MY LIFE IN A NUTSHELL
NARRATOR: Ms. Lily Evans
SUMMARY: It's the start of 7th year and things are beginning to spiral out of Lily's control. Follow her day-to-day adventures in this multi-chaptered fic about love, hate, and the many aspects of a 17-year-old witch's life.
RATING: T, for language, some visual imagery, and attempted humor.
Disclaimer: The almighty J.K. Rowling owns everything ever.
This chapter is one of those stuck-in-limbo writings that I occasionally come up with for no reason whatsoever. It's probably horrible, but there isn't much I can do about it at the moment- I still see fit to post it.
It was 7:00 A.M., hardly a regular time for a person to be up and about, considering lessons started at 9:00.
Trying to avoid another embarrassing incident like what had happened yesterday, I quickly got to the Head bathroom and showered. Too late, I realized that I had left my change of clothes in my room. Scanning the bathroom for a towel, I saw none except for the hand towel; a small thing, it would hardly cover me.
But it was either skimpy towel or nothing at all.
So carefully wrapping myself up in the towel, I stuck my head out of the door to check the area.
No James. Goodie.
I scampered out of the bathroom and across the common room, but my towel slipped; I quickly attempted to adjust it, but it didn't seem to want to cooperate. I felt so exposed.
A knock on the window alerted me to a watcher.
Will Kerrigan, the cocky, arrogant Ravenclaw Seeker, was casually floating on his broom by the window, watching me struggle with the tiny towel. He winked slyly and a smirk began to slowly spread across his face.
My scream was enough to wake the people within a 10 feet radius. Which it did.
Which explains why James rushed out of his bedroom, hair madly tousled and eyes bright with surprise.
I really don't have to explain what came next; all that followed was a loud yelp, a running streak of flame-red hair, and a loud slam of the door.
And a very, very deep blush.
"Geez, Lily, you've been having problems with way indecent exposure," Alice snickered while I stared determinedly at the wall in front of me.
"You look like a freak. At least stare at a painting, or something- the wall's so plain," Marlene informed me.
"I am a freak. I big, big freak, that has a very, very bad amount of stupid, stupid karma." I banged my head on the wall repeatedly.
Miranda's face twisted a little bit. "I still can't believe you, Lily- you, forgetting something? You never forget anything! Lily Evans does not forget anything, ever, at all, especially her clothes."
"I do now."
There was an awkward pause, and we descended the rest of the stairs in silence. The Great Hall was already filled with the regular amount of chatter; morning classes had just ended and people were wandering about, grabbing bites of lunch before their next subjects. I sat down on the bench and moaned pitifully, burying my head in my arms.
"Brisket, Miranda?" A voice said politely from across the table. I looked up in surprise to see a stony-faced Sirius, holding out a porcelain plate.
"No, thank you," Miranda responded icily. She avoided his intense glare and said offhandedly, "You know what, guys? I'm afraid I'm not very hungry right now. See you later."
Without another word, she stomped out of the great hall.
"But Miranda never leaves without her brisket," Alice said concernedly.
Right at that moment, Miranda appeared once more next to us.
"Arnf," she grumbled, and grabbed the plate of brisket before disappearing again.
In response to this odd little display of anger, Sirius also threw down his fork and stalked off in the opposite direction. Marlene, Alice and I shared confused glances before turning to our dishes. I felt a body slide into the seat next to me.
An arm slipped around my waist. I stiffened.
"Flashing the world is not something I'd expect out of you, Lily Evans," an unfamiliar voice purred in my ear.
I narrowed my eyes at Will. "Get your filthy hands off of me. What are you doing, by the way, riding your broom at 7:00 A.M.? I suppose you're just playing Peeping Tom on all the girl's dormitories?"
Will chuckled slowly and continued his dirty flirting. "Only interested in you, Missus," he whispered, and his lips lightly brushed my neck.
Two things happened at once.
From different directions, two spells bounced off of Will Kerrigan simultaneously. He jumped up and went rigid; immediately, his hair began to grow longer and longer, until he could no longer see. Out of the hair came two enormous front teeth. The people around watched with growing fascination as the hair-teeth creature stumbled out into the hall and right into Professor McGonagall.
"Lily? Are you alright?"
James still had his wand out, eyes cloudy.
I glanced down at my own wand. I had cast the Densaugeo spell, and watched as Professor removed the hair and stopped my curse. I shivered; two Heads, both using magic unsupervised. What would become of us?
I quickly learned when McGonagall strode toward us, grabbed us roughly, and began marching us up to her office.
"Despicable. I would've expected better from two Heads, let alone you, Ms. Evans." The disappointment in her voice rang in my ears. "I have nothing more to say, except that you will join me in this office tonight before your rounds to discuss your detentions."
"Detentions?" My voice was louder than I had intended. "But Professor, I've never had a detention before!"
