A/N: We apologise fervently for the long delay between the last chapter and this one, and have no excuse for our tardiness. We do, however, offer up this chapter as a peace – offering, and hope you all love it.
So here's the twelfth chapter of Moments Lost in Time.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Chapter Twelve: Anything Short of Murder
"What the bloody hell was that?"
That seemed to be the general consensus of the Hogwarts population, as they all returned from the Great Hall, having just seen a spontaneous display of powerful magic. So powerful, the windows had shattered and the cutlery had exploded. Pandemonium and lightening had struck, as student after student rushed out of the Great Hall, eager to discuss this in a more private setting. The teachers had stood dumbfounded for several nanoseconds, reluctantly impressed, before they had dragged Lily and James off to discuss their respective detentions. Sirius, Remus, Peter, Carina, and Sierra had retreated to a secluded corner of the Gryffindor common room, in a state of shock that things had deteriorated so quickly, and to such an extent, between their two friends.
"They were just…just, sorta…staring…and then - then the windows-!" Peter's mouth opened and closed like that of a goldfish as he struggled to form a coherent sentence that adequately described the display they had just witnessed.
"Yes, yes, the windows blew up, and the cutlery exploded," finished Sirius, somewhat impatiently. He looked himself up and down in a disgusted manner. Deep orange stains were spattered festively on his clothing, courtesy of a certain pair who had decided to make the goblets explode just as he had gone to take a sip of pumpkin juice.
Carina smirked slightly at Sirius. Unable to control herself, she had burst out laughing at a flabbergasted Sirius who was drenched in juice, and had only been able to stop when a sniggering Sierra pulled her out of the Great Hall.
"Calls himself a friend – bloody James," muttered Sirius, pulling at his sodden robe sleeve dispassionately.
"This wasn't just James's doing," pointed out Remus. "I don't know exactly what happened with the two of them. Well I know what happened," Remus glanced pointedly at a soaked Sirius, "but I don't know what triggered it…." He trailed off into silence, lost in his thoughts.
"It's obvious what triggered it! James and Lily hate each other, remember? A few homicidal thoughts aren't out of the ordinary here," said Sierra.
"We ALL know they hate each other, but why did something this serious happen today? Why now?"
Carina rolled her eyes. "Remus, what exactly is the point of asking totally obvious questions? What we should be doing is-"
But exactly what they should have been doing was drowned out by a loud, resounding slam. Silence fell immediately. Carina jumped slightly, her plan forgotten as she gazed at the mutinous face of a very, very angry Lily Evans.
Lily was not happy. One could clearly decipher her less-than-happy mood by the sheer volume with which she stomped through the common room, sending death glares around the room. The younger Gryffindors emitted terrified squeaks before scampering up off to their dorms, leaving the slightly older Gryffindors to observe the walls and tapestries of their common room, quite afraid to meet a certain redhead's eyes.
"I heard that she can curse someone just by looking at them!" muttered a third year in what could only be described as a stage whisper.
"Oh, yeah? Well I heard she can turn people to stone by winking at them!" whispered another.
"Why would she wink at them?"
"Why wouldn't she?"
"Because winking is stup-"
Both students fell silent immediately when Lily whirled around to face them.
"S-so-sorry," they whispered, trembling slightly.
Lily didn't even bother to respond. She continued to stomp through the common room, muttering obscenities centering around a certain someone, until she reached Carina and Sierra. Just as she was about to speak-
"I heard that he can blow people up just by staring at them!"
"I heard that he can cause an earthquake when he claps his hands."
"Why would he cla-"
They both fell silent once more, apologizing feebly before escaping to their own dorm room.
Even louder stomps were heard as an equally angry James Potter crossed the common room. Sirius, Remus, and Peter exchanged apprehensive looks at their friend's thunderous expression.
Lily back stiffened instantly and she swiveled slowly to face the bane of her existence. James, noticing Lily standing near his friends, looked downright murderous as he scowled at her.
A deathlike silence descended over the common room, and several people surreptitiously began moving away from the windows.
James tore his eyes away first and turned to Sirius, Remus, and Peter. "Guys," he said tersely, making his way to the staircase that led up to the boys' dorms.
