Hello all, remember me? I'm still hard at the exams but I've haven't updated in ages so I thought I'd take a break to write a new chapter. Bet you can't even remember what this story is about!
Anyway would just like to say I have now seen the new movie twice and it is amazing! Also I got the KOOLEST Harry Potter doll, where it blows air out of his hand so you can levitate balls on it and such. It's so kool. I also got a Quidditch one where you can manoeuvre him into different positions on his broom and all. And yes before anyone asks I AM SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD! hangs head in shame
Anyway on with the story, quick recap is that Lily just turned James down when he asked her to the ball.
Chapter 18 : My New Best Friend
"YOU DID WHAT?!" Caitlin screamed as she found Lily sitting in the main common room about 40 minutes later. She was working with Alice on a Defence Against the Dark Arts homework.
"Caitlin don't shout," Alice scolding, whilst putting a comforting arm round Lily. In truth Lily was glad she was shouting. She was sick of being mollycoddled and fussed over by the girls, ever since she had told them about her mother. She was glad of the break from the hushed voices they had adopted now when speaking to her. She was almost convinced that they had heard her wrong, and thought that she was the one that was dying.
"BUT JAMES JUST ASKED HER TO THE BALL AND SHE SAID NO!!" Caitlin roared again. Lily had never been so happy to see her friend in a temper with her. She felt Alice grip her more tightly, as if reassuring her that she wouldn't let Caitlin hurt her.
"Alice it's alright," she said, trying to loosen herself from her grip. "Look I said no to him, because I'm not going to be here over Christmas. I'm going home to see my mum remember?"
Alice gave Caitlin a scathing look, whilst Caitlin looked extremely ashamed of herself. She sat down on the other side of Lily and put her arm round her as well.
"Lily I'm sorry," she said, returning to her voice, which Lily assumed would be the one she would use when talking to someone on their deathbed. Lily noticed that she bit her lip as they all sat in silence for a moment.
Lily jumped up, unable to take the funeral mood any longer. She turned and stood directly opposite the other two, who looked dumbstruck, on the sofa.
"Look don't do that," she said loudly. "Don't go back to using those voices!"
"What voices?" Alice asked her, looking totally bewildered.
"These voices," Lily replied, sounding like an extremely old witch. "Caitlin don't just say you're sorry when you're not! I know you're still pissed off at me!"
"I'm not..." Caitlin began.
"You just bit your lip!" Lily screamed. "You always bite your lip when you're annoyed!" She was getting so high pitched now she was afraid only dogs could hear her. She tried to calm herself down again. "Look, if you have something to say just say it."
"Fine," Caitlin shouted, getting to her feet as well, the two girls were now rounded on each other. "When you told him no you could have at least told him why! Now he's thinking that you're just some kind of Ice Queen! How am I meant to sort this one out?!" As she finished she collapsed back on to the sofa, with her face in her hand, apparently exasperated.
"You don't have to do anything!" Lily spat, incensed that Caitlin thought it was her sole responsibility to get Lily with James. "And I didn't tell him why because he left so quickly after he asked me there wasn't time! Caitlin, I'll sort it out myself ok? I'll explain it to him." Caitlin gave her a sceptical look and then covered her face again.
"Look it's alright, I realise he probably wasn't going to hang around for an explanation. It's just – ," she gave a long sigh. "– Sirius and him are having the biggest fight in the Great Hall at the moment, and I just know that I'm going bear the brunt of it tonight."
"Why are Sirius and James fighting because I said no to James?" Lily said icily. Caitlin still had her hand over her face and failed to notice Lily's now murderous look.
"Ugh, because James thinks that Sirius was playing a joke on him, when he told him to ask you to the ball!"
"Why would Sirius tell James to ask me to the ball?" Lily asked icily again. This time Caitlin realised that she had been caught out.
"Uh... Well... Maybe," she spluttered, now looking directly at Lily.
"YOU TOLD SIRIUS!" Lily screamed. Alice gave a gulp.
"Well yes," Caitlin squirmed under Lily's gaze. "But in my defence I did tell him not to tell James!"
"BUT HE DID!" Lily pointed out.
"Yes and I'm just as upset about that as you are," Caitlin slowly, trying to keep the situation calm.
"BUT THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" Lily pointed out again.
"LOOK!" Caitlin roared at her, standing up again. "I don't see what the big problem is anyway! You like James, and James likes you, Sirius was only trying to hurry things up a bit!"
"But now James knows I like him!" Lily said, sounding exasperated.
"SO?!" Caitlin responded. "What the hell does that matter? In fact it's good, now you can just start going out together!"
"Oh no, I'm not going out with him now, not now he's knows I like him!" Lily said crossing her arms.
Caitlin took a deep breath.
"What?" she asked calmly.
