"What do you mean you don't trust me with Lily?" James asked.
"I mean I don't trust you with her." Kay said.
"Hold on, hold on. What the bloody hell does James have to do with this? I wouldn't do anything with him anyway." Lily said. James looked at her, then looked away. She instantly knew that she probably shouldn't've said it so harshly.
"Well- I know that James doesn't want you, Evans. I just didn't trust you with him." Kay said, turning to James, before kissing his cheek. "I'll see you later, Jamie bear."
"See you later, Kay." James said.
"When Sirius comes back, don't tell him that I'm coming. I want it to be a surprise." Emily said. James nodded.
"Sure." he said. Then the two girls disapparated. James looked down at his hands, then up at Lily. "Poor Sirius." He only looked at Lily when she giggled quietly. "Sorry about that."
"No-"
"Um… I don't really know what we can do until then. So, if you want to…"
"Well… have you ever jumped on your bed?" James looked at her. "Oh yeah. You live with E.J."
"Come on. We have a special bed for that." James said, as he took her hand and dragged her through the house.
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For Sirius, time with E.J passed by like nothing. Two hours with her felt like two seconds. The two were hanging out in Flourish and Blotts laughing and flirting their heads off, when Sirius looked at his watch and panicked. It was 7:57, and it took a whopping 2 hours to get from Diagon Alley to James' house.
"E.J, we should get going." Sirius said, helping her up. E.J nodded, and started to look down at the book pile by her feet.
"Okay. Um- I don't need these books. Do we have enough time to put them back?" she asked.
"No- I'll go pay for them. Can you get the Knight Bus?"
"Yeah. Okay." E.J said, before she walked away. For a moment, Sirius watched her go and wondered if it would be like that when she really left. After paying for the books and staying in the bookstore for a minute, Sirius ran to find E.J in the alley of the Leaky Cauldron. When he found her, she was bouncing on the balls of her feet. For a moment, he watched her, aware of the fact that she didn't see him, or didn't acknowledge him, before he decided to surprise her. After a small amount of time to think, Sirius reached out to grab her. Big mistake. E.J grabbed him by his collar and pinned him against the wall.
"Are you crazy?!" Sirius yelled. "You almost killed me."
"Um- it was a reflex, and no one told you to touch me." E.J complained. "I'm sorry."
"It's okay." Sirius pouted. "Remind me not to mess with you."
"I've been telling you that since we met."
"How the bloody hell was I supposed to know that you were crazy, and would try to kill me otherwise?"
"Do you know me at all?!" E.J screamed, before she punched his arm. Sirius was suddenly, miraculously unconfined.
"Hey? How'd you do that?" he asked, looking at his arms in shock and awe.
"I-" As soon as E.J started to answer, a loud squeaking crash rang in their ears.
"You lot getting on?" asked the voice of Trevor Semasess. E.J looked up, then dragged Sirius to the bus.
"Where're you going now?" she asked him, before she looked at him.
"Oh- we're late for your farewell dinner at the Manor." Sirius said. "It was supposed to be a surprise, but I lost track of time." E.J looked at him and laughed.
"You're such a wanker." She teased, making Sirius laugh.
"Why would you call me a wanker?"
"Why would you tell me?"
"So that you don't put your aunt in the same chokehold that you put me in." With a moment of thought, E.J nodded.
"Point taken." She said, before she looked at her watch. "Wow… we're going to be late for dinner." All of a sudden, that awkward silence overtook them as they both realized that those were the last moments that they'd spend together. Their time together was finally taken to the point where they both sighed and searched for something to say to the other. Finally, tired of feeling the awkwardness, E.J stared Sirius dead in the eye and said, "If you don't start the conversation soon, you and I will never snog. And I intended to surprise you with that for an hour before I leave. For the past fifteen minutes, you've been unbearably boring, and I fear that I'll require a new best bloke soon." Despite his sudden discomfort, Sirius graced her with a small smile that reached his eyes.
"You are absolutely bonkers." He said, before he chucked her chin.
"Thank you." E.J said cutely, before she pinched his cheeks. "At least you know the truth."
"Dammit." Sirius said, looking at his watch. "We're going to be so late."
"What's another two hours? I'm sure they've started without us."
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"Where in the bloody hell are they?" Lily asked as she paced and stared at her watch repeatedly.
"I'm sure they're on their way." James said, looking up at her as he sat in the corner.
