Ch. Five. Stalling

Disclaimer: Everything except for my OC belongs to JK Rowling.

A few weeks later a cauldron was brewing in the room. Don't ask where they got the cauldron. Lily managed to 'magic' one up one night. Nothing eventful had happened. Potter, surprisingly, hadn't told anyone about Lily's little kiss.

"Next thing you know you'll be dragging him into a broom closet!" Ally had said and Lily promptly threw a book at her.

They were avoiding Potter's entire group just in case they asked any questions... and if they did... They would deny it.

Ally and Lily were up in their room, sitting around, trying to come up with a decent plan that wouldn't blow up in their face.

"We have to distract the real James and Sirius on the day before Remus 'leaves." That would be the best time because I always see them talking about it."

Lily got up and started to pace back and forth across the room.

They had been trying to come up with a solution to their plan for the past couple of weeks while the cauldron was brewing. Everything they thought of either wouldn't stall them long enough, or Remus would be aware of where the real James and Sirius were. Ally yawned.

"I'm tired Lils, can't we just think of something to do about it later?" She said as she climbed into bed.

"But tomorrow is the day before Remus leaves! We need to think of something now; we won't have enough time tomorrow!"

"In the morning, it's too late now. We've been working on it all day long and need to get some rest." She glanced at the clock which blinked 1 AM back at her. Ally threw a pillow at Lily to emphasize her point. "Look, I can't even throw a pillow straight!"

Lily caught it and threw it back at her. Then she threw up her hands in defeat and got into bed.

"Fine, if worst comes to worst then I guess we could just knock 'em out and toss 'em in a closet." she sighed and pulled the blankets up high.

"Yeah," Ally mused "I bet we could totally whup their butts." and threw a punch in the air.

Lily laughed and turned on her side to face Ally. Imitating James she said in a helplessly pathetic voice.

"Lily! My love, my reason to live! Why are you doing this? I'm just a poor sexist, arrogant, egotistical pig who has no consideration for others!"

"Don't forget about that kiss you shared!"

"That was for education!"

"Right, 'education'..."

Lily sighed.

"Maybe we'll finally figure out why they call each other those stupid nicknames."

"Maybe they're innuendos."

"Huh?'

"Go to bed Lily."

The next day Ally woke up in their room and the sun was shining through the window.

"Lils." She went over to her friend's bed and shook her shoulder. "Hey Lils, you've got to wake up. Today's the day."

Lily opened her eyes and pulled her covers off groggily. Ally went to the bathroom and shut the door. Turning on the shower, she stripped and jumped in, beginning to wash her hair.

Now, if you have ever taken a shower, you know how loud it is. You also know how loud a scream would have to be that you would have to plug your ears while you were in the shower. Let's just say... Lily's scream was louder.

"ALLY"

"WHAT ARE Y—"

"IT'S ONE O' CLOCK!"

"IT'S WHAT!"

"IT'S ONE O' CLOCK! WE WOKE UP LATE!"

"Oh snap." Ally whispered before taking the fastest shower of her life. She put on the first clothes she could find and ran down stairs. Meeting Lily in the common room they raced down to their third timetable. Charms.

Lily and Ally burst into the room and the class turned around to stare at them. A group of Slytherin students in the back snickered at them. Well, Ally would admit she looked a bit ridiculous. Her hair was still wet and dripping, she wore a sequined dance top that was a bit revealing in the upper chest, and she had on her school uniform bottom. Lily had it about the same. Her hair was almost and red afro, she wore her tie die pajamas bottoms and flip flops, and her top was a black velvet halter.

"We woke up late professor." Lily gasped.

"Well, how nice of you to finally join us today," Professor Flitwick squeaked looking annoyed. "I'm afraid you girls arrived too late to have the choice of where you sit... Let's see..."

He folded his hands together looking around his eyes scanned the room. "Miss Evans over there next to Mr. Parkinson," Ally gave Lily a sympathetic look because when she sat down Parkinson scooted his chair closer "and Miss Pierce over there next to Mr. Black."

