Author's Note: Oh boy, look at me, updating late again. Sorry, I really must be the master of procrastination and of getting distracted. I also couldn't really think of what to write, and I think this is sort of a filler chapter, although I could be wrong.
Thanks to: fatcat, starscope, kriskros, certified-weirdo (it's true! He really changed! Happy very late birthday!), Coco-Pop (I like your name!), My Divinest, Windowseat Wonderer (I tried to update the rest on V-Day, but I just couldn't get it finished), Lady of Masbolle, Jersey Princess, Via
Chapter 18
"I still can't believe I'm getting involved in this," Lily said, aggravated. She and Anna were walking through the corridors and up the stairways towards the trophy room.
"Oh, come on, don't you think it's intriguing?" Anna asked excitedly. Lily stopped dead.
"Anna?" She called. Anna stopped and looked back at her. "You don't have anything to do with this, do you?"
"No, of course not, don't be ridiculous," Anna said. "Now come on, we're wasting time."
"No, this whole thing is a waste of time," Lily shot back, but she continued on to the trophy room nevertheless. When they reached it, it seemed as though nothing was out of the ordinary. The various bronze and silver trophies, medals, and plaques were all in their respective place. "Well, that's too bad. I guess the little adventure's over, let's go," Lily said quickly, turning to leave, but Anna grabbed her arm and pulled her back.
"Very funny, Lily dear," Anna said wryly. "But I'm certainly not giving up that easily."
So for the next five minutes, they scoured the entire room: behind trophies, under them, on top of them, beside them, in the cracks of the walls, on the shelves, and just about every inch of the room. Lily grumbled the entire time while Anna had a small smile on her face, and in the end it was Lily who found the small piece of paper wedged under an award given to someone named Tom Riddle.
"Ooh, open it, what does it say?" Anna asked, striding over to Lily and looking over her shoulder. Lily unfolded the paper and read what it said.
I'm lovesick for you
My heart is broken.
"That's it?" Anna asked. "What's it supposed to mean?" Lily shrugged.
"I told you this whole thing was a bloody waste of time"
"Now, now, there's no need to get angry," Anna said. "We're both smart, we can figure this out."
"But I don't care"
"Two heads are better than one…"
"You make me so mad sometimes."
Meanwhile, James, Sirius, and Remus were all sitting in their dormitory. A very odd sort of tension filled the room; it was neither nervous nor excited.
"I hate to be the one to break the silence, but where's Peter?" Sirius asked.
"Good question," Remus said pensively. "He's been around less and less lately. Has he seemed…weirder to you guys?"
"Er…well, not really, or at least I didn't notice a change," Sirius replied. The room became quiet again. Sirius sighed very loudly and started tapping the wall behind him, clearly uncomfortably in the silence.
"Are you okay, Prongs?" Remus asked seriously, and not without reason to. James' face was unusually pallid and he had barely spoken all day.
"Yes," James said, his voice higher than normal. "Yes. It's just…nervous, you know?" Sirius and Remus nodded solemnly.
"Don't worry about it, everything's going to be fine," Sirius said, waving his hand impatiently. "I mean, we did everything you asked, Anna seems to be managing to keep Lily on with your little plan…what are you so worried about?"
"Dunno," James said, shrugging. "I can't help it. I mean, I've already screwed up once, haven't I?"
Neither Remus nor Sirius could think of something sufficient to reply with, so the three sunk into silence again, only to be interrupted moments later with Peter's clumsy and unceremonious entrance into the dormitory.
It was now well past lunchtime. Lily and Anna were still going through the scavenger hunts clues. So far, they had led them all over the castle: they had been to the hospital wing, the kitchens, the Transfiguration department, an odd, very small room, which was empty except for the clue, their dormitory, somewhere in the dungeons near the Potions classroom, out to Hagrid's hut, and they now found themselves heading towards the Owlery.
"…Anna, this is the biggest waste of time I've ever been a part of, and I seriously am not going to continue on with this anymore!" Lily finished saying, for what felt like the five-thousandth time. Anna had now begun to ignore Lily's complaints and pleas, determinedly following each clue to its next location.
Lily had begun to get more than a little suspicious. She couldn't see why Anna, who was usually so clear-headed and mature, would want to involve herself in something so silly and trivial as some lovesick scavenger hunt. Then there was the fact that she kept dragging Lily along, insisting that she come with her. Lily had started thinking Anna was involved in this somehow.
