AN: Okay, I don't own Harry Potter. If I did, I wouldn't have had to clean up the kitchen last night after I attempted to make pasta from scratch.
Well, I'm really sorry that this took so long! I had it all written two weeks ago, but I forgot to submit it before I got married and went on my honeymoon! Needless to say, I have a good reason, and I hope you'll forgive me. I promise to be quicker with the next chapters.
Anyway, enjoy this chapter. I'm not quite sure about it.
Before I Fell- Chapter Three
Lily thought about skipping the feast for the first time in all her years at Hogwarts. Normally, the sorting feast was one of Lily's favorite Hogwarts events, but this year she just wasn't feeling like going. With Carrie Vale mad at her, she didn't know where she would sit. There was no way she would sit with Potter and his friends, even though it had been sweet, she had to admit, of him to offer. Lily was hovering on the edge of the crowd waiting for carriages to carry them to the school. She had no idea where her friends were in the crowd and she doubted Carrie would be over their fight this quickly.
"Hey Evans, how was your summer?" Jared said from her right. Lily turned to see the gorgeous Ravenclaw smiling warmly at her.
"Great. My family and I went to Italy for a vacation. How was yours?" Lily asked, smiling back at him.
"Not so great," he admitted, smiling sheepishly.
"Oh, what happened?" she asked.
"Well, Amber and I broke up," he said, although he didn't look too sad.
"When did that happen?" Lily asked.
"Oh, on the train ride back from Hogwarts. I'm surprised you didn't hear her screaming at me," he said, rolling his eyes.
"I'm really sorry, Jared," Lily said, although of course she really wasn't. Amber was obnoxious and she didn't deserve to be with Jared.
"Oh, it was ages ago. I'm actually glad to be rid of her now," he said, smiling at Lily. Lily felt her heartbeat speed up at his gorgeous smile. Maybe this year wouldn't be so bad after all, she thought.
"Right," Lily said, not wanting to say anything bad about Amber in case he still had some feelings for her.
"Well, do you already have a group for the carriage ride to Hogwarts?" he asked. Lily turned to see that the crowd had thinned out quite a bit. Most likely Hannah and Carrie had already gotten onto one.
"Actually, no. I haven't been able to find Hannah and Carrie," Lily admitted.
"Well, we could ride in one together," Jared suggested casually.
"Sure!" Lily said quickly. After it was already out of her mouth, she wanted to smack herself for being too eager, but she just smiled at him demurely.
"There you are Evans! I've been looking all over for you!" Potter called from behind her. Lily shut her eyes for a second and took a deep breath to calm herself before turning to face him.
"Potter, how nice to see you," Lily said. Her back was to Jared now, so although she said it in a polite tone, her expression was anything but polite.
"Potter," Jared acknowledged, nodding his head.
"Orson," James said with only slightly narrowed eyes.
"Lily and I were just going to get a carriage together," Jared said, putting a hand on her shoulder. Lily smiled at him as she turned towards him. Maybe if Potter saw her with another boy he might finally realize that she wasn't interested in him.
"Oh, Orson, did you hear? Lily and I are the new Head Boy and Head Girl," James said, putting his hand on Lily's other shoulder and stepping in front of them. Lily shot James a glare, trying to get him to go away without losing her temper in front of Jared.
"Why would Dumbledore make you Head Boy?" Jared snorted.
"Believe me, I was just as surprised as you," Lily said.
"She means she was pleasantly surprised. She's had a pretty big thing for me for a few years now," James said.
"Oh, really? I always thought she hated you," Jared said, a very confused expression coming over his face.
"Potter, I do not have a thing for you," Lily said as pleasantly as she could while Jared was looking at her
James just smiled at Lily like adults smile at little children who are clearly lying before turning to Jared. "Yeah, I thought that myself, at first. But then I realized that Lily isn't like normal girls. If she's nice to you, she's not really interested. If she is interested she shows it by yelling and name-calling," James said.
"Potter, I will push you off the Astronomy tower if you don't shut up!" Lily couldn't stop herself from screaming. So much for hiding her temper from Jared. Lily found it impossible to be calm while Potter was so completely ruining her chances with Jared!
"Oh, I did forget the part about threats. If she threatens you then you know she really cares," Potter said, that arrogant smile on his face.
"POTTER!" Lily screamed.
"I see what you mean," Jared said to James.
"I told you," James said.
"Well, good luck, you two. You're definitely going to need it, Potter. Oh, look, I just spotted a friend of mine. I think I'll go join them," Jared said, walking off before Lily even had a chance to protest.
