Rating:
PG
House:
Schnoogle
Characters:
James Potter Lily Evans
Genres:
Action Romance
Era:
Multiple Eras
Stats:
Published: 06/07/2003
Updated: 01/08/2013
Words: 389,988
Chapters: 59
Hits: 80,010

Lily Evans: A History

Bethany

Story Summary:
A story of Lily's life from pre-Hogwarts to marrying James Potter. How she coped with growing up with Petunia to her friendship with the four boys that would change her life - and eventually the course of history - forever.

Chapter 45

Chapter Summary:
Lily finds herself in the middle of more messes than she cares to count; between Careers Advice, enchanted diaries advise and Kassie and Sirius' first fight; life could be more complicated, but not by much.
Posted:
09/25/2004
Hits:
1,195
Author's Note:
And now for quotes to hopefully spark your interest:

Chapter 45 - Advise on careers, advise on love
-----------@
~*~*~*~*~

It was well past midnight when Lily heard the door to the room she shared with the other fifth year Gryffindor girls creak open and then close just as quietly. A dark shadow crept across the room, silently opened her trunk and pulled out a nightgown. As Kassie left the room to go to change and brush her teeth, Lily slipped out of her own bed and followed. When she arrived at the bathroom door, that was opened just a crack, she found Kassie standing in front of the mirror, brushing her hair, a glazed over expression on her face. Without hesitation Lily thrust the door open and said, "Well, well. What do we have here?"

"AHHH! STUPEFY!"

That was the last sound Lily heard before a red streak of light hit her and all went black.

Kassie stared at Lily, who crumpled very quickly to the floor and then at the end of her wand like perhaps it had stunned her best friend of its own accord. She then rushed over to Lily's side, pointed her wand at the stunned girl's chest and said, "Enervate!" Lily blinked slowly, sitting up and rubbing her head. "Are you ok, Lily?" Kassie asked urgently.

"I think so..." Lily muttered, rubbing her sore head.

"Good." Kassie whacked her on the arm and stood up. "Don't ever scare me like that again! What if I had done more than stun you?!"

Lily glared at Kassie from where she was still seated on the floor, her hand still over the back of her head where she was fairly certain she'd have a bump the size of a bludger the next morning. Kassie huffed indignantly, put her wand down and picked her brush back up to begin brushing her hair again. For several moments Lily just stared at Kassie before remembering what had brought her in here to begin with. "Where have you been?" she grumbled, scrambling to her feet.

Kassie looked at Lily's reflection in the mirror, rather than turning around. "I was with Sirius. Where else do you think I would have been?"

"I know that," Lily retorted. She stared at Kassie, who stared back at her reflection before suddenly both of them lapsed into a fit of giggles. Lily took several gasps of breath, hopped up on the counter beside the sink Kassie was at and shook her head. "Well, spill. What was the big surprise?"

Kassie tied her hair back in a pony tail before answering. Then, with a huge grin on her face, she said, "Well, the reason he had been missing all morning is because he was in Hogsmeade getting flowers, food, drinks, candles and these adorable little fairy lights. He had a grand feast laid out in one of the towers, complete with self playing violin." Kassie's eyes glassed over. "It was so romantic. I can't believe he thought it up all by himself."

Lily smiled, shaking her head. Sirius hadn't thought it up all by himself, but Lily most certainly wasn't going to be the one to burst her bubble. If she knew that Sirius had been asking everyone questions for days on end from what Kassie's favourite food was to her favourite flowers were, it might not have been so special. Kassie gathered up her stuff and started out of the room when she remembered Lily's appointment. She spun around, nearly knocking Lily over. "Wait! Who was it? Did you go?"

Lily felt herself blush scarlet as Kassie eyed her. She smiled and Kassie's face lit up in anticipation. "It was Will Roberts."

"I knew it!" Kassie said in a triumphant voice, eyes wide. "Did he ask you out? What happened?"

Lily and Kassie spent most of the night sitting in the common room, exchanging all the details of their respective evenings. Lily supposed it was a good thing Valentine's Day this year was on a Saturday, otherwise they would have made pretty sights the next morning for lessons. Not once all night did the thought of James cross Lily's mind; though in all honesty it should have, since her best friend was going out with his. All Lily knew was that it felt wonderful to be able to talk about Will to Kassie, instead of constantly listening about Sirius. She finally felt like she wasn't an outsider looking in; Will had been so sweet and funny during the two hours she had spent with him that it left her smiling with no reason whatsoever.

