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A/N: Thanks to the following reviewers: Phantom of a Rose, And So The Wolf Howls, kittyatza, AnIrishLily, andwarm summer days. I appreciate your reviews so much! You guys are the best!
I'd also like to give out a special thanks to And So The Wolf Howls: I'm so glad you like the story! Thank you so much for your wolf award for August! It means a lot to me!
There's a small flashback scene at the beginning of this chapter. It may be a bit unnecessary, but I felt like I should explain the type of relationship Lily and James shared from Lily's point of view, as most of this story is in James' p.o.v.
So, with that said, let us dive back into the adventure!
Chapter 4:
A loud bang echoed around the sixth year girls' dormitory, causing a girl with dirty blonde hair to jump at the sudden noise. Lily Evans marched in, her eyes burning with dangerous flames. Her rage took complete control of her actions as she picked up the closest thing to her, threw open the small window next to her bed, and chucked the item out of it.
The crisp November breeze flew in from the open window and into the room, picking up the blonde-haired girl's homework and distributing it around the room. Lily swore quietly under her breath. "Oh, I'm sorry Lena," she exclaimed, shutting the window and helping her friend pick up her now skewed papers, her anger ebbing away for the time being.
Her friend looked up at her, her brown eyes curious. "Who tied your wand in a knot and then fed it to the giant squid?" Lena asked, studying Lily.
With an undignified growl, Lily's anger returned, "I caught him painting the bloody suits of armor red and gold."
"Oh, James."
"Yes, Potter and his army of prats."
Lena sighed, obviously having gone over this whole conversation multiple times before. Lily and James' fights had become well known throughout the students at Hogwarts for the past five years and it appeared as if their sixth year was going to go about the same way. "You know he only does it to gain your attention," Lena pointed out blatantly, already bored with the topic.
"Unfortunately," Lily grumbled, crossing her arms tightly as she attempted to burn a hole into the bathroom wall with her eyes. Why was it that her best friend could always soothe her temper like that?
"And," she continued, "you know that it isn't going to stop until you give into fate and go out with him," she continued, beginning her homework again.
"Again, unfortunately," the short-tempered red-head muttered. "But that is never going to happen," she pointed out crossly.
"Why not?"
Lily faltered, thinking about the simple question. She had to admit, since the beginning of the year James Potter appeared to have grown up…slightly. Then again, there were still those times where he hexed Severus Snape, or asked her out, or pertained in immature pranks. "It's…it's complicated," Lily answered quietly, biting her lip. She hated the boy, yes, but she also found herself admiring him at times.
Lena merely continued to look at her calmly before resuming her essay. "I'm going to go get my extra credit assignment from McGonagall," Lily said briskly, changing the topic and standing up quickly.
"Alright. While you're down there can you go out in the grounds?"
A confused look formed on Lily's face. "Uh, why?"
"That was my blanket you threw out the window."
James looked up at the staff table as he tucked himself in for a delicious Hogwarts' dinner. Their first day in the future had certainly been interesting. Professor McGonagall had almost burst into tears upon seeing Lily and James entering the classroom, tiny Flitwick had boasted about "Lisa's" strong Charms work, and Hagrid, the game keeper, patted James on the back as he walked back into the castle after Herbology; Professor Dumbledore had obviously alerted the staff of Lily and James' return to the future. As weird as the reactions were, the only person that didn't seem remotely pleased in seeing them was Severus Snape.
How in the world Snape had ever become a teacher was beyond James. Greasy Snivellus had always been obsessed with the Dark Arts, soaking up every word in every restricted book in the school library. James could have sworn he thought Snape was definitely in with the Death Eater crowd. And now, of all subjects, Severus Snape was teaching Defense Against the Dark Arts. Unsurprisingly, after the lesson, Snape had called James up to the front of his desk.
"Well, well, well, Potter senior back so soon? And to think I would never have to see you again," Snape hissed, as Lily made a hasty retreat out of the classroom.
"Missed me that much, Snape?" James retorted. He was surprised at seeing a thin smirk dart across his old enemy's face.
"Me? I can assure you I have not. Others, well, let's just say some will be most pleased at seeing you after your…absence."
