A/N: It is I, Jestin! The author of the first chapter! The Round Robin Ducklings have done a full circle now. We have all written a chapter, and done a full loop of six, and now we're onto the second round. Judging by the amazing feedback we have gotten from you readers, you've liked it so far. :D
However, because one or two of you voiced that we update too late (we're sorry!), and complained that you had to go and reread everything AGAIN, we've created the 'Last Episode Review' - which basically tells you…
What Happened Last Time on: "A Fork in an Eye":
Leaving Malfoy groaning in pain, the Head Boy and Girl went off to do McGonagall's Dueling Club shopping in Hogsmeade. However, this being the perfect opportunity for James to prove himself, a part of Sirius's "brilliant plan" was carried out - the pair were followed by an invisible Remus, who tried desperately to make James seem tolerable - giving Prongs whispered advice from under the cloak. Surprisingly, it seemed to have worked quite well, because when Lily and James got back to the tower - Lily realised that she actually had had a decent time with this new, modest, James. And then :cue gasp: Lil's got a little kiss on the cheek - which affected her a little too much to be normal…
Chapter 7: Of Plots and Potions
By Jestin
Lily held her cheek in a daze where James's lips had been moments before. She vaguely noted that the all Gryffindor common room occupants were watching her closely for her reaction, and that Sirius Black had stopped play Kung Fu fighting with a very reluctant Peter to watch the coming explosion.
After all, James Potter - irritation and arse epitomised - had just kissed Lily Evans on the cheek. She was bound to scream.
It was etched in the laws of nature.
However, much to everyone's shock, the tantrum didn't come.
No shouting about personal space or hygiene, none of the usual sniping, or the "I only date within my own species, Potter, so don't try" lines.
None.
Nothing.
Instead, Lily just spun around on her heel, marched straight out of the suddenly silent common room, up the girl's staircases, and walked right into Lucy Summers, who was on her way down.
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Lucy had been uncharacteristically friendly to Lily all week, ever since the distinctly embarrassing Astronomy Tower incident.
As much as Lily tried to avoid her, (which she did - Lily's friend Grace was always complaining bitterly about the secret routes and dodging techniques that Lily had suddenly employed), Lucy always seemed to pop up at the most inconvenient of times, take now, for instance, when Lily's mind was not the most structured of places.
Potter. Odd. Kiss.
"Lily!" Lucy said brightly, and gave her a wide smile, which Lily returned reluctantly; trying to block out the excruciatingly accurate memory of Lucy and James attached at the lips, which seemed to pop up in her mind whenever she saw the girl.
Lips.
"Summers," said Lily monotonously, and made to move past, but found, irritatingly enough, that she couldn't, as Lucy wouldn't budge.
"I've been wanting to talk to you for a while, Lily," Lucy said, grinning again in that annoyingly happy manner of hers, "but you seem to be a very hard woman to get hold of."
Lily mumbled, and made to walk off, but her arm was taken hold of, and there was nothing she could do (without seeming rude) than and allow herself to be dragged up the stairs by a persistent Lucy, jabbering on about something inane all the way.
She's going to take me into her room and poison me, Lily predicted duly as she was steered into an empty dorm room, and Lucy shut the door behind them.
Someone is going to find me here in ten days time, bound up and starved, with only rats for company...
"Lily?"
"Sorry, what?"
Lucy nodded knowingly, and motioned Lily to sit down on the bed, which she did gratefully, feeling drained.
She's too bloody nice.
Maybe it's all part of the murderous plan.
"I asked you if anything happened between James and you this afternoon - he told me that you two were going to Hogsmeade together."
"What?" Lily asked, genuinely surprised, all imaginative murders flying away at once, and arriving back on earth with a bump. "Why would anything have happened between us?"
She paused before answering, her expression unreadable. "Well - was he acting oddly?"
Lily thought about it. Come to think of it now, James was indeed acting incredibly oddly. He had been normal.
Nice, even.
And incredibly fake.
The more Lily thought about it, the more she realised that in contrast to the spontaneity of the kiss on the cheek, Potter's behavior the entire morning had been decidedly forced. Phony.
Un-Potterish.
She had thought it was an improvement, at first - it was restful being around this modest and polite (yet strangely clumsy) James. Except thinking about it now, it wasn't James.
Because the James Potter she knew had never behaved like that. The James Potter she knew was an arrogant, annoying arse. In addition, he usually had a truly refined walk, something that annoyed Lily intensely, as she was always tripping over things.