"You're welcome," James whispered in Lily's ear.
"Do you enjoy ruining my life?" Lily asked him angrily.
"I did not ruin your life, Evans. I just saved you from wasting your time on him," James said.
"Maybe I wanted to find out for myself if I was wasting my time or not," Lily said, staring pointedly at James.
"Believe me, you didn't. That guy's a jerk," James said sincerely.
"And what are you?" Lily asked seriously.
"A guy that doesn't cheat," James said simply.
"What?" Lily asked, not following him.
"That's why Amber broke up with Jared. She found out he'd been making out with Jennifer Gray behind her back almost the entire time they'd been dating," James said.
"Oh," Lily said, secretly glad that James had scared Jared away. She wouldn't have wanted to experience that first-hand.
"Like I said, you're welcome," James said, "now, I got us a carriage, so let's go."
Lily rolled her eyes but followed after James, climbing into the opposite side of the carriage from James so she got a nice view of his gorgeous, laughing eyes and adorable dimples. After she sat down, James handed her a pile of Chocolate Frogs, her favorite wizarding treat. After debating for a while about what to do to make Lily feel better, James had settled on the Chocolate Frogs. He knew the chocolate wouldn't fix everything, but he hoped they would make her smile.
Lily found Hannah and Carrie sitting midway down the Gryffindor table. She was slightly nervous about how Carrie would react when she plopped down on the other side of Hannah, but she didn't want to follow Potter despite his offer. She would have to see him after the feast, anyway, and although he had been really sweet with the Chocolate Frogs, she wasn't sure how long their truce would last.
"Hi, Lily," Hannah said brightly. At least one of her friends wasn't mad at her.
"Hi Hannah, hi Carrie, did you guys have a nice train ride?" Lily called, deciding to make the first move. She knew they could both be stubborn, and if she didn't try to fix things now it would take a lot longer.
"It was great. We went the whole rest of the train ride without even mentioning Potter once," Carrie said haughtily.
"Instead we spent the rest of the train ride talking about Black," Hannah offered.
"Hannah," Carrie said angrily.
"What? I was just informing her of what happened on the train ride," Hannah said, laughing.
"How did I suffer through all these years with you two as my best friends?" Carrie asked.
"Oh, come on! We're amazing best friends! Who else would put up with your temper?" Hannah exclaimed.
"Hannah, I don't think that's helping," Lily suggested, seeing the rage take over Carrie's face.
"No, you know what's not helping? You! I can't believe you wouldn't defend me against Black! He's such an insufferable git and you just take his best friend's side over mine! You might as well have said, 'Congratulations, Black. You're always right and Carrie's always wrong!" Carrie bellowed. Several students at the Gryffindor table turned to stare as they heard Carrie's raised voice.
"Carrie, can we talk about this later? Now's probably not the time," Lily said worriedly, looking around them. The first years were lined up waiting for the sorting to begin and McGonagall was walking to the front of the great hall to begin calling the names.
"Oh, I'm so sorry that my feelings are so inconvenient for you! Why don't I just turn off all of my thoughts and feelings so that we can spend our last year at Hogwarts completely focused on you? Do you want to talk some more about your new best friend, bloody Potter?" Carrie bellowed. Almost all of the Gryffindors were staring at them now, along with several Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs.
"I wasn't saying that I don't care about your feeling, of course I do. I was just suggesting that we wait until after the feast to talk about everything. It wouldn't hurt if we both took some time to calm down before we say anything we will regret," Lily said quietly. McGonagall had begun calling out names and the first student wobbled up to the sorting hat, looking like he was about to pass out. Jacob Abbott was sorted into Gryffindor. Their table erupted in cheers and Lily joined along. When Lily sat back down she saw that Carrie's expression was murderous.
"Why, Lily, what do you want to say to me?" Carrie shot out.
"Nothing, Carrie," Lily said.
"No, there's obviously something you want to say, so just say it," Carrie bellowed. Lily was glad that the cheering was so loud now that Carrie was drowned out.
"Carrie, I'm not talking about this now. Enjoy the feast and we'll talk later," Lily said with an edge to her voice, turning her attention pointedly to watch the sorting. Even as she said it, she knew it wouldn't work. Carrie couldn't ever let anything go.
"That's just so typical," Carrie said angrily.
"What?" Lily said, whipping around so her long hair smacked herself in the face.
"You always act so superior. It's like you think you're so much better than everyone else just because you get top marks in classes. I can already tell that getting Head Girl hasn't helped that any," Carrie said bitterly.