Yeah, that'd be typical Anna, She thought to herself. Making some stupid plan behind my back to give me some sort of valuable lesson or something like that.
They were now nearing the Owlery, and Lily found herself getting more and more irritated with every step they took. She felt this must be some kind of bad karma, giving her exactly what she deserved for being so rash and hypersensitive to what James had told her. She only half-heartedly helped Anna search the Owlery, partly because she was sick of the whole thing, and partly because thinking of James had made her miserable. After five minutes, Anna yet out a triumphant yell.
"I found it! Here, Lily, read it," She said, thrusting it into Lily's hand. Lily gave her a very obvious eye-rolling. "Oh, go on, read it," Anna reiterated, and Lily reluctantly opened the note and read it. She was immensely relieved to see that it didn't hold any type of riddle, and that it seemed the hunt was over.
Second classroom on the right, Gregory the Smarmy's corridor. 6 o'clock.
"This is so stupid," Lily muttered. "You know this is probably some obsessed twelve-year-old who's just taking advantage of the fact that James and" She stopped, not really wanting to finish her sentence.
"Well, if nothing else, at least you have someone obsessed with you, right?" Anna said, and Lily couldn't help but notice the hint of sarcasm in her voice. She sighed.
"I'm not going," Lily said, walking out of the Owlery. She could hear Anna's steps behind her, but Anna didn't say anything for a few minutes.
"You know you're being really immature about this, don't you?" She finally said, very quietly, almost cautiously. It surprised Lily. She'd never heard Anna speak in such a careful way before. It was always confidence, always straightforward.
"Oh, that's rich, Anna," Lily spat at her. "You led me around on a scavenger hunt all day. What are we, five-year-olds? We're not silly little girls anymore, we're not supposed to get all giggly and interested every time any boy looks our way!"
"What's the real reason you're avoiding this?" Anna replied, less carefully this time.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Lily said disdainfully, and began walking again. This time she didn't hear Anna's steps behind her, but her words hit Lily extremely hard.
"Listen, Lily, I'm sorry you're this upset about James," She called, and Lily stopped walking away, though she still stayed turned away. "But it's not the end of the world."
Lily couldn't think of how to reply. Anna had just brought up the one subject that Lily did not want to talk about, think about, or in any other way associate herself with. Finally, she turned back to face Anna.
"Don't you dare try to trivialize what I'm feeling, you have no idea what's going on," She said, her voice bubbling with anger. "I know you think you know everything, that you can fix everything by just talking to me, but things don't always work like that!"
"There's nothing wrong with fighting with him, Lily!" Anna said. "I don't understand why you're…ashamed of it or something. And I don't understand why you're so afraid to talk about it! It's not going to make it better if you just pretend it didn't happen! It happened Lily, and you need to figure out how to deal with it."
"I don't" Lily began, angrier than ever, but she couldn't finish. Her voice broke, and, without any warning, she started sobbing in the middle of the hallway. She stood there, crying for a moment, and Anna came over and hugged her for a little while, not saying anything. After it seemed Lily had cried herself out, she broke away from Anna.
"Well, this is the most emotion you've shown in days," Anna said, grinning a little bit. "It's amazing what I have to go through to get through to you."
"I'm sorry," Lily said miserably, wiping her eyes on the back of her hand. "I don't know what's wrong with me."
"There's nothing wrong with you. It's okay to be sad. It's okay to be mad at James, or me, or whoever else," Anna said. Lily groaned.
"But I didn't have any reason to be mad at him. Why do I have to be such an idiot all the time?" Lily said, barely louder than a whisper. She could feel more tears gathering in her eyes.
"Lily, the best thing about being mad at James," Anna said, smiling, "is that he will always love you, no matter what."
Lily smiled at her, and a tiny part of her knew that Anna was right. Neither one of them said anything for a moment; the silence was only broken by Lily's sniffs.
"Now," Anna began, "we have to figure out who this secret admirer of yours is."
"I don't care," Lily repeated, miserably. Anna let out a small laugh.
"Well, I do, so for my sake, please go," She replied. "You never know, maybe Ludo Bagman came back to Hogwarts just to woo you."
