Hello =] Sorry it took a while, but I hope you like it.
DISCLAIMER-SAME AS ALWAYS.
"Am I going to find this every morning?"
I didn't understand what Lily meant at first, so it was a minute before I said, "Uhh, I don't know."
She sighed and closed the hangings again.
Sirius stirred and yawned. I was lying with my head on his bare chest and my right hand tangled in his hair. His left arm was wrapped around my body while his right one was under his head.
"Sirius? Where the hell is your shirt?" I asked while looking up at his tired face.
"You'd get hot too if some girl was draped over you all night."
"Well you could have pushed me off of you."
He shrugged and slowly ran his hand up and down my side, "So what's yours and Lily's prank?"
"I'm not telling you!"
"Please?"
"Nope."
"Pretty please?" He pouted.
"Still no."
"Fine," He sighed and it was quiet for a minute. But then he asked, "So…is Lily going to find this every morning?"
"Find what?"
"This," He said stroking my face with the back of his right hand.
"Oh, well, like I told her, I don't know."
"Well, it's fine with me…"
"Sirius, I don't like you, remember that."
"Right," He said, sounding sad.
I reluctantly sighed, "But I do kinda like this, it feels comfortable…and warm." I closed my eyes and listened to his heartbeat.
After a few minutes of silence, I peaked up at him to see that he had closed his eyes also. I slowly sat up and they flashed open.
"Where are you going?"
"School."
"Technically, we are at school." He smirked.
"Fine, to class." And I swung my legs out of bed and got ready to do my normal morning routine.
___________________________________________________
We were sitting at the Gryffindor table, away from the Marauders. Lily had said that she wanted to tell me something, but so far had been unusually quiet.
"Lily?"
"Just hold on, I'm trying to figure out how to say this."
"Just say it!"
"You won't like it…"
"You don't know that."
"Oh I know."
"Lily, just tell me, whatever it is."
"Fine," She took a deep breath, "I think I like James."
She said it so quietly, that I thought I was hearing it wrong, but the look on her face told me that I had heard correctly.
"Umm…oh…kay…so, when'd this happen?"
"Last night, while we were doing our head duties. He was just so charming and funny and nice. And…"
"And what?"
"And…not the James Potter that I thought he was."
I just stared at her, "So…when are you going to tell him?"
"NEVER!"
"Well why not?!"
"Because I have spent my whole life, since I was 11 that is, hating him. I just can't walk up to him and admit that I've fallen for him!"
"Fallen as in love or fallen as in crush?"
"Please! I most certainly do not love him! It's not as complex as that."
"Good. It's too soon to Love him."
"I know that."
"…so…wanna go to Transfiguration?"
"Yeah."
__________________________________________________
We were now sitting in Muggle Studies, Sirius and James had their chairs turned around, looking at mine and Lily's apartment choices.
"I think I like the lofty one." Lily murmured.
"Yeah, but what about the little cottage type thing?" I asked.
"But it's more expensive."
"Yes, but it's not in an actual building, it's like our own little house."
"Good point, but I mean, we have to think pricing. We have to pay bills, buy food, our books, and what if something in the house breaks? We'd need to pay someone to fix it. Oh and look at the peeling paint, a couple broken windows, the counter top needs replaced, bathroom updated. We might as well just start from scratch. "
"I agree, it would be complicated at first. It's definitely a fixer upper, but it may be worth it in the end. We'd have more space, more of our personality in it. And after we invested all the time and work into it, it would feel like it was truly ours."
"Yeah, but the loft is already ready for us to move in. It may only have one bedroom and one bath, but we managed at your brother's place."
"Good point, but, we could get more room."
"Yeah, but-"
"WOULD YOU TWO JUST PICK ONE?!" James and Sirius yelled.
"Lily, did they just yell at us?"
"Yes, I do believe they just did."
"No one yells at us."
"No one."
"Should we give them the chance to apologize?"
"Yeah, that would seem fair."
We turned to them, raised our eyebrows and waited.
