Days in Avalon

Chapter Nineteen: Livin' On a Prayer

"Lily it's not that bad," said Karen at lunch. Lily was hunched over in her chair with her head in her hands still in shock that she had to work with James Potter of all people.

"Oh, please Kare," spat Lily as she looked directly across the table at Karen. "It's as bad as it can get."

"Actually it could be worst," said Andy off handedly.

Lily turned to her right and glared at her best friend. She really didn't want to hear Andy's usual rants about how James is really a 'nice guy', or how all things are really not that bad. In her opinion, things were as bad as they could get. "How could it possibly be worse, Andy?"

Seeing the look on Lily's face and in her eyes caused Andy to forget what she was going to say. In all the years that she has known Lily, she had never seen her that upset before.

"You could have been paired up with someone like Snivellus," said Felicia, coming to Andy's aid.

"She's right you know," said Andy once she regained her voice.

Lily simply rolled her eyes and put her head down again. Kelly, Felicia, Andy, and Karen looked on their friend helplessly. They wanted to say something, but nothing really came to mind.

"I still can't believe I'm stuck with Potter of all people," groaned Lily after a few moments of silence.

"Lily, why not give it a chance," said Kelly cautiously. Lily looked up and raised eyebrow to her friend giving her the 'you've got to be kidding me' look.

"Well, I mean he is really good at Transfiguration," added Kelly hoping that it would smooth things over.

"So am I!" shouted Lily causing a few people to look over at her.

"Well, see there you go…a guaranteed A," said Andy with a smile as she grabbed an apple. Lily turned back toward Andy and gave her a warning look that told her best friend, 'don't mess with me right now'.

"Anyway…" said Kelly after a few moments looking to change the subject. "Uh, so Felicia, what have you been up to?"

"Nothing really, just…hanging around," replied Felicia with an impish grin.

"Hey do you want to have a girls night tomorrow," said Karen suddenly hoping to change the mood a bit. "We haven't had one since we got back."

"Sorry I can't. I have a date," said Felicia with a smile.

"Didn't you have one the other night?" inquired Lily.

"Yeah, but he had to cut out early. Something about having to help Hagrid with some sort of creature…uh Hippogriff I think," said Felicia.

At that moment of the conversation, Andy began to take a drink from her glass. But when she heard the end of Felicia's sentence, she began to choke on her juice.

"Andy are you okay?" said a very concerned Karen and Lily.

"Yeah," coughed Andy. "Yeah I'm fine. Just uh, went down the wrong pipe," she added.

After showing her concerned friends that she was indeed all right. Andy slowing looked down the table at where the Marauders were sitting and looked from Sirius to Felicia, then back to Sirius again.

'I can't believe it!'

"So you're really smitten with this bloke aren't you?" inquired Karen.

"Yeah…yeah I guess I am," said Felicia blushing.

"Well," said Andy suddenly staring directly at Felicia, "let's just hope this guy doesn't give you any grief. I mean we wouldn't want your rep to have a serious black mark because of him, right Felicia?"

"Yeah…I guess," said Felicia looking questionable at Andy. She couldn't really understand what Andy was getting at and why she was looking so angry at her. The other girls saw this too and were wondering the same thing.

"Andy are you sure you're okay?" asked Lily.

"Oh, yeah. Never better," said Andy with a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

"I'm sorry gals, but I have to go get started on researching some things for the project. Need to get some books and stuff since my partner's going to be sooo busy with his date this week," stated Andy as she got up from the table and looked directly at Felicia. "Catch you all later," she added looking at everyone else. With that she swung her bag onto her shoulder and stormed out of the hall.

'Oh Merlin she knows!' thought Felicia.

"Uh, you know I think I'll go join her. I need to do some research too," said Felicia quickly as she grabbed her things and head off. "Hey Andy wait up!"

"Do you think there's something going on with those two?" said Kelly as she watched Felicia run out of the Great Hall.

"In their words…oh yeah," said Lily watching the same thing.

"So Kelly, how's Braden?" asked Karen looking to change the subject.

"Fine I guess. I haven't heard from him in awhile," said Kelly miserably.

"Oh," replied Karen thinking this wasn't a good subject to bring up.

"He's probably busy at the ministry," said Lily.

"Yeah, you're probably right," answered Kelly with a halfhearted smile.