Ally took her seat and set her book bag down on the ground, trying not to attract too much attention.

"Class, please turn your books to page five hundred forty-three and we will discuss shielding charms."

Black passed a piece of paper over to her.

So what was that whole thing at lunch about a couple weeks ago?

Nothing. What, are we not allowed to sit with you guys or something?

No, no, it's not that it was just a little weird.

What was so weird with joining our good friends for lunch?

Well, it's a bit weird when they don't even eat. They just sit down, knock over some rolls, and then leave.

Not as thick as I thought, Ally thought when writing her reply.

We had to leave. Lily wasn't feeling to good.

She looked fine to me.

It was a headache.

Riiiiiiiight. Anyway, are you allergic to dogs?

What sort of random question is that?

Just answer it.

No, I'm not allergic to dogs, I love dogs, we have two chocolate labs at home.

Oh, good.

Why is that good?

But Ally never got a response because Professor Flitwick was walking by and spotted the note. Taking it in his hand he crumpled it up and tossed it.

"Get back to work Mr. Black!" he squeaked.

"Sorry sir." He actually managed to sound like he regretted it a little. She was mistaken because as soon as the Professor left he turned and grinned over at Ally. She smiled back.

Hard to hate.

Ally turned back to her work and tried to focus. However, her mind kept drifting to the more pressing matter at hand. How was she going to distract Sirius and James while they interrogated Remus?

What are we going to do...? Oh, I should've listened to Lily and thought of something yesterday when we had time...

She looked back at Lily who was pushing her chair farther and farther away from Parkinson. Then she looked over at Sirius who was whispering to James.

Wait... Sirius and James... here... together... They're right here! What can I do now?

She looked over at Potter and Black. With a twirl of her wand she jinxed their chair legs.

Sirius and James were still whispering to each other a little unaware of what the class was laughing at. Because for some reason they were bouncing up and down, bouncing up and down? What in the -?

The two looked down dumbly and pulled up their feet. The whole class laughed harder as they saw their chairs doing the jig.

"Students! What is so--?" Flitwick stared at Potter and Black who were in the middle of the class, their chairs in the middle of River dance. The class was hysterical by now and some Slytherins were close to tears.

"MR POTTER! MR BLACK! DETENTION TONIGHT!"

Perfect... Ally thought and turned to give Lily the thumbs up sign and Lily smiled back.

Lily and Ally rushed out of the classroom.

"We have to find Remus before Potter and Black can tell him they've got detention."

"Yeah, that would ruin all our hard work."

"Not really, we could still knock them out."

"Oh right, that."

Lily and Ally came to the end of the hallway where it split in two directions. Lily made for the left and Ally walked toward the right.

"It works if we find either Remus or Black and Potter. All we have to do is keep them distracted and away from each other until dinner ends. Then we'll have our chance."

"Got it."

"Wait!"

"What?"

"Can I change first?"

Lily looked at her incredulously before sighing.

"I guess if you pass by the dorms..."

"Ok, sweet."

Ally ran down the hallway and took a flight of stairs that led in the direction of the common room.

Hey... I can cheat a little. I'll look in the common room as I'm making my way to the dorms. Yeah, that's it.

She ran up to the portrait of the fat lady.

'Leo Specus"

"About time she remembered it." The portrait mumbled at her retreating back.

The portrait flew open and she passed by the common room giving a quick look around.

Books, chairs, a floating hat, annoying fifth years...Remus... Well, looks like everything checks out...

She stopped on the stairs and looked back at the common room.

"REMUS!" she shouted and he looked up at her quizzically before looking at her up and down.

"Er...yes Ally?"

"Don't look at me like that! And...er..." She blanked for a moment before saying... "Could you help me with my homework?"

"Sure, what do you need help with?"

Ally remembered she finished all of her homework that she had gotten last night.

