The Seven Year Itch

Chapter 5

"For the last time, Remus, I didn't kiss her!" James exclaimed angrily. "I don't know what this is all about. Probably she was referring to somebody else! You said she was drunk yourself!"

"But she made it sound like-"

"I don't know why she said that! Maybe she was trying to shock you or something. Can't say it didn't work."

"Are you sure," Remus pronounced every word very clearly, "that you didn't kiss her?"

"Yeah!" James half-shouted.

"Whatever," Remus muttered. He paused for a moment, seemingly thinking about something. Then he said, "I've got to go now, James. See you."

James stared. Remus left the office and closed the door behind him. What the hell was wrong? About ten minutes after Remus had left James's office, he had come back, yelling something about Lily Evans and a kiss.

What had Evans said?

And even more interesting, why was Remus so touchy when it came to Lily Evans?

***

Lily slept in the next morning, waking up at about 12 o' clock. She went into the shower, and after having dressed, she went down to eat something.

"Hey, Charlotte!" she called as she recognized a friend of hers.

"Hi, Lily!"

"Why weren't you at the party yesterday?" Lily asked her.

"Oh, I was so tired, I went to bed at 9:30."

"Oh, it was really cool, but-" Lily raised her right foot so Charlotte could see it. She was wearing her chucks that she had worn the day before. "You see that?"

"Yes. What's that?"

"It's Benjy's puke. He was so pissed."

Charlotte pulled a face. "He puked on your shoes?"

"Yes. I tried to wipe it off, but, well-"

Charlotte laughed.

"But it was really cool anyway," Lily told her. "Everybody was drunk and hugging each other and telling each other how much they liked them. And you know that guy from Hufflepuff, Davey Gudgeon?"

"Yeah, why?"

"He was trying to dance with Julie all the time, but she was really drunk, too, so she wasn't really able to dance, if you know what I mean."

"No, I don't know what you mean, and I think I don't wanna know..."

"They sat down on the couch together and she had his head in her lap and he was stroking her hair all the time," Lily laughed at Charlotte's disgusted face, "and now he probably thinks they're going out. Poor, poor Julie."

***

The weekend and the next week passed quickly. On Friday afternoon, Lily and Dorcas were making their way to their last class that day, Transfiguration. But suddenly, Lily heard someone call her name.

"Hi, Lily," Adam said. "Hi, Dolly."

Dorcas rolled her eyes. "Dorcas."

"Whatever," he said. "Do you want to go for a walk tonight, Lily?"

"Don't know," she answered. "I have a Charms club meeting tonight."

"I'm sure you can skip this one," he said charmingly. "I mean, you're Lily Evans, the girl who got Slughorn to save her from Potter's detention."

"Well," Lily said, "I still feel sorry for the house-elf who cleaned the desks for me... poor thing-"

Suddenly, Dorcas stomped her foot.

"Ouch! What was that for?!"

Then Lily saw for what exactly it had been.

"Tut, tut, Evans," Potter said, smirking. "Follow me."

Lily swallowed hard and did as she was told. All the time she was following him silently, she was making up excuses. What could she tell him? That she had been joking? There was no way he'd buy that.

"So, Evans," Potter said, no longer smirking as they stood in his office, "you're making this more difficult for the two of us-"

"What?!" Lily spluttered, outraged. "I'm not making anything difficult-"

"No argument!" he barked. "Or do you want to make matters worse for you by back talking?"

Lily could feel herself go pale with anger. He was clearly enjoying this.

"Let's see... tonight, you will clean the floor in the dungeon, as I told you before. Tomorrow, you'll clean the whole DADA-room, the windows, the desks, the floor, everything. And on Sunday, you'll sweep the Great Hall after breakfast, lunch and dinner and wipe the tables."

"But the house elves do that anyway!" she exclaimed.

"On Sunday, you'll do it. Another word and you'll do it for the rest of the month. You may go."

Lily turned on her heel, boiling with anger.

"Oh, Evans?"

She paused, not bothering to turn around to face him.

"That's fifty points from Gryffindor for your insolence."

She stormed out of his office, slamming the door shut behind her and stalking off to her Transfiguration lesson. She managed to get there before McGonagall.