"Hello ladies," said a voice coming behind Lily and Karen. They turned around to find Remus Lupin standing behind them.

"Oh hi Remus," said Lily with a warm smile. She could see out of the corner of her eye that Karen was beginning to turn pale shade of pink.

"So…how's are you doing," said Remus awkwardly.

"We're fine," said Kelly offhandedly.

"That's good," said Remus in a slightly high voice. He was beginning to rock back and forth on the balls of his feet and was moving his hands quite a lot. Lily also noticed that he was looking a little ill.

"Remus are you okay? You look a little paler than normal," said Lily.

"Yeah I'm fine," he replied as he began to run his hand through his sandy colored hair. "I just might be getting a relapse of a cold, is all."

"Remus you should really take better care of yourself," stated Lily.

"Yes, you should eat some soup or see the nurse. I wouldn't want a great partner like you to be sick," said Karen quickly. When she realized what she just uttered, she immediately turned a darker shad of red.

Remus couldn't help but blush at the compliment from Karen and looked down at his feet for a second. "I'm sure it'll pass. But thank you for your concern," he said looking directly at Karen. "All of you," he added quickly.

Lily and Kelly glanced at each other and couldn't repress the smile that was on their faces at the obvious display of affection between the two people before them.

"Uh…actually," said Remus after a few moments of awkward silence. "Karen, that's kinda the reason I came over. Us being partners and all."

"Oh?" replied Karen a little afraid of what he had to say.

"Yes, I was wondering if you wanted to meet up in the library after our last class so could get a head start on the project, and…I don't know…get to know a little bit about one another?" said Remus with a half smile.

"Yes!" squeaked Karen loudly. "I-I mean," she said clearing her throat, "that would be nice."

"Great! So I'll see you at four then?" said Remus with a bright smile on his face.

"Four o'clock sounds good."

"Great. So… I guess I'll see you at four then," stuttered Remus as he began to back away slowly. "Oh uh, bye Lily, Kelly."

"See you later Remus," said Lily.

"Well someone is definitely smitten," remarked Kelly as she looked over at Karen. She was wearing the biggest smile on her face and was blushing profusely.

"What?" she asked once she realized she was being addressed.

"You know what," said Kelly with a wicked grin.

"Whatever," said Karen rolling her eyes a bit. "I'll talk to you guys later. I need to get to class," she stated getting up from the table.

"Have fun with Remus," said Lily as Karen passed behind her. Karen opened her mouth in surprise at Lily's comment but laughed it off and made her way out of the Great Hall.

"Speaking of which," stated Kelly as she got up, "I need to go up to the common room to get my book for my next class. See you later Lil."

"Fine. Go and leave me," said Lily jokingly.

With all of her friend gone now, Lily decided to pull out one of her books and read a little bit of it before she had to head off to class. After a few moments of reading, Lily almost completely forgot about her previous troubles. That was until she was suddenly interrupted.

"Geez, do you always have your nose in a book?" inquired James. Lily looked up to find him in front of her across the table.

Lily sighed with disgust as she put her book down. "What do you want?"

"A lot of things, but I'd settle for a few minutes of your time," replied James with a smile as he sat down on the bench.

"I'm busy," spat Lily as she picked up her book again to read.

"It'd only take a moment. I wanted to see when you wanted to meet up to work on the project."

"Fine," said Lily as she closed her book and gave James her attention. "When do you want to start working?"

"Name a time," replied James with a smirk.

"How about tomorrow after classes," suggested Lily.

"Can't. Have a practice tomorrow. How about Wednesday?"

"I have a prefect meeting and I have my duties," stated Lily.

"Okay…" said James deep in thought. "How about today after classes? We'll meet up in the library."

"Sure. Fine. Whatever," said Lily.

"So I guess I'll see you later then?" stated James as he got up from the table.

"I guess so," said Lily as she looked at her watch. Seeing that it was almost time for classes to begin again, she quickly got up from the table and headed off to her next class and away from James.

Lily went to the library right after her last class of the day. When she got there, there was no sign of James anywhere. She decided to go and look up some books that could be useful for her topic on Transfiguration during the Medieval Ages. Lily found a number of books that held detailed accounts of wizard battles and breakthroughs during that particular time period and found an empty table. She saw Karen and Remus on the other side of the library busy working away and whispering to each other as they copied notes.

