Hey gang! I know that this update has been...well, longer than a light year and then some, but shorter than infinity; so use whatever definition you want, but that's how long I guess. Anyway, welcome back! I'm glad that I'm back, at least. So, the writing is a little...weird in this becuase I wrote this June but I've just spent the last...eh....three months I think, in a creative writing class, so obviously I'm a much better writer, but I didn't want to completely change what I had originally wrote, so that why certain people may not have consistancy in their language. So, I'll stop babbling and actually let this update continue. Oh, also, longest chapter in 52 Days history! Yeah! Acording to it's 7, 006 words!!! Damn! Haha! Hope you all enjoy!
Disclamer: (Should do this once in a while, eh?) If you can't figure out what's mine and what's not, they you're obviously not a real Harry Potter fan. But you can still read this fic! :D
Chapter 5:
Week Three: Transfiguration
For the real life project, all the core classes had been moved to the morning. Transfiguration, however, was the exception. After lunch, on Monday, the Marauders and Lily walked slowly to Professor McGonagall's class. The bell rang and everyone was in their seats, but McGonagall was no where to be found. The room went up in murmurs as everyone asked their neighbor the question of where was their professor.
"I'm sure you're all looking forward to the real life project for this class because it means that you get out of class for a week. Am I right?" she coldly asked. No one responded even though they were all thinking 'yes' in their heads. "Unfortunately for you, we will not be taking a break from the curriculum this week, so you are still expected to show up for class the rest of this week."
This caused the class to groan in disappointment.
"Settle down. The simplicity of your test, if you will, is simply to use as many transfiguration spells as you can. The more you use, the more points that get added to your house points."
The class started muttering happily amongst themselves.
"The spell point will depend on the year that you learned it. If it's a first year spell, then you will get one point, second year, two, so on and so forth. A spell used that we've never learned will earn your 30 points."
More classroom excitement occurred.
"Professor, are we aloud to look up spells we don't know?" Lily's roommate Ronnie asked.
"Yes, you may. You only have until Saturday to collect these points, though. Some of you might find this task easy while others will prove that it's very difficult. Now, everyone pull out their textbooks and flip to page 313," McGonagall said as she turned towards the board and started writing on it.
There was still a slight mummer among the students and McGonagall must have been feeling really well today because she didn't say anything about it.
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"This project is awesome!" Lily beamed. She took a big bite out of her chocolate pudding in between her two sentences. "I mean, not to be cocky or anything but I know a lot of spells that most people don't know. I know that I can win this challenge."
The Marauders and Lily sat together in the Great Hall, each lunch and talking about their new freedom.
"You can win whatever you set your mind to, babe," James said as he put his arm around her waist.
"I know. Thanks for the support. You guys have come up with your own spells as well, haven't you?" she asked the four boys. Sirius let loose a knowing smirk.
"A few. But that doesn't matter now. The thing is, we really haven't done anything Marauder-like this year and this is our last year in school. I mean, how pathetic. So, the guys and I have come up with this plan. We are going on the Anti-magic movement," Sirius said with a smile.
"The Anti-magic movement, eh? What's this brilliant plan deal with?" Lily asked.
"You see, the whole school, or at least the 7th years are expecting some wicked things to happen over the next four days. That's four days of free magic, basically. But what if the Marauders chose a time like this to not perform any spells? What if we just sat around quietly, acting as if we were waiting for the right moment to strike? The whole school will be on their toes," James said with a wide smile.
"Everyone will think we're pulling tricks left and right, but when they look at our point jar, they'll see that it's empty. It's the best prank we've ever come up with," Peter said. He sounded accomplished.
Lily raised her eyebrows, confused. "I still don't get why it's so great."
"It's hard to explain. Just think of a school, that is just waiting for danger at any moment. For the rest of the week, everyone will be in frenzy, waiting for us to pull a trick on them. It's the fear that we're looking for. I mean, we'll be Gods for the rest of the week. Everyone will worship the ground we walk on," Remus said with a shrug.
"I think it's amazing!" Sirius said.
"I don't really get what's so satisfying, but I'll go with it," Lily said as she took a sip from her cup.
"To the greatest prankster of Hogwarts!" Sirius said as he raised his glass and clinked with his three friends. He tilted his glass back ready to chug, and then started choking.
"What the hell!" he cried as he spit up brown stuff. "I have a goblet of sand," Sirius said, his face puzzled.
