Chapter 8: Later
A/N: I have to tell you a story about my morning yesterday. The night before, I submitted chapter 7, and then by the next morning, I checked my mail and was shocked to see that my story already had TEN reviews! So I just have to say, Reviewers, YOU ROCK!
Disclaimer: Somewhere far away from where I am, JK Rowling is sitting behind a computer screen twiddling her thumbs saying "IT'S MINE! ALL MINE!" And you know what?…She's right.
Lily was so tired, she needed to replenish. So she picked up her little boy and walked down to the kitchen where she could make herself a cup of coffee. Lily yawned as they went, and Harry imitated her, for no reason at all. "Oh, now you are tired, huh?" she asked her little boy. He just looked up at her and smiled a wide giddy grin of gums. "I didn't think so."
They went down the stairs and Lily patted his bottom along the way. He was being noisy for such a quiet house, but as it was they were the only ones there. James was elsewhere and the boys had a place together closer to the Ministry. It had been a while since she had seen Remus or Peter, but Sirius came over almost everyday. He loved baby Harry almost as much as his parents, but such a thing was inevitable for he was a very cute kid. Everyone fell in love with his chubby cheeks and twinkling bright eyes. He was a gorgeous blend of his parents, and they were extraordinarily good-looking, though Lily herself would never admit she was.
They got closer to the kitchen and Harry started to get rowdy. He was gurgling and tugging on Lily's hair. One tug hurt a little more than the others, but he didn't stop until she finally let out an "ow!" Then, they both had each other's attention. She looked down at her little boy as her eyes started to water from the pain of almost losing some of her hair to her son's grip.
One thing was better, though. She was wide awake. She decided she didn't really need the coffee anymore, so she looked at the empty coffee machine that was just across her in the kitchen…and turned her back to it. As she scaled back up the stairs her son started to get restless in her arms.
"Well, I guess you'd probably like the next bit of the story, huh?"
He giggled and wiggled his feet at her.
"All right then."
…
After the incident on the grounds of Hogwarts, and the top of the tower extravaganza, time went by as usual in the world of Lily Evans. She grew up in shoe size each year just as much as in height and mind. Soon Lily was considered the best witch of her year. She became a charms master and a pretty quick wit. Some other things came to her as well. After her first year, Lily got a present that made her world go upside down. Soon after, she was no longer a little girl, but a growing adolescent. She was developing faster than most girls her age. This did not become apparent to her until she went back to school.
She hadn't realized it fully until one day she was sitting in her room with some of her girl mates. One girl, named Isabelle, was looking at herself in the mirror with a scowl on her face. When Lily questioned her about it, she turned around and rudely responded, "Well, not everyone gets boobs when they're 12!"
That was about the time that Lily started noticing everything about her body. Not just how the girls reacted, but the boys as well. She would walk down the halls and get whistled at by the boys in her year. And as time went on, even the older guys began to whistle. Not that she was that pretty, after all she had ginger hair and freckles, but she did have curves. Sometimes she found that it was a plus, but more often she found it just annoying. This began to wear away, of course, as all things do to young people, and Lily could once again feel like a normal person.
One thing that did change permanently was Lily's inability to find lasting friendships. James, she had realized, was no friend whatsoever. This hit her once she started hanging out with Remus more often. It was kind of a strange situation considering Remus was a Marauder, but somehow it never seemed to contradict. Remus just handled both friends very well. But Lily couldn't help wondering, while Remus was calming her about some other offense Potter made, how he would treat the situation if the places were switched. It kind of seemed like a dual situation, but both friends liked him too much to take it out on him.
Lily particularly liked him. She had grown out of the 'thinking-he-was-cute' phase and now saw him as more of a brother figure. They talked to each other about everything. They did their homework together, helped each other out when they needed it, and even told gossip to each other, more often Lily than Remus.
Their friendship had also led the way to new friendships for Lily. She became great friends with several girls in her room including Alice Walker, Emmeline Vance, and Marlene McKinnon. She had even gotten close to Frank Longbottom, who always seemed to trail after Alice everywhere. Most of the time she was either with the girls or with Remus, but occasionally they could all be found together.
As the years went by Lily kept growing up, in so many ways. She learned a great deal of compassion, and kindness that separated her from most of her classmates, and drew people to her. She began to stand up for people who couldn't stand up for themselves; most often it was younger children who were being terrorized by Slytherins. This trait became very helpful in her fifth year whenever she became a prefect.
Her hard work had finally paid off, when she had gotten the badge in her Hogwarts letter. Her parents had actually understood and been ecstatic about it. That year was one of her favorites at Hogwarts, for while the Dark Lord was growing in power, she was learning traits that could help her in the outside world to fight against him.
Of course, not all was sunshine and daisies in the world of Lily Evans. She still had to deal with a certain unexplainable prat. She called him Potter, the rest of the world called him God, and she detested it. If there was one place where her patience and compassion could fail, it was in him.
The years had not been good to Potter. He got a big head after he joined the Quidditch team, and soon after the girls began to flock to him like he was fresh meat. After all, he had a great deal of talent, and he was charming as hell, if he had been even half as good-looking as he was the girls would have been falling all over him. He also began to lose pity for those below him, and pranking became his outlet for attention. Along with Black, who had grown so incredibly gorgeous that even Lily couldn't deny it, they began to prank the school. They started off with mean Slytherins, trying to make a statement about the power of Gryffindor, but eventually resorted to pranking anyone who came within a 40 mile radius. It was getting so bad, that Lily found herself on many occasions stepping in.
