When You Wish Upon a Star

Author’s Note: As a general announcement to everyone on updating: My plan is to update as often as possible, but I’m going to say about once every 1-2 weeks. I won’t be doing five chapters at a time like I just did, just one. I might be able to be more frequent, but I am currently in two musicals (which is about 3 hours of play practice each day) plus, in April, I’ll be going to New Orleans with my school’s jazz ensemble, so we’re practicing 1-3 hours three days a week depending on the day. Plus I take voice lessons. And I still manage school work. So I’m slightly busy. lol.

When You Wish Upon A Star
By Christabell

Chapter Six: Of Windows and Feathers

It wasn’t much later that James looked at his watch in shock. ‘How could it be so late already?’ he asked himself. He moved as if to stretch out his stiff muscles, only to find it difficult due to the pressure of another body next to him. He reached down and carefully tucked a lock of auburn hair behind Lily’s ear, smiling down on her. He pressed his lips gently to her forehead.

“Lils,” he said softly, “wake up.” She stirred slowly, and opening her sleepy eyes, glanced around at her surroundings.

“Mmm... James, not morning yet... not fair, still tired,” she mumbled in incoherent speech.

“Lily, we’ve been out here for about an hour. We really need to head back to Gryffindor before everyone starts to think we got in trouble or something.” He grinned as she cuddled up next to him, attempting to go back to sleep. “Sorry Lily, no can do. You really have to get up.” There was no response.

Sighing, though thoroughly content in the position that he was currently in, James decided that if she wouldn’t get up on her own, he would have to make her get up himself. He leaned over her, and began tickling her so relentlessly that she was crying from laughing so hard. Before she had the chance to catch her breath, he picked her up and slung her over his shoulders, and started to run back up to the castle, Lily shrieking with a mixture of delight, caught up in the moment, and fear, frightened of falling.

“James, put me down this instant!” James grinned, and a mischievous twinkle could be seen in his eyes.

“Before I do that, Lily, you have a choice.... how would you like to be put down? Like a feather or a rock? I do believe that a feather would be less painful,” he teased.

“James!” Lily groaned in exasperation. James finally obliged and put her down carefully, still laughing.

“See... feathers are better!” he exclaimed. “And I must admit that I achieved what I wanted to.”

“Oh really?” questioned Lily. “And just what might that be?”

“Well, you are awake now, aren’t you?” Lily giggled.

“I guess so. James? I know this might seem like a strange question, but how many other girls have you been with before me?” James hesitated for a moment.

“Not very many. But they don’t matter now anyways.” he reasured her.

~~~~

Albus Dumbledore stared out of his office window. It was enchanted, like most everything he owned, to show him any place on the grounds of Hogwarts at a moments notice. This window was the real secret behind his all-knowing mind - it wasn’t hard to figure out just what was going on with who and where, when he could see it anytime he wanted.

He currently had it looking down on the lake, not far from the main entrance to the school. He smiled as he saw the Giant Squid playing happily in the water, but found himself squinting at two forms, two students, asleep a little ways away from the water’s edge. He commanded the mirror to focus in on the figures, and a messy tangle of jet black and fiery red hair. That dark hair could only belong to one fine gentleman - a certain Mr. Potter. But who was he with? All through James’ school career, Albus had found amusement in tallying the amount of girls James had been with, and the total was currently near one hundred.

At another command, the mirror magnified its vision so the figures appeared even closer. To his shock, Lily Evans came into view. While he knew that Ms. Evans had become friends with James, he wasn’t aware of the fast pace their relationship was taking. When the two of them had entered the Great Hall earlier that evening, he had assumed that James had just grabbed Lily’s hand as a form of reassurance, not as a sign of anything more. He smiled slightly.
And then there had been the incident with Severus - such a strange child. He had always had this idea in his head that shoving himself right up in a girl’s face was always the way to get her to like him. Poor boy hadn’t realized that six years of failure weren’t about to change into success any time soon. It was time to pick a new method. But he was a good child. After all, he had come to him as soon as... well that didn’t matter right now.

Albus turned his attentions back to the window. James was currently tickling a previously sleepy Lily, before picking her up and running around with her over his shoulder. Albus sighed. What he wouldn’t give to be that young again, and to have that much energy. Not that he was old, only forty. But a life of battling evil since he was young had prematurely aged him, and he found himself growing weary more often than not now. And still the struggle would continued. Starting with petty fights, evolving into full-fledged war. Tough times were coming, but they would try their best to make it through.

He found his gaze drifting back to the two innocent teenagers yet again, and he could see that there was hope. “Hold on to her James, you’re going to need her,” he whispered as the image in the window slowly faded away into nothing.