Lily jerked slightly as if a spell had been lifted, and gazing with unprecedented venom at the back of James's unaware head, began to make her way to her dorm room. Carina and Sierra followed, anxious expressions creasing their faces.
As both James and Lily proceeded to stomp up the stairs to their respective dormitories, enraging images of the past hour seemed to flit through their minds.
Flashback
As pandemonium reigned in the Great Hall, two students were standing stock still, gazing at each other in befuddled fury.
What the…
"Mr. Potter!" James winced as Professor McGonagall's dulcet tones reached his ears, the remarkably high decibel level almost too much to bear. "Ms. Evans!"
Before Lily could so much as move, think, or even breathe, a hand descended to grasp her arm in a vice-like grip and all but dragged her out of the chaotic Great Hall, a bespectacled boy being pulled along just as violently, in her wake.
The further they moved away from the Great Hall, the quieter it became. Almost too quiet. An eerie sense of foreboding engulfed Lily, the overbearing silence serving only to heighten her apprehension. She chanced a glance at James, and was strangely relieved to see that he didn't seem to be his usual cool self either.
Let's see Mr. James- I-Can-Get-Out-of-Anything-Short-of-Murder- Potter handle this…
This thought had barely crossed her mind before Lily's vivid imagination began to churn out images of what her future may now entail. Just how many detentions did one receive after practically blowing up the Great Hall? Or maybe this was too grave a matter for mere detentions. Maybe she was going to be suspended, sent to Azkaban, or worse…expelled
Lily couldn't help but gulp audibly as this horrifying thought sent shockwaves through her already troubled system. She was going to get expelled. Yes, she was going to get thrown out of Hogwarts, and then…and then what? What sort of life would she lead? She couldn't get a proper wizarding job with barely five and a half years of magical education…and she couldn't get a muggle job worth having without a university degree…and she couldn't get a university degree since she hadn't even attended a muggle high school…which all led to one horrifying conclusion.
Lily Audrey Evans was going to end up an overweight waitress, moving from job to job after being fired for her decidedly inferior waitressing skills, before ending up as a sixty-five year old busgirl with only cats for company.
And she had been next in line for Head Girl too. .
"Ms. Evans? Ms. Evans? Ms-"
"Hey! EVANS! Snap out of it!"
Lily seemed to jerk awake, startled out of her stupor, she gazed at her surroundings in puzzlement. With a strangled gasp she realized where she was.
Dumbledore's office.
Lily Audrey Evans had become a delinquent.
She almost gave into her overpowering urge to cry, stopping only because of the presence of Potter and the blue eyes that were gazing at her with such concern.
Calm down, Lily, calm down. Let's talk this out. Everything will be all right.
"I'm going to get EXPELLED!" she wailed instead, clutching her long hair in consternation, moisture welling up in her green eyes.
Dumbledore seemed to be taken aback. James merely sniggered, before the realization that they could, in fact, be expelled stole over him. He looked up anxiously, and subsided in relief to see the headmaster patting Lily's hand in a grandfatherly sort of way.
"Nobody is going to be expelled, Ms.Evans," said Dumbledore kindly, resisting the urge to smile in amusement. He had a feeling that the distraught redhead might not appreciate it.
This did nothing to abate Lily's anguish, which seemed to be pouring out with alarming speed and volume. "…waitress…spinster…CATS!" She ended with a high pitched wail and James could only gaze at her in bewilderment, wondering where cats came in.
"Cats?" he asked, half amused, half concerned.
This seemed to do the trick.
"You!" With disturbing speed Lily's head whipped in his direction, distress vanishing rapidly from her blotchy features. "It is because of you James Potter that I am going to be expelled, and I hope you are happy that I am going to end up an unmarried, overweight waitress who owns twenty-five million cats!"
James hastily scraped his chair away from Lily, resisting the urge to either run now, or succumb to the hysterical laughter that was building up inside him.
Professor McGonagall who was standing slightly off to the side of Professor Dumbledore's desk was finding it highly disconcerting that one of her most promising pupils seemed to be deranged.
