Evil's Kiss

Chapter Ten

Lies

And after all, what is a lie? 'T is but

The truth in masquerade.

Don Juan. Canto xi. Stanza 37.

"Hey James, who's the letter from?" Peter asked, looking over from his porridge Monday morning.

"I don't recognize the owl, so," James lowered his voice, "it must be the reply from Riddle." James took the letter off and watched as the sleek, hawk-like owl flew away with the other owls as the morning mail was delivered. He turned back his attention to the letter.

Potter,

Your threats are useless. Lily and I are a couple whether you like it or not and there's nothing you could do about it. Nevertheless, yes, I'll duel you, having every intention of winning. But if on some far off planet, I don't win, Lily will still be mine. Until midnight!

Thomas M. Riddle

P.S. About the bruising, just goes to show you that Lily likes it rough.

As James finished reading, he nearly howled in rage. Lily, sleeping with Tom! Only after a week? It can't be, James thought mentally. Sensing that something was wrong, Remus looked over the letter. Slowly, murderous thoughts toward a certain Slytherin began to form within his mind, and his face surely showed it.

"Hey guys, what's up?" Sirius asked. After finishing with Tavia that morning, he had just been able to come to breakfast.

"Read this," James almost growled and shoved the piece of parchment toward Sirius. As Sirius read, his emotions also got the best of him, in the favor of murder. Peter read over his shoulder but didn't get upset, just rather sat there with disbelief etched into his features. Who would have written something like that about our Lily? Peter thought. Only a Slytherin, those damn Slytherins.

"That's it, this is war," Remus announced. "Forget being the voice of reason," he muttered to himself.

"Here, here," the others chimed.

"Here, here? Here, here to what?" a voice asked from behind. The boys turned around slowly to face the direction to which the voice was coming from. All of them knew that the voice belonged to certain red head they knew and loved.

"Oh Lily, er, hi," Sirius said quickly. "We were just deciding on whether or not we should er..."

"Uh, help you coordinate one of your famous bakes sales again. Ah, you know, to liven things up around here," James sputtered out, remembering the argument he and she had a while back.

"Really? You guys are up to something like that?" Lily said, astounded. No one had ever thought to ask if she needed help with anything except for Tavia, of course.

"Uh, yeah," Remus put in.

" Oh you guys are so sweet!" Lily almost shouted, but she drew many curious stares at her raised voice. Since she couldn't contain her glee, she gave them all a quick hug. "Well, I'll talk to Tavia and then tonight we could start planning. Say around seven?" she said in a rush.

"Sure," Peter said in a low tone, speaking for all of them.

"You guys are the best!" Lily said once more and exited out of the great hall almost at a run, headed toward the hospital wing going to, no doubt, tell Tavia the good news.

"Now you've done it! It may cut it close you know. What if Lily is in one of her moods to talk the bark off a tree? Then what are we supposed to do? Besides I don't know how to bake, are you joking me?" Sirius said glumly.

"Well I didn't see you saying anything else, and I'll make sure we have plenty of time tonight," James shot back.

"Well hopefully it won't take place during a certain part of the month," Remus said

"Oh yeah, we haven't told them yet have we?" Peter said referring to Remus' 'condition.'

"And hopefully they will never know. I couldn't bear to have them know and then de-friend me because of what I am," Remus said quietly.

"You condition would never scare Lily or Tavia away. It may take time to get used to it but they are too nice to let that affect their friendship with you," Sirius said.

"Yeah, you're right," Remus replied. The boys just let the subject drop. Later, their good friend Frank Longbottom struck up a conversation about Quidditch that even got Peter arguing over whom was better. While the were arguing, they didn't notice a shadowy figure getting up and storming out of the Great Hall. Not noticing that the person had rage-filled eyes and a single obsession. This person knew that a certain red headed woman belonged to him, and him only. Liking any one else - males in particular - was simply not to be accepted and would indeed deem a severe punishment. In his twisted thing science would call a mind, even a sisterly show of affection on someone else was too much. Someone had to pay, and learn not to do it again. No matter how much force it took.

~

She was in library when he found her. She had her nose stuck in a book, an odd book for that matter. It was entitled 101 Reasons Why Men Can't Cook and Girls Have To Buy This Book To Tell Them How To Do It . It was subtitled, 'Easy enough recipes so that he doesn't burn himself and your stuck doing all the work'. Girls, he thought, the only good place for them is in the kitchen or the bedroom. Well he wasn't stupid; he would never tell her that aloud, she would have given him a black eye before he even finished. He strode over to her table and gently covered her eyes with his hands. She jumped, but didn't try to move the hands.

