"But, James dear, what if they find out?"
"Serena, I promise, you're safe. I'll tell them I goaded you into it. I'll tell them anything. Anything that'll keep you safe."
Serena dimpled. "Oh, I'm not worth that much."
He scoffed. "Of course you are."
She turned a crimson shade Lily knew was faked, since she could blush just that color without any trouble. "Oh-I don't think so. After all, you're so much of a gentleman you can't help but say this, and I-"
"Serena, I'm not a gentleman and never will be. I hope-oh, never mind."
Serena unleashed more of her charm, fluttering her eyelashes and biting her lips. "You hope what?"
"Nothing. I'll tell you sometime. Coming to Hogsmeade January twenty-fourth?"
"Oh, is there a visit?"
"Silly goose, it's been posted for a week now. Meet up with me in the Three Broomsticks?"
"Oh-that is-" she turned away, blushing again. "I mean-"
"You mean what? You mean I'm not good enough, is that what you mean, that you're ashamed to be seen in public with me, that you're interested in someone else?" The whisper was swiftly rising to a normal tone.
"Oh-oh no-James, I'm so sorry!" She laid her white hand on his arm, pleading with watery blue eyes. "Please-no, that isn't what I meant. I just didn't think you wanted me to-look at you. You're a fine Quidditch player, the hero of many matches, you're brilliant and smart and clever and witty and"
Lily frowned. "Can't he see that all those words mean the same darned thing?"
"Oh, James, I'd rather die than desert you!" She hung on his robe, appealing with a distressed entreating tone in her voice. James melted.
That ended Lily's eavesdropping session. She was too disgusted to listen, and besides, Elspeth started to stir in her bed. With a quick hug, Serena sped back to her bed, leaving James to throw on his Invisibility Cloak and retreat to his own four-poster, which he did, speedily.
Over the next few days, Lily sorely wished to expose James' and Sirius' secret study of Animagi to the school, seeing that wherever she went, she seemed to come across James and Serena, and the sight just somehow made her sick. Sirius spoke truth when he said she was numb to all emotions; it was truth except for one. Disgust was still left in her, and she had mastered the face expression that went with all varying levels of it. And now she wished she were completely unfeeling.
"I swear, I'm walking around like a doll with a sassy tongue. And I'm not sure I don't like what I've become."
School started, and the students started to drift back in from the holidays. Startled, Lily recollected that she hadn't had one fainting spell since her last visit to the Alendoren Cove, and she was rather puzzled. She was thankful for it, though, as those fits would have become rather inconvenient during, say, her nighttime flits into the Shrieking Shack or her climb to the North Tower. She still wondered, when she looked back, what had made her do that crazy thing, but then she realized that she'd do it again if given the opportunity.
Abigail came back with bursting excitement, which was quite quenched when she saw the cool way Lily greeted her. A bit hurt, she withdrew into her circle of other third-year friends, convinced that Lily had been influenced by Serena to hate her. In all fairness, it must be said that Lily didn't know she was being cold and stand-offish; she thought she was acting just as usual. Nowadays, if anyone wanted a hug from her because her cat had just died, Lily was the wrong person to go to. She would smile uncertainly and say something disconcerting like:
"Well, can't you get another cat?"
Eva, though she could seem a bit flaky at times, was one of the best friends Lily could ever have had, and she was showing it now. Not like any of Lily's other friends, she would neither sympathize and encourage Lily to do any of the things her crazy impulses made her want to do or tell her straight out that what she was doing was wrong and that she needed to stop.
Whenever Lily would stare dreamily out of the windows and turn around fiercely with the light of battle in her eyes, Eva was there, with a questioning look that made Lily reconsider. The look would have infuriated her if she had been given it by any other person, but from Eva it was soothing and calming, and the wild ideas forming in Lily's head were abandoned as soon as her friend made her see how deranged and dangerous they were.
Like a true friend, Eva stuck to Lily's side, told her all of the meaningless bits of gossip she heard, and even many of her deepest secrets, knowing that her friend would feel trusted by the confidence and honored. Lily did feel that way, and she knew what Eva was doing and why, and she was grateful.
The first week and the second of classes passed in a flash. Lily could often be seen reading in the back if Professor Binns' or Professor McGonagall's classes, and not in her schoolbooks. Yet when called upon, she always had an answer pat, even though she hadn't been listening to the lecture at all.