Lily started chuckling. "Looks like you've found the Holy Grail," she said with a laugh.
"The Holy Grail was filled with sand?"
Lily just laughed again. "You're plan is…okay I guess, but you don't have magic to rebel with. I think life is gonna suck for you four," Lily pointed out.
"It will only suck if you don't play fair," James said while looking her straight in the eye.
"I can be just as naughty as I can be nice," she said with a sly smile.
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Tuesday mornings were empty for the majority of the 7th year Gryffindor so they usually spent them in the common room playing cards. Lily and Remus introduced the group to a whole bunch of different muggle card games that the rest of the group actually enjoyed. Today, the were playing I Doubt It, a favorite among the teens.
"Four 10's" Sirius cried as he put his cards down.
"Bullshit," James said, looking at Sirius with disbelief.
"James," Lily scolded.
"What, Prongs? You don't believe me? Do I ever lie?" Sirius asked as he flashed James his heart melting smile.
"Yeah, ya do, Padfoot. A lot actually. I don't think you can go a day without lying."
Sirius' face fell at that comment. "Oh really? That hurts mate, right here in the center of my heart. Well, if you really want all those cards, call the shot again, but…" Sirius trailed off.
"Sirius, it's practically impossible for you to have all four 10's."
"Yeah, well you can't ask around the table because that's table talk so, ha!" Sirius cried triumphantly.
"Ok, dummy, I have a ten. So you can't have four," James shot.
"I also have a ten," Karen said, showing him her 10 of diamonds.
"Alright, alright. Don't get shirty with me, young man," Sirius mocked with a smile.
James just laughed. Just then, an owl hit the window.
"Hey, that's Fenton," Sirius said as he stood up to open the window. Fenton swooped in, made a large circle around the room, and dropped the letter where Sirius was recently sitting and then flew back out of the window.
"Bet it's a letter from my parents," Sirius said as he walked over to his chair and opened his letter. "Of course, Dear Sirius, this Christmas, your mother and I are going on vacation. We advise you not to come home for the holidays; not that you normally do. Inside we have given you your Christmas present. We will see you…when the time comes. Your Mother and Father." Sirius tossed the letter in the fire. "Like I would ever consider going home, for anything," he muttered and sat back down in his chair. "Shall we continue?"
The group finished the first game and Ronnie dealt out again to start a new game about an hour later.
"Wouldn't it be cool if we had a bell tower?" Peter asked.
"Where did that come from?" Remus asked.
"I don't know. I was just thinking about it. I mean, think of monuments like Big Ben and stuff. It would be cool if Hogwarts had a huge monument as well."
"I guess it would be a nice addition to the school," Lily said as she looked at her cards.
"Where the hell would be put a bell tower?" Sirius asked. "AH!" he cried as his chair vanished right from beneath him and he fell.
"If your ass wasn't so big, we'd have room for a bell tower," Ronnie said with a smirk.
"Ha, ha very funny."
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When it was finally time to go to Transfiguration, the group left the comfort of the common room and went to class. On the way, they found all sorts of 7th year students performing transfiguration spells, trying to boost up their point value. Sirius spotted a poor guy running down the hallway being chased by flying birds while his girlfriend chased after him screaming and throwing more hexes at him. A group of Hufflepuff girls were moving fakes pieces of wizard's gold around the floor for foolish first years to follow.
"Ahh, to be young and in love," Sirius commented as they walked.
"Not that you know what that feels like," Ronnie pointed out.
"I'm young and I've…lived…some. Maybe I haven't found love yet, but one day I will! You wait Miss Finch. I bet you won't even find love by the age of 25!" Sirius shot triumphantly.
"Yeah, Black. Well, I bet that you won't find love by the age of 20," she said with a smirk.
"Ouch, that's low, Finch. You've really hurt my heart. It's bleeding from pain," he said as he held his hands over his heart on his chest.
Something seemed to be moving from inside Sirius' pocket.
'What's that moving?" Peter asked while pointing.
"What the-" Sirius pulled out a bleeding heart from his pocket. "AHH! Ew!" he cried as he threw the heart down.
"Sirius, don't damage your heart even more," Lily said with a sly smile.
"What the hell?" he grasped his chest, looking for his heart inside, not that he could see it.
"Padfoot, it's just a spell. Calm down," Remus said while rolling his eyes.
