Hey guys! Thanks for being patient, I really mean to post weeks ago but stuff kept happening. Sickness, traveling, heater breaking, baby shots, the works. I'm not too pleased for how this one ends, I feel like it could use a little something more, but I hope you like what I do have! I came up with a lot of good ideas for later on in the story, so that's good. :)
R&R if you please. :)
Chapter 6: Year Three
Lily's POV
"Come on, Sev," Lily hauled her sour looking friend out of the library towards the fresh air. He seemed reluctant to leave his book behind. "It's beautiful day out! You can't want to read forever." Snape looked like he was going to retort when she added sweetly, "Please?"
"Alright," he said. He looked slightly more pleased. "But let me get my book."
Lily rolled her eyes but waited all the same. As he double-backed she looked around at the moving paintings. There was one of a man in a suit of armour fending off a bear. He then turned to the lady he rescued and kneeled down in front of her, offering a flower.
How sweet, Lily thought. She always imagined herself with someone very romantic and charming in an old-fashioned kind of way. The kind of guy who would pick wildflowers for her just because he thought of her when he saw them. The kind of guy that liked to sit with her under the stars, but really he'd watch her watch them. Or sway to Ella Fitzgerald as they danced by refrigerator light at nighttime. (He had to love to dance.) Or even -
"Hey Lily."
Timothy Thompson (a Hufflepuff) was walking towards her. Lily started, realizing she had been daydreaming. "Hi," she said, smiling at him.
"What are you doing here?" Tim asked curiously. Lily was standing in the corridor alone, gazing at paintings.
"Just, er, admiring the paintings." She left out the daydreaming part. Tim nodded. "And waiting for Sev," she added.
"Hm," he said, shifting his bookbag. "You guys, uh, sure spend a lot of time together." Lily grinned. "That's 'cause he's my best friend," she said. "He told me I was magic before I knew I was a witch." She looked back at the painting of the bear, maiden, and knight.
"Best friends, huh?" Lily nodded. "Anything, uh, more than that?"
"What?" Lily turned back to look at him. Timothy had sandy-blonde hair and cute freckles. He laughed easily and had warm brown eyes. Right now, however, he seemed apprehensive, but maybe . . . a little hopeful?
"You and Sna - Sev."
"Uhm," Lily tucked some red hair behind her ear. "No . . . Not really." Her heartbeat quickened. Tim shifted his weight back and forth on his feet.
"Well, I was, erm, I was wondering if -" Lily's breath caught. "If you wanted to go to the Hogsmeade trip with me next weekend . . ." Happiness spread through Lily like the warm glow of firelight. "If you - if you want to, that is . . ."
She grinned. "Yeah," she breathed.
Tim looked up, his brown eyes surprised. "Yeah?"
She nodded, grinning more now. "Yeah! I'd love to."
Tim grinned, highlighting the freckles on his cheeks as the worry melted away. "Great!" he said. He stumbled on his robes as he started walking backwards. "Great. I'll uh, I'll see you at eight then?" He started backing away in the direction of the library.
Lily beamed. "See you then."
Tim grinned again and seemed like he wanted to say more, but just nodded and grinned some more. "Alright . . ." He turned and left, and there was a bit of a bounce in his step, Lily thought.
As soon as she was out of earshot Lily squealed quietly and did a happy dance.
YES! She thought. Yes, yes, yes,YES!
She was asked out on a date!
She glanced at her watch, if she hurried, Mary wouldn't leave to meet her boyfriend Terrence for another thirty minutes. Just enough time to run back to Gryffindor Tower, gush while she got ready, and ask her to ask Terrance about Tim.
She just took off running when - "Where are you going?"
Sev.
She'd forgotten about him completely.
Turning, red in the face, and an odd mixture of guilty but still undeniably pleased, Lily tried to hold in her smile. "Sev, I'm so sorry," she said breathlessly. "I have to go. You wouldn't understand, but - I - I have to go . . ."
Sev hunched his shoulders and looked sour.
"Sev, please understand. I need to go."
"What for?" he said with hostility. "I thought we were going for a walk near the forest in the snow, just how you like."
"I know, but -"
"Isn't that why you dragged me out here?" His eyes were hard. Lily deflated somewhat. "What's really going on Lily?"
Her shoulders drooped. Should she tell him?
"I . . . It's important," she said, changing her mind. She decided . . . Well, it probably wasn't for the best.
Sev visibly changed. "Yeah," he said, his shoulders dropping. His pallor face was disappointed, but he was trying to show he didn't mind. "Go."
Lily caught his black eyes and smiled. He seemed to relax a bit and let his shoulders drop.
"See you at dinner?" Lily confirmed. Sev nodded.
"See you at dinner."
"MARRRYYY!"
Mary dropped her lip gloss and she heard it clatter to the floor as she looked towards the door, where the sound had come from.
"MARY MARY MARYYY!" The door swung open in a rush and Lily bounced in to tell her the good news.
"But what do I wear!?" she pleaded after she was through.
"Borrow something of mine," Mary insisted. "I have a green sweater that might work really well for you or anything you find that you like. Just save the pink sweater and go-go boots for me," she winked.
"Thank you, thank you," Lily breathed.
Mary beamed. "Now, I have to finish getting ready but promise you'll tell me all the details again tonight when we go to bed!" Lily nodded solemnly. Mary left soon after but the redhead stayed to start looking through her things. After she was satisfied she had the perfect outfit (red hair is hard to pair clothes with) she left the dormitory, realizing she was late for supper.