It disconcerted her teachers to see her spouting knowledge, even though no one ever saw her study, and it made them feel her forehead anxiously at the end of classes. When they tried to do that, Lily usually squirmed away and passed out of the classroom like a shy ghost; leaving the teachers behind to wonder if she really was all right.
One afternoon, when she was looking exceptionally peaked and white, Professor Cauldwell asked to see her after class.
"Yes, Professor?"
"Miss Evans, the whole staff here is worried about you. Is the strain of skipping second year becoming too much for you?"
Lily stiffened. "Professor, I am quite all right."
"You are sure? You have been looking terribly sick lately."
Lily put her hand up to her white cheek and noticed with a shock that her face was cold, cold as marble.
"Oh-Professor-I assure you, I am quite all right. Please-please excuse me." She rushed out of the classroom and right into Eva's armful of books.
"Lily! Watch it-what happened in there?" She straightened up immediately when she caught sight of her friend, normally with such a pale tan complexion, and now she was pale as new-fallen snow, scared as if she had just been attacked by a banshee, and with dark green eyes blazing in fright.
For the first time in weeks, Lily was breathing fast, and her heart was beating unnaturally quickly. "Eva, look at me."
"I am. That's what I want to know."
"I don't know, that's what it is! That's exactly what it is! I'm turning into some sort of ghost-and I don't know why-Eva, I know you're a terribly good friend and you've been doing all you can over the past few days to help-but if you can, do something about this!"
Eva set her mouth in a thin line at the first outburst she had had from Lily in months. This was a sort of a good sign, though she didn't let on. "First things first. You're coming with me." She grasped Lily's hand in a painful grasp and marched towards Gryffindor Tower.
They whirled into the exercise room on the girls' side, and Eva slammed and locked the door. Then she faced Lily.
"Lil, hand me that necklace."
"This?" Lily plucked at her chain. "Why?"
"I think this may be the root of all the problems. Hand it over."
Lily closed her eyes, then snapped them back open. "What are you going to do with it?"
"Put it in a safe place. Come on."
With an expression that made the viewer think her heart was being wrenched, Lily slowly lifted the chain off and laid it in Eva's hand. Quickly, as if she were preventing herself from changing her mind, she sn atched her hand back and quickly buried her head in her arms. When, a few seconds later, she emerged, she felt terribly relieved and unburdened, as if over half of her burdens were gone.
Her paleness receded over the next few days, and Lily could have sworn that James was making time go by faster, because in no time at all it was the morning of the Hogsmeade visit.
This time, Lily had been asked by Sirius if she'd go shopping for a birthday present for his sister with him, and she had gratefully agreed. But when they walked into Zonko's together, Lily couldn't help but flinch at the sight she was greeted with.
Sirius noticed her disconcertion, though he had no idea of the cause. "What?"
Lily gulped. She nodded over her right shoulder. Sirius bent down to pick up a bag of Dungbombs, managing to peer around the shelves. He straightened up, thinking.
"Good grief, it's bad enough for them to make her life miserable at school, but at least they can refrain from doing that here!" James and Serena were looking through Making your Muggle enemies a life of living Halifax by Bathilda Snowsone. He quickly steered Lily towards the door, but that did no good, either, because he pushed her right into the chattering group of Ravenclaw girls, led by none other than Sheila herself. And to make matters infintely worse, she was the one Lily crashed into.
Sheila fell onto the cobblestoned street just outside the door, taking Lily with her. Quickly, before anyone could respond or scream or even move an inch, Sirius was by Lily's side and was pulling her down the street. But Sheila recovered very fast, which in this case was not so good for Lily.
She jumped up, not even bothering to wipe the slush off of her robes. Whipping out her wand, she screeched after Lily, a short, indignant yell that pulled all of her hate together.
"Evans!"
Lily whirled.
"Come here right now!"
Lily, ignoring the hand Sirius had laid on her arm, shook him off impatiently and, collected and dignified, advanced towards Sheila, down the street.
"You called, I believe?"