"Yes, but if E.J comes and sees that the house is flashing with lights… we can no longer file it as a surprise party." The house was packed with Hogwarts upperclassmen, and students one and two years their junior. Everyone that received an invitation showed up. The house looked like a techno rave, was blaring with loud music, and as early as it was, filled with drunken youngsters. "This place is packed."
"Yeah, I know. I have to get out of here." James said, standing up and throwing his sweater over his shoulders. The redhead raised her eyebrows and folded her arms across her chest.
"Excuse me?"
"I need some fresh air. It smells like Firewhiskey and piss in here. I can't breathe."
"Your house. Your door. The door that you're supposed to answer and let E.J through. You go nowhere." Lily said, standing in front of said door.
"Bu-"
"Uh-uh." Lily sounded, before she sat in front of the door. All of a sudden, James started to blow on his hand. "What's wrong with you?" James looked up at her, after he inspected the scar on his hand.
"My parchment burned me." He said, before he unraveled it. Then his eyes widened. "He and E.J are two minutes away."
"Okay- I'll go hush them up." Lily said, running to give the signal. As soon as she walked through the foyer doors, the flashing lights ceased and the room went back to it's regular luminous state.
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When E.J tried to open the non-budging front door of Potter Manor, she grew tired and frustrated.
"Why the bloody hell won't this blasted door open?!" she screamed- growled really. Just as her frustration came, it went as Sirius held onto her shoulders.
"E.J, calm down." He said. "Why don't you just knock on the door?"
"Because, you'd think that my key would work. But no. No- no."
"E.J, knock on the door so that we can have the damn dinner, please? I'm hungry." Sirius whined cutely.
"Fine." E.J sighed, before she rang the doorbell. When it wasn't immediately answered, she looked at Sirius. "I'm surprised they haven't chucked my shit out here." As soon as that sentence left her mouth, the door opened to reveal James.
"E.J, where the hell have you been?" he asked.
"Well, James… I didn't want to spend my last day crying over all of the memories alone." E.J said bitterly, making James look at Sirius inquisitively. When Sirius shrugged, James looked at E.J and shook his head, before he took her hand and led her into the house. In the parlor, there they were. There was Lily and Remus, with cookies and milk, chocolate frog cake and melted chocolate sauce, and all of E.J's favorites. As soon as she walked in, Lily and Remus jumped in the air and shouted 'surprise' in unison. "Aw… now I feel like shit for cursing you lot."
"As well you should." Lily said, standing up to hug her. "Now, come on. You have to do something for me."
"What the bloody hell do you want from my life, woman?"
"I've always wanted to do this. Can you please do it for me?" Lily asked.
"God, why not? Let's go." E.J said.
"Don't you want to know what it is?"
"No, not really."
"Oh- well, in that case-"
"No. I'm only doing what you wanted."
"Fine." Lily said, dragging her to the couch and pulling her own wand out. "Okay, so I've always wanted to give you a makeove-"
"Nope." E.J said, getting up instantly.
"E.J, you said yes."
"NO"
"Yes, please?"
"This could go on forever." Sirius said.
"Let's go duel in the ballroom." James said, walking ahead of the guys and out of the room.
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"Are you sure this is going to work?" Sirius asked as soon as they were out of the room. James nodded.
"Yeah. As soon as Lily gets her dressed, she'll come to see how we are."
"I can't see that happening." Sirius said, as he walked through the ballroom first. And when he did… he realized that this was all wrong. This was not the way to spend E.J's last night. She wouldn't even like this. And as quickly as he realized that, he realized even more that he wasn't the only person that was going to miss her, and so… they should all have an opportunity to say goodbye to her. She was special to all of them, and so they were all losing something.
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As Lily dragged E.J to her bedroom, the chocolate haired beauty leaned in close to her friend and asked a simple question.
"Whose idea was this party?" she asked, making Lily look at her in shock.
"How do you know?" she asked.
"Oh please. It smells like Firewhiskey and piss in here." With that statement alone, Lily started to choke on her laughter.
"You know, Jaime said the exact same thing." As soon as that sentence left Lily's mouth, E.J looked at her and gave her a stylized broadway smack across the face.
"Do not ever, in your life, call him Jaime." E.J spat out at her. With a tick of three seconds, the two started falling over themselves up the stairs as they laughed. "So, what's the makeover really about? Making sure that I don't go in my own party looking like a slob?"
"No. Making sure that you outshine Emily, who looks amazing tonight."