"OH! And look!" Kassie gushed, pulling on a long chain around her neck. On the end was a small heart shaped charmed pendant that Sirius had bought Kassie for Christmas, beside it was another charm, this one a key. "The card that came with it said it's called 'key to my heart'."

"That's so pretty," Lily noted, turning the key over in her hand. "Sirius is having fun with his new money, isn't he?"

Kassie smile slipped slightly. "He is. But I feel horrible that he spent so much on me. You know the roses had to have cost a fortune, not to mention this pendant, the food and everything else. I think over the Easter holiday I'm going to encourage him to go and buy the motorbike he wants. I have a magazine upstairs with an advert for a wizard in London that charms muggle vehicles. I owled him a few days ago, asking for a catalogue."

"I thought you didn't want Sirius getting the motorbike?" Lily asked, confused.

Kassie shrugged. "I want him to have what he wants. I know I'll worry over him getting hurt, but I still can't stand the thought of me keeping him from buying one. And I don't think he would if I asked him not to; but that's not very fair of me. So I'll just live with it, I suppose."

Lily smiled. "That's very wise of you. Of course, it goes well with the crash helmet you got him for Christmas."

Kassie blanched. "Yeah, I suppose it does."

---------------

The next morning the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall was looking rather thin where the fifth years usually sat. Remus, Peter and Madison were the only ones there and none of them were talking much. Remus was forcing himself to eat, though the pull of the full moon coming that night was weighing down on him heavily, Peter was eating more than normal because he was bored and Madison was hidden behind A History of Magic only coming up occasionally to scribble on an essay she was doing and glance at Remus worriedly.

Peter finally finished with his third bowl of porridge and finished his pumpkin juice. "I wonder where everyone is?"

"Asleep, probably," Remus replied, glaring at his own bowl of porridge in contempt. Granted, it wasn't the food's fault that he really wanted meat this morning. It was Eric Ellis' fault for taking the last plate of bacon from their table without asking Remus if he wanted any. The werewolf started to go over to the Hufflepuff table and take it back, thought better of it, and continued to stare at his bowl.

Madison sighed, flipping through her book in thought. She wrinkled her eyebrows together, turned another page and let out a deep sigh. Peter glanced over curiously. "What are you looking up?"

"Goblin rebellion of 1612," Madison muttered nearly incoherently.

"For what?" Peter asked, cocking his head to the side.

"History of Magic," Madison said in an exasperated voice finally looking up from the book. "Don't say you haven't finished it? It's due tomorrow." Peter's face, neck and ears turned red. Remus shook his head and Madison sighed deeply, trying to catch Remus' eye but failing. "Oh, Peter. You'd better get a start on it."

"Get a start on what?" James slid into the chair next to Peter and grabbed at the stack of toast in the middle of the table. "No bacon?"

"No," Remus muttered sourly.

"The History of Magic essay due tomorrow," Madison answered and immediately went back to work on her own essay.

"Eh, excuse me."

The fifth years looked up to see Will Roberts hovering uncertainly behind Madison. James, unaware about anything regarding Will's uncertainty at talking to them, quirked an eyebrow. "Hey Will. What's up?"

The blonde haired Gryffindor ran his hand through his hair and smiled slightly. "I, eh, was looking for Lily. Have any of you seen her this morning?"

James seemed to think nothing out of the ordinary at this question; Remus did. He quirked an eyebrow as James said, "Nope. She's probably still in bed. I think she and Kassie were up pretty late last night. I heard them talking in the common room."

"All the way up to the fifth year rooms?" Madison asked without looking up. "They must have been loud."

"Or someone was coming in late," Peter piped up. Remus clipped him around the ear. "I was just saying..." Peter muttered, re-filling his bowl for the fourth time. Madison giggled behind her hand.

James acted for all the world as if he hadn't heard Peter and went back to eating. Will watched them for a moment, then walked on hurriedly to sit at the other end of the table. Remus watched him. "That was strange. Why would Will be looking for Lily?"