"Ha, ha. You're all funny. Pick on the best looking guy in group. I see how it is," he muttered.
The 7th years rounded a corner as they all laughed at the crazy things that everyone was doing to gain points to their cups. When the teens entered the room, many people looked in surprise at the Marauders. As they had predicted, James, Remus, Sirius and Peter found their cups empty. Not a single drop of sand had filed into their glasses.
"Wouldn't this be the best time to pull your greatest prank, Marauders?" Barry Fone of Hufflepuff asked.
"It is the best time, we're just waiting for the right moment," James said with a wink.
Barry looked at Lily with a puzzled face.
"Don't ask me. I don't get it either," she said with a wave of her hands. She followed James up to their shared seat and waited for Professor McGonagall to start the class.
They were learning about changing beetles into roses when a knock came from the door.
"Come in," McGonagall called.
A Ravenclaw fifth year came in. "The Headmaster wishes to speak to Miss Evans," he said.
"Thank you, Roger. Miss Evans?" McGonagall said as she looked as Lily. She gave her professor a confused face. What did Dumbledore want with her?
"Should I bring my things?" she asked.
"Yes," Roger said.
"Alright. See you later, James," she said to him quietly. She quickly slipped out of her desk and walked out of the classroom. Roger followed her as she walked towards the Headmaster's office.
"I know the way, ya know," she said to him with a smile.
"Yeah, I know. I just thought I'd walk with you," he said with a smile back.
"Um…alright then."
The two walked in a peaceful silence. When they reached the front door, Roger gave her the password and followed her up the stairs.
"Have you ever been in his office?" Lily asked Roger with curious eyes.
"No," he confessed. Lily laughed. When she reached the top door, she knocked once and the door opened immediately.
"Mr. Thorson, thank you for walking Miss Evans to my room, but it is now time for you to leave. This is a private conversation."
Roger reluctantly left Lily alone with Dumbledore.
"Sit down. Lemmon drop?" he offered her.
"No, thank you. Professor, why do you wish to speak to me?" she asked as she sat down.
"I have some bad news for you, Miss Evans."
Lily shifted slightly in her seat.
"Your father contacted me about an hour ago. Your sister is getting married to Mr. Vernon Dursley this up coming summer. I'm assuming that you know who he is."
Lily nodded her head. Her brows furrowed together. "Sorry, Professor. But I don't see where there is bad news yet."
"Yes, well that was only a portion of the news your father gave me. He also informed me that your mother has passed away. She was killed in a hit-and-run accident. There was no way she could have survived the crash. Her car spun around at about 90 miles an hour and stopped when it smashed into an old oak tree. I'm very sorry about your loss."
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The four boys didn't see Lily for the rest of the day and James was getting worried.
"What do you think is taking her so long?" James asked for the hundredth time within the hour.
"I don't know, Prongs. She'll be here eventually. Peter, stop cheating!" Sirius cried as he saw Peter move one of Sirius' knights off the board. Sirius and Peter were playing a game of chess while Remus was reading a book and James sat on the floor tearing his hair out.
"Try reading like Mooney over there," Peter suggested.
"What are you reading?" James asked, looking up at Remus.
"Four Horsemen by: Miranda Jones. It's a history book."
"Yawn," Sirius cried. "Crikey! Peter, what the hell are you doing!?" Sirius cried as Peter took another one of Sirius knights.
"I'm winning, that's what I'm doing," he said with a sly smile.
"Yeah, I can't sit around anymore. I'm going to find Lily," James said as he got up.
"Why don't you just look at the map," Remus asked without looking up from his reading.
"Yeah…funny story about the map. I can't find it," James said while he scratched his head.
"Great, it could now be in the greasy hands of Snape or something," Sirius said. "Shut up. I promise I'll find it before the year ends."
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After spending the afternoon crying in Dumbledore's office, Lily finally calmed herself enough to leave in a composed manner. She slowly walked back to Gryffindor common room. Everything moving around her was moving in slow motion. She couldn't here anything, see anything, smell anything. Everything in her mind and life seemed to have stopped. She walked past the Great Hall and even though her stomach was crying for food, she just kept walking. Her feet moved hypnotically. She wasn't thinking, just walking. Everything in her body seemed numb and she was tired from crying all day. She finally made it to the common room and it was just her luck that the Fat Lady was not in her portrait. Lily thought this stupid seeing as it was barley 9 o'clock yet. So Lily slid down on the floor and sat there staring blankly ahead, the thoughts in her head swimming violently.