At first, he had simply ignored her, but as she grew up and began taking people's attention away from him, for positive reasons like protecting people from his jinxes, he began to take an interest. It started in their fourth year. He had started flirting with her, hoping that she would fall on her knees like all the other girls did. But when she showed him nothing but disdain he realized she was a different kind of girl, and it intrigued him.
All through their fourth year, and fifth year Lily had warded off all his advances. One time she actually recalled with perfect clarity was when the Marauders had depantsed their favorite victim Severus Snape. She had, of course, jumped in, but when Lily entered the picture Potter began to show off and taunt Snape even worse. When he had called her a mudblood Lily thought Potter's look would have killed him. However much she had appreciated his concern, it could never make up for his behavior in the first year, nor excuse hurting a fellow student.
All of his advances had been for naught, and all because he had made the biggest mistake he could in the face of Lily Evans.
Next thing Lily knew she was a sixth year, and nothing felt sweeter, smelt sweeter or tasted sweeter. She was as happy as a lioness at a meat sale. She had received high marks on all her OWLS, and had, in fact, gotten 9 OWLS. Remus and Potter had each gotten 8, and Black had gotten 7, but no one else could even rival her 9. She was a huge success, and she was sure that she was going to love another year as a prefect.
She was on her way to Hogwarts for another year. The car ride was silent, but she didn't care. She had gotten a new book for her 16th birthday, which had only been the day before. It was Jane Austen's Emma. It was her mother's old copy from her Master's studies at University. She was passing it on to Lily because she knew how much Lily adored Jane Austen. She didn't know whether it was the romance or the strong female characters, but she loved her writing.
When they reached King's Cross, she had already gotten to the part where Frank Churchill arrived unbeknownst to everyone. However, she was so close to leaving now that she actually had to pay attention to her family. Petunia had not come with them, for obvious reasons, but her mother and father were smiling despite their uncomfortable posture. She didn't know why they still felt foreign here, even after all these years.
"Thanks, Mum, thanks, Dad. I really appreciate this gift. It was very thoughtful of you."
Her mother was smiling with glee, "I should have known that spending no money would be more fruitful than a hundred million Euros. You haven't taken your face out of that book for a second since we left home."
"Well, Mum a hundred million Euros would have been pointless; we don't use them in the Wizarding World. I doubt they'd even know what one was. Besides, it's the thoughtful gifts that count. I wouldn't give up ten beautiful moments for a thousand Galleons."
Her parents didn't understand what a Galleon was, but they understood her sentiment all the same. They bent down and hugged her and then let her go.
She was right on her way. Her parents seemed so proud. After she passed through the barrier, she tucked her book into her jacket pocket and then hoisted her trunk onto the train. It took a little effort but she had done it all the same. She was used to the weight of all her books. She was just about to get on herself when she noticed her jacket was lighter. She reached into her pocket and found that her book wasn't there. She must have missed her pocket when she was trying to tuck it in. She turned around and was about to go looking for it, when she saw a messy haired boy bend down and pick it up.
"Lose something, Evans?" James Potter looked just as he had always looked, albeit a little taller and muscular. He was smiling his obnoxious grin and looking at her out of two perfect hazel eyes. She was infuriated.
He looked down at the title just as she had almost tore it out of his grip. She was so embarrassed. She knew he would tease her about this, just as he teased her about everything. She recalled one night in particular when she had been reading up on astronomy.
"Jane Austen?"
She cleared her throat to cool her embarrassment, "got a problem with it?"
"No, it's just a little elitist of you."
"Elitist?"
"Yeah, reading Jane Austen for fun is like reading Shakespeare for fun."
"What is wrong with reading Shakespeare for fun?"
"Nothing, if you're a highfalutin elitist."
"Excuse me?" she began, but before she could really get angry, Potter broke back in.
"But you aren't an elitist. That's why it doesn't make sense."
"Why does reading Shakespeare make me an elitist?"
"Well, duh, no one enjoys reading that stuff for real." He made a face like it was obvious, but Lily was not buying into it.
"I actually do like reading Shakespeare and Jane Austen…for fun," she said sarcastically as if she was talking to a three year old. He just gave her a look that said "whatever, I don't really care" and then started walking away.
"Oh by the way, Evans, you look even cuter than last year."
She turned full circle to face him, gave him a mean face and then said, "No, Potter, good try, but no."
He knew what she was saying no to. But it only made him smile in anticipation for what came next.
"I used to think I hated arrogant prats, but I married one, so I must have been mistaken," that was all Lily had to say about that. It made her son giggle all the same.
Meanwhile, somewhere in the dark outside the room, barely even a shadow, something seemed to move, but neither Lily Evans, nor her baby boy noticed.
A/N: Sorry this is so short! Ok, there is a lot to say about this chapter. First, I thought this was my favorite chapter, but actually I forgot this chapter was written. I've been looking at chapter 9 (I wrote them at the same time, they kind of go together.) So, sorry about that. But I also wanted to address a couple things really important! The "she wasn't really that pretty" thing was something I threw in there because she sounded too perfect, and I didn't like it, but I figured it would work anyway, because she is telling the story and sometimes her opinions are allowed to leak into the flash backs. Lol.
Also, I'm obsessed with Astrology, so I made Lily a Virgo, and you will see in the next chapter that I made James a Leo. If you are curious how that ties in, research the two signs. I'll give you one thing, though, the symbol for Leo is the Lion, and for Virgo it's the Virgin Maid. That should give some clues about what I'm doing with the characters.
PS. I personally love reading Shakespeare and Jane Austen for fun...lol.