Hands Down – Chapter 6
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. It would be cool if I did own Harry Potter though.
James
Of course Sarah was right, of course he loved Lily. Why was he acting like he hadn't realised? He'd known from the beginning of his infatuation with Lily that it was just a tiny crush and that it would definitely soon become something much more.
Maybe, because he'd been with Sarah, James had been thinking less about Lily and therefore thought he'd fallen out of love with her… Who was he kidding? He'd loved her from the beginning, he'd only gone out with Sarah to try and get over her.
James felt terrible that Sarah had worked this out, he really shouldn't have used her like that. He had liked her a bit, but what he felt for her was nothing compared to what he felt for Lily.
Lily was different, Lily had always been different. Even when he wasn't sure of his feelings for her, she had always been there in the back of his mind whenever he was with any other girls. It was as if he would never be able to be completely happy with anyone else because he was always reminded of her. Even if he didn't know if he loved her, she was just always there.
Sarah was still watching James, waiting to see if he'd respond to what she had said. After waiting for a minute, Sarah sighed and turned to walk away.
'Wait-' James called after her.
'What?' she asked, impatient.
'I'm sorry...' James mumbled feebly.
Sarah shrugged at him and replied, before walking away,
'You can't help who you fall for.'
Lily
Love? Surely James couldn't be in love with Lily? Strong lust, maybe, but not love. Love was too strong a word.
Love was something you experienced when you were older and more mature and had experienced everything. Love didn't happen when you were only just fully gaining control of your emotions.
Maybe he had shaken his head or something, that would explain why she hadn't heard him deny being in love with her. But then,
'I'm sorry…' his voice was quiet and almost defeated.
'You can't help who you fall for.' She heard Sarah say.
Footsteps, coming towards her, told Lily that Sarah was walking away from James, past where Lily was hiding.
Quickly, she moved further behind the statue of the witch and watched Sarah walk past. The tears were still wet on her face but she wasn't crying anymore. Which, thought Lily, is kind of worse that if she actually was still crying.
Then more footsteps, James was walking past Lily now. He didn't look upset, more confused, but he was anxiously running his fingers continuously through his hair.
James
But he couldn't love Lily, he had to get over her. They would never work, even if he had rescued her, they were never going to have a proper relationship – they barely knew each other and James doubted that Lily would even consider having a relationship with him if she did know him.
Since when had he become this insecure? No other girl had ever made him feel so unsure about himself. Just Lily. Just beautiful, gorgeous Lily.
After realising that he was now 45 minutes late for his Charms lesson, James walked back up to his dorm and lay down on his bed. He was on the verge of falling asleep when the door of his dorm flew open and Sirius ran in a jumped on James' bed, thinking he was asleep.
'Wake up Prongs, you lazy sod,' sung Sirius, jumping up and down even harder.
James groaned in frustration and attempted to push Sirius off the bed but Sirius jumped off himself.
'We're going to try and get a quick game of Quidditch in before Defence so hurry up and get up off your arse.'
With that, Sirius vanished out of the dorm, broom in hand.
James pulled himself out of bed and picked up his broom, following Sirius out of the dorm. Maybe Quidditch would help to clear his head.
Sirius, Remus and Peter were all waiting for James in the school grounds, by the lake.
After an intensive –and quite violent- game of quick-Quidditch, the foursome settled down under the big oak tree by the lake to relax for the last few minutes of their break.
Lily
After some serious persuasion, Lily's friends Amanda and Natalie managed to get her to come out of the library she was busy studying in and out onto the grass by the lake to soak up the sun.
The three girls rolled up their trousers, took their shoes and socks off and paddled in the shallow edge of the lake. The sun was shining gloriously down on the Hogwarts grounds, glancing off the water of the lake that was now interrupted by huge ripples, gliding off in random directions.
Smiling and giggling, Lily and her friends ran about in the water, splashing each other with the freezing cold water and screaming. After having her school robe completely soaked, Lily shrugged it off and dropped it next to the robes of Amanda and Natalie who were now up to their waists in the water.
Lily flicked her long auburn hair behind her head and tied it into a loose pony tail, a vague attempt at stopping it from getting completely soaked in the water.
Amanda turned around to face Lily and then splashed her as hard as she could. Lily screamed, a mixture of shock and delight, and immediately splashed Amanda back, soaking Natalie in the process. As you can guess, a water fight ensued.
Eventually a crowd appeared around the three girls and people began watching them, cheering them on or even joining in themselves!
Unbeknown to Lily, a certain James Potter was watching her through the throng of people, a longing expression on his tired face.
James
Did she always have to look so gorgeous? James thought, staring at Lily with a subconscious yearning expression on his face. Evidently she did always have to look that good, because her looks certainly weren't fading.
'Someone caught your eye Prongs?' Asked Sirius, looking at James with a bemused expression.
'Whah?' James responded, still staring at Lily and not paying attention to Sirius. A punch on his arm brought him back to Earth and he stared moodily at Sirius.
'What did you say?'
'I merely asked what had caught your eye.' Sirius repeated, 'it wasn't Evans by any chance was it?' He finished, sarcastically, raising his left eyebrow mockingly at James.
James smirked his famous shut-up-or-I'll-hit-you scowl™ that he reserved only for Sirius at his friend and pretended to be interested in the Golden Snitch that had been struggling to free itself from his pocket.
Sirius laughed and turned back to 'subtly' sending harmless curses at innocent passer bys, to Remus' annoyance. After a while Remus snatched Sirius' wand off him and pocketed it, muttering to himself about being surrounded by mindless imbeciles.
Sirius sighed and looked around, agitatedly. With nothing to do, he got up and made his way over to the water fight happening on the edge of the Great Lake. Lily Evans and her two friends were completely soaked through now and – to Sirius' delight – their clothes were almost completely see through.
