Days in Avalon
Chapter Twenty: The Game of Love
As the week went on, Sirius and Andy waited until the opportune moment arrived to pull off their plan. What they thought would be a simple task, turned out to be an all out production. For the next few days the two of them kept a close eye on Lily and James, but found it nearly impossible to find them together. James was always seen coming up with new Quidditch plays or hexing a number of Slytherins, while Lily could be found in the library, handling her prefect duties, or seen with one of her friends. All looked lost for duo's plan until finally the fates decided to play a hand.
Thursday morning…
The sixth year students were gathered in their Transfiguration class, while Professor McGonagall lectured on about changing an animal in motion into a lovely houseplant. A few students were seen dozing off (particularly two raven haired boys), while the rest of the class was busy taking notes or doodling in their notebooks. As the final bell rang, practically everyone jumped out of their seats and made a mad dash out of the classroom.
"Just a moment!" bellowed Professor McGonagall. The students could tell she was more than a little miffed about their current behavior.
"I'd like to remind you all that I will be checking up on how your projects are progressing. So I'd encourage all of you to meet up with your partners and work on your projects, if you haven't done so already," stated Professor McGonagall as she perched her lips tightly together making the faint line on her face even smaller.
All of the students nodded silently as they left the classroom quietly. Once everyone was a few feet away from the classroom, the low rumbled of students talking started up again.
"Great…more homework," groaned Felicia.
"Well I don't see what your problem is. It's not that hard to split the work up. Besides most of your information can be found in your old Transfiguration books," said Karen.
"Oh, you're one to talk," laughed Felicia hollowly. "You've got a partner who doesn't stutter uncontrollably and knock over practically everything in his path."
Kelly, Andy, and Lily couldn't help but giggle at Felicia's overreaction to her partner.
"Peter isn't that bad," replied Kelly.
Felicia glared at her friend not finding anything amusing. "Yeah, right," said Felicia darkly.
Andy just shook her head at her friend's comment. Sure Peter could be somewhat of a klutz, but so could Felicia at any given moment. As they continued to walk down the corridor, Andy glanced behind her and saw that Lily had slipped into another world surrounded by her thoughts.
"What's the matter, Lil?" inquired Andy, as she slowed her pace a bit so she was now walking side by side with Lily.
Hearing her friend's question, Lily shook her head trying to rid her thoughts of what had happened a few days ago with James. "Nothing. Just got a lot of things on my mind," answered Lily with a weak smile.
"Oh," replied Andy not wanting to push Lily over the edge. She had a pretty good idea as to what her friend was thinking about. The little incident in the common room. For as Andy as know Lily, she knew that her friend regretted letting her emotions get the better of her and pull some stunt like stomping on James's foot.
After a few moments of silence, Andy decided to see if Lily had calmed down enough to talk about her partner. "So…how's it working out with James? I see he's still walking around, so I know you haven't killed him yet."
Lily let out an amused chuckle at her friend's little joke. "No, I haven't killed him yet. To tell you the truth, I haven't really had the chance to work with him."
"How come? I thought you two were working on your project the other day?"
"We were, but there were some issues and problems that came between us. Particularly with his mouth," stated Lily. Andy could see her friend's eyes blaze with the same rage that always appeared when she talked about something James did to her.
"Aaahh," replied Andy. She knew exactly where Lily was coming from, James always did have the tendency to say the wrong thing at the wrong time.
"I'm surprised at you, Andy?" said Lily after a few moments of silence.
"How so?"
"Well, I just told you that he practically insulted me, and you haven't bombarded me with how I should give your friend Potter a chance. You're acting as if you already knew what I was going to say. What's gotten into you?" inquired Lily as she gave her friend a concern look.
'Uh-oh. How did I walk into this one? Okay quick fixing,' thought Andy. "Isn't it obvious?"
Lily shook her head in confusion, not knowing what she was getting at.
"I mean you don't really like the boy, so why should I waste my breath trying to convince you that he's a nice guy? And to answer your question of how I already knew, I didn't. But, I know James and how is…so it was only a matter of time before he stuck his foot in his mouth for the millionth time. So again why should I even bother, when it's a lost cause," said Andy smoothly. Lily couldn't help but be amazed at her friend's response.
"Besides," added Andy, "I've got bigger fish to fry with just trying to work with Blackie. Or I should say, trying not to strangle the bloke."
Lily couldn't help but laugh at the irony of both of their situations. Each of them stuck with their worst enemy and trying to keep a cool head while with them.
"Guess we're in the same boat, huh?" chuckled Lily.
"As always," said Andy with a fake smile.