"Well I can't go out with him now. I mean every time I see him I know he's going to be sitting thinking 'ooo you like me', and every time he tries to talk to me it's just going to be awkward. So if it's awkward every time we talk then obviously he's not going to ask me out again, right?" She looked for some reassurance from Alice, who gave a timid half nod. "It would be all right if we were already going out and he knew I liked him, but he knows now and we're not even going out! It just embarrassing! Don't you see you've ruined it?! You've messed it all up!"
Caitlin blinked.
"Lily," she said sharply. "Wise up!"
With that she stormed out of the portrait hole, and out of sight. Lily watched her go and then turned back to Alice, who was still sitting on the sofa, apparently not sure what to say next.
"Can you believe that?!" Lily prompted her.
"No way!" Alice agreed. "I mean Frank promised me he would never tell James, and I know he wouldn't!"
"You told Frank?" Lily asked. Alice gave another timid nod, realising her mistake. "Oh for Merlin's sake!" Lily cried out, as she stormed back up to her room. She made a mental note never to tell her coupled up friends secrets again.
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Lily spent the next four days in her room at all times, only coming out for classes and meals. She had taken out a vendetta against all of her coupled up friends, firstly because she had decided that absolutely none of them could be trusted, and secondly because they were coupled up and she wasn't! Just who did they think they were? The smug bastards.
That only left Avril, and even though Lily did class Avril as one of her close friends she wasn't enthused about the idea of her becoming her new best friend, so she had avoided her at all costs as well.
Another good reason for keeping holed up in her room was James. She wasn't keen to find out whether her theory about them now being more awkward around each other than before, was true. She waited until she heard him leave the common room in the morning, before she came out of her room, and got into her room before he arrived back at night. So far she had avoided any confrontations, only seeing him in class, which wasn't that bad seeing that there were roughly another 17 people there to place between him and herself.
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On Monday Lily arrived down into the Great Hall for breakfast, and found that the only Gryffindor 7th year there was Peter Pettigrew. For the first time in her Hogwarts career Lily decided to talk to him. Since she had discarded all of her other friends because they were untrustworthy, loved- up pigs, or in Avril's case, a bit annoying, she decided that now was a good time to make new friends.
"Hello," she said cheerfully as she sat down opposite him, and helped herself to some toast. Peter almost choked on his porridge in surprise.
"Hello," he spluttered back at her, his eyes darting from side to side, looking for any chance of an escape. Lily was a bit disappointed to find that the conversation had died already.
"Where are the rest of them today then?" she asked after a few awkward moments of silence. It was very rarely you saw Peter without Sirius, James and Remus.
"Finishing a Defence Against the Dark Arts homework," Peter replied nervously, his eyes still darting about.
"They're only finishing it this morning?" Lily said disapprovingly. "Honestly I had that done by last Thursday! It's due in first period." Lily now noticed that Peter was looking at her with the same fear he had when looking at Professor McGonagall. "I see you must have finished yours though," she added with a smile, trying to soften her 'Head Girl' rant.
"Well no, I don't do Defence, I do Herbology instead," Peter said a little apologetically.
"Oh sorry," Lily said quickly. "I forgot." This was a lie, in truth she hadn't forgotten at all, she just hadn't realised that Peter hadn't been in that class with her for over a year. The conversation died again. Peter went back to his porridge.
"Caitlin does Herbology," Lily said, she was determined to keep him talking.
"Yea I know, she's in my class," Peter mumbled through a mouthful of oats.
"I don't," she added lamely. Peter looked up from his bowl, and gave a weak smile, as if to say 'I know that too', and then went back to his breakfast. "I bet it's really interesting." This was another lie, Lily had found Herbology so boring at OWL level that she had once found herself wondering whether gnawing off her own arm would be a more constructive use of her time. This was the reason she had not taken it on to NEWT level even though she wanted to be a healer.
"Emm... well it's alright. Just a bunch of plants and stuff..." Peter trailed off.
"Oh I'm sure there's more to it than that," Lily said, pretending to be interested. Peter then went off on a long speech about different types of plant he had come across at NEWT level. Lily tuned in and out of it, catching occasional snippets such as 'deep shade of purple', and 'ate Professor Sprout's hat', all the time she kept an fascinated look on her face.
It was during this time that she noticed the rest of the Marauders traipse into the Great Hall, Peter, still chatting away, apparently did not. Lily watched as the three of them sat down about halfway down the table from them, and then chatted for a few seconds amongst themselves. It wasn't long however, before Remus tapped James on the shoulder and pointed down to where Lily was sitting with Peter. Lily looked away quickly before James caught her staring at him.
"So it ate Professor Sprout's hat?" she said quickly, eager to look totally involved in this conversation with Peter.
"Yea," he laughed. "And then it –"
"WORMTAIL GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE NOW!" came the booming voice of Sirius Black down the hall.
"And then it?" Lily said to him as if nothing had happened. Peter looked from her to Sirius and then back again, apparently unsure of what he should do.
"WORMTAIL! COME HERE!" Sirius shouted again.
"Look he's talking to me alright?" Lily shouted back down the table to him. "And then it?" she tried again. Peter just looked at her speechless.