She had never seen James trip before in her life.
Until today.
"He's gone mazy," said Lily aloud, astounded. "I mean - mad…Crazy. He's Barmy. Batty. Lost his marbles."
"I do admire your ability to think of such synonyms, Lily, but no - wrong answer." Lucy shook her head gravely, but her grin was etched firmly in place. "It's Sirius Black who has his marbles missing."
"Excuse me - what's this castration?"
Lucy ignored this, swung her flaxen hair out of her face, and plonked herself down on the bed next to Lily. Her hair was impossibly glossy, Lily noted with dispassion.
"Alright, Lily - the only reason why I'm doing this is because I'm a firm believer in sisterhood. Girls before boys, and all that jazz. Even though I'm doing someone a favour - "
Of the sexual kind?
" I still thought I'd give a bit of a warning. Because we're girls. We must stick together…"
Lily bit her cheek in impatience. This was not her idea of fun, and if one thing annoyed her above all others, it was people dodging around the point.
Apparently, Lucy enjoyed it.
"What I'm trying to say, is that you and Potter have been dancing around this for years-"
"Dancing around WHAT, exactly, Summers?"
"Nothing. It's just - Lily, if you really and truly don't want to get involved with James Potter?"
"YES?"
"Just watch out. Don't underestimate him."
"I couldn't possibly underestimate the sod - he really is that shallow."
Lucy shook her head. "No. No, he's not. And if there's one thing you can grant him, it's the fact that he's determined…Lily…"
Lily looked at her, her head tilted, and her eyes narrowed.
"Lucy, you're not still hung up on Potter, are you?"
Judging by the laughter that greeted this, Lucy wasn't.
"Lily-", Lucy giggled again, and shook her head. "I was never hung up on Potter…The night of the Quidditch party? I've always thought he was sexy and all the rest-"
"Summers, Potter has the personality of a damp sponge and the appeal of a moldy sweat sock." She made a gagging noise to further implement her point, but the blonde ignored her.
"- But that night I just got carried away. I wanted to celebrate my first match as Seeker. We won! And fire whiskey does things, you know," she added airily, before grinning again. "But seriously, after that night, and after I saw how completely obbses-" She broke off, looking guilty. "I don't feel that way about him, Lily."
Funnily enough, Lily found that she believed her. "Alright…" she said grudgingly. "Now you dragged me here for a reason, I presume?."
"Yes, of course. Well, Lily…I know that…" She broke off again, chewing her lip.
"YES?" Lily didn't think she could stand this for another second. "Just tell me. Before I slit your throat."
She hadn't meant to say that out loud.
Still, Lucy just laughed. "James Potter is a man with a plan. Or rather a man, with another man's plan…The other man being his best man…"
"SUMMERS!"
I left the womb for this?
At last, Lucy seemed to get the picture. "Look, Lily, I can't tell you." She swatted her hand as Lily opened her mouth to respond. "Evans, I can't because I'm bound by trust-" At this, Lily snorted, "But I am giving you notice - there is plotting afoot, and you've noticed something's up-"
"James' ego?"
"Think, Lily."
"Listen, Summers, not to be rude, but I don't know, I don't care and it doesn't make any difference."
But she thought anyway.
James and his personality change. His bastardy friends suddenly playing an intense interest in my matters. Potter acting normal. Sirius's constant whooping. The kiss on the cheek…
Lily shook her head and sighed. The poor girl had become a victim of their evil regime. There was no reasoning behind their madness.
"It's nothing. They are just trying to make us think they're deep, but in reality they're psyches are as deep as a puddle."
Lucy, for some strange reason, looked oddly disappointed, and stood up.
"Alright," she said with resignation. "Alright, don't say I didn't warn you." And Lucy strode to the door and opened it, making to walk away. She stopped however, when Lily called her.
"Lucy, no offence, but how would you know about this improbable crazy plot anyhow?"
The girl gave a glum smile, and tilted her head sideways.
"Because I'm roped in it. Binded by trust. Involved."
And then she left, leaving a very confused Lily alone to wonder how everyone in the school had suddenly lost all the little sanity they once possessed.
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"Sirius, I don't think it's working…I mean Evans has barely noticed them together, and she won't because she hates his guts..."
"No, it's working. Summers and Prongs just need to get more 'up in it'."
"American lingo, again, Sirius."
