Chapter 12: Sad Eyes and Red Roses

"Before I knew it, the buzz changed from who was going with whom to who was going to wear what. That's right, Harry. It was time for Hogsmeade." Lily smiled at her son, and began to speak again, as her son flailed his arms about in anticipation.

…

There she was, standing in front of a mirror with five other girls crowded all around her. "Please don't do this to me," she was saying as they giggled and fussed over her.

"Oh, no you don't!" Marlene said as she grabbed Lily's arms and steadied her. "You are going out with the stud of Hogwarts! You can't wear…that," Marlene literally had to force the words out as if they disgusted her.

She really didn't understand what the problem was. She couldn't over dress to Hogsmeade. Everyone wore jeans, trainers, and tee shirts. She already had one of her best shirts on. It was a light blue "boob shirt" as Emmeline called it. It wasn't anything fansy, but it looked good on her. But now Marlene was pulling out her stiletto dress shoes with open toes, and a pair of incredibly tight and form fitting jeans. As she looked them over, she couldn't help thinking, if the leg was any thinner she wouldn't be able to get out of them if she had got into them. But Marlene was smiling wide and encouraging her.

But before the mob got too violent, a knock interrupted everything. "Lily, you better come down here, right now!" The voice called before anyone actually opened the door. It sounded like one of the fourth year Gryffindor girls. Taking the opportunity to get away from giggling girls, she rushed out the door with little more than a "bye" to her roommates.

When she was outside, she found that it was indeed the young fourth year she had thought it was. Her name was Anna. She was smiling widely and giggling.

So much for leaving the giggling girls.

"Lily, guess what?"

She rolled her eyes. "I don't have time for guessing games, Hogsmeade is in a couple hours and I'm not ready yet."

Anna gave her once over and then looked back into her eyes. "You look like your pretty ready to me."

"Anna!" Lily said more sternly than aggressively, and Anna blushed a little at her delay of news.

"There is something for you downstairs in the common room."

Lily blushed feverishly, and then rushed past Anna without a second word. The whole common room had probably already seen whatever it was that was for her. She hoped it wasn't something from James. That would just start useless rumors.

Then again maybe getting something from him would be…

She threw away the thought as she rounded the corner and decended the last step into the common room. Ahead of her was a mob of people, mostly girls, and all seemed excited and giggling. They were crowded around something, but Lily couldn't get a good sight of it. She was arching her neck to try to see over the throng of people when someone turned around and noticed her.

"Lily!" the girl yelled out and everyone turned at the same time. Someone in the corner by the fire jumped out of there seat, and Lily couldn't help but look to see who it was. When she did, she felt regret immediately. She was met by sad hazel eyes that tried to hide their disappointment. Lily was too quick for feeble attempts, however, and she noticed the look in James Potter's glowing eyes.

She must have been distracted for quite a long time, because when she focused back on her surroundings there were tons of excited eyes staring holes into her. The whole room was looking at her, and aside from the boy in the corner, everyone was smiling at her. When she looked around the room and finally caught a glimpse of something, she realized why.

"Lily, they are for you!" said a seventh year girl with glasses. As she spoke she moved a little to reveal a golden vase and a dozen red roses. Lily blushed again.

She moved slowly toward the table with the flowers on it, but she couldn't help her eyes wondering to the corner. She still felt bad about what happened, and if these flowers weren't from him, as she was sure now that they weren't, then she would feel even worse. He hadn't deserved this, no matter how stupid he was sometimes.

When she was in front of the flowers she noticed a note within the blossoms. She could smell the roses, but they didn't really have any affect on her. She never really was a fan of roses, she preferred daisies. Roses seemed like such a distant flower, beauty unattainable, but daisies were friendly and fun.

The note, however, made up for the roses. She read it carefully, so no one else could see it.

Lily,

I was thinking about you and I saw these. They reminded me of your beautiful hair. I couldn't resist.

Amos

The signature stung her for a second. It had been so sweet, and caring, but for the first time, she realized she had gotten everything any girl could want, and she didn't. She sighed and then remembered the other girls standing around. They were squealing and asking her who they were from. She told them and they squealed so loud the upstairs dormitory door flew open.

"What is all the ruckus down here?" came the voice of Marlene. No explanation was needed, however, once she saw the table and the flowers. She squealed just as the other girls had and then the whole sixth year girl's dorm emptied into the small corridor that led to the common room. Before long they were all crowded around Lily questioning her. She resigned to giving them the letter and instead looked for the hazel eyes she was almost afraid to see into. Once she found the subject, she realized the eyes weren't looking her way any more. She was kind of glad, but then he disappeared out the portrait hole. Once again Lily was left with giggling girls.

…

After what seemed like hours of giggling, she finally headed out of the common room. Everyone had busied themselves about doing there makeup and freshening up, a few fights had broken out for the bathroom, but most of all, people were giddy. Lily had decided not to change, but she did pull her hair into a pretty French twist.

