A Cruce Salus:

Chapter 7

Thank you for your pity / You are too kind

And you might say it's self-inflicted / But you see that's contradictive / Why on earth would anyone practice self-destruction?

And pain opinions are sitcom feeding / They don't know that their minds are teething / Makes me want to give mankind a beating

(( Bad Habit by The Dresden Dolls ))

Lily Evans was lost in thought as she meandered aimlessly through the stone hallways of Hogwarts. It was a Saturday morning--the morning of her and James's first trip to Hogsmeade together. Mind you, it wasn't exactly a Hogsmeade weekend, but that didn't have to stop them. Upon first meeting Lily, you might think that she was a stickler for rules, someone whose toes were so far from the line that she couldn't even see it. Fortunately for her, there was a lot more to her than noticed upon first meeting. She didn't mind bending the rulse occassionally, as long as they didn't bend so far they broke. And another thing--she had never truly hated James Potter, as many people chose to believe. She merely thought he was a stupid teenage boy doing stupid teenage boy things.

You see, she had always been more mature than was natural for a girl of her age. Unlike the group of girls she shared her room with, she didn't fight toe and nail for use of the floor lenth mirror they shared. Sure, every now and then she stenciled on eyeliner or did something extra for her appearance, but it wasn't something that was constantly on her mind. It was lucky for her that a natural glow emanated from her regardless of whether she tried or not.

Lily was a very deep, down to earth person. Her peers enjoyed conversing with her--the ones who bothered to get to know her, that is. She wasn't about to go out of her way to prove herself an interesting person to talk to. No, she preferred to sift throught the fake friends by letting the real friends find her. Appearances aren't always everything, and they can be very decieving. Looking back, the majority of her close group had admitted to being pleasantly surprised at how different she was after hanging out with her more often.

This was why she couldn't understand James Potter's motivations in liking her. On the outside, she was a very dull, plain, uninteresting person. She had certainly never been very close to him, so for a long time she wrote it off as being a trophy. James didn't ask very many girls out, and when he did, he had long-lasting, meaningful relationships with them--unlike his best friend, who could nearly always be seen with a new flavor of the week. Because of this, girls nearly never rejected him. Nearly, because Lily had. And so she told herself that Potter's infatuation with her wasn't heartfelt or sincere--just bitterness at being denied something he had requested.

Perhaps she would have said yes earlier if it wasn't for those thoughts. Why would the school's A-list Quidditch star be attracted to such a boring girl like Lily? However, love is blind James told her many times that it's something people just can't explain. You aren't able to point at Fate and force it to let you love whomever you choose. If you could, he'd be head over heels with Peyton Cardinal, or some other blonde ditz like her.

After a while, though, James grew up as everyone has to. The Death Eater attack and murder of his grandparents over the sixth year Christmas break had hit him hard. He even stopped asking Lily out, much to her surprise. Then, when he came back in the seventh year, it was like he was a completely different person. He still attempted to court her, but went about it the right way instead of performing utter acts of idiocy in an attempt to impress her. He actually got to know her. And when he got to know her, of course, he found out about the Lily underneath. Eventually, she began to think of him as a friend, and soon after he asked her out for the first time in nearly a year. This time, though, she said yes. It wasn't a passing comment in the hallway or a scribbled note in class to which she would always automatically respond "No, Potter", but a romantic, thought out occasion.

Ironic, that for someone who was so misunderstood, Lily wouldn't realize that she wasn't the only one who had more to her than what you saw everyday. James Potter surprised her in every way he could, and he was one of the sweetest guys she had ever been with. A bit too protective, maybe, but that was something she couldn't hold against him.

Lily was so deep into her thoughts that when Sirius rounded the corner, she collided into his Quidditch-toned body and sent them both tumbling to the floor.

"God, Sirius, you can be so clumsy!" she hissed frustratedly and she gathered the contents of her spilled bag, "It's a good thing I don't have any ink in here."

"I'm clumsy?" Sirius asked disbelievingly as he picked himself up from the hard floor, "I was watching where I was going! You're the one who--"

"Shut up," she whispered suddenly, hearing hushed voices arguing in the next hall, one of whom she was positive was the Headmaster. Realizing why she'd quieted him, he did as he was instructed and the two of them managed to catch bits and pieces of the conversation. The girl's voice, they soon realized, was Professor Davidson's.. or Samara, as she preferred them to call her.

"--wouldn't make a difference," came Dumbledore's voice, sounding doubtful--of what, they had no idea.

"It would make all the difference," sounded Samara's voice heatedly.

