Chapter Eighteen - Unpredictable Occasions

Lily wasn't in a bad mood, but she was slightly subdued. She was definitely feeling the stress of schoolwork – which had doubled as the holidays approached – and on top of that, she had the self-appointed job of reuniting the school.

She was walking down the corridor towards the Great Hall and dinner, her right hand wrapped inside James's. He had insisted on walking her to dinner and had waited while she finished an essay in the library. Lily smiled, her green eyes trained on the floor. He insisted on a lot of things. Lily admitted a long time ago that he could relax her like nobody else, and she had given in to the idea. She still held herself back sometimes; she knew she couldn't trust herself to be rational around him, so she usually ended things fairly quickly and disappeared into her room. On more than one occasion she had been tempted to sneak into his room, but thankfully she had enough self control to dismiss the idea. Blushing, she realized that she wasn't sure if she wanted to dismiss the idea.

James was watching her, his mouth slightly open as if he were preparing to say something. But as they walked through the doors of the Great Hall, his mouth clamped shut and their hands fell away from one another.

The noise was almost deafening. It looked like a multi-sided, unorganized argument, bordering on a fistfight, or worse. Lily couldn't make out what was being said, but none of it sounded pleasant. Students surrounded all four of the long tables, shooting glares at one another, pushing and shoving, knocking over goblets of pumpkin juice and stray rolls. Lily's heart dropped to her stomach and she swung her head to the right. Kristen was standing on the side of everything, Remus beside her. Kristen's face was pale and her eyes were glued to the mob of people; she looked as if she wasn't hearing a word Remus was saying to her. Selene and Sirius were nowhere to be found, and Peter was standing behind Kristen and Remus, his head poking out from behind them to watch.

James's dark eyes were scanning the crowd in bewilderment. If that mob in the Gryffindor tower awhile back had seemed bad, this was much worse. However, none of the anger was being directed at Lily and James specifically this time. In fact, none of the students seemed to have noticed that either of them had walked in.

Lily focused her green eyes on the staff table to find that Dumbledore was not there; that explained the extension of this argument. The other professors were trying to calm the students down to no avail; they were severely outnumbered. Even McGonagall was standing and waving her arms, yelling something that was lost in the commotion.

The Head Girl was not happy. Her fear was beginning to float away while she watched the crowd of people, and her anger was flaring up at the thought that they were all stupid and immature if they couldn't see how they were acting. Even the seventeen-year-olds were yelling at one another like they were fighting for a toy.

Another goblet smashed against the floor, spraying liquid everywhere. Lily took a step forwards, causing James to stare at her avidly.

"Shut up! Shut the bloody hell up!" Lily screamed out at the crowd. "Listen to me!"

Slowly, the voices receded as they noticed the frantic Head Girl standing in front of them, yelling at the top of her lungs. Silence fell on the Hall.

"Fine! If you want to act like stupid prats, that's your choice. But not here, and not now! I will not have you arguing with each other over these groups, I'm sick and damn tired of it!" She realized that she had their full attention now, and carried on in a slightly lowered tone, "I've given this some thought, and I don't think this big meeting we were planning is going to help any of you. It seems you can't listen to sense, because it's beyond you. So, we're going to have a masquerade ball before Christmas! You won't know who is a Cavillor or an Ausculto, and we'll see how you fare then!"

Lily's face was bright red at this point. She looked across the crowd of students, who were staring with dumbstruck faces. Her emerald eyes swept across the room and landed on Dumbledore, who must have appeared in the midst of her outburst. A thought suddenly occurred to her and she quickly added, watching the headmaster, "That is, of course, with your approval, sir."

Dumbledore raised his eyebrows slightly, with a small smile, and extended his hand as if to say, "Carry on."

Lily smiled at him, relieved that she must not have sounded like a complete lunatic. Still flustered, her eyes focused on James, who watched her in extreme surprise. Apparently, he had not been part of this change in plans. Lily was worried that he might be angry, as she hadn't yet run the idea by him. Her eyes pleaded silently with his, not to be upset with her.

His face changed from surprise to admiration; he looked almost proud of her. He wasn't smiling, but his eyes told her what she wanted to know, and she grinned at him.

Lily realized, as she turned away from James, that Selene was now standing next to Kristen, her mouth open and eyes staring.

