Chapter Four – Silence, Thoughts and Wishful Thinking

Lily marched furiously down the corridor, up two flights of stairs, took the right hall and made a turn at the left corridor, pushing open the door to the girl's loos with extreme force. Apparently unaware of James's presence, she marched into one of the stalls, ready to bang her head against the door and sob angry tears.

James was a little preoccupied with the fact that he was in the girl's loos. He grinned wickedly and looked around, determined to get as many details as possible to report back to his fellow Marauders. It was very similar to the boy's loos although there were more mirrors that littered almost every surface, engraved with Hogwarts' previous couples' names. Much like in muggle loos, the stall doors were littered with I LOVE …'s written in red lipstick or black marker. Even for a loo, the bathroom had a certain… elegance… to it. A large crystal chandelier dangled from the ceiling and large round chairs were gathered in a neat arc near the door. There were even a couple magazines on end tables near the tables. James rolled his eyes at the sight. No wonder they come in here in packs, he thought to himself, they all have parties in this thing.

His thoughts were interrupted by a yank on his arm. He found himself once again being dragged along by Lily Evans. James's eyes grew wide as they saw her walk into a loo. Panicking, he debated silently if she simply forgot he was there, or was ready for a frisky rendezvous.

But James was clearly wrong. Lily stomped noisily into the stall, slamming the door behind her. Turning around she found herself looking directly at James's neck, complete with white collared shirt and Gryffindor tie. She gulped, remembering what had just happened and raised her head to look at James.

His brows were knitted in confusion, looking everywhere but at Lily. This was rather uncomfortable – it was embarrassing and cramped.

Lily blinked, unsure of what to do. She glanced down at her hand that was attached to James, and attempted to make a cover.

"So – I – uh – I came in here to – uh – discuss – uh – um – to discuss – this," Lily stumbled rather stupidly.

James glanced down at their joined hands and cleared his throat.

"I really didn't do it, Lily, I swear," he said looking at her green eyes as she focused them on the floor.

"Yeah," Lily mumbled, for some reason believing him. "Yeah, I understand."

The tiny stall filled with silence and an uncomfortable fidgeting from James. He couldn't stand being inches away from the girl he was in love with and not touch her.

James wanted so desperately to reach his hand out and brush away the lock of red hair from Lily's cheek, lift her chin and grin at her, then lean in and kiss her. Granted, if he did that, she'd knee him in the groin and hit him till even his eyes turned blue.

So he didn't. James shoved his hands (well, the one he had free) deep down in his pockets and sighed, staring at his trainers.

"I suppose we should go get this fixed," Lily said after a couple minutes of silence. "Seeing as you can't and I don't even know what it is."

"Er," James said, unsure of what to do.

"C'mon, James," Lily said, forgetting to use his surname. "Let's go to Dumbledore."

James grinned at the use of his first name and followed Lily out of the loos (much to the wide-eyes of a couple first years) and up the stairs, down a couple corridors and to the stone gargoyle that stood standing, guarding Professor Dumbledore's office.

Professor Dumbledore was a man highly amused by the many antics of his students. Watching them come and go through his study throughout the day with this problem or that problem or being accused of doing this or actually, really, doing that and their many problems and failures, successes and confusions, everything about the students he could understand and consume without changing his facial expression, but this? No, this was priceless.

When Lily Evans and James Potter entered his study holding hands, as if sewn together at the skin, Dumbledore smiled inwardly, wondering where he had been when the greatest enemies – except, perhaps, Gryffindor and Slytherin – began dating. But, as the two teenagers "er"med and "uh"med with many nervous glances towards the door and at their own feet, telling the story of their situation, it grew apparent that they weren't holding hands because they wanted to, but, rather, that they had to.

Sure, Dumbledore had seen the pair in the Great Hall earlier that morning, fussing over one thing or another – most likely James had asked Lily out once again – but he hadn't thought that something like this would have happened.