"Evans give us our best friend back!" Sirius yelled, but a bit more laughter was coming through in his voice now.
"No! You can't have him, he's my best friend now!" Lily called back, and then to everyone's surprise, including her own, she stuck her tongue out at them. Peter gave a laugh, which was echoed by James, Remus and Sirius up the Hall.
"Evans, you already have a best friend!" James called to her, beaming, apparently he was just glad to see her in a more playful mood than usual.
"Yea well I had to get rid of her, because she couldn't keep my deepest, darkest secrets! Peter here, would always keep my secrets. Wouldn't you Peter?"
"Definitely, of course," Peter laughed again. Remus and Sirius laughed too but James just looked at her, stunned. She could kind of see where he was coming from as well. The last time anything had happened like this, was that time after the Quidditch match, and they had both treated it as a taboo subject. And now here was Lily openly talking the latest happening in front of people, because she was sure that all of the Marauders would know exactly what secret she was talking about. James was stunned by her actions, and in a way she even amazed herself.
She stuck out her tongue at him again, to see if she could confuse him anymore. At this he gave a small laugh, and then turned and said something excitedly to Sirius, who gave a tremendous laugh like a bark, and then shouted back down the table to Lily again.
"HERE EVANS, PRONGS SAYS YOU CAN KEEP HIM! SAYS HE LIKES YOU BETTER WITH WORMTAIL AS YOUR BEST FRIEND!" James gave her a grin as Sirius finished speaking.
"Oh well, if that's the case then you can have him back!" James and Sirius looked at each other confused. "Wouldn't want Potter to like me even more now would we?" Lily explained. Sirius and Remus started to give each other looks that said that she might be treading a little too close to the edge on this one, James shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Lily decided to go for the kill. "I mean, he already asked me to the ball last week!"
Sirius, Remus and Peter immediately jumped up from their seats, pointed at James and screamed "Ahhhhhhhhhh!". Some of the younger Gryffindors that had been sitting between Lily and the Marauders, and who couldn't help but listen to the conversation, began to clap their hands and stamp their feet. James just sat there, open mouthed in shock, but laughing at the same time. The scene was reminiscent of the time the Hall had jeered Sirius out, earlier on in the year, but only this time it was Lily who ran from them.
She wasn't sure if she was going to be able to deal with the consequences of her actions. She thought that the best thing to do at the moment was to get straight to class and bury herself in her books. Which is exactly what she did.
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It was only later on that night that Lily was really able to think about what she had done. She had spent her day by throwing herself into her classes with newfound enthusiasm, and by repairing broken bonds with Alice and Scarlet, who were only two happy to have her talking to them again. Somehow she had managed to successively keep away from James, even though he had been trying his best to catch her eye throughout the whole of Defence Against the Dark Arts.
However, late that night, alone in her room, she found that there were no distractions to make her forget the fact that she had obviously completely flipped it earlier that morning. Why had she decided to shout that out in front of the whole Hall? Why had she found it so easy to joke about it in front of James? Was she trying to show him she was still interested? Sometimes she didn't understand her own mind.
Maybe Caitlin had been right. Maybe it wasn't that bad that James knew he liked her. If she was going to show that she wasn't going to be awkward about it, and that she was happy to make a joke out of it, he should do the same. Only two things could happen now he knew she liked him. He could ask her out, which would be great. Or he could tease her about liking him, at which Lily would just have to smile graciously and ignore him, and then give him the finger when his back was turned.
Tossing about in her bed, with all these thoughts swimming about her head, she rolled over to see what time it was. Four in the morning. There was no point in even trying to get to sleep now, she would have to get up at six to do Head duties anyway. She decided to get up and go to the girls' dormitory to speak to Caitlin. She wouldn't mind Lily waking her up at this hour, Caitlin was a bit of a night-bird anyway, and she especially wouldn't mind if she was waking her up to apologise.
She threw a dressing gown round her, and walked out into the private common and through the lion cub portrait hole. As she descended the spiral staircase she was met by Caitlin's unmistakeable giggle, followed by a lower, male laughter.
'Oh God, I am not walking in on Cait and Sirius again!' Lily thought, remembering the strange scene she had stumbled upon the last time.
"Caitlin!" she called out, to give them a bit of warning.
"Shussshhh!" she heard Caitlin whisper, followed by another small giggle. The male laughter died away.
"Caitlin, it's Lily, I'm coming down the stairs, ok?" she yelled out again. There was no answer. Lily started down the stairs. She was sure that she had heard Caitlin, but what if she was mistaken? What if it was someone else? As she got closer to the common room she heard low, indistinct whispers, interspersed with giggles from both a female and male source.
As she reached the bottom step of the staircase the whole common room came into view. It was completely empty, although the whispering continued.
"Hello?" Lily called nervously. "Is there anyone there?" The whispering stopped immediately. Lily walked closer to the sofa that had its back to her, it was the only place in the room that was out of her vision, and the only place where the two whispering people could be hiding.