"He's her boyfriend, I would think that means he's allowed," Madison said, again without looking up. She frantically scribbled a closing paragraph to her essay, performed an ink drying spell on it, then started reading it to make sure it was correct. During all of this she completely missed the dumbfounded look on James' face and Peter sniggering at him.

"He is?" James finally asked, having swallowed several times.

"Who is doing what with who?" another voice asked as Sirius plopped down next to James. His eyes were blood shot and he needed to shave, but he acted as though he knew neither of these things as he began filling his plate with food. "What? No meat? Where's the meat? Moony, did you eat it all?"

"No," Remus gritted out, casting a dark look to the Hufflepuff table.

Sirius followed Remus' gaze and found a plate of bacon sitting all alone on the table. He grinned. "Accio bacon!"

This small action caused quite a few things to happen; first the bacon from the Hufflepuff table came flying at Sirius, who caught it. Remus jumped up, grabbed the plate of bacon from Sirius and ran out of the Great Hall with it, Sirius shouting at him to come back, and then every other piece of bacon in the Great Hall flew at the Gryffindors. Sirius, James and Peter all slid under the table. But Madison, who was working on her essay, hadn't noticed the strange behaviour of the flying food and was promptly hit on the back of the head with approximately thirty rashers of bacon. "SIRIUS BLACK!"

"Who knew that such a sweet girl could have such a set of lungs on her?" Sirius asked under the table. James raised an eyebrow and Peter shrugged, looking just the slightest bit confused.

"Mr. Black," yet another voice said, this one sterner and even more displeased sounding than Madison.

"That didn't sound like Madison," Peter said softly to his two friends.

"No, that sounded like--"

"Ahem." McGonagall moved the chairs and the three boys spilled out from under the table. She had her arms crossed over her chest and was tapping her foot, which happened to be very close to Sirius' head.

"Professor McGonagall," the three boys said together, looking up at their Head of House. "Mate, your elbow is in my ribs," Sirius added, shoving at James.

"Peter's knee is in my back."

"Get off it and it won't be," Peter retorted, shoving James, which pushed him back into Sirius, who shoved back hard.

"Get up!" McGonagall barked. Several Ravenclaws walking past were laughing and pointing at them.

"Haha," James snorted. "What are you looking at?"

"Probably the crack of your--"

"MISTER BLACK!" McGonagall looked as if steam was coming out of her nostrils. James scrambled to his feet, yanking his jeans up as he did so. Peter slowly got up after him, but Sirius continued to lie on his back on the floor, staring up at the ceiling.

It was at this precise moment that Kassie and Lily entered the Great Hall. Sirius' gaze wondered to the door, meet with Kassie's and he groaned. "What perfect timing you have," he muttered as Kassie walked up to him as if seeing her boyfriend lying in the middle of the Great Hall was as common as breathing.

Kassie peered down at him and Lily stifled a giggle. "Good morning."

"Morning," Sirius grinned. McGonagall scowled at him and his grin became even wider. "Would you help me up?"

Kassie bobbed her head from side to side for a moment in apparent deep thought, snapped her finger and said, "Eh, no, I don't think I will." And with that she turned foot and walked off. Sirius watched her go, a smile lighting up his features.

Suddenly James hauled him to his feet. McGonagall pointed her wand towards the doors. "Let's go."

Sirius, James and Peter walked out in a single file line, Sirius waving to Kassie and blowing her a kiss. "Get moving, Black," she snapped. "Your girlfriend seems to have more common sense than you do this morning."

Sirius' smile widened more, if possible. "Oh, she loves me."

"I'm sure," McGonagall replied, shaking her head a bit.

Kassie sat down next to Madison, picked up several pieces of bacon from where they were scattered around the table and put them on her plate. Madison was still looking slightly dishevelled, but Lily helpfully pulled some bacon from her blonde hair. "Don't you want to know what happened here?" Madison finally asked.

"No need," Kassie told her, pouring pumpkin juice. "As Lily and I came in, Professor McGonagall was leading Sirius, James and Peter out of the Hall, and there’s bacon all over the table. I can pretty much guess the rest."

--------------

"So how are things with you and dear William?"

