Chapter Two:
Lily flopped onto her bed with a big sigh of relief, the first week as Head Girl over and done. That evening had been a little rough with a couple first years struggling with homesickness now that the week was complete, and the excitement had settled. She shut her eyes and listened to the wind howl outside the window. It was only moments later a knock at the door startled her from the near silence. Before she could say anything, the door opened.
"Hey, Niamh, how's the celebration going?" Lily asked.
"Good, but," Niamh gave her a forlorn look, "there's something I need to tell you,"
"Okay, sure."
Niamh stepped closer and looked down at her hands, "Listen, um, I didn't want to say anything until I knew it was true. I don't like spreading rumors, ya know?"
Lily sat up in the bed, "Of course."
Niamh sighed, "Sirius was bragging, I mean, you know how he brags, so I thought maybe he was just saying it to seem cool. But Peter, well, he kinda let it slip out," She scrunched her nose and looked at her hands again.
"What slip out?" Lily raised her eyebrows.
"Sirius said they went to a beach this summer. James's parents let the four of them have a caravan to themselves."
"Yeah, they told me about the trip,"
Niamh's eyes got wide, "They told you everything about the trip?"
"Well, I mean, they said they had a caravan at the beach for a couple weeks and hung out,"
"So," she drawed out, "Did Sirius talk about the girls?"
Lily raised her eyebrows higher, "Girls?"
Niamh shrugged a little and frowned deeper, "So, he didn't tell you then."
Lily gave her a side eye.
"Well, they met some girls at the beach, muggles. According to Sirius and Peter, they all did. All four of them meet muggles at the beach. And it seems that they didn't just meet them." Niamh paused, not looking at Lily, "They stayed in the caravan with them. Now, Sirius said nothing about James, just him and Peter and Remus doing things with them. But Peter let it slip that James also had a girl with him. A blonde, blue-eyed muggle who was 16. Now, of course, that's just rumor except," she sighed, "They had pictures. Though Sirius tried to hide it, there's a picture of James, with his arm around a girl." Niamh finally looked up at Lily, "A blonde, blue-eyed girl. Just as Peter said."
Lily stood up, her lips pursed, "What?"
"I'm sorry, Lily. It seemed you didn't know, and I had to tell you."
Lily narrowed her eyes, "Where's the picture?"
"I think Peter has it, I dunno." Lily nearly pushed past Niamh, half-running down the stairs to the common room. A crowd was gathered around the Marauders near the fireplace.
"Ah, but it was before I started to date you, April." Sirius spoke.
Lily slowed walked behind the crowd and half-pushed her way through. As the group saw her, a sudden silence came over them. When Remus saw her, he started to gather some of the pictures hastily. Lily leaned over and snatched them.
James jumped up, "Lily, it's not what you think,"
"Isn't it?" She narrowed her eyes and held up two pictures. One was the exact picture Niamh had told her about.
"It's not what you think."
"What do you call it then? Can you explain her sitting on your lap?"
"We were just-" He paused. Lily glared at him. "It wasn't what you think."
She shrugged during the long pause, "You were just what?"
James sighed, "It was just a group of us, we hung out. Just drinking."
"Just drinking, with a random girl on your lap?"
Peter curled his lip, "Oh, we didn't just drink with them-"
Remus shoved his elbow hard into Peter and caused him to make a wheeze sound. Sirius glared at Peter.
"I could expect this from Sirius-"
"Hey, I didn't cheat." Sirius's eyes widened, "I didn't mean-"
"Oh I know exactly what you meant. I'm not stupid and I'm not going to stand here and be lied
to. I can't believe you'd do that to me, James."
"Lily, I-"
"You can't justify sleeping with some random girl while we are dating, James."
"I'm not, I-" He stood up, "Lily, please. We were drinking a lot. I don't even remember much, honest."
Lily raised her voice, "So now you are pretending you don't remember sleeping with her?"
"No. I mean, kinda, yes. Lily, listen."
"Save it!" She threw her hand up. "There's no excuse you can make to justify it. You slept with a random girl while in a relationship with me. We haven't even slept together."
James blushed, "Lily, c'mon now," he laughed nervously.
Lily just shook her head with a huff before she started to turn away from the crowd. James grabbed her hand and she yanked it away, "Lily, please, don't."
She shook her head again, her frown deeper, "No, James, I can't believe you'd do this." She turned her back to James and started for the dorm.
James followed quickly behind her, "Lily, please. Will you just listen, I-"
She turned around, "Listen to what? You make excuses? I trusted you. I thought you had changed."
"No, I'm not making excuses, I just-. I'm sorry, okay. Nothing really happened, honest."
She scoffed, "If it was so innocent, why did you hide it from me?"
He stepped back and looked at his feet, "I didn't hide it from you, I just-"
She scoffed again, "You just hoped I wouldn't find out." Lily derided and shook her head, her arms folded across her chest. "Well, guess you can thank your buddies for that one. Never ones to stop a good boost, but I should thank them really. Thanks to Peter's photo obsession and Sirius's bragging I can find out the truth."
He started to put his hand on her shoulder, but she shoved it away quickly. As James started to open his mouth, she shook her head and started to turn around once more, "Save it."
"Lily, can we just talk?"
"I think you've said all there is to say right now," Lily turned her back to James a final time, entering the dorms, nearly slamming the door behind her on the way up.