As she stepped closer and closer she felt her nerve failing her. She wasn't quite sure was she was going to see on the other side of this sofa.
'Please let this be Cait and Sirius. Please let this be Cait and Sirius,' she found herself chanting over and over in her mind.
"Hello?" she whispered. She gave one more warning before she finally looked over the back of the sofa. Again there was no answer. She counted to three and then looked. There was nobody there.
She stood bewildered for a moment. There was officially no one in the room, but then where were the voices coming from?
"Boo!"
She heard another whisper, and then a rustle of movement. Her eyes were drawn to the now dying fire, but there was no one there. She let her eyes rest there for a moment, thinking of what to do next, her heart thumping in her chest all the while. Inadvertently she found herself focusing on something. Lying a few feet in front of the fireplace was a long lock of curly, blonde hair. She walked over to it, she was sure Caitlin had been here now, but why was a lock of her hair lying on the floor? Had she been hurt? Was she alright?
She bent down to pick up the hair, but as she did so she felt something cold and silvery touch the back of her hand. She lifted up the invisibility cloak to find Caitlin and James looking back at her, both shaking violently with silent laughter.
"Hiya Lils," Caitlin managed before collapsing back into hysterics.
"Evans," James nodded to her, before the giggles took hold of him as well.
It took a moment for the situation to sink into Lily's head. James Potter was lying, with his back flat on the floor in front of her, only a few steps away from a dying fire. Caitlin Kenworthy was lying on top of him, with her head on his chest. His left arm was then round her, with his left hand in her mane of hair, seemingly holding her head in place. And they both thought that it was hilariously funny that Lily had caught them here? Like this?! At four in the morning?!!
"YOU BITCH!" Lily screamed. James and Caitlin's expressions immediately changed. They looked at each other, and then looked back at Lily.
"Look Lily it's not..."
"See Evans, what happened was..."
Lily didn't hear their excuses, she ran straight back up to her room, the tears flooding down her face. There was only one clear thought in her mind, someone was going to have to tell Sirius.
Ok so nobody flame me! The next chapter will be the same events but from James' point of view, and then it might go on a bit further at the end. All will be explained in the next chapter, please keep reading I haven't changed it into something horrible, I promise. There is a explanation for it!
Anyway, for some reason I didn't think that chapter was going to be that long – lol. I'll probably update again on Friday. Maybe a bit sooner if you READ AND REVIEW!
Crazayladay: You are really not going to like me now, but I worked it out and they don't get together for a good while yet coughchapter29cough, but lots of kool stuff happens before that so keep reading! Please!
nightwanderer: Keep those pixies away from me! I have a feeling you're going to hate me for what I just did to Lily but it all turns out good I promise! Keep reading!
Carmel March: Ok I hope I answered your question in the chapter, and thanks for your review!
Pick boy lover: No sorry I just got the impression you didn't like it because you couldn't understand why they would care about Caitlin showing Lily Snuffles. Sorry but I must have picked that up wrong. I'm glad to hear it's one of your favourites. I like it too :D !
BurningIce22: Lol glad you cleared that up I was getting a bit worried. Thought I had missed something about this place Knotts! Anyway thanks for your review!
Oliverwoodschic: Oh God, well if you though the ending of the last chapter was terrible then you're going to hate that one! I promise it does get better! Please keep reading!
james was a chaser: You probably aren't even going to review anymore because you already know exactly what's going to happen. Something which I now regret telling you but anyway! You tell anyone, you die!
kaleidoscope0-0eyes: Look I didn't update early, but I did update during my exams so you have to give me some credit! Thanks for reviewing! Also your story is class!
Twilight66: Lol yes I would just like to point out that at least when it comes to the Harry Potter movies – it's kool to be British! Did you enjoy the film? More to the point, did you enjoy that chapter?
Japanese Dragon: God it freaked me out when you reviewed cause your screen name reminds me of my cousin, and I really don't like my cousin, but then I thought the likelihood of him reading something like this is very slim, and also he's a boy, and I always thought FanFiction was more of a girl thing – please correct me if I'm wrong! Anyway there was a load of random information you didn't want to know! Thanks for reviewing!
coll: I just did :)
mbc-gurl12: You, I am almost certain, are insane. But anyway keep coming with the reviews! You help my ego! Lol jk!
prongy: Thanks for reviewing!
inadequate: OMG thank you! As long as you don't come back with the word 'rubbish', I'll be happy!
elements-of-the-soul: Wow you like long reviews! First of all, you didn't need to review every chapter as you read it, but you do now have to review every further chapter! That's the rules! (Not really, you can do what you want, I don't mind!) I apologise for the typos, but as you know sometimes these can't be helped, especially when you are proof reading in the early hours of the morning. All of your theories turned out to be wrong for this chapter, but I would love to hear what your take is on the next one! Finally I would like to say that I hate you. You only have one exam left? I have 4!