"Nobody is going to be expelled," repeated Dumbledore firmly, quickly bringing James's and Lily's attentions back to the matter at hand. "You both, however, are going to explain to me what just happened in the Great Hall." He gazed at the pair intently, wondering what sort of explanation they would provide for one of the most remarkable feats of non-verbal, wandless magic he had ever experienced.
"I…really don't know," said James, with a vague shrug of his shoulders.
"You…don't know?" asked McGonagall sharply, shooting both James and Lily questioning looks.
"I don't know how it happened, or even why it happened," elaborated James. He had no intention of sharing with anybody what had been running through his mind at the time of the – well, explosion seemed as fitting a word as any.
Lily nodded, her face paler than usual. "I don't know what happened either," she contributed softly, linking and unlinking her fingers nervously in her lap.
James silently thanked God for making sure that Lily remained silent. He was pretty sure that both he and Lily had been thinking pretty much the same thing before the explosion, and it was this, more than their impending punishment, that worried him. Why had he, together with Lily, caused something of such incalculable magnitude to occur? It was a puzzle he was fully intending to work out in the privacy of his dorm, but before he could get there, he had Dumbledore to get through.
If the headmaster was disappointed in this lackluster explanation he did nothing to show it. Instead he sighed heavily once, and then twice. "Alright then. The both of you have a month's worth of separate detentions."
Lily's head whipped up in shock. A month's…she had never received detention before this year, and now she had a month's worth of detention
"But-"
"No buts, Ms.Evans. The both of you are at fault for this incident, and, consequently the both of you will face the punishment. And I expect these petty skirmishes to stop at once. I expect more from the both of you."
These words did more to quiet Lily than the loudest lecture could. She subsided in her chair, defeated, and none too happy about it.
James was also feeling a sense of injustice at this lengthy punishment. Sure, he was competing with Sirius for receiving the most detentions before graduation, and sure, as a marauder he has earned his fair share of detention, but those detentions were well earned. These however were…not. He has no idea what he had done and receiving so many detentions for it seemed hardly fair. But what could he do?
So in the end, they mumbled "Yes, Professor," sheepishly and left the headmaster's office, walking separately to Gryffindor tower, lost in their thoughts. Their lengthy walk however did nothing to soothe the roiling emotions that were now pointing to the real source of their problems. And, surprisingly enough, it wasn't themselves.
End Flashback
"A month's worth of detentions?" gasped Carina in shock.
"Yes!" wailed Lily, pacing back and forth in the girl's dorm. She had just finished telling Carina and Sierra what had happened in the headmaster's office and the perceived injustice of her punishment still rankled. They had already been through why the explosion had occurred in the first place and Lily was drawing a total blank. She honestly couldn't even begin to work through the troubled emotions that had undoubtedly caused the catastrophic end to the Halloween feast.
"Think back, Lily," urged Sierra, sitting in her pajamas on her bed. "How were you feeling before it happened?"
"I don't know!" cried Lily. At Sierra's reproachful look she muttered, "Mad…I guess."
"So you were mad at James," prompted Sierra. "But why were you mad at him? I mean, besides the usual. Not the whole 'he asks me out a thousand times a day' thing, but why were you mad at him tonight? I mean something big must have happened for you guys to lose control like that…"
"I don't know why I was mad at him! He was just there…with Kat, and urgh, my hair still smells like pumpkin!" Lily was becoming increasingly incoherent as she muttered about the buggering idiot James Potter who had put pumpkin in her hair, and Kat, stupid, stupid Kat who thought James was…was being funny!
Sierra and Carina, listening intently, and trying to make sense of the jumbled tirade that was spewing out of Lily, latched on to one idea. "Kat? Why would Kat make you mad? She was only flirtin-" Carina stopped short, a new, somewhat scary realization dawning.
"Lily are you jealous of Kat?" she asked abruptly.
This brought Lily to a screeching halt. "Why would I be jealous of Kat?" she asked disdainfully, waving this ludicrous idea aside without a second thought.
"Exactly. Why would you be jealous of Kat?" asked Sierra, catching on to what her friend was implying.
Sierra and Carina exchanged darkly meaningful looks, while Lily stared at her best friends, stubbornly refusing to let her mind comprehend what her friends were insinuating.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O
"A month's worth of detentions?" asked Remus in surprise.
