Life Sucks
Disclaimer- Not mine.
"Alright you may begin." Professor Slughorn called out over the students after explaining the proper way to brew a Healing Potion.
Lily was humming happily as she stirred some Faerie Dust into the boiling water in her cauldron.
"How was Saturday Lils?" Julia asked her, still working on getting her water to boil.
"Amazing I had so much fun." Lily replied smiling just at the thought of Connor. "If you add some Rytolin, the water will boil faster." Lily suggested.
"Well go on. What'd you do?" Julia asked excitedly. James was close by listening to every word of their conversation. He had spent Saturday in his dorm doing nothing expect hanging up the rest of the picture from The Box and listening to Sirius sing to the Weird Sisters all afternoon.
"Well he took me to Madame Puddifoot's in Hogsmeade where we talked for an hour and a half. He really is a sweet guy you know." She continued.
"Did he offer to pay for the drinks?" Sirius piped in.
"Of course." Lily replied.
"Did you let him?" James added. It was sort of a signature mark of Lily's not to let a guy pay for her drink, food or whatever.
"Of course not." Lily answered.
"Go on. And then what?" Julia asked.
"Then we went to Honeydukes where he tried to buy me some fudge but I wouldn't let him so we split the cost and the fudge. He was telling me about his four little brothers all the time. They sound so adorable. You know, he lives on a vineyard, he offered to let me stay over his house during the summer so we can squish grapes with our feet." She said with a grin.
"Squish grapes with your feet. Sounds like fun." Sirius said with a roll of his eyes.
"It's how Muggles make wine." Remus piped in.
"So is Connor muggle born?" James asked.
"He's half." Lily replied.
"Oh," James sighed. He knew Lily liked talking about the Muggle world she lived in but he wasn't much help there seeing as he was a pureblood. As a matter of fact, Lily didn't have any friends that were Muggle born though Remus occasionally knew what she was talking about because his Grandfather was a Muggle.
"I can't wait for our next date. He won't tell me where we're going yet." Lily said dropping some Trieton into the potion causing it to fizz orange.
"Evans it's not supposed to go orange." A slimy voice called a couple seats down from Lily. She didn't have to look over to know who it was.
"I know Severus. I added too much Phylain but if I balance it was more Troll Pus not only will it turn the pink color it's suppose to be, it will have a higher acidic value therefore making it a stronger Healing Potion." She said slightly annoyed before turning to Snape.
"Yeah so nose out and mind your own potion." James said to him.
"Shut up Potter. Have you even managed to pour the water in your cauldron without burning yourself?" Snapped Snape.
"Both of you, put a cork in it." Lily said nodding over to the approaching Slughorn.
"Less chatting more potion brewing." Slughorn waddled in front of Lily's cauldron. "How far have you gotten Miss Evans?"
"I'm almost done. Just waiting for the red sparks." Lily answered.
"Already there! My, my Lily you're giving me a run for my money. Soon you'll have to teach the class." He said with a wink at his favorite student.
"Uh…Professor." Sirius called out as his potion began to foam blue. A horrid stench protruded from the cauldron and billowed in the air.
That was how the majority of Potion lessons ended up. Lily being praised and Sirius blowing up something.
"My boy what have you done!" Lily chuckled and returned back to her work trying to block out the distraction of Sirius's potion.
After order had been restored, "Miss Evans, would you mind assisting Mr. Becker over here." Slughorn asked.
Lily nodded and went to go help the now blushing Hufflepuff finish his potion.
"You must be depressed." Julia said to James.
"Depressed?" He asked confused.
"Yeah Lily has a boyfriend and it's not you." Julia explained.
"Thanks for the reminder Juls." James joked. "Nah I'm not depressed."
"And why the bloody hell not?" She asked. "I though you liked her."
"I do. But Lily has had so many boyfriends since first year that I just kind of got used to Lily having other guys that weren't me." He explained.
"But you must still be upset."
"Well yeah. But I'm not depressed. I only get depressed when she's dated them more than a couple of months." He said with a small smile.
