I'm so hopeless with updating. LoL. But anywho, here's the story. Enjoy.
"In Ladylike Manner"
The next day, early morning in the boys' dorm, Remus and Peter were still unconscious behind their bed curtains, while James was in front of his dresser fixing his tie, and Sirius was in front of the bathroom mirror taking great care to make sure each and every strand of hair fell in exactly the right place -- while at the same time looking unintentional.
"Ay Prongs," Sirius called out, "be a good lad and fetch me Comb #7 over by my bed. Number 3 just ain't workin' with me today."
James did so, chucking the comb onto the bathroom counter with more force than Sirius quite expected, then returning to his previous position.
"Whoa, no need to get fussy. I know you're upset that your hair refuses to cooperate, but come on now," Sirius said in a joking manner.
He waited for a laugh or quippy comeback, becoming only slightly disheartened when it failed to arrive. Brushing the expectation aside, he went back to the striving perfection of his hair.
A brief spell of silence befell the dorm, when James decided to make his presence known -- and in a harsher tone than Sirius anticipated.
"So why didn't you tell me you and Lily are back together?"
This brought immediate confusion to Sirius's mind, due to the fact of it not being true, together with the question of how James came to such a conclusion. Not only did confusion arrive, but also, as all moodiness is contagious, offense at the bitter tone of the question. Therefore, rather than answer, Sirius snapped back, "What does it matter to you, anyway?"
"Why shouldn't it?"
"It's my own business what goes on between me and Lily."
"Is it so much to want to know what's happening in my best friends' lives?"
"Oh you're one to talk, James!" Sirius yelled as he left the bathroom to face the person with whom he was speaking. "You weren't too open when it came to Catherine now, were you?"
James ran a hand through his bedhead of hair and exhaled. "Tha--"
"Don't even tell me that's 'different' because it bloody well isn't."
James was checkmated and he knew it. "Fine. Okay, I know I was an arse for thinking I could bury that whole thing in a hole where no one could find it. I admit it. I should have told you earlier. I know."
Sirius eyed him uncertainly. "So why didn't you?"
Ah, damn. Could he tell him now? But he was back together with Lily, right? That answered that.
"Er, it sounds stupid now, but I just didn't want you making a big deal out of it," was James's answer. Close enough, eh?
"Aw, Jamesy-Boy, you know I always wait at least a couple of weeks to order the cake and balloons," Sirius said with his playful grin back in place, clapping James on the shoulder.
This got James smiling just the same. "And I told you no pink frosting this time!"
And there was the rightful comeback.
--About a week later--
Lily's sleep-worn eyes opened themselves to peep at the current time. 10:27am. Ahh, Saturdays are sweet.
Somewhere around 30 minutes later, the remainder of the girls were up and about, basically lounging about the dorm out of lazy reluctance to walk down to the Great Hall for sustenance. Sitting against the trunk in front of her bed, Lily sat painting her toenails a juicy shade of red.
"So have you said anything to James yet?" she asked to any person who might care to answer. In other words, Scarlett, Cherise, or Marilyn -- who had been informed of Mission: Attraction shortly after its launch.
"Erm... a bit," Scarlett answered uncertainly. She glanced at her accomplice, Cherise, bearer of a very similar look of nervousness.
Of course they had began conditioning James...and they were so sure they had made at least some sort of breakthrough that first try. But then something must have gone horribly wrong because after that day in front of the trophy cabinet -- and the planned walk around the grounds WHICH he never arrived for, the git -- he started to act very reserved and reclusive. Especially towards Lily. At first, one might mistake this peculiarity to be shyness. And even though it was known that James held a sheepish side to him, this behavior was just ridiculous.
"Cuz, you know, I've noticed him acting a bit...off lately," Lily continued as she swept the red brush over her middle toe. "It's not because of anything you guys said...right?" She looked up.
Scarlett looked at Cherise. Cherise looked at Scarlett. They both looked at Lily. "No," came their simultaneous reply. They restrained the urge to add, "Hopefully."
Lily finished off the last toe and resealed the nail polish bottle. "Well, I just don't know what's wrong. I mean, he's acted so cold towards me this past week. Did I do something wrong?"
"I wouldn't worry about it, Lil," Marilyn joined in. "Maybe he's just...in a funk. Or something. Forget about it. And hey, we've got that trip to Hogsmeade today. Can't be arsing ourselves with burdens on a day like this."