Quick think fast!

"Er...well I don't really need any help."

That's totally thinking fast! Just not smart. We really should change that phrase to 'Quick think smartly fast' Ok, that doesn't make sense.

He closed his book and looked up at her kindly.

"So what do you need?"

She clambered down the stairs and sat down next to him.

"I need help with..." She bit her bottom lip. "With studying! I can't study by myself and I have a really bad Care of Magical Creatures test coming up! It's worth half of our semester grade."

Now that she got closer she saw that he wasn't looking so good.

"Actually, it would really just help me if you would stay. Right. Here." She backed up to the stairway. "Stay." she said again. "Staaaaaaaay." and she retreated up into the girl's dormitory.

Quickly drawing her wand out of her back pocket she wrote a note and held it up to her wand tip. It disappeared in a flash and she turned to her wardrobe. Changing into a pair of jeans and a black sweater she grabbed her book bag and ran downstairs.

"Good dog." she said patting Remus on the head.

He looked at her in alarm.

"What?" she said.

"Nothing, nothing."

"Whatever." She took out her 'Magical Maniacal Monsters' book and laid it in front of her.

"So you don't need my help?"

"NO!" she shouted and several people looked at her. "I told you I can't study alone. So just stay here."

"Er... Ok."

He opened up his book and continued reading.

Meanwhile...

Lily snatched the note in her hand as it flew out of her wand.

Lils,

I found Remus in the common room. Make sure Potter and Black are kept busy!

Au Revoir,

Al

"Great. Now if only I knew where Potter and Black were, then everything would be dandy!" She said and rolled her eyes.

Lily transformed her wand into a brush and ran it through her hair as she made her way deeper and deeper into the dungeons.

Looks like a place a Slytherin would like to curl up in... She thought and her wand turned back into a wand. Better be on my guard...

She was walking down a particularly scary hallway decorated by old portraits and stopped to try and find out where she was.

"Shhh." she heard faintly.

She looked around wildly but there was nothing there. She held up her wand with both hands and raised it up to her eye level.

"Who's there?" she heard footsteps from around the corner.

Funny, I heard the shushing sound on the other side of the room. Then she remembered her thoughts about Slytherins lurking in the dungeons. Better get out of here...

Lily turned on her heel and walked further down the hallway. As soon as she was sure that the footsteps had gone out of earshot she let out a sigh of relief. Then they started up again in a faster pace.

She turned a corner and walked through the dungeon passages. Turning left and right to try and throw them off. The footsteps kept following her and she was getting frightened by now. Lily turned another corner and started to jog. Behind her she could still hear the footsteps getting faster.

Lily broke off into a run for the stairs and she could hear them right behind her.

She froze in fear as an arm slammed in front of her and blocked her off. Turning around another arm blocked her and she was pinned to the wall. She twisted her head to face her whoever it was holding her in place.

"Potter?"

"Lily! What do you think you're doing? Wandering the dungeons all alone? There are Slytherins down here! Imagine what they would do to you if they found you down here by yourself?"

She breathed a sigh of relief and rested against the wall.

"I wasn't unarmed you know."

"It doesn't matter! They wouldn't hesitate to gang up on you ..." He took her by the arm and led her around the dungeons until he found the stairs up. "Filthy Slytherins think everyone who's not pureblood is lower than them." He continued muttering under his breath and she caught wind of a few swear words. In a normal situation she would have chastised him but she was still relieved that it wasn't Flint that found her so she held her tongue.

They ran into Black when they got to the top of the staircase.

"What was she doing down there?"

"Don't know just found her running like mad."

Lily interjected.

"Wait." She thought back to the footsteps. "You weren't the one following me?"

If they weren't following me... then... who was?

Lily suddenly got a sick feeling in the pit of her stomach and she looked up to see Potter and Black giving her looks of concern.

"No..." Potter said looking at her curiously. "I was standing in the hallway when you came running down it."

