AN: Hello everyone! Back home at last and already missing london. Right, well this chapter is ok, but it's just one of those chapters that i needed to move the plot along a bit. next few chapters should be pretty good tho...ok well please enjoy:
A bitterly cold January faded into a dreary February and the snow began to melt, leaving the Hogwarts grounds wet and muddy. Looking up from her seat in Transfiguration, Lily caught Remus' eye and smiled, then looked back down at her ink-splotched hands. Ever since the night on top of Hogsmeade hill, he had been distant with her, embarrassed and shamed at what he had let happen. He was angry with himself for putting her in danger, Lily knew, but she wished he could just forget it. She'd forgiven him hadn't she? Well, no, that wasn't quite true. She had never been angry with him, so she had nothing to forgive.
The bell rang, pulling Lily out of her reverie as chairs scraped around her. She stood, slowly gathering her belongings, and left the class, trailing behind Sarah and Eleanor.
"What class do you have now?" Lily asked her friends, digging in her bag for her schedule. (She'd yet to memorize her classes ever though the year was half over.)
"Lunch first, then Divination," Eleanor replied mystically, waggling her fingers at Lily and making her grin.
"Technically," Sarah began. "I have Potions after lunch. But I gave that up so now I have an extra free period."
Groaning, Lily stopped searching her bag and followed her friends down to the Great Hall.
"Stop sulking, Lily," Sarah said, loading her plate with cottage pie. "It's been three weeks and he's yet to blow up the classroom."
"Yeah, bet that'll be today," Lily muttered, looking up as the Marauders swaggered over and sat down beside them. Feeling a great swell of sadness, Lily noticed that Remus had sat down next to Sarah, about as far from Lily as he could manage. When would he realise this wasn't his fault? It had been weeks, and she was perfectly fine, except for the occasional twinge of guilt she felt for leaving him alone.
"Can't wait 'til summer," Sirius said through a mouthful of chicken. "On'y four an' a half months left now."
"Yea, first summer we'll be allowed magic," James said, heaping more food onto Lily's plate. She frowned and pulled her plate away so his next spoonful splatted onto the table.
"James' mum takes away our wands each year," Sirius explained, reaching across a pitcher of pumpkin juice and scraping up the cottage pie on the table before heaping it onto his own plate. "She always takes them away during the summer, ever since we both got letters from the Ministry of Magic during the first week of summer before second year."
"It's a bloody pain, too," James said, sneaking a buttered bread roll onto Lily's plate.
"Yea," Sirius began with a laugh. "There was that one time we were in Morocco and we went for a walk in the markets. Anyway we stopped to try some fruit at this one bloke's stall and James somehow gets a pistachio stuck up his nose. Couldn't get it out either, so we had to walk all the way back to the hotel, James trying to blow it out. I just about pissed myself laughing."
Lily snorted, almost inhaling her pumpkin juice by doing so. Grinning, James rubbed his nose in remembrance and winked at her.
"Then of course there was the time we got back from the pub to find we'd forgotten our key," Sirius reminisced.
"We were so pissed, and didn't want to wake Mum and Dad up."
"So James grabs this huge chunk of wood and smashes a downstairs window, climbs through and finds that the door was unlocked the whole time!"
The whole table laughed, even Lily, although somewhat reluctantly.
"And then of course there's the cow story," Remus said quietly, grinning mischievously.
"Don't you dare, Moony!" James said hurriedly, shooting Remus a warning glance.
"Oo, what's the cow story?" Eleanor asked, her large, innocent eyes round with curiosity.
"Remus -" James began warningly but his friend ignored him.
"Summer after first year," Remus began, leaning forward in his seat. "We were all in the South of France and staying in the countryside near the sea. Anyway, we were walking back from the beach one day and we passed this field full of cows. Now, being the way that he is, Sirius gets the amazing idea to dare James to hop into the field and milk one of the cows."
"You didn't," Lily said, laughing now and watching James shake his head sadly.
"I swear Remus, if you finish this story…"
"So of course, unable to pass up a dare, Little James hops over the fence into the field of cows. He picks out one of them, very nice looking cow she was too, just standing there lazily eating grass; didn't look too scary. Anyway, James decides to walk around the cow to milk her from the other side, and just as he's walking behind her, she lifted her tail and poohed on his head."
Everyone at the table roared with laughter, and even James grinned sheepishly. "Yea, okay, laugh it up."
The bell rang. Standing, Lily slung her back across her shoulder and hurried out of the Great Hall, not waiting for James: Remus was ahead of her, and she needed to talk to him.
Pushing herself through the throng of students, she managed to grab Remus' elbow and pull him out of the crowd and into an alcove.
"You've got to talk to me," she said softly, gazing sadly at her silent friend.
"I don't know what to say. I could've killed you."
"But you didn't. I'm fine."
"I can't forgive myself."
"You have nothing to forgive," Lily insisted. "I should be apologising too. I ran off and left you. You're my friend and I abandoned you."
Remus shook his fair head. "Don't be stupid Lily. You didn't abandon me. You ran away from a monster." He looked angry suddenly. "That's what I become: a savage monster that should be put down."