"If he did get depressed everytime Lily started dating someone, he'd be depressed an awful lot." Said Sirius now scraping off blue sticky material that had oozed out of his cauldron off the table.
James chuckled and nodded. "True."
"Please don't make me keep you after class because you couldn't finish your potions." Slughorn said to the group and they fell silent or at least until he reached the other side of the room.
"There has got to be a way to get Lily to notice you…" Sirius thought out loud looking over at Lily who was still helping Becker.
"I've been trying to figure that out for years." James said scratching the back of his neck.
"Why don't you just talk to her?" Julia suggested. "For all you know, she might already like you."
James shook his head. "Don't get my hopes up like that. Lily doesn't like me anymore than a friend."
"How do you know?" Remus asked.
"She doesn't." James replied confidently. "She would have said something by now."
"Not necessarily." Remus continued. "I mean, you haven't told her about you liking her. So what makes you think it can't go the other way around?"
James shrugged. "I could ask her for you." Julia suggested. "I'll do it in a really subtle way."
James frowned and thought it over. He figured he couldn't lose much if Julia was just asking. "Alright but I'm telling you she doesn't like me."
"We'll just have to see about that." Julia concluded thinking over what the best way to go about asking would be.
"I asked you to be quiet. This is your final warning." Slughorn said a little more sternly.
After helping Becker, Lily joined the group again. "Say are you guys done yet?" She asked them ignoring Slughorn's wish for them to be quiet.
"Almost."
"This might sound really strange, but I don't think I've ever liked a guy as much as I like Connor." Lily said smiling continuing the conversation where she had left off. She put some ingredients back into a box and continued. "I mean, I've dated loads of guys but none of them have ever made me feel the way Connor does."
The group remained silent and James could feel his heart being stabbed over and over. "I don't think I could like another guy more." She continued.
James winced at this and slid his ingredients away from his cauldron. He was done with Potions for today. Lily looked over at her silent friends and realized they were all wearing different levels of annoyed frustrated expressions.
"Sorry I'm babbling." Lily said quietly and flipped open her potions book to start her homework, humming the whole time.
James looked over at Julia who was giving him a sympathetic look. He merely shrugged and distracted himself from Lily's words by watching Peter try to slice up Eylic weed with a spoon.
Julia sighed. She was beginning to doubt that Lily could actually like James at all. But she wasn't going to give up. She guessed there had to be at least one way to make Lily realize how perfect James was for her.
"Don't you think Connor might be too old for you?" Julia asked Lily in a hushed voice.
Lily frowned. "Are you being serious?"
Julia nodded. "Of course I am."
"You sound like my mum…" Lily said rolling her eyes.
"No really. I think he might be too old for you." Julia said in an attempt to pull Connor and Lily apart.
"Oh please hypocrite. Greg was two years older than you."
"But it didn't work out." Julia said and Lily turned to her still frowning.
"What are you talking about? You don't call dating someone for 5 months, breaking up and still remaining close friends working out?" Lily asked. "Sure you're not marrying him but I don't think it went down that bad."
Julia remained silent knowing Lily was right, as usual.
"And why would you say something like that?" Lily asked her friend slightly offended by the whole subject.
Julia shrugged. "I just don't like him much."
"Oh," Lily muttered.
"Alright class that's all for now! Please don't forget your assignment on Healing Potions is due next class. No essays will be accepted late." He said eyeing Sirius and James. "Class is dismissed."
Lily picked up her books in a hurry and left the classroom not bothering to wait for her friends. She wasn't really in a mood to talk to any of them now, even if it was only Julia who had offended her.
Lily didn't like being told what to do or being told she was wrong. So when Julia basically said to Lily that she shouldn't be going out with Connor, it rubbed her the wrong way.
James watched the redhead leave and turned back to Julia. "Maybe you should wait to ask her. Until after Connor and her break up. If they ever break up…"
"Come on don't let her get you down." Julia said trying to cheer him up.
James shook his head but said nothing.