"Speaking of which," said Lily suddenly after they turned the corner. Both girls found both James and Sirius standing in the middle of the corridor going over Quidditch plays.
"Guess we should go talk to them, huh?" added Lily, not really wanting to deal with James.
"Or we could pull them by the ears until they agree to our whim," chimed Andy.
Lily gave a heartfelt laugh at her comment. "Let's call that plan B."
Andy simply sneered at her idea. "You can call it plan B, but as for myself, that's the only way I'm going to get through the three bottles of goop that's on that head of his."
With that, both girls headed over toward where their partners were.
"Hey, Blackie. We need to talk…NOW!" barked Andy. Before Sirius could even respond, Andy grabbed him by his necktie and dragged him back toward the hallway that Andy and Lily just came from.
'Whoo…glad I'm not Padfoot,' thought James before his eyes landed on Lily. 'Uh-oh'
"Potter…we need to talk," said Lily calmly.
James gave her a skeptical look as visions of their last conversation popped into his head. "You sure that's a wise? I don't know if my feet can take another conversation."
Lily slightly cringed at the thought of her outburst. Although it was common knowledge she didn't really get along with him, Lily didn't really intend to hurt him on purpose.
"I want to apologize for that. It was the wrong thing to do. I shouldn't have done that," said Lily sincerely.
James gave her a skeptical look but could see in her eyes that her apology was heartfelt. As he continued to look in her eyes a little longer, he felt that all to familiar feeling in the pit of his stomach whenever he looked at Lily.
'No I can't feel like that anymore. She doesn't like me, and I don't like her,' thought James.
"It's…fine," said James after a few moments. "So…what did you want to talk about?"
Lily tried with all her might to keep her anger in check. Since she apologized for stomping on James's foot, Lily thought he would also apologize for his harsh comment about how she mistreats her friends. She took a couple of deep breaths and buried her feelings in order to continue on.
"Well…like Professor McGonagall said, she's going to be checking in on our project. So I guess we should attempt to get some work done, civilly."
"All right then. When do you want to meet up?" asked James. He side stepped out of the way to allow a group of noisy fourth years to walk by and headed toward another hallway.
"How about today, after dinner in the common room," suggested Lily.
"Sounds good to me."
"All right then. So I'll see you after dinner then," replied Lily. With that, she walked away from James and headed up the nearby staircase to her next class.
At that same moment, Andy and Sirius were standing in the adjacent hallway listening in on their friend's conversation. Everything was going fine until the group of fourth years walked pass them and drowned out James and Lily for a few moments.
"Well they're not at each others throats so I guess that's a good sign," whispered Sirius.
"Did you catch what Lily said?" inquired Andy.
"No. You?" asked Sirius. Andy shook her head in response. At that moment, Lily walked away and James headed off down the corridor again.
"Okay so stage one is complete. Now what?" said Andy.
"We wait and see what happens," replied Sirius in a business like tone.
"And if they start up again?"
Sirius then turned around to look directly at Andy with an impish grin playing on his face. "Then we step in."
"And you actually believe it will work?" chimed Andy with a raised eyebrow.
Sirius nodded and came up with an interesting idea. "Care to make a wager?"
Andy was taken back just a bit at his proposal. "Okay…how much?"
"Well…" started Sirius, not actually thinking she would take the bet. "Usually I charge five gallons, but in your case, I'll settle for two."
Andy looked at him as if he had two heads and took his offer as somewhat of an insult just because she was a girl. "I think I can handle five. That is unless of course you're afraid to take on a girl?"
"How about three and a week supply of sugar quills?" suggested Sirius. Normally he would have been more than willing to put up five gallons. But since he had been disinherited and disowned by his family, money was now slightly tight, and Sirius knew better than bet more he's willing to part with.
Andy pondered the idea for a few moments before agreeing to the terms.
As evening fell on Hogwarts, all of the students were busy studying and working on their homework either in their common rooms or the library.
Lily busied herself with finishing up the last little bit of her homework while waiting for James who was running late again. The common room was a little less busy than normal. A few students were sitting across the room going over their Astronomy homework, while others busied themselves with other things. Lily noticed that Kelly was sitting by the fireplace writing a letter to Braden, as well as to her parents.
After a few more minutes of waiting, James finally came running through the porthole and found Lily sitting in the corner on the far side of the common room. When he got over to the table, he saw that she was about tear into him but he beat her to the punch.
"Sorry! Sorry. I know. I'm late," said James as he quickly took an empty seat and flopped his book bag on the table. Lily gave him a stern look as he pulled out a notebook, quill, and ink. He then proceeded to lean back in his chair and propped up his feet on the table.
