3. A Deal

Lily's flats made her sound like a penguin as she made her way to her appointment with Potter like a convicted criminal making their way to the noose. Stay calm Lily, if you hurt him you'll regret it. Well, actually you probably won't but Lola will give you puppy dog eyes for weeks, how can she make her eyes so big and cute looking? I never could do puppy eyes and probably never will. Curse my eyes; I hate the colour of them, and my hair, she added as an afterthought. If my eyes don't clash with something i.e. cloths jewellery: people, my hair does, in all its fiery redness of death. Sometimes I wish that I had normal coloured hair, like brown or blonde, my parents aren't ginger, no-one and I mean on-one in my family has my coloured hair or anything faintly resembling it. Not a trace of it, not on my mams side or my dads, I don't get it, they all have brown hair on my dad's side. My mams side is a mix of brown and blonde making her hair a pretty dirty blonde colour, but me, nope, I have ginger hair.

"Lily? I'm so glad you came, well actually I'm not, I still hate you but this is for Lola right? And I really like Lola, hell I might even be in love with her, I would have never put up with you for any other girl it's just that, well with Lola, I don't get butterflies or anything, but I actually care for her, you know?" Lily looked at James in astonishment, not truly believing that he may harbour any real feelings for one of her friends.

"Look Potter. I don't want to get all share your feelings around the camp fire eating marsh mellows with you, I really don't. I also don't want to be in your presence for longer than 10 minutes, so get on with it, why did you order me here?" Lily couldn't be bothered with Potter right now, she was tired and still quite peeved about the Library incident, and she was seriously considering complaining to Dumbledore about child abuse.

"I think that we should stop fighting, for Lola's sake I mean, I would still hate you and you would still hate me, we just wouldn't show it and stew in our hate inside until we explode. Then when we did explode we would have a huge fight, but more like a boxing match so it wouldn't really be fighting, just me beating you to a pulp. But totally professional, Sirius would be my manager and Emmeline yours, we would have a match whenever we felt like we were going to explode due to our hatred, so about once every other day. Then, I could become a superstar." He nodded earnestly as he told Lily his "expert plan", of how they could stop fighting and how he could become a quote superstar unquote. She only had 3 questions, 1 statement and 1 improvement.

"I only have 3 questions, 1 statement and 1 improvement." James nodded, looking happy that she hadn't scrapped his idea straight away.

"One. Why do you beat me to a pulp?" Lily accompanied this with rather violent pointing actions.

"Because you're a girl and always loose."

"Then why are you the one on the hospital bed? Oh, make that 3 questions."

"I wanted to end up here?"

"My point is made. Two, well technically three, why is Emmeline my manager?"

"She's the most violent out of the remaining four."

"You speak the truth, last question, how do you know about boxing? That's a muggle sport the wizarding world is restricted to, well, Quidditch."

"Muggle studies, I actually listen 'cas Mr Batch is cool. And why would we need more than one sport? We actually have wizarding chess and gobstones too." He stated looking smug. He could clearly tell by the shocked look on Lily's face she hadn't expected him to listen in any lessons, let alone muggle studies, but she soon snapped out of her confusion.

"Wizarding chess = muggle chess, you copied, gobstones = that thing that's name I can't remember. Now for my statement, and my improvement, just to warn you my statement is quite long and contains several statements and questions inside it, you do not answer these or interrupt me. Why are you so stupid, you will never be a superstar, even they have a small amount of brain power, I will never box, and if you think that I would you're even thicker. How does us fighting every week help Lola to stop hurting when every other day she has to come and see her boyfriend beat to a bloody pulp lying on a hospital bed because one of her best friends pummelled him into the ground? And now I'm going to scrap your idea completely and since you're perfectly incapable, I'm going to tell you what we're going to do. We avoid each other as much as possible, when we do come into contact with each other if we stay in contact for over 10 minutes then you make an excuse to leave. And that is that, no boxing matches, no superstardom and no fighting, in any way shape or form" Lily took a deep breath as she finished like she was glad to get all that off her chest.

James was rather stunned at her outburst and the fact that she thought he would never make it as a superstar, she just can't see pure talent when it's lying right in front of her on a hospital bed he thought. "Why do I have to leave?" He scratched his head looking remarkably like an ape in Lily's eyes.

"Because technically it's your entire fault for going out with one of my friends, I can't leave them because where else would I go? You can go and see your other friends when I'm with Lola, also it would look like I was avoiding her which would just make her more depressed than she would have been if we'd been fighting which defies the whole object of this operation."

"Fine," James agreed sounding like a spoilt little boy who wasn't allowed a lolly pop until after dinner. Lily could tell that he wasn't completely happy with the deal that they'd made, to be fair if she were James, she wouldn't be happy either.

xXx

It turns out that James had reason not to be happy, yes he and Lily hadn't gotten into a fight over the past 2 weeks but that was because Lily and Lola spent nearly all their free time together. James had never realised that the girls were so close, not just the said two, but all 5 of them, Lily, Lola, Marlene, Alice and Emmeline. The girls spent all of their time together, whether they were in the common room, by the lake or in the Library.