Anyway would just like to say I have now seen the new movie twice and it is amazing! Also I got the KOOLEST Harry Potter doll, where it blows air out of his hand so you can levitate balls on it and such. It's so kool. I also got a Quidditch one where you can manoeuvre him into different positions on his broom and all. And yes before anyone asks I AM SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD! hangs head in shame
Anyway on with the story, quick recap is that Lily just turned James down when he asked her to the ball.
Chapter 18 : My New Best Friend
"YOU DID WHAT?!" Caitlin screamed as she found Lily sitting in the main common room about 40 minutes later. She was working with Alice on a Defence Against the Dark Arts homework.
"Caitlin don't shout," Alice scolding, whilst putting a comforting arm round Lily. In truth Lily was glad she was shouting. She was sick of being mollycoddled and fussed over by the girls, ever since she had told them about her mother. She was glad of the break from the hushed voices they had adopted now when speaking to her. She was almost convinced that they had heard her wrong, and thought that she was the one that was dying.
"BUT JAMES JUST ASKED HER TO THE BALL AND SHE SAID NO!!" Caitlin roared again. Lily had never been so happy to see her friend in a temper with her. She felt Alice grip her more tightly, as if reassuring her that she wouldn't let Caitlin hurt her.
"Alice it's alright," she said, trying to loosen herself from her grip. "Look I said no to him, because I'm not going to be here over Christmas. I'm going home to see my mum remember?"
Alice gave Caitlin a scathing look, whilst Caitlin looked extremely ashamed of herself. She sat down on the other side of Lily and put her arm round her as well.
"Lily I'm sorry," she said, returning to her voice, which Lily assumed would be the one she would use when talking to someone on their deathbed. Lily noticed that she bit her lip as they all sat in silence for a moment.
Lily jumped up, unable to take the funeral mood any longer. She turned and stood directly opposite the other two, who looked dumbstruck, on the sofa.
"Look don't do that," she said loudly. "Don't go back to using those voices!"
"What voices?" Alice asked her, looking totally bewildered.
"These voices," Lily replied, sounding like an extremely old witch. "Caitlin don't just say you're sorry when you're not! I know you're still pissed off at me!"
"I'm not..." Caitlin began.
"You just bit your lip!" Lily screamed. "You always bite your lip when you're annoyed!" She was getting so high pitched now she was afraid only dogs could hear her. She tried to calm herself down again. "Look, if you have something to say just say it."
"Fine," Caitlin shouted, getting to her feet as well, the two girls were now rounded on each other. "When you told him no you could have at least told him why! Now he's thinking that you're just some kind of Ice Queen! How am I meant to sort this one out?!" As she finished she collapsed back on to the sofa, with her face in her hand, apparently exasperated.
"You don't have to do anything!" Lily spat, incensed that Caitlin thought it was her sole responsibility to get Lily with James. "And I didn't tell him why because he left so quickly after he asked me there wasn't time! Caitlin, I'll sort it out myself ok? I'll explain it to him." Caitlin gave her a sceptical look and then covered her face again.
"Look it's alright, I realise he probably wasn't going to hang around for an explanation. It's just – ," she gave a long sigh. "– Sirius and him are having the biggest fight in the Great Hall at the moment, and I just know that I'm going bear the brunt of it tonight."
"Why are Sirius and James fighting because I said no to James?" Lily said icily. Caitlin still had her hand over her face and failed to notice Lily's now murderous look.
"Ugh, because James thinks that Sirius was playing a joke on him, when he told him to ask you to the ball!"
"Why would Sirius tell James to ask me to the ball?" Lily asked icily again. This time Caitlin realised that she had been caught out.
"Uh... Well... Maybe," she spluttered, now looking directly at Lily.
"YOU TOLD SIRIUS!" Lily screamed. Alice gave a gulp.
"Well yes," Caitlin squirmed under Lily's gaze. "But in my defence I did tell him not to tell James!"
"BUT HE DID!" Lily pointed out.
"Yes and I'm just as upset about that as you are," Caitlin slowly, trying to keep the situation calm.
"BUT THIS IS YOUR FAULT!" Lily pointed out again.
"LOOK!" Caitlin roared at her, standing up again. "I don't see what the big problem is anyway! You like James, and James likes you, Sirius was only trying to hurry things up a bit!"
"But now James knows I like him!" Lily said, sounding exasperated.
"SO?!" Caitlin responded. "What the hell does that matter? In fact it's good, now you can just start going out together!"
"Oh no, I'm not going out with him now, not now he's knows I like him!" Lily said crossing her arms.
Caitlin took a deep breath.
"What?" she asked calmly.
"Well I can't go out with him now. I mean every time I see him I know he's going to be sitting thinking 'ooo you like me', and every time he tries to talk to me it's just going to be awkward. So if it's awkward every time we talk then obviously he's not going to ask me out again, right?" She looked for some reassurance from Alice, who gave a timid half nod. "It would be all right if we were already going out and he knew I liked him, but he knows now and we're not even going out! It just embarrassing! Don't you see you've ruined it?! You've messed it all up!"