"Don't say that, Remus," Lily said sternly, grabbing his arm and forcing him to look at her. "Promise me you won't even think that! You're one of my closest friends. I don't know what I'd do without you."
Another bell rang, and Lily looked around distractedly. She was late.
"Please, can we just forget what happened? I really want things to be the way they were."
Remus nodded slowly and she smiled.
"I better go. Who knows what James will have done to the potion without me there to supervise." She stood on tiptoes and quickly kissed his cheek before hurrying down to the dungeons.
Lily's fears were to be confirmed as she pushed open the door to the classroom, only to find a bright blaze of fire meeting her eyes and a gust of heat. Students were standing on their desks, shrieking and yelling as the floor burned with liquid fire, licking at the table legs and dancing wickedly to its own crackling tune.
Swearing under her breath, Lily dug in her bag for the precious spider venom she had purchased over the summer. It had cost most of her spending but it was incredibly valuable and useful. Lily's eyes scanned the classroom and passed over Slughorn who was dancing anxiously on his desk, skipping away from the fire, and yelling out words of caution to the rest of the class, and rested on James, who was sitting on his own desk, a tipped over cauldron besides him. She shook her head.
Depending on how bad the fire was, a few drops on the source should put it out, everlasting fire or not. But unfortunately, this fire was bad, and ore than a few drops would be needed. She scowled then called out Potter's name before throwing him the glass vial. Luckily he caught it (his Seeker skills were good for something) and he hurriedly tipped the clear liquid on the floor around him. The area surrounding his desk froze and spread out icy tendrils, stopping the fire in its tracks and creating a sea of ice covering the dungeon floor.
Lily's ears were ringing from the shrieks of her classmates but that soon died down. Only when Slughorn called her name did Lily break her stony gaze at Potter who looked both shocked and sheepish.
"Lily Evans, James Potter, I need to talk to you outside. Class, don't even think of touching your potions until I come back!" Slughorn led the two speechless students outside the dungeon and closed the door with a snap. "Very quick thinking, Lily, very quick thinking. But still, this fire shouldn't have happened. Where were you, Lily? Class started five minutes ago and these potions are ridiculously complex. Two partners are needed to make the potion at all times, and your slack behaviour just won't be tolerated."
"Sir, that's not fair!" Lily began but James cut her off.
"Professor, I spilt the potion, not Lily. She wasn't feeling well at lunch and I told her to go to the hospital wing. She wouldn't go until I assured her I wouldn't touch the potion until she arrived. It was completely my fault, not Evan's."
"Well," Slughorn stammered, his eyes travelling from one to the other. "You are an excellent student, Lily. And I'd hate to see you fail this term because of Potter's mistakes. But even so, it takes five weeks to make Infinito Incendia, and the rest of the class is already four weeks into it."
"It's seventy percent of the term's mark, sir," Lily pleaded. "I can't afford a zero on that."
"Well, I suppose if you came in after classes, twice a week to work on it. You'll have to keep up with the class on our next project though. I'm afraid I can't make allowances, there just isn't time."
"I understand, sir," Lily said, fighting the urge to cry. It wasn't fair. Four or five hours after classes a week because Potter had been stupid, as always. Although, said the rational part of her mind, he did stick up for me. Even though it was my fault I was late. Sometimes Lily hated that part of her mind.
"Alright then. You two are dismissed for today. There's nothing else you can do. But Potter, you can come back at five and clean up my classroom. There is ice everywhere."
---
"Don't talk to me," Lily said angrily as the pair walked through the castle back to the Gryffindor common room.
James closed his mouth and scratched the back of his head.
Unable to contain herself, Lily spun around and glowered at him. "You do realise, that because of you, I'm barely going to have time to do the rest of my homework! My marks are going to suffer in all my classes and I need high results in my final exams this year if I want the teachers to take me on in their advanced classes next year. Why do you have to always be there to ruin my life, James? Why can't you just leave me alone?"
"I'm sorry," James said quietly, taking a step towards her. "Honestly, I really, really am. I slipped and grabbed at the potion and it fell. It was a freak accident. I – I don't know what to say. I know I've let you down and I'll work harder, I promise."
Lily gazed at him awhile, feeling her eyes welling with tears at the unfairness of it all but brushed at them angrily. "You grabbed the cauldron?" she asked dully. "Did you hurt yourself?"
"No, not really," James said, tucking one of his hands behind his back.
"Show me," Lily said more gently, tugging on his arm and taking his hand softly in hers. She tutted over it then said, "We'll soak it in Murtlap essence. Then I'll bandage the fingers for you. Those blisters are nasty."
James just nodded and allowed Lily to lead him back up to the Gryffindor common room. He knew he should be feeling guilty, and he was. It was obvious how upset Lily was. But still, a tiny part of him couldn't help feeling secretly pleased. After all, he now had four hours a week alone time with Lily.
Righto, well next update should be soon. And please, if you have a moment, i would love it if u could quickly review. Thanks for reading! xxx