At first James had tried to get Lola away from her friends, she went with James sometimes but most of the time picked them over him. This annoyed James to endless lengths.

"Why the hell doesn't she want to take a nice romantic walk around the lake with me? Hmmmm? Why? Why the hell would she rather sit in her dorm and talk to all her moronic friends about nothing?"

"Because sitting in her dorm talking to her friends isn't dangerous."

"What could be dangerous by the lake?" James questioned Sirius, his best friend.

"Well she could get sucked into the lake by the squid, hexed by the Slytherins, fall on a tree root..." He was cut off by James, "I'll rephrase that. What would be dangerous when I'm there?"

"Rape." Short, sweet and straight to the point, that was Sirius.

"Well. Do you really think that I would rape the girl that I think I'm madly falling in love with?"

"Yes."

Hmpft, shows what an awesome, trust worthy, nice, caring, considerate best friend I've got. James thought, sighing, I wish that I wasn't this obsessed about Lola, why did it have to be Evans' friend he asked himself for what seemed the fortieth time. Any other girl and I would be fine, pesh. I am not impressed with my heart right now; unfortunately the strings are still being pulled in her direction.

"Why are you so hung up on Meadows?"

James sighed, how could he explain to Sirius when he himself didn't understand it. James knew that he could tell Sirius everything, they'd been best friends since first year when they'd found each other on the train. Since then they'd become inseparable, they were rarely away from each other, and when that happened it would only be for an hour max. Nothing got in the way of their friendship, not even girls, a major part in both of their lives. They were the heart throbs of Hogwarts, the players, the reason why the majority of the girls in the school were total bitches. But in all honesty, they really didn't care. To each other, they were brothers.

xXx

Lily was dreaming, that was the most rational option, if not then she had somehow found a way to become a tree, the whomping willow to be precise. Lily's dreams weren't normal in two ways, firstly they didn't just last 3 seconds then shimmy on to the next one, they lasted all night. She could remember everything about her dream and it all flowed easily, not like several dreams in one night, just one throughout the whole of it. And yes, Lily never forgot her dreams, they were always there in the back of her mind, it was like her brain was a filing cabinet and the one containing her dreams was largest of all. When she was younger this used to scare Lily, for as one usually does when they're young, Lily only had two types of dreams, good and bad. This was divided into about a 30 70 split, so when she was younger Lily was constantly reminded of the monsters in the closet and under the bed.

Back to the dream, Lily was looking down on the students of Hogwarts going about their daily business. The Whomping Willow really did have a great view over Hogwarts; you could see the majority of the school from where Lily was situated. A loud laugh caught her attention and as she looked to the person who emitted the sound her blood boiled, that is if trees do have blood, should I say her sap boiled? Anyway, James Potter, he was sitting there with his friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. They were talking about nothing as usual and the girls across the lake were looking at them curiously. It must have been back in 1st year, near the beginning by the looks of it. Both Black and Potter still looked quite handsome but the phrase used at this point would have probably been cute.

Lily remembered that they were the only two boys in years 1, 2 and 3 that could try and chat up 6th and 7th years without getting slapped or mocked. Try as she might Lily still couldn't see what everyone else saw, they must have been looking through 3D glasses or something to think of those two as cute, they were hideous. Well inside they were, at least to her. Even though the days of Potter and Black pranking Lily had well past, now they just sought to annoy her, she would never forget how lonely and detached they made her feel. It was like she was being picked on because she was muggle-born or she wasn't good enough, they made her feel terrible, at this moment in her dream she attempted to lash out at the four boys, even though two of them hadn't done anything to her, they were certainly guilty by association. The four boys looked up at the tree, AKA Lily, and became 4 years older, Peter ran underneath it/her, and then the others followed.

Lily didn't understand this at all and decided to wait it out until they made a reappearance, she looked at the rest of the Hogwarts student body for a while. Sooner than expected the four boys came out at retook their place near Lily, suddenly, not a minute later, black mist emerged from the Forbidden Forest, the students screamed, looks of horror on their faces and ran toward the castle, but few got inside. Now the black mist seemed to be everywhere blocking off the entrances to Hogwarts. Students were shouting and running around trying to either get away from the darkness or relocate their friends. Some however were doing neither, they seemed to be fighting the mist, Lily saw Black Potter and Lupin amongst these people. The black mist was driving forwards, Lily felt concern for all the students and also terror even thought she in her current body of a tree wasn't in much harm.

As suddenly as it had come the mist was gone however Lily saw some of it take its place with the students and started walking around with them, although to Lily they were still just mist.

Then the dream ended and Lily woke drenched in sweat her friends around her.

xXx

"It was just a dream professor, right?"

It turns out that throughout her dream Lily had been shouting and screaming warnings, tossing and turning in her sleep. Her room mates had tried to wake her up but had soon given up and Alice and Emmeline had gone to fetch Professor McGonagall. They'd just had to wait it out until Lily's dream had finished, when Lily had woken McGonagall had insisted taking her to Professor Dumbledore who was very pleasant even at this time at night, or in the morning depending on how you looked at it. She'd just finished accounting her dream while Dumbledore's expression had turned into a frown.