Caitlin blinked.
"Lily," she said sharply. "Wise up!"
With that she stormed out of the portrait hole, and out of sight. Lily watched her go and then turned back to Alice, who was still sitting on the sofa, apparently not sure what to say next.
"Can you believe that?!" Lily prompted her.
"No way!" Alice agreed. "I mean Frank promised me he would never tell James, and I know he wouldn't!"
"You told Frank?" Lily asked. Alice gave another timid nod, realising her mistake. "Oh for Merlin's sake!" Lily cried out, as she stormed back up to her room. She made a mental note never to tell her coupled up friends secrets again.
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Lily spent the next four days in her room at all times, only coming out for classes and meals. She had taken out a vendetta against all of her coupled up friends, firstly because she had decided that absolutely none of them could be trusted, and secondly because they were coupled up and she wasn't! Just who did they think they were? The smug bastards.
That only left Avril, and even though Lily did class Avril as one of her close friends she wasn't enthused about the idea of her becoming her new best friend, so she had avoided her at all costs as well.
Another good reason for keeping holed up in her room was James. She wasn't keen to find out whether her theory about them now being more awkward around each other than before, was true. She waited until she heard him leave the common room in the morning, before she came out of her room, and got into her room before he arrived back at night. So far she had avoided any confrontations, only seeing him in class, which wasn't that bad seeing that there were roughly another 17 people there to place between him and herself.
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On Monday Lily arrived down into the Great Hall for breakfast, and found that the only Gryffindor 7th year there was Peter Pettigrew. For the first time in her Hogwarts career Lily decided to talk to him. Since she had discarded all of her other friends because they were untrustworthy, loved- up pigs, or in Avril's case, a bit annoying, she decided that now was a good time to make new friends.
"Hello," she said cheerfully as she sat down opposite him, and helped herself to some toast. Peter almost choked on his porridge in surprise.
"Hello," he spluttered back at her, his eyes darting from side to side, looking for any chance of an escape. Lily was a bit disappointed to find that the conversation had died already.
"Where are the rest of them today then?" she asked after a few awkward moments of silence. It was very rarely you saw Peter without Sirius, James and Remus.
"Finishing a Defence Against the Dark Arts homework," Peter replied nervously, his eyes still darting about.
"They're only finishing it this morning?" Lily said disapprovingly. "Honestly I had that done by last Thursday! It's due in first period." Lily now noticed that Peter was looking at her with the same fear he had when looking at Professor McGonagall. "I see you must have finished yours though," she added with a smile, trying to soften her 'Head Girl' rant.
"Well no, I don't do Defence, I do Herbology instead," Peter said a little apologetically.
"Oh sorry," Lily said quickly. "I forgot." This was a lie, in truth she hadn't forgotten at all, she just hadn't realised that Peter hadn't been in that class with her for over a year. The conversation died again. Peter went back to his porridge.
"Caitlin does Herbology," Lily said, she was determined to keep him talking.
"Yea I know, she's in my class," Peter mumbled through a mouthful of oats.
"I don't," she added lamely. Peter looked up from his bowl, and gave a weak smile, as if to say 'I know that too', and then went back to his breakfast. "I bet it's really interesting." This was another lie, Lily had found Herbology so boring at OWL level that she had once found herself wondering whether gnawing off her own arm would be a more constructive use of her time. This was the reason she had not taken it on to NEWT level even though she wanted to be a healer.
"Emm... well it's alright. Just a bunch of plants and stuff..." Peter trailed off.
"Oh I'm sure there's more to it than that," Lily said, pretending to be interested. Peter then went off on a long speech about different types of plant he had come across at NEWT level. Lily tuned in and out of it, catching occasional snippets such as 'deep shade of purple', and 'ate Professor Sprout's hat', all the time she kept an fascinated look on her face.
It was during this time that she noticed the rest of the Marauders traipse into the Great Hall, Peter, still chatting away, apparently did not. Lily watched as the three of them sat down about halfway down the table from them, and then chatted for a few seconds amongst themselves. It wasn't long however, before Remus tapped James on the shoulder and pointed down to where Lily was sitting with Peter. Lily looked away quickly before James caught her staring at him.
"So it ate Professor Sprout's hat?" she said quickly, eager to look totally involved in this conversation with Peter.
"Yea," he laughed. "And then it –"
"WORMTAIL GET YOUR ASS DOWN HERE NOW!" came the booming voice of Sirius Black down the hall.
"And then it?" Lily said to him as if nothing had happened. Peter looked from her to Sirius and then back again, apparently unsure of what he should do.
"WORMTAIL! COME HERE!" Sirius shouted again.
"Look he's talking to me alright?" Lily shouted back down the table to him. "And then it?" she tried again. Peter just looked at her speechless.