'I say, Amanda,' he began, flicking his hair attractively and putting on his deepest, most sexy – in his opinion – voice. 'As much as I can see you're enjoying yourself down there, I'm sure you'd have much more fun if you accompanied me to Hogsmeade this weekend. What do you say?'
James, who had been watching Sirius from the moment he had stood up, scowled to himself. Why did Sirius always have to be so damn smooth? Even from where James was sitting, he could see Amanda's legs practically giving way beneath her as she giggled and fluttered her eyelashes back at Sirius.
'Sounds like that would be very fun,' she replied, flicking her wet hair from her face and smiling flirtatiously at Sirius.
Sirius smiled his famous pearly toothed smile at her and winked, 'meet you at the school gates at 7 then?'
Amanda nodded and Sirius turned and strutted back to where his friends were staring up at him, their expressions a mixture of admiration (Peter), annoyance (James) and mild irritation (Remus).
'Why don't you guys get yourselves dates for the weekend then?' Sirius asked the others, 'we could go on a massive group date! Kind of like an orgy, but with less sex.'
Remus gave Sirius, who was laughing to himself, a condescending look before shutting his book and standing up,
'I refuse to accompany on any of the thousand dates you plan on going on this year,' he said, 'I feel, or rather, I hope that I have more class than that.'
Remus smiled sarcastically at Sirius and walked back into the castle.
'Must be that time of the month.' Sirius pondered, before falling into fits of laughter at the double meaning of what he had just said. James rolled his eyes and stood up to follow in Remus' footsteps, he wasn't in the best of moods and Sirius' happy mood and success girl-wise wasn't making him feel any better.
He still felt ridiculously guilty about what had happened with Sarah, and was having a hard time controlling himself whenever he saw Lucius Malfoy anywhere near him. So much was his anger that he had started deliberately avoiding corridors that he saw Lucius was in, using the Marauders' map, because he worried he might blow up if he found himself facing the slimy Slytherin.
Glancing back over his shoulder, James heard Lily say,
'I'm done for now guys, I've got to talk to Flitwick before charms so I have to get there early. See you later!'
James deliberately slowed down and ran his fingers unconsciously through his hair, starting to feel a bit more insecure.
Lily
The sun was now hiding behind some clouds, making Lily feel cold as she hurried quickly up to the school, needing to change out of her freezing clothes in time for her next lesson.
James, no Potter, was walking just ahead of her - probably hoping that she hadn't noticed him start slowing down when he realised she was walking behind him. Eventually she was level with him and he turned to her and smiled.
'Evans.'
'Potter.'
I guess we're back to normal then, thought Lily, though I guess that's a good thing. But was it really a good thing? What if she didn't want everything to go back to normal with James? What if she secretly hoped that something was going to happen with him?
Why was she even thinking this? This was Potter she was thinking about! Arrogant, conceited, girl-using Potter! Lily's mind wondered… was he really that conceited though? Of course, she knew what he was normally like, but she'd seen a different side of him when he'd rescued her. A side that had made her feel happy and protected – a side that she wouldn't mind seeing a hell of a lot more of.
'I've been meaning to ask you-' James began, his voice lacking its usual arrogance.
Lily groaned, 'Not again, Potter, surely you can't be asking me out again? I thought you'd stopped by now.'
James blinked at her and half smiled, 'actually, I wasn't going to ask you out again.' Lily flushed, 'I wanted to ask your permission for me to tell Dumbledore what happened with Lucius.'
Lily's face paled immediately and her heart started thumping slightly faster.
'Why?' she asked, quietly.
'So that he can be punished for what he did to you!' Lily could tell that James was angry, and even though he wasn't angry with her, it was still making her feel even more insecure.
'But I… I can't tell him…' she stuttered, shivering uncomfortably.
James began to speak but after noticing Lily shiver, quickly took off his cloak and wrapped it around her shoulders. She smiled slightly in thanks but her smile vanished almost as quickly as it had appeared.
'I don't expect you to tell him,' James stated, 'he has a Pensieve… I just thought that maybe I could take your memory and… show it to him.'
Lily stared at James', her expression a mixture of fear and thought.
'Will I have to speak to him about it?' her voice was barely audible.
'Not if you don't want to.'
'I don't.'
James chewed his lip and held the door open for Lily as they walked into the warmth of the school. He looked at her questioningly, his eyes full of concern.
'Okay,' Lily's voice was shaking, 'you can take it.'
Smiling reassuringly at her, James took his wand and a small bottle out of his pocket. Holding the wand to Lily's head, he closed his eyes and then drew the wand back. A silvery substance had collected at the tip of the wand and James poured it carefully into the bottle is his hand, corking it.
'Is that it?' Lily asked,
'Yes, I can show it to him now.'
Lily breathed in and out deeply and James shuffled on his feet.
Taking in another breath and trying to push what had happened with Lucius out of her mind, Lily said quietly, 'Thank you.'
James pocketed the bottle in his hand and smiled shiftily at her before turning and walking down the corridor to find Remus.
Watching his retreating figure, Lily would have called him her 'Knight in Shining Armour' but after the clichéd boy-giving-girl-coat-because-she's-cold move, she felt it might be just a little too much – even though he really was her Knight in Shining Armour.
Sorry nothing too exciting happened in this chapter!
I just felt I kind of needed to develop what happened with Lily and Lucius further – I hope I did it well.
Also, thanks to maraudersbanana for the idea of Lily telling Dumbledore what happened – as you can see, I did use it
Please review, your reviews for the last chapter were awesome to receive.
All my thanks,
theonlynewgirl
