17 Going On 7

Chapter 2
Lil, You're Blushing!

Lily sat in the common room, staring blankly into the fire. It had been thirty minutes since she left the Prefects' meeting, and James still wasn't back. She could feel the familiar feeling of worry in her stomach but she refused to recognize it as that. She regarded it as anger and stress, nothing more.

Suddenly she heard the door slam behind her and turned around to see James coming in, looking fit to kill.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"No need to act like you care, Lily," he muttered, starting toward his room. Lily grabbed his arm and turned him around. "What?" he spat.

"James, what's wrong?" She'd never seen him like this.

"Lily, please, just leave me alone."

"James, no. Just tell me."

"You don't need to know," he yelled. Then he pulled his arm from her tight grip and walked into his room, slamming the door behind him.

Lily put her hand to her heart. It was pounding like mad, and after a few seconds she realized she was shaking. She took a deep breath to calm herself. She'd never seen James so ... angry. He was usually a pretty easy-going guy and didn't get a temper. She decided she'd go see Mel, Allie, and Chloe. So she took a few more calming breaths and then started toward the Gryffindor common room.

******

Lily walked into the common room to see that her three best friends were sitting by the fire, laughing about something. "They would be adorable together!" laughed Chloe, taking a drink of butterbeer.

"Guys," Mel got their attention, gesturing toward Lily.

"Oh, hey Lil," said Chloe. Then she noticed that Lily was shaking. "Lil, what's wrong?"

Lil walked over and sat down on a couch. "It's James. He's really mad about something, and he won't tell me what it is. But he yelled at me."

Her three friends all looked at each other and made a silent agreement not to acknowledge that she was calling him James. "Did he just ... walk out of his room and start yelling?"

Lily shook her head. "No. He stayed after the meeting because McGonagall wanted to talk to him. She looked really angry about something. He stayed for like thirty minutes, then he came in and slammed the door. He told me that I shouldn't ask because I don't care and to leave him alone. Then he went in his room and slammed his door."

After a few seconds of silence while everybody thought, Allie shrugged her shoulders and said, "Well, Sirius will know by tomorrow. We'll just ask him. Until then, you want to stay here tonight?"

Lily nodded. "Yeah. It's not like I think he's dangerous or something, but I'm just not comfortable around him when he's like that. I've never seen him so angry..."

******

Lily walked into the Great Hall, looking for a sign of James. She wanted to make sure he was okay after whatever had happened last night. He was sitting with Sirius, Remus, and Peter, looking very grim while talking about something. She took a deep breath and walked over to his spot at the table and sat down next to him. "Hey, Potter." She smiled. He looked over and grinned, then turned back to his friends. Sirius leaned over and whispered something in his ear.

"I know, Padfoot. I'll take care of it later." Sirius nodded, then winked at Lily and turned back to his food.

Lily waited for James to get done talking, but as he wasn't responding like usual and didn't seem like he would anytime soon, she decided to go sit with her friends.

"Did you talk to him?" Allie asked immediately.

"No," she said shortly, picking up a muffin and picking at it.

"Lily, we told you that the only way -"

"I talked to him, okay! He didn't talk to me!" She dropped the muffin on the table, muttered, "I'm not hungry," and walked out of the Great Hall.

"I swear, it's something in the air," said Chloe, shrugging. Mel picked off a piece of Lily's abandoned muffin and threw it at Chloe, laughing.

"Oh, shut up, you!"

******

Lily was walking quickly toward Transfiguration, not caring that she was over fifteen minutes early, when she heard somebody calling her name. I'm not in the mood, she thought, continuing toward class. "Lily! Please!" She knew that voice. She turned around to see James running toward her, pushing down a few innocent bystanders on his way.

She smiled. "Hey, Potter. I wanted to talk to you today at breakfast."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry about that," he said. "I was having a sort of ... mini meeting ... with the Marauders."

Lily nodded. "Oh. All right." Then she stopped dead in her tracks and turned to look at James. "What was wrong with you last night?"

James looked down. "Well, McGonagall said if I pulled any more pranks she would take away my badge. She said she already had Amos Diggory lined up for the job if I didn't watch myself."

Lily's eyes widened. "Wow. I mean ... you've had detention before, but taking away Head Boy!"

James nodded. "Yeah. I know. I was really mad. Sorry I snapped at you."

Lily smiled. "It's all right. I figured I'd leave you alone, so I went to the Gryffindor common room."

James glanced sideways at Lily. "Thanks for waiting up for me last night."

Lily stopped again and glared at him. "What! No I wasn't!"

"Lil, you're blushing!" He was grinning again like the normal James.

"I wasn't waiting for you! I was sympathizing with myself for being forced to dance with you!" She was blushing because, even though she wouldn't admit it to anybody - not even herself - she knew she had been waiting for James last night.

"Ah! Lily loves me!" James danced around her.

"Oh, sod off, Potter!" screamed Lily, running toward class. But James ran up behind her and wrapped his arms around her.

"I know you at least care about me," he whispered in her ear, sending a chill up and down her spine.

