And I keep seeing so many familiar faces! That makes me smile even more. -Grins like a 5 year old-
FYI: The title of this chapter is supposed to be like a 'dash' as in a recipe. You know? Hopefully.
"A Dash of Prongs"
Friday arrived quickly, and soon Lily and Sirius found themselves in the Muggle Studies classroom for tutoring. Upon Professor Hilton's orders, Sirius went up to the teacher's desk as Lily went to find a seat.
Almost instinctively, she sat down in her usual desk for class. It was tucked away in a corner, which was how she liked it. It seemed so foreign without her three best friends surrounding her, though.
Lily sat with her chin resting on her hand while the professor sent each student, one by one, to their designated tutor. The small crowd at the front of the classroom slowly diminished, but her student, James, was yet to be seen.
"Yes, Mr. Black," Lily heard Professor Hilton say. "Your tutor will be Nessa Taylor, that young girl at the end of the room." She pointed to Nessa, and Sirius followed her direction, nodding at Nessa.
Lily sighed wistfully as she watched him walk to the opposite side of the room towards Nessa and away from herself. She should've been tutoring him, not that blonde bimbo. Okay, so she wasn't a bimbo, she was actually very nice, but that still didn't give her any right to steal her man away.
Lily cringed when she saw Nessa smile flirtaciously at Sirius and him smiling back. Sirius sat in the desk in front of Nessa facing backwards toward her. He said something to her that caused her to giggle and twirl a strand of her hair, which made Lily's stomach drop. Whoever said life isn't fair was only too right.
Lily forced herself to stop staring at the couple, as it made her feel strangely ill. She looked around the room at the other students who were already busy working. Where was James? He was already 15 minutes late, the git.
She decided to go up and ask the professor what to do since her student had apparently ditched her, but before she could lift herself off the seat the door opened and in walked James.
"Ah, Mr. Potter. Better late than never," Professor Hilton said.
"Sorry professor, I-" he tried to explain, but was cut off by Hilton.
"No need to explain. You're here, that's all that matters. Now please take a seat with your tutor, Miss Lily Evans."
James turned and glanced around the room to find Lily. As he did so, Lily found herself mesmorized with his eyes. They were an esoteric hazel, so deep that it seemed like they went on forever. They almost seemed to hold a riddle or mystery within them. Lily had never seen such intense eyes as his.
Suddenly, their eyes locked. For the briefest moment, Lily could've sworn she spied the faintest blush occupy James's cheeks. A second later, however, he had regained his complete cool.
He walked over to where Lily was seated, and sat down at the desk next to hers.
"So... Evans, huh? Yeah, Sirius warned me about you," James said.
Lily felt her heart stop. "Warned? Wh-What do you mean?" she asked frantically.
"He just told me to remember to keep breathing after being presented with such breathtaking beauty," he answered smoothly.
Lily released a sigh of relief.
"And I sure am glad he let me know beforehand. Otherwise...I would've been a goner." He smiled cheekily.
James sure had a way with words.
Lily smiled with flattery and suppressed a blush from creeping up her face.
"Okay," Lily attempted to get down to business, but her smile refused to leave. "We really should start working. We're already behind."
"Right you are, Miss Evans," James agreed.
"So, what area are you having trouble with?"
"Er...Area? Since when were there 'areas'?"
Lily raised her eyebrows. This was going to be harder than she thought.
"Okay students," Professor Hilton announced. "This tutoring session is over. You all did a wonderful job. If everyone continues in this manner, I'm sure we will see a vast improvement in many students. Remember, from now on you must arrange your own tutoring sessions. That is all. You are free to go."
Before the professor had even closed her mouth there was a mad rush for the door. Lily and James were among the few to take their time packing up.
"So when should we meet next?" Lily asked.
"Anytime's fine with me, I guess," James shrugged.
"Well that narrows it down," Lily laughed. "Hm, how about we meet every other Friday? After dinner sometime. Let's say about 7:00. We can meet in the common room. Is that alright?"