"We're not apologizing." Sirius said.
"Yeah, you guys are taking too long with this, just pick a place, it's not real life." James agreed.
"Is that your final statement?" Lily asked. They nodded.
"Well, Lily," I started, "I do believe that was very rude of them."
"As do I."
"What should punishment be?"
"A punch to the face?"
"Or a kick to the groin?"
"A stab in the eye?"
"A knife to the thigh, maybe?"
She got all excited looking, "Or, what about-"
"Okay, okay, we're sorry." James said.
"Yeah, no need to cause bodily harm." Sirius agreed.
"Apology accepted," We each smiled.
"So Lily, which place?"
"How about we just flip them over, mix 'em up, and pick it at random?"
"Sounds good."
Lily flipped our choices over and shuffled them, "Okay, who wants to pick?"
"I do, I do!" Sirius jumped in his seat like an excited 7 year old. I laughed and he smiled at me.
She held the cards out to him and he picked one, "I'm so sorry Sam."
I frowned, but he continued, "Sorry that your going to have to put up with Lily's complaining about having to live in the cottage."
"Really?!" I asked.
He turned the card over, it was my cottage. I looked at Lily, and she smiled, "I guess it will be kinda fun to fix up our own place."
I jumped into her lap and gave her a hug, "Of course it will be fun. And easy, we are very crafty after all."
She laughed, "Me and you? Crafty? Are you forgetting the bird house we tried to build a few summers ago?"
"…actually yes I have."
"You know, I think that's a good idea, it was a very painful experience after all."
"Very, very painful."
"So much pain."
"It was just a simple bird house…"
"A simple bird house that caused so much pain"
"Lily, I will never touch a hammer every again."
"What about the screw driver?"
I shivered and murmured, "I had forgotten about the screw driver."
"James and I could help you." Sirius offered.
"No, we couldn't let you do that." Lily shook her head while saying so.
"But we want to." James smiled.
"We would have nothing to give you in return." I frowned.
"Lily, could go on a date with me," James hinted.
"And you could go die," Lily answered, though I saw the slight flush in her cheeks.
"What if you two helped us design ours?" Sirius asked.
Lily and I looked at each other, "Are you sure?"
"James and I don't have any sense of design, and I bet you two do."
"Well, I guess," I mumbled.
"Okay then. We'll go visit your place tomorrow, find out everything you need, then we'd go to our place, and you and Lily can do…whatever it is that you do." Sirius said.
"Okay class! How many of you know which place you're getting?" The professor asked.
Lily and I, raised our hands, along with Sirius and James, and some Hufflepuff pair.
"Very good! Now if you cold just bring up your choices, and the amount that they cost, I will give you the lease forms."
Each pair had gotten 250 fake gallons to get us started. Mine and Lily's place cost 125. Half of our funds already gone.
"Ooo, rather risky, don't you think?" Professor Klip said as we handed her our money.
"Yes," Lily said.
"But it's risk we're willing to take," I added.
She smiled and handed us all our leases to sign.
"Okay, now do you guys want to see them now or tomorrow? When ever you decide to look at them, you'll have week out of class to get them ready." She asked, looking at us.
"Now," We all said.
"Very well then," And she gave each of us a map.
"Well that's weird." Lily murmured.
"What?" I asked.
"It looks like they cleared and area out in the forest to put our homes in."
"No need to worry dears, there are special enchantments put around the area so no creatures can bother you," Professor Klip reassured.
"I'll protect you from any dangers, Lily Billy," James smirked.
"And I'll stand off to the side and watch the dangers devour you Samantha," Sirius smiled.
"How sweet," I exclaimed touching my heart.
Sirius laughed and put his hand on the small of my back, leading me out the door. James did the same to Lily, and much to his delight, she didn't yell at him.
Once we were out of the castle I grabbed the map from Lily and ran towards the forest, Lily yelled and ran after me.
We came to a stop at the edge of it, laughing breathlessly. Turning around I saw Sirius and James walking rather slowly towards us.
