Ch.4
Love is in the Air
Desperate for changing, starving for truth
I'm closer to where I started
Chasing after you
I'm falling even more in love with you
Letting go of all I've held on to
I'm standing here till you make me move
Hanging by a moment here with you
Lifehouse: Hanging by a moment here with you
At breakfast, Lily squirmed in her seat uncomfortably as she tried to ignore James's intense stare. The other students in the Great Hall were chatting amongst themselves. Even James's friends were talking. He seemed to be the only silent one there.
"Honestly, you think he would have given up by now," Lily complained to Alice, who was staring at her spoon. Lily paused and looked at her. "Alice? Are you even listening to me?"
"Yeah of course," Alice remarked dryly still focused on her spoon. "You're complaining about Potter again; big surprise." She frowned at her spoon. "Is it me or did we get new spoons this year? I could have sworn that the old ones didn't have crystals on the handle…" Alice glanced up and noticed Lily's annoyed expression. She smiled faintly. "Maybe you should give him a chance."
"Absolutely not!" Lily said loudly, alarming several third-years near them. To her dismay, James was grinning at her. She felt her cheeks turn pink and quickly looked down at her plate. "I will not that that big-headed, bullying prat a chance."
"I think he's changed," Alice said thoughtfully. "Haven't you noticed? It's been a week since we got back and James hasn't hexed anyone or landed himself a detention. It's a bit weird, actually. James without a detention is like…"
"I know what you mean," Sirius appeared out of nowhere and wedged himself between Alice and Lily. "Prongs has been so…moody lately. He hasn't been interested in any of our pranks. I mean, bloody hell, he doesn't even talk that much. All he does is stare at you." Saying this, he winked at Lily who blushed vividly. Clearing her throat loudly, Lily covered up by taking a sip of her pumpkin juice.
"I think he's in love," Sirius said conversationally.
Lily choked and began coughing. "Pardon?" she managed to sputter out while Alice and Sirius shot her amused looks.
"Yup," Sirius said, rather cheerfully. "Congratulations Evans, you're now officially the love of Prong's life." He stood up suddenly. "Well, class is going to start in a few minutes. So if you'll excuse me ladies…" Sirius rose from the table and went to go talk to James, who had a curious expression on his face.
Sirius and James began whispering furiously. After Sirius said something, and Lily had a shrewd idea what, James's jaw dropped open and punched Sirius in the arm. Sirius looked affronted and scowled, but James met Lily's gaze nervously, causing her to drop her fork.
Cursing under her breath, Lily emerged from underneath the table, her face flaming.
Beside her, Alice-who had been watching the whole thing- shook with silent mirth. Lily glowered at her but Alice continued laughing. With an offended huff, Lily grabbed her bag and stormed off to class.
"Stupid Alice, some friend she is," Lily muttered under her breath. She was so intent on cursing her life that she didn't notice a tap on her shoulder.
"EVANS!" a voice bellowed in her ear and Lily dropped her bag in surprise. Whirling around, she found herself looking into the amused hazel eyes of James.
"Potter, I should have known," Lily said as he picked up her bag and handed it to her. "Thanks," she said grudgingly.
"Listen, about what Padfoot mentioned earlier," James said, looking slightly embarrassed. "Erm…" He paused, clearly at a loss for words.
"Don't about it," Lily assured him. She felt her cheeks turning red again. "I know Sirius was only kidding. Well see you in class I guess." She rushed off leaving a very confused James in her wake.
"He wasn't kidding…" James said quietly, even though Lily had left, "and we have the same classes…"
X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Lily was the first one to get to Advanced History of Magic that morning. She sat silently in her seat, waiting for Alice to show up. After a couple of minutes, Alice finally showed up. She spotted Lily and immediately rushed over.
"Lily!" Alice greeted her. "You ran out of the Great Hall so fast, I didn't even notice you were gone!"
"Well, maybe that was because you were so busy laughing," Lily said darkly. She looked around the classroom and saw James and Remus talking quietly a couple of desks away from her.
"Oh c'mon, lighten up! You have to admit that was pretty funny," Alice poked Lily, but Lily didn't smile. "Even though it's true," Alice said as an afterthought.
"It's not true!" Lily denied as she watched James throw a wad of parchment at Remus's head. James turned around and caught her eye. Lily quickly looked away. "Potter's not capable of love."
"He has been chasing you for six years now," Alice pointed out. "Anyways, I think it's rather romantic."
