Ok. Now. I am going to dedicate this chapter to cookiedoughYUM for being such a good reviewer and gave me a good story to read, and I applaud you for that. Yayy! Your famous now!!! -Confetti everywhere explodes out of random places- Though I would like to thank PottersLittleSisterfor giving me my 100th review. I just want to thank all of you for reviewing. Love you! Ok, now that I've gotten that over and done with I present you with your Christmas present. Or if you don't celebrate Christmas then you just get a present! LUCKY YOU! I'm rambling again. Sorry. -Blushes- Now, I present you with the next chapter.
A dull thudding filled Lily's head as she slowly opened her eyes, adjusting them to the bright light. Her whole body was sore and it hurt to move. She felt like she could just lay in this smelly, scratchy, Hospital Wing bed forever. Wait. Hospital Wing!!!! When did she get in Hospital Wing? And why was she all sore? And, most importantly, why was James Potter in the bed next to her!? She was supposed to be mad and jealous! She couldn't be mad and jealous when he looked like he had just been beat up and then half violently shocked, being all cute and innocent looking! It just didn't work like the wake of her unexplainable anger she tried to stand up and stride over to James' bed, forcefully waking him up. Tried.
As soon as she put her 123 pounds onto her own two feet, she fell to the floor with a small shriek that had Pomfrey bustling over in a heartbeat.
"Foolish girl!" Madam Pomfrey exclaimed angrily as she escorted Lily back over to her bed, "What in the name of Merlin were you doing!"
"Trying to get up to wake up Potter, so I can yell at him for looking all cute and innocent while I'm trying to be an angry, jealous, emotional, seventeen year old girl." Lily pouted adorably. This softened the young Healer, surprisingly.
"Well as long as it was something important." Madam Pomfrey said with a small hint of sarcasm.
"So can I go now?" Lily asked impatiently.
"No! Why in the world would I discharge you when you just collapsed on the floor."
"Er. You care for my......," Lily trailed off as she thought of a word that would seem appropriate for the situation, "I got nothing."
"That's what I thought." the Healer said smugly. She gave Lily this odd potion that made her fall into a deep sleep, only to have Lily wake up two hours later demanding food.
"Madam Pomfrey!" Lily called in a sing-song voice.
"Yes, child."
"I'm hungry."
"I'll call the house elves for some food."
"Ask them for rolls please." Lily called at her retreating figure.
With a curt nod of her head she went to her office and called a house elf.
A few minutes later a house elf named Pinky appeared at Lily's bedside with a basket of hot, fresh, rolls, a pitcher of pumpkin juice, a ham, and some treacle tart.
"Thanks Pinky. You can just leave it on my bed."
"Yes Miss Lily." the elf obeyed and put the tray at Lily's feet. Before she could utter a small 'thanks' she disapparated with a loud crack.
Smiling to herself Lily picked up the basket of bread, took a roll at and started examining it. Then she chucked it hard to her left, straight at James' head. He stirred slightly and rolled to his side, but didn't wake up. So she threw another. And another..... And another.... And another.
Finally James couldn't take it anymore. He swiftly rolled over, caught the bread, and threw it at her with more force than intended.
"Did you just chuck bread at me?"
"Yeah," James shrugged.
"Oh that is just so childish." she said loftily.
"Well at least I'm not the one with a whole basket of ammo, throwing it at her opponent while he's trying to sleep."
Lily just gave an indignant 'hmph' and threw another piece of bread at James.
Soon they were in an all out bread fight, despite the pain it cost them just to move an inch.
When Madam Pomfrey saw them she nearly fainted herself at the sight of her only two patients fighting with bread..... Bread of all things!
"What do you two think you're doing?" Madam Pomfrey screeched.
"Throwing bread." They responded in unison, hiding their hands behind their back.
"Drop. The. Bread." she said menacingly.
Well they 'dropped' it all right. But not on the scratchy beds they were sitting on. But they launched them across the gap between them, attacking each other.
Unfortunately for them, one of them hit Pomfrey in the face. She sent a mega-death-glare at both of them, in the Hospital Wing of all places!
"Want some bread?" Lily asked sheepishly.
Wiping some stray butter off her face she responded, "No I do not want any of your bread. What I do want is this Wing cleaned up before I get back. You should be grateful that I can't give detention to my patients." With a sharp turn on her heal, she was heading towards the doors of her office.
Once she was clearly out of sight James and Lily burst out laughing uncontrollably with mirth.
"Did you see--"
"Her face-"
"The butter--"
"Her face--"
"The bread--"
"Her face!" James kept repeating.
After they were able to control themselves for more than a few seconds Lily spoke up, "Well I think that confirms the fact that we aren't leaving here anytime soon," she said in a resigned voice.
James let out a snort of laughter, "I wouldn't be to sure of that."
"James, we just had a bread fight in the middle of her precious sanctuary. I think that she would be more than willing to coop us up in here. She knows how I hate to miss classes."
