Charlotte watched the dancing couple for a minute when Remus came up behind her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. Ignoring her suddenly thundering pulse, she asked brightly, “Is that who I believe it to be?”
“Oh, yes… he’s been trying to decide what to wear for weeks, you know. You know, I think he’s serious this time- about loving her… It makes you wonder if she feels anything for him at all.” Remus chuckled while Charlotte looked the young man up and down, “I say, that looks right dashing, the nice black dress robes with the Gryffindor mask.”
“You don’t look bad yourself…” Remus swept a lock of pink tinted hair from her face, his fingers brushing her cheek for a second that lasted forever in her mind.
She blushed, “Thank you, Remus. I think this was our best plot for them yet! But just a quick question: why did Sirius choose to be the Phantom of the Opera? Does he even know what opera is?”
The young man chuckled, “I was reading it and the prat asked what it was about. I said it was a love story about a bloke who wears a mask and basically stalks this girl who is mesmerized by his voice. Sirius and James were both arguing over who could go as him so I made them do a coin toss… Sirius, unfortunately, won.”
“I doubt he realizes that the Phantom doesn’t get the girl in the end, does he?”
“Of course not- I can wager that Eternity will tell him soon enough and he won’t look quite as chuffed about his guise as before.” The two laughed, noticing Sirius dragging a frantic Eternity onto the dance floor.
Suddenly Charlotte gasped with shock, “Remus- those Slytherins; what’s happened to them?”
Remus looked over and raised his eyebrows, “They seem to be… growing excess limbs?! That would have to be Dodatek Ciało potion!”
Bellatrix Black, Rastaban Lestrange, Regulus Black, Augustus Rookwood, and several other Slytherins had dashed away out the doors.
Remus murmured quietly to himself, “It must have been in their drinks, some sort of revenge- no it wasn’t us!” he assured Charlotte before continuing, “But, almost every one of them; I think they might be the people that attacked Lily! But, Snape and I think a few others that might have are missing…”
“Hmm, maybe Lils has another person looking out for her…” Charlotte mused rather worriedly, before her face relaxed, “We can’t do anything about it now and there was no evidence at all- if it was them, well they got what they deserved!”
})i({
“You do know what happens at the end of the book, don’t you?” Eternity said disdainfully, trying in vain to yank away from his vise like grip on her hand and waist as Sirius shook his head, “The Phantom dies of grief because Christine runs off with the Raoul bloke- so, he doesn’t get the girl!”
“Excuse me, what? I’m selectively deaf you see-”
“Oh, shut it you git or let go of me already!”
})i({
Lily whirled gracefully across the floor with her mystery man for hours, her hair flying out behind her as she laughed. Her mystifying ‘man in the mask’ grinned and twirled her quickly, catching her hand and pulling her back before she could spin away. Lily beamed, “You’re such a good dancer!”
“Yeah, my mum made me take muggle ballroom lessons when I was younger.”
Somehow, that sounded vaguely familiar. Somebody had been complaining in the Gryffindor common room a year or so ago about being made to dance lessons. Who had it been? Suddenly, the music began to slow and couples drifted closer together to share a waltz.
Her masked partner drew her close against him, his hand light on her waist and his grip on her fingers soft and warm. She leaned her cheek against his muscular chest, murmuring, “Do I know you? Without your mask?”
He chuckled, “Oh yes…”
“Really? I don’t want t scare you away, but I wish I knew you- I feel so strangely drawn to you, but this little part of me keeps saying that I don’t quite feel the same about you without your face hidden! How strange; I don’t think I could ever hate anyone again after spending such a wonderful night with you!”
She giggled, not noticing the suddenly tight look on the visible portion of her partner’s face, as they wound through other couples spinning gently. As they twirled gracefully, Lily noticed that dance was coming to an end. The girl raised her head again to speak to her wonderful mystery man- and was suddenly cut off as his mouth connected gently with hers. She closed her eyes and her fingers quite by themselves wound carefully into his soft, messy hair. His arms crushed her form against his body, his mask pressing against her face, when abruptly-
})i({
“Oy, James! The party’s over. Are you ever going to take that mask of mate? OW!”
Peter, standing next to Lily, grabbed the back of his head as Eternity smacked him, “Peter, no!”
But it was too late. Lily shoved herself away from her partner, grabbing his mask as she went, to reveal a face she loathed- that of James Potter! She threw the mask to the ground as her face changed from a look of horror to icy rage!
