Disclaimer: I own nothing (apart from Pazazu, who is mine)
Chapter 4: Strawberries and Champagne
Inside her head a vice screamed No! but Maerad could make no sound. For a split second she was consumed by terror: a memory assailed her of hot breath against her skin, cruel hands bruising her body, the brutal gasps of a man aroused… She twisted out of his arms like a snake, lashing out violently with her fists, and stood panting before him, her hands raised to curse, her eyes glaring. Only then she recalled herself: this was Dernhil, not Burk, that thug who had tried to rape her in the cot; and Dernhil had only kissed her. She lowered her arms, speechless with embarrassment and confusion, and turned away. Dernhil covered his eyes with his hand.
- The Gift - Alison Croggon
Lily's eyes were streaming with tears of laughter. She and Hannah were both clutching helplessly at their sides and doubled over in hysterics when Lily felt a light tap on her shoulder and a quiet cough. She turned round to find James Potter standing behind her, his arms crossed over his chest and a grin tugging at the corners of his mouth. Lily's expression, however, turned from one of happiness, to annoyance.
'Yes' she said in a strained voice
'Seeing as you haven't noticed, I thought I'd inform you that you're the last ones in the hall and we need to do our rounds.' He stated calmly, running a hand through his messy hair. Lily's features twisted into a grimace of pain as she realised that what he was saying was true. James was surprised to note that Lily looked pretty even when pulling faces.
'Thank you for informing me.' Lily replied coldly 'I will be with you in two minutes.'
'No. We're late as it is. You're coming now.' And with that, he grabbed her hand and yanked her up from her seat. Lily looked behind her to find Hannah laughing again, and standing up too.
'I'd best be off too' she grinned 'you two have fun' Lily shot her an evil look, while James grinned:
'Don't worry, we will.'
'Trust me, they're really not as bad as you make them out to be' Hannah whispered in Lily's ear as she walked past them and out of the great hall. Lily, however, rolled her eyes in annoyance and despair at the thought of her only friend leaving her alone with this moron.
'Ok then, lets go.' Lily said in a business-like tone, gathering her wits about her.
'Okies' James led the way out of the Great Hall and up a huge flight of stairs. As they walked past the four huge hourglasses, lily asked what they were.
'They show how many house points each house has. At the end of the year they get counted up and the house with the most points wins the house cup.' His face suddenly lit up with a wicked grin and his eyes glittered mischievously. 'And as head boy, I have every right of taking them away. Snivellus will be in for it this year'. Lily's face clouded over in a look of confusion, but glancing at James, she decided against questioning him further.
For about ten minutes they walked through the school in silence. Lily only asking questions where she felt absolutely necessary. She felt a bit annoyed about this, as with every step, she felt as if she were growing smaller and smaller as she saw more and more of Hogwarts. Seeing the way James knew the castle inside out was unsettling and made her feel small and insignificant. Yet, on the other hand, she was glad she didn't have to talk to him, as she was sure he wouldn't have had anything of interest to say to her.
Lily was so wrapped up in her thoughts that she didn't notice that James had stopped, and walked right into a wall. Luckily James caught her before she could hit her head on the cold flagstones of the floor. She looked up from her slightly unorthodox position to see James grinning down at her. She quickly stood up; brushing him away and sending an exasperated look in his direction.
'Fine' he shrugged 'next time I wont bother.'
'Where are we anyway' lily asked, quickly changing the subject. 'And what happened about you showing me round and explaining what's what?'
'I am showing you round Evans. If you would care to actually look where you're going next time, you might take some more in.' he grinned, causing lily to blush slightly, to her utmost annoyance.
'Yes very interesting Potter.' She snapped 'you've brought me to a cold, dark corridor with a painting of a bowl of fruit on the wall. How very illuminating. Now if you wouldn't mind, I would be most interested in finding out where I am to sleep.' She crossed her arms across her chest. 'Besides, I don't think we're likely to find any students hiding behind paintings of fruit in the middle of nowhere.'