"Please, Lily," drawled James in a professional manner, "nobody can resist the Potter Charm."
At this Lily couldn't repress a hearty snort. "Potter Charm?"
"Watch. And. Learn. Poppy!" he yelled across the room, trying to be 'flirtatious' he swung his legs over the bed, stood up, and tried leaning against the wall. A stray piece of bread lodged itself underneath his sock and he slipped and fell. Now not only did he have bruises from the duel, he had a nice, fat, purple, bruise on is butt from landing on the Hostital Wing floor, a bump on his head from hitting it on the metal railing, and an unhappy healer standing over him, glaring.
Lily giggled, "James?"
"musufsuglask?" he tried, then promptly passed out.
Lily started feeling guilty. If she hadn't question his damned charm he wouldn't have gotten even more hurt in the first place. I mean they were both in here because of her, and she just had to come and screw it up worse.
"Hey Lily, he Pron-. What happened to him?" Sirius asked in a would-be-confused voice. Of course he knew what happened, he had been spying on the two all day.
"Oh, well it's quite simple really, he just bumped his head and fell." she said lightly.
"And why would he do that?" he asked looking at the healer trying to roll James over on the ground.
"Oh, er- I questioned the Potter Charm actually. He was trying to prove me wrong."
Sirius let out one of his famous bark-like laughs.
"Hasn't he learned by now that you're always right?"
"Nope, after all these years of him thinking he knew me, he never quite grasped onto that concept of me always being right."
"He just doesn't get that in a relationship the woman is always right."
"Exactly!" just to clarify her intentions she said, "not that I'm involved, or ever will be," she added a little sadly "with James Potter romantically."
"Course not, love." he said unconvincingly.
"Oh and by the way, since I said you were always right, there are always a few exceptions to every rule, so whenever I say you're wrong, it's most likely true." and with that he disappeared to do something he wouldn't ever be seen in public doing. Deep thinking.
Around six o' clock that night Lily got an owl in the Hospital Wing.
L-
We need to talk. Meet me in the Astronomy tower at midnight after rounds. Come alone.
S
Lily flipped the parchment over to see if there was anything else written besides the note that was short enough to be a PS. Nope. Nothing. She slightly wondered who 'S' was. It could be Severus, Sirius, one of the prefects, anybody really. So she decided that at midnight she would be up on top of the Astronomy Tower. Even though she knew it was stupid and foolish to meet an anonymous person, alone, in the dead of night. But hey, what's life without a few risks? Eh?
Friday night during Patrols.
Lily and Remus. (James is still in the HW [Hospital Wing])
Fourth Floor
11:49 PM
"Hey Remus?" Lily asked while they were on the way back to Gryffindor Tower.
"Hey Lily?" he responded.
"Do you mind if I go up and check the Astronomy Tower one last time. I have a nagging suspicion I should."
"Sure, do you want me to come with?"
"No thanks, I think I can manage a few trouble makers on my own for 15 minutes."
"Ok Lily, goodnight. See you tomorrow." Remus said, and kept walking toward Gryffindor Tower thinking of Morgan.
"That was a close one." Lily breathed. She had eleven minutes to get up four flights of stairs and walk about half the length of the school.
Twenty three seconds before midnight Lily barged in the Astronomy Tower panting.
"I'm-- here--" Lily said between gasps of breathe.
"That you are." Sirius stated coolly.
"Sirius?" she asked, her voice raising an octave, due to her surprise, and lack of breath.
"Lily,"
"What in the name of all that is magical did you ask me to meet you up here for in the middle of the night?"
"I wanted to talk to you." he said simply.
"Well I know that. But what was so important that you couldn't tell me while you saw me in the Hospital Wing?"
"Well number one, I didn't think of it yet. And two, I can't talk about my best friend and his personal life, while he's in the room and would skin me alive if he heard me tell anybody."
"Oh," said Lily, slightly taken aback, "continue?" she said uncertainly.
"Ok, well, I don't really know if I should be telling you this. God, James would kill me if he knew."
"It can't be that bad."
"It's not. It's just.... personal." he said searching for a good word.
"Erm. I guess I should start from the beginning. James had a brother named Kaleb,"
"Had a brother? You mean they aren't brothers anymore? Did Kaleb get disowned or something?"
"Hey! New rule. No interrupting the story teller. And no it wasn't anything like that. Well Kaleb, he--- died."
Lily gasped audibly.
"Died!? Oh! Poor James-"
"What did I say about interrupting?"
"But-"
"No buts. Do you want to hear the story or not?"
"Sorry." she said sheepishly.
"Ok. Where was I? Oh yeah. Well Kaleb was James' older brother. They did everything together. When I moved in with James after fifth year, he let me have his room. How cool is that? There were plenty of other rooms in the house, but he gave up his for me. Well that summer Kaleb got out Auror training. It was his first mission as a fully qualified Auror, and he encountered Voldemort. We don't know much about his death. 'Classified Information' or some crap that the Ministry made up. We know it was Advada Kedavra, it was Voldemort, and it was on a mission. That's all they tell his family.
