Chapter 12

The sun shone brightly the next day, embracing the whole room in sunlight that passed through the peach curtains. With the sun and the fresh flowers on the table, the room looked so alive and fresh. The person who had just woken up and was sitting on the bed, however, looked the exact opposite.

Lily rubbed her eyes tiredly and yawned. She had had hardly any sleep last night, although she couldn't understand why. She chalked it up to stress from the fight last night.

"Or maybe," her sub-conscious slyly interrupted, "You couldn't sleep last night because you were so guilty of what you did to James, your one true love".

"Would you stop that?" Lily thought back, annoyed. "And don't ever string the words James Potter and one true love in the same sentence!" She shook her head to block out those thoughts as she headed to the shower.

Around twenty minutes later, she was dressed for the formal breakfast. She had donned a cerulean skirt that reached a little below her knees, and a lavender spaghetti-strap shirt with a short lavender and blue-striped jacket, her hair let down in russet curs. She took a deep breath, opened the door, and walked out.

At the same time, James walked out of his own room. The both of them were so surprised to see each other at the same time that they suddenly stopped. Lily got the, unwanted or not, opportunity to look at him.

James was wearing a red and beige that looked almost gold polo shirt that brought out his hazel eyes. Lily was pleased to note that he still, despite the small lump on his head, looked really adorable…. "Wait a sec, what the hell am I thinking? Bad Lily," Lily mentally berated herself.

Aloud she said, after eyeing his outfit, "Hmm…..red and gold…how very…Gryffindor of you".

"Hmm…..blue and lavender…..how very Ravenclaw of you. Jake would've been pleased," James retorted then muttered, "House traitor".

Lily rolled her eyes and suddenly eyed the small lump on his head. He stomach churned with guilt again. "So…..that…..um…that lump on your head…..doesn't really look like it hurts so bad, does it?"

James glared at her. "Trust me, looks can be deceiving, Evans, looks can be deceiving".

Her stomach churned again. "Aargh, stop it! I hate feeling so damn guilty over this!" she thought angrily. Aloud she said in a voice that didn't betray how she felt, "Whatever. Let's just go".

"Why do you want you to go together? I thought you wanted me to leave you alone," James said.

"Because," Lily said, as if stating the obvious, a bite of impatience in her voice, "Delegates of the same school have to stay together for the events. You said it yourself last night, idiot".

"Oh yeah, that's right, I did. So let's go," And with that James and Lily left their suite. They proceeded down to the breakfast hall.

They found Rachel and Ryan already there, along with many other students. Greetings were exchanged, and the foursome claimed a table at the center of the room.

..------..

After Miss Vallarie formally opened the event, with much applause from all the delegates, everyone scrambled to get to the buffet to eat breakfast, which consisted of pancakes with syrup, waffles, toast with marmalade and jam, and other delicious breakfast foods, accompanied with a seemingly self-refilling orange juice pitcher. It was also then that the many students began mingling with each other.

James was sitting with Rachel and Ryan, enjoying his breakfast, when he saw Lily talking to a blonde boy wearing a beige turtleneck sweater. She was smiling, not flirtatiously, but with her usual kind smile. Nevertheless, James felt jealous and fixed his hazel eyes on the pair. When he saw that Lily was laughing, as was the guy, he, not really sure what he was doing, stood up and walked over to them, much to the amusement of Ryan and Rachel, who was observing James while he was observing Lily.

"Hi, I don't think we've met, who are you? I'm James Potter, by the way. From Hogwarts, you know, just like this lady you're talking to over here," James said, extending his hand, completely oblivious to the glare the red-head was throwing in his direction.

The boy looked taken aback but then replied with an easy smile as he shook James hand. "Hi", he said, with an Australian accent, "Gavin McGrath, nice to meet the partner of Lily". He eyed the both of them and asked, purely out of curiosity, "Please don't mind my asking, but are the both of you together? As in, boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"Oh no, no. I have a boyfriend back home at Hogwarts," Lily said right away. James said "No, definitely not", but he thought, "Although I want to be".

"And speaking of which, Evans, I forgot to tell you this, but Jake has a really important message he just told me to tell you".

"Can't it wait? I'm still talking here," Lily asked him.

"No it can't, sorry," James told her, not looking very sorry at all. Turning to Gavin, he said, "Terribly sorry, mate, but this is kinda private. Excuse us". And with that, he steered a quietly protesting Lily back to their table.

Once the two were seated, Lily said, "Okay Potter, what's Jake's message?"

"Nothing," James shrugged, "I just needed to get you away from that Gavin guy, that's all".

Hearing this, Lily snapped angrily, "Potter, why the hell would you do that?"

"What? Dragging you away from that Gavin guy? I had to do it. You were flirting with the guy, everyone could tell, it was so obvious. Here you are, telling me that I should act properly in front of many people, yet here you are, flirting? What would Jake, your boyfriend, think?"

"One, saying hi and having a conversation with someone is not considered flirting; it's called being polite and friendly. And number two, why are you giving me this hypocritical lecture on being a decent girlfriend, Mr. I-ask-out-girls-and-dump-them-the-next-day-not-caring-if-they're-left-crying-or-not?" Lily snapped, folding her arms.

At that precise moment, Ryan and Rachel arrived back at the table, on the count of them having gone to the buffet table. They sat down, and noticed Lily's glare and James's I-couldn't-care-less expression, and they sighed. For someone who claimed that he liked Lily, James was sure doing his best to make her life a living nightmare.

Finally, the breakfast was over, and they all proceeded to the grounds for the opening events. They all took a seat and waited, quite chatter breaking out, until Ms. Vallarie came in front of them and began speaking.

..------..