"I do not act superior! You're just being so completely childish that you can't see that I was right! So I sided with Potter over you? Big deal! You and Black were screaming at each other like morons!" Lily said, shaking with rage but somehow managing to keep herself from screaming. She didn't want to give McGonagall any reason to take away her Head Girl badge.
"You are such a hypocrite! You and Potter fight like, every five seconds! Do you think you look so mature and superior when you're screaming at him?" Carrie asked.
"Carrie, Lily, stop this right now before you ruin everything! This is our last year so just get over it and make up!" Hannah warned sternly. It was so uncharacteristic for her to get angry that Carrie and Lily were stunned into silence for a second.
"I do not act superior!" Lily said, unable to control the urge to defend herself. She stood up and balled her hands into tight fists.
"Lily!" Hannah said in an exasperated tone.
"You do too!" Carrie spoke up, rising and stepping around Hannah so she was screaming in Lily's face.
"Ladies, is everything ok?" James asked. Their fighting had attracted so much attention that James thought it was time to step in. He knew Lily wouldn't want the teachers to notice, and their fight was getting loud enough that even the Slytherins had started to look over.
"Stay out of it, Potter," Carrie practically growled.
"You don't have to yell at him! He's just trying to help," Lily said, surprising even herself in her defense of her enemy. Her outburst really just showed how angry she was at her friend, and had nothing to do with the little feelings for Potter that had been intensifying over the past week. James gaped at Lily in surprise. He couldn't help the spread of a small smile across his lips.
"Oh, isn't that cute? Have you finally realized that you're madly in love with him, Lily? That he's more than just the irritating guy that you regularly dream about without his shirt on saving you from a burning building?" Carrie shot out.
"Carrie, how could you?" Hannah asked, wide-eyed.
"I do not, I have not. I have never dreamed about Potter without his shirt on! And I don't even like Potter! He's revolting!" Lily protested feebly. Her face was one giant blush, and she ducked her head so that it would be less noticeable.
"Evans? Do you really dream about me without my shirt on?" James asked, a full smile breaking out on his face.
"Oh, she does every night. I heard her muttering 'Oh Jamesie, you saved my life! Now kiss me!' and sighing in her sleep only a week ago," Carrie said loudly. James looked and felt completely stunned. He had always hoped Lily felt the same as he did, but he would have never guessed that she was that into him! If all of this was true, then why weren't they dating yet?
"Carrie!" Hannah said, shocked that her friend would be so petty!
Lily was speechless and stunned. She felt completely humiliated and couldn't believe that it had been at the hands of her best friend! She kept her gaze on the face of her best friend, afraid to look around and see how many faces were staring at her. She didn't dare look at Potter! She didn't want to see the look on his face. There was no doubt in her mind that he was smirking at her. Bloody Potter! It was all his fault!
"Carrie," Lily said, narrowing her eyes at her best friend and allowing the rage to blow through her, "it's no wonder Dave broke up with you. I can see just why he couldn't stand to be around you anymore!" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Lily wished there were some spell that would take them back. She watched her best friend dissolve into tears with horror, wondering how those words had come out of her mouth.
"Carrie, I," Lily began, moving towards Carrie, putting out her arm to comfort her.
"You know what, Lily. You are the biggest waste of a person that I've ever know, and I can't believe it's taken me so long to realize it! Your sister is completely right. Everyone would be a whole lot better off without your freakish presence in their lives," Carrie said snidely, turning to walk out of the hall.
Lily felt her eyes fill with tears as she remembered when her sister had shot those words at her earlier on in the summer. She turned toward the back of the hall, all thoughts focused on running away.
"Oh, Lily, you forgot something," Carrie said. Lily turned around without thinking and before she could react she was hit with a wall of Pumpkin Juice.
Lily stood there for a second, sticky Pumpkin Juice covering her face and dribbling down to stain her new robes. She stared at Carrie for a second feeling tremors of rage flowing through her body. It felt like hours that she stared into the hate-filled eyes of the girl that used to be her best friend, but it was really only a second. Before she knew what she was doing, she had sprung at Carrie. The girls landed on the floor of the great hall with a clatter and tangle of arms and legs. Everyone in the room was now staring at the two girls as Lily sunk a punch into Carrie's face. Carrie whipped her arm around and caught Lily straight in the nose. With an audible crack, Lily's nose began bleeding. The two girls were scratching and clawing at each other, pulling chunks of hair and sinking punches whenever they got the chance.