Lily dipped her quill in her ink bottle and began writing in her diary. The room was silent except for the scratch of her quill; all the other girls were asleep since it was at least midnight, if not later. She hesitated then put her quill to the paper. "Everything is going wonderfully. He's very sweet to me."

"But?"

Lily's eyebrows knotted together. "But what?" she wrote under the word.

The diary seemed to hesitate. Lily watched it curiously. She loved her enchanted diary very much. She had a nice young woman from somewhere around the eighteen hundreds as a diary mate (the personality inside the diary). But there were sometimes that Elizabeth, the diary, was very presumptuous. Lily suspected now was about to be one of those times. "It just seemed like there should be a “but” after that, that’s all. I do hope I'm not being too bold in saying you haven't told me about James in quite a while. How is he these days?"

Lily raised an eyebrow. "I don't know, perhaps I should ask his girlfriend."

"Katrina is her name, is it not?"

"Not this week," Lily wrote, dotting her 'i' a little forcibly. "This week it's Genevieve Johnson, a Hufflepuff. Since Valentine's Day he has had four girlfriends already."

"Obviously he is looking for his one true love," Elizabeth said, her words appearing under Lily's. Lily scowled at it. No, she didn't think James was looking for his true love, she thought he was trying to snog every female in Hogwarts. "Well, enough about that. William has been courting you for three months. Are there any wedding plans?"

Lily's eyes grew huge and then she laughed out loud before realising that she probably shouldn't. She waited for a second, then, sure that no-one in the room had awoken, put her quill to the diary page again quickly. "No, no. I'm only fifteen. I have a lot to do before I marry. And it's not that I love Will, I just like him a lot."

"Do you not have the kind of relationship that your friend Kassandra has?"

Lily thought for a minute then wrote, "No. Kassie and Sirius are madly in love. I've never seen any two people so crazy about each other. I care about Will deeply, but I don't think it's love. I think love has to be something special, something that makes my body tingle just to be in the same room with him... Love has to be something more. I see the way Kassie's eyes light up when she spots Sirius in a crowd, and he always seems to know and look up. It's like magic."

"That's rare, dear. Most people marry for convenience."

"My parents didn't," Lily wrote hastily, wanting to correct Elizabeth fast. She believed in love, it was that simple. The kind of love that lasted.

Elizabeth seemed to sense Lily's feeling through the way she pressed firmly when writing. She abruptly changed the subject; "Is next weekend not Kassandra's birthday? I believe it's written down in the back of my book. Have you chosen a present for her yet?"

"No. I can't think of anything. I'll have to buy her something when we go to Hogsmeade on Saturday. But I need to try to go back to sleep now. I have lessons tomorrow and something called careers advice."

"Well, good luck with that dear. Good night."

"Good night," Lily wrote, then shut the book and placed it in her bedside table. She put her quill and ink away, blew the candle out and lay back down.

Every night for several weeks Lily had woken up in the middle of the night, unable to fall back asleep. Sometimes she went down to the common room and worked on homework, and sometimes, like tonight, she would write in her diary. Her mother was very worried and kept suggesting she ask Madam Pomfrey for help, but Lily knew the matron would give her a sleeping draft and Lily found it difficult to function the day after taking those. Instead she opted to wait it out and hope her sleep patterns would return to normal.

The sunlight dancing through the curtains woke Lily up several hours later. Or was it Kassie standing over her bed, staring at her, that woke her? Either way, Lily hadn't remembered going to sleep; only waking up. She blinked up at her best friend and raised herself up on her elbows. "What time is it?"

"Eight," Kassie replied. "You're going to miss breakfast if you don't hurry. Will is waiting for you down stairs."

Lily flopped back on her pillows and stared at the ceiling for a minute. She didn't want to get up, but staying in bed wasn't an option. Ever so slowly she sat up and moved her legs off the side of the bed, yawning. "I need more sleep."

"I'll say," Kassie replied from where she was bent down, tying her trainers. "If you don't stop writing during the middle of the night I'm going to hide all your quills."

Lily felt herself blush. "I didn't realise you were awake."

"Yeah, well, I didn't stay awake for long. But this is the third night in a row that you've woken me up. Why aren't you sleeping?"

Lily shrugged, picked her clothes out and shuffled towards the showers. "Your guess is as good as mine. Well, your guess is probably better than mine, since I haven't the first idea."