"Ay ay, captain," James grinned. "Need me to walk you back?"
"Well, actually Sirius promised to wait for me after, but..."
"But he doesn't seem to be here, does he?" James finished for her.
Lily look around the room to discover the truth in James's claim.
"Did he leave already? But he said he'd wait for me..." Lily said with disappointment as she continued to search the room with her eyes, hoping that he might suddenly appear if she looked hard enough.
"Don't take it personally, doll. Sirius is a hopeless excuse for a gentleman," James said in a reassuring manner.
Lily smirked. "Well, if you put it that way... Is it too late to take you up on that offer?" she asked hopefully.
"Never," James smiled.
Lily returned the smile, and picked up her stack of books and paarchment right before walking out the door with James.
"Oh why do they have to make these books so heavy (a/n: something I, myself, would like to know)?" she groaned under the weight.
"It's nothing for us big, strong manly men," James said in a deep voice while puffing out his chest. He happened to be carrying all his books in one hand.
"Big, strong manly men, huh? Like who?" Lily laughed.
"Like me!" he replied cheerfully, grabbing her books and carrying them under his other arm.
"What a perfect gentleman," Lily said.
"I try," James shrugged. Lily giggled.
They walked in silence for a moment until Lily spoke up again.
"So...you and Sirius are really good friends?"
"More like brothers, now that you mention it."
"So...so he must tell you a lot then, right?"
James gave Lily an appraising look from the corner of his eye. "Why do I have a feeling this is leading somewhere?"
Lily stalled a second to gather up the courage to ask her following question. "Does...or, um, did he...has he ever said any-anything about...me?" She scrunched up her face in embarrassment.
James paused a moment, then spoke in a very serious whisper.
"I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you," he said with a straight face. It broke into a grin when Lily began laughing.
"Then please don't tell me!" Lily pleaded between giggles.
"Don't worry, I won't," James assured her. "I wouldn't want to kill you anyway."
"That sure is good to know."
By this time they had reached the common room and Lily spotted her friends in their usual corner.
"Thanks for walking with me. Oh, and for carrying my books too," Lily said as she took her things back.
"Anytime," James smiled.
"So, I'll see you later then." Lily attempted a wave (which was not easy with all her books) and walked over to her friends.
"Hey guys, what's up?" she asked as she plopped down on a couch.
"Hey Lil," they said automatically.
"Was that James Potter you just walked in with, Lil?" Marilyn asked with great interest.
"Um, yeah. He's the one I'm tutoring, remember?"
"Oooh you lucky cow. What wouldn't I give to tutor the absolute cutest thing that's ever graced the Quidditch field," Marilyn sighed.
"But what about Sirius? Won't he get jealous?" Scarlett asked dramatically.
"What is there to be jealous about?" Lily blurted. "So we walked here together, what's the big deal? And they're best friends. They...have an understanding."
Scarlett and Marilyn eyed each other with knowing looks.
"Sirius walked with another girl too, so it's only fair," Cherise said quietly from where she was curled up in a chair. Her eyes were down, and she seemed to be very absorbed in the homework upon her lap.
"What?" Lily asked. Cherise looked up.
"Sirius came in a while ago with some blonde chick. They're sitting over there now." Cherise motioned her head towards two chairs in the opposite corner of the room, then dropped her eyes back to her homework again.
Lily turned and saw Sirius and Nessa, his tutor, sitting in two armchairs facing each other. Nessa was once again twirling her hair and giggling. Lily experienced that familiar stomach drop.
"Maybe they're still working on the tutoring..." Scarlett suggested hopefully.
"Yeah, probably," Marilyn nodded in agreement. Lily nodded as well, trying to convince herself that Sirius and Nessa giggling together meant nothing.
Cherise merely shrugged her shoulders, never removing her eyes from her work. Lily noticed this, and considered Cherise for a moment. This was very unlike her. Cherise was usually the loud, over-the-top one. She rarely acted this subdued.
