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Failure By Design by still_fly
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Format: Novel
Chapters: 14
Word Count: 37,784
Status: COMPLETED

Rating: Mature
Warnings: Strong Language, Mild Violence, Scenes of a Mild Sexual Nature, Substance Use or Abuse

Genres: Humor, Romance
Characters: Lupin, Sirius, Lily, James, OtherCanon
Pairings: James/Lily

First Published: 04/03/2010
Last Chapter: 04/02/2011
Last Updated: 04/02/2011

Summary:
AMAZING banner by hysteria @ TDA
Sequel is up!




There will come a day when my brain shuts down and I'll let my heart speak for itself. That day is not today.

Chapter 12: Jealousy (Part II)
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*A/N: I am so so so sorry that this chapter took forever. My computer was being really lame and wouldn't even let me open up internet explorer or anythingggg.. so I snuck on my brother's computer heh heh. Anyways, this chapter is like drama packed . . . so I hope you like it! And just as a beforehand warning, this chapter switches POV's :)*

 

 




Chapter Twelve

I should've known better than to 'compromise' with Mary. She doesn't even know the meaning of the word. Honestly, you'd think that after six years of being best friends I would have learned this by now.

Alas, no.

If I had learned by now, I would not be in the Gryffindor common room waiting for Remus, James and Sirius in a frilly pink blouse that didn't want to cover up the little cleavage I have, a skirt that reveals an uncomfortable amount of leg and heels that I could barely wobble in, not to mention walk.

"I look bloody ridiculous." I grumbled to Mary, pulling at my freshly curled hair that kept getting in my face. Mary smacked at my hand, pushing my hair back into the position it was in before.

"You look hot, Lily. James won't be able to keep his eyes off of you." I grumbled some more at Mary's response. She forgot to mention the insane number of male Gryffindors who also seemed unable to keep their eyes of of me. This would be fine if their eyes would rise to my face and not my body.

"I look like a tramp." I stated, running my hand through my hair again.

"No you don't." She countered, "And keep your hands away from you hair. It took me forever to get it to look presentable, least of all good."

I rolled my eyes. I had to squint to see through the layers of eyeliner and mascara that Mary forcibly caked on my face. It really was the most torturous thing I've ever experienced—letting Mary using me as her own dress-up doll. And that's saying something because I've walked in on McGonagall doing yoga.

Curling irons, makeup, face wash, trying on dress after dress after freaking dress . . .

I shut my eyes and shuddered at the recollection.

"Cold, Lily?" A smooth baritone inquired aloud. I kept my eyes closed, losing myself in the sound of James' voice. They snapped open, however, as soon as I felt a warm arm snake around my waist and pull me closed to another's body. I think I may have heard Mary squeal. I shoved the arm off and put it back at James' side.

A barking laugh broke through the air, "Ouch, Prongs. Even now she won't let you touch her."

James didn't seem hurt in the slightest. In fact, he was smirking. "It's okay, Padfoot. I know Lily, and that shove was, without a doubt, a shove of affection."

Sirius snorted into his elbow, "Oh, yeah," He retorted, voice etched with sarcasm, "And I'm sure if she chopped your arm off, that too would be affectionate." James rolled his eyes at his best friend and then motioned for us to head to the portrait hole so we could get a move on with the day.

"Ladies first," Remus said to Mary, extending his arm out to the hole to help Mary through. She smiled and brought her foot up to step through. I grabbed her shoulder and held her back before she could get any closer to the blazing hole.

"Actually, you guys can go first." I told him. He gave me a questioning glance but nonetheless crawled through the hole, James and Sirius following. I awkwardly lifted my legs to the hole in a way that guaranteed coverage of my underwear and began my crawl through, Mary right behind me.

"Is that a kitten I see on you knickers, Lily?" Mary asked, snickering from behind me.

"Shut up."

I clambored out of the hole, probably flashing everyone in the process, and pressed down my skirt subconsciously. If only I owned a skirt, then Mary wouldn't have forced me into this scandalous piece of denim she calls clothing. As soon as I looked up at the boys, there was a flash of blonde and a squeal of, "James!" and then Molly King's scrawny little arms were around James' torso. He patted her back uncomfortably.