It was almost ten minutes later that James finally arrived to the library and spotted Lily busy working away.

"You're late," she said not even looking up from her book.

"Sorry. I had to deal with a pest problem," replied James with an evil smirk. He took the empty seat next to Lily. She finally looked and raised an eyebrow wondering what he meant by that, but had an inkling as to what he was talking about.

"Lovely," she said darkly. "So where do you want to start?"

"I don't know? What's our topic again?" said James in a low voice ,with a clueless expression on his face.

Lily stared wide-eyed at him. Her mouth dropped in utter shock and disbelief. "I can't believe you! Of the most idiotic things to say…I can't believe that you can't remember what our project is when it counts for half our grade and was assigned today!"

"Whoa…hey Evans calm down," chuckled James quietly. "I'm just messing with you. Of course I remember. I was only kidding." He saw her face turn from shock to loathsome in a matter of a second. She huffed at him and went back to reading her book upset with for allowing herself to fall into James's little trick.

"Geez, talk about uptight," said James under his breath. Unfortunately for him, Lily heard what he said.

"What does that mean?"

"Nothing. Never mind," said James quickly. He didn't want to get into another row with her. "So…what have got here?" he said after a few moments. He began to go through the pile of books that Lily had pulled off the selves.

" 'Wizards and Their Useful Transfigure Spells' , 'The Complete Historic Account of Useful Transfigure Spells', 'Ancient and Modern Transfiguration: First Century to Present'? I thought we were just dealing with Medieval Ages not the entire history," said James. He looked on Lily as if she had lost her mind or was hit with some sort of mind-altering curse.

"We are. But it might be interesting to find out where they dated back to," said Lily in a matter of fact tone.

"How long do you expect this report to be? Until we graduate?" whispered James as he looked began to flip through the almost nine hundred page 'Wizards and Their Useful Transfigure Spells'.

"Oh yeah sure. Go ahead and make jokes. I can't help it that you can't take pride in your work," hissed Lily. She could feel her anger begin to rise up in her face and voice.

"Hey I do care about my grades, but I at least know how to have fun," said James as his voice began to rise.

"I hardly find tormenting others as a means of enjoyment," spat Lily.

"Why? You seem to be really good at it," said James looking her directly in the eyes.

"You unbelievable piece of…" hissed Lily loudly.

BANG! The sound of a book falling to the floor caused everyone in the library to jump and Lily to lose her train of thought. Everyone, looked around to see who or what caused the noise, but from where Lily and James sat, they couldn't see where the noise came from. Within moments, Madam Pierce scurried over between a row of bookshelves, apparently going to see if everything was all right. A couple of moments later, she was seen again coming from the bookshelves mumbling to herself.

"So what were you saying?" said James with a raised eyebrow.

"Nothing. It really wasn't that important," said Lily. She turned back to her book and began coping notes once again.

"Right," hissed James not believing her for a second. He saw that Lily was already deeply engrossed in the book she had. He grabbed a copy of 'Famous Medieval Warlocks and Wizards' that she had pulled off the shelves and began to skim through it, taking a few notes here and there.

Unknown to either of them, a pair of blue eyes were staring right at them, coming from the row of books that Madame Pierce came from. Andy had been listening intently to Lily and James's conversation the entire time. When she heard Lily about to tell off James, she quickly picked up the nearest heavy book and slammed it to the floor in hopes to stop her friend from saying something she might regret. After dealing with Madame Pierce, she went back to her stakeout, only to find them in complete silence.

'Geez, what do you have to do to get them to even talk humanly to each other?' she asked herself. She quickly scanned the room and found other pairs from her class busy working and getting along with one another. Especially Karen and Remus, who seemed to have hit it off pretty well. Both of them had a slight case of the giggles as they poured over their books and carried on a conversation. The complete opposite of what was happening between James and Lily. The atmosphere around them was so cold, you could keep ice cream frozen.

"This plan is livin' on a prayer. Blackie and I must be out of our gourd," she said to herself. The moment she said Sirius's name she wish she didn't. She was still a little shocked at what had happened earlier that day, but especially at what her partner in crime had told her.

(Earlier that day…)

"Hey Andy! Wait up!" shouted Felicia as she ran out of the Great Hall in to the Entrance Hall.

