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Format: Novella
Chapters: 18
Word Count: 30,546
Status: WIP
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Strong Language, Mild Violence, Scenes of a Mild Sexual Nature, Substance Use or Abuse, Sensitive Topic/Issue/Theme, Contains Spoilers
Genres: General, Romance, Young Adult
Characters: Lupin, Snape, Sirius, A. Longbottom, Lily, James, Regulus, Pettigrew, OC, OtherCanon
Pairings: James/Lily, Lily/OC, OC/OC, Sirius/OC, Other Pairing
First Published: 01/18/2007
Last Chapter: 08/29/2008
Last Updated: 07/07/2012
Summary:
Lily and James are at Hogwarts together for their seventh and final year. They and their friends suffer through heartbreak and find new love as they come to grips with the danger that's waiting for them when they leave the safety of Hogwarts and enter the real world.
Wonderful banner by Ophelia Weasley
Chapter 3: Three
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A/N: Update numero three! Don't forget to review!
Chapter Three
The next night Lily lay in Alice’s bed in Gryffindor tower, thinking about James. Her heart still panged from Marisa’s disappearance, but she had accepted it. They weren’t even friends, not really.
Lily preferred to think about James. She told herself it was because he was the more immediate problem, but she knew the real reason was that she wanted a distraction from Marisa’s disappearance.
James was a conundrum for her. She was attracted to him, but everything he did seemed so childish and immature. He spent his time playing pranks on those he considered lesser, whether it was due to age or the House they were in. Lily couldn’t stand it when he did things like that. He was also one of the only people who could make her lose her temper.
Amelia hopped on the bed beside Lily. “What’s up? You’re rarely this quiet.”
“Just thinking,” Lily responded, not really wanting to go into detail. She still hadn’t told her friends about kissing James.
“About what?” Amelia asked.
“Stuff,” Lily said. She loved Amelia to death, but sometimes she couldn’t take a hint.
“Ooh, I like stuff! Is this boy stuff or school stuff or family stuff or-”
“I’m just trying to think, Lia,” Lily said, feeling quite annoyed with her best friend. “Could you please just leave me alone?”
Amelia pouted at her friend. “Fine. Be that way. I’ll go bother Alice.”
When she left, Lily went back to thinking about James. Nothing between them would ever work. She and James weren’t right for a relationship. No, she thought to herself, I’ll just pretend like nothing happened and everything would go back to normal.
A shriek came from downstairs followed shortly by, “Lia!”
Lily smiled. She was on damage control duty, again. Everything was already going back to normal.
~*~
James lay in his bed, thinking. He didn’t understand why Lily had run away from him like that. He’d been nice to her, sensitive even. And he hadn’t asked her out or mentioned Hogsmeade, not once!
The only thing that had happened was that kiss, but it was just a simple kiss. Or was it? A little voice asked inside his head.
“What the hell!” He shouted.
“Uh, is something wrong, Prongs?” Remus asked.
“No!” James said defensively. No way did Remus know about Lily. It simply wasn’t possible. “Why would you say something stupid like that?”
Remus rolled his eyes. “Well it might be because you were lying there all peaceful and then suddenly jumped up and yelled ‘what the hell’. No, of course that’s perfectly normal.”
“Oh,” James said. That made a lot more sense than Remus reading his mind. “Sorry, there was just this little voice in my head telling me things.”
“That would be your conscience,” Remus said drily.
“My what?”
“His what?” Sirius asked. He had been trying different jinxes on the sleeping Peter, but paused when the conversation got interesting.
“Conscience,” Remus rattled off. “Noun. An inner voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one’s behavior.”
James stared at his friend in surprise. “Wow.”
“It’s just a word. It’s not even that long of a word,” Remus said.
“Actually Moony, I think he was referring to how disturbing it was that you knew the definition verbatim. Creepy.” Sirius shuddered visibly.
James laughed at his friends and pulled his favorite snitch from his drawer. The whole Lily situation was out of his control anyway. All he could do was wait for her to talk to him sometime. She couldn’t ignore him forever. After all he was the Head Boy.
~*~
The three Marauders left the Head’s common room late that morning. They had been up all night yelling and joking and just generally having fun. Peter had left around midnight, half delusional and going on about beauty sleep. They had found him curled up behind the sofa, snoring and drooling.
Sirius groaned at the sight of him. “Let’s leave him here. Uh, no need to disturb him,” he said after a pause, trying to think of a good reason to leave him.
James and Remus both agreed and had turned to leave when a sleepy voice muttered, “Padfoot…”
After jumping in shock, James and Sirius both burst out laughing. “Never knew Peter leaned that way,” Remus said, grinning.
“Never knew Peter leaned any way,” James replied through fits of laughter.
Sirius growled and chased them both down to the Great Hall. While sprinting down the length of the Gryffindor table, James noticed Lily sitting with her friends. He slowed down to talk to her, but she turned her head away. “Lily?”
“She wants you to go away, Potter,” Amelia said with a scowl.
James’s feelings were hurt, but he hid them behind a casual smirk. “See you in class, Lily Flower!” He skipped down to his friends’ spot at the table in an attempt to look utterly joyful.
Sirius surveyed him with a raised eyebrow. “Are you playing for the same team as Pete, now?” He asked. James stopped skipping instantly and plopped in the seat beside his friends.