James shouldered his school bag as he glared at Snape. "What are you on about?" Absence? Had something happened to James in the future that he didn't know about yet? Or was this some sick mind trick Snape was trying to play on him?
Snape sneered, although his eyes were full of disgust and hatred as he looked down on James. "While you are here, Potter, you will treat me as a Professor and as a superior. You will address me as 'Sir' or 'Professor'. I do not plan on tolerating your amateur behavior and pranks while you are here."
"I don't think you thought my tricks that I played on you back in the day were so 'amateur' when I had you hanging upside down in front of the school, Sir," James responded coolly, despite the fact the Snape now towered over James by at least three inches.
Snape leaned forward over his desk and stared James straight in the eyes. "I have the power to do things to you, Potter, if you bend me the wrong way. Have I made myself clear?"
James turned his back on Snape and made his way toward the door. "I suppose so, but Professor or not, you'll always be Snivellus to me." James closed the classroom door shut, leaving a seething Defense Professor behind.
"Potter," Lily whispered, "why is Snape glaring at you?" She nodded her head discretely in the direction of the hooked nose, greasy haired Professor.
James shrugged, stabbing his chicken with his fork, "Just had a…friendly…chat between two old schoolmates after lessons today. Nothing to worry about, Evans."
"Nothing to worry about?" she asked incredulously. "I refuse to get on the wrong side of Severus just because of you. This isn't just some school duel in the middle of a corridor; he could expel us, Potter."
"Well, I mean honestly, would it really matter? Someday soon we're going to leave this place anyway and go back to our own time where I can beat Snivellus to shreds all over again," James exclaimed, looking down the table where Harry was sitting with his two friends. James jumped slightly when Harry's eyes met James, the contact sending chills up and down his back. That look…he knew that look…
"…are you even listening to a word I'm saying? And stop staring at Harry. He's probably already suspicious enough after you're idiotic behavior in Potions today," Lily said quietly so no one could possibly hear, looking severely at James.
James shook his head, tearing his eyes reluctantly away from Harry at the sound of Lily's voice. "What? Oh, I'm sorry, Lily."
Lily's eyes widened, as her fork fell out of her hands and clattered onto her plate in shock. "Did you just say, 'I'm sorry'?" Lily. She kind of liked the sound of that. She shook her head, furious with her own thoughts.
James saw this as an opportunity to make amends and quickly seized it. "Yes, I really am sorry, well for everything." James took the opportunity of shocked silence to carry on. "I think we should put the past behind us and start over new. Shake on it?" James held out his hand as Lily looked wearily down at it.
She hesitated as she reached out to grasp his hand. What was she doing? This was James Potter! "Is this another one of your weird plans to get me to go out with you again?"
James laughed quietly, shaking his head. "No, it's just an offer to be friends." Lily still looked skeptical, so he added, "I promise." James crossed his toes for good luck, waiting for her answer.
Slowly, Lily grasped James' hand and shook it. "It's a deal…but one wrong move and it's over. And I'm using the word 'friends' very loosely."
James smiled genuinely at her. "Okay, we can be acquaintances then. Now, will you be so kind as to accompany me to the library after dinner?"
"Why?" Lily asked suspiciously, eyeing him.
"I want to see if I'm mentioned in any books. Something Snape said to me is making me think something big happened to me."
Lily rolled her eyes. "Does your arrogance exceed no ends?"
"Hey! I'm not arrogant…I'm just confident."
Lily shot him a pointed look, an amused smile fighting its way onto her face.
"Fine," James said. "I'm overly confident, happy? Now, will you please come with me, Lily? Two heads are better than one," he smiled winningly at her, and for reasons unbeknownst to her, she caved in.
"Fine, as long as we can stop by the Room of Requirement before. But, you'll have to wait until I'm done eating, though. Not everyone can shovel food as fast as you can."
"I'll take that as a compliment," James said. His heart beat seemed to race considerably out of excitement, as it usually did before a Quidditch match or right before him and Sirius put their pranks into action. Never in a million years would James have guessed that he would turn to books for answers, but that seemed like the only option. Maybe he would finally uncover some things about himself and the mystery of his son, Harry.
"It's not going to work."
Lily turned her back on the piece of blank wall and glared at James, placing her hands on her hips. "How do you know?"