James didn't search every floor, every room and every hallway for Lily, but he did take the path to the Great Hall while swinging past the Transfiguration classroom. When he didn't see her in the Great Hall he went down to the kitchens. After having to fight off the house elves that lived to serve, he desperately walked back to the Gryffindor common room. On the way, he decided to take another detour to the library. In the library he ran into his ex-girlfriend, Sandy.
"Sandy," he coldly said.
"James, how are you?" she said a little friendlier than he had.
"Fine, thanks," James said, not returning the question. He went to move around her, but she blocked him again.
"Excuse me, but I'm looking for someone," he said as he tried to push past her.
"Will you…will you um…wow…this is harder than I thought," she mumbled. A blush started to creep up towards her neck. "Can you give this to Sirius, please?" she asked him as she handed him a note.
James raised his eyebrows. "Why? What's it say?" he asked as he snatched the letter away from her.
"Don't read it! Please, don't read it, just give it to him for me," she asked. She looked desperate.
"Yeah, whatever, he's a big boy. I'm sure he'll be able to handle whatever it says."
James would have read the letter anyway, but his mind was on Lily so he decided to just ask Sirius what it said at a latter date. After shoving the letter in his back pocket and checking the library twice, James reluctantly headed back to the Gryffindor tower for a second time.
As he approached the entrance he saw Lily sitting by the portrait.
"Lily!" he cried as he raced towards her. "Lily, where have you been all day!? I was looking every-" she looked up at him and what he saw broke his heart. "Lily? What's going on? What happened?" he asked her. He gingerly sat down next to her.
Lily didn't say anything. She just sniffed and looked away from him.
"Lily-" as she turned her head towards him he saw a fresh wave of tears fall off her face. She pursed her lips together to keep them from trembling.
"My…my mother…died," she said as the emotions over took her. She started sobbing and shaking and James pulled her into his embrace. He stroked her hair and made soothing circles up and down her back.
"It's okay. I'm here for you. I'll always be here for you. It's alright. Everything will turn out," he murmured in her ear.
They sat in silence for a while. James didn't ask her any questions and she didn't answer any.
"Drunk driver," Lily mumbled.
"What did you say?" he asked her.
"She…she was hit by a drunk driver. No chance of surviving," Lily said again. She pulled away from him and looked him in the eye. Her head just kept shaking back and forth.
"I…I was…so…so horrible to her. Always yelling at her, screaming at her. Telling her mean things. I was always so convinced that she never loved me. I always told her that I hated her. Once I started attending Hogwarts, our relationship was no longer like it used to be when I was younger," Lily said as she sniffed her nose.
James just kept quiet and listened. Lily pulled away from him and positioned her body next to him. She groped around for his hand and he offered it to her. She grasped it and squeezed it tightly.
"I always felt like she was never proud of me. Every time I would do something, something…different…she'd say to me, 'why can't you be more behaved like Petunia? Why can't you be good like Petunia?'
She was proud, very proud about me making it into Hogwarts, but after, nothing. She never sent her gratitude towards me." Lily let another wave of tears fall down her face while she tightly grasped James hand. He wanted to touch her, hug her and make those tear stop falling, but he could also tell that she wanted to talk and he was willing to listen.
"One thing we used to do when I was younger, was go ice skating. My mum was so good at it. She used to take me out every weekend during the winter. Just her and me. She would help me with different skating tricks. I'll always remember that she owned these beautiful, expensive silver skates. The would sparkly in the light. They were amazing and I always hoped that when I was older she would give them to me. When Petunia turned 16 she decided that she wanted them and mom gave them to her. They sit in her closet and for all I know she sold them and they belong to someone who doesn't even know, the…the importance of those shoes." Lily started crying again. She let go of James' hand and put her face in her own.
"We'll find them, Lily. I'll find them for you, I promise," James said.
"Why was I so horrible to her? What…what was I thinking?" Lily asked.
"We say stupid things to our parents all the time. Just be happy about the good times you did have with your mom. I mean look at Sirius. He's never had a good relationship with his parents. His mother hates him and his father thinks that he's a disappointment. He was always being tortured by his cousins, but there was a time where he could at least have a conversation with his parents. Sirius rants about how much he hates his parents all the time and how he never did and never will love them, but I know that deep down inside he holds a place for them. He keeps the smallest, happiest memories with him all the time, in his heart. That's all you need to do. Don't think about the dumb things. Just keep the good ones with you."
