Chapter 14: My Worst Mistake

But if my silence made you leave
Then that would be my worst mistake

- And So it Goes by Billy Joel

James pushed the doors open to the Great Hall and set off toward the Gryffindor table, searching the crowd for his friends. He walked down the path, scanning the table, and found that there was no sign of any of them. He walked up the path, scanning the table once more – still no sign. He stood for a while over by the entrance and looked through the other tables briefly, but there were no signs of his fellow Marauders.

They hadn't finished eating yet, had they? Considering the enormous portions they all ate, they never finished in fifteen minutes, or however long he had been away.

He glanced at the big clock on the wall. Okay, sixty-one minutes.

Sixty-one minutes, seriously? Wow, time flies.

He supposed it was possible, then, that they had finished eating. Now he was faced with two choices – eat lunch by himself or go looking for his friends.

He wasn't really in the mood for eating, as the encounter with Lily had pretty much drained him. Yet, he was a man. If it was anything he never lost, it was his appetite.

"Oi, Prongs!" a familiar voice called from behind before James had headed off towards the table again. "I'm starving," Sirius said and pounded him on the back, "let's eat!"

"I thought you had finished already?" James questioned as the four of them made their way towards the table.

"Had some business to take care of," Peter muttered.

"Had an essay to write," Remus said at the same time.

"One's never too full for lasagna!" Sirius exclaimed happily at the exact same time.

The three boys glared at each other.

"Nice try," James sniggered. "Just for the record – the next time you're gonna lie, at least try to coordinate your stories?"

"So," said Remus tentatively as they sat down, "essay finished alright?"

"Guys!" James exclaimed. "Puh-lease. I know you set me up on that encounter with Lily. And I reckon, since none of you have eaten yet, that you spent the past hour spying at us?"

"Prongs, mate," Sirus said, "we only –"

"Yeah, whatever," James cut him off. "Doesn't matter really."

"You're not mad?" Peter asked astonished.

"What's the point," James said. "I know you only did it because you love me," he added in a funny voice.

"So," Sirius said slowly, "how did it go? We only saw you two heading off together and nothing seemed to have happened, so…"

"Well actually it is none of your business! But, just for the record. She confessed that she was in love with me and I turned her down."

"You kidding?"

"No, seriously."

"Why?"

James shrugged. "She's not gonna think she can behave however she wants," he said. "I've been trying to get her to go out with me for years, and now when she wants me and I'm not sure I want to be with her any more, she's being such a drama queen."

"So," Remus said thoughtfully, "you didn't turn her down because you weren't interested, but because you wanted to teach her a lesson."

James thought for a while. "Yeah, I guess," he said and nodded.

Remus stepped up and smacked his friend on the side of the head. "You idiot!"

"Ouch! Moony! What's that for?"

"Moony's right," Sirius said, stepped up and smacked James on the other side of the head. "You really are an idiot, James."

"Idiot!" Peter agreed stupidly, took a step towards James and tried to smack him too, but his arm was so short he ended up just moving it in a circle and smacking himself on the side of the head instead.

"What is wrong with you people?!" James called out. "Stop hitting me!"

"You turned the love of your life down when she finally got interested, only to teach her a lesson!" Sirius bellowed. "You idiot!"

"What's your problem?" James shouted back. "She's only some random girl I fancied once, she's not necessarily the love of my life."

At that moment, the boys' argument was interrupted by a knock on the window. Remus headed over to let in the gray-ish owl, which flew over to James who surprisedly detached the little envelope before the owl hooted and flew off again.

"What is it?" Sirius asked curiously.

"No idea," James said and unfolded it.

James,

Now I get it.

It was the chase, wasn't it? It's always the chase. Always. You coward. It was just a game for you, wasn't it? A bet?

I take back whatever I might have accidentally yelled. I don't know what came over me, I must have been possessed.

Lily

Why did she write it? It was only childish and immature and showed that she cared about him. She was supposed to show him that she didn't care, wasn't she?

Oh crap. Why did she have to write that letter? It was just pointless.

But, oh well, it was all finished and sent now, so she couldn't really do anything about it, could she?

Lily looked around in her empty dorm. Never had she felt so lonely, betrayed, and abandoned. She had almost literally thrown Aurora and Elisabeth out after having lashed out at them and yelled both accusations and obscenities that weren't Lily-ish at all.

She figured that she had the right to be angry. They had sworn not to tell anyone, yet they had gone and told Black and them and they had set that encounter up, which had lead to the most embarrassing conversation in her life.

She was neither going to ever speak to any of them again, nor was she going to ever leave her dorm.

Maybe she could transfer to Beauxbatons – that was a very appealing idea indeed. Perhaps she ought to go and have a word with Dumbledore in the morning.

Aurora and Elisabeth had the common sense to stay away for a while, but the two girls who weren't involved in this mess came in after dinner, at about half past eight. They nodded curtly at Lily before returning to their conversation. Lily snapped the hangings around her body shut and tried to lose herself in her latest potions essay. She heard Aurora and Elisabeth coming in at about eleven o'clock, but made no sound or movement as to acknowledge them. They might as well think she was asleep.

At midnight, Lily put her finished potions essay aside. She really needed to go to the bathroom, and she was indeed starving, but she wasn't sure if Aurora and Elisabeth were asleep, although she couldn't hear them talking.

At half past midnight, she was almost exploding. She really, really really needed to go to the bathroom now. And to make matters worse, she smelled food. Maybe she was hallucinating. She sniffed. No, that was definitely chicken.

She could kill for some of that chicken, wherever it came from.

Not having heard a sound form any of her dorm mates in the past hour, she decided to take the risk and go to the bathroom before going hunting for the chicken.

Two minutes later, she stepped out onto the stairs and felt the smell of the chicken grow stronger. She was definitely in the same room as the chicken.

She looked over the banister down into the dimly lit common room. See, there was the chicken.

And there was Potter.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" she cried out, startling James who jumped up from the couch where he was seated.

"Lily?" he asked uncertainly.

"Oh, Lord," she muttered while glancing upwards, "why are you doing this to me?"

Author's Note: Oho, cliffie. :P

I really, really, really wanted to finish this story before the summer holidays were over. But, sadly, I this Monday had to return to the prison. School. Today I'm returning to work and I'm returning to pretty much everything at the moment. Swish, there goes the time I would want to dedicate to finishing this story.

But, there's only one chapter plus an epilogue left. I had planned on this being the last chapter but I got carried away and this got a whole lot longer than planned. Thus – next chapter will (probably) be the last one. And then there'll be an epilogue to tie the knot.

Right, the point. I had a point with this A/N rambling. My point was that since there's so little left, I will be finishing the story if it's so the last thing I do. Though it might take some time.

And it might help if you drop me a review.

Cheers!