The Forgotten Tale of Lily and James

Disclaimer: Anything familiar is not mine.

Ch6 – Cool Your Jets

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Sirius walked down the hallway, his Potions textbook in his hand. He needed help with his homework, or Lily to do it for him. Whichever. He better find her soon, he was missing lunch for this. Mondays suck. He passed Peter and yelled, "Yo, Wormtail! Seen Evans?"

Peter turned around and was walking backwards, slowly. "Er, no, but try the library. She wasn't at lunch, Prongs was bitching."

"Thanks, Pete." Sirius gave him a soldier's salute and they both turned to walk to their destinations.

He turned into the hallway just outside the library entrance when he remembered the minor fact that he'd been banned from the library until after Halloween. Madam Pince was quite testy when she saw him and Jamsey writing in a book. Should he risk it? Hmm, he supposed so. He was just about to walk in when a shy looking second year walked out. She stopped right in front of Sirius and stared at him. What was she doing? "Er, hello. I was wondering if you would do me a favor?"

The little girl now had a look of nervousness on her face, Sirius assumed she probably knew who he was. And that he and his friends would pull pranks on unsuspecting people. At this, Sirius said, "Oh no, it's nothing terrible. Do you know who Lily Evans is? The Head Girl?"

She nodded. He continued, "Can you check if she's in the library?"

She nodded, turned around, and scurried into the library. She was out in the hallway again in a matter of seconds. She nodded again. "She's in there?" Sirius asked her. Another nod. "Can you tell her to come out here please?"

She disappeared very quickly. It took her longer to exit the library so Sirius gathered that Lily was causing the delay. He paced around the hallway a few times before the both came out together. "Oh, Sirius. Sending poor second years to do your business?" Lily looked at the girl, who was now looking at Lily as if expecting something. Lily said to her, "Thank you, Lara. You can go now."

She took off like a rocket. "Nah, I got kicked out of the library. Not allowed in. You know, following the rules." He raised his eyebrows at her. She gave him a look. "What do you need?"

"Help?" Sirius brandished his textbook. She gave him a disappointed look, but her face lit up when Sirius gave her his puppy face.

"Oh, alright. Walk me to lunch."

They started off towards the Great Hall. Sirius simply glowed. He wasn't going to get detention today! Take that Sluggy! "Thanks, Big Red."

"Sirius, I highly advise that you don't call me 'Big Red'. I might get offended and think that you were calling me fat."

"Ha! And get pummeled by you and your Jamsey? I think not." Sirius gave her a friendly smile that she did not return. "Okay, Red. Cool your jets. Let's go to lunch."

"With you around, Sirius, at least I know not to expect a banal day." She smiled at Sirius' confusion and lack of extensive vocabulary.

They walked together, idly chattering about anything. When they reached the Great Hall, some people looked surprised. They couldn't remember a time where Lily Evans and Sirius Black had ever been seen together without their friends. And they seemed to be genuinely content with being in each others' presence. Even James was partly surprised. They walked over to where James and Chanel sat, who seemed to be getting along as well. Sirius broke out his textbook and began to write what Lily was dictating. Everything seemed to be going smoothly until they heard Chanel make a strangled sort of sigh. Lily looked towards the door and saw that hideous monster. She walked over to them and said in a very snotty tone, "Where is he?"

"Er, Mackenzie, who are you talking to?" Lily said hesitantly. Mackenzie looked positively ready to murder.

"Any of you. Where's my boyfriend?" She snapped. She looked at Chanel reproachfully and wrinkled her nose.

"I asked him to do me a favor. He's probably in the Prefect's room. But you can't—" She left before James could even finish his sentence. "Go in there." He scowled at her from behind her back.

Sirius asked James, "What could you have possibly wanted Remus to do for you during lunch. You know he needs energy, jeez, the poor bloke's always wiped out from tr—"

James interrupted, very quickly. Sirius had always had a bit of a problem with knowing when to shut up. "I asked him to sort this months reprimand forms." Sirius looked at him blankly. "You know, into the students' personal records." Another blank look. "You know, that folder of yours that takes up its own filing cabinet?" Sirius snickered at this comment.