Lily scoffed but didn't have a chance to retort since Professor Binns floated into the classroom and began lecturing them on the Troll War of 978. Alice groaned at the sight of the ghostly professor and reluctantly got out her notebook. Lily, on the other hand, hadn't even picked up her quill. She absentmindly gazed at the back of James's head. It was odd how she didn't find him as annoying as last year. Potter hadn't even asked her out yet, and it had been a week. When he reached up to ruffle his hair, Lily wasn't bothered by it. In fact, she thought it was a little cute: How he played with his hair like a child. Wait, did I just call Potter "cute"? Lily's eyes widened and she shook her head to clear it of all "disturbing" thoughts.
"Lily!" Alice whispered urgently and pointed to her blank piece of paper. "Professor Binns just said this might come up on N.E.W.T.S.!"
"Huh?" Lily broke out of her trance.
"Why aren't you paying attention?" Alice asked curiously. Then her eyes found James and a weird look appeared on her face that Lily didn't like at all. "I see…" Alice smiled knowingly at Lily, "you were too busying staring at James."
"No! I wasn't! I mean, I was….but not in the way you were thinking…" Lily protested weakly. It was no use. Alice still had that knowing smile on her face.
"Sure," Alice agreed with her but she was still smiling. "Well, maybe you can take a break from staring at James and take some notes."
Lily picked up her quill and began scribbling down notes, her cheeks pink.
When class was over, Lily lingered behind to ask Professor Binns about the information she missed. Alice waited patiently. As soon as Lily was done, Alice began talking.
"What was that all about?" Alice asked while Lily packed up her bags.
"What are you talking about?" Lily replied, her expression closed.
"You know, the whole staring at Potter thing," Alice pressed her, not noticing that their conversation was no longer private.
"Do my ears deceive me?" Remus said suddenly behind them. "I thought you just said that Lily was staring at Potter."
Lily yelped and whirled around. Alice snickered softly.
"No! That's not what it sounds like!" she said frantically, looking around for any sigh of James. "Don't tell James, please."
"Don't tell me what?" James asked curiously as he appeared. He looked around in confusion at everyone. Alice was laughing hard about something. Remus looked amused. Lily-she seemed to be avoiding his glare. That's odd. Normally she just glares him with hatred.
"Nothing! Nothing at all," Lily said in a squeaky voice and grabbed Alice by the arm. "C'mon Alice, let's go! The bell already rang!" Saying this, she practically ran out of the room with Alice behind her.
"We don't have a bell," James said to Remus. Remus shrugged.
Things were getting very weird.
Lily brushed her bangs out of her eyes and stirred her bubbling potion. They were making a Calming Draught today. Lily thought it should be simple. But try as she may, she couldn't get her potion to thicken. Alice wasn't taking this class so she couldn't help her. She glanced at her the blonde girl next to her. Her name was Kay Aston. She was a Ravenclaw and was known for her queerness. Lily thought she was nice and was good friends with her.
"Kay?" Lily asked.
"Mm?"
"How's your Calming Draught coming along?"
"Not so good," Kay smiled ruefully at her thick, gooey, mud like substance in her pewter cauldron.
"At least you got yours to thicken," Lily frowned at her watery potion.
"Don't worry about it. It will be fine. If you leave it alone, it will straighten itself out. Everything will work out if you give it time," Kay replied vaguely as she smiled.
"Are you talking about the potion?" Lily asked, a little confused.
"No, I'm talking about life," Kay said dreamily.
"Oh…thanks…" Kay wasn't much help, but it was to be expected. Kay seemed to live in a different world than the rest of them. Lily sometimes wished she was more like Kay. She wanted to live life like nothing mattered and just enjoy it.
But first she had to thicken her Calming Draught.
"Need help?"
Lily looked up and smiled. "Sev," she said in relief, "help sounds great right now." She pointed sheepishly to her Draught. "It's still very thin. I don't know how to thicken it."
Snape looked sympathetically at her potion. "Some leech juice ought to help."
Lily squinted at the direction on the board. "But it doesn't say anything about leech juice up there," she said bewildered.
"Trust me," Snape handed her a small glass vial of lavender liquid. "Use mine."
Lily took it doubtfully and poured it into her potion, then stirred it. The change was immediate.
"It worked!" Lily beamed at Snape.
"Of course it did," Snape replied smugly.
Lily was so happy that she threw her arms around him and hugged him tightly. Snape looked surprised but pleased.
She let go after a few seconds and turned back to her potion. "It's nearly done now!" she said happily then looked back at Snape. "Honestly Sev, you just saved my life there."
Snape shrugged as if to say it was nothing and went back to his desk.
A couple seats away, James Potter glared at Snape with obvious hatred. He had been watching them for the last few minutes and he didn't like what he saw.
A/N: Ah Snape. I had to put some action between Snape and Lily to match the plot. Don't worry. Lily will have some very 'special' moments with James later on.
But you won't get to read it unless you REVIEW. Yes I am that evil. It's one of the benefits of being a fanfiction author ;)
XOXO
Cynthia