"Oh, now you've really made me want to go," Lily said sarcastically, laughing. They began walking back to the Gryffindor Common Room, and Lily realized that the terrible weight of guilt she used to have was greatly lessened.
James looked at his watch. Five-thirty. He paced around the room. He tried sitting down, but he couldn't keep still.
What was he thinking? This wasn't going to work. He could tell it wouldn't work. Lily would surely think his plan was incredibly childish, and even with Anna helping her along, she certainly wouldn't follow it all the way through. Or maybe she'd figure the whole thing outshe might realize that James was behind all of this, that Anna was in on it, and she'd be so upset at the deception she wouldn't even speak to Anna. Then again, that would be childish as well, and Lily was so mature, she'd never do something like that. Would she?
James shook himself. He was worrying too much. For a moment, he panicked because he thought it was past 6 o'clock already, but calmed down when he looked at his watch. It was only five-forty. Calm down, He told himself. Breathe, everything's going to work out fine, you're over-thinking this…
He watched as the minutes dragged on. He tried looking away from his watchhe'd always thought the more impatiently you waited for something, the longer it would seem to take. After what seemed like twenty minutes had passed, he allowed himself to look at his watch again, and saw that merely four minutes had gone by.
After a torturous ten minutes, James began to get even more nervous. He was sure she wasn't going to come. He was sure his plan wouldn't work. A moment later, he jumped nearly a foot in the air when he heard someone calling him.
"James! James!" A muffled voice was yelling from somewhere. James pulled out his two-way mirror (who else would be wanting to talk to him at a time like this?).
"What?" He asked, looking at Sirius' face staring at him out of the mirror.
"Er…well, I know you're short on time, so I'll just get to the point," Sirius began. "That spell you asked us to look upthe one that was going to make flowers grow from the walls or whatever? It seems Wormtail and I didn't quite get the pronunciation right, and Moony's only just told us we did it wrong…"
"Okay, so why are you telling me this?" James asked, though his stomach was already twisting.
"Well, it seems…" Sirius said, giving James a guilty smile, "it seems that there's not going to be flowers growing from the walls. You might want to get out of there."
James sighed in exasperation. This just figured. His plan hadn't worked, just like he'd expected.
"All right, I'll get out of here," He muttered, stowing the mirror away and striding out of the room.
James decided that though his whole plan was basically ruined, he would at least try and salvage some part of it, so he waited outside the door, leaning against the wall. Sure enough, he saw Lily coming down the hall within two minutes, looking slightly apprehensive. When she reached the door of the classroom, she stopped, noticing James.
"Hey," She said. James was about to start the speech he had planned when she reached for the doorknob. Quickly, James slid over and leaned on the door, therefore stopping her from opening it. He had no idea what exactly Sirius and Peter might have accidentally done, but he knew it couldn't be good.
"Er…sorry, you really can't go in there," James said, grinning sheepishly. Lily looked confused, but she did step away from the door.
"Why not?" She asked. James frantically tried to think of an answer, one that wouldn't incriminate him or show his idea for the total failure it was.
"I…er…well, the thing is…I don't know if I…" He stammered, and Lily's look of confusion became more pronounced.
"Are you…jealous or something?" She asked cautiously. Now it was James' turn to be confused.
"What are you talking about?" James asked.
"Oh nothing, you don't know then," She said, looking relieved. "I thought Anna might have told you."
"Wait a minute…jealous…what would I have to be jealous of?" He asked, feeling more angry now, as well as slightly suspicious.
"I told you, nothing, now will you please just let me in this room?" Lily replied, she herself sounding a little angry.
"Sorry, can't," James said defiantly. Lily sighed and stood there for a moment, before reaching for the doorknob again. "You're not going to be able to get it open," James said, almost laughing.
"I'm not, am I?" Lily asked slyly, and she turned the doorknob. For a moment, James thought she was crazy. After all, he was leaning against the door, holding it closed. She wasn't going to be able to get it opening. Then he realized he was stumbling backwards.
James hadn't known the door opened into the room, rather than out of the room. He also hadn't known the extent of Sirius and Peter's mistake, so he didn't expect to fall backwards into a huge puddle of mud. But that's what he did. Sirius and Peter had made some horrific mistake which was now causing alarming amounts of mud to be seeping from the walls onto the floor. James stood up and saw Lily staring into the room; her expression was somewhere between bewilderment and trying not to laugh.
