Hands Down – Chapter 5


Disclaimer: I still don't own anything Harry Potter but I do own the plot in this fic. All of the characters in this story are JK Rowling's except Sarah, who is mine.


James

James stirred slowly in the morning, his eye fluttering softly as he slowly realised what the warmth against his side was - Lily.

Peaking out of the hangings of Lily's four poster bed, James could see through the window that it wasn't quite light yet. Lily sighed contentedly in her sleep and James looked down at her. Her long dark eyelashes fluttered slightly but she was still asleep. Her sleek red hair that had previously been tied into a tight bun now fell around her head on the pillow, surrounding it almost like a halo.

James gently stroked her soft cheek, not knowing what to do with himself. She had asked him to stay when he'd tried to leave and she had kissed him but he still felt like he was imposing on her space. Lily had been scared and fragile last night, when she'd done all those things, but the normal Lily wasn't like that. The normal Lily would never let James anywhere near her bed.

Maybe it would be best if I just left, James thought. Carefully, trying his hardest not to wake her, he lifted her pale arm away from where it was resting against his chest and slid out from under her duvet and pull it into place around her. James then ducked under her bed hangings and tiptoed out of her dorm, closing the door with a click behind him.

As he walked across the dark common room and back to his dorm, James wondered how Lily would react to him later that same day.

Lily

'You resist and I'll fucking kill you.'

Lily woke with a start, her whole body shaking and covered in sweat. She sat up quickly and wrapped her covers tightly around her, even though she was ridiculously warm anyway.

Glancing around her, she saw to her relief that her bed hangings were still shut andthat no one was around her. No one at all. Had she been imagining it or had someone rescued her from his clutches? If they hadn't then how the hell had she managed to get back to her bed?

Then she remembered. James had found her, he had rescued her. Not literally from the disgusting arms of Lucius Malfoy, but from where she had been after he had left her in the corridor. James had let her cry on him and then must have brought her back to her bed.

Had she dreamt that she had kissed him and made him sleep in her bed with her that night? Because he wasn't there now… Lily sighed, collapsing back onto her pillow and staring at the ceiling of her four poster. Did he leave? She thought, I can't have been entirely imagining him being here… or maybe having an 'incident' like I did made me hallucinate? Lily sighed again and then climbed slowly out of her bed.

Just seconds after she had opened her hangings her friend Amanda jumped out of her bed and ran over to her, an excited expression on her face.

'Oh my God, Lils' she began, struggling to stay as quiet as possible as she dragged Lily out of their dorm and into the girls common room, 'you have some serious explaining to do!'

Lily stared at Amanda with a blank expression, 'what on Earth are you talking about?' she asked.

Amanda rolled her eyes, 'for Merlin's sake, Lily, you might as well just tell me what happened.' She glared at Lily, obviously very frustrated.

'I honestly don't know what you're talking about!' And she meant it, what the hell was Amanda on about?

'What I'm talking about,' Amanda almost yelled, 'is what the hell happened between you and James to prompt him sneaking out of your bed at 5 in the morning?'

Ohhhh, Lily remembered, that thing.

'It wasn't what you think,' she replied, 'he saved me.'

'God, Lils,' Amanda replied, now looking even more pissed off, 'don't be so bloody melodramatic.'

'What are you talking about? You don't even know what happened!'

Amanda rolled her eyes infuriatingly again, 'so you shagged him, that doesn't mean he saved you.'

'For your information,' Lily began, pursing her lips, 'I didn't shag him and he didn't save me in that kind of way. He saved me in a literal way, not a stupid, metaphorical way. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go have a shower and wash myself of what actually happened last night with someone you definitely wouldn't expect.'

Amanda eyed her with a curious expression,

'Sorry…' she muttered, 'what did happen to you then?'

So Lily told her everything up to her waking up that morning. Amanda stayed rooted to the spot, staring at Lily, opening and closing her mouth like a goldfish. When Lily finally stopped talking, Amanda ran over to her and enveloped her in a huge hug, telling her how sorry she was for presuming that James had slept with her and telling her how much she loved her.

Lily had broken into tears when telling the story and felt almost as warm and protected in Amanda's arms as she had in James'. Lily made Amanda promise she wouldn't tell anyone about what she'd told her even though Amanda insisted that she needed to kill Lucius herself.

Even so, they both knew that most of their dorm room had probably heard them arguing and that soon the whole school would know about James sneaking out of Lily's room. Lily thought briefly about Sarah but was then distracted by Amanda insisting that she have a shower and get ready so they could go for a walk in the 'lovely weather.'

