A/N: Well here's the next chapter just a little bit quicker than I intended--- Thursday, whoa, not hard to tell it was getting close to summer because I literally felt like DYING in the heat and that was when the sun WASN'T out. Anyways that meant Thursday night was REALLY hot because the sun was out a bit more before it got dark. So of course, I couldn't sleep--- so my mom let me stay home. YAY! Slept until 10:30 and then got woke up by a bloody mosquito--- how I hate them… anyways, here's the next chapter, I have a chapter done for all of my stories except Time Turner (nobody reviewed, and since I don't feel like updating at the moment I figured I'd wait either a) until someone reviewed, or b) until I felt like it) and I have three chapters for a new story, and I'm starting another new story. Yeah, I know, a lot, but for the first time I feel like I can handle it all, and I want to do these stories. After all, Hanging By A Moment won't be too long so I'll have it finished soon, then there's Grand Theft Autumn, it should be done after that sometime, so it will work out. Anyways, thanks bunches to those who reviewed! It means a lot, and--- MOSQUITO! Crap, lol I caught it and it slipped out of my fingers. AHH its on the wall--- there, squashed it. Sorry, they REALLY bug me they are too noisy and annoying. R & R.

Disclaimer: Harry Potter doesn't belong to me--- so yeah…

A Marauder's Tale

EilayAdnayVolieay

Chapter Eleven: Christmas Holidays Part 1

James stormed out of the Hospital Wing and had made it all the way back to the Common Room before he realized what Lily had said--- voices. Talking about her, and the prophecy. Even though he was mad at her, he couldn't stop his feelings for her from getting in the way.

"Damn…" he muttered. "It's not safe to leave that girl alone is it?" he sighed and was just trying to figure out what to do when Megan came out from the stairs. James jumped when he saw her, but she reminded him instantly of Lily as they were best friends, and he glared at her.

"Whoa," she replied, holding her hands up. "What's got you so angry?" she asked. She sat down next to him and he saw she had the book he had signed out--- apparently Remus had already finished it. James looked at the thickness of it and couldn't help but shake his head. Remus, even after all these years of knowing him, still didn't stop surprising him.

"Evans," he replied bitterly finally. Megan raised an eyebrow--- Evans? It had been awhile since James had called Lily that.

"What happened?" she asked. James shook his head, telling her he didn't want to get into it but she made herself comfortable. "Might as well, I'm not going until you tell me." Megan added.

"We just had an argument--- you know how she was teasing me, and said "Aww, you really do care!" and you left?" James asked. Megan made a face.

"How can I forget…" she muttered.

"Well, after you left, she said she really had been kidding and that she didn't care whatsoever if I cared about her… then she was about to say something, but I cut her off and told her that some people just never grow up. Then she got mad and said that I didn't even deserve to be Head Boy because I enjoyed getting detentions, and every time I got one I was so proud that my head grew thicker and thicker. She told me that was why I had stopped pulling pranks, because it was too heavy to hold up and I didn't want to be squashed by it. Of course, that made me angry--- I stopped pulling pranks because…" James fell silent and Megan leaned forward.

"Because…?" she asked. James sighed and stood up.

"Because I knew what she thought of me--- that I was immature, arrogant, a bully. I told her I tried to change, for her. But she didn't care--- she never did care when it came to me. Whenever she starts to, something always happens. Like now. I told her that I'd never stop liking her, I've tried and I just can't stop. Every time I try, I fall more in love with her… as stupid as that sounds. I told her where I've got a big head, she's got a big ego and can't admit that maybe--- maybe she does care about me, more than she thinks. Then I just stormed off… I never even thought at all that she could be in danger, because of the people that were in there. I'm still… really, really mad at her, but that doesn't stop me from caring…" James sighed. "I wish it did…" he added softly. He realized he had been lost in thought for awhile and Megan was staring at him. He got up. "I'm… going to bed. Don't worry," he added. "I won't let my argument with Lily get in the way of this prophecy. The sooner we find it, and get whatever we're supposed to do done, the better." He ran up the stairs and Megan heard the door shut. She noticed James had left his invisibility cloak downstairs and decided she'd go back and see Lily.

---

Lily curled up in a ball in the Hospital Wing--- she was furious, but she knew it could have all been avoided if she hadn't tried to cover up when she acted as though she cared that he… liked her. Had she acted? No, and she knew it. They had become… almost friends. But she had to go and cover up everything and now, they were angry at each other. But was it a bad thing? She had told him exactly what she had once thought of him, and now he had done the same. Funny, how people only tell each other the hard truth when angry at one another.

Lily sat up again as she heard a shuffling noise. No… she thought. Please, don't let them be back… she was relieved when she saw Megan pull off the invisibility cloak. Judging by the look on Megan's face, she had encountered James and knew they had an argument.

"I don't want to talk about it," Lily replied harshly. Megan looked hurt, and Lily rushed to apologize. "I'm sorry, Megan… I guess I'm getting everyone mad at me tonight. But… ask Ja---" Lily sighed. "Ask Potter if you want to know."