"Well, as you probably didn't notice, he was a wreck when school started. The pranks got more and more dangerous, he was angry all the time, went out to the bar every night-"
"Bar?! He was only 16! How could he drink at 16!? How-"
"What did I say about inturrupting?" Sirius growled dangerously. After a moment of subdued silence, and a nearly petrified Lily, he contunued, "Right. Well every night we would go out to the Hogs Head. And Aberforth, the barman, he'll give any bloke a drink if it means a customer. It's pathetic. Really, it is. Well back to the story. James would stay out practically allllll night, come back in the morning, sleep, take a hangover potion that he stole from Old Sluggy's storage, a pepper up potion, and then start the day. There was even one whole week where he didn't hit on you, ask you on a date, or hand for marriage, or even publically humiliate you in any way for that matter. God, that was a boring week. You should at least remember that."
"Erm, well, not really. I kinda sorted hated his guts back then."
"Sort of understandable," Siruis said nodding his head, "Well never mind that. He stayed in this crappy state for about two whole months, but he did start to hit on you again, obviously, or else he wouldn't have gotten those burns on his buttox, and er- other extremities, from all of those Stinging Hexes you sent his way for pissing you off. I think you were like his happy medium or something. He was always different around you. Like the same old James, constantly humiliating himself in front of you trying to look cool."
Sirius snorted at the memories of James "acting cool" in front of Lily.
"He is such a dork. Yeah well, you can thank me, (psh who else?), for getting him back to himself. It was this amazing prank we, well I, pulled on Snape. I know I shouldn't be telling you this but Remus has this badly behaved rabbit, I'm sure you've heard of. And well--"
"Ok, one last inturruption! I swear!" Lily exclaimed after she saw the look on Sirius' face, after she inturrupted.
"I know Remus is a werewolf."
"What! How in the world did you know that! I bet Snape told you! That git! I'm gonna kill him." Sirius yelled, he was getting up to leave and was almost at the door when Lily grabbed the hem of his cloak causing him to trip. She mentally closed the door, and corrected him.
"No, no, no, you prat. I did a bit of..... research. I mean it gets kinda obvious after a while. In first year he told me he didn't have a very big family. Just his mom, his dad, an aunt and uncle, and himself. I mean after about eight funerals, you kinda get the impression that he's lying. How many times can his mom or dad get sick? So I started observing more thing about him. I noticed he only got sickly looking once a month, and that was always near the full moon. The pieces just sorta fit together and it came to me after that. Why would Snape know anyway?"
"Yeah, well about that, you don't really need no know. I changed my mind about telling you."
"Oh no you don't Sirius Black. You're going to tell me and you're going to tell me right now. Or some little..... accident will happen to you're hair in your sleep."
"No! Not my hair! Anything but my hair!"
"Well then, I suggest you tell me what happened to scare James out of his little mood, or else it's your hair on the line." she placated.
Sirius struggled trying to resist. He really didn't want to tell the story and then have Lily look down on him for almost killing her ex-best friend. Unable to resist imagining his handsome head being bald, he gave in.
"Fine, I'll tell the story. Well I thought I'd have some fun, so one night when Remus was getting ready to transform I saw Snape heading down there following Remus and Pomfrey down to the Shack, and--"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa 'The Shack'? What's the shack?"
"Oh it's the Shrieking Shack, that's where Remus transforms. The passageway is under the Whomping Willow. So now that you know that little secret, on with this story. Well I saw that he was following him. So I ran over to him and told him that if he wanted to know where Remus went, he just had to press this certain knot in the Willow, and follow the staircase down. So he was on his way down, and I was telling James about how I told Snape to follow Remus down. James just jumped out of his seat and ran out of the common room and down to the Willow to go rescue Snape from getting torn to little bits by Remus, and then he saved the day. Woo. Yay. Go James. Well Snape told Dumbledore, and I got suspended while the little git got off clean."
"I thought you were suspended for TPing the McGonnagalls office with spellotape!"
"Nope! I only got a detention for that." said a cheekily grinning Sirius.
"Well now that you know that sweet little story, it's bed time." Sirius said getting up from his seat on the hard stone floor.
He offered his and to Lily who graciously accepted.
They walked out of the Astronomy Tower with linked arms, causing some raised eye-brows from some wandering bypassers who Lily told off for being out late. While she, herself, was out after her own curfew..........................
A/N: Well, well, well. I finally posted! Well this is your Chrismahannuakwanzica present/New Year's. (Those are the three major winter holiday's for different religions combined by the way.) Well please review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please! Thanks Chloe for the help with the chapter! TEN REVIEWS FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TEN REVIEWS FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TEN REVIEWS FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! TEN REVIEWS FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-Brittney/Sirius' Sweetheart