“Oh Siri, don’t be so silly!” A girl named Ellie said, giggling loudly. She planted a kiss on James’s cheek. “We all know James could have as many girls as you if he stopped going after that Evans girl. Isn’t that right?”
Ellie and her friends tried to sit with them every day, although most of the time the marauders sat on their own. Personally, James thought she had a horribly grating voice and an incredibly annoying giggle, but he could put up with her some days. On bad days he couldn’t figure out how the sixth year Gryffindors got to be so stupid.
“Do you have a date for the first Hogsmeade trip yet, Sirius?” Melinda asked. She had deep brown hair and chocolate brown eyes, and probably would have been pretty if she didn’t wear so much makeup.
“Yes I do, Mindy,” Sirius said in a joking tone. “Do you have a date for the first Hogsmeade trip yet?” She blushed and shook her head. “What about you, James?” Sirius continued, looking pointedly at his friend.
“Huh?” James asked. “Oh, er I dunno yet.” He stole a look across the table to where Lily was animatedly talking with her friends. She didn’t so much as glance up and an idea came suddenly to him. “You want to go to Hogsmeade with me, Ellie?” He asked.
The girl squealed excitedly. “Ooh! Yes! I would love to!” James nodded, looking slightly over her head at Lily. The redhead was smiling easily at her friends and ducked her head, likely in embarrassment. James wondered what they could have said to make her embarrassed.
When he managed to bring his thoughts back to his own group of friends, Sirius raised an eyebrow at him. “You’re not doing this to get over Lily, are you?” He asked drily.
James shook his head excitedly. “No, when Lily sees me with Ellie she’s going to be overcome by jealousy and will realize that she’s always been completely in love with me.”
Sirius rolled his eyes. “You do realize this is never going to work, right? Lily’s smarter than that.” James pulled out his wand and levitated the goblet of pumpkin juice into the air. Sirius’s eyes widened. “You wouldn’t!” He gasped, but it was too late. James had already turned the goblet upside down and dumped the contents on his friend’s head.
With a shriek, Sirius sprinted off to the common room to presumably clean his hair. James made eye contact with Remus and both boys burst out laughing. Sometimes Sirius could be such a girl.
At the opposite end of the table, Lily was nibbling on a piece of toast and half listening to Alice discuss career options for after graduation. Since she knew she was going to be a Healer, Lily didn’t spend much time contemplating careers. “Frank’s going to be an Auror, did I tell you?”
“You may have mentioned it a few times,” Lily said tiredly.
“A few dozen times,” Amelia amended as she slid in beside her two friends. “Let’s change the subject. I have major news from the gossip mill.” Lily groaned, but Amelia elbowed her sharply in the side. “Shut up, this concerns you. James Potter asked Ellie Mindallin to go to Hogsmeade with him.”
Amelia looked between her two friends, clearly waiting for some kind of response. “So?” Lily asked, carefully keeping her expression placid. “I don’t see how anything Potter does concerns me.”
“Well maybe he’s finally getting over you. You know, moving on so you can finally date guys without him getting crazy overprotective?” Amelia rolled her eyes. “Fine, pretend you don’t care. I know you’re faking it.”
Lily smacked her friend on her arm. “I’ve got better things to do than keep track of Potter’s love life. Besides, I have to owl a letter to my parents. I haven’t sent them anything since school started.”
“You’re not as clever as you think you are!” Amelia shouted after her as she left the Great Hall. “I can see right through you!”
As it was a beautiful October morning, Lily wasn’t surprised when there was no one in the owlery. She hadn’t exactly lied to Amelia because she did have a letter to send to her parents, but that wasn’t the sole reason she wanted to leave the conversation.
Talking about James Potter confused her. One day he would act like a complete jerk and then in the next he would be sensitive and caring and kiss her. And then he’d ask out Ellie Mindallin. Nothing made sense anymore, except that she was glad she hadn’t acted on her feelings.
“Is this space occupied?” Asked someone with a deep voice. Lily glanced up into the very blue eyes of Brian Lumpkin, the seventh year Hufflepuff Prefect.
“Oh, hi! Um no, I was just- I’m done,” Lily stammered, her face turning as red as her hair. She hadn’t expected to run into anyone, especially not Brian Lumpkin.
“I really don’t wish to intrude.”
“No, please, intrude away.” Lily couldn’t remember ever being so embarrassed. It wasn’t as though Brian could possibly know she’d been up there thinking about James Potter. For all he knew she was mailing off a letter, a perfectly reasonable excuse.”
“I thought everyone would be outside on such a nice day. Figured I’d have the whole owlery to myself.” He looked sheepish and Lily couldn’t help but smile back.
“That’s what I thought.” She tied her letter to an outstretched leg on one of the school owl’s legs. Brian had his quill out, quickly scrawling on a sheet of parchment. “Well, I guess I’ll see you around,” Lily said with a wave.
She started to leave, but Brian called her back. “Wait, Lily! Would you like to erm, go to Hogsmeade with me next week? I mean, if you haven’t got plans or anything.”
Lily smiled at him. He was a nice bloke, and an attractive one as well. “Sure, that would be fun.”
Brian beamed down at her. “Great! I’ll meet you in the Great Hall that morning.”
“Yeah. See you,” Lily murmured as she walked out the door. James Potter could do whatever he wanted, she decided. She was completely and totally over him.
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