"It is for now Miss Evans, it is for now..." Dumbledore turned away from her and stood. He walked towards the back wall and opened a cabinet, when Lily saw what was inside she gasped aloud causing Dumbledore to turn around with a smile on his face, "I trust you know what this is Miss Evans?"

"Yes sir. It's a pensive, used to take one's thoughts out of their head and store them so that they can be watched by anyone. They're very rare and extremely expensive."

"And would you happen to know how you extract a memory and put it in the Pensive Miss Evans?"

"You hold your wand to your head and think of the memory, while doing this you say Penisus and with draw your wand slowly and hold it to the pensive. Some skilled and experienced wizards can use a non-verbal spell but I don't know what that is sir." Lily said, the flow of answers seemed to come automatically as it was clear that she wasn't concentrating on what was coming out of her mouth but more what she was seeing with her eyes.

"Well done, now would you please put the theory into practise and withdraw the memory of your dream. That is if you are comfortable with doing so." The Headmaster looked over his half moon spectacles at his student nodding her head enthusiastically. "Perfect."

xXx

Even thought Lily and James thought that they'd been doing a great job, Lola had noticed that something was up.

"They haven't fought in ages." She decided to tell her suspicions to Alice, the most level headed of the 5.

"And you're complaining?" Alice thought that Lola was being stupid, the two people that she'd wanted to get along were doing so, and she was questioning it.

"It's just odd, you know?"

Non she did not know, "Yer." It was best to just let Lola talk herself out, Alice had found that if Lola tried to ask your help on something, if you just nodded and shook your head every now and then she's eventually solve the problem by herself.

"I'm so used to them fighting that I kind of don't want them not to fight, you know?"

No you moron, "Uh hu."

"Am I just being stupid? Maybe I should just let them be, you know? But I feel like I'm either with Lily or I'm with James, never both together, do you think that they planned it this way? But its Hogsmeade this week end and I was hoping that we could all go as a group what do you say?"

"Nope, wait, yer sounds good idea." I covered my tracks good on that one Alice thought nodding.

"Well, it's clear that someone hasn't been listening."

Damn "I so have been listening."

"What did I say then, word for word." Lola demanded

"I bet that you can't say what you said word for word, look Lola you're over reacting, maybe they did plan something so that you didn't have to choose between the two of them. But is that really such a bad thing? They obviously care for you and decided to avoid each other so that they would fight and hurt you anymore."

"I knew that I was being stupid, but what should I do about Hogsmeade? I really want to spend time with them both." There was a desperate look in Lola's eye and she was on the verve of sitting on the floor crossed legged and whining like a child.

"Go with James and arrange a time to meet with Lily in a different place, or vice-versa. It'll be easy; you get to spend time with both of them, simple."

xXx

"James!" He turned to see his out of breath girlfriend sprinting towards him, "hey, feels like it's been ages since we've had alone time." She said kissing him.

"Want to go to Hogsmeade with me tomorrow?" James knew that there was more chance that the answer was going to be no and something involving Lily but to his surprise, and delight, Lola nodded. "Really?"

"Yes James." She said slowly. "I am your girlfriends you know,"

"Yer, yer, what time should I meet you in the common room?"

"How about 11? That gives me enough time to get ready and stuff."

"That's cool"

"Good, look I have to go, I'll see you tomorrow." She left after giving him a kiss to find her next date.

xXx

"Hey Lola." Lily looked up from her book to see Lola standing there panting, "Want some water?"

Lola just nodded and down the glass of ice-cold liquid in one.

"You, me, Hogsmeade, tomorrow, Alice, Marlene and Emmeline?" She just got the words out before collapsing on the bed.

"If you're asking for the 5 of us to meet up in Hogsmeade tomorrow then sure, and why are you so out of breath?"

"Filtch, mud, death."

"Nice, you really should work out or something. How unfit are you?"

"Well." Lola sounded rather peeved so Lily decided to change the subject.

"Quidditch, when's the next match?"

Lola scoffed. "How the hell would I know? Ask Emmy or Marls, they're on the team doof."

"I still don't get why you don't like it, and okay, it's not everyone's cup of tea but you could at least go to the games, you know, support your friends and boyfriend and all."

"I still don't get why some people are infatuated with watching people throw around balls whilst floating in mid air or actually being the people who float around in mid air throwing balls." Lola crossed her arms; she was as stubborn as a mule on this subject. Actually she was stubborn on most subjects, once she made up her mind there was rarely anything that anyone could say or do to make her change it.

"Fine, but it's you that's always lonely when they're a match on, one day you're going to get attacked when there's a match on, and there'll be no-one there to help you." Lily joked laughing. However it did register in her mind that it was quite logical for someone who had a grudge against Lola to try and hurt her at this time, with no-one in the castle, not even the teachers she was very vulnerable. But there was no persuading Lola to go to any of the matches, so nothing could be done, plus, thought Lily, who would want to attack Lola? She pushed those thoughts to the back of her mind, and although they would re-surface, it would be when it was too late.

Hoped that you liked that chapter, a little window into the future there at the end but nothing will progress on that until much later so don't worry about Lola just yet. Please read and review, thanks.

xXx