"Okay so…where do we begin?" asked James, ready to get down to work. Lily eyed him and looked from his face to where his feet were.
"Well for starters you can take you foot off my book," growled Lily. James gave her a quizzical look, until he looked at where his right foot was.
"He he…oops. Sorry," said James cautiously. He then took his feet off the table and sat up straight in his chair.
"It's all right," replied Lily. She really didn't want to get into a row with him. All she really wanted was to just work on their project and get it done.
"So how far have you gotten?" inquired James, eager to get back on task. He noticed Lily slowly grin at the idea of finally working and watched as she pulled out a number of things from her bag.
"Well…" started Lily. "I've taken some notes on how wizards in medieval times came up with the spells to transform the objects they so desired into what they needed. I also found some information on where the words originated, who came up with the spells, and some of the dangers of mispronouncing the words."
James stared in amazement at how much Lily had accomplished in such a short amount of time. He thumbed through the two notebooks full of notes that Lily had taken, as she talked about what she found.
"Geez…you really did your homework," stuttered James. As he continued to look through her notes, he slowly began to worse and worse with each passing page.
"It was really quite easy. If you know where to look. So…what have you done?" asked Lily. The moment she asked, James wished she didn't. He tried to quickly come up with anything, but was drawing a blank. Unable to find a way out, he reluctantly pulled out a scroll from his bag.
"Uh…well just this," he answered as he handed it over to her. Lily inscrolled the piece of parchment and read James's scrawl.
"James I already found this," said Lily looking up at him. "And the ink hasn't even dried yet," she added noticing some shinny spots of fresh ink.
"Yeah, that's why I was late," said James avoiding her eyes. "I stopped off at the library. Thought it was a good idea."
"Oh…well it was," replied Lily. She could understand that it was possible that they had both gotten the same information. That was until…
"Wait a minute. What about the notes you took on Monday when we were in the library?"
"Uh…well…uh…funny thing really," chuckled James uncomfortably.
"Potter?"
"Well…I didn't quite exactly…take notes per say."
"You what?" said Lily. She could see that this was leading up to something stupid, and felt her temper begin to rise. "So if you didn't take notes, then what did you do all that time?"
"Uh well…coming up with…some plays," said James as he ran his hand through his hair.
"Play! You mean to tell me that for nearly two hours that could have been used to work on our project…you spent on Quidditch plays!" roared Lily, causing a few students to stop what they were doing.
"Yes," said James visibly cringing. He could slowly see Lily's face almost turn the same shade as her hair.
"Of all the idiotic things…I-I…ooohh. You know I can put up a lot, Potter. But this…argh. T-This is just as bad as not apologizing for what you said the other day," screamed Lily.
"Why should I apologize. I was speaking the truth! I was only saying what I saw," said James defensively.
"How would you even know! You're to busy coming up with your stupid plays!" roared Lily.
(Meanwhile out side in the hall…)
"So did you have a good time?"
"Yeah," said Andy as she walked down the hall with her date. He was fifth year Hufflepuff with short spiky brown hair, brown eyes, and the beginning stages of a mustache.
"It was really sweet the way you arranged for that carriage ride," she added with a fake smile. 'Even though you kept trying to grab me, and continued to stare at me the entire time.'
As both of them came near the portrait of the fat lady, they came to a stop and faced each other.
"Thank you for a lovely evening, Tim," said Andy sweetly. She wanted nothing more than to say goodnight, head up to her room, and forget this night ever happened.
"So what do you say about going out again on Saturday?" asked Tim, with a sly grin. Seeing that grin made Andy cringe on the inside.
"Ah, ooh, I don't think so. I've got some homework to do. A lot actually," said Andy hoping he would take a hint.
"How about Sunday then," said Tim, quickly looking so hopeful.
"Look Tim…" sighed Andy trying to make this as painless as possible. Although she had a terrible time with him, she still didn't want to hurt his feelings. "You are a really nice guy and all…it's just I don't think this is going to work out. It's not you. It's me. I've just got way to much on my plate right now, and I don't want to lead you on or anything."
"Oh! I-I'm sorry to hear that," said Tim sadly. "So I guess this is good-night then?"
"Looks that way."
"Goodnight, Andy," said Tim as he lean in for a kiss.
"Uh…goodnight, Tim," said Andy pulling away.
Tim looked at her a little confused but nodded good-bye and headed back up the hallway that he just came from.