"Oh," She said, smiling now. "I think I get it now. You're the one I was supposed to be meeting here, aren't you?"
"Well, who did you think you were meeting?" James asked rather irritably, due to the fact that he was covered in mud.
"I had no idea," Lily said, stepping into the room and closing the door, trying to stop the mud from going out the door and into the corridor. "Although, now that I think of it, it fits. You got Anna to drag me along on that thing today, didn't you?"
"Yes," James replied bitterly, trying to wipe the mud off his arms.
"You did all that to bring me into a room filled with mud?" Lily asked, and James detected that she was trying not to laugh.
"Obviously not. This was Sirius and Peter's fault," James replied, even more irritated. Lily shook her head.
"Did you do all this," Lily asked, "just to try and get me to…forgive you or something?" Neither of them spoke for a moment. James wiped more mud off himself.
"I suppose," He replied, almost defiantly, as if daring her to laugh or make fun of him. He was all of a sudden intensely aware that this was the most he and Lily had talked, the closest they'd been, for several days now. At that same time, he also became aware that they were standing in a foot deep of mud.
Lily walked over towards him (with some difficulty, as the mud was extremely thick), and hugged him. James wasn't quite sure how to take this. Though he was glad that Lily was hugging him rather than hitting him, it was a bit of a shock nonetheless. He settled for absentmindedly patting her on the back.
"Er…are you okay with this, then?" James asked, trying to understand what was going on. "Are you not mad? Do you forgive me?"
"I'll forgive you if you forgive me," Lily said, stepping away from James. James noticed her arms were covered in mud. He wondered why he would need to forgive her.
"Well, all right then, I forgive you, though I don't know why," James said, shrugging.
"Then I forgive you," Lily said, smiling. "Thank you for the…er… mud-filled room. It's very romantic."
"Ha ha, very funny," James said. "It really isn't my fault, I made the mistake of getting Sirius and Peter to handle this end of it. They probably did it on purpose to make me look like an idiot."
"I don't mind," Lily said. "I've missed you."
It heartened James a lot to know that she had actually missed him. He decided this whole day hadn't been a total loss. He leaned in to kiss Lily
"Prongs! Hey, Prongs!" James heard the muffled voice yell. With a noise of exasperation, he pulled it out from his pocket and saw Sirius' face staring at him again.
"Damn it, Sirius, what do you want?" James hissed at him.
"Turns out that room's going to be filled with mud, so you might want to make sure Lily doesn't go in there," Sirius said. James opened his mouth several times to try and reply, but it seemed he couldn't quite find the words.
"All right, Sirius," He finally said, giving him a pained smile. "Good-bye." He put the mirror back in his pocket, and noticed that he had quite forgotten the mud seeping out of the walls, and now filling over two feet of the room.
"Hmm…I suppose we should do something about this," Lily said, looking around the room. "What kind of charm were you" She began, but was interrupted by screams from out in the corridor.
"What's that?" James asked, and both he and Lily moved towards the door (again, with difficulty). They had hardly reached it when it flew open to reveal Professor McGonagall.
She went on to yell at them for several minutes before vanishing the mud and ending the spell that Sirius and Peter had ruined. She, of course, didn't know that it was Sirius and Peter who had caused this, so she made both of them walk up to her office, no doubt to receive their punishment.
As Lily and James walked behind the angry Professor McGonagall, covered in mud, about to be punished, neither one of them could think of a time when they had ever been happier in their lives.
Author's Note: Well, there's the chapter. And now I have some really bad news: I'm not going to be continuing writing this story. I reread it last night and for some reason I just don't like it anymore. I think it's badly written and I just don't want to keep adding onto a bad story. I'm really sorry about this, but I can't help it…………ha, just kidding! It is April Fools' today, you know. Oh well, at least it is here, so I apologize to people in different time zones or whatever who have already had or are going to have April Fools'. And to the people who read this a week from now. I'm sorry if I caused anyone serious injury. I would never do that to you! I love my story (although I did read it last night and I found myself thinking at several points, "Why would I write something like that? That's just weird!"), and I wouldn't stop writing unless there was a really important reason.
You know, a really good reason like not getting enough reviews. I'm kidding again. But I would love you to review.