The day was about to end, and so were the events. So far they had seen a very, much to James and Ryan's delight, exciting Quidditch match, an interesting talk by Ms. Lavinia Scarlton on potion-making, and other insightful, enjoyable, and educational activities. Finally, it was time for the last presentation.

"Now, to end the opening events of this year's Wizarding Students Delegation, our final presentation is by a very distinguished wizard, with world-renowned acclaim for his discovery more commonly known as the Mirror Spell. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you, Sir Oliver Brawfield!"

There was polite applause heard as a tall man with graying brown hair, dressed in fine wizard robes, took center stage. Lily was smiling as she clapped, for she had read about this wizard and was awed at his discovery.

"Good afternoon!" The speaker said, his tone decidedly English, "It's good to see many young, smart people gathered here today, as I hope that all of you will pay a big role in the formation of a better future for the wizarding world. Now, onto my discovery……..I won't bore you with how I discovered it, because I find that that would be boasting, but I will tell you what the discovery is all about.

"The Mirror Spell is an incantation I had developed a long, long, time ago. Basically, when the spell is cast on a particular person, it shows who they really are inside, their thoughts, and more specifically, their innermost desires. The wave of the wand is the same as Wingardium Leviosa-swish and flick-and the incantation is Riflettere Interno. For example," he motioned to a boy sitting at the very from and cast the spell on him. After a cloud cleared, they found the boy wearing a Minister of Magic crest with his robes. The boy nodded an affirmation and Sir Brawfield was faced with applause as he undid the charm and the boy sat down.

"Now, I'd like everyone to try it. Repeat the incantation after me. Riflettere Interno!" Sir Brawfield said. A chorus rose up and Sir Brawfield clapped his hands delightedly. "Very good! Now, I will give you the time to practice with the spell. Go on, try it, everyone!"

And so for the next hour, everyone excitedly started to practice. Many found difficulty in the spell; the words were Italian, and some of them had a hard time even just pronouncing it. Luckily, nothing extreme happened.

An hour later, Sir Brawfield spoke again, bringing everyone to a halt. Everyone took their seats once more.

"Alright, everyone. I see you've been working hard. Now, let's have a pair, shall we? How about probably the most hard-working pair I've seen? How about…..yes, the Hogwarts pair! Mr. Potter and Ms. Evans, kindly come up here".

Reluctantly, the pair got up and walked to the front, uncomfortably (well, Lily was, anyway) aware that everyone was looking at them.

Sir Brawfield said, "Alright, when I count to three, cast the spells at each other. Let's see what the both of your desire, and mostly think about, shall we? One….two….three!"
At the same time, both Lily and James cried, "Riflettere Interno!" to each other. Suddenly, there was a blinding light.

When it cleared……well….well…. the result was surprising really. You see, now Lily and James were directly beside each other, their hands entwined, and looking every bit as if they were a couple, although the expressions on both their faces somewhat ruined the scene.

Sir Brawfield clapped enthusiastically. "Well, well! Excellent! The both of you are indeed very bright! You've done the spell well. Imagine that…what the both of you desire, what you constantly think about is…each other!" He turned to the shocked and amused faces of the audience. Ryan and Rachel were grinning from ear to ear.

After they had detached their hand from each other, and returned to their seats, the wizard ended the talk with a flourish and Ms. Vallarie came and formally ended the activities. The people began dispersing right away.

Lily was paralyzed with shock and most of all anger. But when she recovered from that state, however, she lashed out at James, like a tiger ready to pounce at anyone after being let out of its cage.

"JAMES MICHAEL POTTER, WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING? DON'T YOU HAVE A SINGLE BRAIN CELL IN THAT LITTLE ROUND THING INSIDE OF YOUR HEAD THAT YOU CALL A BRAIN!" Lily hissed at him as the four made their way to Lily and James's suite.

"Hmm, obviously I do have brain cells, otherwise, I wouldn't be Head Boy and no one would be marveling at my superior intelligence right now!" he arrogantly replied.

"Then why the hell did you do the spell wrong? I mean, come on. Modesty aside, but I'm the best in our year at Charms. Do you honestly expect me to be the one to mess up at this subject? It had to be you. Otherwise, why did the spell stick us together for that time? You can't honestly expect me to believe that our desires were each other. Maybe you did the spell wrong and it resulted in throwing two enemies together".

Slightly hurt at Lily's words, and quite happy at the result of the spell, James said, "Excuse me, but I'm sure I performed the spell well. Watch," He turned to Rachel. "Rache? You mind? No? Okay then. Riflettere Interno!"

Suddenly, there was a flash of light and Rachel stood there, wearing a very stylish witches robe, with the crest Mistress of Magic.

"Oh my. James did do it properly. This is right," Rachel affirmed. To make sure, Lily did the same to Ryan, and it revealed him wearing professional Quidditch robes, which Ryan affirmed was true, as his desire was to become a famous professional Quidditch player.

Lily gaped as James opened the door, her brain still reeling from what she had just witnessed. Once the four were inside, she said, "Listen, guys. I'm really, really, tired, so…um….I'm just going to take a nap, okay?" And without waiting for the answer, she hurriedly went inside her room.

Once there, she slumped onto her bed, hugging a pillow tight, her head aching, thinking, "Okay, so, if I didn't mess up the spell, and Potter didn't, then why did it throw the both of us together? I mean, it's not as if we like each other or anything. Right? Better get some rest Lily. Might help me figure out what the hell just happened a while ago". And with that, she closed her eyes.

Needless to say, when she woke up roughly an hour and a half later, she was still as confused as she was before she went to sleep.

Okay? So, how do you like this chappie? Please let me know! Frankly, I'm not too happy that I got only four reviews for this and only three for the 'I Never Gave Up' sequel. Come on, everyone, I am asking very nicely here, read and review, please!