Smiling at the confused pair, Dumbledore stood up and walked around his desk to face the two. He lifted their joined hands and examined the clasped – error. After many minutes of silence, Dumbledore cleared his throat and offered the seats to the two, ready to tell them the tale.

"It appears," he said calmly, "that a certain – potion – was used for this. Now, unlike Ms. Bridgestone and Mr. Revington that were joined at the hand last year – you two do not have to fall in love and kiss for -"

Lily cringed at the idea of falling in love and kissing James Potter while James found himself rather disappointed.

"- the spell to be reversed," Dumbledore went on, pretending he hadn't seen the students' reactions. "However, this particular spell requires you two to be joined at the hands for two weeks – fourteen days – no exceptions or exclusions for any matter."

Dumbledore looked up to watch the two as they worked out the conclusion in their heads.

"I expect," Dumbledore went on, "for you two to learn to get along and learn your lesson," he smiled as he thought of the idea. "You both shall meet and overcome challenges in your – predicament – but you shall not ask for help or assistance. You two need to learn to handle these on your own."

"But, Professor," James said in a small voice, still working the facts, "we didn't cast the spell – potion, I mean – we didn't make it; we didn't DO this." He lifted his hand for example as Lily's hung limply to his own.

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled.

"Yes," he said as if James hadn't said anything he cared about. "Yes, I did think that was the cause. Either way, you'll have to work through it. I'm terribly sorry someone slipped either of you the potion, but there is no way to reverse this. It's a very tricky potion that has no remedy. You two need to work out your differences and enjoy your time – together."

Lily and James took this as a cue that they were dismissed. They stood and muttered their goodbyes, wandering down the hall and back to Gryffindor common room, enveloped in complete silence.

"James is NOT going to kill me," Sirius defended himself.

"James is SO going to kill you, Padfoot," Remus corrected, patting his friend on the shoulder.

"No he's not," Sirius mumbled huffily.

"Do you WANT to start a "no he wont" – "yes he will" war? I really don't want to but I will if I have to," Remus said, narrowing his eyes at his friend.

Sirius had just finished describing his fiasco to Remus, telling him every detail, hoping beyond hoping that James wouldn't kill him – he was nearly positive Lily would.

"Maybe I don't have to tell him," Sirius said softly after a couple minutes of thoughtful silence.

"What?" Remus asked incredulously.

"Yep," Sirius said, standing up from his chair by the common room fire. "I won't tell him. Case settled. Thanks, Moony," Sirius said, walking off to join a crowd of giggling girls.

"Padfoot!" Remus called after him. After a second Remus rolled his eyes. Its not worth it, he told himself, James'll find out soon enough anyway.

The common room slowly emptied to reveal a calm Saturday night. There were only two students left in the common room, hunched over books, studying and writing up essays at a table near the fire, one hand clasped with the other on the surface as they attempted to hold the pages of the book down and write at the same time. Both Lily and James were showing no improvement with mastering this skill.

"Alright, I'm fed up with this," Lily said, snarling and glaring at the book as she closed it with a slam. "What about you?" she asked James, looking at him chew his quill in frustration as he held the page of his Transfiguration book down with his elbow and wrote with half his right hand.

"What?" he asked, looking up and losing the page he was holding.

"Are you done for the night or not?" she asked, checking the watch on her wrist for the time. Three in the morning.

"Oh," he said, yawning. "Yeah, I'm done."

"Then lets go up to bed," Lily said, yawning one too many times.

Lily made for the girl's staircase as James made for the boys. Both stopped as their arms reached full capacity and couldn't go any farther. Glowering at each other for going to wrong way, they stood still for a moment.

"Oh no," Lily said after a minute, comprehension dawning on her.

"What?" James asked, still attempting to figure it out.

"We can't sleep in our own dorms. We're attached," she said, waving their hands feebly.

"Oh," James said, it all clicking.

"Now what?" James asked after a couple more silent (this was happening too often) minutes.

Lily sighed, attempting to work out the words she knew were the conclusion.

"Who's dorm?" she asked.