Chapter 6: Name
Lily soon grew bored of waiting around in the Common Room hoping either Penny or James would show up so she decided to go on a walk. She had no idea where she was going to go, but she needed some time alone to think. She couldn't stand any more of Carine and Allyson talking either about Allyson and Sirius or making predictions on what would happen with James, Penny, and Janie. It was a nice day out so she decided to go to the castle's lawn and try and finish her book. When she got to the lawn she saw Severus Snape who looked busy doing an assignment. She had always felt bad for him since James and Sirius were so horrible to him and being nice to him had become like a project for her at first because she knew how much it bothered James, but now she considered him to be a good friend.
"Hey Severus," she said in her friendliest voice. "How was your summer?"
"It was alright, thanks," he said. "How was yours?"
"It was pretty dreadful, I'm so glad to be back at school. So did you do any traveling this summer or were you mostly at home?"
"Lily, you don't have to keep up your fake nice act this year, okay?"
"What?" Lily asked, surprised at his bluntness.
"I know you only talk to me because you feel sorry for me and it gets a little annoying."
"That is not why I talk to you Severus, I thought you knew me better than that," Lily said, offended. "But hey, if you don't want me to talk to you anymore than I'll just leave you to your homework." She began to walk away when he called after her.
"Lily, no I didn't mean that. I just don't understand why else you would bother spending time with me."
"I like hanging out with you because you're so different from my other friends. You're honest and a good listener and not a shallow jock like most of the guys I know." Severus showed a hint of a smile.
"So tell me why your summer was so miserable? You didn't let Petunia get to you did you?" Lily was always amazed at how easily their conversations flowed. The two of them chatted for almost an hour before they were interrupted.
"Hey, Evans, can I talk to you for a second?" James asked, ignoring Severus.
"Um, yeah okay," Lily said. "I'll see you later Severus." Lily followed James to a spot underneath a large tree where he sat down.
"Why are you always hanging out with that guy?" he asked.
"Because he's my friend and he's awfully sweet and good at listening unlike most of the people I know," Lily snapped.
"He's bad news. I'm sure he's joined the Death Eaters by now."
"You have no right to say that. I can't believe how judgmental you can be."
"I'm just warning you, I have a really bad feeling about him and I don't want you to become too close with him," James said sounding genuinely concerned.
"Was there something you actually wanted to talk to me about or were you just trying to get me away from him?"
"No, I need to talk to you about Penny," he said.
"Shocking," Lily said rolling her eyes.
"Okay, so you saw what happened earlier. She kissed me right in front of Janie! And see, I wanted to kiss her back, but I couldn't do that to Janie in case she still has any feelings for me."
"Of course she has feelings for you," Lily said. "You saw her chasing you around at Hogsmeade."
"Yeah, okay so I suspected that she might want to get back together, but honestly I'm over her and I've been starting to get a thing for Penny," James said.
"Alright, so it sounds like everything is working out for you then," Lily said.
"Well, I'm afraid that I upset Penny today, when I told her she had no right kissing me in front of Janie."
"But you were right, she shouldn't have done that and I'm sure she's realized it by now."
"I hope so."
"Seriously, you have nothing to worry about. She really likes you."
"Thanks Evans," James said sincerely and stood up to leave.
"But James?"
"Yeah?"
"Talk to Janie first, she really likes you too and you owe her that."
"Yeah, I was planning on it."
"Okay, good."
"Thanks a lot for talking to me," James said. "And you realize what just happened here?"
"What?"
"You called me James," he said. "I'm not sure I've ever heard you say that." He smiled at her and walked away. Lily let out a sigh and watched James head back towards the castle. She tried to convince herself that she was happy for James and Penny, but she couldn't help but feel jealous. Her heart kept telling her that she was a better match for James than Penny and she was worried that Penny would do to him what she did to almost every other boy she had been with. She decided to read to take her mind off of everything.