James stepped closer to her and spoke in a voice as if he was explaining what two plus two was to a five year old. "Well, didn't Dumbledore say that it had to be 'subconscious'?"
"So?" Lily challenged, not wanting to admit defeat so easily.
"So," James said, his eyes twinkling amusedly, "I don't think barging in and demanding the room to send us back constitutes as being 'subconscious'."
Lily continued to glare at him. She took in a deep breath, attempting to calm herself. "It's worth a try. Forgive me for wanting to get back to my own time. So, how do we get in there?" She turned back to stare at the empty stretch of blank wall in front of her.
"So young and naive," James taunted jokingly; he began pacing back and forth in front of the wall, passing by it exactly three times. After a few seconds a door magically appeared, taking Lily by surprise. "And voilà, mademoiselle," James exclaimed, holding the door open for Lily.
She stepped passed James and into the room that appeared to be an empty large classroom similar to the one James and Lily had fought in before being thrown into the future. She sighed, crossing her fingers, "Okay, here it goes…aren't you coming in, Potter?"
James, who was still standing outside of the room, laughed. "Are you kidding me? I still have things to do, people to see. And I still need to discover what Snivelly meant, so hurry up will you."
Lily rolled her eyes and turned her back on him, closing her eyes tightly. "Fine!" she exclaimed. There was silence for a moment as Lily began wishing frantically in her head. I wish to go back to 1980. Lily opened her eyes expectantly…and there was Potter, smirking at her. Frustrated, she shut her eyes again. I wish to go back 20 years into the past…please. She cursed under her breath as she slammed her eyes shut for one final attempt. So help me Merlin, if this dumb room doesn't send me back to the past I swear I'll set it on fire.
"I hate to say I told you so," James stated, watching amusedly as Lily stalked out of the room of requirement and slammed the door shut.
"Shut up, Potter.
Lily rubbed her eyes tiredly, leaning her elbows on the small round table in the back of the library. "Potter, the library has been closed for two hours now and you still haven't found anything."
James emerged from behind a bookshelf, his wand ignited in order to see around the dark library. The librarian, Madam Pince (who was still alive after all these years), had left at nine o'clock not bothering to check the very back of the library where Lily and James had been sitting quietly, waiting for her to leave.
Lily jumped when James dropped a very heavy volume onto the table. "Famous Aurors Through the Ages. What is this?" Lily asked, flipping through the many pages.
"Well, I've always wanted to be an Auror," James said with a shrug, pulling the book away from Lily and turning to the very back to look at the index. "We probably should have started looking here."
"And how do you know you became an Auror, let alone a famous one?" Lily retorted.
"It's kind of a family tradition. For example, my great grandfather helped Dumbledore defeat some evil wizard back in the day, my great-Uncle Alfred died in an Auror combat, and my mom and dad have been fighting against Voldemort since he first rose to power in our fourth year…Aha! See? There's a whole chapter in this book labeled 'The Potters'. Page 451…lets check this out."
Curiosity overcame Lily as she pulled her chair closer to James and leaned in to read the pages along with him. "Yep, there's my grandfather, oh and there's good old Alfred," he turned a couple of pages until Lily let out a small scream of terror, as if she just saw something incredibly surprising.
"Oh dear Merlin, you are in here!" Lily exclaimed, running her hand down the page until it came to rest upon 'James Potter 1964-1986'.
James eyes widened. "I…died? I'm dead! No wonder Snape said what he said! It all makes sense!"
Lily patted his back sympathetically, "Come on, let's keep reading. 'James Andrew Potter was born November 19, 1964'…" she skipped down a few paragraphs to the more recent dates "…'In 1984 he married…." Lily stopped mid-sentence, staring at the book as if it had been contaminated with a deadly disease. She looked up at James who was smiling at the book as if he wanted to pick it up and kiss it. "Oh dear Godric, there's no way…is this a joke? You charmed this book to say this, didn't you?" Lily demanded, looking up and staring into James' deep hazel eyes; she had always been taught that you could see any lie through a person's eyes.
James shook his head, grinning widely, his excitement about to explode from out of his body. To her horror, James' eyes lacked the symptoms of lying.
"There simply has to be another Lily Evans then," Lily said frantically.