I sighed and crossed my arms, waiting. After about 30 seconds I got bored and started walking to Sirius, Lily to James.
"You're so freakin slow," I grumbled as I grabbed his hand and drug him behind me.
He chuckled and planted his feet firmly into the ground. I tried with all my might to pull him after me. It didn't work, so I grabbed his arm with my other hand and tried pulling harder. He didn't move an inch.
I sighed and walked behind him, and attempted to push him forward. Once again he didn't move.
"Damnit Sirius, come one!" I complained.
He laughed again and picked me up, throwing me over his shoulder.
"PUT ME DOWN!"
"Nope, you're too slow."
"You're slower than me."
"I only walked slow, because I knew it would annoy you."
"Well then, I guess I'll have to annoy you," I cleared my throat and started singing, "Me and all my friends, we're all misunderstood."
Lily chimed in from somewhere behind me, "They say we stand for nothing and there's no way we ever could."
"Now we see everything's that going wrong with the world and those who lead it!"
"Okay, okay," Sirius set me down and I smiled. I looked at Lily who was holding James' hand. I laughed and grabbed Sirius'
He looked down at me and smiled. Then he started swinging our arms, rather wildly. I laughed again and looked at our map, we were close to mine and Lily's house.
"Lily, darling, we're almost there."
"That's just splendid Samantha dearest."
We walked for a few more minutes, not talking, just listening to the sounds of the forest. It scared me and I started shaking. Sirius asked me was wrong and I lied, saying it was just the cold air. So he wrapped his right arm around my shoulders and grabbed my right hand with his left one.
And oddly enough, I felt safer.
Then our beautiful cottage into view. I stopped walking and just stared at it. Sirius looked down at my face, smiling.
It was so much more amazing in person. Although it was in the middle of a forest, the area around our place had been cleared of all other trees except for a huge Oak that was sitting to the left of the wide wrap around porch, it cast a gorgeous shadow on the left side of the house.
The roof was made of rounded, grey shingles. It match perfectly with the light yellow wood that built the house. And the wood that was around the outside of the windows and lining the door was a dark shade of green.
It was absolutely wonderful. I looked at Lily and she smiled, "Way better than the loft."
"Yeah, but remember that the inside sucks," Sirius commented dropping his arm from my shoulder and grabbing my left hand with his right.
I glared at him, "Don't ruin this for us."
Him and James laughed then towed us up the porch and through the glass front doors.
The walls were painted a light blue and the floors were a dark wood. I'm guessing this is the living room. I let go of Sirius' hand and walked over to Lily. She let go of James' and put an arm around my waist. I put mine around her.
"Isn't it beautiful, Lily?"
"Samantha, it's one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen."
We opened the two doors that were in the room. One was a half bath, that was in desperate need of some updating, and the second was a coat closet. The staircase was to the left of the room, while the kitchen was to the right.
We went to the kitchen. It was a little small. But the cozy type of small, not the cramped kind. The walls were a faded pea green color with pale white linoleum floor. I wonder if the dark wood was under the linoleum…
The counter top was white with a small cream colored, 50's fridge. I thought it was really charming.
"I like the fridge," Lily murmured.
"It's very charming," I agreed.
There was a small window over the sink that looked out to our small backyard. It was enclosed with a pealing white picket fence.
"That'll need repainted," Sirius murmured. I jumped and turned around. He was standing right behind me, smiling at my reaction.
"Lily and I can paint it." I said.
"Yeah, paint is about the closest we can get to being, as Sam puts, crafty." She smiled.
"Well, Sirius and I will find you guys a new fridge and-"
We cut James off, "You aren't getting rid of that fridge."
"Well why not, it's so old looking," Sirius wrinkled his nose.
"So? It has character," I defended our little fridge.
"And it's quaint," Lily added.
"Fine," They each said.
I gently pushed Sirius back out of my bubble and walked over to our sink. I flicked it on and it squirted water out of the top of it, hitting me in the face. I quickly turned it off and looked at Lily. We each smiled and started laughing.