"Why are you being so quiet, Rise?" Lily asked.
"Quiet? I'm not being quiet. I'm just finishing my homework."
Lily was unconvinced. She looked to Scarlett to Marilyn for some answers, but they simply shrugged.
This behavior set off an alarm in Lily's head, but she had other issues consuming her mind at the moment. Like Sirius and Nessa for example. When Lily saw them together she felt as if someone had punched her in the stomach. It was almost like she was...jealous. But why should she be jealous? It's not like her and Sirius were dating. There was no signed contract that said Sirius had to stay ten feet away from every female except herself, but she still couldn't help but be angry. Did he not tell her that he really liked her just the other night? Did that mean nothing?
"I'll see you guys later," Lily said quickly, then jumped off the couch and went up to her dorm, leaving her friends with confusion written all over their faces.
Collapsing onto her bed, she heaved a long, drawn out sigh. All she wanted right now was to go to sleep. There was too much running through her mind, and she just wanted to forget it all.
Sleep was the answer.
Sometime late in the night (or early in the morning, rather) Lily woke from a restless sleep. The Sirius-Nessa issue was eating at her much more so than she thought it should. She rolled over to her side and tried to drift away once more, but sleep escaped her.
There was only one answer to insomnia for Lily.
Quietly, so as not to wake her friends, she threw on her robe and creeped out of the room and down to the common room. It was eerily silent, as would be expected, save for the soft crackle of the ever-alight fire. She seated herself on the couch directly in front of the fire and preceded to stare - not into anything in particular, just...space.
Minute by minute passed of Lily's aimless gaze of thought. Suddenly a voice sounded through the darkness.
"Lily?" it whispered. The deepness revealed instantly that it was male, but past that all options were open.
Surprisingly, Lily wasn't at all taken by scare by this out-of- nowhere visitor. The voice was soothing and contained a sense of familiarity, as if this voice had spoken to Lily every day of her life, even in her dreams.
"James?" Lily whispered back when the owner of the soft voice stepped forward into the firelight. "What are you doing down here?"
"Hunting down naughty little girls who should be in bed at this hour," he taunted whilst sitting himself down beside her. "And perhaps I was finding sleep rather difficult, so I came down here to clear my thoughts."
"You never told me you were a mind reader, Potter," Lily smiled meekly.
"I didn't know I was one," he said, smiling in return.
Lily sighed and returned her gaze to nowhere.
"Problem plauging the lovely Miss Evans, hm?" James mused.
"I don't know if you could call it that, persay..." Lily looked down to her fidgeting fingers. "More like my own ruddy paranoia..."
"Care to share with the class?"
Lily looked up at James and smirked. "You actually care to know what's bothering me?"
"Of course," James said genuinely.
"Well, I-I don't know if I should...say..." she trailed off nervously.
"And I don't want to force you. I'm just offering a friendly ear."
Lily looked him in the eyes, those same hazel skies she had encountered eariler that day. James's true concern was written there...Lily felt as if she could read him by heart through those eyes.
"It's about Sirius..." she voiced softly. "And Nessa."
James remained the listener as he waited for her to elaborate.
"It's just that...I don't know. When I saw them together today...they were so...so...friendly. You know? And...URGH, this soundsso stupid now that I'm saying it our loud," Lily laughed to herself.
"Things always do once you see them from a different perspective," James offered.
"Ack, I can't believe I was stressing over this a minute ago. I guess it's just that...I hate to see Sirius so flirty with another girl when he seems so intent on ME all the time. What if...oh I don't know. I'm just being stupid, that's all."
"No you're not!" James argued. "You have a right to feel this way, Lily, I promise. And hey, I've known Sirius my entire life, and when he's hooked on a girl - I know it. And from the way he talks about you--"
"He talks about me?" Lily asked excitedly.
"Of course he does. And I can tell he's more than a little interested in you," James revealed with a hollow smile.