James laughed. "Good luck finding another Lily Marie Evans who graduated from Hogwarts the same year I did," James said, holding the book underneath Lily's face so she could read it. It took all his strength to contain himself from jumping around the library and screaming victoriously at the top of his lungs.
Lily's cheeks turned bright pink as she stood up from the table and half walked, half ran to the front of the library. His happiness deflated momentarily. "Wait, Lily! Where are you going?"
"This is ridiculous! This must be a dream, a horrible, horrible dream that I haven't woken up from yet. I'm out of here!"
"What is so wrong about being married to me?" James retorted.
Lily whipped around and stared at him. "There are so many things wrong with it that I don't even have time to list them all."
And with that Lily wrenched open the doors and slammed them shut, leaving James behind.
Dejectedly, James turned back to the open book on the table and closed it. Maybe it would be better if he finished reading the rest of it on his own…and besides the library was slightly intimidating in the dark. Picking up the book, James made his way out of the library and headed back to the Gryffindor Common room.
James concluded that women were officially from a different species. First, you had one comforting you after finding out you died before your twenty-second birthday, and then they ran out on you after finding out that they married you in the future. What was with Lily? Did it really kill her that much at the thought of marrying him?
His sudden rush of euphoria came streaming back into him as he thought about the prospect of marrying Lily Evans. The future certainly looked good; he was a famous Auror and he had married Lily! After years and years of pining after her and begging for her attention, he had somehow finally won her over. What he would give to see the look on his fellow Marauders' faces now. Yep, his future certainly was going to be great except for the one minor drawback that he had died…
Hermione sat at a table by the fire, her face obscured by the many books that surrounded her. She sighed as she dipped her quill into her ink, preparing to finish her essay for Flitwick. Hermione was determined to make her essay extra good; that new girl Lisa had outshone her today in Charms. If it was one thing Hermione took pride in it was her brains, and she couldn't stand being second best in one of her best subjects.
Harry and Ron had long ago left for bed, leaving Hermione to suffer through her homework by herself. She jumped in surprise and nearly fell out of her chair when someone threw down a book onto her table, scattering her open textbooks everywhere.
As she struggled to reorganize her papers, she heard a deep voice mutter, "Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."
Hermione looked up and came face to face with the new guy, Jacob Gates. "It's alright," Hermione said, as she picked up her fallen things. "What were you doing out after hours?"
Jacob looked down at the book he had thrown onto the table, "I was at the library."
"Just for future warning, I am a Prefect."
"Right. Uh, sorry?" Jacob said, undoubtedly getting the impression that this girl was someone that wouldn't let anyone stray from the rules under her watch.
Hermione nodded as she squinted to see the title of the book, Famous Aurors Through the Ages. "You want to be an Auror?" she asked politely.
"Oh, yeah. You could say it's a family tradition," he answered, smiling.
"My friend Harry wants to be an Auror too," she said. Hermione watched for his reaction at hearing Harry's name and she wasn't disappointed. Jacob's eyes immediately brightened and he leaned forward. There was definitely something fishy about this new guy.
"May I look at that book? I'm quite interested in being an Auror myself," Hermione asked, as she reached out and took the book.
"So, you're pretty good friends with Harry then?" she heard Jacob ask her as she flipped to the page in the book that had been marked down. So, Jacob Gates had been researching the Potter family…she wondered how much she should tell him.
"I've known him since first year. Listen," Hermione handed the book back to Jacob and stared at him intently, decided to just be direct. "Harry has enough to deal with right now so try not to follow him around."
Hermione stood up and began gathering her stuff into her school bag. "Stalking people isn't one of my hobbies," Jacob informed her.
Hermione stuffed her last book into her already crammed up bag and turned to face him. "Good. Then I suppose you won't mind if I take this book back to the library tomorrow morning. I have to go there anyways, so I'll take it for you."
Jacob grabbed onto the book as Hermione reached out to take it. "No! I mean, no, I can take it there myself, thank you very much."
Hermione eyed him for a moment. There was something more to this guy, something that he seemed to be hiding. She would find out soon enough. "Okay, goodnight then."
Chapter 5: Naughty, naughty Severus...
Talk to you in the next update! Thanks for reading!
--HeyLookTheSnitch