"Yeah, well what makes me angry is that Petunia is getting married to her thick boyfriend, Vernon. I never liked that man. Actually, now that I think of it, I don't think mum did either," Lily said with a small chuckle.
"She getting married? Now?" James asked.
"Yeah I know. How considerate. She's so dumb, just always thinking about herself. One year for the summer we went to Vernon's parents place and we met all his relatives. It was pure torcher. His sister Marge is a beast, literally," Lily said with a laugh. James let out a smile.
"I bet I'm not going to even be invited," Lily said.
"Really?" James asked.
"With mum…gone…she doesn't need me to. She doesn't have to please anyone now but herself…well and maybe Vernon," she said with a smile. Then she stuck her tongue out in disgust.
James let out a burst of laughter.
"If you just met him…you would think the same thing," Lily said. "I shudder just thinking about him. He's big and hairy and gross. I even think he smells bad. I mean…ew," Lily said with a shudder.
"When did you say the wedding was?" James asked.
"In the summer. I didn't get a date yet, but whenever it is, I'm sure it's gonna be one hell of a wedding." Lily sighed and ruffled her hair.
"Lily, if you want, I'll go with you. Even though we won't be dating at the time, we can still go together as friends," James offered.
Lily looked up at him. "You would do that for me?" she asked.
"Well, yeah, of course I would. You've become one of my best friends. I'd do anything for my best friends," he said with a genuine smile.
"Thank you, James. So much. This really means a lot to me," she said with a smile. The two leaned in for a hug. "I'm sorry that for the past couple of weeks I've been so moody," she said as she hugged him.
"Don't worry about it. Things have been tough in your life these weeks," he said as he kissed her on her head.
"Yeah, well. I'm also starting my period, so…" she trailed off with a smile.
James looked at her in horror. "Can you handle that yourself?" he asked her cautiously.
Lily giggled. "Yes, that's something that I can handle. Although, a back massage would probably help," she said as she leaned back into him.
"Are you two done with the sob session?" the Fat Lady said from her portrait.
Lily wasn't feeling much better Friday, but she couldn't miss out another day of class because of her own emotions. She reluctantly got out of bed and got ready for school. She didn't tell anyone about her mum and neither did James. She wasn't going to bring it up unless it was absolutely necessary. It was just something she didn't want to think about. She did think about what James had said to her though, about remembering the good times she'd had with her mom, but it was hard to think only about those times. Her mind often drifted towards the worse moments. The main things though that kept Lily distracted where the questions that she'd never get to ask her mom. Was she ever proud of Lily and her accomplishments? Was she that much worse than Petunia? Did her mom really want her to be more like her older sister? Did her mother ever love her? She didn't want to think about what could have been, because they will never be now, but they were questions that she wished she had taken time to ask.
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Thursday, the 7th year Transfiguration students were desperate to see who was in the lead and by how much would they all need point wise to catch up before Saturday. Lily was in first, but was slowly being pursued by Ravenclaw, Charlie Mayer.
"Looks like Charlie's out for blood, eh?" Ronnie asked Lily with a smile as they observed the sand glasses.
"Yeah it sure does. He's always trying to do better than me, not that he can though," Lily said with a laugh.
"Yeah, and you've also got the Marauder's and whether you like him or not, Snape," Karen pointed out.
"Yeah I know. He's really moving up in the world with potions," Lily said.
"Kinda scary, ya know? I mean, think of what he'd be like if he went to the dark side," Ronnie pointed out.
The girls all shuddered a bit.
The bell rang and the class all quickly made their way back to their seats.
"Since it's Friday and you all got a free day in all your other classes, I decided to give you an easy day," Professor McGonagall said as she made her way to the front of the classroom.
The class cheered in joy.
"So, you're going to be doing a project."
The class groaned in disappointment.
"I have put you in teams and as a team you will each get an empty classroom. You need to change that classroom into the most comfortable living corridor that you can. You'll have to change desks, chairs and other items in the room into furniture and other items that you might want to use. Any transfiguration spell you use will go towards you glass jars so try to be creative and have fun," she explained.