Sheila was a furious angry cat, sputtering and slitting her eyes. "Evans, I've had enough of you. You and your ways. You think you're so much better than all of us, and here you come, knocking into me and walking by as if I were-were a house-elf. You're not our queen, and it's time you learned that. You vile-you evil-you heartless-"
If Sheila was an irritated kitten, Lily was a ferocious tigress. She drew her lips back from her pearly teeth and verily hissed in anger. She hadn't been aroused like this since James had accused her that day in her dormitory, and the anger she had kept bottled up inside her since then burst out. She was even more aroused than she had been that day, not even bothering to try to control herself. Flaming and rabid, she advanced on the cowering girl in front of her, who had abandoned all aggressive attacks she dearly wanted to shout out.
Lily's eyes seemed to shoot fire as she drew closer to her aggressor, who refused to back up. It was probably the bravest and stupidest thing she had ever done, but she prohibited the notion of running to enter her brain, slamming the door on it and locking it in the basement. And, to all present, the two were seen in a new light. Lily, a violent redhead with an almost ungovernable temper advancing on an enraged blonde with a seemingly unbearable grievance, appeared to the onlookers as an infuriated queen who had a cowering subject betray her, and she was out after the subject's blood. Then, the vision vanished as the queen de-materialized in a clap of blue lightning.
Gasping and choking, Lily coughed out a mouthful of fine white sand as she raised her head from the painful position she had been flung in when she landed. Limping and not a little white, she made her agonizing way over to the sea, where she managed to dip her left side in the water.
Wincing but feeling a bit better, she turned her thoughts to how she had arrived here. The necklace! But--wait-Eva had taken that away from her.
Frowning, she felt her throat and drew her breath in suddenly when she found a thin chain and pendant beneath her fingers. She had no idea how it had come there, but all she knew was that she was injured and she couldn't get back to Hogsmeade. Not since Serena had played with the necklace had she been able to get back by her own will.
For at least an hour, she sat amongst the rocks, sand, and waves, hot even though it was January. Then, sick of lying there and not doing anything, she tried to stand, propping herself up against a handy piece of rock that had fallen from an overhead cliff several centuries ago.
The standing was fine, but as soon as she tried to walk on her own, her injured side buckled and she fell, hitting her head on hard rock. Refusing to black out, she kept her eyes focused on the glaring sand until her eyes could take it no longer nor her body the pain, and then she did faint.
It was dark, dark and hot and cool and soothing. But then Lily felt two hands take her by the shoulders and shake her violently. With a cry, she opened her eyes and looked into the familiar green ones of Tom Riddle. He, with a nod, held one hand behind her back and neck, holding her in a sitting position; with the other he pulled several pillows behind her. Letting her sink gently into the mound of feathery gentleness, he went to a door, calling for someone.
Lily let her drowsy eyes rove around the room. It was obviously part of Litharelen's mansion, for it had the same metalwork and the same marble floors swirled with silver, but in the middle of the room there was a fancy sort of cross between a four-poster and a bathtub. She herself was lying on a beautiful bed, the headboard and foot-end made of wrought silver,
Litharelen came as quickly as blinking. Worry etched all over her face, she fairy ran to the bedside, feeling Lily's forehead in a now familiar gesture. Lily tried to push herself farther up, but sharp needles shot through her left arm and she cried out in pain.
Looking down, she found her arm in bandages and from her chest to her feet covered in a white sheet, but through the sheet were visible the strips of cloth tied around her leg and waist. Litharelen touched the inured arm lightly.
"We found you, lying half in the water, and Tom took you down here. He called me to send for a doctor-and you've been here for three days."
Lily, who had closed her eyes, snapped them wide open again. "Three-three days?"
Litharelen nodded. "You were delirious. Screaming things no one could discern-well, besides maybe one or two wordsbut here. Drink this." She had pulled one of the crystal pitchers hanging from the fountain in the kitchen form under the bed, and it was filled with the familiar silver liquid. "Drink," she repeated.
Lily obeyed, tilting the pitcher and feeling life flow through her veins again. She shook off all of her drowsiness, but when she tried to swing her legs out of the confining sheets, the intense knives shot through her again and forced her to lie back down.
"Lily, shh. Lie here for a few days; you'll be all right. It's no use trying to stand up; you broke your leg, arm, three ribs, and a shoulder blade and strained Heaven knows how many muscles, not to mention cutting your head on that boulder. The doctor said to lie quietly."
Lily tried to sit erect again but failed. "I cut my-" Her hand flew up to her skull, and instead of encountering the obstinate red locks, she touched wet bandages, and when she drew her had away, it was tainted a reddish color. Litharelen shook her head.