'And good riddance,' thought Andy. She shuttered a bit as the image of him staring at her came across her mind. She turned around to head toward the portrait of the Fat Lady when she saw someone standing in the shadows behind her.
"So another one bites the dust, huh?" said Sirius as he came out of the shadows. Andy let out a visible sigh of relief, learning it was he.
"How long have you been standing there?" asked Andy raising an eyebrow.
"Hmmm…long enough," answered Sirius. He was wearing a somewhat smug face that he always wore when he was getting ready to tease someone. "So what happened? Romeo didn't meet to your 'standards'?"
"Tell you what, Blackie, the next time you go on a date with someone who keeps trying to make a pass at you and stares at you like this," spat Andy, as she titled her head to the side and allowed her eyes to glaze over while making a weird face. "Then will talk."
"No thanks. I think I'll pass," chuckled Sirius when he saw her demonstration.
"Hey aren't you suppose to be keeping tabs on our duo?" said Andy suddenly.
"Yeah I am. If I knew where they were. They weren't in the library at all."
"Huh? That's weird. I would have thought Lily suggested going there."
"Yeah, well they weren't there," said Sirius in a matter of fact tone.
At that moment, the portrait open up and a pool of Gryffindors left the common room, with sounds of yelling coming from within the room. Among the group of students was Kelly heading directly toward where Andy and Sirius were standing.
"Ah, hey Kel," said Andy. "You haven't by any chance seen Lil have you?"
"Yeah, I have," sighed Kelly looking over her shoulder back at the portrait. "She's in the common room tearing into James. If I were you, I wouldn't go in there just yet."
Andy shot Sirius a worried look out of the corner of her eye. She could see that he was rubbing his eyes in frustration.
"Well I'm off to the Owlery. See you later," said Kelly as she left.
"Yeah, thanks Kel," said Andy slightly off handedly. She turned back toward Sirius and saw that he was wearing a similar expression on his face. 'Uh-oh!'
"Great! Now what?" sighed Andy. "There's no way we can do the whole double team thing you thought up of."
"Now wait a minute. It may work," said Sirius doing some fast thinking. Andy gave him a doubtful look as she raised her eyebrows.
"Look, all we need them to do is agree on talking to each other and get to know one another better. Right? So all we have to do is trick them," said Sirius.
"And how do you propose we do that?" inquired Andy.
She suddenly regretted asking that upon seeing the mischievous grin come across his face. "By doing what we do best of course."
"Well how could I even try and do any work, when you seem to have everything in order! " roared James. He and Lily were now standing yelling at each other face to face near the fireplace.
"That's because I can't trust my partner who doesn't take anything seriously except that stupid game!" retorted Lily.
"Hey! Quidditch is not stupid," fired James taking her words as a personal insult.
"Oh please! A bunch of people on little sticks chasing around a couple of balls. How challenging is that?"
"Oh, and constantly reading books that you'll probably never use anything out of is challenging?"
"I'd rather expand my mind than ego!"
"I'm sorry are you saying that I have a big ego?" said James pointing a finger to his chest. Lily simply folded her arms and gave him a look that read 'absolutely'.
"Oh, that's rich!" said James with a hallow laugh. "The only one I see here with an ego problem is you!"
"Oh you self…" started Lily.
"Jeez that's real orig…" spat James before Lily interrupted him.
"You wouldn't even know the word original if it came up and bit you on the…"
BANG! The loud noise coming from the porthole caused the end of Lily's sentence to be drowned out. Both Lily and James turned toward the direction of the noise and saw Andy storming in with Sirius close behind. Each of them was looking madder than ever.
"You unbelievable wanker! I try to have a civil conversation with you and it turns into this!" cried Andy. She stopped in the middle of the room and turned around to look directly at Sirius. Everyone that was still left in the common room, looked on eagerly at the new pair arguing. A double feature.
"And your saying it's my fault? Huh gee, that's funny because I remember trying to be polite and you were the one who started blowing up!" barked Sirius.
"Oh that's a laugh," chuckled Andy hollowly. "You? Polite? Please! The only time you are ever polite, is when you want something, or are chasing around something in a short skirt."
"Oh you really think I'm that shallow?"
"Uh, I don't think. I know!" spat Andy. Sirius gave a hallow laugh at her remark. "You want examples? Fine! How about that little idea of your putting me in that godforsaken toga dress that was way to short even for my taste?"
"Hey I was joking around," laughed Sirius.
"No you weren't. I think you need a serious attitude adjustment and learn some real manners on how to treat a lady."
"Oh ho ho," laughed Sirius. "Oh please, enlighten me, oh great and wonderful Princess Sparky. Yes tell me how a relationship should be from someone who had had more boyfriends then shoes!"