When she finally broke apart from him, an awkward atmosphere settled in the corridor. James stared at me, I purposefully looked away from him and instead glared at Sirius (who was watching Molly with raised eyebrows and a smirk on his face), Mary was also looking at Molly (except she looked about ready to kill), Molly (of course) was staring at James with big round eyes, and Remus kept looking back and forth between it all with an expression on his features that looked to be mixed between uneasiness and amusement.

"So . . ." Sirius began, kicking the ground, "Are we going to stand around here all day or are we going head off to Hogsmeade?" After no response he continued impatiently, "C'mon, you gits; I want to squeeze in a trip to Zonko's."

Oh, we 'squeezed in' a trip to Zonko's alright. We stayed there for an hour and a bloody half, to be exact. After fifteen minutes in the blazing store, Mary, Molly and I got bored and placed ourselves outside on the small bench near the entrance. And you know what? An hour and fifteen minutes of sitting still on a dinky, hard bench causes immense pain to your arse.

More importantly: an hour and fifteen minutes of sitting on a dinky, hard bench with Molly King causes immense pain to your arse and kills your brain cells. So, in summary, by the end of the day, I'm going to be stupider and have to get a butt replacement.

Lucky me.

"It's no wonder why practically every girl in our year is infatuated with him," Molly was saying in her sickly sweet and highpitched voice, "Quidditch has done him a lot of good. I remember back in first and second year when he was a walking beanpole, but now . . . just, damn. Is he fit? And you'd think that his glasses would make him look like a gigantic nerd, but, Merlin, it just helps out his looks. And that hair . . ." She swooned and then stopped talking,

Finally. I thought she was going to never shut up.

"I really don't see why you hate him so much, Lily." She asked snootily.

I guess I spoke too soon.

"He's really outgoing, and his looks are to die for . . . and he's been chasing after you for Merlin knows how long. Well, I think he's moved on now but you understand what I mean. He's bloody gorgeous, and yet you won't give him the time of day."

I scoffed, "First of all, I never hated him. Secondly, I'm not going to date someone just because they're 'bloody gorgeous'. And lastly, he most certainly has not moved on; he's just not . . . as public about it anymore."

"It looks like he's moved on to me," She insisted, sticking her perfect little nose in my face like it's all of her business, "Why else did he ask me to Hogsmeade and not you?"

Mary and I both snorted at the same time.

"Please," Mary laughed, "Don't flatter yourself. I hate to be blunt here—" I snorted again. Mary loves being blunt, "—but it's obvious that he was just using you to get over Lily. It didn't work out, otherwise he wouldn't have told you that he wanted to come to Hogsmeade as friends. Honestly, I think a fly could have figured that one out."

"If what your saying is true," Molly began, flipping her hair over her shoulder, "Then that would mean that something must have happened to make James change his mind about wanting to move on. Something like, oh I don't know, reciprocated feelings?" She looked at me, a surprisingly maniacal smile on her face.

Crap.

Is Molly not as dumb as she looks and acts?

I gave a throaty laugh. Mary sent me a look of surprised irritation. "That's raving mad." I muttered weakly.

"I'm not stupid, Lily." Molly snapped, "I see the way you look at him. Might I say that it's also bloody hilarious to see your face go red with anger whenever I get too close to him. Just to warn you, if you keep that anger in then it's bound to explode one of these days. Maybe it'll be at me or maybe at him. I'm shooting for the latter, though."

Mary stood up in a huff, "Do you mean to say that you're trying to get Lily jealous?"

"Uhh, yeah?"

"Why you selfish little bit—"

"Mary!" I exclaimed, standing up as well and placing a hand on her shoulder, "Calm down."

"Calm down!?" She snapped back, "I've been working for six bloody years to get you and James together and now that it has happened I'm not going to let some blonde hoebag ruin that!"

"Oh, come on," Molly laughed, although I found no humor in her tone, "You'd know all about ruining relationships, wouldn't you Mary? Yours is going to be down the drain if Remus ever finds out that you cheated on him." Mary, whose mouth had just open as to say something, immediately closed it.

"Please, King," I started with a roll of my eyes, "It's a little low to start up a rumor about Mary. She hasn't done a thing to you."

"You're right," She responded, "She hasn't. But it's not a rumor. Geez, Evans; I thought you two were best friends. I thought you told each other everything." I looked to Mary, begging with my eyes for her to say that Molly is lying. But Mary wasn't looking at me. Her gaze was set at her feet and she had shrugged back a few meters away from us.