"It's been bleeding since it happened, and nothing anyone could do could stop it. You'll be able to go back to Hogwarts in about a week and a half, though, if the bleeding's stopped."
"A week and a half." Lily's head drooped. "What am I going to do about anyone noticing that I'm missing? Which they certainly will."
"Oh-" Litharelen waved that aside. "Tom fixed that."
"How?"
Tom stepped forward. "Nothing much, really. I materialized a clone of you and transferred it to Hogsmeade the minute we found you and realized you couldnt go back. Don't worry. Your clone's not going to say or do anything you won't know about-I got that done. She's in a faint, and when you're well enough to go back, your elements and hers are going to be switched using the Dematerialization/Tramsportation medical invention-just invented, so it's only natural you haven't heard about it-so she's going to dematerialize as soon as we can transport you back. Easy as pie."
Lily stared at him. "You've never made pie before, have you?"
"Erm-no-but what does that have to do with this?"
"Pie is a long grueling process, especially the crust. And then you always have to be certain that you don't pinch the edges too tightly or the crust isn't too thick and that you don't put salt instead of sugar in-the list can go on forever, but, really, between pi and pie, pi is so much easier."
"Which pie?"
"Three point one four one five nine two six five four etcetera."
"Ah." Tom nodded. "I'll take your word for it. What I meant was that this whole situation is going to be quite easy to take care of."
Litharelen re-entered the room; Lily didn't even know she had been gone. "What are you two talking about?"
They both answered at the same time. "Pie."
Through the next week, Lily kept her necklace tucked away under her robes, and she was always on tenterhooks every time Litharelen replaced her bandages. She didn't know why, but she didn't want anyone in the Alendoren Cove to know what she owned.
Only eight days later, Lily was well enough to be sent back. They were to start that afternoon, and she was terribly glad to get out of Albania. It wasn't that she didn't like Tom and Litharelen, she told herself, because she did; it was just that Tom made her just the tiniest bit nervous every time she whipped around suddenly and he was staring at something with unfocused red eyes. But whenever he caught her glance, his eyes returned to normal and he smiled. Still, that couldn't ease Lily's uneasiness.
She could stand now and walk without any problems, but if she ever crashed into something, she'd be paralyzed for a few hours, uncapable of movement. Bearing the warning against not running or banging into furniture in mind, she bent down to get the Hogwarts robes that had been folded and placed underneath the bed she had been in.
She slipped, and, seeing the floor loom towards her, ripped the necklace off and, in the nick of time, praying that this would work, she hit the stone against the marble floor.
With her eyes closed, she crashed into something soft. Flinging her eyelids off, she sat up, wincing a bit, surprised that she could move. The surroundings she was in were familiar, and she was expecting to see them. The hospital wing's green curtains surrounded her on every side. And next to her, she heard a wrenching sound.
Sirius had torn the curtains aside, and for a few seconds, they just stared at each other, both of them stunned.
He wrenched himself away and turned around to whatever was behind him. "She's awake!"
Immediately, the other curtains vanished and were replaced with faces Lily knew. And most of them she hadn't been on friendly footing with for ages. Amanda was there, Miranda, John, Ashley, Abigail, even Elspeth, Serverus, Lucius, Nigel, and-Lily had to shake her head several times.
"James Potter, why-"
He ducked his head. "Lily, can I say I'm sorry?"
She kept on staring. "Who are you and what did you do with James? Not that I mind; of course I don't mind."
"Erm-" He turned a bit pink and looked over to Sirius for help. Sirius fulfilled his position as understanding friend.
"He just realized what an ass he's been, and he came to ask for forgiveness. I told him you'd stand for nothing else but kneeling at your feet, and he was quite willing to do that. And then-"
"SIRIUS BLACK! I SAID NO SUCH THING!"
Everyone in the hospital wing started to giggle at James' indignation. Soon the giggles turned into downright laughter, which persisted until Lily, deadly tired for a reason she couldn't explain, fell back into her pillows in a faint.
A month later, Professor Dumbledore had come to talk to her. She hadn't told him much, but he understood enough to command her to put the necklace away; never to use it again. When she asked him why he couldn't take it, his face grew grave and he left the room, telling her that she would know when she was old enough.