The students were stirring; their surprise was fading away. Many mouths opened at once, but nobody seemed to know what to say. Quietly, they all glanced at their friends or classmates and moved among themselves to find a place to sit and eat, even though much of the food had been thrown to the floor. Lily watched them, utterly lost for words; were they not going to protest what she had said? There weren't going to be any more shouts about her betrayal? Perhaps not…she took a few steps backwards, disorientation etched across her face.

Lily no longer felt very hungry. With a last glance at her friends, she turned and swept out the doors. She was only a few steps outside the entrance before she felt James beside her. Lily paused, not knowing where she wanted to go, and abruptly decided to take a walk across the school grounds. James followed her in silence through the Entrance Hall.

Once they were outside, Lily let out a long breath. "Well, altogether, that went much better than I thought it would."

James glanced over at her, his dark eyes running across her face. "You're brilliant," he smiled, taking her hand in his and squeezing it.

She blushed slightly, although she wasn't sure why. She didn't consider herself worthy of the praise, especially as she was beginning to feel embarrassed about the whole episode. They were nearing the lake and she watched as a giant squid poked it's tentacle above the water.

James suddenly stopped walking and tugged on her hand to get her to halt as well.

"Lily- we never formally said that we were going out." She was staring at him now, and he was speaking slowly, uncertainly. "I just, well, wanted to make sure that it was formal. So, will you be my girlfriend?"

Lily's face broke into a large smile, and she knew that she must look ridiculous, but she didn't care. "Of course I will, James. Logically, I already was your girlfriend."

James shifted, beaming at her. "Well, Miss I'm-always-logical, I'm glad you think so." As he was looking at her, unruly black hair falling into his eyes, his smile suddenly faded. He leaned over and softly, carefully kissed her. He tried to pull back and she leaned forward slightly to catch his lips again.

Quietly, with his dark eyes meeting her jade ones, he said, "Lily, I lo-"

"There you are!"

Lily and James jumped apart quickly, a little annoyed and disoriented.

Selene skidded to a stop in front of them, her cheeks flushed from hurrying. She looked between Lily and James and said, "Well shit, maybe I should go." She turned to leave but Lily caught hold of her arm and said,

"No, stay. What is it?"

Selene shifted her feet awkwardly. "Well, it wasn't really important." When she didn't get an answer, she continued, "It's just- I'm really impressed by what happened back there and – I want to help."

Lily grinned and swiftly engulfed Selene in a hug. Startled, it took the raven-haired girl a moment before she wrapped her arms around Lily and squeezed back.

"I'm so glad you've finally come around," Lily said quietly.

Selene spotted James over Lily's shoulder, looking slightly uncomfortable, and she grinned.

"Don't worry, Potter, she'll be all over you again in a minute."

Lily pulled away, blushing but smiling faintly at Selene, muttering, "Shut it."

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A few days passed and the seventh years were so absorbed in studying and finishing random essays that they didn't talk at length about what had transpired in the Great Hall. Remus and Kristen were in full support of Lily's new idea for a masquerade ball, agreeing that it would probably be much more effective than the meeting they were planning originally. But the two of them also insisted that they would do the book anyway, as they had already started on it. Lily had a faint suspicion that the just enjoyed the time alone together, but she didn't say a word about it.

Lily and James were on the way to Advanced Charms, her next class. James no longer had Charms, but he did have Advanced Transfiguration, which was close by. They didn't normally walk everywhere together, but James had again insisted on walking with her, and she saw no reason to protest.

They were nearing the Charms classroom when a voice addressed them from behind. It surprised them because the corridor was nearly empty, as most students were already in class.

"Er, Lily and James, right?"

They turned around to find a girl with shoulder-length dark brown hair staring back at them. She had a thin face and curiously sparkling hazel eyes.

Cautiously, Lily replied, "Yes."

The girl nodded. "I thought so." She seemed to mentally shake herself as she looked between them. "I just- I saw your notice, and of course I've heard what's been going on. I – er- wanted to help, if that's okay."

Lily's face immediately melted into a smile. "Of course it's okay! We can always use more help, believe me." James nodded, his face having softened now that he realized that this girl wasn't here to insult either of them.

"Brilliant!" The girl flashed a set of white teeth. "Oh yeah, my name's Clover Sindri – I'm a Cavillor – or maybe I'm not anymore, I don't know." She extended her hand, which Lily promptly shook, still smiling. "Anyway, I think the masquerade is an excellent idea."