Lily hurried and showered, charmed her hair dry, pinned her prefect badge on her robe and came running down the stairs to find Will sitting on the sofa, flipping through a magazine. When Lily came in he threw the magazine aside, stood up and smiled at her. "Good morning sleeping beauty."

"Morning," Lily replied, kissing him quickly. He took her book bag from her and threw it over his shoulder with his own. "Did Kassie go down already?"

"Well, kind of. Sirius carried her out over his shoulder. Something about he was hungry now and not when you decided to get dressed." Lily rolled her eyes and smiled to herself, thinking of the conversation she had with her diary the night before. "Are you nervous about your careers advice meeting today?"

Lily shrugged. "I don't know. I haven't really thought about what I wanted to do after Hogwarts. I mean, I'd like to do something with charms, I think, since that's my main strength. But I haven't given it much thought."

Will squeezed her hand. "Just do whatever will make you happy. I choose Auror training because my father pushed me into it. Of course, with the war against You-Know-Who getting worse..."

Lily pursed her lips together. "Why don't you say his name? It's Voldemort. There's nothing to worry about in saying it."

Will shrugged, throwing Lily an adorable grin that she found herself smiling at. "I'd hate to see You-Know-Who try to take you on. You're quite a little spitfire, or so I've heard."

"Heard?" Lily laughed lightly. They entered the Great Hall and took seats next to Kassie, Sirius and the rest of the fifth year Gryffindors. "Who told you such a lie?"

Will laughed, catching Kassie's attention. "I was your duelling club partner last week, remember? I know first hand how good you are."

"Ha," Kassie muttered. "You haven't seen her angry."

"I hope I never do," Will replied, smiling as he dished out food.

"Jamie!"

Half of the Gryffindor table groaned as Genevieve Johnson came running over to their table, took a seat next to James and crossed her arms indignantly. She flipped her short brown hair over her shoulder in a way most of them presumed she thought was alluring. Needless to say it wasn't. "Jamie, you didn't wait for me this morning," she pouted.

"Mm, sorry," James replied, clearly just saying it to avoid confirmation. Lily was sure she'd never heard him be less sorry in her life. He poured his girlfriend (of the week, as Lily and Kassie called her) pumpkin juice and then proceeded to go back to his conversation with Peter. "Like I was saying, Emily wants to do try outs on Saturday for Captain. She said that Professor McGonagall told her that if she couldn't choose someone, that she would. Of course, I'm sure that I can get the position..."

Lily watched him for a moment, thinking that his last comment was more than a little arrogant. Frowning, she turned to Will. "Will, weren't you going to try for Captain?"

"What? Oh, yes. There are many good players on the team, though, I'd hate to be in Emily's position. I think if I were her I'd just let Professor McGonagall choose." Will took three more sausages from the plate in front of him. "I'm sure she'll pick the best one, though."

Lily said nothing else until after the owl post arrived. But she couldn't help looking down the table where James was playing with Genevieve's hair and thinking that he had changed a lot in the last few months. He had changed most since Alexis had died. Suppressing a shiver, Lily stood when the bell rang and walked with Will, Kassie and Sirius to Transfiguration. Kassie and Sirius went in and took their usual seats and Will handed Lily her bag. "I'll see you at lunch?"

Lily pretended to think about this a moment and Will smiled gently. "Hmmm, what if I had prior arrangements with another charmingly tall, blond haired wizard with cute little dimples?" Lily asked innocently.

Will grabbed Lily by the waist, nearly making her drop her bag. "Then I'd be jealous enough to curse him, I think." He bent down and kissed her lips lightly. Lily had barely moved her face an inch from Will's when suddenly someone knocked into them.

"Oh, terribly sorry," James Potter said, not looking at Will, but Lily. His brown eyes had several different emotions playing in them that Lily couldn't place; but one looked like betrayal? Hurt? Questions rose in her mind as James broke eye contact and went into the room, slinging himself into a chair next to Sirius.

Lily looked back at Will, who had a puzzled look on his face. "You know, I don't think he likes me very much," he said, almost to himself rather than Lily. "Maybe it's because we're both going for Captain."

