17 Going On 7

Chapter 8
Cloud Nine

Lily finally sat up, now straddling James on the couch. "Hmm..." she said thoughtfully. She looked over at Eliza, who was a pale green color, then over at James, who had his mouth open and his eyes closed. He finally opened his eyes and stared at her.

"Wh-what was that ... how did ... why did ... I thought ..." he sputtered.

Lily grinned. "Just testing." She sighed. "I must say, James, not too shabby." She picked her Muggle book off the table and skipped back into her room.

James looked up at Eliza, who now had tears welling in her eyes. "How could you?" she half hissed, half cried.

"How could I what?" James shot back. "I didn't do anything. Lily kissed me." James's eyes suddenly got wider. "Wait. Lily kissed me. Oh my damn! I have to go find Sirius ... and Remus ... and Peter ... and, oh, the girls are gonna love this one! I wonder if it was staged ... yeah, I bet it was ..." As James rambled on in his daze, he pulled on a cloak over his robes and rushed out of the common room.

"Argh!" Eliza cried helplessly. "James, you are so never having children!"

"Touch him and I'll kill you."

Eliza spun around to see Lily, standing in her doorway, grinning. "Wh-what?"

Lily took a few steps toward Eliza and pulled out her wand. "I believe you heard me. If you touch James, I will kill you."

"What's th-that supposed to mean?" Eliza whimpered.

"Merlin! I used to think dumb blonde jokes were just for fun, but I've been proved wrong yet again!"

"Lily, what's wrong with you? You're acting strange..." Eliza's voice shook as she spoke.

"Eliza, James does not like you. He's dating you to spite me. And I'm going to teach him a lesson." Lily grinned madly and examined her wand. "But you have to stay out of my way."

Eliza took a loud gulp, turned on her heel, and rushed out of the room. The second she was out of sight, Lily fell back on the couch and started giggling loudly.

***

Allie skipped into the Great Hall and plopped down in her seat next to Lily. "Lily Evans, you are a damned genius!" she cried, a little too loudly.

Lily grinned. "Oh, yesh, this I know. Has anybody seen James?"

Chloe shrugged. "I haven't seen any of the boys today. Probably a top secret Marauder meeting. You know, they do have meetings over things like that. Girls, kissing, you know ... things we just have sleepovers for."

Allie, Lily, and Mel nodded in agreement. "Yesh, guys are so low," agreed Mel.

"So, uh, Lil..." Allie grinned slyly. "Is James a good kisser?"

Lily's friends grinned in sheer enjoyment as Lily's face grew gradually redder. Like she really wanted to tell the whole world that she had enjoyed kissing James? "He's ... well, I mean, I caught him by surprise ... I mean, I didn't really ... I wasn't exactly ... I can't ... it's not a ... he was ... I'm sure you ... well, it's one of those things where ... I mean ..."

"It's okay Lily, we get it," Mel said in a bittersweet voice that Eliza would have used. Then the three girls burst into obnoxious laughter, causing Lily to turn so red and puff up with embarrassment so much that her head resembled some sort of crimson marshmallow.

It would be her luck that James Potter chose to enter the Hall at that very moment.

*** Meanwhile, with the other three Marauders ***

The second James left the common room, it was filled with shouts and cheers coming from Sirius, Remus, and Peter. "I am truly the greatest guy!" cried Sirius.

"Oh, we are genius!" gushed Remus.

"Genius!" repeated Peter.

After they calmed down, they sat down in chairs and on the couch and made a toast to Lily and James with butterbeer. "So, I'm putting down five galleons that James and Lily end up together after the ball," Sirius said matter-of-factly.

"Say, the ball is only four days away," sighed Remus. "We'll never get them to go together."

"Yeah, Eliza is so far shoved up poor Prongs' a-"

"No reason for cursing during a time for celebration!" interrupted Peter, grinning madly.

Sirius shook his head and laughed. "Wow, we are such geniuses."

"Well, we owe it all to Evans, really," Peter added in.

"True..." sighed Remus. "I just hate sharing the -"

"SIRIUS BLACK!" came a screechy voice. "SIRIUS BLACK! YOU - YOU WORM! I HATE YOU SO BAD RIGHT NOW!"

The only person who would use that lame phrase would be Lily Evans, who burst through the portrait hole that very minute and lunged herself at Sirius.

