Disclaimer: I do not own HP or the potterverse. Sorry about that.
Lily let the door close behind her and took off running, wanting nothing more than to collapse into her soft bed. As she climbed the steps, however, she took a right as opposed to the left that would take her to the common room. Instead, she headed toward the Gryffindor common room. Her old bed, with the familiar dip in the middle, surrounded by her friends, sounded more inviting than the lonely room she slept in now.
She arrived, forcing the tears running down her face to stop. The fat lady stood in her frame, reading a book.
"Password?" The fat lady asked, looking up.
"Mandrake butterbeer." Lily muttered, staring at her shoes. She waited for the portrait to open, but the door remained shut.
The fat lady cocked an eyebrow. "Password?" She asked again.
"Mandrake butterbeer!" Lily said again, louder.
The fat lady shook her head. "Sorry, that's not right, dear." She returned to her novel.
Lily mentally slapped herself. She hadn't bothered to learn the password for the Gryffindor common room. Had she wanted to get in, she simply would have asked Aira or Charlotte or Ellie to open the door for her.
"Please open the door. I really need to get inside." Lily asked politely.
"No password, no entry." The older woman stated, turning a page. "Sorry love."
"Look, I know I don't know the password, but… you must remember me! I lived in this dorm for six years!" Lily moaned, staring at the woman in the pink dress. "Please let me inside."
The fat lady stared at her. "You could be someone under the influence of polyjuice potion."
"It is not someone under the influence of polyjuice potion, it's me! Lily Evans! I'm a seventh year. I'm head girl now, and I get my own dorm and no longer live here. Here's my badge." Lily pulled her badge out of her pocket. She kept it with her for luck, but with the recent events, Lily was beginning to wonder if maybe it was not working properly.
The fat lady peered at it for a few moments, then back at Lily.
"Sorry." She said finally.
Lily felt the tears start up again. "I've had an awful day, and I know, for a fact, that up in the girl's seventh year dormitory is an empty bed that no one is sleeping in because I am not there. I would go back to my own dorm, but I've had a fight with the head boy and I would prefer if I didn't have to see him, and I guarantee that he'll be snogging his stupid girlfriend in the stupid common room! I would go to the library, but I'd rather not cry in plain sight of everyone in the bloody school, so please, open this door!" She was openly shouting at the woman, but Lily was mad. She no longer cared.
"Calm down, Lily. I'll let you in, it's not that big a deal. And you could have asked Aira for the password, you know."
Lily whirled around to find Sirius standing behind her.
"Sirius!" She felt herself blushing. "How long have you been there?"
"Long enough, let me tell you. Quite an outburst you had." He said, sliding past her. "Now, tripudio insigne." He told the fat lady.
With a nod, she swung forward and let them in.
Standing in the familiar setting, Lily felt lighter. She looked at the large armchairs, which she had studied in for dozens of hours at a time, the fire that never stopped burning, and the staircase she had climbed countless times.
She started toward the steps, but Sirius held her back.
"Lily, I need to talk to you." He gently pushed her into an armchair and took the seat opposite.
"Sirius, what's going on?" The tears were again at bay, but Lily wanted nothing more than to run upstairs, drop onto her old bed and let them flow.
"I can take it from your little speech back there that you've seen James and Elizabeth?" Lily nodded. Her heart sank at the memory of them together and the tears crept closer to running over her cheeks.
Sirius sighed and placed his feet onto the coffee table. "I need to tell you something. A story."
"Please don't hate him. James… he's a big softie, behind all that quidditch talk and randomly hexing people, which you hated so much." Sirius began. "And he's been pining for you for, like, six years, Lily! I honestly didn't get it. He decided he liked you, and then he stopped paying attention to other girls. I know he hadn't done much more than constantly ask you out and perform what he considered 'romantic gestures.'"
Lily couldn't help but laugh at the memories. "Those not romantic."
Sirius smiled. "We're not stupid, Lily. Moony, Wormtail and I all knew that."
"Why'd you let him go through with them, then?"
"Because it was fun! James would go on and on how this plan would make you love them or that line would be the one to snag you. They were mostly stupid and rather stalker-like, but we had fun putting them together and executing everything."
Lily stared at him in disbelief. "You honestly mean to tell me that everything James has done in the past six years weren't just to annoy me?"