Lily saw them look at her with pity and she broiled with anger all of a sudden. What are they looking at me like that? I'm not some helpless child I can take care of myself. Even if a Slytherin did find me, She thought back to what James had told her about them not hesitating to gang up on her. What would I do? Oh, forget about it already. They think that just because you're a girl makes you a wimp. She remembered what Ally had told her about stalling them. What can I do? Hold on. Play out the situation. All I have to do is act traumatized and James will cater to my every whim. Quick! Think back to that time Petunia tore up your teddy bear.

Tears started to brim in Lily's eyes. She slumped against the wall and faked some pretty decent sobs.

"Oh James! Sirius! There were f-footsteps following m-me and I was r-running from them and I had h-heard a v-voice saying SHHHHH!"

She overly exaggerated that one part.

"A-and James told m-me that Slytherins were g-gonna gang up on m-me a-and it's totally obvious that they w-were saying SHHHHH to each other s-so they could sneak up o-on m-me and—and--and..."

She trailed off into a round of sobs. Looking up discreetly to see their actions she could see that James looked absolutely helpless. Good... Now it's time to lay it on thick.

"And w-what were you guys d-doing down their a-anyways?" She gasped in horror and looked at them in fear. "Y-you were plotting with them." She pointed an accusatory finger at them. "Th-that would be just l-like you! So m-mean and cr-cruel!"

She faked trying to get up and then collapsing against the wall in sobs.

"I h-hate you! W-why d-don't you just call you're Slytherin buddies out from the shadows to do away with m-me right n-now? OH SLYTHERINS! YOU"VE SUCCEEDED IN CAPTURING ME! COME OUT COME OUT—"

James had crouched down and slapped a hand over her mouth and she looked at them in disgust.

"Er...look Lily..." he slid down next to her and motioned for Sirius to sit on her other side. "We hate Slytherins in general. Do you think we would ever really plot with them?"

Sirius decided to add his two bits to the conversation and said cautiously.

"Besides that... could you ever imagine me and Snivellus working together?'

"W-well," she thought for a moment. "No."

"See? So we aren't working with the Slytherins to bring about your demise!"

"I guess."

She saw James shoot Sirius a grateful look

"That s-still doesn't explain why you were down here at all."

"Oh." James said and looked at Sirius who just shrugged his shoulders and nodded his head.

"Well... you were in Charms today right?"

"Y-yeah." Suddenly Lily burst out into sobs. "I was next t-to a SLYTHERIN!"

Later...

"S-so you guys were down here b-because you w-wanted to prank the Slytherins f-for making y-your chairs d-dance? A-and you weren't p-plotting with them because y-you hate them and you d-didn't speak to them over summer break a-and you have never had a-any friendly contact w-with them and t-that time I saw you talking to Snape w-was when you were t-threatening him and s-Sirius h-hates his entire family and even though t-the p-potter are purebloods y-you've never had any contact with the Dark Lord?"

"Yes..." James and Sirius were slumped against the wall tiredly trying to convince Lily for the past few hours that they were on her side.

Lily had stalled as much as she could. She asked them endless questions. Battering pretty hard on the topic of Sirius' family and their relation ship with You-Know-Who. Finally when they thought they had convinced Lily she was safe to trust them she would burst out into tears and call them 'mudblood haters' then try to run away and trip pathetically so they would run over and try to convince her all over again.

Lily looked down at her wand and quietly whispered a spell that made her wand shoot out the time. 'Six O Clock'.

Lily suddenly jumped to her feet in alarm.

"Wowyouguysit'slateandafterdinnerbetterleave!"

She started running down the hallway before Potter and Black yelled off to her.

"TELL REMUS WE HAVE DETENTION!"

"'KAY!"

She ran for a little longer, passing by the great hall and other empty classrooms before she stopped and squealed with delight.

Perfect! I never thought I'd say this... but thank you James for being an idiot!