Clearly taking the path of least resistance, Lily silently conceded to this pleasantry. Yes, Hogsmeade was always an occasion, and surely not one to be mucked up with dragging thoughts. And James would be there...with his easy smile and disheveled hair... oh, it was sure to be a lovely day, indeed.
The usual group of four boys and four girls stood huddled outside Zonko's, the chill in the breeze bringing out the pink of their cheeks and ears. March weather was absolutely delicious. Warmth poured from the midday sun creating a blanket of brightness across the lushly green hills, only to be countered by the damp cool of a country breeze. The air smelled of flowers newly awoken by the melody of Spring. The ground felt springy and supple beneath feet lucky enough to tread across it.
"So, um, can we move on now?" Cherise asked with an air of impatience.
"Just a second, Adams," James answered offhandedly while craning his neck in a search for something or someone. "I told you already, I'm meeting someone here."
Cherise was not appeased. "Well then why can't you stay he--"
"Who is it you're meeting?" Lily interrupted.
James hesitated barely a moment before answering, in a far firmer voice than one would anticipate, "Catherine."
Lily hid her disgusting disappointment with an innocently inquisitive smile. She switched her gaze to Scarlett, narrowing her eyes to convey her displeasure with this revelation. Scarlett seemed just as unpleasantly surprised. Cherise even halted in her squawking to bite her lip in anticipation.
Drat that boy. So he wasn't bluffing before, as they slimly hoped.
"Lil?" Sirius asked with a positively perplexed expression. "Are you okay?"
Lily took a start and released the clump of her cloak she was clenching into a death grip in her hands. "Yes, yes," she answered quite breathlessly. "Just wonderful." She began instinctively preening at her hair as if to defy any signs of uneasiness about her.
Sirius furrowed his eyebrows. "Are you sure? Because you look rea--"
"Hey!" James hollered and waved to an approaching figure. He trotted over and took the girl by both hands in greeting, smoothly transitioning to one hand as he led her over.
As they came closer, the features of the girl came into better focus. Her hair was a warm chestnut brown, straight and shiny and long as any Medieval princess's would have been, complete with several annoyingly perfectly placed curls. Her eyes were blue and misty as a seashore, sometimes reminiscent of violet when the light hit just right. Everything about her was soft and subtle, like something of a fond memory.
"So...this is Catherine!" James announced nervously, but nevertheless with obvious excitement. "She's my-- uh, well we're-- ...she's in Ravenclaw!"
Catherine smiled a bit awkwardly, revealing -- of course -- pearly teeth worthy of the cover of a dentistry magazine. Sirius obviously noticed this, among other things, as he grinned helplessly.
"Charmé, mon chéri," he purred as he bent forward to kiss her hand.
Catherine fluttered her eyes in astonishment at this display of chivalry. "Why, um, thank you so much."
Even her voice was perfect, Lily noticed with bitterness. A light swirl of honey and morning songbirds.
Remus's mouth began to curve into a grin not unlike that of Sirius, only to fail with the sharp pain in his side induced by Marilyn's elbow. Therefore he instead opted for a weakly polite smile and a "Nice to meet you."
Peter gave a courteous nod of the head coupled with a bashful smile. He mumbled something like, "Hullo," while carefully evading eye contact.
"And these are the girls," James continued with introductions. "Cherise, Scarlett, Marilyn, and...Lily." His tone somehow stiffened with the last word.
Each girl offered a strictly required smile as her name was mentioned, all finding it difficult to be pleased with any of the situation. Catherine, however, seemed genuinely amiable about the meeting. The poor, naive girl.
"So I was thinking we'd go check out the shrieking shack," James said in an effort to throw off an oncoming silence. "Catherine really likes it up there."
Sirius and Remus looked less than thrilled at the idea. As if they didn't get enough of that place every month?
"Er, perhaps we'll let you two squirrels wander off alone," Sirius suggested. "I was hoping to score a butterbeer at Honey & Duke's. Fancy meeting up later on?"
"Oh, but I was so looking forward to finally getting to know you all," Catherine bemoaned.
"There'll be time later, don't you worry, pet," James assured.
There was that dratted picturesque smile again. Lily cringed inwardly.
"Oh and Catherine, be careful on your way up the hill," Lily advised in a sugar-coated voice before they could walk off. "Wouldn't want you to...twist your ankle..." Her eyes narrowed for only Catherine to see.
The smile faltered.