"Evans give us our best friend back!" Sirius yelled, but a bit more laughter was coming through in his voice now.
"No! You can't have him, he's my best friend now!" Lily called back, and then to everyone's surprise, including her own, she stuck her tongue out at them. Peter gave a laugh, which was echoed by James, Remus and Sirius up the Hall.
"Evans, you already have a best friend!" James called to her, beaming, apparently he was just glad to see her in a more playful mood than usual.
"Yea well I had to get rid of her, because she couldn't keep my deepest, darkest secrets! Peter here, would always keep my secrets. Wouldn't you Peter?"
"Definitely, of course," Peter laughed again. Remus and Sirius laughed too but James just looked at her, stunned. She could kind of see where he was coming from as well. The last time anything had happened like this, was that time after the Quidditch match, and they had both treated it as a taboo subject. And now here was Lily openly talking the latest happening in front of people, because she was sure that all of the Marauders would know exactly what secret she was talking about. James was stunned by her actions, and in a way she even amazed herself.
She stuck out her tongue at him again, to see if she could confuse him anymore. At this he gave a small laugh, and then turned and said something excitedly to Sirius, who gave a tremendous laugh like a bark, and then shouted back down the table to Lily again.
"HERE EVANS, PRONGS SAYS YOU CAN KEEP HIM! SAYS HE LIKES YOU BETTER WITH WORMTAIL AS YOUR BEST FRIEND!" James gave her a grin as Sirius finished speaking.
"Oh well, if that's the case then you can have him back!" James and Sirius looked at each other confused. "Wouldn't want Potter to like me even more now would we?" Lily explained. Sirius and Remus started to give each other looks that said that she might be treading a little too close to the edge on this one, James shifted uncomfortably in his seat. Lily decided to go for the kill. "I mean, he already asked me to the ball last week!"
Sirius, Remus and Peter immediately jumped up from their seats, pointed at James and screamed "Ahhhhhhhhhh!". Some of the younger Gryffindors that had been sitting between Lily and the Marauders, and who couldn't help but listen to the conversation, began to clap their hands and stamp their feet. James just sat there, open mouthed in shock, but laughing at the same time. The scene was reminiscent of the time the Hall had jeered Sirius out, earlier on in the year, but only this time it was Lily who ran from them.
She wasn't sure if she was going to be able to deal with the consequences of her actions. She thought that the best thing to do at the moment was to get straight to class and bury herself in her books. Which is exactly what she did.
-----------------
It was only later on that night that Lily was really able to think about what she had done. She had spent her day by throwing herself into her classes with newfound enthusiasm, and by repairing broken bonds with Alice and Scarlet, who were only two happy to have her talking to them again. Somehow she had managed to successively keep away from James, even though he had been trying his best to catch her eye throughout the whole of Defence Against the Dark Arts.
However, late that night, alone in her room, she found that there were no distractions to make her forget the fact that she had obviously completely flipped it earlier that morning. Why had she decided to shout that out in front of the whole Hall? Why had she found it so easy to joke about it in front of James? Was she trying to show him she was still interested? Sometimes she didn't understand her own mind.
Maybe Caitlin had been right. Maybe it wasn't that bad that James knew he liked her. If she was going to show that she wasn't going to be awkward about it, and that she was happy to make a joke out of it, he should do the same. Only two things could happen now he knew she liked him. He could ask her out, which would be great. Or he could tease her about liking him, at which Lily would just have to smile graciously and ignore him, and then give him the finger when his back was turned.
Tossing about in her bed, with all these thoughts swimming about her head, she rolled over to see what time it was. Four in the morning. There was no point in even trying to get to sleep now, she would have to get up at six to do Head duties anyway. She decided to get up and go to the girls' dormitory to speak to Caitlin. She wouldn't mind Lily waking her up at this hour, Caitlin was a bit of a night-bird anyway, and she especially wouldn't mind if she was waking her up to apologise.
She threw a dressing gown round her, and walked out into the private common and through the lion cub portrait hole. As she descended the spiral staircase she was met by Caitlin's unmistakeable giggle, followed by a lower, male laughter.
'Oh God, I am not walking in on Cait and Sirius again!' Lily thought, remembering the strange scene she had stumbled upon the last time.
"Caitlin!" she called out, to give them a bit of warning.
"Shussshhh!" she heard Caitlin whisper, followed by another small giggle. The male laughter died away.
"Caitlin, it's Lily, I'm coming down the stairs, ok?" she yelled out again. There was no answer. Lily started down the stairs. She was sure that she had heard Caitlin, but what if she was mistaken? What if it was someone else? As she got closer to the common room she heard low, indistinct whispers, interspersed with giggles from both a female and male source.
As she reached the bottom step of the staircase the whole common room came into view. It was completely empty, although the whispering continued.
"Hello?" Lily called nervously. "Is there anyone there?" The whispering stopped immediately. Lily walked closer to the sofa that had its back to her, it was the only place in the room that was out of her vision, and the only place where the two whispering people could be hiding.