In the shower, Lily checked over her and saw that she had bruises on her hips from where Lucius had been holding her and had a blue hickey – she could hardly call it a lovebite – on her neck. After trying and failing to get the marks to go away – this only made Lily remember what had happened and made her upset again – Lily gave up and climbed out of the shower, wrapping her towel tightly around her.

When she had changed she came back into the common room to see Amanda surrounded by the rest of the girls who slept in her dorm room. They all stopped talking suddenly and turned to stare at Lily as if they had never seen her before.

After a couple of seconds they all started shouting questions at Lily,

'Did you shag James Potter?'

'Was he any good?'

'I'm so jealous, Lils, was he as good as everyone says he is?'

'Do you think he's better in bed than Sirius?'

Lily shook her head frantically,

'Nothing happened, you guys,' she said over the loud questioning, 'it's not what you think.'

'Well what did happen then?' asked Rachel, a particularly obnoxious fourth year.

Lily opened her mouth to speak but closed it again,

'I can't tell anyone.' She mumbled simply,

'Hah!' yelled Rachel, 'I knew you'd sha-'

'Think whatever you want,' Amanda interrupted, 'but me and Lils don't have time for this. See you guys later.' And with that she stood up, grabbed Lily's hand and pulled her quickly after her out of the common room.

'You do realise that in about 30 minutes, everyone in the school will think you nailed James Potter, right?' Amanda asked, half smiling at Lily,

'Yep.' She replied, biting her lip and smiling cheekily at her friend.

James

After coming back to his dorm that morning, James had fallen asleep and only woken up half way through first lesson.

Annoyed that the Marauders hadn't woken him up before, James stood up and went into the shower moodily.

After quickly washing, he climbed out of the shower and wrapped himself in a towel. Glancing over at his steamed up mirror, he saw the words 'Haha, you're late' written in the condensation against the glass. Sirius must've charmed the mirror just to piss James off.

Growling, James wiped the mirror clean and got ready as quickly as he could, before hurrying down to Transfiguration.

He pushed open the door as quietly as he could, hoping to slip in unnoticed, but McGonagall saw him immediately.

'10 points from Gryffindor for lateness, Mr Potter,' she said, her voice icy and irritated, 'now hurry up and sit down.'

James quickly moved into a seat between Sirius and Remus, making sure he bashed into Sirius as he sat down for not waking him up.

Looking up and around the room, James noticed that nearly all of the girls in it were staring at him and whispering – even more than normal. One of the only girls who wasn't looking at him was Lily, who was sitting in her normal place at the front.

He had noticed that she hadn't even looked up at him when he'd walked into the class and he could see now that she wasn't even talking to her friend Amanda who was sitting next to her.

McGonagall's voice broke through James' thoughts, 'I'll be back in one moment, I just have to go get something from the store cupboard. I trust you all will be able to stay quiet and sensible whilst I am away.' Her gaze lingered on the Marauders and she raised her eyebrow sceptically. 'Please continue copy the diagram on page 201 and when finished, sit in silence and await my return.' With that, she turned and walked briskly out of the door, shutting it behind her.

No sooner had the door shut, Sirius turned to James and, with a stunned expression on his face, said,

'You shagged Evans.'

To James' surprise, Remus was also staring at James, his expression mirroring Sirius'.

'No I didn't.' James replied, Sirius raised his eyebrow and Remus said,

'Then why were you in her bed all night and why did you sneak out this morning before anyone was awake?'

'Something happened,' he replied, 'well, not that kind of thing anyway.'

'Then what did happen?' Sirius demanded, getting desperate.

James opened his mouth but shut it when an origami bird flew onto his desk and started tweeting at him. He picked it up and unfolded it, inside it a message said,

Please don't say anything to anyone, I don't want people to know about Lucius. Can we talk after this lesson?

Lily.

James glanced up at Lily, but she was still working as furiously as before. Sirius tried to read the note over James' shoulder so he quickly wrote yes and then sent it back to Lily as a bird again.

'What did it say?' Sirius asked eagerly, 'thanks so much for last night James, you were the best I've ever had?'

'Funny,' James replied, scowling. 'She wants to talk to me about what happened, I'll tell you after I've spoken to her. But nothing happened and we didn't have sex.'

Seeing that James wasn't in the best of moods, Sirius and Remus nodded sheepishly and turned back to their work.

