and put her index finger over her lips. "Hi-mi-tsu!" she answered mischievously, emphasizing each syllable. Then she gave them a little wave and skipped away.
Raine and Lily exchanged pointed looks. "Do you think she's up to something?" Raine asked. She was always a little miffed whenever Midori used words from her native language and didn't bother translating (she always said that was the point of speaking Nippongo in the first place).
"I don't know, but if she is, it can't be anything good," Lily answered.
--end flashback—
Lily finished up her bath quickly, suddenly remembering that she forgot a few documents for Head Girl work back in the prefects' meeting room. It always took every ounce of her self-control not to strangle Potter on the spot whenever they held prefect meetings, which was every other week.
She reached the door to the meeting room and was just about to grab the knob when the door swung open and a few sixth year girls who most certainly weren't prefects stepped out, giggling. When they saw Lily, however, they immediately made a run for it.
"Hey! You guys aren't allowed to—oh never mind," Lily said resignedly, letting them go. She noticed that she had become a little looser with rules ever since she was forced to constantly talk to James. She remembered all his taunts that she was too uptight and she felt that she had to prove him wrong…
But why would she need to do that? She didn't need to prove anything to James Potter!
Lily shook her head to clear her thoughts, stepping inside the room and looking around to see what those fourth years had been up to. Her eyes went to the pale pink envelope on top of somebody's in tray. All the prefects' in trays were side by side on a single table and had name plates on them to signify whose was whose. Some professor suggested it a few years ago so that they didn't have to personally deliver notes to a particular prefect—they could just go to one place and the prefects would just check the in trays everyday. Lily and James had theirs, too, which was also somewhere along the rows of in trays on the table. As Lily neared the table, she noticed that the envelope was on her in tray.
Her eyes widened. Those girls certainly didn't look like the types that would—no, there had to be some mistake. She took the envelope and sure enough, it was a love letter. There were little glittering hearts all over it. She turned it over to see who it was addressed to, and when she did, she didn't know whether to be relieved or furious.
Written in flowing calligraphy was the name "James."
Why, those little—! She shouldn't have let them get away if they were just going to anonymously drop off a love letter to someone! And to James Potter, for that matter! And how dare they even make the mistake of dropping the stupid thing on her in tray! They should have just handed the letter to James himself; give him another reason to bloat his already over-inflated ego! She furiously considered throwing the envelope into the trash bin—it wouldn't be her fault; students other than prefects and the Head Boy and Girl were forbidden to enter the prefects' meeting room and those girls were already lucky she hadn't taken points off their Houses.
As her hand hovered over the trash can, her conscience pulled her back. What did it matter to her if a couple of fourth years were head over heels for James Potter, anyway? Lily had only to pity them for their poor choice of who to like. Let them be; sooner or later they would realize what an idiot Potter was and start to regret that they ever had a crush on him.
Lily sighed, the troublesome letter still in her hand. The right thing to do would be to drop it on the right in tray, but she could just imagine the smug and self-satisfied look on Potter's face when he discovers the letter during tomorrow's prefect meeting. No, he was already too arrogant than was tolerable, and she didn't want to deal with that.
She stood there, thinking about what to do with the letter for some time, before she stomped over to the table and decided to just put it on James' in tray. His head couldn't get any fatter than it already was, right? And she had to show that she was indifferent. She didn't care about that stupid letter at all…no, she wasn't bothered in the least.
She was just about to place the pink envelope on James' in tray when the door burst open. Flustered, Lily retracted her arm and hid the letter behind her back.
Two prefects stood in the doorway. One was Margaret Sullivan, a Ravenclaw sixth year, and with her was Paul McCartney, a fifth year Hufflepuff.
"Hey, Lily! What brings you here?" Margaret asked curiously.
Lily swallowed hard, wondering why she was starting to sweat all of a sudden. It wasn't like she was doing anything wrong! "Um…nothing! What are you two doing here? The meeting isn't until tomorrow…"
Paul pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. "We were just checking to see if Professor Flitwick sent a notice of approval to a suggestion we made regarding the use of—what's that you're hiding behind your back?"
"What are you talking about?" Lily asked nervously. "Anyway, I've looked through the in trays already and there isn't a single notice or letter on them…don't worry, I'll follow it up to Professor Flitwick…"
"C'mon, out with it, Lily. We're all friends here…you don't have to hide anything from us," Margaret said teasingly. "Now show us what you've got back there."
"It's nothing, I tell you! You two better leave now before Professor McGonagall or someone finds us here—we're not supposed to use this room for purposes other than holding our meetings—"
Paul and Margaret exchanged looks before taking a step closer. Lily, in turn, took a step back until she bumped into the table. "What do you think you two are doing?" she demanded.
Margaret raised her wand abruptly. "Accio!"Caught off guard, Lily felt the piece of stationery slip through her fingers and watched in dismay as Paul caught it deftly in his hands. The two mischievous prefects (Lily made a mental note not to recommend them as potential Head Boy or Girl material in the future) moved closer to each other to take a better look at the object now in their hands.
Lily took a deep breath. "Look, I can explain—"
Margaret squealed. "Oh, Lily!" she exclaimed, her eyes widening ecstatically.
"I just knew you still loved him!"
Lily hit the floor.
IIIIIIIIII
AN – Itai – means "ouch" in Japanese
Himitsu – secret
Ummm…what else? Oh yeah, it might take me a while to update again. Don't exactly know where my plot is going so I still have to make something up… heh…
Make my day and review…
V