"Sorry Felicia. I don't have time to talk," said Andy over her shoulder.

"Miranda please. Can we talk about this?" said Felicia. She was finally able to catch up to Andy stop her from heading up the stairs.

"What's there to talk about?" inquired Andy as she sidestepped Felicia and began to climb the stairs.

"Andy come on!" said Felicia getting annoyed with the friend.

Andy stopped got up to about the fourth step before she turned around to look directly at Felicia. "What do you want me to say?"

"Well…" stuttered Felicia. She was completely taken off guard by Andy's actions. She really didn't expect her to come to a sudden halt and confront her.

"Exactly. There is nothing to say. So why don't you go run along and spend some time with that idiotic prat of a boyfriend you have," spat Andy. Felicia opened her mouth to say something, but was at a total loss for words. As Andy stared down Felicia, she saw Sirius coming out of the Great Hall and heading toward them.

"Oh, speak of the devil," she said icily. "Don't let me get in the way of your happiness." With that she ran up the stairs eager to get away from both of them.

"What's her problem?" asked Sirius once he met up with Felicia.

"She knows about us," replied Felicia looking directly at him. She saw Sirius's face fall a bit before he wrapped her in his arms.

"How she figured it out I don't know," she continued while she grabbed a hold of Sirius.

"Hey it'll be okay," he said soothingly.

"Yeah, right," chuckled Felicia in disbelief. She pulled away from Sirius and he could see that she was on the verge of tears.

"Look. I'll go talk with her," he said out of nowhere. Felicia raised her eyebrows and looked at him as if he had grown an extra head. "I mean I have to start learning how to deal with her, right?" he added.

Felicia looked almost positively grateful, but quickly felt sorry for him once she remembered that Andy was his partner. "I'm sorry you got assigned to be her partner."

"Ah, it's okay. Besides it builds character," chuckled Sirius. He saw Felicia's fall a bit, and knew that this wasn't what she had planned. She wanted to tell her friends about him slowly and hoped that they would accept him, especially Andy and Lily.

"I'll try to get along with her," he said putting his hand on her shoulder. She gave him a skeptical look and chuckled a bit. "Really. I will," he added looking her directly in the eyes.

"You're so good to me," she said with a smile. Felicia quickly gave him a peck on the cheek before he headed off after Andy.

"Hey Sparky! Wait up!" called Sirius after searching the hallways for her.

"Drop dead, loser," muttered Andy to herself as she continued to walk down the hallway.

"Sparky would you just stop!" said Sirius once he caught up to her.

"Not for you," spat Andy not looking at him. Seeing that it was almost a lost cause to get her to stop on her own, Sirius grabbed a hold of her arm and pulled her into a nearby empty classroom.

"Hey what do you think your doing! Get off me!" yelled Andy as she tried to break free of his grip. He didn't let go of her until they were in the classroom.

"Ah finally. So happy you can talk," said Sirius with a grin.

"What in the world do you think…" started Andy.

"Look just shut up!" roared Sirius suddenly taking Andy off guard.

"Excuse me?" said Andy in disbelief.

"Look, I don't want to hear you. Right now it's my turn to talk and your turn to listen!" barked Sirius as he literally back Andy into a corner. In all the years Andy had known Sirius, he had been known to have shouting matches, but he had never backed her up into a corner. He appearance was somewhat scary, but for the first time in years, he had her full attention.

"Yes, okay. Felicia and I are dating. But that doesn't give you the right to treat her like she did something wrong. It's her choice and her life. But for some reason, she wants me to get along with all of your lot, but especially you and Evans. Now you may not believe it, but I actually care for her. A lot actually. So I'm willing to try to get along with you," he said looking her directly in the eyes. Andy saw his face suddenly change from one of harsh to one of mischief.

"After all we do have to work together, don't we?" he added with a sly grin. Andy mindlessly nodded in agreement before she snapped out of it and finally register what Sirius had actually said.

"So you willing to deal with each other a little more?" inquired Sirius as he finally backed away from Andy.

"If I have to," replied Andy trying to forget the fact that she allowed Sirius to get the upper hand on her.

"Fine," he answered. He went over and opened the door for Andy and gestured her out. "I'm glad that we had this nice little chat. You know I could get use to those kinda of talks," he chuckled.