Coming down the stairs, she saw James slam the door to the boys dormitory. Lily raised her eyebrows and watched Potter stalk out of the common room and slam the portrait as well. He'd been in a sour mood for almost a month, and a few people had noticed a separation between him and Sirius. They hadn't been talking or laughing in class anymore, and when partner work came, there was a tension and James usually went with Remus, Sirius with Peter.
A moment later Remus came out of the dormitory sighing heavily. Peter was behind him, saying, "Well, you tried . . ."
Curious, Lily bounded down the stairs to meet Remus and Peter. "Hullo," she said.
"Hi," they murmured glumly. Pettigrew seemed a little uncomfortable talking to Lily, shifting a look to Remus, but she didn't see that as cause for concern as he usually was uncomfortable around people other than his roommates.
"What's up?" Lily asked. Peter and Remus exchanged looks. Remus, the more collected of the two, said, "What's up with you?"
Lily gave him a deadpan stare. "Really, Remus? Evasion tactic? What's up with Potter?"
"James is just going down to dinner," he said calmly. Lily raised a brow.
"And the brooding cloud hanging over him? Is that joining us for dinner too? It's been a month." Now it was Remus' turn to deadpan. She wasn't going to let his go. Pointedly, she asked, "Where's Black?"
Lupin shifted uncomfortably. "He's upstairs," he said vaguely.
"They've been having a row," Peter sighed. Remus shot him a pointed look and Peter looked like he'd said something wrong.
Definitely curious now, Lily looped an arm around Remus' and steered him towards the fire. "And you're going to tell me all about it. Now, what have Ethel and Lucy been fighting about?" Peter snorted but Remus looked mildly confused.
"My mum loves that show," Peter clarified. "I don't watch it - I mean I do, but only when she's around to watch it first . . ." he finished lamely. They both stared at him and he quieted. "Nevermind."
"Anyway," Lily said brusquely, "back to the topic at hand. C'mon this is so juicy, they never fight." Remus withdrew his arm from hers and started moving towards the painting.
"I'm not going to 'hand' over the answer to that question, Lily."
"Ha-ha."
"If you want to know, ask them yourself." He sighed heavily, as if very tired of this ongoing fight. "But I wouldn't suggest it." He turned and left, Pettigrew casting one last nervous glance at Lily before trailing behind him.
Putting her hands on her hips, Lily huffed and pursed her lips. After a moment's deliberation she climbed the stair to the boy's dormitory and knocked on the door marked "Third Years."
No response came except for the blaring sounds of Led's guitar. Lily knocked again. Nothing.
Chewing her lip for a moment, she decided to try opening up. "Sirius?" she called. She found him inside laying on his bed smoking (albeit, somewhat inexperienced). "Sirius?" she questioned.
He glanced up and when he saw who it was, sputtered, sitting up quickly. "Godric. Evans!" The scratch of a sonophone sounded and the music stopped. "What are you doing here?" He pushed some of his black hair out of his face. Now that she was here, Lily had no idea what she was planning on going to say. She decided on something neutral first.
"How do you know about Led Zepplin?"
Sirius grinned. "'Cause he's awesome. Mostly I started listening to tick my parents off, but than I was hooked."
"I see . . ."
Silence.
"So . . . What are you doing here?" He asked again. Lily realized the only explanation she had was rather noisy, and perhaps wasn't such a good idea to admit that.
"You should try The Who," she said bluntly.
He looked confused. "What?"
"Not what. Who."
"What's a Who?"
"It's a band."
"Oh, I see."
"Also a population in a Dr. Seuss book."
"You lost me again."
Lily smiled. "You should try them —- the band, I mean. They're very good. Less angst-y."
"I like angst-y."
"Ah."
After a moment of silence where neither of them knew how to proceed, she asked, "Can I come in?"
"Yeah," Sirius sounded surprised, but pleased. "Yeah, sure."
Lily tentatively entered (realizing she was somewhat in enemy territory and she'd never hear the end of it if either Sev or Potter found out) and sat on the only made bed in the room. Probably Remus'. Actually, now that she took a moment to look around, she saw that this space and the trunk and nightstand beside it was the only tidy spot in the room. Definitely Remus'. There was also no personal items around.
Peter's nightstand had a picture of him and his mother on top and some sweets wrappers littering the floor. Another bed, with the blankets all rumbled and a pair of socks lying on top had a large clutter of Quidditch memorabilia covering every inch above the spread, including tickets taped to the wall and a Puddlemere United banner tacted to the ceiling above the pillow.
Someone's a Quidditch fan, Lily thought. And she knew just who it was.
Behind Sirius sat a couple of band posters, another quidditch banner, and a matching ticket to the one on the last bed. Lily wondered how long ago they went to that game together.
"So you gunna sit there staring at everything or tell me how you lost your way to the girl's room?"
Lily started. "Ah . . ." What the heck, she thought. "Why are you and Potter fighting?"
Sirius' polite look quickly dropped into a frown.
"Sorry," Lily said in a hurry. "Look, if it's rude to ask —-"
Sirius turned and picked up his cigarette again. The atmosphere was icy. "You'd have to ask dear old Jamesie that, wouldn't you," he said lighting it and pointedly not looking at Lily.
"Sirius, I'm sorry I asked," Lily tried to salvage it. "I just was wondering what was going on -"
"He's the one being a prick about it. Ask him. As he's the one not talking to me, I have no bloody idea what's going on with him." Lily felt very uncomfortable.
"Uhm . . . I guess I should go now . . ."
Sirius gave a fake smile. "Yeah. You should." He turned away from her and blared the music again. Taking her cue, Lily slid out of his room and headed down for dinner. She wondered if she could have possibly made that any worse. As she entered the Great Hall, she saw James brooding over his stew and decided something. She definitely wasn't going to ask him about it.