Lily didn't reply at first. Then she said, "He's been acting oddly for a couple of months, actually. I don't understand it." Professor McGonagall walked past them, giving them a disapproving glare as she did and Lily suddenly realised the time. "Oh, Will, you'd better hurry or you'll be late for your lesson!"

Will looked at his watch, pulled a face and cursed lightly under his breath. "Right, see you at lunch." He kissed her quickly and took off at a run down the corridor. Lily went into the classroom and slid into the seat next to Kassie who was looking everywhere for her Inaimatus Conjurus essay. So far she had pulled out several books, rolled up parchment, quills, hair ties and a pair of socks and laid them on the desk.

"Kassie?" Lily pointed to the socks, raising an eyebrow.

"They are Sirius'," Kassie said as if this explained it all. She pulled open another roll of parchment, gave a frustrated sigh and threw it aside.

Lily shook her head. "I just cleaned out your bag three days ago, what happened?" Kassie scowled at her and continued digging as the bell rang. Finally Lily had pity on her. "I have it, Kassie. You left it on the table last night in the common room."

Kassie heaved a relived sigh, then proceeded to glare at Lily while she crammed everything back in her bag. "You could have told me before I emptied my entire bag!"

"You should keep that bag more tidy, and without Sirius' socks, then you might be able to find something," Lily retorted, pulled both her own and Kassie's homework out of her bag and handed it towards the front.

At the table in front of them Peter sniggered and Kassie whipped her wand out, digging the tip of it in his neck. "You have something to say, Peter?"

Remus raised an eyebrow next to Peter and glanced back at Kassie. Peter shook his head no, not breathing until Kassie put her wand down. Lily shook her head and took out a sheaf of parchment for notes.

By the end of the lesson Lily was more than ready for the end of the day. However she still had Divination and Care of Magical Creatures. Luckily, according to the schedule she had picked up in the common room, she was due in Professor McGonagall's office at a quarter past eleven for Careers Advice, which meant she would get to skip the better part of Divination.

Professor Trelawney was gearing up for what promised to be a boring lesson about fire omens when Lily raised her hand. The Divination teacher turned towards Lily quickly and probably in hopes that Lily would tell her about a vision. After all, Lily's first vision had been in a fireplace. "Professor, I have a Careers Advice meeting with my Head of House, may I go?"

Professor Trelawney's face fell, her magnified eyes loosing some of their intensity. "Yes, yes. Make sure you get tonight's homework assignment from someone."

Lily nodded, bagged up her books, quill, ink and parchment and stood. Kassie propped her head up on her hands and Madison waved. "Lucky," she muttered, dropping her head down on her book and looking heavenward.

"See you," Lily replied and left the room. Ten minutes later she was outside Professor McGonagall's office. Lily knocked on the closed door. No one answered. Biting her lip, Lily took her bag off her shoulder, rechecked the appointment time and knocked again. Still no answer. Deciding she definitely wasn't going all the way back up to the North Tower and Divination, Lily leaned against the wall and waited.

Five minutes later Professor McGonagall came hurrying down the hall. When she saw Lily she slowed, pulling her wand and opening the door. "I'm sorry I'm late, Miss Evans. There was another matter of extreme urgency that required my attention."

"That’s alright, Professor," Lily replied, sure that even if it was not alright, saying so wasn't an option. She followed her Head of House into the office and Professor McGonagall waved her to have a seat.

"Biscuit?" McGonagall offered, indicating a small tartan tin sitting on her desk. Lily shook her head. "Well then, this meeting is to discuss any career paths you might be inclined towards. As you know, after this year you will have to choose classes again. These should be chosen in preparation for what career you wish to establish once you've left school. Have you given any thought to what you would like to do?"

Lily's eyes wandered over the many leaflets littering Professor McGonagall's desk. She swallowed. "Well, I... I thought perhaps something with charms. That seems to be my strongest skill."

"Charms? Ah, yes, let's see," Professor McGonagall sorted through the leaflets and produced a bright green one with sparkles on it. "There is the Committee of Experimental Charms, with the Ministry of Magic. The department works on developing new charms, testing older charms that are no longer in use, trying to improve them and so on. There are also several other departments, such as the Unspeakables of the Department of Mysteries and so on, where charms would be a large part of your career. Either way you are looking at a minimum of five N.E.W.T.s and nothing below 'Exceeds Expectations' in-- Yes?"