Sirius barked in laughter. "James Potter thought –and probably still does- that those were great ways to express his love for you."
Lily stared at her hands. "He's not very good at this, is he?"
"He thinks he smooth, but we both know that I'm the one with the real lady skills." He grinned, and she scowled at him. "Anyway, flash forward to this past summer and all Prongsie can talk about is how this is going to his year, and how you'll finally get together. One month Moony came and stayed with us, and Prongs was coming up with all these awful plans to get you to love him. Moony and I are trying to get him to lay off, and Moony informed him that you can't a resist a challenge. He was going at that maybe Prongs should not do anything and let you come to him, but, like always, James misinterpreted it to mean 'challenge Lily to something.' He spent the rest of the summer trying to figure something he could challenge you to."
"And he came with the bet, then?" Lily asked.
"Actually, no. He was going to challenge you to a duel, and thank God, he didn't bring it up on the train ride here. Then you are patrolling with him and Prongs gets a better –and probably less dangerous- idea." Sirius shook his head as if he couldn't believe James's actions. "He somehow makes works a bet with you! He told us later that, in a of stroke brilliance, he knew the best way to get you to like was through doing things together. In fact, it was almost dating, without the official part."
"It goes on and on, with the prank and broom ride and Christmas and everything. Then you agree to date him. James was practically over the moon ecstatic, even though he didn't really show it. However, that is just James for you. He must always keep his cool. You and him date for a while, and he was happier than I had ever seen him. Then, out of the blue, you break up with him. I know you don't know this, but it broke his heart. I'd never seen James cry, really cry, before last night." Sirius voice trailed off.
Lily felt the tears begin to cover her cheeks. "He spoke poorly of my sister." She defended herself.
"So? James makes one mistake in almost six years, and dump him?" Sirius stared at her. "He was hurt. He'd spent so much time chasing you, and drop him like month-old pudding because he isn't perfect. He went patrolling that night, but I know that he was really hoping to find you and fix things. He found Elizabeth instead, and she was more than happy to help ease his pain."
"Lily, I'm going to ask you to just leave well enough alone. It is clear, that even the rest of us do not like Elizabeth, James is fine to settle for her. He spent six years trying to get you to fall in love with him, and then you shut him down. He waited a long time, but you couldn't have expected him to wait forever. " Sirius stared up at her. "I want James to be happy, and if Elizabeth will make him happy, then so be it."
Lily wiped her face, hating that thinking about James with another girl made her cry. She finally spoke.
"Sirius, I can't do that. Maybe three months ago, or three weeks ago, I would have, but not now. If I need to spend the next six years doing what James did, then I will. I'm not ready to just give up." She stared hard at him.
Sirius's face lit up and he smiled widely.
"I'm so pleased to hear you say that because I really can't stand Elizabeth. She's very stupid." His eyes suddenly took a mischievous glint. "In fact, I think I can help you with getting rid of her."
She cocked an eyebrow at him, smiling through her tears.
"I want to formally state that I am very against this. However, I'm past trying to follow the rules. So, what's the plan, Black?"
Sirius laughed and began to explain. Lily spent the rest of lunch sitting in the Gryffindor common room, listening and working with Sirius, liking what she heard more every minute.
She spent the rest of the day avoiding James and Elizabeth, whom had seemingly become attached at the hip. However, when she did see them, she no longer felt the urge to burst into tears. Because if things went as planned, they would not remain like that for long.
That's where I'm going to stop it! I'm really liking the idea I have for this. I'm thinking I can bring this another 4 chapter, maybe.
To be perfectly honest, I wrote this chapter because I wanted to post a chapter before 2011 so I could say:
This will be last chapter before next year, so happy new year! Any good resolutions? Mine is to not go to the hospital, because I do that a lot. (I break a lot of bones. For Christmas, my friend gave me a t-shirt that has a glow in the dark skeleton on it and fabric markers. That way, I can keep track of what bones I break by drawing in the crack. Wasn't that sweet of her?)
If yours is to go on a diet, yeah… that is not going work. Sorry.
I like writing with Sirius, cause he's my fave!
Reviews are wonderful! You are all amazing. Thank you so, so much! If I was Oprah Winfrey, you'd all get cars!