McGonagall tapped the board and lists of names appeared.
"Here are your teams and room numbers. Good luck, you have an hour and then I will be around to pick winners for rooms. The categories are most creative, best use of items presented, and most house spirited. Your time starts now," she said as she moved away from the board. The whole class rushed down to the floor to see the teams that they were in.
"How can you win most house spirited if all the houses are mixed together as groups?" someone asked.
"You'll just have to figure it out I guess," she said with a sly smile.
Lily found her name on the list. They were in an old charms room. Like someone had pointed out, she was not with a single Gryffindor. Instead she was with Connor Vance from Slytherin, Barry Fone from Hufflepuff and…Charlie Mayer from Ravenclaw.
"Looks like the best ones are working together, Evans eh?" he asked her. When she looked at the sand jars, he did seem to be right. Lily was in first place, Charlie was in second and Connor and Barry were tied for third. When she looked over at her boyfriend and his friends they were all giving each other hi-fives because they were dead last, so got put in a group together.
"Should be fun," she said with a fake smile.
Lily's group found their class room and opened the door with some trouble.
"Ug, looks like this room hasn't been used since my parents went to school here," Charlie.
Lily just rolled her eyes.
"I think that we should come up with a game plan of some sort first, before we start designing. Like a theme. We also need to decide what kind of a room we want to design. Either a bedroom or living room, maybe a dining or sitting room-"
"Alright Miss Evans. You seem to know what you're doing, so hop to it," Charlie said with a wink.
Lily rolled her eyes in disgust again but picked up an old piece of paper that was left on the floor and transfigured it into a new piece of paper.
"Very smart, Evans," Charlie commented. Lily ignored him.
Eventually, Charlie stopped with the smart comments and the four of the teens worked together to come up with the idea of a sitting room. Connor and Barry were in charge of transfiguring the entire given classroom items into the furniture they wanted in their room and Lily and Charlie decided to take on the task of putting everything together and get the finishing designs the group decided on.
Lily looked over at what Charlie was doing. She wasn't hearing anything coming out of his mouth, but she swore that she saw lots of different colors coming from his direction.
"Are you performing wandless magic?" she asked.
"Yeah, something you can't handle?" Charlie asked with a sly smile.
"I can do wandless magic!" Lily cried defensively.
"Really? Let's see what you can do." Charlie drew his wand and pointed it at Lily. Her eyes went wide and she groped around in her robes for her wand but couldn't reach it. Blue and green swirls of colors came flying towards Lily and she quickly ducked, afraid of the spell that Charlie sent would hurt her. The spell hit the back of the classroom and the back wall turned into a nice shade of green with a blue brush.
"Can't handle it, eh?" he said with a wink.
"You seriously want to go there, Mayer?" Lily threatened. She drew out her wand and the two started waving their wands around this way and that decorating the empty classroom to go with their taste. About a half hour in a knock at the door came.
James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter all walked into the room.
"Hey, people! Holy shit! What are you guys doing? The Hanky-Panky?" Sirius asked as he saw Lily and Charlie move around the room in odd ways.
Lily stopped her movement and looked at Sirius with raised eyebrows.
"What are you talking about? The Hokey-Pokey? How do you know about that?" she asked him.
"What's with the wrinkled noses? The Hokey, whatever it's called…you know that dance you did for James that night you went to Hogsmeade…remember," Sirius said while waving his hands around.
"You told him about that?" she asked James. James blushed in embarrassment.
"Um…yeah. I tell them everything," he said. "Except for what you told me last night," James said suddenly, remembering their intimate conversation.
"What? What conversation? When last night? What happened last night?" Sirius said with a gleam in his eyes.
"Nothing happened last night, Black. It's none of your business anyway, so shove off," she muttered, trying not to let her emotions suddenly get the best of her.
"Ok, what are you four doing here?" Charlie demanded.
"Um, visiting my girlfriend, that's what," James said as he walked over the Lily and put his arm around her waist.
"Am I not aloud to do this?" he challenged.
"Not while we're working on a project, no," Charlie said, his eyes flashing.
"Ok, fine. We'll leave. We were just checking out the competition anyway," Sirius drawled.
"Don't you have your own room to work on?" Barry asked.
"We finished. Took us about five minutes," Remus said with a smile.
"Looks like you've finally used some transfiguration magic than, eh?" Connor said with a smile.