“So, you thought it would be funny, did you, to trick me into going out with you?” her green eyes flashed dangerously, “Well, Potter- I refuse to have anything more to do with you, except the bare minimum of our professional relationship!”
She spun on her heel and fled, her gown billowing out behind her as she bolted across the hall! Charlotte and Eternity sped after her, shooting worried looks as James. He was frozen in place, his eyes full of loss as he watched the beautiful redhead slam the doors behind her, quickly pried back open by Eternity and Charlotte. Remus turned to the now frightened looking Peter, “Pete- I am at a loss…”
“I’m not!” Sirius growled, “Peter! Marauder or not, I’m going to kill you! Prongs was actually going to stop mooning over Evans because she was probably going to agree to go out with him!”
Remus grabbed the struggling Sirius as Peter backed up quickly, “I-I didn’t mean to! I thought he- he must have to-told her! Lily’s smart! She- she would have fig-figured it out eventually!”
Sirius, finally calmer than before, gently took James by the arm, pulling his shell shocked friend up toward Gryffindor Tower, “We’ll have to come up with some other plot- we always do! Come on Moony, Wormtail, we need to find Charlotte and Eternity- they helped us come up with this one in the first place.”
})i({
Lily stormed up to Ophelia, “I want to change the password, right now!”
The statue looked surprised, pale eyes wide, “Alright then-”
“Oleander, adonis, apocynum, bilberry, blackthorn, columbine, hellebore, yes, hellebore!” Lily listed angrily as Ophelia watched her warily, “I can see you picked that for a, uh, reason.”
She swung open, snapping closed as Eternity and Charlotte rounded the corner, out of breath, “Marigold!”
“No,” Ophelia said rather worriedly, “She just changed it- what happened to her, she was rather upset.”
Eternity began to mutter to herself, “Knowing Lily, it’s some obscure flower- one with a hidden meaning…”
“Eternity, we’ll never guess it! You know Lily,” Charlotte sighed, “She knows more flower names and meaning than all of Gryffindor house put together! What do you expect from one named after a flower?!”
The two looked dejected for a moment when suddenly, Remus and Sirius appeared out of the thin air next to them, making the girls shriek in surprise!
“Shush!” Sirius hissed, “You don’t want Filch to hear us!”
Eternity glared at him, “What are you doing, lurking around the castle under that thing? Knowing you, you’ve figured out the password to the girls’ showers too!”
“Ages ago,” Sirius said distractedly, “But that’s not the point- see, the password should show up on the map in about a minute of so…”
He fished a worn piece of paper out of his pocket, tapped it, and murmured something. Eternity was fighting Charlotte’s grip, “Let me at him!” as the other girl poured over the parchment, “Is that what I think it is!?”
Remus grinned, “A map? Oh yes-”
“Ah! That explains it all!” Eternity suddenly stopped struggling, staring at the paper, “No wonder you all know so much about the school! This is what you must be doing when you disappear every month!”
Sirius and Remus shot each other worried glances, “How do you know that!?”
“I didn’t until exactly now- but I had suspicions. Anyway, does that have the new password?”
Remus checked the paper, “Hmm- yes, yes it does! Ophelia, hellebore.”
The nymph swung open gladly, a worried look still on her intricately carved face as the teens tumbled through the passageway- literally. Eternity shoved the roguishly winking Sirius off her from her position on her back and heaved herself upright, “You two might want to leave- this is a task best left to us…”
Remus and Sirius shrugged and started out the portal as the girls climbed the stairs. The last thing they heard before Ophelia slid shut once again was the ominous sounds of Lily’s angry cries…
A/N: The flower hellebore stands for scandal- and none of those other flowers have very pleasant meanings either. Yes, I know ya’ll hate me for this, but I have the whole story outlined and this is how it goes. Oh well, I hope you don’t decide to kill me- this whole problem will eventually fix itself, just you wait!
A/N 2.0: I've decided to give up on the ten reviews rule- nobody ever really bothers to review (I have several hundred reads per chapter and only a smidgens worth of reviews) so I give up. You'll get an update when either I finish writing a chapter or when I feel like. Reviews do influence my updating schedule.
A/N 3.0: More edits...
Write a Review Let Yourself Fall: Chapter Five: He Doesn't Get the Girl
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