'That would be because we're not looking for students Evans.' With this he tickled the pear in the painting and the portrait swung open. Lily couldn't believe her eyes. Though she was well educated in all areas of magic, she did come from a muggle family, and had never been in a wizarding home. Therefore, such mundane things like an opening portrait seemed unearthly to her eyes. James turned round to see her mouth hanging open and laughed, bring a hand up to her shin and closing her mouth for her. 'It doesn't complement you my lady' he said, the corners of his mouth twitching. 'I'd like to show you one of my more interesting discoveries.'
'A ticklish pear?' she cast him a cynical look 'the joy'. He threw her an annoyed look and stomped through the portrait, making to slam it shut behind him. Causing Lily to hurry after him. She had no wish to be stuck in a dark corridor on her own with no idea where to go next. The sight that met her when she stepped through caused her mouth to fall open for the second time in two minutes. She was in a huge kitchen filled with house elves busily washing dishes. She had never seen a house elf before, having come from a muggle family, but had read about them. They, however, were nothing like what she had imagined. One ran straight up to them and spoke to them in a high-pitched squeaky voice.
'Is there anything we can do for you Mr James Potter Sir?' the elf sounded so eager that Lily couldn't suppress a giggle. James looked around at her:
'Hungry?' Lily was about to snap at him and tell him that they had just eaten, when she realised that his voice held no mocking and that he was asking her a genuine question. So for the first time she didn't snap at him and didn't make a sarcastic comment.
'No thanks I've just eaten. But I am a little thirsty.'
James had already opened his mouth in anticipation of giving her a sarcastic reply, when it dawned on him that Lily had given him a proper reply. So the curt reply was replaced by a huge smile as James turned to the house elf and said
'Two glasses of champagne please Pazazu.' He turned round to see Lily looking at him wide eyed. 'You don't like champagne?' James felt annoyed with himself: he should have asked her first.
'No it's just… a glass of water really would have been enough.' She muttered awkwardly 'besides, we're meant to be patrolling.' Lily started turning towards the door. James gently touched his fingers to her hand.
'They wont miss us for five minutes, besides, we need to celebrate our becoming the heads of Hogwarts.' He smiled at her as she turned back round with an uncertain expression on her face. 'Ok, but only if it's just for five minutes.' She sighed, finally giving in and curving her lips into a small smile.
'Follow me' James said, leading her into a side room. There were a few plush red sofas and armchairs and a glass coffee table in the centre of the room. There were large candles dotted all over the floor, lighting the room up with a warm glow. James collapsed onto a sofa and Lily perched on an armchair next to it a little awkwardly, looking around her with interest. 'Not many people know about the kitchens. People are always asking where we get the food from for parties.'
'Parties?' Lily asked with interest, just as a house elf rushed in carrying two champagne flutes and some strawberries on a tray. 'Thank you' she smiled as the elf handed her a glass of the sparkling champagne. James accepted his glass absentmindedly, not taking his eyes off Lily. For a wile she held the flute gently by the fragile stem, gazing mesmerised at the steadily rising bubbles, floating up through the golden liquid. She watched them swirl in different patterns, breaking up the soft candlelight and each shining with a tiny rainbow. Her eyes sparkled like the drink, as a red wisp of hair fell in front of them. It shone with a golden sheen in the candlelight, each curl slightly different and with it's own natural highlights. James watched the corners of her lips lift up slightly, and involuntarily, his did the same.
Lily raised her glass, as did James
'To the new head boy and girl' James said, and then added as an afterthought: 'may we be successful in triumphing over Slytherins.' At this Lily rolled her eyes, but a small smile remained at the corners of her lips as she sipped at her champagne.