There was a short knock on the door to the office and Professor McGonagall showed just the slightest bit of irritation at being interrupted. The door opened slowly and James Potter looked around the corner, his eyes widening behind his round frame glasses as they landed on Lily. "Er, I can come back."

"What is it, Potter?" McGonagall asked before James could shut the door.

Slowly he eased his way in, followed shortly by Sirius. McGonagall let out a nearly inaudible sigh. "We were sent to see you, I have this..." He handed Professor McGonagall a roll of parchment which she opened and read quickly. Lily gave both James and Sirius questioning looks, but neither of them were in a position to say anything.

Finally McGonagall sighed, her eyebrows wrinkled in a frown. "Go to my classroom, have a seat and do not touch anything until I am with you. Do you understand?"

James and Sirius nodded, smiled at Lily as if they were only dropping in for tea, rather than punishment, and left the room. Professor McGonagall rubbed her index and thumb against the bridge of her nose. "Where were we? Oh, yes, you'll need at least 'Exceeds Expectations' on your Charms O.W.L. I also advise you take N.E.W.T. level Transfiguration, as you would be working with it strongly in these fields, as well as Potions, Arithmacy and Herbology. But I feel I must tell you, Evans, that I do not accept anyone into my N.E.W.T. level class without an 'Exceeds Expectations' or higher on their O.W.L. Currently you have a 'A' so you'll need to study hard before O.W.L.s, but I foresee no problems with that."

Lily nodded, took the proffered leaflets from Professor McGonagall and stood. "Is there anything else you have any questions about?" she asked briskly, looking like she sincerely hoped there wasn't. Lily shook her head no. "Very well then. Good day."

By the time Lily made it into the Great Hall the bell had already ruing. Close behind her was Will. He walked straight over to Lily and sat down beside her. "Well? How'd it go?"

What Lily was going to say, Will didn't find out. At that moment Kassie came storming into the Great Hall looking for all the world as though she wanted to murder someone. She threw her bag down on the table, dropped roughly onto the bench and crossed her arms. Lily blinked at her for a moment, then leant forward. "What's wrong?"

For a second Kassie didn't look like she would say anything; then finally she heaved a huge sigh and Lily could distinctly see that her eyes were starting to fill with tears. "It's nothing," she got out, rubbing vainly at her eyes. "Nothing."

"Really?" Lily asked, both eyebrows raised. "Well, it has been a while since I've seen someone this upset over nothing, but I know the tell tale signs. And, let's see, throwing bags, crossed arms, teary eyes--all points to you being upset, Kassie. You might want to be a little more convincing next time."

The edge of Kassie's lip twitched, but she didn't move otherwise. The student body was filling up the Great Hall by the second, bringing with it Sirius Black and James Potter, each laughing loudly about something. Sirius spotted Kassie and Lily, ran over and draped his arms around the back of Kassie's neck. "Guess who?" he asked in a low voice. He leant forward so he could see her face and instantly lost his playful smile. "What's wrong?"

Lily shrugged, watching Kassie carefully. Sirius slid onto the bench beside her and turned her face so she was looking at him. "Kassie? What is it? Are you angry with me?"

Kassie rolled her eyes. "Why would I be angry with you?"

"You don't know, then," Sirius muttered under his breath. Kassie perked up visibly at this, but Sirius plowed on before she got a word in edge wise. "So you're not angry with me. Are you angry with Lily? She looks guilty over there."

That time Kassie did smile, though she was fighting it with all she had. Sirius reached up and brushed away a tear that had fallen from her eye. "Come on love, you know I hate to see you upset. Tell me who did it so I can curse them." Kassie smiled and allowed Sirius to pull her close and hold her. Lily watched, her head propped up on her hand, waiting to see what was wrong with Kassie.

It was several minutes before Sirius managed to stop trying to soothe Kassie and she finally looked ready to talk. She inhaled deeply and rolled her eyes. "It's really stupid, now that I think about it. But after Lily left Divination, Professor Trelawney decided to start in on me about my visions. She's not satisfied that I only have visions about little things; she wants more. I think it's because she doesn't have any real ones," Kassie added a little bitterly. "Anyway, she started telling me stuff about my father and it was nerve wracking. And I got to thinking and, well..."