"Come on Sirius," Lily said as she grabbed his hand and prepared to leave.
James took Catherine's hand in his just as ineloquently as Lily had with Sirius. Exchanged glances spelled out what words were afraid to say.
In the case of Sirius and Catherine... well, they weren't sure what to say. Or what was going on, for that matter.
But then again, who ever does.
The dim, dank interior of Honey & Duke's never quite took with Lily -- it rather reminded her of a sad pub where hopeless men came to drown their sorrows in bitter ales -- or perhaps it was her current pessimism kicking in. Either way, she leaned her head on her hands rather glumly, wishing most longingly to be back outside in the brisk sunshine. Or on a hill...by a shrieking shack...with a certain someone...
"You haven't touched your drink, Lil," Remus noted.
Lily blinked lazily. She took a meager sip to adhere, then pushed the tankard away.
"You've been acting bloody...off today, Lily. Care to share what's up?" Sirius persisted.
When it seemed as though she was choosing not to answer, she suddenly blurted, "Do you really think we should've let them go off alone like that?"
"James and Catherine?" Sirius confirmed in his confusion.
"I mean, it's just the two of them...on that lone hill...and, well, you know--"
"They'll hardly be alone," Remus corrected. "There's always students milling around that shack up there."
Lily pretended to not hear. "--and you know how teenagers are...with...hormones and all that..."
Sirius let out an appreciative laugh. "Oh Lily, you're too much."
She didn't seem to think as much.
"You're really worried they'll do something up there?" he asked incredulously. "One, how far do you think they'll get on a hill in the open daylight? And two, what's the deal? James could use it anyhow."
This got Remus, Peter, and, to Lily's distaste, Marilyn to laugh. The other girls sat in indignance.
"You're such a randy prat, Black," Lily huffed.
Sirius raised his eyebrows. "Says the woman who thought all this up in the first place..?"
"I didn't say I approved!"
"Not saving you, luv."
Lily brooded. "Well I think it's perfectly horrible and we should go stop it."
As the boys went into more peals of laughter, Lily received some backup from Scarlett. "You know, maybe we should go check on them."
"You girls are positively dotty, I hope you know," Remus informed through his subsiding chuckles.
"Too true, and plus I've not yet finished my third helping," Sirius indicated with a raised glass, "so we couldn't possibly leave."
"We've been here hardly 15 minutes, Sirius," Cherise noted with a mix of amazement and disgust.
"Exactly," he explained. "So I've a long way ahead of me before this chum is through with this establishment." He exited the booth with flourish and tread the familiar path to the bar, which he leaned forward onto with both arms, flashing his cheekiest grin to the far-gone female bartender.
Lily couldn't suppress a smirk of amusement at his smooth aura.
Also taking notice of Sirius's cassanova-like behavior, Remus leaned forward and explained in secretive tones, "Y'know, I wouldn't be surprised if Sirius grins his way to a little extra ahem in his drink, if you know what I mean."
The table laughed enthusiastically at this notion. From the way the bartenderess was visibly melting at the mere attention of such a suave creature, such an idea was not difficult to believe.
And from the way Sirius bounded back to the table as spry as a puppy with drinks in hand... the grey area of uncertainty was no more.
They exited the dusky pub in high spirits. Sirius's successful attempt at getting the contents of the place to join in a round of "What the World Needs Now" was enough to get any chum smiling. There was just something irresistibly jolly about 20 tipsy men wavering over high notes of a soapy love song.
Laughter split the air as they made their leave out into the sunshine.
"...it's the only thing...that there's just...too little of," they sang together in a quirky sort of harmony - shamelessly loud - more laughter making its way out than the melody.
Sirius sighed loudly. "Now there's a spiffing tune right there."
"And it'll be cemented in my head for weeks to come," Scarlett commented.
"You're such a bloody arse, Sirius," Cherise laughed.
Sirius slung his arms around Cherise and Lily on either side of him. "It's a tragic flaw," he wept. Suddenly he perked out of his mock tears. "Prongs and the girl!"
"And how was your afternoon?" Sirius asked promptly to the newly arrived couple. "You know, we were speculating the possibilities all through lunch."
James withheld a streak of crimson peeking up from his neck. "As a matter of fact, it went right well," he grinned as his arm snaked around Catherine's welcoming waist and pulled her close to his side. She giggled to herself.
Lily gritted her teeth to herself.