"What happened?" Orcas whispered urgently. Lily took deep breaths to calm herself down.

"I have detention tonight, tomorrow and on Sunday. And he docked fifty points."

"He's...exaggerating a bit, isn't he?"

"No, not at all," Lily snapped sarcastically.

"Well," Sally said slowly, "if you had done your detention in the first place, none of this would have happened."

Lily threw her a glare, and then clapped her hands over her face. Her eyes stung.

"He's making my life a living hell, it's even worse than last year!"

Dorcas lay her arm around her, rubbing her upper arm. Lily heard the door being shut.

"Good afternoon, class!"

***

On 7 p.m. that evening, Lily went down to the dungeons, her knees trembling. Potter was already there.

"So, Evans," he sneered, "your wand, please."

She grudgingly handed him her wand.

"If you're finished, come to my office to fetch your wand. And don't get any ideas. I have put a charm on this room. You won't be able to leave it until the floor is clean."

He quit the room. After a few minutes, she tried to open the door, but it was locked. So he hadn't been joking. Lily cursed under her breath. But just as she wanted to start cleaning, she heard someone whisper her name. She looked around, frowning. There it was again. It came from the old store cupboard in the corner.

Suddenly, the door burst open and Adam flew out. Lily gasped in surprise.

"One second longer and I would have suffocated, I'm telling you!" he cursed, getting up.

"Adam, what are you doing here, hiding in a cupboard?" Lily asked, her eyebrows furrowed.

"Well, I heard that you got in detention with Potter again, and I thought you might need some help," he said casually, blowing his hair out of his face. He drew his wand, flicked it and muttered a few words. One of the clothes flew into the bucket with the soapy water and began cleaning the floor.

"Let's sit down on one of these desks and... talk," Adam said, pointing to a desk.

She sat down next to him, smiling awkwardly. After a few minutes of silence, Adam said, "You know, I've liked you for a long time."

Oh no, red alarm again. Lily felt her face grow hot.

"Oh, really?" she choked.

"Yes, ever since we were in fourth year. But back then, you were with that-what was his name?"

"Caradoc Dearborn?"

"Yes, right. And after you two broke up... well I thought it was kind of tactless to ask you to go out with me after you had just broken up with your boyfriend. But when I could finally muster the courage to ask you out, you were already with-"

"Julian Fenwick," Lily said, remembering Benjy's older brother. She and Julian still got along well.

"Yeah. And now," he placed his hand under her chin, turning her face towards his, "and now, we're here..." His face came closer and closer to hers. "May I?" he mumbled. Lily didn't reply, she just closed her eyes, which was enough of an answer for him. She felt his lips touch hers, firstly soft, but then he deepened the kiss.

Lily didn't know how long they sat there. She only knew that suddenly, it was 10 p.m.

"Maybe," she mumbled between two kisses; "I should go to Potter and fetch my wand-"

"Or maybe," he replied, "we'll just stay here and-"

"But then, Potter will come sometime and catch us and I'll get even more detention."

Adam sighed. "All right, let's go."

***

Lily's detentions weren't as bad as she had feared. On Saturday, Adam hid in the cupboard in the DADA-room like the evening before and helped her with the cleaning.

It was Monday morning, and their first period, Defense Against the Dark Arts, was just over. Potter had tested her all the time, asking her very difficult questions. Fortunately, she had known the answers. Now she was standing in front of the classroom with Adam, holding hands. Just as she kissed him, she felt somebody grip her arm and drag her away from him.

"What do you think you're doing?" yelled the furious voice of James Potter.

"What?!" Lily yelled back. "There's no rule that says kissing during break is forbidden!"

He let go off her arm as though he had received an electric shock. He stared at her for a few moments as though he had never seen her before. Then he noticed a few second years who were staring at him and Lily open-mouthed.

"What are you waiting for?" he barked at them. "Get to your next class!"

"Uhm... we have Defense now, Professor," one of them said.

"Then get into the classroom!" he yelled.

"How? You're blocking the door, Professor," Lily said coolly. He stepped aside quickly, motioning for the second years to get in. He turned around to cast her one last look of pure contempt, then shut the door behind him.

Lily looked up at Adam.

"What the hell was that?"