Sirius' face had closed off to anyone looking at him. He stared straight at Kassie, but she had the feeling he wasn't seeing her. Kassie put her hand on his face. "Sirius?"

"How can she know anything about your Dad?" Sirius asked.

Kassie shrugged. "I don't know. It was creepy, though. She was right on about some things." The black-haired witch shivered and Sirius seemed to snap out of his trance. "She's just doing some lucky guessing, I think. I shouldn't have let it get to me."

Silently the four of them started eating their lunch, not speaking and hardly looking at each other. Then suddenly Kassie's head snapped up and she turned to Sirius; "What did you do that I'm going to be angry about?"

Sirius' face turned a little red, but he quickly dismissed it and laughed. Across from him James had suddenly found his food extremely interesting. "It was nothing, really, but Professor McGonagall was rather upset about it. I can't imagine why."

"Sirius?"

"Hmm?" Sirius grinned.

Kassie didn't smile. "You're stalling."

"Ok, ok. In Muggle Studies today we were discussing how muggles use electricity to cook on stoves. And Professor Terrance was demonstrating by baking a pie. James and I were trying to make the pie lighter, by making it levitate--"

"Behind Professor Terrance's back," Remus inserted.

Sirius threw him a rather nasty look. "I'm telling the story. Well, it was levitating, only Professor Terrance turned--"

"We didn't expect him to," James added.

"And walked straight into it," Sirius finished, fighting a grin with all he had. Lily had turned to Kassie and saw the sides of her lips twitch like she was longing to laugh. Sirius hadn't paid her any attention, though. "So we were sent to Professor McGonagall and have detention tomorrow night."

Kassie sighed, shook her head and continued to place food on her plate. Sirius raised an eyebrow at her. "Are you angry?"

"Why should I be?" Kassie replied, shrugging.

"Because we have detention Thursday night, as well. And Friday night..."

Kassie's eyes widen and she turned to Sirius so fast that he started. "Please tell me you aren't in detention on Saturday. Please Sirius."

Sirius' face completely lost any look of mischief. Thoughtful for a moment, he looked at James, who shrugged and then at Lily who was mouthing something that looked like.... "Damn it. Kassie, oh no, I'm so sorry! I swear I'm going to go down there right now and tell McGonagall that I can't--that something... Kassie?"

At that moment Kassie had put down her fork, gathered her bag and left the table. Sirius banged his head against the table, making a loud thud echo around the room. Lily sighed and started gathering up her bag. "What's going on?" Will asked, completely confused.

Lily pushed her chair in, bent down and whispered, "Sunday is Kassie's birthday and we are supposed to go to Hogsmeade to celebrate on Saturday." Will glanced at Sirius, who was still beating his head against the table, a look of pity on his face. Lily kissed Will's cheek. "I'll see you later."

Her exit was punctuated by another thud and the clanking of the plates as they vibrated from the impact of Sirius' head. "Mate, that has to hurt..." James pointed out.

"Shut up."

--End Chapter 45.


Author notes: Wow, so how many of you are thinking "Whoa, Sirius, of all things to forget!!" Yeah, poor boy. He's about to be ignored for several days. And let's face it, Kassie is a witch and will never let him forget that he forgot her birthday.

For once I really am going to have small author's notes because I got in from work late--I spent most of the afternoon letting the dentist clean my teeth, and in turn make my mouth very sore, then the other half looking for UT temporary tatooes. Which I never found, but that's another story. So, HUGE thanks to everyone on the Update group, Shannon, Kate and everyone who reviewed.

BTW, to answer the question; They are in the fifth year right now. Otherwise, I'm very upset about the lack of reviews ~pokes readers~ come on, let me know what you think. And if you have an idea, let me know, I use reader suggestions a lot. (hince the pie, long story, see the message board "complaint department" for details) Speaking of the board, the people on that board are crazy. You really should go join them; I laugh until I cry sometimes. Just go here: http://bethany212.proboards33.com Don't lurk, though! The lurking monster will get you!!

Oh, and to join the Update list send a blank email to [email protected]

Until next week, draw fanart, join the email group and REVIEW!!!!!

Bethany
09.23.04