Sirius walked over to me and conjured up a towel. He smiled and wiped my face. Then pulled me into his chest and laughed.
After we were all done Sirius looked at me, "I think we'll fix that now."
James conjured up a toolbox and him and Sirius set to work. Lily came to my side and we watched them for a minute.
Smiling, we started opening cupboards and cleaning them out Muggle style. Part of our grade was how well we did work like Muggles do. Of course we were allowed to conjure stuff, but only for the first week. We couldn't get anything big, like furniture or fix electricity by magic. Just get the tools and we would need to fix it.
So after Lily wiped out each cupboard and sanitized the counter we started discussing what we wanted to do with the kitchen.
"I think we should paint it a burnt orange color." I said.
"That would look nice, but I want it to be kinda faded." Lily agreed
"Would adding water to it, make it thinner and then make it look light and faded?"
"Hmm, probably. So what about the floor?"
"I was wondering if the hard wood was under it…"
"Me too. Hey James!"
"Yes, Lily." James peaked out from under the sink where he and Sirius were laying, messing with some pipes.
"Do you think you could pull up a piece of this floor and see if the wood is under it?"
"Sure." He conjured up a crowbar and pried up a piece of the white linoleum. The wood was under it.
"Wonderful." I smiled.
I heard the sink go on and looked over to see Sirius standing there, watching the water flow.
Lily and I walked over and stuck our fingers under the tap. It was warm.
I looked up at Sirius and smiled, he threw an arm over my shoulder and kissed my cheek. I blushed and looked over to see James kiss Lily's forehead. She just grinned.
Then I spotted a door behind them and walked over to it, "Lily come here."
"What is it-Oh my God."
It was a large dining room with one whole wall of windows. In the middle of the windows was a sliding glass door that looked into our small back yard. There was a little patio that was made of random flat rocks. It was wonderful.
In the center of it was a long dining table with simple, yet cute, chairs. The walls were a very light, barn red color and the floor was once again the wood that I loved so much. I went and sat on a chair and looked around. There was another closet off to the side of the room and the walls had a few pictures on them. None of them really good enough to be remember-able, yet, they all fit perfectly in with the room, holding it together.
Lily sat in the chair in front of me, James to her right, and Sirius came and sat beside me, sliding his chair, closer than I would have preferred. But it felt like a comfort having him that close.
"I think this is my favorite room," Lily murmured.
I smiled at her and brushed my hand over Sirius'. He grabbed it and held it between his own two. I squeezed his and Lily stood up. I pulled my hand out of Sirius' and followed her out of the dining room.
"Upstairs?" She asked.
"Yes," And we hooked arms and walked up the staircases.
The first door we came to was a smallish room with bookcases lining the walls.
"A library," I whispered, running my hands over the empty, dusty shelves.
"If only we had some books to put on them," Lily said.
"We'll get some."
"We'll get all the books we could ever want." She agreed.
"And we'll put a little chair over there, but the window."
"We'll put two chairs over by the window." She smiled.
"Ew. A library." James said from the doorway.
"Don't be dissing our library!" I said.
"If you don't want to be in here, go look at the other rooms." Lily offered.
"I think we will," Sirius mumbled pushing James diagonal to the next door in the hallway.
Lily and I conjured up our cleaning supplies again and started wiping all the dust off of the shelves. Then I wiped the grime off of the solitary window while Lily started scrubbing the floor. I joined her and after about half and hour the whole room smelled like bleach.
"Ech. It smells nasty in here," James said from the doorway.
"No," Lily started, "It smells clean."
I smiled and stood up. Lily took the hand I offered her and we vanished our cleaning supplies.
"So, what's the rest of the house look like?" I asked as Sirius came to stand beside James.
"Well, the bedrooms are definitely going to need repainted, the bathroom updated, the windows replaced, and a part of the roof has a huge crack in it." He said.
"Plus we need to buy furniture," Lily murmured.
I looked at her and smiled, "We can do it. It'll be tough the first month, but we'll survive."