Andy looked upon him in disgust and told him to sod off before she headed off for her next class.

Andy quickly shook her head to rid herself of her thoughts. She couldn't comprehend the idea of one of her best friends dating her worst enemy. Andy then mentally kicked herself when she realized she did the same thing to Lily a few years prior. ('God I hate getting a taste of my own medicine'. she thought to herself.) But more over, she couldn't believe that Sirius had actually confessed that he had deep feelings for Felicia.

Seeing that nothing was really going to happen between Lily and James, Andy decided to get a head start on her project as well as the rest of the homework. She maintained a watchful eye of her two friends, hoping that they would possibly have a civil conversation, but she was also ready to step in and break up another fight if necessary.

As time dwindled down, James and Lily continued to work in silence Andy became fed up with them and was getting very hungry since she only ate an apple for lunch. She then decided to leave the library, carrying seven large volumes on Ancient Greek transfiguration for her project, up to the common room before she went to dinner.

Most of the other students followed Andy's idea. Neither Lily nor James noticed the library empting out as students headed down for dinner, until the room was almost completely empty.

"Where'd everyone go?" asked James as he looked up for the first time in a while, rubbing the back of his neck.

"Dinner I suppose," said Lily not looking up from her book. She could see that her watch read that it was a little after six in the evening.

"Guess we should head down, huh?" said James. He began to pack up some of his things and could feel his stomach groan with hunger.

"You can go ahead. I'll be down later," said Lily lightly as she scribbled a few more notes on her parchment.

James couldn't believe what he was hearing. He took hold of Lily's book and closed it quickly before she could say anything.

"W-what are you doing?" inquired an irate Lily.

"Haven't you heard of all work and no play makes Lily a dull person?" said James with a grin.

"I said I'd be down in a little bit. Now I need to finish this," said Lily as she went to open her book again.

"Why? It's not like the world is going to end if you don't finish it now. We have all semester you know," stated James. Lily looked up to find James looking at her with a wide goofy grin on his face, as if he were trying to be cute. Unfortunately for James, Lily found him annoying right now, rather than cute.

"Fine!" huffed Lily. She quickly packed up her thinks and stormed out of the library, heading up to the common room. James was slightly taken off guard by Lily's action, but he quickly grabbed his things and headed off after. Once he caught up to her, he could see that she was highly irritated.

"Hey Evans, what is your problem?" he asked.

"My problem is you okay?" spat Lily before she continued on, leaving a bewildered James in the middle of the hall.

Meanwhile, as Andy made her way to the common room, she unfortunately tripped on a trick wire causing her to fall face forward on the ground. The moment she fell, the books in her arms spilled onto the floor along with the books in her bag as the material ripped.

"What the heck?" she groaned as she began to get up form the floor. She looked around and found Peeves cackling above her with tear running down his face.

"Lousy poltergeist," muttered Andy as she pulled out her wand. Thinking that she was going to attack him, Peeves quickly blew a raspberry at her and flew down the hallway into the next corridor. Andy shook her head in disbelief and muttered the repair charm on her bag. As she began to refill her bag, she heard two people laughing and giggling as they came down the hallway up ahead. When she looked up, she found Sirius and Felicia walking hand in hand as they headed toward Gryffindor tower.

"Oh great. The new Hogwarts super couple. Just my luck," she muttered sarcastically to herself as she piled her books up. After she got all her things together, she picked up herself and her books, and headed for the common room again. As she neared the portrait of the fat lady, she could feel the books in her hands begin to slip.

"Gillyweed!" said Andy quickly to the fat lady.

As the portrait swung open, Andy ran in as the books began to slip more. She huffed over to the nearest table and slammed the books down. When she began to regain her normal breathing pattern, she noticed two other people in the room. It was Felicia and Sirius. It seemed that she had walked in on them in the middle of a private moment.

"Oh, don't mind me. I'll just be heading up stairs," said Andy sweetly. "Losing my lunch," she said under her breath. She turned back toward her books and began to re-pile them again. Felicia looked at Sirius and told him she would see him later before she headed off to her room.

"What have you got there, Sparky?" said Sirius cheerfully.