"The puppies need to get more cozy."
He cocked an eyebrow.
"And, Moony, it will work. It'll work because it's my plan, and I'm Sirius-Man."
Remus sighed the long suffering sigh of one who knows better, but no-one listens to. "I'm skeptical of any plans of yours. That's twice you've deprecated my hygiene…Rubbish bins..." he muttered in disgust, but then raised his voice to normal levels again. "And I think 'The Plan' " - at this he raised his two fingers on each hand and mimicked quotation marks, "- is infuriating Lily more than 'lulling her into the deep throngs of luuurve.'"
Sirius looked offended. "Don't mock me, Moony. And it WILL WORK!" he shouted, slightly hysterical. "She's thinking about him, isn't she!"
Remus shrugged his shoulders, walked away from him, muttering darkly under his breath. "If thinking about chopping Prongs into little pieces and hiding them under the floorboards counts, then great. She's thinking about him."
"STOP MUMBLING!" Sirius roared after him, and suddenly looked downcast, and mumbled himself. "S'not polite."
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By the following morning, Lily's confusion had transgressed into immense aggravation.
She had been up all night helping her friend Grace study for the practical potions test, overslept this morning, and consequently had to miss her breakfast and usual morning coffee.
She was not a very happy woman.
The steam in the Potions classroom was almost overpowering. It clung to your clothes and made them damp and soggy; your skin became beaded with sweat, and your hair stuck to your forehead; lank and dirty looking.
Lily scowled into her potion as she stirred it ferociously anti-clockwise; her left hand holding back loose tendrils of red locks that were refusing to stay tucked behind her ears, and her right was one-handedly scraping the bottom of her cauldron with a long wooden ladle.
Next to her, her Potions partner was breathing hard and fast through his rather beaky nose; his sallow skin shiny from the vapor, and his dark oily hair brushing the pages of his Advanced Potion Making in which he so furiously scribbled.
"Snape, must you breathe so loudly?" snapped Lily, doing her best to conceal her scattered notes that were lying all over the desk and hold her hair back at the same time.
She was sure that he was sneaking glances at her work whenever she added the peppermint sprigs into the Veritaserum potion, which required her full attention.
"I honestly thought all this steam would have cleared up your sinuses."
Severus ignored her, and continued to write, although Lily thought it was with a lesser pace than before she hid her pages.
"I would like a little help here, please," she said, her voice even and well mannered, except her already red cheeks were slowly becoming scarlet.
"Snape?"
It really didn't improve her mood that Potter was partnered with Lucy Summers, and they were getting along annoyingly well. Although why exactly this bothered her, Lily did not know. Lucy chose this particular moment to ruffle James's hair for him
What was new? The world hated her. You're born cold, wet and hungry. Then things get worse.
To add insult to injury, her usually co-operative Potions partner was choosing today, of all days, to be difficult.
"SNAPE!" Lily yelled, and then ashamedly lowered her voice. "Help me! This is OUR mark I'm solely saving here."
His head snapped up and he glared, but he grabbed the sliver dagger all the same and begun slicing the oleander leaves, although admittedly it was with a little more force than required.
As much as Lily protested that her bad temperament was solely because of her lack of sleep, breakfast and much needed caffeine, the real reason was much more interesting than that.
In reality, it was Potter that was making Lily so livid - James Potter and his un-Potterish behaviour was annoying her beyond belief.
Lucy's 'warnings' had wasted as much of her time as it had little sense - although Lily knew the girl was right with one thing: there was definitely something up. Potter was continuing to be infuriatingly modest, unnaturally polite, and strangely chivalrous, and, to Lily's annoyance, he was treating Lucy the same way. But with more coziness.
Lily scowled.
She couldn't stop thinking about it.
Which, in essence, meant she was thinking about Potter.
And she hated Potter.
She glared at the back of James's head over her cauldron, and noted to her displeasure that he was involved in a exuberant hug with Lucy
Wanker.
Snape consulted the text, and then pointed to the potion. "We have to wait two minutes whilst the crockleberries dissolve." Lily nodded and picked up her quill to add in some notes to the accompanying synopsis they had to write, but instead just sat on her stool, letting the quill feathers tickle the bottom of her chin.
She believed Lucy when she had said that she didn't like Potter romantically; however, a new thought was tormenting the redhead. Lily found herself wondering if perhaps it was the other way round: maybe Potter was interested in Lucy?