"What about food and the bills?"
"We'll buy food before we buy anything else. Then set aside some money for bills. Then we can buy whatever Sirius and James need to fix it up. Then paint, and maybe we could go to some second hand Muggle store and find some charming furniture."
"Okay. Are you guys ready to go to your place?" Lily asked turning towards them.
"We're not going to our place today." James said.
"Yeah, we need to do everything we can to make your place livable." Sirius agreed.
"But what about your house?" I asked.
"It's ready to be moved into, yours isn't," He smiled.
"So Sirius, where should we start?"
"Uhh, how about we fix the window in the living room?"
"And they can clean it while we work."
"But we haven't finished looking at the other rooms yet," Lily and I complained.
"Trust us, you don't want to." Sirius smiled while walking over to me. He grabbed my hand and pulled me out the door.
"So where exactly are you guys going to get the glass for the window?" Lily asked from behind me.
Sirius stopped and turned around to look at James, "…well…uhh…how about take it out the Slytherins' dorms?"
"Excellent idea mate, we'll be right back."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! You can't just go into another Houses' dorms!" Lily said.
"And take their windows." I smiled at the idea, despite how wrong I knew stealing was.
Sirius saw my smile and winked.
"Don't worry Lily Flower, we'll be back in no time, and they can just conjure up a new window." James said.
Before Lily could object again, Sirius and James flew down the stairs and the front door slammed shut.
I sighed and rolled my eyes at Lily. She giggled and we continued on our way to clean the Living room.
_________________________________
James and Sirius came back in about an hour later, Remus behind them shaking his head.
They were holding about 70 pieces of glass, each of them carrying around 22 windows.
"Why do you guys have that many windows?!" Lily yelled, looking mad.
James casually answered, "We decided that since we were there, we might as well take all of them."
"I had nothing to do with the stealing of them." Remus said setting his down on the floor.
I looked at James, then at Sirius and back to James. I couldn't help it, I started laughing and after a few seconds Lily joined in.
I sighed and wiped the tears out of my eyes, "You guys could have been caught." Not really caring if they had been.
"Could have been, but weren't." James smiled.
"Okay then," I started scrubbing the floor again.
"I'm digging the view Love." Sirius called to my back.
I was on my hands and knees, my butt facing them, not very flattering pose on my part, especially considering that I was wearing my school uniform, which in case you've forgotten includes a skirt. I looked over my shoulder and scrunched up my nose in a disgusted manner. He just chuckled and started going through the pieces of glass.
"Ouch, shit." I looked over my shoulder to see Sirius looking at his hand. He had apparently cut it a very large piece of glass. Blood was oozing out of the deep slash it had left in his palm.
"Oh God, does anyone know any healing spells?!" James sounded hysteric.
When no one answered I jumped up and grabbed Sirius by his uninjured hand and dragged him into the kitchen.
"Damnit Sirius, you need to more careful." I said while looking at the cut. I hate blood.
"I didn't mean to do it," He said through clenched teeth.
"Is there any glass in it?" I asked holding his hand close to my face, trying to see pass the still oozing blood.
"No, it just cut through," He groaned.
"Come here," I pulled him over to the sink and turned the water on, then I pushed his hand under the water. He gasped and let out a painful groan.
"Sorry." I mumbled, washing it thoroughly under the water. After the blood stopped pouring out of his hand I conjured up a towel and handed it to him. He wrapped his palm into it and stared at me. I conjured up a first aid kit and started going through it.
I found an antibacterial spray, "Let me see you hand." He unwrapped the towel and I almost threw up. You could see the deep red meat of his hand in the cut. Holding back the puke that threatened to surface I gently grabbed his wrist and spray his hand.
"Ouch," He murmured sounding dazed rather than hurt.
"Sorry." I then wiped it with a sanitary wipe and sprayed it again. Then I found a large band-aid and gently put it over the cut. It apparently wasn't gentle enough though because he flinched away from it. I then wrapped some gauze tightly around his cut and then finished bandaging the cut up.