"I already did. He wasn't going to tell me, but… I forced it out of him, and he told me. Lily… we won't talk about it, if you don't want. But since you and James clearly didn't talk about those visitors tonight I thought I would. We did see a guy walk out of here, but he had a hood on and we couldn't see his face. He was shorter than James, not that it helps much to know that. What did they say?" Megan asked. Lily quickly told Megan everything that they had said, and Megan lifted her legs up and held them close to her. (Megan is sitting on a bed, for those wondering)

"I guess this is real, now." Megan replied softly. Lily nodded.

"Guess so…" she agreed.

"Well… be careful, Lils. We'll see you tomorrow, okay?" she asked. Lily nodded and after she thought Megan had left, she began crying. She didn't know why--- but once she started, she couldn't stop. Megan however hadn't left, and turned away. Perhaps James had been right--- maybe Lily did care about him.

---

The next day when Lily was let out of the Hospital Wing, she saw a lot of girls were glaring at her. She felt very awkward and rushed to the Common Room and saw that most girls there too were glaring at her. She saw Ali who was looking worried and asked her what was up.

"Well, everyone knows James likes you now…" she replied. "Before he used to talk quietly about it when no one was around, now he just talks to Remus and Sirius whenever, wherever. They all know you guys argued." She added. Lily walked over to James and glared at him.

"What the hell is your problem?" she asked him. He looked up at her and for a moment she noticed the pain hiding behind his hazel eyes. It was soon replaced with anger.

"I told you, Evans--- I'm not making it easy for you anymore. Even when I did you still acted as though you hated me, so I'm not going to worry about who might overhear anything I say. Now anyways, Remus what did you learn from that book?" James asked.

"Well, there's a few places rumored around here to be places Godric Gryffindor liked to go, to... hang out, basically. I think first though, over the Christmas Holidays, we should look around in the Common Room. I say the holidays because that's when there will be literally no people other than us here— I've asked around, everyone's already signed up to go home for the holidays, so the seven of us will have to stay here and search on our own then. It will be easier, we'll attract less attention." Remus added. Lily glared once at James before telling Remus that she'd make sure that Megan and Ali knew of that and left. James saw her leave and stared at the fire angrily. Stupid Evans... why couldn't I just tell myself to hate you forever and have it come true? He asked himself. He knew he wouldn't get an answer— it was a rhetorical question anyways.

Remus looked over at Lily and then whispered to James, "Don't you think this is getting a bit out of hand? I mean, I understand you two are mad at each other, but honestly do the rest of us need to deal with it?" he asked. "If you like Lily so much, why can't you just tell her you're sorry?" Remus asked.

"Because I'm not sorry. She thinks she's so perfect, that she doesn't like me, well fine, but I won't apologize for calling her immature because at that moment that's exactly what she was. Can we just focus on this prophecy?" James asked. "I'd rather not get into a discussion about her." Remus shrugged.

"Sure, James, whatever you say. Come on, its almost lunch, we might as well head for the Great Hall." Remus dragged James out of the Common Room, leaving Peter and Sirius behind. James began to protest but Remus dragged him over to the broom closet and dragged him inside.

"Listen James, I know Lily better than you do when it comes to you. No, wait, listen!" Remus exclaimed when James attempted to leave. "She did notice that you were changing, she asked me about it every day! First she asked me what "Potter" thought he was doing. Soon she cut back on the last name business and called you James. She started to sound like... well like she might like you at least as a friend. She told me herself she was glad you were going to tutor her in Transfiguration, because she needed the help and she knew you were really good at it. How often would she have said that before?" Remus asked. James looked down.

"Not often..." he replied slowly.

"Try never. And maybe if you hadn't interrupted her last night, you would have seen she was trying to apologize!" Remus shouted. James looked up.

"How do you know that?" he asked.

"Because she told me that when I visited her at the Hospital Wing. She said she had felt terrible about saying that because in the past while you had been so nice to her, and then you jumped at her and called her immature and so she got mad and forgot anything regarding an apology. You know yourself that it's going to be hard to work together if the two of you are mad. I don't care if you have to just call a truce because she's beyond forgiving you, the two of you have got to do something before it's too late." Remus left, and James sat down on the ground to be left alone with his thoughts. Ever since he had started liking Lily, it had all been a problem.

—

Over the next week, even after what Remus had said, things became worse between Lily and James. James no longer acted the way he had before, and he had even attempted to speak to her, but she was beyond speaking. He didn't know what to do— if she didn't allow him to talk to her, how could he ever apologize? It was then that he decided that he was just going to have to go get her a Christmas present she'd really like, and send it to her along with a letter. Maybe then she'd at least read it to see who had given her the gift. He wouldn't get into too much detail— he'd just say two words: I'm sorry. Then if she stayed mad at him, well, he had tried. But maybe she wouldn't... he hoped so much that she wouldn't. After all, he liked her— truly, REALLY liked her. And there was nothing worse than knowing the person you loved seemed to hate your guts. She had said she could never hate him— he wondered if she remembered that at all.

So, James spent the start of the holidays looking for the perfect gift for Lily— he had even left the school property, even though he knew it was against the rules. Finally, he found it. He wrapped it up carefully and grabbed a piece of parchment.

Lily—

I'm sorry.

He signed no name— he knew she would know it was from him. He sent it off with his owl and sat down where he stood. Please forgive me... he thought to himself. I don't know what I'll do if you hate me.

A/N: Well a little short but there you have it! This chapter I tried to focus a little more on the argument, next chapter I'll get into the argument and then hopefully the prophecy again. Don't forget to review!