~~~~

James and Lily finally made their way up to the castle, still chuckling. Lily gave James a mock glare, as she began to pout.

“James, you made my stomach hurt,” she complained. James looked up worried.

“But I thought that Remus had healed you? Don’t tell me it didn’t work.. God, this sucks. I’m sorry, this is all my fault!” Lily shook her head, smiling.

“Really, don’t worry. I meant that it hurt from laughing too much.” She continued grinning as James let out a sigh of relief.

“Don’t do that again... you scared me.” he said. Lily leaned over and gave him a quick peck on the lips.

“Of course not.” As they entered the castle, they ran into Dumbledore, who just smiled knowingly at them. The second he was out of sight, James let out a groan.

“How does he do that?” he mused out loud. “He always manages to know every little thing that occurs in or near this castle without being there to witness it happening. I just don’t get it.” Lily laughed.

“I know... it’s creepy. He must have some way of watching everything. I wonder what it could be...” The two walked in silence on their way up to the Gryffindor Common Room. The tranquility was disturbed as Lily let out a shriek of excitement. “Maybe he has one of those mirrors! Like in Snow White... you know? And he just says some spell or password and the asks to see what’s happening at that time!” James looked confused.

“What’s Snow White?” he asked.

“You know, the Disney movie. Everyone watches it when they’re a kid.” Seeing his bewildered expression wasn’t changing, Lily quickly put two and two together. “Just kidding... you wouldn’t have seen that. It’s a muggle thing.”

“Which is why it would suck,” said a voice from behind them. Lily whirled around.

“Who the hell are you?” she questioned calmly. He smirked slightly.

“Lucius Malfoy. I’m a Slytherin. At least we’ve all realized that anything made by muggles isn’t worth even thinking about. That includes their children. Nobody wants a mudblood,” he remarked snidely. Lily saw red.

“Don’t you dare think you can insult me. I might be muggleborn, but that doesn’t mean that I’m not twice as good as you at spells and magic in general. You don’t want to get me mad. Not if you value a little part of you that enables you to have children,” she threatened. Lucius glared at her.

“You have gone too far, mudblood. You will pay for that. What makes you think you can frighten me? I am a Malfoy. Malfoy’s don’t get scared.”

“Not that again,” James interrupted. “Must you always rely on a family name to get you out of trouble? Ooh, you’re a big, bad, ugly Malfoy. Who cares? Leave Lily alone. You don’t even deserve to be in her presence.”

“I normally wouldn’t be. I am above her and always will be. Besides, just look at her. Potter, think about it. Why are you defending her? You never stood up for your other little sluts And there were so many others. What are you at, a hundred now?” ‘Don’t cry, Lily. You can’t let him think you are weak.’ Lily thought. ‘James would have told you. He trusts you. He wouldn’t have lied to you.’ Seeing her shocked face, Malfoy continued, wanting to cause as much damage as possible. “Admit it. You are a player, Potter. I bet you didn’t even let her know how many other girls you’ve been with. And we all know that you’ve gone way farther with them than just kissing. Why is she any different? I’ll acknowledge that she’s got a great body. Bet she’d be great in bed, right Pothead? Isn’t that what you were thinking all along?” he retorted. Lily had had enough. She burst into tears and fled up the stairs, yearning to reach Gryffindor as soon as she could. James stared in shock for a moment as she ran off, before his fist connected with Lucius’ nose.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Lucius asked. “What makes you think you can fight a Malfoy?” If looks could kill, Lucius would have been deep down in hell.

“Oh, I forgot. So sorry,” he said sarcastically. “Lucius needs to look pretty. He spends hours in front of the mirror primping. Heaven forbid he might actually defend himself once every.” James taunted. Lucius stalked off, glaring. James pitied anyone who would get in his way tonight. He gave Lucius one last look, and went off running, in hopes of finding Lily.