As she stepped closer and closer she felt her nerve failing her. She wasn't quite sure was she was going to see on the other side of this sofa.
'Please let this be Cait and Sirius. Please let this be Cait and Sirius,' she found herself chanting over and over in her mind.
"Hello?" she whispered. She gave one more warning before she finally looked over the back of the sofa. Again there was no answer. She counted to three and then looked. There was nobody there.
She stood bewildered for a moment. There was officially no one in the room, but then where were the voices coming from?
"Boo!"
She heard another whisper, and then a rustle of movement. Her eyes were drawn to the now dying fire, but there was no one there. She let her eyes rest there for a moment, thinking of what to do next, her heart thumping in her chest all the while. Inadvertently she found herself focusing on something. Lying a few feet in front of the fireplace was a long lock of curly, blonde hair. She walked over to it, she was sure Caitlin had been here now, but why was a lock of her hair lying on the floor? Had she been hurt? Was she alright?
She bent down to pick up the hair, but as she did so she felt something cold and silvery touch the back of her hand. She lifted up the invisibility cloak to find Caitlin and James looking back at her, both shaking violently with silent laughter.
"Hiya Lils," Caitlin managed before collapsing back into hysterics.
"Evans," James nodded to her, before the giggles took hold of him as well.
It took a moment for the situation to sink into Lily's head. James Potter was lying, with his back flat on the floor in front of her, only a few steps away from a dying fire. Caitlin Kenworthy was lying on top of him, with her head on his chest. His left arm was then round her, with his left hand in her mane of hair, seemingly holding her head in place. And they both thought that it was hilariously funny that Lily had caught them here? Like this?! At four in the morning?!!
"YOU BITCH!" Lily screamed. James and Caitlin's expressions immediately changed. They looked at each other, and then looked back at Lily.
"Look Lily it's not..."
"See Evans, what happened was..."
Lily didn't hear their excuses, she ran straight back up to her room, the tears flooding down her face. There was only one clear thought in her mind, someone was going to have to tell Sirius.
Ok so nobody flame me! The next chapter will be the same events but from James' point of view, and then it might go on a bit further at the end. All will be explained in the next chapter, please keep reading I haven't changed it into something horrible, I promise. There is a explanation for it!
Anyway, for some reason I didn't think that chapter was going to be that long – lol. I'll probably update again on Friday. Maybe a bit sooner if you READ AND REVIEW!
Crazayladay: You are really not going to like me now, but I worked it out and they don't get together for a good while yet coughchapter29cough, but lots of kool stuff happens before that so keep reading! Please!
nightwanderer: Keep those pixies away from me! I have a feeling you're going to hate me for what I just did to Lily but it all turns out good I promise! Keep reading!
Carmel March: Ok I hope I answered your question in the chapter, and thanks for your review!
Pick boy lover: No sorry I just got the impression you didn't like it because you couldn't understand why they would care about Caitlin showing Lily Snuffles. Sorry but I must have picked that up wrong. I'm glad to hear it's one of your favourites. I like it too :D !
BurningIce22: Lol glad you cleared that up I was getting a bit worried. Thought I had missed something about this place Knotts! Anyway thanks for your review!
Oliverwoodschic: Oh God, well if you though the ending of the last chapter was terrible then you're going to hate that one! I promise it does get better! Please keep reading!
james was a chaser: You probably aren't even going to review anymore because you already know exactly what's going to happen. Something which I now regret telling you but anyway! You tell anyone, you die!
kaleidoscope0-0eyes: Look I didn't update early, but I did update during my exams so you have to give me some credit! Thanks for reviewing! Also your story is class!
Twilight66: Lol yes I would just like to point out that at least when it comes to the Harry Potter movies – it's kool to be British! Did you enjoy the film? More to the point, did you enjoy that chapter?
Japanese Dragon: God it freaked me out when you reviewed cause your screen name reminds me of my cousin, and I really don't like my cousin, but then I thought the likelihood of him reading something like this is very slim, and also he's a boy, and I always thought FanFiction was more of a girl thing – please correct me if I'm wrong! Anyway there was a load of random information you didn't want to know! Thanks for reviewing!
coll: I just did :)
mbc-gurl12: You, I am almost certain, are insane. But anyway keep coming with the reviews! You help my ego! Lol jk!
prongy: Thanks for reviewing!
inadequate: OMG thank you! As long as you don't come back with the word 'rubbish', I'll be happy!
elements-of-the-soul: Wow you like long reviews! First of all, you didn't need to review every chapter as you read it, but you do now have to review every further chapter! That's the rules! (Not really, you can do what you want, I don't mind!) I apologise for the typos, but as you know sometimes these can't be helped, especially when you are proof reading in the early hours of the morning. All of your theories turned out to be wrong for this chapter, but I would love to hear what your take is on the next one! Finally I would like to say that I hate you. You only have one exam left? I have 4!