Ravenclaw was flattened by Hufflepuff in the last Quidditch match, and in the one before that Gryffindor had beaten Ravenclaw badly, so everyone was delighted that Ravenclaw was out of the running, along with Slytherin, who had been beaten by Ravenclaw, sixty to one hundred and ninety, last term.
Lily had only seen Sheila once since that encounter in Hogsmeade, and when she did, Sheila hurriedly stepped back so that Lily could walk out of the Great Hall undisturbed.
She was back to a halfway normal footing with James. One of Serena's relatives; an uncle, had died and she had gone to the Netherlands to be at his funeral and prove her identity, as she was mentioned in his will, so she wasn't there to egg James on much. Still, every time she sent him a letter, he was a bit aloof and refused to speak to Lily for the rest of the day, though next morning he was friendly again.
Eva tried her best to make Lily loosen up a bit, and after her painful encounter with the Alendoren Cove and the shock that followed, Lily was quite willing to listen to Eva as if she were a mother, and to obey her. The result was that Lily was quite a bit warmer to her friends and acquaintances than she had been, though she still could turn terribly dignified and cold if she wished, and if someone made her angry. That didn't happen too often, though, for what happened at Hogsmeade was all over the school, and no one cared to make Lily angry any more.
It was drawing near to Easter, which was in the middle of March that year. Lily was going home for the holidays, and she had invited Eva to come and visit. They were down in the common room the night before their departure, and they were excitedly chattering about what they'd do to Petunia, when a shadow fell over Lily's excited demeanor.
"Hullo."
Lily looked up. "Oh, hi. Sit down?"
"Sure." James sat down on the pouf near Lily's chair. He was fidgeting a bit and looked rather nervous, which surprised both the girls; the invincible and conquering James Potter, nervous at the prospect of talking to them? Inconcievable!
"Erm-Eva?"
"Eva turned to him, a bright smile on her face. "Hum?"
"Could you-could you-erm-do you think you could-er-"
"Never mind the rest. I follow your general idea." She stood up, and, throwing a triumphant glance over her shoulder at Lily, Eva climbed the stairs to the girls' dormitory two at a time.
Lily re-settled herself in her armchair. "I gathered that you want to talk to me. What about? That is-shoot-go ahead."
He was a bit unnerved by her cool casualness, nevertheless, he made somewhat of a start.
"You know, Lily, before the last Quidditch match of last year?"
"School year or year-year?"
"School."
"Yeah, I do. You were half-buried in books." And I know where those books are now, she was about to add, but restrained herself. He looked a bit too moody for getting blackmail anxieties on top of whatever his other problems were.
"N-no-I mean when we started to fight."
"Mhm-So? I mean, what about it?" Lily was becoming a bit impatient and was longing for this to be over with.
"Well-I just wanted to say-that is-I mean-"
Lily's unquenchable temper was getting the better of her. "Will you get on with it?"
For an instant, his eyes flamed. "I'm doing my best!"
"Well," she replied tartly, "your best doesn't seem to be very good, does it?"
He threw his hands up, plainly having had enough, and now his temper was roused, too. He rose in his seat, and with every inch he ascended, his voice started to rise.
"Lily Evans, you dont know what on earth I dragged myself down here for, do you? I actually let Sirius persuade me to come down and beg pardon. You have no idea how much it took for me to get this far, and you have no intention of finding out. Sirius-though where he got that idea is far beyond my ken-had the idea that we'd be good friends-terribly good-but I just hadn't given you a chance. I tried this evening. I tried so hard."
The common room was slowly turning its attention to the couple sitting near the fire.
"You've never felt any pity and you never will. You're a cold, heartless creature, and how Sirius and Eva can put up with a hag like you is beyond anything I can understand. I-"
By this time, Lily's impatience had bubbled over, scalding the pot and making the steam cover all it landed on.
"You-go to Halifax. I've had enough of your noble airs and your pretended hurt and your carryings on. I don't care if I never speak to you again, and if I never see you again, it'll be too soon." Head high, with a crimson face, she quickly left the dormitory, leaving James behind in a terribly embarrassing position, facing the whole common room that had heard every bit of the tirade.
Eva was sitting on her bed expectantly, and was rather surprised when Lily stormed past her door without even a "Good night". She was out of her dormitory in a flash and had followed Lily into hers, perceiving that something was wrong but hoping for the best.
"So, how did it go?"
"How did what go?"
"Well, what happened with James?"