Lily positively beamed. "Oh that is so wonderful to hear!" She leaned over and hugged him. "Thank you James."
James closed his eyes and smiled, unknowest to Lily. "Anything for a damsel in distress," he replied in that same soft voice used in his initial entrance to the room.
They were both so blissfully wrapped up in the hug that they almost forgot to pull apart - until a crash (followed by a colorful exclamation) from the stairs caused them to nearly jump through the ceiling.
Seconds later, a tousled-looking Remus stumbled into view.
"Okay, who left the damn box of Filibuster fireworks on the stairs?" he said with grief.
"Remus?" James questioned with disbelief. "What're you doing here?"
"Trying to locate the whereabouts of a certain Quidditch captain who is missing from his bed, possibly?"
"Worried sick about me, are you?" James grinned.
"More like searching for a good excuse to get away from Peter's snores. I'm surprised the Hufflepuffs haven't filed a complaint for the noise yet."
"Well you found me. You win. Good bye," James waved off his friend.
Remus rolled his eyes at him. "Love you too, hunny."
"I'll meet you back there in a sec," James said, widening his eyes purposefully at Remus.
Remus looked from Lily to James, then mouthed what looked like 'But - Padfoot' and widened his eyes in the same manner.
James made one more subtle motion for Remus to leave, then turned back to Lily. Remus, giving up, walked carefully back to the boys dorm.
"So..." James started, attempting to re-start what they had going before Remus decided to crash into the picture.
"So...what?" Lily shook her head.
"Er...I don't know! I'm so lost now. Damn Moony!" James chuckled.
Lily chuckled a bit as well. "Wait...what? Moony? What's that?"
James suddenly realized the error of his ways. "Oh...er...nothing. It's just some stupid...inside joke between us guys."
Lily narrowed her eyes skeptically at James's obvious discomfort with the question, but shrugged it off.
"Hey," Lily said, "you never told me whyyou are down here so late at night. I spilled my heart out to you, it's only fair you return the favor."
James regained his nervous twitch and appeared to be thinking fast of something to say.
"Well...I think we'd better save that for another midnight chat, don't you think?"
"Hypocrite."
"One of the best," he grinned.
"Well I guess I should be going back to bed. I don't want to wake up looking like a swamp monster."
"You'll look beautiful no matter what," James said quietly.
Lily tilted her head and smiled at him. "Thank you, James. And not just for that, but...but for being here...with me. For listening. No matter how ridiculous my problem was," she chuckled lightly. "I really feel much better now."
She stood up and started back for her dorm, but hesitated a moment and turned right back around and kissed James on the cheek.
"Goodnight, Mr. Potter."
Lily awoke the next morning to find the room empty. Her friends had apparently already left for breakfast.
"Fine, just ditch me like that..." she grumbled to herself as she staggered towards the bathroom.
Thirty minutes later Lily walked into the common room. Her friends were nowhere in sight, so she decided that they had in fact already gone to breakfast. Sirius, however, was over in a corner with the Marauders. Lily spotted him, but decided it would be better to leave him be. She didn't want to intrude.
By chance she happened to catch James's eye, who grinned at her. She returned the favor and headed for the portrait hole. Just as she was leaving, she heard someone holler her name.
"Lil! Hey!"
Lily snapped her head around to see Sirius running over to her.
"There you are. I was wondering when you were going to come down," Sirius said.
"Really?" Lily smiled.
"Of course. I didn't want to lose track of my favorite gal."
Lily melted inwardly. Favorite gal - Take that, Nessa Taylor.
"So let's go," Sirius said as he placed his arm around her waist and headed for the portrait hole.
"Sirius?" Lily stopped in her tracks.
Sirius seemed confused. "Uh...yeah?"
"Why don't you ever invite the rest of your friends to hang out with us? I mean...don't you feel bad for leaving them all the time?"
Sirius's confusion only seemed to grow. "You mean you want them around?"