When Lily looked at her watch she realized it was almost 6 and decided she should get back to the Common Room to go to dinner with everyone. She got to the Common Room and found all four of the girls chatting.
"Hey, where have you been Lil?" Penny asked.
"Oh, I was just reading outside. I didn't realize how late it was."
"You didn't happen to run into James did you?" Penny asked. "I haven't been able to find him anywhere and Sirius, Remus, and Peter are all gone too.
"Well they do tend to randomly disappear," Lily said. "And James said Remus was sick so maybe they're spending time with him."
"Hmm, well Sirius told me he'd see me tomorrow the last time I talked to him," Allyson said.
"Okay, who cares about what those silly boys are up to," Carine interrupted before Allyson and Penny could think of more places where they could be. "I feel like they're all we ever talk about."
"Yeah, I know seriously," Kerri said. "Do you guys wanna head to dinner?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty hungry," Penny said.
"Okay, and can we please agree not to talk about boys?" Carine said. "At least just for this one meal?"
"Sounds good to me," Lily said.
The girls had a nice peaceful dinner where they talked about the details of their summers and how their first week of classes went. On their way back to the Common Room Janie, Sara, and Christyn passed by them on their way into the Great Hall. Lily smiled politely towards them all and they smiled back.
"Ugh, just the people I want to see now," Penny said once they were out of earshot.
"Lily!" Lily turned around to see Christyn running after her. "Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?"
"Yeah, sure," Lily said. She noticed Penny glaring at her as they continued to walk away. Lily and Christyn walked off in a different direction. "So how's Janie doing?"
"Well, she was really upset and mad at Penny and then she talked to James, and now she's even more upset."
"Wow, what did James say to her?" Lily asked.
"Basically he said that he moved on over the summer and that he liked Penny, but just didn't want to do anything to hurt her because he still cared about her."
"That was sweet of him, but I feel terrible for Janie."
"Yeah, me too," Christyn said. "But listen, the reason I wanted to talk to you is because I think you're really nice and I hope we can be friends regardless of this drama between everyone. But Janie can be pretty quick tempered so I just hope Penny doesn't try to rub it in her face or anything."
"Yeah, I'm not sure if she will or not, I can talk to her though," Lily said.
"Okay, thanks a lot. Well, I should get back to Janie, she'll probably be mad at me for talking to you."
"Oh no, I hope she doesn't hate me too."
"No, don't worry. She thinks you're really nice."
"Okay, well I'll talk to you later," Lily said and walked away. She walked back to the Common Room quickly, not wanting Penny to think she was talking to Christyn for too long.
"What was that all about?" Penny demanded as soon as Lily walked through the portrait hole.
"Nothing," Lily said.
"Don't give me that crap, since when are you all buddy-buddy with Janie's friends?"
"I'm not!" Lily said defensively. "Look, I talked to James earlier."
"What!" Penny almost screamed. "Why the hell are you just telling me about this now then?"
"Stop yelling, let's go to our room so the entire Gryffindor House doesn't hear about your drama." The girls walked up to their room quickly.
"Okay, so what did he say? And why didn't you tell me earlier when I asked you?"
"He said that he liked you," Lily said. "Which I think we all assumed anyway."
"He did?" Penny asked sounding relieved. "That's great!"
"And Christyn wanted to talk to me because she was worried that you would rub it in Janie's face or something because she got pretty upset when James told her."
"Come on, I wouldn't do that," Penny said. "Now that I've won, there's no need to be obnoxious about it." Lily gave her a doubtful look. "Okay seriously, I feel bad for the girl. I won't be stupid about it."
"Alright, good," Lily said. "Now, I'm gonna go to bed, I have a headache."
"Lily, do you realize it's not even 8 o'clock on a Saturday night?"
"Yeah, so I'm sure you have better things to do then watch me sleep," Lily said and crawled into her bed.
A/N: Okay, so you people have really been slacking on the reviews so please review. You'll totally make my day!