"Umm, James is this you?" She asked smiling. The mystery man just chuckled, but his smile didn't reach his eyes. The thought of her saying that boy's name before his own made his blood boil. "Remus? Sirius?" Again, the man chuckled, this time more warmly; she truly didn't know who he was. "I give up, who are you?" Lily asked and waited. Disguising his voice so he wouldn't be recognized, he answered her plea.

"Do you really want to find out?" he said.

"Yes," she said smiling once more. The man came around to face her and kissed her full on the lips. He didn't remove his hands from her eyes but from his kiss, Lily knew who it was. His lips were soft, like they always had been. His expert tongue slid over her bottom lip, darting into and out of her mouth as quick as a flash of lightning. Then his naughty tongue moved up to caress the cavern of her mouth and drew out a small sigh that he caught in his own mouth.

"Hello, Tom," Lily said and broke the kiss.

"How did you guess," Tom said, removing his hands from her face and perching himself on the edge of the table.

She smiled. "Because you are the only one would kiss me so well."

Tom replied, "Yeah, I guess you're right. What are you reading?"

"Nothing!" Lily said, embarrassed, and tried to hide the book from view.

"That won't do anything. I've already seen the title, why are you reading a cook book?" Tom said, amused.

Lily, blushing, said, "In years past, Hogwarts has been a generous contributor to St. Mungos. The money that we've raised always funded research for time travel incidents in the department of their magical reversal squad. For the last couple of years, I've been gaining service points by hosting bake sales to raise some of that money. This year however, I've been swamped and the year hasn't even really begun. So through a series of events, James and his gang has volunteered to help me with it so I'm trying to pick out the easiest recipes that have the least risk hazard."

"So let me get this right. James Potter and his entourage are going to cook? Are you kidding me? They would not be able to tell the difference between flour and sugar. You're doomed," he smirked.

"Oh please, they have some culinary skills. I've heard Sirius always talking about James's mom's cooking. Those genes had to be passed on to someone right? Anyway, I wouldn't have time to stay in there the whole time, so they know they are going to have to be on their on. Unless someone would oversee them, but no one cares enough, they just want the product. Screw the work. " Lily said, unknowingly giving Tom the perfect opportunity to wipeout his competition if all else should fail.

"Lily, I'll help. I rather know how to bake. I make all the baked goods for the orphanage including bread and cookies until I am out of there," Tom said in a slightly bitter voice. "It's not an easy job, let me tell you. I swear some of those recipes were made by Satan himself. All because of some menial trouble."

Lily smirked. "Trouble? What could you have possibly done to get such a horrible punishment?"

Tom's eyes got dark. "Well, you see, I have to go back to the hell hole every summer because Hogwarts closes. Well last year this ... ahem ... new nun joined the staff. She was a few years older then me but not much," he got up and went around to Lily's side. "She had the bluest eyes framed by the longest, fullest lashes I'd ever seen, and the blackest hair, it reminded me of midnight every time I saw her." He took her hand and gently lifted her up so that she was standing very close to him. "And then one night, I was up late, unable to sleep so I went down to get some milk. She was there. Since it was after hours, she was not required to be in her official nun garb, so I guess she was in her pajamas which consisted of a white tank top and navy pajama pants. She was also eating a banana." He drew her even closer, so that their bodies were touching in every way possible. "One thing lead to another and I had her in my arms, like this. And our lips were inches away, like this," and he leaned in, to where their faces were inches apart. "And then our lips just met, like..." and he leaned in the rest of the way. A few moments later, Tom broke the kiss and leaned his forehead on hers. "No need to say that one of the nuns higher in the authority circle caught us and I'm on kitchen duty until I'm out of there and she was... moved to a different orphanage, " he said and smiled. "I'll be in the kitchen by 5:00 am. Make sure they are there." He gave her one last swift, but passionate kiss and left her to her book.

"That nun doesn't know what she's missing!" was all Lily need to say.

~

She's doing everything I need her to do, Tom thought later that day. All I have to do now is get rid of the competition. Everything will go according to plan and by the end of the year, I will have what I need to become the best. Oh yes, she is doing just fine, Tom said. Licking his lips, remembering the feel of hers on his gave him very sweet memories. She will do just fine, even if she doesn't know she's doing anything at all.