"Catfight!" Sirius called, jumping over the table and landing beside the girls. After shoving a third year out of his way, he sat down in front of the fight, enjoying himself.
"Pads, help me separate them!" James yelled, attempting to grab Lily and pull her off of Carrie. In the process he got punched in the stomach and he doubled over, the breath knocked out of him.
"And why would I do that?" Sirius asked.
"Padfoot!" James hissed.
Sirius quickly glanced over at James to see the glare covering his face. "Fine, you always have to ruin my fun."
"Lily, come on," James yelled, grabbing her around the waist and pulling her back. At the same time, Sirius grabbed Carrie around the waist and pulled her back. Even though the girls were separated now, they fought against the arms that held them, trying to get at each other again.
"Get off me, Black!" Carrie screamed, flailing her arms and legs. Carrie couldn't do much, as Sirius's muscled arms were locked around her waist. That is, she couldn't free herself until her shoe connected forcefully where no girl ought to kick a guy without good reason. With a high-pitched yelp, Sirius let go of Carrie, who ran after Lily. Potter was successfully dragging Lily down the aisle to the exit until he felt a shove from the back. Carrie had launched herself at James's back, and he fell over on top of Lily.
"Ouch!" James said as Carrie scratched his cheek with her sharp nails. He locked his hands around Carrie's thin wrists and hauled her off of Lily, back over towards Sirius. Lily took the opportunity to jump up and try to flit past James.
"Lily, get back!" James bellowed.
"Guess that means Potter likes me, Lily! Bummer!" Carrie screamed.
"He's mine, Carrie. Back off!" Lily screamed, still trying to shove past James.
"Sirius, stop whimpering on the floor and help me!" James cried.
"Oh no, there's no way I'm going near her again!" Sirius said in a high-pitched squeak.
"Grab Lily, then," James said.
"Don't mind if I do," Sirius said, smirking at James as he stood up cautiously.
"On second thought, just stay where you are," James said, not too happy with the way Sirius was looking at Lily.
"And what in the name of Merlin is going on over here?" McGonagall screamed. In the chaos of the fight, none of the people involved had noticed McGonagall stalking down the aisle toward them. Now that she was standing before them, livid, James thought he had never seen the Gryffindor head so angry before, and both girls froze instantly.
"Nothing, Professor. It was all just a misunderstanding. Evans and I were just about to leave," James said quickly.
"Potter, Evans, Black, Vale! My office! Now!" McGonagall bellowed, sweeping at a quick pace towards the back of the hall. She cast one murderous glance back at the four students and they quickly followed her.
Sirius pulled Carrie ahead of James and Lily. Now that the adrenaline of the fight had disappeared from her system, Lily slumped noticeably. James noticed and put his arm around her shoulder, holding her up. He was braced for her protests, but she just looked at him with an exhausted, panicked expression on her face. Her lips were twitching and her eyes were filling with tears.
"Lily, are you ok?" James whispered, very aware of all the people that were staring at them despite Dumbledore's attempts to distract everyone.
"They're going to take away my Head Girl badge! I haven't even had the position for a day and they're going to take it away!" Lily said, her tears spilling down her cheeks.
"They can't do that! You deserve this more than anyone else at this school! If they fire you, then I'll quit in protest!" James said.
"Don't bother. They're just going to expel me. What am I going to do James?" Lily said, too distraught to realize her slip. She had never called him by his first name before, and he smiled brilliantly at her. "I'm glad my distress amuses you!"
"No, Lily," James said, unable to keep himself from smiling as he said her first name, "everything's going to be ok. They won't expel you for this. If they did, Sirius and I would have been expelled ages ago for fighting with…" James trailed off, remembering that Snape had been Lily's friend for a while. He shuddered involuntarily and was glad she was rid of him now.
"But everyone always expected that of you. I've never even had a detention before!" Lily wailed.
"Well, you've been missing out! Detention is great!" James joked.
"Potter!" Lily hissed. James sighed. So they were already back to last names.
"It was a joke, Lily," James said, rolling his eyes.
"Who told you that you could call me that?" Lily snapped.
"Fine, it was a joke, Evans. Happy?" James asked.
"No, I'm not. I'm about to be expelled in five seconds!" Lily said, feeling bile rising in her throat.
"It's going to be ok, Lily," James said, grabbing her hand and squeezing it.
Lily shot him an angry look.
"It's going to ok Evans," James corrected, squeezing her hand again. She gripped his hand tightly, biting her bottom lip as they neared McGonagall's office. Lily hated to even admit it to herself, but she felt slightly comforted by James's presence and his large hand wrapped around her small one. She was too worried to overanalyze their hand-holding, so she left it the way it was because it felt nice.