Lily shrugged coldly. "We lost our tempers and I left."
Eva's jaw dropped. "Lily, how could you?"
"I don't know how I could. I got so impatient with him, and I sort of told him that."
"How could you do that to me-to him?"
Instantly, Lily was on the alert. "To you?"
"Well, yeah, I mean, I worked so hard to get you two to this place, and now you ruined it!"
"Thank you very much, but I wouldn't dream of accepting him even as a acquaintance on a silver platter."
Eva sighed. "Lil, dear, he is your acquaintance. No matter what you do and as long as you live, you will know him."
"Oh!" Lily buried her head in the pillows and lay there silently. Eva retreated silently, though for what reason Lily couldn't understand. Seconds later, she did, however.
"Lily?"
She had her ears muffled and her mouth, so her "What?" was rather non-understandable, but whoever it was understood her.
"Lily, I need to talk to you."
"Go away!"
"Lily, please!" He grasped her wrists, pulled them up and raised her to face him. "We need to talk!"
With a ferocity unlike any woman, she wrenched herself free and dashed over to the window seat, opening the glass pane.
"I swear, if you come any closer, I'm jumping out."
"Why do you hate me all of a sudden?"
"I can't stand busybodies."
"Be that as it may, it's only a while before Gryffindor Tower decides to come up here. Be reasonable. And if you decide to fling yourself out, they'll get me for murder."
"The appropriate response is either "No, you won't" or "If you do, I'll jump right after you" or something like that."
"Well, we both know that you would do that."
Lily nodded. "We both know that."
"That you possess both the unstableness of mind and courage. We both know that."
"SHUT UP! I am neither unhinged or terribly brave."
"I knew that. What you are is very daring and not afraid of death."
He read her like a book. Her first thought, it must be admitted, was: "How dare he? I didn't give him permission to look inside my mind!"
"Lily, this isn't funny any more. You may have started out thinking this was just a game. I know it still is to you-but if anything can move you at all, think at least of him, of what he's going through."
Lily laughed, short and scornful.
"Sirius, he's down in the common room bragging about how he made me mad."
"No. And I'll prove that little idea wrong. Come with me."
She didn't move, besides to open the window a bit farther.
"I'll tell Serena and the school that your last words were an apology to her."
Lily set her mouth in a hard line. Scowling, she slammed the window and wished she'd made it shatter.
"That's better. Come with me."
"Who are you to be giving me orders?"
"I said come!" Walking swiftly towards her, he took her wrists in that iron grip again, and, half frightened by the hard look on his face, she allowed herself to be dragged along.
They went out of the girls' dormitories by the house-elf door, then entered the boys' tower by the same sort of entrance. It was empty, everyone being in the common room, and dark. They made no sound as they glided along the dark scarlet carpet. Once Lily asked where they were going, but he shushed her with a hard hand over her mouth.
They stopped in front of a dormitory with "Third Years" written on it, and Sirius pressed Lily against the wall as he cowered on the floor, the very picture of a bear or dog about to pounce.
He knew her too well to think for an instant that she would gossip, and, still crouching, he made his stealthy way to a trunk in the dark dormitory. Pulling something out of it, something silvery, he rejoined Lily in the hallway. He threw the Invisibility Cloak over her and pushed her gently into the dormitory, towards the one bed with an occupant. An awake but by no means excited or happy occupant.
Silently, and with the greatest care, she moved forward, making sure not to tread on the loose oddments of fireworks and other Zonko products that were lying on the floor. With a great sense of relief, she found that the person on the bed had not the slightest notion that someone else was in his dormitory, and, encouraged, she knelt down next to the bed.
James was lying in it, eyes open, staring up at the ceiling, looking quite petrified. Thank goodness he wasn't crying, Lily thought to herself; she never could stand boys that could cry. Sometimes he would speak, and some of the things that he said Lily could understand.
James pressed his lips together, obviously recalling and running over the scene in the common room.
"Will you get on with it?"
"I'm doing my best!" His eyebrows contracted as he repeated his own words.
"Well, your best doesn't seem to be very good, does it?"
Lily flushed, recognizing her venomous expressions that seemed to spill out without any encouragement or order from her. A bit downcast, she settled herself on the floor, Indian-style, and after making sure no one was at the doorway besides Sirius, she resumed her listening.