The scene in the boy's dormitory was eerily similar to the one in the girl's dorm. Remus, Sirius, and Peter had listened closely to James's recitation about what had gone down in Dumbledore's office, a place more familiar to them than it should have been. They too couldn't seem to figure out what had set off the explosion that was sure to go down in Hogwarts history.
"Never seen you lose it like that mate," remarked Sirius stretching out on his bed. "What happened?"
"I only wish I knew," muttered a frustrated James. "I have no bloody idea."
"James," began Remus thoughtfully, "magic of that magnitude needs not only power, but passion as well. Obviously you were deeply disturbed about something; probably to do with Lily since she was a part of this…can't you think back to just before it happened? What was going through your mind?"
James tried his best to come up with the answer the four of them were so avidly seeking. "It was a bit of a jumbled mess. I mean I guess I was thinking about Evans…but I mean there was so much more than that…" James inadvertently focused on the one person he could explain his feelings quite clearly about. "Goldman, that bloody git," muttered James unexpectedly, savagely biting off the head of the chocolate frog he was holding.
"Goldman?" asked Peter, yawning widely. He rubbed his eyes sleepily, before saying, "What does Goldman have to do with this? Maybe you're a bit confused James…" he added, hesitantly. "We're talking about Lily here. Li-ly," he enunciated carefully, "you know, red hair, green eyes, the girl you've been infatuated with for the better half of your Hogwarts career?"
"I haven't been infatuated with her," snapped James irritably, reaching for another chocolate frog.
"Of course not!" amended Peter, only too quick to agree. "I just meant … Goldman and Lily really have nothing to do with each other. Well he did ask her out tonight but I mean…." Peter trailed off, glancing apprehensively at James who now seemed to look more dangerous than ever before.
Remus and Sirius glanced at each other, the reason for James's fraught emotions becoming all too clear. Jealousy on James's part was par for the course whenever anyone asked Lily out but since James claimed that he was over Lily, why would Goldman asking Lily out bother him?
Unless…
"James," began Sirius cautiously, "the incident in the Great Hall wouldn't have anything to do with Lily being asked out by Gold-"
Sirius stopped at once, catching the dark expression on James's face. "Right, so no then. Well, ok, you were probably stressed or something."
And even though they settled on Sirius's explanation, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were only more convinced of their theory with James's denial of it. Perhaps their best friend was not quite so over Lily as he so emphatically claimed, and perhaps deep down, their best friend knew it too.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O
Although the next day was a school day, and fervent whispers followed them wherever they went, Lily and James managed to avoid each other, only seeing each other during class, hardly believing that the entire school was talking about them because of last night. After dinner, James, unable to take it anymore, left his friends to their homework and decided to take a quick spin around the Quidditch pitch to clear his head. Lily had long since departed for her dormitory, craving the solitude her empty dorm offered. For the first time since directly after the explosion, Remus, Sirius, Peter, Carina, and Sierra found themselves alone together.
"What are we going to do now?" Carina looked up from her essay, abandoning the pretense of doing her homework. She had been waiting for Lily to leave so that she could discuss possible solutions with her friends.
Sierra shrugged. "I don't know…" She looked around the common room as if the answer would appear in the air before her, biting her lip in a worried manner.
The boys looked at each other, slightly confused. "You don't know about … what?" ventured Sirius, looking from the blond to the brunette.
"Er…what we're going to do about Lily and James."
"Well, what are we going to do?" Peter asked tentatively.
"That's what we don't know!" Sierra snapped, as the chubby boy backed up.
"Well, do were really have to do anything?" ventured Sirius, immediately regretting it as a dangerous expression crossed Carina's face.
"Of course we have to do something!" hissed Carina, eyes flashing. "Two of my closest friends hate each other, and you expect me to do nothing about it? I've known James since we were in diapers! I've known Lily since the first day of Hogwarts! How can I not do anything?"
Sierra nodded firmly, her dark blue eyes solemn.
"Ok then," muttered Sirius, backing away slightly from Carina who was now breathing much too heavily. "We do something. But what?"
He didn't need to look at the girls to know that he had just asked something incredibly stupid.
"Well…we could always lock them up in a closet until they decide to be nice," suggested Peter, mentally patting himself on the back for this ingenious idea.