They certainly spent longer than five minutes in the kitchens. Lily and James sat and talked lightly in the candlelit room: James told Lily about Hogwarts and the feuds between the houses, about the pranks they had played on Slytherins, which promptly introduced a stern look from Lily, but surprisingly enough followed by a laugh or a smile. The champagne loosened Lily up a little; just the right amount to feel relaxed. She found herself laughing and telling James about some of her childhood.
Two hours later found Lily sitting cross-legged in her arm chair and James sprawled out on the sofa laughing over the time Lily had accidentally made her maths teacher in primary school sprout antlers.
'Shit' Lily said suddenly, jumping up from the armchair she had been comfortably sitting in a few seconds earlier and glancing at her watch. 'It's already twelve o'clock!'
'Oops' James said, sitting up. 'The head's dorms aren't far. We should sleep there tonight, the others won't be happy if we come stumbling in and wake them up.
'Fair enough' said Lily smiling slightly and heading back into the main kitchen and to the portrait.
As they walked along the dark corridors, James told Lily about the portraits in front of each common room and told her the password to the head's dormitories. James told her about how he and Sirius had stumbled across the head's dormitories two years ago when they were running away from Filch. The story of how James and Sirius had crashed into the head girl just as she was walking out of her dormitory made Lily laugh.
'The portraits of an old wizard dancing with a pig, or was the last time I looked.' James laughed 'It's just round the corner.'
Just then lily caught sight of a silhouette pressed against the wall in front of her and to her right. Lily gave James a sharp poke and motioned towards the silhouette. James' eyebrows creased together for a second, but then his mouth broke out into a huge smile
'Oy, Sirius!' he said. Sirius spun round to face James and grinned back.
'You scared the living shit out of me dude!'
'I try' James shrugged. At this Lily stepped forward.
'Hey Evans.' Sirius grinned
'What the hell are you doing sneaking round at night?' she hissed angrily
'I was just visiting Tina Barker in Ravenclaw' He shrugged nonchalantly and exchanged knowing grins with James. 'No less than you and Jamesie here were doing I'm sure.'
'What the fuck are you on about? We were just…' suddenly her face grew even angrier. If there had been light enough to see by, James and Sirius would have seen that her eyes had grown very dark indeed and her mouth had formed into a thin line. She turned to James: ' you filthy conniving bastard!' she screamed at a shocked looking James 'Giving me champagne in an attempt to make me drunk, in that candlelit room, your preposterous excuse to get me to sleep in the head's dormitories, just to screw me…' She let out a strangled scream as she glared vehemently at James. 'Well I'll have you know that it would never have worked! I'm not a slut Potter! And you'd do well to remember that!'
And with one final thundering look in James' direction she turned to go snapping:
'If I catch you out of your own bed again Black, I'll be taking points off Gryffindor!' she stormed round the corner, barked out a password and slammed the portrait closed behind her.
'Oops' said Sirius, unsure whether he was allowed to grin or not.
'It's late Sirius. Go to bed' James said in a strained but pointed voice. This was such an uncharacteristic thing for James to say that Sirius found himself, for once, doing exactly as he was told.
As soon as Sirius disappeared out of sight, James punched the wall in front of him with all his strength and placed his forehead against the cold stone and closed his eyes. He had not meant to get her drunk or get laid. How could it have all so wrong? And more importantly...
Why did he care?
A/N: Ooh, tensions between Lily and James!
A huge thank you goes out to all my reviewers
And I'd like to say thanks to Xena and for the name of the house elf Pazazu (originally Pazuzu who is a figure in Sumerian and Akkadian mythology. Pazuzu is often depicted with the body of a man but with the head of a lion or dog, talons instead of feet, two pairs of wings, the tail of a scorpion and a serpentine penis. He is also depicted with the right hand upward, and the left hand downward; the position of the hands means life and death, or creation and destruction.) he he – serpentine penis – makes me laugh.
Thought I'd make the house elf innocent and change the name a little.Yes, I know I'm rambling, so I'll shut up now.
Please R&R
Thankyou
A xxxxx