"Alright, I'll deal with Vale first," McGonagall said, ushering Carrie into her office and closing the door behind them.
Lily slumped down against the wall as her exhaustion finally took over her body. Several places on her body were quite sore, especially her nose. Lily pulled James down next to her, craving some comforting.
"You look awful, Evans," Sirius called from above her, chuckling.
"Pads, stuff it, mate!" James bellowed.
"Sorry, Prongs, not everyone sees her the way you do," Sirius just rolled his eyes and walked down the hall a bit before sitting on the stone platform of a statue of a grumpy old witch.
"It's ok, Potter. I know I look a mess," Lily said, attempting to comb through her hair and untangle the red curls.
"No, you look beautiful," James said and Lily shot him a disbelieving look. "I'm not saying you should walk around with blood covering your face and the front of your robe every day, but I still think you're just as beautiful as ever." James said it so seriously that Lily blushed under the bruises and blood covering her face.
"Thanks, Potter," Lily said, smiling slightly at him before wincing. Her lip split and started bleeding, too.
"It's ok. You don't have to say it," James said, a twinkle in his hazel eyes.
"Say what?" Lily asked, conjuring a cup, water, and a cloth. She began dabbing at her lip, feeling the sting as she did so.
"I already know that you fantasize about me without my shirt on," James said, still smiling.
"Potter, that wasn't even true. Don't flatter yourself," Lily said, averting her eyes. She winced as she dabbed at the blood on her cheek. There was definitely a bruise forming under it.
"Ok, Evans," James said, still smiling.
"I'm serious, Potter!" Lily said firmly, wincing again as she wiped at the other cheek.
"Here, let me do that," James said, taking the cloth from her and very gently wiping her cheek. His face was very close to hers as he concentrated on cleaning her wounds without hurting her. Lily was holding her breath without realizing it. She felt dizzy and it had nothing to do with the injuries she had gotten during her fight with Carrie.
"Get a room, Prongs!" Sirius called from down the hall.
"Shut up, Pads, or I'll tell everyone what you said in your sleep over the summer!" James threatened, now concentrating on cleaning Lily's nose. This was the trickiest spot, as it had already turned a ghastly shade of black.
"You will not, or I will tell Evans here all about what you did in Fifth year," Sirius threatened back.
Lily gasped as he began to just barely wipe the bridge of her nose and James instantly pulled the cloth back. "I'm sorry, are you ok, Evans?" He felt awful hurting her.
"Sure, I'm fine," Lily said, fighting tears.
"Lily," James said, slipping himself as he watched this beautiful, brave girl that he was so desperately in love with.
Lily stared into his eyes and instantly all the worry, all the pain, all the lingering anger left her body. She looked down and saw his full, soft-looking lips mere inches from her own. She felt trapped. She didn't want to move. Her entire body was screaming for her to just lean forward and get it over with.
"Black!" McGonagall called out, banging the door open. Lily and James sprang apart, Lily wincing as her aches returned.
"Yes, Professor?" Sirius called from where he was sitting.
"For once, I called you to my office knowing that you didn't do anything. Please escort Ms. Vale to the Hospital Wing," McGonagall said sternly.
"Yes, Professor," Sirius said, standing up and walking towards Carrie, who glowered at him.
"Should I write my mum and let her know, Pads? She'll be so proud that you lasted one whole day without getting a detention," James said, laughing at his friend.
"Funny, Prongs," Sirius shot over his shoulder, as he walked down the hall beside Carrie, a deliberate distance between them.
"Evans, Potter, in my office! Now!" McGonagall said coldly.
Lily jumped up, smoothed out her bloodied robe, and started walking towards McGonagall's door. Before she reached it, James sped up and grabbed her hand, squeezing it. Lily felt tingles and a warm feeling of comfort travel up her arms and she smiled slightly at him, thanking him silently, before she headed to her fate.
James had been in McGonagall's room too many times to count for matters just like this, so he would have normally felt completely at-ease, but he felt concern for Lily. She looked so small and nervous as she squirmed on the uncomfortable wooden chair in front of McGonagall's desk. James tried to catch her eye and smile reassuringly at him, but Lily didn't turn to look at him. Her eyes were glued to McGonagall, waiting for her fate.
AN: I'm sorry, I really don't want to whine, but PLEASE REVIEW this chapter if you liked it or didn't like it! The lack of response is making me wonder if I should continue!
Thanks for reading,
LittleMissKrissy