"Stop your moping and lets get something to eat at the kitchens." Sirius said trying to cheer his friend up. "We'll figure what we're going to do with Lils later."
"Nah, I'm not very hungry now. Maybe later." James replied packing up his stuff. "I think I'll finish this potions assignment first."
Sirius frowned and turned back to his remaining Gryffindor friends.
"What now?" He asked.
"Man he's a wreck." Julia said watching him disappear into the crowded hallway.
"Nah, he'll be fine." Sirius said.
Remus added, "You got to remember Juls that he's been through this before."
Julia shrugged. "But it can't get any easier."
Remus shook his head agreeing with her and headed down the hall towards the library after announcing he had to finish the Transfiguration homework.
"Did I hear something about eating?" Peter piped in joining Sirius and Julia.
"Er," Sirius said. "Oh look isn't that Glinda?"
And with that, Peter took off down the hall looking for the blond haired girl.
"I bet you didn't see Glinda." Julia said.
"You would win that bet." He replied.
"Well that was mean of you."
"Nah, he was going to look for her sooner or later anyways. Just makes more sense to start now." He said winking at Julia.
Julia chuckled, "Where to now?"
"How about…the owlery?" He suggested. "Didn't you say you wanted to check to see if your mother had sent you a letter."
Julia nodded. "Alright to the owlery it is."
"Why doesn't your owl just drop off your mail at the Great Hall like a normal one?" He asked.
Julia bit her bottom lip. Every time the subject of a conversation steered towards her parents or the 'letters' they sent her, she became uncomfortable.
"I don't know. The owl's so stupid it really doesn't know it's way around yet." Julia quickly invented.
Sirius chuckled. "You should get a new owl and put this one into retirement." He joked.
"Good idea."
"I'm full of them."
"No it really is. I hate this walk to the owlery." Julia began. "I mean from the dungeons you have to walk the length of the castle to get there. And from the common room is worse…all those stairs." She shivered at that thought. "We should be allowed brooms inside."
"I agree." Sirius nodded smiling. "Want a piggy back ride?" He asked her with a grin.
"I'll break your back."
Sirius shook his head. "Will not. You're tiny."
"Tiny?" Julia scrunched her nose at him.
"Hey you want one or not?" He asked.
Julia smiled and hopped onto his back. "Tell me when you get tired okay?"
"Deal." Sirius said.
"You know I haven't had a piggy back in years…"
The way to the owlery took a good few minutes. When they finally reached it, Sirius dropped Julia to the ground taking in a deep breath as he did.
"Ow…" Julia said rubbing her bum. "That hurt!" She shoved Sirius playfully.
Sirius laughed. "Not a very graceful lander are you eh?"
"I don't think it was a lack of gracefulness that just landed me on the ground." She teased.
Sirius chuckled and began to look around the smelly owlery for Julia's owl. "I don't see her…" He said talking about the owl.
Julia didn't even need to look around the owlery to know that her owl wasn't going to be in here. In fact, she didn't even have an owl. She also never got mail except from the Education Bureau. But Sirius never knew that. None of her friends knew that. She was too afraid to tell them otherwise.
A/N- Et voila! That's chapter 4. Thanks again to all my reviews I love all you guys so much ;)
Draco's Little Vixen, Jaded Star and incurablyromantic! Plus everyone who reviewed my story before.
Okay I want to explain Lily a bit here. Now I don't want you all to hate her because she's ignoring James but just remember they have been friends since 1st year. They also still act the same way towards each other as they did in first year so Lily really has no reason to suspect James liking her now. But maybe I'll give her a reason to suspect next chapter…He he
And what's up with Julia at the end of this huh? I can't promise I'll answer it in the next chapter but that's coming up too.
Do I dare ask for 5 reviews for next chapter? I don't know if I'm good enough to say that. :P But I'm not going to post next chapter until I get 5! Don't make me wait until I'm a grandma to get 5 reviews and finally post the next chapter! Please Review. It'll only take 30 seconds tops!