The were both getting along marvelously and the was no doubt that she was pretty. Sirius Black had said only this morning that he would father her babies.
Lily had responded to this by shoving her wand accidentally-on-purpose up his left nostril.
She noted with satisfaction that it was still red looking, and was sporting a bandage.
"Lily, you ask me to help you, and then you stare blankly at our classmates. Is this some new Potion Princess technique that I should take note of?" Snape's upper lip was curled, and pointed to his watch. The two minutes were long up, and Lily tried her best to suppress the urge to beat him over the head with her cauldron.
"If you'll just sprinkle them in here, while I stir…" Lily said, as she tried desperately to hitch her face into an unconvincing smile.
"Sprinkle what in where, exactly, Evans?"
"The oleander leaves, Snape! In the cauldron!" Lily growled, and picked up his hand and shoved it on the said leaves. '"Now pick them up…Good…"
"Is there any real particular reason why you are being so short with me today, Evans?" Snape asked curtly as he threw a portion of the shredded leaves into her cauldron. "Or is it merely that Potter has infuriated you again, and for the next four hours you will bite everyone's head off whilst you make sure he knows you are angry?"
Lily stopped stirring to glare.
And then continued.
"Actually, Severus, I couldn't care whether Potter knew of my bad temperament or not ."
"You really couldn't care?"
"I really couldn't care."
Snape's upper lip curled as she pounded the spoon more resolutely into the cauldron. "That's reassuring to know." He bit, but his dark eyes were devoid of his usual coldness as they scanned the potions' contents, and then Lily's face, who looked up suddenly, and thrust the spoon into his hands. She motioned him to stir, and scooped up the chopped foliage that Snape had neglected. He simply sneered.
The near completed potion glistened silver, and as Slughorn waddled towards them, he let out a boom of approval.
"Bravo, Miss Evans, Mr. Snape! You're near done now!" He beamed down at his two star pupils, and his star pupils glared back.
She and Snape always had gotten along grudgingly, when forced to work together in sixth and seventh year as Potions partners. At times, Lily wanted to chop his head open with a machete, but in other strange circumstances, Lily found herself getting along with Snape quite well - he had an remarkably dry sense of humour, which Lily relished - and it was an added bonus was that James found the fact that they were on speaking terms highly irritating.
Lily cackled at the thought.
And then stopped when she saw Snape staring at her, a smirk creeping up onto his thin lips.
"I'd explain it to you, but your brain would implode," Lily said cattily, but he just sneered at her.
"Not the brightest crayon in the box, now, are we Evans? Your colours all been stolen by Summers?"
I bet people wouldn't hate you so much if you didn't have a face that is registered as a biological weapon.
But Lily bit her tongue, and tried to control her involuntary twitching. She stirred the potion three times clockwise, and Snape sprinkled in the leaves. She sometimes wondered if Snape had anyone he really cared about, as much as Potions.
"And there we have it," murmured Snape, disrupting her thoughts.
She looking into the caldron, and there lay the completed potion, and a silver mist floated to the surface. After a month of preparation and stewing, they finally got it.
It lay clear and glistening, and Lily smiled truly for the first time that day.
"Veritaserum," breathed Lily, and scooped a little up in her ladle. "It's just the right density, too. Well done, Snape."
She nodded approvingly, but didn't see his reaction.
It was obscured by a sudden swish of black robes from the other side of the room, perfectly positioned hair (despite the steam) and a loud shout of "Superhero flies!", and Lily spun around to watch an impressive demonstration of desk jumping: two in a row.
Most unfortunately, when the he landed, (clearing the desks completely), Sirius Black lost his footing, and tumbled with surprising rapidity straight into their cauldron - and straight into the clear, water-like liquid that was the Veritaserum.
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'Veritaserum - a truth serum so powerful that three drops would have you spilling your innermost secrets for this entire class to hear.' - Severus Snape GOF, Pg 148-149, British Edition.
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A/N: Sorry about the length, chaps - and if you're still reading, I love you! I haven't written for a while as I've been doing a lot of fanart, so I apologise if this is a little scratchy…: (
Next up, for her second round, is the brilliant ProcrastinatorStartin2moro - you all loved her first, so stay tuned for her second!
Oh, and let us know if the "Previous Episode Review" helped jog your memories at all at the start, so we know whether to do it again!
And once again guys, remember three "R's"! Read, Review…Recommend?
Best, Jestin