*************

Lily ran as fast as she could, still sobbing. Blinded by her tears, she slowly got lost, going further and further away from her destination. When she finally stopped running, she realized she had no idea where she was. Hogwarts was confusing enough to the students who had gone their for all of their schooling, but it was just her first day. She sank to the floor, acknowledging the fact that she was lost and would have quite a bit of trouble finding her way back to Gryffindor. She sighed, and began to think about the day, tears still dripping down her cheeks.
It had started out so nicely, meeting Peter, and being automatically accepted into his circle of friends. And Hogwarts really was a nice school. So much better than Durmstrang. And then there was James. He had made her feel beautiful and wanted within minutes of knowing him. She thought that he trusted her. But he didn’t think he could tell her that he had a reputation of going too far with too many girls. She liked him a lot, but she didn’t think that she could date someone who had betrayed her trust the first day of their relationship. It was just foreshadowing for how it would go. As she sat there, she was brought out of her thoughts by a smooth, silky voice which she recognized immediately. It was the same Slytherin from dinner.

“Lost, Evans?” Snape questioned politely, but his actions spoke otherwise. His eyes began to sweep over her body as if he were about to mentally undressing her but stopped himself. Lily covered her chest with her arms self consciously.

“Go away, Severus. I really don’t want to deal with you right now. I’m having a bad enough time,” she said softly.

“Are you alright?” he asked, seemingly concerned. “I didn’t really want to do that at dinner. I’m sorry. It’s just that, well, Lucius was there.”

“Whether that creep was there or not should not change how you act towards me,” Lily replied curtly.

“I know that. Just let me explain something. Can I assume that you know something about Lord Voldemort?” Lily nodded, and Severus went on. “Well, most all of the older Slytherins have been called to him to join his side. I am one of them, and I had no choice in accepting the Dark Mark. You either accept or die. As soon as I was marked, I went straight to Dumbledore and told him of what had happened. I offered to help our side. None of the Slytherins know about this, and I can’t let them. Especially Lucius. His father and mother are two of Voldemorts best Death Eaters, and if he gets word that I’m a traitor, I will not be able to spy for Dumbledore.” Lily stared in shock at his confession.

“Umm... I don’t exactly know what to say to that. I still am a bit mad at you for doing what you did at dinner, but I can see that you really didn’t have a choice, did you?”

“No, I rarely do. Lucius dared me to go over and do it, and I couldn’t very well just say ‘No thank you, I don’t want to be mean to muggleborns and I never have.’ I might as well have signed my death wish.” he admitted. “But anyway, enough about me. What’s that matter?” Lily looked up at him, believing that he was trust worth now.

“Well, I don’t know if you could tell at dinner, but James and I were together since the train ride today, and I asked him tonight how many other girls he had been with. He said not many. But then when we were going back up to Gryffindor, we ran into Lucius, who was utterly nasty, and then he said the only reason James would want me would be to get me in bed, like all his other sluts. All a hundred of them. And he didn’t deny it. He didn’t say anything.” She burst into tears again. “And here I was thinking that my life would be alright for once. That I might actually have friends and a boyfriend. I guess I was wrong.” She sobbed and found herself in Severus’ arms. He comforted her until she was able to compose herself.

“Thanks a lot. I really needed someone here right now.” She glanced around, remembering where she was. “Umm... Severus? Do you know where the Gryffindor common room is? I got kind of lost while I was running away from James.” He nodded.

“Sure, I’ll show you where they are. But I need you to know that we can’t appear as friends, or even be civil to each other in the company of anyone else. It could cost me my life and possibly yours. Is it alright if I just give you directions to the room?”

“Yes, that would be wonderful. Thanks.” Severus told her how to get to the Gryffindor Tower, and Lily set out on her way, feeling slightly better. Within minutes, she had arrived at the portrait and gave the password. “Quidditch.” The picture swung open, and Lily climbed inside. The room was deserted except for James, who had beaten Lily there. He was sitting on a couch by the fireplace, just staring straight ahead. He looked up as the portrait closed and began to speak. Lily just glared at him.

“Don’t even think to say anything to me, James Potter. I don’t want to have to see you ever again. You knew how much it meant to me to have my first boyfriend, and to have it be someone I trusted. And you betrayed that trust. I hate you.” She turned away from him, leaving him speechless as she disappeared up the stairs to the girs dorms.