"Isn't that terrific?" she chirped. "Well we had quite a time ourselves. Sirius here was just the funniest little bludger today," she cooed in admiration.
"Oh yeah? What did he do?" Catherine asked with genuine interest.
"Er...well, for one thing we got the whole of the bar singing "What the World Needs Now-is love sweet love" - and isn't that just so true?" she commented as one does with the weather as she placed her hand on Sirius's shoulder and leaned precariously on it.
"Yes, well," Remus said aloud at once to beat off the silence emanating from several gazes. "Fancy a trip to Quidditch Supplies before heading back?"
"Lovely! Yes, let's," Marilyn encouraged.
As Sirius turned to go along, he eyed the hand on his shoulder then met the owner's gaze.
It was then that the guilt poured through Lily with a sickening rush. What the hell was she doing?
The trip to Quidditch Supplies ended up lasting a bit longer than anticipated. Sirius and James stood firm ground before the shining model of the latest broomstick, gawking at it with a curiously unyielding stare that was comparable to sufferers of a stunning spell. This left the other - more mentally focused - members of the group standing around idly, honorably resisting the urge to take the broomstick off its pedestal and whack the boys with it.
This useless time proved a chance to chat up Catherine, however. Know thine enemy, savvy. In only a few moments, they learned of her muggle parentage ("Lily's muggle born too!"), her goals of becoming Head Girl ("well you might have some competition with Lils here"), her secret boredom with Quidditch even though she allows James to believe everyone in the world worships it as he does ("yeah, me and Lily never know what he's on about with that"), and her skills with the piano ("hey Lil, didn't you say you always play the piano at home?").
Lily smiled and nodded at appropriate intervals, keeping her mouth shut for the most part. She had always been hopeless as an actress, and feigning interest with small talk fell within that vicinity. Marilyn took control of the talking, being the most conversationally inclined of the girls, and dug out as many details as they could stand to hear. One, in particular, that struck Lily's fancy was how James seemingly never could keep her name out of the conversation.
"It's funny, really," Catherine continued, "how keen he is on talking about you, Lily. You two must be right close mates."
Lily found herself short a response, so she did all she could think of and smiled. Inside, the wheels of hope were turning, despite the knowledge that such a thing only led to greater hurt. Well screw it all.
One point to Evans.
With just outside a second to spare, the group reached the carriages that were to whisk them back to the school. They split into fours, fate having it that James/Catherine and Sirius/Lily be together. The guys were bubbling over with enamorment of the broomstick and proceeded to gush over it the entire ride back. This left the girls to their own devices, merely consisting of Catherine vaguely smiling and Lily forcing her eyes not to fall on James. Or the intertwined fingers between him and Catherine, for that matter.
In a moment of ultimate self-pity, Lily allowed her head to drop onto Sirius's shoulder with an inaudible sigh. Instinctively, Sirius wrapped his arm over Lily's shoulders, perhaps in some subconscious need to protect - all the while he kept his complete focus on James and the conversation at hand. One might think he hadn't noticed his arm had moved at all.
But James did.
Upon reaching the destination, the students poured in a mass to the main doors, Lily and co. among them. Marilyn, Cherise, and Scarlett walked ahead, chattering energetically about some subject or other, while Lily lulled behind. They reached a fork of hallways, one leading to the portrait hole, the other leading elsewhere. Lily meandered with the others along the usual path. She paused but a moment to look behind and see where James was.
Back a ways she could see him and Catherine wrapped up in each other's arms, seemingly whispering sweet so-longs...or something of similar sappiness. In an instant of undecided initiation, they were kissing.
Lily turned away. She focused on her footsteps away from the sight she had witnessed. If not, she feared crumbling to the very ground she was concentrating on.
Behind her, James and Catherine separated. With one last glowing look, Catherine departed down the adjacent passageway to wherever it may lead.
James watched the brunette belle disappear down the hallway festooned with tapestries. His head felt light and happy. His feet weren't completely touching the floor.
And yet his heart was bleeding red.
Yeah, ahem, hope you got that metaphorish...whatever...at the end. ANYWHO! Aww, another chapter ending with a saddened James. Isn't that just terrible? Poor hunny. Maybe I should just skip to the wedding and get it over with (and I know some of you are nodding yes). But that wouldn't be fun. So on we go.
Next chapter ye may anticipate seeing Samantha again, some Marilyn/Remus drama, aaaand. Lily and James one-on-one time. Ahh yay.
So! Till again we meet, dahlings.