"James! Why would you ask him to do that? It'll take him forever, that's a two person job!" Lily was about to start scolding again when it dawned on her. James didn't want to get out of the work he could be doing with Lily. He had an ulterior motive. James was a clever boy. Very clever. "Wow, I'm impressed. That's genius."

James looked quite pleased with himself. Lily swore his cheeks were tinted pink, but it vanished as soon as it came.

"What're you talking about?" Sirius interrupted. "Hm? Hm!"

"Er, I made Remus go through the forms so that he would find Mackenzie's reprimand form." James looked at Chanel, who was looking embarrassed yet thoroughly grateful. "You know, I didn't believe it until I saw it either. Not that I doubted Amanda, very nice girl, but Mackenzie just seems so innocent. I never expected it."

Sirius and Lily nodded in agreement. Chanel touched her hair. "My hair does look lovely though."

"Yes, Chanel. You look gorgeous as a solid blonde." Lily smiled at her. Sirius wiggled his eyebrows at her. James winked at her. Chanel rolled her eyes.

"C'mon Red! Help me with my work!" Sirius whined. Lily detested when he called her Big Red, or Red now.

"Why do you always put shit off until the last minute?"

Sirius leaned over to James. "Reds feisty!" He wiggled his eyebrows again. "Me like-y!" Chanel snorted into her juice. James spit his juice all over the table.

"Sirius!" Two voices yelled at him at once while Chanel snickered. Lily and James. James and Lily. How perfect.

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Lily had avoided talking to James on Sunday. And on Monday morning. And on Monday during lunch. After classes, it had been hard to shake him off her tail. He had been trying to aimlessly and inconspicuously follow her. But she took a detour into the library. She had been listening when Sirius said that he was banned. She took a leap of faith and assumed that James was suspended too. Apparently she was correct because she didn't see him enter the library after her. She worked on her homework through dinner but soon got extremely bored. Yes, shock; Lily Evans got bored doing her homework.

She packed up her things and left. James wasn't outside so Lily sighed of relief and was walking back to her dormitory. She was hoping that James was out gallivanting with his friends. She didn't want to talk to him. She had issues with fighting, the Slytherin thing didn't really bother her that much. She and Severus were no longer friends. She didn't care that much. She was just sensitive to the Dark times issue. It was as obvious as a punch in the face that most Slytherins were involved too. She didn't like her friends mixing or making enemies with that type. She supposed that James was definitely her friend then. Oh Lily! You let him get the best of you. Lily thought. Well, it's not as terrible as I imagined.

Lily didn't want to admit it, even to herself that she didn't love arguing with him. Or that she sometimes hoped that he would sit with her during classes instead of Sirius. Or that she sometimes looked at him while she was supposed to be doing classwork, if he looked back at her and winked, she turned as red as her hair. She didn't realize it. But when would she? She knew she was having a wonderful dream about them. She just pushed it to the back of her mind. She didn't want to admit that maybe, just maybe, that after all those years, she was wrong. Lily Evans loathed being wrong.

She approached the portrait. She said the password and entered. James was lying on the couch, his eyes were closed. Oh, good, sleeping. There was a gigantic sandwich messily wrapped in a napkin on the coffee table next to him. Lily must've stood there staring at it for about three minutes. She was famished. She skipped dinner to avoid the black-haired, wrinkled, boy sleeping in front of her. And now here he was, glasses askew, with food. She crept closer to him, his eyes still closed. She leaned over and she could smell it. It smelled like a fresh deli sandwich, newly baked bread, and it smelled like roast beef. She absolutely loved—

"You don't have to sneak. It's for you."

James' voice scared her to death. She looked at him, his eyes were still closed.

"James! How did you know- that I was-" Lily stood up straight. He opened his eyes, yawned, and then stretched his arms. He must've done that on purpose, Lily saw him watching her look at his skinny, but decently muscular, build. "It's for me?"