She turned around, his arms still around her waist. Her face was now only a few inches from his. "I care because I'm your friend, James. Not because I'm in love with you." She broke free of him and ran to class, turning just before she was out of sight and yelling, "See you in class, James!"

James stood, planted to the spot. She'd called him James, and she wasn't angry with him. No, this wasn't right. He was hearing things. James shook his head and went to go find the Marauders. If he wasn't aloud to cause disturbances, he'd just have to be discreet with his pranks. And he had thirteen minutes until he had to be in class.

******

Lily Evans had nothing against Professor Binns. In fact, he was a quite nice teacher. It was thanks to his droning and not knowing what was going on around him that Lily could take naps and pass notes.

Melanie tapped her on the shoulder and passed her a note. Lily grinned and took it from her.

Is everything okay with you and James? -Mel

Lily shook her head and stifled a laugh.

Everything is fine. He was just having a bad night. -Lil (PS - Please, please, PLEASE stop talking about us like we're a couple! "You and James"?!)

Mel actually did laugh out loud upon getting Lily's reply.

"Miss Jackson, is everything okay?"

"Oh, yes, everything is fine, Professor," Mel replied, suppressing another laugh. "It's just ... a ... erm ..." But thinking up a valid excuse for laughing out loud didn't matter, because Professor Binns had already continued with his lecture.

Wow, Lils, I didn't mean it like that! I think you have something on your mind. James? -Mel

Lily took the note and sighed. She thought for a second.

Well, here's the thing. I called him James - twice! And I didn't even realize it until I'd already gotten to class! He's gonna think I like him! -Lil

Oh, don't sweat it Lils. It's already obvious that you're starting to like him. -Allie

Hey Al! Is Chloe sleeping? -Lil

Oh, you quit trying to change the subject, Lillian Evans! Ignore sleeping beauty over there, she always sleeps through this class. ANYWAYS - YOU LOVE JAMES! It's okay, we understand. It's not his fault he's hotter than ... oh, what's hotter than fire? Well, we'll just say WAY WAY WAY hotter than fire! Hehe. -Allie

Aaah! shut it, you! I DON'T LIKE JAMES POTTER! He's arrogant! -Lil

Lil, he's starting to change for you and you know it. I mean, he was being civilized today. He didn't hex one single innocent person! -Mel

That's because McGonagall threatened to take his badge away if he did. So. There. He isn't changing for me. -Lil

If he did change for you? Would you love him? -Allie

I don't know. We'll cross that bridge when we come to it - IF we ever DO. I think he's hopeless! -Lil

The bell rang just as Mel was passing the note back to her, so Lily crumpled it up and threw it into the trash. She turned back and grinned at Allie and Mel, then ran out of the class before they could catch up with her to interrogate her.

******

Lily was lucky. Very lucky. Allie and Mel weren't in her next class, but Chloe was. Well, Chloe always slept through History of Magic, so she never got the notes and was pretty much clueless when they got to Potions.

And that's where Lily goes wrong and her luck runs out. Not just Potions. Double Potions. The perfect way to ruin a so-far-so-good day! The current teacher, Professor Holbins, was a complete ... well, he wasn't nice.

He was strict and moody, and favored the Slytherins (particularly Severus Snape). He was quick to hand out detentions to Gryffindors for even speaking a word wrong, but would simply turn the other cheek when a Slytherin would hex somebody in the corridors.

The Marauders and Chloe were in this class with Lily. Of course, the Marauders would always sit together, so Lily and Chloe paired up most of the time. Once in a while James would demand to pair up with Lily, claiming it had something to do with a Prefects meeting, but very rarely could he actually pull it off.

Chloe settled down next to Lily, still rubbing her eyes from her nap in History of Magic. "Are you awake, Miss McCain?" hissed Holbins.

"Yes, sir," she replied with a lopsided grin. James and Sirius snickered from behind her - they loved it when she did the 'lopsided grin', because it annoyed the hell out of Holbins.

"Alright! Settle down, Potter and Black, before you both land yourselves in a detention!" shouted Holbins, growing red. He was quite easily embarrassed, and it was usually a Marauder or one of the girls (meaning Lily, Allie, Mel, and Chloe - well, not so much Lily) who dared to pick on him. "Today we will be doing a quite difficult potion, called the Venomel Potion. Does anybody know what this potion is used for?"

A few people raised their hands. Lily did - she was a top student and was practically required - but it was obvious that Holbins wouldn't call on her. Instead he called on one of the pesky Slytherins.

"Venomel Potion is used to ... like ... I don't know, I guess heal cuts that have venom in them in some ... well, most, I guess ... snake bites ... I think," called Tracy Mathers.

"Excellent, Miss Mathers! Ten points for Slytherin!" The Gryffindors groaned at this. "Okay then, ten points from Gryffindor for ... groaning!"

James rolled his eyes and muttered, "As if we really care about the stupid House Cup."

Lily turned around and hissed, "I do, James! Both Head Boy and Head Girl are from Gryffindor this year, how do you think it'll look if we come in last place for the Cup?! Terrible, that's how!" Then she quickly turned back around.

James laughed at her reaction, but didn't say anything more.

Lily smiled and tried to listen to what Holbins was saying, but it was hard to do because she hated him.