"What House?" James asked, scanning her intently. He seemed much more pleased with her than he had ever been with Levent.

"Ravenclaw. I'm a fifth year."

He nodded, giving her a small smile. "Well, thanks, we'll let you know about the next meeting and all, but we'd better get going or we'll be late to-" James stopped short upon seeing a light-haired boy walk up to them, looking as if he had something to say.

All three of them turned their attention to the boy in curiosity. Lily raised one of her eyebrows slightly when he said, quite simply, "I'll help you."

The boy, who was tall with a freckled face, had blonde hair and bright blue eyes that made him look slightly like a hawk. Although he was addressing Lily and James, his eyes had wandered over to Clover, who was watching him skeptically. The boy seemed to realize that they were all staring at him and frowned.

"Er- I'm in Hufflepuff, a sixth year. I know that was all on the sign-up parchment. My name is Astor Linford." He paused. "Have I been too abrupt?"

Lily intervened quickly, her eyes wide and once again bewildered. "No! I'm sorry, Astor, I'm just a little surprised. We've only had one other person volunteer before today, and then Clover here just offered, and here you come-" She clamped her mouth shut thoughtfully, her eyes still reflecting surprise.

"Oh, well…" Astor was looking inquisitively at Clover, who gave him a little smile. "When's the next meeting, or whatever we do?" Astor asked, turning back to Lily and James.

James quickly replied, "We'll let you know, but now we really need to-"

"What group were you in, Astor?" Lily asked, though James was tugging on her hand, pulling her towards the Charms classroom which was just a few feet away.

"Ausculto." He called after her. "I guess I'll talk to you later, then."

James waved and Lily finally responded to his efforts to get her to walk away.

"That was certainly interesting," Lily asked wonderingly.

"Yes, it was. Er- I'll talk to you later Lily, I'm gonna be late." He squeezed her hand quickly and disappeared down the corridor. Lily smiled after him, glanced behind her to see that the two students had left, and entered the classroom to find her friends already there.

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Lily's mind was wandering continually throughout Charms class, so she was very thankful that Professor Flitwick was only reviewing what they had learned last week. He was also going on about some kind of practical exam he wanted to give, but she would worry about that later.

She was still wondering how two people had offered to help in the span of five minutes, when it had been weeks and they only had Levent Hedley offer so far. Apparently what she had done in the Great Hall had made some kind of impact, on at least some of the students. Plus, the rude comments had all but stopped, as most people seemed to have decided that they were no longer bothering her enough to be worth the effort, although Lily would beg to differ.

It wasn't that she was disappointed with the new offers of help. On the contrary, she was very enthusiastic about the whole thing. But she was also worried about where they were going to hold meetings in the future; surely they needed to find someplace other than the Heads room, it would be too crowded. Plus, that couch was beginning to seem a little too…personal to be sharing it with so many people. Her face flushed crimson. Lily could have sworn, as she looked out of the corner of her eye at Selene, who winked at her, that her friends were able to read her mind sometimes. Sighing, she tried to shove all of her thoughts away and concentrate on whatever Flitwick was going on abot.

Thankfully, class ended about ten minutes later. Lily let out an audible sigh, causing Kristen to look at her quizzically. Lily shrugged as if to say, "don't ask," and made a move towards the door. She would explain about Clover and Astor later, for now she just needed to think it all over.

"I need to ask Flitwick a question," Kristen said, "You go ahead and I'll catch up with you later."

Lily nodded, looking around for Selene, but she had already disappeared someplace. The redhead grabbed her bag, slung it over her shoulder, and slipped out the door. She had walked all of five steps before a hand touched her shoulder and she spun around.

"Oh, it's just you." Lily looked up at Levent, who was smiling at her and running a hand through his blonde hair.

"Sorry if I scared you, I didn't mean to."

"Did you need something?" She realized that his hand was still on her arm and frowned, taking a step backwards. She trusted him, but that didn't stop her from feeling slightly uncomfortable when they were standing so close together.

"I just wanted to say hello and see how you were doing. And was there anything you wanted me to do? I mean, we haven't had a meeting in awhile, it just seems like everything's come to a stop."

"I've just been really busy, and so has James," Lily explained, her eyes constantly darting to the hand on her arm. "You don't need to do anything extra though; we'll work on it together soon enough. There's just a lot of schoolwork that needs to be done first…don't worry about it."

He noticed that she was shifting uncomfortably and finally removed his hand, at which she let out the breath that she had unconsciously been holding in.