"How can she look amazing? She has a nose like a fucking toucan." E.J said, before she sat on her own bed. "I don't even want to go downstairs. This is too much. For my last day,… I just imagined you, me, Jaime, Lupe, and Sirius laying around like slobs and eating cake. And talking- talking about the good times, and the bad times, and the times where you and Jaime were both in love with each other, with no problems, except letting the other know. You know? And now that's all ending, and I'm leaving, and we're not going to be able to spend our last year in Hogwarts together."
"Yeah, but we are going to the same training program next year. Just like we said, okay?" Lily asked, with a tears collecting in her eyes.
"Yeah, we are. And if we don't go to training… we'll get the same job and outshine everyone in the market, right?"
"Yeah. So let's get you bombshelled."
"Lily, I don't make miraculous changes, and I don't like him."
"Yeah, you lurve him." Lily teased.
"Oh- oh my Merlin, I do not love him. I don't even know what love is. I've never loved anyone before."
"Of course you have. You love me."
"Not really." E.J said, looking at Lily with a smirk. "Dude… I- you're like the sister that I never wanted. Jaime is the brother that I never had. And kinda the same thing with Lupe, except, I think he's so adorable, and I have this innocent crush thing on him. But, I've never loved anyone that I didn't have to love."
"You have a thing for Remus?"
"No. I find him attractive. That's it. He's tempting, like that piece of strawberry cake in the bakery window that you would never eat if someone gave you, but you find incredibly tempting with the drizzling strawberry sauce all over that frosting. I'm only into chocolate or yellow cake."
"Would you ever date h-"
"Merlin, no. I don't see him that way."
"You just said that you fou-"
"No, I said that I found him tempting. He's adorable, but… it's not there." Lily raised her eyebrows, then shook her head, before she changed the subject.
"Okay, well, when Emily came in here looking like the 80's Marilyn Monroe, I picked a little something out for you from the back of your closet."
"Lily, you're not supposed to know about that part of my closet." E.J said, sitting at her useless vanity. "What do you want me to do? Do you want me to go downstairs and start dancing around like a useless airhead?"
"Do I look like an airhead to you?"
"Is that a rhetorical question?"
"Eris!"
"Lily!"
"E.J, all that I'm saying is, you should shake it up a bit on your last night." Lily said, before she threw the outfit to her.
"I refuse to wear hairspray, leggings, tights or any of that bogus bollocks that these other girls do."
"That's not what I have in mind." Lily said, before she picked up the second outfit that she'd prepared. "If you object to the other, then I have something cute that actually better suits you."
"And what is that?" Lily smiled, and handed E.J a black, extra small Black Sabbath concert tee. Then she laid a pair of black skinny jeans down on E.J's lap.
"You should get changed, and then I'll do your hair."
"What can you possibly do to my hair?"
"I can get it out of your face."
"Oh my bloody Merlin, two years ago, you were my bolita friend, and now, you're giving me advice." E.J shouted, making Lily laugh.
When E.J walked out of her closet in her stunning outfit, Lily looked at her and shook her head.
"Only you could take that safe outfit and turn it into frump fest of the 80s." Lily said, before she started to adjust E.J's pants, and shirt. Pulling down, and rolling up, stretching, looping, and finally… perfecto! Well… from the neck down at least. When Lily was done with the outfit, she forced E.J in front of her vanity, and started to open the drawers on either side of the mirror and laughed. "You have everything in here. You have mousse, leave in conditioner, and… lipstick galore." After re-curling E.J's hair in a way that made her look classically beautiful, like chocolate shavings over a delicious dessert, Lily looked through E.J's vanity drawers and found this dark burgundy lipstick. "This is the one." She said.
"Why is this the one?" E.J asked tiredly.
"It's the one, because… I love how dark lipsticks look on people with your skintone. It's suck a rich color… and… it just looks amazing." Lily said, as she applied it to E.J's lips. "Okay, now, do you have lipstick on your teeth?" E.J smiled, and Lily inspected. "No. Now it's time for a bit of gloss."
When Lily was done with E.J, there was another sex symbol in the house. Even in her average getup, Eris looked flawlessly perfect, however redundant that sounds. And when she and Lily walked through the ballroom together, after the big shout of 'surprise!!', there were mouths agape and bitchy chatter.