"All done," I whispered.
"Hey, are you alright?" He asked looking at my face, "You're paler than usual."
"Yeah, I'm fine, just don't like blood. Does it hurt?"
"Just throbbing a little."
"I'm sorry I couldn't do anymore."
"This is just fine. Perfect actually. Thank you." He kissed top of my head and walked out of the kitchen.
I took a couple of deep breaths, trying not to throw up, before going back into the Living room to help Lily clean.
____________________________________
It was around Midnight now, Remus had left a while ago, James and Sirius had changed all the broken windows and got the fridge working, Lily and I had cleaned the living room, dining room, and the horribly outdated downstairs bathroom, which we had decided to paint a nice sea green with white accents.
Tomorrow we were going food shopping in London, with Professor Klip's permission. We'd exchange our fake Magic money in for real Muggle money, so we could go to a Muggle Supermarket. Don't ask how that works, the exchanging of fake money for real, cause I have no idea myself.
I was now sitting on the staircase, and Sirius came and sat beside me. He threw his arm over my shoulder and I leaned into it.
"Where's Lily and James?" I asked.
"In the dining room, talking about something boring."
I smiled, "How's your hand?"
He held it up for me to see, "Wonderful."
I snorted, "How can it be wonderful? It has multiple bandages and a giant gash in it."
"But it doesn't hurt."
"You're lying, you just don't want me to feel bad about fixing it so badly."
"Now would I lie to you?"
"Yes."
"That was rude."
I just shrugged my shoulders and closed my eyes. He laid his cheek on the top of my head and sighed.
"What are we going to do now?" Lily asked from in front of us.
I opened my eyes, yawned and shrugged.
"How about go to sleep?" Sirius suggested.
"Wonderful idea, Padfoot." James smiled, "Back to the castle then?"
"Like Hell I'm walking in those woods at night!" I said.
"I'm with her," Lily agreed, "I don't give a damn how many enchantments are protecting us, I refuse to leave this cottage at night."
"But we don't have a bed." Sirius complained.
"City boys," Lily and I sighed.
"What's that supposed to mean?" James asked, clearly offended.
"You don't need a bed to sleep," Lily said.
"What's wrong with the floor?" I asked.
"It's hard." Sirius said.
"And cold," James added.
"It was a rhetorical question," I mumbled.
Lily sighed, "Accio Blankets."
We waited a few minutes, then some blanket came flying through the open living room window, "Happy now?"
"What about pillows?" James asked.
"Accio pillows," Lily called, obviously frustrated.
Another couple minutes and they came flying through the window.
"And PJs?" James mumbled.
"Damnit James, Accio Pajamas."
I laughed and Sirius chuckled.
Once we all had our PJs, Lily and I made a bed on the floor. A layer of blankets, then the pillows and more blankets. James sighed and climbed into the edge of the of our giant make-shift bed. Lily slip in beside him, then me, and lastly Sirius.
I laid facing Lily, my back to Sirius. She was facing me, her back to James.
"The window's still open," I commented.
"Maybe something will come in and eat us all while we sleep?" Sirius yawned.
"Go close it please."
"Fine," He sighed. I saw his silhouette light up against the almost full moon, that was shining through the window, as he closed it.
"Lily, we need curtains."
"Yes we do, I don't like the idea of some creeper being able to see us through our windows."
"Neither do I."
"No creepers will watch you while you sleep, except James," Sirius said as he slid in beside me.
"Shut it Sirius."
Lily and I laughed. Then it was comfortably quiet and Sirius wrapped his right arm around my waist. I laid my right arm over his and wrapped my hand up in his. He scooted closer to me, so that his body was pressed right up against my back, then he took his left arm and stretched it out. I lifted my head up and laid it on his arm, then reached up and intertwined my left hand with his.
He planted a light kiss on my head and buried his face in my hair. I untangled my right hand from his and reached up to slowly stroke his face. He sighed and I pulled my hand back and wrapped it back up in his.
Did you like it?