"Oh, nothing. Just a couple of books for this little project for a class, since my partner is to busy getting his groove on," said Andy as she began to pick up her books again. "Oh yeah, and by the way your little plan doesn't have a prayer," she added before she headed off toward the staircase.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. What are you talking about?" inquired Sirius as he grabbed a hold of Andy's books and put them down again.

"Lily and James. There is no way in heaven, hell, or earth that those two are going to even talk civil to one another."

"How do you know that?" said Sirius a little confused.

"Well while you were off sucking face with one of my best friends. I was keeping tabs on your little idea," said Andy in a matter of fact tone.

"Well?" said Sirius after a few moments silence.

"Let's just say it was like watching a brick wall. Actually, no watching a brick wall was more exciting than seeing those two," said Andy.

"Great," replied Sirius looking up at the ceiling.

"I don't even know why I even agreed to this stupid idea," said Andy rubbing her eyes.

"Hey you know Rome wasn't build in a day. These things take time," stated Sirius.

"Yeah, well there were a lot more people building Rome," said Andy coldly.

"What's that suppose to mean?"

"Oh I think you know what it means," chuckled Andy looking directly at Sirius.

"Hey I'm working here too," roared Sirius confronting Andy.

"Yeah working on Felicia," spat Andy.

"Look Sparky why don't you just…" started Sirius before stopping abruptly. He lifted his head as if hearing or smelling something off in the distance. He looked quickly toward the porthole and saw it begin to open up. He swiftly pulled Andy toward the staircase that led up to the boy's dorm.

"Hey what do you…"

"Shh! Shut up!" hissed Sirius as he pointed to the common room. Andy could hear two people come in, and chanced a quick glance as to whom they were. She saw Lily walk into the common room with James close behind.

"Whoa wait…" started James. "What do you mean I'm your problem?"

"Oh great another fight," whispered Andy.

"Yeah, but at least they can't see us," replied Sirius.

"True, but what happens if James decides to head up to his room?" inquired Andy as she looked over her should at Sirius standing directly behind her.

"Hmmm…good point," said Sirius thoughtfully. "Be back in a sec."

"W-What? Blackie!" hissed Andy as she watched Sirius quietly and quickly run up the stairs to his room.

"Exactly what I said. You are the most self-absorbed, cruel, inconsiderate person I've ever met," stated Lily. "You have all this popularity and power which you use to harm others who are weaker then you for your own pure enjoyment. I'm sorry but I can't work with someone who is nothing but a big bully," she said before she began to head up to her room.

"I'm a bully?" said a flabbergasted James. "What about you little miss 'I'm-so-good-pure-and-perfect-I-don't-need-to-listen-to-others'? Come on Evans! I see the way you act around your friends. You may thing that you are being nice and honest, but what you are really doing is putting them down. The only reason why you have the friends that you have is because they can handle your berating," roared James.

Lily had never been so upset and hurt in her life. Not really knowing how to respond to James's attack, she did the first thing that popped in her mind. She took her foot and stomped on James's left foot with all her might. James began to hop up and down on his good foot while rubbing the other. As he did this, he lost his balance and fell to the floor at Lily's feet.

"I take it back. My problem isn't with you. It's with your mouth," said Lily icily before she ran up the stairs.

After a few moments, the pain in James's foot began to subside and he got back up on his feet.

"Man, talk about mental. This is going to be a long year," muttered James as he climbed the stairs to his room.

Unknown to him, both Sirius and Andy were hiding under the invisibility cloak. Once they heard the door to James's room close, Andy and Sirius pulled the cloak off. They both looked at each other with worried faces.

"I think we've got our work cut out for us," said Sirius as both of them headed down the stairs.

"Fasten your seatbelts ladies and gentlemen. It's going to be a bumpy year," said Andy as she flopped on the couch.

"So what do we do now?" said Sirius taking a seat on coffee table in front of the couch.

"Got me. Besides it's your turn to come up with an idea," said Andy looking over at him.

Sirius looked off into space deep in thought until an idea hit him. "I think I got an idea, but you may not like it."

"For the hundredth time Blackie we are not going to lock them up," sighed Andy.

"I wasn't going to say that exactly," said Sirius. Andy rose up on to her elbows to look at him properly with a curious look on her face.

"What did you have in mind?"

Disclaimer: For the hundredth time. I only own the characters I made up and this story. Everything else belongs to J.K. Rowling.