"Well… I can't say that I didn't know this would happen." E.J said, before she waved twice, before giving someone the middle finger. "And I blame you for this, Lily. Because of you, I had to pour myself into these pants and I can't fit my nunchakus in here, and so I can't defend myself." When the two girls got to where they wanted to be, they no longer wanted to be there. James was with Kay, while Sirius was with Emily. Can anyone say ill? Being the girl that she is, E.J walked up to James and punched him on the arm. "The nerve of you to invite people that I don't like, by the pissload." She said as she looked at Kay then Emily. "The utterly rotten pissload." James just stared at her, before he looked at Lily. Then he looked back at E.J, before he cleared his throat.
"What did you do to yourself?" he asked.
"I think he really means 'why haven't you done it before?'" Sirius asked, staring at her without boundaries.
"Yeah, well, I have to go. So, before I leave, Jaime, where are the drinks for sober people?" E.J asked, as she looked around the liquor infested ballroom.
"Those would be upstairs in the kitchen." James said, before he smiled. E.J laughed, then wrung her hands behind her back.
"Ah… if only I could've fit the nunchucks in these pants." She said, before she walked away, leaving Lily to look at James, Sirius and their… things.
Later on in the night, until 10:00 pm, the girls never set eyes on the guys, and the guys never set eyes on the girls. The only guy that the girls spoke to was Remus. And how wonderful he was. He was always wonderful. For most of the party, E.J sat outside in the middle of the garden with Lily, in complete silence. The silence was only broken when Remus found them and sat with them.
"You look… nice." He said as he looked at E.J. E.J looked up, pulling her head off of the table and started at him.
"What is that supposed to mean?" she asked.
"That you look nice."
"Are you trying to say that I don't usually look nice?"
"No… I'm saying that you look very nice today." E.J groaned and laid her head back on the table. "Sirius sure took some notice." Like they both knew that she would, she looked up. "Maybe you should make that move."
"Can you guys just leave me alone?" That wasn't the response that they expected. And when they didn't, she got up and left. When she got back to her room, she dramatically threw herself on the bed, before burying her head in a pillow and screaming.
"I thought that I would find you in here," Were the sweetest words she'd heard since she walked into that ballroom. A smile formed on her face before she looked up and saw the gray eyes of Sirius Black.
"What are you doing in here?" E.J asked.
"I just wanted a few moments alone with you before you left." Sirius said, as he walked over to her bed and sat down.
"Where's your entourage?"
"They couldn't cut it." E.J laughed and ran her hand through her hair, still not messing up the perfection of the curls. "I… I never really got to give you your birthday gift." Sirius said, as he pulled a small jewelry box from his pocket.
"You don't have to get me anything, Sirius."
"Yeah, I do. Look, E.J, you are the most amazing person. And, having you in my life is a blessing, and a curse. And the only reason that it's a curse is because I'm afraid that- I… um, here." He said, handing her the box. Slowly opening the box, a smile formed on E.J's lips. And then, without warning, without fear, and without restraints, he kissed her. And he seemed to like kissing her. He did. Kissing E.J was the perfect mixture of… dammit!- it was just good. She tasted like candy, but she didn't hurt your teeth. She was perfect, and so were her kisses. After the kissing while sitting up phase was over, they moved on to the kissing while laying down phase. And when they needed a breather, Sirius just pulled himself back, but only enough to let his lips linger lightly on hers. And every time that he did, he smiled and told her a bit of the truth. And then, they would go back to their soulful, perfect kissing.
Their beautiful snog session was only cut short, because Solomon Smith barged through E.J's bedroom door, with Amelinda Nervos on his arm. When Sirius and E.J sprang apart, Solomon raised his glass of butterbeer and chugged some down.
"Black, Potter was looking for you." He slurred, before he and Amelinda walked back out. When they were alone again, E.J and Sirius stared at one another, before Sirius stood up.
"I'd better go see what he wants." He said, before he leaned in and kissed her again. "No regrets?"
"None whatsoever." E.J said, as she sat back down on her bed. "Hurry back now."
"Okay. I will." Then he leaned in to kiss her again.
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Forty five minutes later, E.J was still waiting. Finally tired and curious to know where he'd gone, E.J jumped up and walked down to the ballroom, where the party was still going strong. After a few minutes of looking around, she did the only other sensible thing. She looked for James, because oddly enough, where there was a Potter Gryffindor, there was a Black Gryffindor. And when she found James… she found something that she really didn't want to see. An inebriated Sirius snogging an inebriated Emily in a sodding chair.