As she stood outside the portrait hole waiting for Amos to meet her, she couldn't help her mind realing. People were rushing out the portrait hole giving her encouraging smiles, but she just stood there brooding over certain situations. It had been so long since she had talked to James, and she felt really badly about what had happened. She felt cruel and mean, beyond measure. He had finally been sincere for once in his life and she had shot him down. Not that she would have said yes, if she hadn't been going with Amos, but she could have at least kept from breaking his heart.

Was that what she had done? Did she break his heart?

She tried to stop thinking about it, but then an image of him leaving the portrait hole looking very upset came back to her. She hadn't seen him again that morning, not after he had left. She wondered where he had gone.

As if in answer a group of seventh year Ravenclaws walked by talking and Lily just caught enough to know that she was getting paid back.

"Did you hear? She's going with James Potter, that cute sixth year in Gryffindor. He always was the charmer."

"I heard he got down on him knees and sang to her."

"Oh, don't be silly, James wouldn't—"

But by then they were too far away to hear any more. She felt something in the pit of her stomach for one solitary minute. Jealousy. It wasn't that she wanted…

She couldn't even say it. It was just that she was so used to being his only focus. And hadn't he said that he would always be waiting for her? Didn't he say he would always be there for her?

She was half tempted to follow them and find out who this girl was, but then a hand reached out and touched her shoulder. She turned around and saw Amos Diggory smiling dazzlingly.

"Ready?" he asked, and she was. He took her hand and they headed in the same direction everyone else seemed to be going. She was trying to avoid his gaze, but she could feel his eyes on her. He kept glancing over as if waiting for her to say something, but she remained quiet.

Then, it was like something hit her over the head. She realized why he kept looking at her.

"Thank you for the flowers Amos. They were beautiful," she exclaimed, blushing slightly.

"Oh, it was no problem really," he said genuinely. "I just wanted to get you something to tell you how special you are."

She almost lost her legs. She must have appeared shocked as well, because Amos smiled shyly at her.

"I have to admit, I…" he laughed in that same shy way and looked to the floor, "I can't keep my eyes off of you. You look beautiful, Lily."

She smiled proud of herself, and pleased that someone recognized her own sense of style as pretty. She decided to keep a note in her mind to tell Marlene next time she saw her. When she came back to her senses she caught him glancing down at her collarbone where the skin was showing due to her low cut shirt. She blushed, and when he saw that she was looking at him he blushed even brighter.

"I have to tell you that I didn't think you'd come with me," Amos said as he looked back at the path in front of him.

She scrunched her eyebrows at him. "Why not?"

He looked even more shy in that moment. He looked to the ground and bit the side of his lip. "Oh, no reason."

She smiled at him, but decided to press him anyway. "No, really. Amos, you are the best looking guy in school, why would you think any girl would say no to you?"

He looked up at her with the happiest look she had ever seen on his face. He seemed to be very pleased that she thought so. With her confession he seemed to gain more confidence and looked her directly in the eyes. "Well, you know, because of the whole James Potter thing."

Her smile fell. Only minutes before the thought of him had brought her happiness. But now his name annoyed her greatly. She was tired of people thinking they were together; she was tired of boys avoiding her because they thought she was his property or something. She was tired of the whole thing, especially her own part in it.

"What are you talking about?" she asked, knowing full well what he meant.

"You two just always seemed to be…for each other, you know?"

"No, I don't," she said more rudely than she had meant to, "Merlin, why does everyone have to say that?"

"Well, believe me, Lily," Amos said, trying to retain sanity while she seemed to be loosing it, "I'm glad the two of you aren't. Whenever he said you were his girlfriend, I almost passed out. And then the other day, when I saw the two of you together…"

"Amos," she said trying to think of words that would confirm for him that nothing was going on. Oddly enough, though, she couldn't think of any.

He just put up his hand and kept talking. "It's okay, Lily, you don't need to explain. But, when I saw you together, I thought maybe you had changed your mind. I can't believe you didn't at some point."

She looked at this gorgeous guy who seemed so shy. How could that be possible? "Amos, I would never do that. This is the most wonderful moment I've had in so long, I can't even remember the last time I felt so special."

"Good," he said with a smile, as the shyness ebbed away a little. "You should know how perfect you are."

…

Harry started crying…loudly. Lily could not figure out what was wrong. "You were okay just a second ago, darling, what is the matter?" He just took in a deep breath and let out another scream.

"Don't you want me to continue the story? Won't that make you feel better?" Harry wasn't letting up. She thought maybe if she just tried to get back into the story it would be okay, so she tried. "Well, like I was saying, Amos said—" but before she got any further Harry let out a very loud scream again.

She paused. She had a bit of a hunch, but she needed it confirmed. "Amos," she said, and again Harry burst out.