He slammed his clenched fist into the pillow. "Good God, couldn't she see I was trying my best? What does she want me to do, beg and get down on my knees?"
Lily's crimson faces color had only started to recede, but at James last words it came back again with full force, and she bit her lips violently.
"Oh!" she whispered, forgetting that the cloak only closed out her figure, not her voice. James started up. "Who's there?"
Lily didn't move, breathe, or make a sound. True, she was quite frightened of what he'd do to her if he found her eavesdropping, but she also was very anxious not to be found in a boys' dormitory and to hear what else he had to say.
Satisfied that he was alone, James dropped back onto his pillow.
"Dear God, I stutter too much. I know this wasn't my fault, but I could have prevented it. She won't speak to me now, after this!
"I wish she'd let me say what I came to say. I'd bet anything we'd be the best of friends again. And I had to go and mess everything up! She'd probably have forgiven me-but no! I know I irritated her unnecessarily, and I wish I hadn't."
Lily slipped the cloak off of her head and turned to Sirius. With a pleading light in her eyes, she nodded over to James.
"Please, help him!" she mouthed. With a breath of relief, she saw Sirius stand up and move into the room. Casting the cloak back over her head, she withdrew into a darker corner as Sirius touched James on the shoulder.
"James, buddy, you all right?"
"Wh-?" He shot up in bed, then, noticing who it was, sank back down, obviously not caring if Sirius saw him. "Fine. Couldn't be better."
"You sure?"
"Stop bugging me! I'm quite all right!" He said this with a preoccupied look and a wistful glance towards the doorway.
Sirius pulled him out of bed. "Liar."
"What do you mean by liar? I'm quite all right!"
"You escaped from the common room as soon as you two had that fight and have been up here for a good ten minutes, replaying everything that happened, and getting mad at yourself for what you did."
James stood up, suspicion written plainly all over his face. "How do you know that?"
"You know me too well to think that I wouldn't admit. And I admit with pleasure. I've been sitting outside, listening to you mumble."
"Go to Ha-never mind."
"So, you've been picking up her phrases too? I told you that you two'd get along."
"Get along? Me and Lily? Sirius, really, you of all people should know better."
"I know better than you do. You're being a stubborn fool, and really, you should try again tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
"You're both going home over Easter holidays, aren't you? Well then!"
He grinned triumphantly as James' wistful gaze turned into a scheming stare.
The next morning, just before breakfast, Lily went over her exit from the boys' dormitory, the time when Remus and Peter, talking animatedly, almost bumped into her, when she had no idea how to give the cloak back without being found in the boys half of the Tower, and ended up just walking out with it, intending to give it back to James on the train, and finally, the narrow escape she had when a group of house-elves were scurrying up the stairs while she was still wearing the cloak. She knew that she was lucky to have made it back without being caught in either of the two stampedes; the house-elf one and the one all of the sleepy Gryffindors caused. Closing the lid on her black trunk with its gold fastenings, Lily went down to breakfast.
When she walked in the Great Hall, she was relieved to find that she was one of the first ones there. She didn't feel like putting up with Sirius and his comments, and she wasn't up to facing the rest of the school, who would certainly know about her spat last night in the common room. She wolfed down a few scones, a glass of milk, a bowl of oatmeal with cinnamon on top, and tied a few rolls and pieces of toast in her napkin for later. Pushing back her chair, she left the Great Hall, which was slowly starting to fill up.
As Lily passed the double doors that led to the entrance hall, a "Watch it!" made her look up.
She was startled, and became even more so when the speaker turned out to be John, accompanied by all of the Quidditch team.
"Well, and a good morning to you, too!"
"Watch where you put your feet, Muggle!"
Lily had no idea what prompted this rudeness-especially from John, who was usually the nicest out of all of the Quidditch team's boys. "I was."
"Then how come you bumped into me?"
"Because I was watching my feet, like you suggested I do."
"You little-" He stopped; a hand had been laid on his arm. James was shaking his head no, and with reluctance and confusion, John let the subject drop and let Lily move out.
She walked out onto the grounds, confused and not a little bewildered. "Now what did I do?"
"Nothing."
Lily jumped. She whirled around, yet she couldn't see the speaker. "Where and who are you?" she questioned sharply, immediately on the defensive.
"On your left side. Turn around; they're watching you."
Obedient but still suspicious, Lily kept walking. "Who, 'they'?"