"…eh, something like that," Peter answered.
"Ok, you're distracting my group. Please leave before I make you leave," Charlie snapped.
"Alright, alright. See ya later, babe," James said as he gave her a quick kiss.
"Bye, guys!" Lily called.
"Ok, enough with the flirting, we have a competition to win," Charlie said as he clapped his hands together.
"Raw. Ok, I'm going, your highness," Lily snarled.
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At the end of the hour, all the 7th year students were brought back to Professor McGonagall's classroom. She put all the rooms up on a projector screen so the rest of the class could see what everyone else had designed. Lily, Charlie, Barry and Connor had come up with a green and blue combination type room that made you feel like you were at the ocean. Their furniture was a light brown color making it look like sand and plenty of light filtered the room making you feel like you were outside while sitting in there. Almost everyone else made bedrooms ranging from master bedrooms to children's bedrooms. The Marauder's room was the best out of all. Still going with their anti-magic movement, they just moved the desks and chairs around in the classroom so the class was facing the back rather than the front. They cleaned and repainted the room and found some old posters in the teacher's room that were left behind. The room looked like a regular classroom and no magic was involved for their work.
"I can't believe that they didn't change a single thing," a Slytherin in the front muttered.
"Um, yeah we did. The view in this room is different from the other rooms," Sirius pointy said.
In the end, Lily, Connor, Barry and Charlie won most creative, the Marauder's won best use of items present and Ronnie, Karen and two other Slytherin's won most house spirited by making their rooms a symbol of good and evil.
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Lily was walking around the perimeter of the lake for the tenth time for the evening. She just kept circling it, thinking harder than a person should. She was so deep in her own thoughts that she didn't even notice another person had joined her.
"Remus! You scared me," she cried while clutching her chest.
"Sorry. Do you mind if I join you?" he asked her.
"Not at all. I'm not really in the mood for talking though, so…"
"Sometimes silence is the best remedy," he replied with a smile.
The two walked another five laps before Lily decided to break the silence.
"What's bothering you?" she asked him.
"Stuff."
"Want to talk about it?" she asked him.
"It's not something that can be solved by talking. It's…personal and I don't really think you would be able to fix it. What are you thinking about?"
"Stuff," she said with a small smile.
"Something that can't be fixed by talking?" he asked her.
"Yeah, sort of. Again, not something you would be able to fix," she said.
"I guess we're S.O.L then," he said with a laugh.
"What's that stand for?" she asked.
"Shit out of luck. Of course, if you want it to be child appropriate, then you'd say, shoot out of luck but…" Remus didn't finish his sentence because he started laughing.
Lily didn't know why, but what Remus said made her laugh as well, but tears started falling down her cheeks as well.
"Whatever's bothering you, Lily, don't let it eat you. Don't keep it to yourself because problems are much easier to solve if you don't have to hold the burden all to yourself. Believe me, it's not selfish to talk about your problems to others," he said with a gentle smile.
"Yeah. I know. I think eventually my problem will be solved. But for now, quite walks seem to be working."
"Yeah. Sometimes it's just easy to get away from the commotion so you can make some decisions for yourself. It makes you feel more dependent if everyone makes decisions for you. I know from experience," Remus said with a small chuckle.
"Yeah, I know."
"Are you ready to go inside?" he asked her as they made another lap around the lake.
"Actually, I think I am. Thank you, Remus," she said with a smile.
Remus pulled Lily into a one armed hug.
"No problems. You're my best girl friend and my best friend's girlfriend…if that makes sense," he said with a chuckle.
Lily laughed as well. "Yeah, I get it."
The two walked back inside the castle and as soon as they were out of view, a boy and girl emerged from behind the bushed that Remus and Lily were moments ago in front of.
"Shit, that was close," the girl muttered.
"You're telling me. Think of what would be said if someone found out," the boy said breathlessly.
"Let's not think about that right now. Let's just enjoy each other's company while we still can," the girl said as she pulled him into another kiss.
AHHH! Another, kinda, but not really cliffhanger! DUN DUN DUN!!!! I've, once again, made a poll that you all should go and take. It will take out one more minute of your life, so please do so. You're voting on the misterious person at the end of this chapter. Also, I'm not gonna beg, because it seems the more I beg, the less I get, so please leave a review if you want to give me either positive comment or critical critisim. Either way, see you next chapter...whenever that may be...