"Yes. You like—" Lily's hungry eyes made him smile.

"Oh, yes." She greedily snatched the sandwich and started to devour the sandwich. James sat up on the couch and swung his legs over to make room for Lily. She sat, but didn't look at him until she had gulped a quarter of the sandwich in one bite. James raised his eyebrows, and when he suggested that she ate like a ravenous boy, well Sirius, she smiled sheepishly.

"We were supposed to talk." James said.

Lily nodded. "Look, can we just forget about the whole fight? It was stupid. I was tired and you were angry."

"Just pretend it never happened?" She nodded again. "I suppose. Do you think that it's a good idea?"

"Yes, just this once. It was a tiny row." She pressed her index and thumb finger together to prove her point. "Tiny."

James was silently relieved. He didn't want to fight with her again. "Alright, Lily. You win."

She smiled as she licked her fingers. "Where did you get that sandwich?"

He smiled. "It's a secret."

"Well, how did you know I was coming back here?"

"Secret." He smiled again.

"Why weren't you here last week. For patrol."

"Secret." He was still smiling.

"That was a full moon night." James' smile faded, he swore that time and everything slowed down. "I suppose."

Lily took another one of those leaps of faith. She was doing that much more often these days. "James, are you a werewolf too?"

James tried to breathe, but the shocked gasp turned it into a cough. While he was coughing for air, Lily stared at him wide eyed. "What?! No! Who told you that?"

"No one! I just assumed, you're always gone during full moon nights." James was shocked, but wasn't at the same time. He was surprised that she hadn't asked about Remus, but he was always missing while he was so he supposed it was easy to confuse. He wasn't surprised that she had been tracking his disappearances.

"Okay." She seemed satisfied. She pulled out her novel she had been reading the other night. James thought that he was safe and in the clear, until—

"Wait, what do you mean by 'are you a werewolf too '?"

Lily gave him a perplexed look. "Remus is one, isn't he?"

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Chanel couldn't resist the temptation anymore. Everyone else was asleep. She was sitting on the floor in front of her trunk again. She held her breath and touched the clasp. She knew she shouldn't. She shouldn't, oh, she shouldn't. But she didn't care right now. She knew the feeling would be gone soon enough.

She undid the clasp and rummaged through the trunk until she found what she was looking for. It was in the brown paper bag she had put it in, those months ago. She took it into the bathroom with her. She closed the door behind her. She locked it too.

She glanced around nervously. And then she opened the bag. She pulled out the bottle and unscrewed the cap. She looked at the rim of the bottle before she brought it up to her mouth. She sniffed the bottle before drinking. She took a large swallow. The liquid was cold and harsh. It slid down her throat, burning and soothing her.

She knew she shouldn't be doing this. She got in so much trouble the first few times. This was just one mistake she wouldn't learn from. She would just repeat it, over and over. No one knew she still did. It was only sometimes, after all. Only when she really couldn't take it.

Lily had caught her in their third year. That was how they became friends, oddly enough. With her help, Chanel wanted to stop. But she couldn't. Her willpower wasn't strong enough for this. Soon enough she was staring into an empty bottle. The contents of the bottle was floating somewhere in her digestive system. The alcohol was running through her veins. She felt euphoric. She was relaxed. She was happy again. All thanks to her liquid friend.

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Remus stared at the fragment of parchment in front of him. He couldn't believe it. Chanel told him the truth and he didn't trust her. It was because he had been so jealous of her affection for a complete arse that he didn't realize what was going on right next to him. At first he was pissed that James tried to pawn this off on him. Now he understood why he did it. On the piece of paper, was blatantly obvious proof. Offense: Rudely and viciously spreading and conspiring to spread false rumors about someone (The victim of these events was Chanel Williams; Please note that said falsifications were spread, even after a warning, and the pair has received detention.)

Mackenzie had told him that she got a detention for loitering outside after curfew. She tried to make him get her out of it. He said he would. Things improved, but not until after they've been run to shambles. Is that what life was supposed to be like?

sorry it took like a mega-long time for me to update. it's schools fault.