"I want my friends to get along, not to be dead!" shrieked Carina hysterically. Peter backed away from her as well.
"We could always take their wands away…" tried Peter.
"No."
"How about we-"
"No."
"You haven't even heard my idea yet!" cried Peter, wounded.
"Yet the answer is still no," replied Carina without even moving her head.
"We could always sort of, push them together-" started Remus before being interrupted by a boisterous yell.
"Trust games!" yelled Sirius joyfully, sure that he had just unearthed the idea of the century.
Everyone in the common room started at him in confusion. Sirius made shooing gestures and eventually the crowd turned away, muttering about another Marauder who was surely going around the bend.
"Er…what?" asked Sierra. Bewilderment was evident in her expressive eyes.
"Trust games," repeated Sirius, as if those two words alone should be good enough for anybody.
"What the hell are you talking about Sirius?" questioned Carina, still quite worked up.
"I am talking about trust games."
"Really? And here I though you were talking about kumquats," muttered Remus, annoyed at his friend's lack of explanation.
Sirius shot the trio a withering look before turning to Peter. "Wormtail knows what I'm talking about, right?"
Peter nodded hesitantly. "Padfoot is talking about games involving trust."
Sirius nodded proudly, extremely satisfied. "Thank you Wormtail," he said, inclining his head graciously. "See, Moony? Smart people understand what other people are trying to say…"
Before Remus could reply, Sierra said, "No."
"What do mean 'no'?" asked Sirius, highly affronted.
"Was it the 'n' or the 'o' that confused you," asked Carina sarcastically before turning away from him. "Now Remus," she said in a falsely sweet voice, "what was your idea?"
Leaving Sirius to fume, Remus began explaining. "Well Lily and James are in every class together, right? So I think that whenever we pick partners and stuff we should force them to be together so that they get used to working together. I think, eventually they'll grow, if not to like, but to put up with each other peaceably."
Sirius let out a derisive laugh. "That's your idea? James and Lily are never going to get along! They don't trust each other! And if you want them to truly get along you have to build up some sort of trust. Trust games!"
Everyone stared at him, slightly impressed despite themselves. Sirius was being … serious (pun intended).
"Well, ok, here's what we're going to do," said Sierra decisively. "We'll go along with Remus's idea for the week and if it doesn't work-"
"Which it won't!" interjected Sirius.
"-if it doesn't work," repeated Sierra, glaring at Sirius, "then we'll try Sirius's idea. Sound good?" She looked around and when the group nodded assent, they began to plan in earnest, ignoring Sirius's dire predictions.
The week passed too quickly to notice, and the group tried everything they could to push James and Lily together. They made Lily and James sit next to each other during breakfast, lunch, and dinner, left the unusually silent pair partner less, forcing them to work together, and spent an inordinate amount of time in groups, inevitably forcing their friends together.
Ironically, if James was back to liking Lily he would have been overjoyed at the extended periods of time he was forced to spend with her, but then, if James was his usual self, none of this would have happened.
The teachers thought that their "spat" had blown over, just one of those blips that came and went, but those close to Lily and James knew that their drawn-out silences were clearly not just a 'blip'. Their detentions had started, and with James's Quidditch practices and Lily's prefect duties, as well as with both their piles of homework, Lily and James didn't really have time to snap at each other. Not that they would. They were being unusually withdrawn and careful around each other, their detentions weighing them down and serving as a reminder for what happened when they let their instinctive reactions towards each other get out of control.
After the week passed in cold silence between Lily and James, their friends, becoming more and more troubled with the expanding rift between the couple that no class assignment could bridge. Carina, Sierra, and Remus were forced to admit defeat on Friday afternoon.
Sirius, instead of saying his characteristic 'told-you-so!' nodded grimly, contemplating the task ahead.
"So…trust games?" he asked, somewhat warily, remembering how his idea had been received the last time he had mentioned it.
Sierra nodded wearily. "Trust games."
An almost imperceptible grin stole over her features as she imagined the hilarity that would be sure to ensue.
O.o.O.o.O.o.O.o.O
A/N: Review darlings – even if it's to rail at us for our 'latelyness'.