"Alright." He smiled at her. "Good enough, I just wanted to check, I'll see you later then." He leaned forward, causing her breath to hitch in her throat again, and lightly kissed her on the cheek.

Kristen appeared from behind him and grabbed Lily's arm, pulling her down the hall. "Let's go," Kristen said quickly, giving Levent a strange look.

Lily looked bewildered as she muttered, "Bye," and began walking next to Kristen. Levent stared after them, brushing hair out of his light green eyes.

"What were you doing?" The blonde girl demanded. "And what in hell's name was he doing?"

"I – don't know." Lily replied absently.

"Bloody Slytherin," she muttered, watching Lily seriously. "I don't trust him. I hope you know that."

"Why not? I haven't found anything untrustworthy in him so far."

"He's just- I don't know, I just can't let myself trust him and I wish you weren't so open towards him. Besides, I thought you and James were-"

"What do you mean?" Lily suddenly cut in, frowning.

"Nothing, I don't mean anything. Let's go find Selene; I'm not in the mood to start homework right now."

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"I told them I would help," Selene mumbled. She was sitting next to Sirius on the couch in the Gryffindor common room. There were other students around; in fact about half the room was full. But nobody said anything to them. It didn't look like anyone had noticed, and if they had, they didn't care. Neither Selene nor Sirius was sure where their friends were at the moment.

"Help?" Sirius asked in reply.

"With the groups, with this whole deal."

"Oh, right."

She turned her head to look at him, her blue eyes scanning over his face. "Well, I want you to help too."

He was still staring into the fire, the flames casting shadows over his face. "Do you now?"

Selene frowned and grabbed his jaw, moving his head so that he was looking at her. "You're awful at pretending to listen, Sirius Black."

He grinned at her. "And what do you plan on doing about it?"

Selene shrugged, leaning over slightly to put her feet in his lap, stretching out to fill the rest of the couch. "I'll have you trained soon enough, don't worry."

They didn't seem to notice when Lily, James, Kristen, and Remus entered through the portrait hole. The four of them stopped and stared at Selene and Sirius, who were sitting in contentment, almost amusement, with Sirius's hand on Selene's feet, and the two of them in quiet conversation.

James was the first to regain control of his thoughts. He stepped forward, and the other three appeared to follow his motions. "Well you two appear to be quite comfortable, all of a sudden." James smirked at the two of them as they finally looked up, glancing around at their friends. Peter appeared behind James, taking a seat across from them and smiling slightly.

"All of a sudden?" Sirius asked, matching James's smirk.

Selene shook her head and laughed. "Not really. We can't help it if the rest of you are slow."

Lily raised an eyebrow, watching as Selene stretched her arms behind her head, shifting her feet in Sirius's lap.

Sirius shrugged. "She's right, you know."

"We're good friends, he and I." Selene pursed her lips, waiting for an argument.

"Er-" Lily sighed. "I guess- that's good to know."

Peter laughed quietly from behind her. "You're always keeping some secret or another, Padfoot."

James turned to him and asked, "And are you, Wormtail?"

Peter turned his attention to James and shook his head. "Have I ever lied to you, Prongs?"

James grinned, putting a hand on the back of Peter's chair and replying, "No, you've always been a trustworthy friend…unlike some people," he finished, glancing at Sirius.

Sirius winked back at James. "I'm trustworthy. I'm just a bit unpredictable, s'all."

Selene snorted.

Sirius turned to her. "What?"

"Unpredictable," she laughed, "not for me."

"That's because we're just about the same person, only…"

"I'm a girl?'

"Yeah…something like that."

"I'm glad to know you realize the difference between girls and boys, Sirius Black. Now I can rest easy."

"Oh, you do that." He leaned back against the couch, his hands once again covering her feet.

The rest of their friends found seats around them, digging out their homework and parchment and shaking their heads silently.

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A/N: Well now, that was a quick update :D It would have been quicker if not for my internet going out for two days. And the fact that this site hasn't been working whatsoever later. I hope you all got your review replies last time...the site was down for awhile, and hasn't been sending out emails for weeks now. Or maybe that's just me... Oh well! Thank you for reading, and (perhaps) reviewing.

GoddessoftheMaaN- Thanks again :) Yes, and Levent will become more suspicious with time...but still hard to place, I suppose. And yay for getting internet back! That's always a good thing.

♥Emily