"Well...why not? I've met James and he's great. I'd love to get to know Remus and...that other guy better.
"Oh." Sirius said simply. "I thought you'd be more comfortable with just me, but...in that case... OY GUYS! OVER HERE!" he bellowed across the room. At first James, Remus, and Peter looked confused (must be a guy thing, Lily thought), then shrugged and joined Lily and Sirius.
"What do you want so badly that you have to holler like a bloody madman like that? Wanker!" James said before playfully shoving Sirius in the shoulder.
"Hey now!" Sirius reprimanded. "No violence in front of the lady." He smiled cheekily at Lily.
"Well...? What do you want?" Remus asked.
"Actually...it's Lily who requested your presence."
James snapped his head to look at Lily with a serious expression which slowly morphed into a subtle smile.
"Well...I just thought that...that it wasn't fair that me and my friends should steal Sirius away so much of the time--"
"Oh I wouldn't call it stealing, my dear," Sirius explained. "More like mercilessly attracting."
Lily blushed and continued. "Anyway, so I guess I just thought that we could...you know...all hang out together. At least sometimes." She looked expectantly at each face, hoping for positive reactions.
James was the first to smile. Next was Remus. Then Peter.
"Well what are we waiting for? Food awaits!" Sirius exclaimed, once again slipping his arm around Lily's waist.
Down in the Great Hall, Lily's friends were more than a little surprised to find the remaining Marauders accompanying the usual pair of Lily and Sirius.
"Er...Lily?" Cherise questioned, hinting towards the new guys.
"Um, yeah, you guys, Sirius's friends are going to sit with us today. Because I asked them to," Lily finished for clarity.
Marilyn was eyeing James and Remus with great interest. "Noo problem here..." she said while keeping her eyes right on target.
Scarlett elbowed Marilyn in the side. "Quit undressing them with your eyes, you randy cow!" she hissed into her ear.
"I have no idea what you're talking about..." she said innocently. Once second later her stare had returned along with a subtle evil grin. Scarlett rolled her eyes and gave up.
Sirius and Lily sat next to Scarlett and Marilyn, while Remus, James, and Peter sat down next to Cherise on the other side of the table.
As they began eating, Lily was pleased to find that conversation was not strained at all. Quite the contrary - Marilyn was more than interested in James's quidditch stories, and everyone else was enjoying themselves by making fun of the professors.
"...And Professor Binns!" Cherise said with a laugh. "He always falls asleep during tests!" she giggled.
"Yeah!" Peter joined in. "The way he snores...HA!"
"I wouldn't be so quick to talk, Pete," Remus snorted. "I bet you could give Professor Binns a run for his money..." Everyone laughed besides Peter, who looked rather pale.
"I could?" he squeaked.
Remus tried to subside his chuckles as he continued. "Yeah...last night when I found Lily and James in the com-- OW! What the hell?" Remus rubbed his leg where James had kicked it. Realizing he shouldn't have said that particular detail out loud, he made a feeble attempt at covering it up. "Er...I mean! Uh...Did I say Lily? Heh...I meant--"
"What are you talking about?"
Too late. Sirius had picked up on the scent.
Remus looked miserably over at James and tried to apologize silently. James just shook his head briefly and looked to Sirius.
"It was nothing Sirius. I went down to the common room late last night and found Lily there, so we talked for a bit."
Lily finally joined in. "Yeah, um, we just talked, don't worry."
Sirius looked from Lily to James. "Well of course you did. What else would you do? I'm not about to accuse my best mate of fooling around with my girl behind my back," he chuckled.
James and Lily shared a smile of relief across the table. Although nothinghad happened, they didn't want to create a mess over a simple misunderstanding.
No, we'll save that for later...
For some reason I really liked this chapter. Which is saying a lot, because I normally shudder at my writing. I just think it's really cute. Probably because James is in it. ; ) For those of you who don't know, I am hopelessly in love with Mr. Potter. Yes, I love a fictional character. Oh shut up, you know you do too.