"John and the rest. Not that way-" a grip on her arm made her turn towards the Quidditch field-"this way-they can't see anything behind here."
Finally, behind the stadium, whoever it was threw off the Invisibility Cloak and rolled it up, placing it in a small bag he had brought.
"Where'd you get that cloak?" She remembered vividly laying it in her trunk, and unless he had two, which was highly unlikely, this was a bit odd.
"Oh-this-" James shrugged. "My father left it to me."
Lily frowned. "Your father's dead?"
"What-no, no!-good heavens, no! He gave it to me last Christmas."
"Well, besides that, where was it last night?"
"Huh?"
Lily scowled. She was never good at subtlety, and it seemed a good art to learn. She swore to herself she would, if she ever had the time.
Never mind.
Do you know where it was?
She turned on him like a ferocious lioness whose kittens were being attacked. So now, on top of everything else, youre accusing me of stealing?
No-no-good heavens, Lily, I didnt mean that! I wanted to know if you know who took it.
Oh. Somewhat pacified, she silently thanked Sirius for not mentioning anything to James about her taking the cloak with her, even if she had intended to give it back. It put her in a rather good humor right away, and she smiled slightly. Of course not. You think I go to the boys dormitories at nine oclock in the evening? Oh, dont answer that one, she added hastily, still smiling, you know I wouldnt.
He gave her that one and refused to jeer, though he could have done so quite easily. Lily knew she had set herself up for several taunts and she was quite obliged when he didnt say a word.
May I talk to you on the train? Or is this too soon for me to speak to you. What was that-if I never see you again, its too soon?
Oh, hush! She stamped her foot like a willful child, which she really was, though she couldnt bring her muscles to let her wipe the tiny grin off of her face. You know I dont mean a thing of what I say when Im angry. Yes, thank you, you may honor me with your presence on the ride home.
He threw the cloak over himself as he watched her amble past him to the entrance hall. You certainly would make a good actress, then.
Lily stopped in her tracks. What do you mean?
Well, the whole Tower believed that you wanted to tear me to pieces last night, myself included.
Humph. She sniffed with a pretended affected air. If I didnt think my grandmother would cross me out of her will for doing it, I would take up the stage.
Old-fashioned, is she? Still believes that you should stay at home and be a respectable housewife?
Yes, and an old ninny she is, too. If she wasnt so rich, Id have disgraced myself in her eyes long ago.
Dear God, youre thinking of money at your age?
Lily paused again. No, not really. But have you ever felt the urge to open your hand and scatter diamonds or pieces of gold onto the earth?
He laughed. Thank goodness youre not as hard-hearted as I thought. But what you want to do with money is just amazingly strange. Simply giving away everything you own?
Now, really, what would I do with hard stones that only look beautiful? You cant eat them-well, you could make yourself a garment out of them, though that would take an awful lot of stones, time and money-and besides, whod want to wear hard metal and rocks? I know Id prefer a warm cotton blanket to any number of diamond cloaks. And anyway, I like everything around me much more than those old pebbles that people start wars over.
He shook his head. Youre the beatenest girl I ever saw, but-oh, never mind. Better be going back; the trains going to be starting soon.
But what, James Potter?
But never mind.
You know I wont let you leave till youve answered me.
Well be stuck here forever, because I have no intention of telling you. Maybe sometime, when your little brain can take all of these facts jumbled together at one gulp, but now youre simply too young. He was jeering openly in her face, and he had wiped the amused expression out of her mind and heart and off of her countenance, and she was boiling.
Dont forget, Mr. Potter, that Im only a year younger than you are, and probably less than that. And as for my mind capacity, I hope you havent forgotten that you werent the one asked to skip a year--
His voice was the only clue she had that he still was there, because he was now completely cloaked in transparency.
I havent forgotten. And I didnt mean that, and if I insinuated it, so be it. Ill let your little mind labor under that delusion.
Lily didnt hear a word more, for her uncontrollable temper had soared, making fires blaze up behind her eyes, just like last night in the common room, leaving her no room for thinking that she might soon regret everything she wanted to say. But something called her back to reason, something pricked her inside, and unwillingly, the scene she had witnessed in the boys dormitory last night floated before her eyes. Refusing to let her say anything scathing, it made her turn around and with as much dignity as her unconscious mind could summon, she set out across the lawns for the entrance hall.