"Why you little piece of…"
"And here we go…" chimed Sirius.
"You want to have a g…" started Andy.
"Oh you couldn't beat me if…"
"Want to make a bet…"
As Sirius and Andy continued to argue like a couple of two year olds, Lily and James looked on seeing that this fight was quickly getting out of hand.
"Hey guys! Guys. GUYS!" yelled James trying to get their attention.
"SHUT UP!" screamed Sirius and Andy at the same time to Lily.
"Don't you yell at him," roared Sirius turning back to Andy.
"He's my friend t…"
"Oh so that makes…"
"Oh what do you know?"
"You know after all these years…"
"Urgh…you are such a headache!" screamed Andy.
At that moment both Lily and James had had enough. Lily then stuck her thumb and pointer finger into her mouth and gave off a loud whistle.
"GUYS!" screamed James.
"WHAT!" said both of them at the same time.
"What's going on?" said Lily calmly.
"He started it!" said Andy pointing a finger at Sirius. At the same time…
"She started it!" stated Sirius pointing a finger at Andy.
"I did not!" said both of them at the same time. "Did too!"
"Prat!" snorted Andy.
"Know it all!"
"Narrow minded git!"
"Loud mouth!"
"Oh, I'll show you a loud mouth," said Andy as she attempted to lunge at Sirius. James quickly saw where this name call was going and quickly pulled back Andy before she could get her hands on Sirius.
"Okay! That's enough!" said James breaking off the fight.
Andy looked over her shoulder at James and broke out of his grip before sulking off to a nearby corner. Sirius walked to the other side of the room with James closely behind. Lily then walked over to where Andy was grinding her teeth.
"Andy what has gotten into you?" asked Lily.
"Nothing. I just can't stand that …urgh!" growled Andy.
"Okay calm down. What happened exactly?"
"It doesn't matter," sneered Andy. "Because I'm never going to work with that loser again! I don't even care if I fail Transfiguration. There is no way I'm dealing with him for a moment longer."
"Andy come on you don't mean that. Think about your grades. Your career!"
"To hell with it! I'm telling you Lil, this is never going to wok!"
Lily sighed in frustration trying to convince her friend that she's overreacting. But from the look in her eyes, Lily could tell that she wasn't kidding around. She quickly tried to think of something that could convince her to not jeopardize her grades, until an idea popped into her head.
"Andy…why don't you try and…talk to him. Get to know him a bit, if you know what I mean. Maybe that might help you understand him more," said Lily cautiously.
Andy tried to fight the grin that wanted to spread across her face. She excited and slightly amazed that her friend played right into her hands.
"Yeah, I'll do that when you do," snide Andy. With that she left the common room and headed up the stairs toward the girl's dorm. A few seconds later, Sirius followed her in the same act, and head up toward his room. A few moments later, Lily and James heard both of them slamming their doors to each of their dorms.
"What was that all about?" said James in confusion, as he headed back toward the table where his stuff was.
"I think it's the same thing between us," said Lily. She saw James give her a questionable look before she added, "Not getting along I mean."
"Ahh…" replied James. There were a couple of awkward moments of silence between the two of them, until James decided to break it.
"So..uh…what do we do about that? Us getting along and all, I mean."
"I don't know," shrugged Lily. "I guess we could talk. I mean learn about one another."
"What, you mean like tonight?" said James. He looked at the clock and saw that it was nearly nine o'clock now, and he still had to finish three essays that were due by tomorrow.
"No not tonight," chuckled Lily, seeing the worried look on his face. "We need more time. How about Saturday in the evening?"
"Sure. I guess," said James not totally convinced.
"Fine. Now if you'll excuse me," said Lily as she got up from her seat and pack up some of her things. "I have to go on duty."
With that, Lily walked out of the common room, through the porthole leaving James to finish up his homework. Unknown to anyone, Sirius and Andy had snuck out of their rooms and were crouched down on the floor of the balcony, over looking the common room and joining the two main doors to the dorm rooms. Both of them had heard what James and Lily had said and were now reveling in the fact that the plan had worked.
"See I told you it would work," whispered Sirius. He then put out his hand to Andy. "Pay up!"
Andy rolled her eyes as she pulled out a small pouch from her pocket that contained the three gallons. Sirius smiled childishly at his newly acquired prize money, causing Andy to laugh.
"Lucky break," chuckled Andy.
Disclaimer: It's all J.K. Rowling. She created this world of Harry Potter; I'm just borrowing the characters she created. I only own the characters I made up and this idea.