"Oh, my dear boy," she said as she began laughing, "is that why you are crying? Don't like me talking about any boys besides your Daddy? Well, isn't that sweet. Well, if you insist, I'll skip ahead. I can't delete him from the story, but I'll stop talking about mushy stuff. Will that satisfy you?"

Harry giggled.

"Fine."

…

Hogsmeade was full as usual on the weekends when Hogwarts unloaded the kids for a fun day. The streets were lined with young people. Sometimes it was almost comical to think of how annoying it must be for the residents of Hogsmeade to have to deal with children running crazy in there town all the time. The business side, however, could benefit from nothing greater. Zonko's was the biggest money maker on Hogsmeade weekends, but the Three Broomsticks was a very close second. For Lily Evans and her friends, it was the best place to catch up. Every year they would go to Hogsmeade with their dates, and then at 3 o'clock they would meet at the Three Broomsticks to gossip and tell stories. It was tradition.

"Lily!" someone said from a table in the center of the shop. It was about time for her Hogsmeade 'catch up' right now. The voice belonged to none other than Emmeline Vance. She was practically jumping out of her seat to catch Lily's attention. When Marlene, who was sitting beside her, caught sight of it she practically yanked the girl back down. "Oy!" she yelled, and Lily rolled her eyes.

Marlene was sitting with her feet up in the seat, looking comfortable with her butterbeer in hand. Beside her sat Emmeline, and across from her sat Alice with a book open.

"So?" asked Marlene, catching Lily's attention again.

"So, what?"

"What happened?" she asked enthusiastically and somewhat impatient.

"I could ask you the same question." Lily looked at her mischievously noticing the somewhat unkempt appearance of her pigtails.

Marlene seemed to notice her scrutiny, and just threw her hands in the air. "So I got a little snogging in before I met up with the girls, big deal," she smiled widely, obviously proud of herself. Meanwhile, Alice's face finally appeared from above her book with shock evident all over her rosy cheeks.

"No talks about snogging, Marlene, you are going to make me hurl," Emmeline said from beside her. Marlene just laughed in knowing.

Lily seemed confused and decided to inquire, but Emmeline just crossed her arms and said, "I don't want to talk about it." It was apparent by Marlene's face, however, that Emmeline's date had gotten a little more scandalous that she would have liked.

"How about you, Lily? Any exciting snogs with a perfect Hufflepuff boy?"

Lily just smiled and grabbed Marlene's butterbeer, which she took down in one swig. The other girls began to giggle, except for Alice who seemed to get very serious.

"Girls, now that Lily is here we have to have that one discussion."

"What discussion?" Lily asked as she looked around the table. Alice was looking at Marlene to give her the answers, but Marlene was just fiddling with her empty mug, while Emmeline looked anywhere but between the other three girls. "What discussion?" Lily asked again.

Marlene scoffed, shrugged and rolled her eyes all at the same time. "It's just Potter is all."

Alice interrupted with more emphasis. "Lily, what happened? I thought you two were on good terms?"

"What are you talking about, Alice?"

Marlene looked straight at her this time and answered the question for Alice, "he went with that stupid Ravenclaw girl you hate so much."

Lily stopped as if dead. She couldn't even feel her heart beating. "Indigo Puce?"

The three girls exchanged looks and then nodded together.

Lily's face went red. If one person could almost always ruin her day it was Indigo Puce. She was a Ravenclaw prefect, pureblood, and know it all. She was, as other people had told her, her only competition for Head Girl next year. She hated her. Not only was she pretty, she smiled too much, laughed too much, and didn't have a clue about the things that really mattered. She had practically invited herself into Slug Club. And, what was worse, she was very pretty.

"Excuse me?" Lily asked trying to control her emotions.

"See, that is what I mean," Alice said forcefully, until Lily glared at her. She continued, but softer than before, "the two of you seem to have had a falling out."

Lily wasn't listening anymore, though. She got up out of her seat, and without saying goodbye walked toward the door, whispering, "I don't know what he is playing at."

…

"Then I was out of there in a burst of flames. My face was about as red as my hair at that moment, and it wouldn't die down after that. Now, all I had to do was see if it was true."

Harry giggled, the shadow, however, didn't move an inch.

A/N: This chapter is kind of weird, in the way I wrote it. I can't seem to get out of it either, because I started to work on the next chapter and it seems weird too. But anyway, I wanted to say some things about this chapter before I get the question. For one, I kind of made the girls the counterparts of the Marauders. If you look at their characteristics you will see the similarities. Marlene is to Sirius, Emmeline is to Peter, Alice is to Remus, and Lily, of course, is to James. And the only other thing I wanted to mention was the character Indigo Puce is a little joke of mine about Lavender Brown. Her name is kind of the same thing, and her character is going to be similar. I love making similarities between the MWPP era and the Golden Trio era. It's just fun. lol. Hope you like it!