Professor McGonagall couldn't believe it when she came into her class to find all of the Marauders – not just Remus! – working quietly. Such was her pleasure that she let the class out early and didn't give James the detention she'd been planning on giving him for being late.

Everyone left the room as fast as possible, hoping to get at least 10 minutes of time before their next lesson. Lily was the first out, James the last. As he went through the door James saw that Lily was leaning against the wall a few metres away from him. She looked up and smiled slightly at him and he made his way over to her.

'Hi,' he said,

'Hi.' There was an awkward silence for a few seconds before Lily spoke again.

'I wanted to thank you for last night-' she began but James frowned,

'I didn't do anything… but thanks.' He replied.

'You did though,' Lily insisted, 'I don't know what I would have done if you hadn't found me and taken me back to my dorm.'

James shrugged again. 'I couldn't have just left you.' He said quietly.

'But that's why I wanted to talk to you,' Lily continued, 'that and because I wanted to ask that you didn't tell anyone what happened with Lucius.'

James opened his mouth to object but Lily continued,

'He said that I couldn't tell and you know what he's like, I don't want him to hurt anyone,' Lily couldn't believe she was being so weak, 'but I thought that maybe we could just say that I tripped down some stairs when I was sleep walking and you heard me and carried me back?'

It was a crap story, but James didn't have a better idea.

'Okay,' James said, shrugging again.

'Okay.' Lily stared at him, her piercing emerald eyes trying and failing to read him.

'You must understand that I might try and kill Lucius anyway.' James said, grinning slightly and breaking their silence.

Lily smiled slightly,

'Feel free to do so,' she replied, 'just make sure he doesn't know it's because of me.'

James nodded, smiled and turned to walk away.

'Wait!' Lily walked quickly over to James. Standing on her tiptoes, Lily kissed the corner of James' lips and he smiled.

'Just to say thank you for last night,' Lily giggled, 'you were great.'

Before James could respond, an angry and upset voice spoke,

'You arsehole! And you slut!' James looked to where the voice had come from and saw Sarah standing near to him and Lily, her face red with tears and anger.

'This isn't what you think, Sez,' James quickly replied, hurrying over to Sarah and taking her hands.

Sarah pulled her hands out of James' and slapped him hard across the face. She then walked slowly over to Lily and looked her up a down, slowly.

'You just couldn't keep your hands off him, could you?' she sneered, 'slag.'

Sarah's lip trembled as she turned quickly on her heel and ran off in the opposite direction. James ran his hand through his hair in agitation, dithered for a moment, looking at Lily, and then ran after Sarah.

Lily

Bollocks, thought Lily, I've really screwed things up for those two then. She hadn't meant to make what she'd said sound so much like what everyone in the school thought was true. James would now probably hate her as much as he hated Lucius, now that she'd ruined his relationship with Sarah too.

Sighing heavily, Lily turned and walked to her next lesson along the corridor James and Sarah had vanished down. It was as she reached the end of it that she heard raised voices, James and Sarah's.

'I didn't sleep with her!' said James' voice.

Lily hid quickly behind a statue of a Witch next to the classroom the voices were coming from and listened.

'What the hell did you do then?' Sarah's voice.

'I..I just saved her,' James began feebly, 'she sleepwalks and she fell down the stair case outside our dorm, she must've been trying to get up. I found her and took her back to her room. That was all.'

There was a pause.

'It's not just that though, is it?' Lily heard Sarah ask.

'What do you mean?' James again.

Lily didn't know whether Sarah had answered James' question or not because her voice was suddenly hushed and quiet and Lily had to strain her ears to hear them from her hiding place.

'I don't love her, Sarah, you know that.' Finally Lily heard James speak.

'Yes you do.'

'No I don't! For God's sake, what's wrong with you?'

'Me?' Sarah yelled, 'What's wrong with me is the fact that my boyfriend is and has been from the very beginning, in love with another girl.'

- Pause –

'I'm not in love with her.' James finally said in a weak voice.

'Then tell me what really happened last night.'

'I can't.'

'And tell me that you would reject her if she told you she loved you right this moment.'

'…I ca-.'

'That's what I thought.' Sarah's voice had gone from upset to almost businesslike.

'But I don't-'

Sarah cut him off,

'Yes you do, James. Stop denying your feelings. It was obvious from the start that you weren't completely over her, no matter how you acted.'

She sighed.

'You're in love James, and very much in love if you ask me.'

James

Shit, James thought,

She's bloody right!


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I hope you guys liked this chapter, sorry it's so long!

Thanks for reading,

theonlynewgirl