"Mary?"

But Mary didn't answer. She turned away from us, away from Zonko's and sprinted towards Hogwarts leaving me staring after her with my jaw hanging open. I looked back at Molly whose smirk was too big for her face.

"You really are a selfish little bitch." I told her, and then I ran after Mary as fast as I could. I could barely see the back of her head anymore; it was too far away. As soon as I ran through a huge crowd of teenagers, I lost her. But I kept running. I had to find Mary and there was no way I was turning around to face Molly again.

I felt kind of broken. For Mary's freshly revealed secret, and for Mary as well. And the more I ran, the more broken I felt. Soon enough, I couldn't run anymore. Soon enough, I felt my knees fall from underneath me. Soon enough, I was lying in the dirt of the pathway that leads to Hogwarts. Soon enough, I was crying.

But later, far later, I felt someone pick me up by my upper body so I was sitting and then two arms were placed awkwardly around my shoulders. I didn't open my eyes to see who it was, but it was not James. I knew that I knew them, though. A complete stranger wouldn't comfort me like this. I buried my face into thier shirt and let it all flow out of me.

But it wasn't James. And that just made me cry harder.

 

 

 

 

 

 








 J A M E S

"Moony, check this out!" Padfoot called from across the store, flinging what appeared to be a dungbomb at Remus. It hit him square in the face, bursting in the air. Moony choked furiously swatting the foul smelling air away from him in attempt to speed up the diffusion. It didn't work so he settled with pulling his shirt over his nose.

"These dungbombs will smell for over two days!" Padfoot exclaimed excitedly.

"Great." Moony grumbled. Padfoot turned away from us to examine the new section of the store labeled 'Decoys'. So discreetly that even I wasn't sure if I actually did it, I took one of the dungbombs and slid it down the back of Sirius' trousers.

"How long d'you reckon Lily will stay with you before she realizes she's gone stark raving crazy?" Moony asked, his shirt still clamped over his mouth and nose. Poor guy could probably still smell the nast dungbomb because of his unnatural werewolf sense of smell.

"I'm not sure, but I'm going to take whatever time I can with her and savor it." I replied, leaning against one of the shelves.

"What if that isn't exactly a whole lot of time?"

I shrugged, not entirely sure. But I did know one thing that I would do. "I would tell her how I truly feel. I mean, she knows that I like her a lot and that I'd do anything she asked me to do . . . but I've never told her before how much I love her." Moony nodded as if he was expecting this answer. He probably was.

I glanced at the clock.

"Merlin!" I exclaimed, grabbing Moony and dragging him towards Padfoot. I grabbed him, too, and pulled them to the front of the store, "We've been in here for almost an hour and forty five minutes!" I pulled them through the door until the warm summer air hit our faces, "Lily and Mary must be going mad with—"

"Oh, James!" A girly voice cried. I felt two tiny arms fling themselves around my neck and Molly's nose digging into my neck. I pushed her off of me gently, not wanting to offend her but not wanting to lead her on either. "You won't believe how mean McDonald and Evans were to me!"

"Where are they now?" Moony asked, concerned.

Molly shrugged lightly, "They both took off running towards the castle. Lily has always had a distaste towards you, James. I think she wanted to leave to avoid you or something. She was telling me how horrible you are at Quidditch, how irritating your glasses are, and much she hates your hair."

I raised my eyebrows, not buying a word of it. If both Mary and Lily were running back to the castle without notifying me or Remus, then something must have happened.

"We're going to go look for them," Remus said. I nodded in agreement, "We'll see you around, Molly."

We rushed off towards the castle. We crashed into people on the way, but we didn't really care—or notice for that matter. It wasn't until I saw a flash of red that I stopped in my tracks. I motioned for Remus and Sirius to continue on and so they did. I slowly walked to where I could see Lily's red hair. The closer I got, the more there appeared to be an outline of a body next to her . . . holding her.

It was that Gordon Smith guy. And her arms were around him too.

My head hung low, I pulled out my invisibility cloak and wrapped it around myself, slowly making my way past the pair all the while keeping my eyes off of them.

And I left her there with him.

 

 

 





*A/N: Review? :)

-still_fly*
 
 
 
 
 
 

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