"Congratulations, then," McGonagall said, nodding curtly in my general direction. "However, this detention is well earned. You should know better than anyone that it is against school rules to use magic in the hallways."
"Our actions were provoked, Professor," James spoke up. He seemed to be determined to get us out of this. "Kerrigan was touching her."
McGonagall raised an eyebrow. "Touching?"
"Violating my personal space, entering my bubble, etc.," I muttered underneath my breath.
"And you didn't think to just tell him to stop?" Professor McGonagall continued to question.
I responded, "...I guess casting a spell was more of my impulse reaction."
"Then, please, Ms. Evans and Mr. Potter, learn to control your impulses," McGonagall sniffed. "My office, 8:30." She paused slightly and then added, "I'll make sure to talk to Mr. Kerrigan about this, too."
More silence.
"Well? You're free to go," McGonagall dismissed us in an agitated tone.
After the double doors to her office closed, James mumbled, "Bloody teacher and their one-sided decisions."
I remained silent.
"Lily? Are you alright?"
I paused before answering.
"I have detention. Detention."
"Honestly, it's not all it's worked up to be. So you clean a few trophies or scrub down the dungeons- unless you've got something against cleaning supplies, you'll be fine," James assured me, but I was already starting to freak out.
"Detention? Detention? Oh, when Mum and Dad hear this they're going to be so mad, darling perfect Petunia never gets detention, detention, stupid bloody fucking detention..." I wrung my hands and paced back and forth across the hall. A pair of firm hands stopped me mid-step and I nearly tripped and fell head over heels.
"Calm, Evans. You're overreacting."
I looked up at James' face with wide eyes. A funny little grimace passed over his face, but quickly disappeared.
"I'm not dead, am I?" His voice was calm and serious. I knew he was trying to comfort me.
"I don't think so," I responded shakily.
"And, I bet you can count how many detentions you yourself got me into," James continued.
"It's just the right thing to report the wrong," I mumbled.
"That's not the point, Lily. What I'm saying is that you'll be absolutely fine. You're going crazy over nothing; when the detention is over and done, you'll see that your overreaction is like getting excited to watch flobberworms."
"I don't believe you."
"Ask your friend, then," James said, taking his hands off of my shoulders. A weight lifted off of me. "I bet Goshawk knows plenty about detentions."
"She's still alive," I added thoughtfully.
"That's it, Evans," James grinned. "Just mellow it out, okay? Nothing's gonna happen."
I nodded and for some reason felt a smile slipping onto my face.
Hmm. Apparent delirium.
James and I attempted to slip quietly into the charms classroom, but Professor Flitwick barked at us the moment we stepped through the door. I froze.
"Ms. Evans and Mr. Potter, if you would please sit down!" For some reason, Flitwick's expression was unhappy, for whatever reason I couldn't imagine. I ambled over to Marlene, but Flitwick piped up behind me once more- "No, no, not there, Ms. Evans! We're working in partners today, and Ms. McKinnon is already paired with somebody else.
Alice waved sheepishly at me. I glared.
"However, you and Mr. Potter may take the vacant seats over there." Flitwick directed me toward the two desks at the back of the room. A shudder passed through me. Was that a spider that had just crawled over the desk?
Or, was that a six inch black widow?
And was I going to be partners with Potter? Again?
Terrible teachers tortured the terrified teenager.
Ooh, alliteration.
"I thought Flitwick would at least give you some credit," James whispered in my ear. "I thought you were his 'star pupil'."
"Evidently, that title has been robbed from me along with my spotless detention record," I huffed as I planted myself down on the chair. Examining the desk closely, I realized there had been a spider there- however, it scuttled off toward the window once I took note of it.
"No worries, Evans. No worries," James chuckled. I gave him an angry harrumph in response.
The lesson went by fairly fast- Protean Charms, no matter how "difficult" they seemed, were actually much easier in retrospect. I picked up the charm immediately and decided to watch James struggle.
"You know, you're supposed to help me," he said after attempting and failing the charm yet again.
"You're doing it wrong."
"Obviously."
I grinned at his frustration and picked up my two perfectly copied rocks; each had the same etching on it, an engraving of a lion. I smiled to myself as I changed one rock; the other one immediately changed with it.
"Here," I said, and made another copy of the rock. I handed it to a surprised James.
"You're supposed to say 'thank you'," I told him.
"How come you're helping me, Evans?"
"Aren't I supposed to, James?"
A funny look passed across his face and a crooked smile appeared. "Well, then, thank you, Lily."
"You're welcome. Truly, truly, welcome."
Ok, that chapter sucked eggs.
However, no major worries; I've started the next one, and hopefully it won't be as disappointing as this one.
And I blame my supreme suck-ishness on the fact that I'm sick with STREP THROAT during my damn vacation! I never get sick during school! Only. During. Vacation.
The irony. Oh, the irony!
REVIEW AND I SHALL FEEL BETTER. At least, emotionally.
-.x.