"--not sure what you're trying to accomplish--"

"--daft? Have you read the papers lately?"

Unfortunately, the pair appeared to turn a corner and the voices faded away.

"Dumbledore's office.."

"What?"

"They were going to Dumbledore's office!"

"...your point?"

"Well, we can follow them, Lily," he said speaking slowly, as though talking to a two year old.

"We can't--" she began, but it didn't appear to matter, as Sirius grabbed her arm and started half runing, half dragging her down the corridors.

She struggled at first, slightly angry that she was being hauled around like an object, but then decided to just laugh and go with it. Even before James told her about Samara's true arrival, she couldn't deny that she was interested in such an unusual witch. Soon, they reached those irritated gargoyles who sprang open as soon as Sirius said the password. (Shocking, that he should know it.) Taking note of the finger he held to his lips, they crept quietly up the spiraling staircase and pressed their ears to the door.

"Absolutely not. I will not allow it," they heard Dumbledore say sternly.

"I wasn't aware that when I came to you, I was asking for permission."

Lily leaned closer to the door.

"Do you realize the full implications of what you're suggesting?"

"Do you realize that there are two people standing outside your door?"

Before Lily and Sirius had time to process the last sentence, the door they were leaning on flew open, sending the pair toppling to the floor on top of each other for the second time that day.

Embarassed, Lily rolled off of Sirius just as he said, "Merlin, Lily! You're earrings aren't outside Dumbledore's office? We've searched everywhere, where could they possibly--"

To her surprise, it wasn't the Headmaster's, but Samara's eyes that were twinkling today. The Headmaster looked positively stressed, and said to them in a strained voice, "I do hope for your sakes that you've overheard nothing of importance."

Before they had a chance to explain or think up some excuse, their professor stood up and responded with an, "Oh, lighten up, Albus. You'll kill all the fun."

For some reason they had yet to understand, she placed a certain emphasis on the word 'kill'. Dumbledore's eyes betrayed him with a stubborn recognition, but the students were only more confused.. and even more, curious.

"I'll be going, then," she continued and made her way to the door, "Just think about it."

It took Lily and Sirius about two seconds to realize that they should be going as well if they wanted to escape punishment.

"Bye, then," said Sirius, and the two of them dashed out almost as quickly as they had come in. Running down the steps and laughing all the way, Lily didn't even notice Samara until she'd crashed into her and tumbled down the rest of the moving staircase. (Not a pleasant experience, I assure you.)

"Merlin, I am not having good luck with this today," she commented upon seeing her professor still firm on her feet, "Would you shut up?"

Sirius, who had been laughing hysterically, attempted to stop as she had asked. However, his face held a smile that soon turned into poorly covered snickers.

"I'm sorry," apologized Samara, running down the stairs to help her up.

"You should've seen your face!"

"Shut up, Sirius!"

The mutt finally ceased his infernal chortling and turned to the other girl in the room. "Care for us to escort you to.. wherever it is that you're going?" he queried smoothly.

"Of course," she replied, "but I assure you, this castle isn't as hard to manuever through as everyone makes it out to be. I was just going back to my quarters; you know where they are."

Lily raised her eyebrows at this last comment.

Laughing, her teacher said, "Oh, that's not what it sounded like. I ran into the Marauders on the first night I was here--I was on my way back to my quarters then, as well."

Sirius cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Er.. Lily knows. James's girlfriend and all, some privacy code they were going on about. You're a good liar, though."

"Thanks. But I don't lie. I improvise. Now that we've got all that settled, are you two coming or not?"

This whole situation felt rather odd to Lily. Nevertheless, she found herself enjoying the company of the witch who was only a year her prior. Sirius did most of the talking, but somehow she felt that her teacher was taking a certain interest in her. When they reached the office behind the DADA classroom, Samara waved her hand across a portrait of a wizard Lily didn't recognize, and accompanied it with a "Mortalitas.

"I'd ask you to come in, but I have a lot to do at the moment."

"That's fine," said Lily, "We'll see you on Tuesday."

Suddenly Sirius took on a faraway expression. "Yeah. Tuesday."

As soon as their teacher was out of sight, Sirius grabbed her hand and ran out the door. "Ugh!" she said, yanking her hand back and severly annoyed at this point, "What was that for? Lily hasn't gotten knocked around enough today, is that it?"

"No, don't you see?" asked Sirius with a manaical gleam in his eyes, "She's hiding something. That's obvious. Now that we've got her password, we can find out what it is!"

(( A/N: Don't worry, they won't find out she's from the future. Any guesses as to what they will find? Sorry it's so short. Review! ))