"Evans! Get - off - me! Lily! Damn it, Lily, my hair! Lily!"

"Oh, shut up, you dumb git!" Lily bellowed, but she was now laughing uncontrollably. Finally, she rolled over and went into a full-fledged giggle fit in the middle of the Gryffindor common room. A few people who had already gotten back from breakfast or had already gone were watching her, half scared and half amused.

Sirius shook his head. "What?"

"You sick pervert!" she screamed. "You had a whole meeting about one kiss?!"

Now everybody in the room had turned there attention to Lily, who seemed completely oblivious of the eyes on her.

"Oh, now Lils..." he sighed. Then he made a risky stab at a change of subject. "So, the experiment? What did you get from it?"

Lily rolled her eyes. "Honestly. He kissed me back with Eliza standing right there. He so hates her." Then she put her angry face back on. "Sirius, how could you?! Do you have any idea how embarrassing that is?!"

The three Marauders were now snickering, watching Lily's reaction with amusement. "Well, er ..." Sirius shook his head. "If you didn't read those damned Muggle psychology books, and believe them, you wouldn't be in this mess! It just so happens that James still likes you!"

Lily glared at Sirius, looking angry. But then a half-grin came to her lips. "You really think so?"

"Lily, he's on cloud nine right now," Remus said smoothly. "He's so in love with you that he feels bad for Eliza."

The half-grin turned to a 100-watt smile. "That's great. No ... that's perfect." She didn't see Sirius give Remus a high-five behind his back.

***

"Muggle psychology..." muttered Allie. "That's rich. Really rich."

Sirius grinned. "Oh, but I'm too good, aren't I? I mean, Lily bought it. Completely!"

"So, you think it worked in all the ways it was supposed to?" asked Allie quietly, absentmindedly flipping pages in a book. She was having a mini meeting with Sirius in the library.

"Mmm hmm..." muttered Sirius. "Aha! Found it!"

Allie looked up. "What?"

"Damn!"

"That was loud!" Allie shushed Sirius. "Okay, do we have all the ingredients?"

"Erm ... got it, got it, got it, can get it easily, and we're spent. Don't have this one." Sirius slid the book across the table to Allie.

"Hmm ..." she sighed and pushed her hair out of her face. "Okay, thinking ... aha! My Uncle William, he's brilliant with potions, and quite the prankster, too. I bet he has some. I'll owl him tonight."

Sirius nodded. "Okay, well, we need to get it as soon as possible. The quicker we get some of this to James and Lily, the better."

Allie grinned and looked at Sirius for a minute.

"What? Do I have something in my teeth? Did Prongs put another bushy eyebrow curse on me?" whined Sirius, covering his face.

Allie shook out of her daze. "No, no, sorry. I was just ... thinking."

Sirius slowly took his hands away from his face and stared at her. "You were thinking?"

"I was thinking..." Allie's famous evil smirk.

***

Avoid eye contact at all costs. Avoid eye contact at all costs. Avoid eye contact at all costs. Bah! This isn't working! Lily thought helplessly.

James was staring at her. No, she couldn't see him. But she could ... sort of like feel ... him glaring at her. And it was bugging the living hell out of her.

Sure, she'd kissed him. So, naturally, his mind had to be running wild right now, right? Well, that was understandable. But did he not realize that Lily was practically going insane right now, and that staring at her would do nothing but annoy the-

"James!" Lily cried helplessly. "Stop staring at me!"

"Hey, how did you know I was staring?" whined James.

"It's this ... like ..."

James glared at Lily and his eyes widened. "Oh, are you telepathic?"

Lily rolled her eyes, spun around, and glared back. "No, it's like a ... sixth sense. Please stop staring at me?"

"Yeah, okay," muttered James. He continued writing whatever he was writing on his parchment. Lily sighed, turned back around, and continued working.

It was only a matter of minutes before she could feel him staring again. "Damn it James, would you have a staring contest with the wall or something instead of my back?!" Lily cried.

"Would you talk to me instead of ignore me?!" James cried back, half mocking Lily.

Lily spun around. "What?"

"Why'd you kiss me?"

"I didn't kiss you!" Lily insisted. Oh damn, you idiot. You can't be in denial! That makes it even more obvious that you ... liked ... that you liked ... that kiss.

"Lily!" whined James. "Don't do that!"

"What? I'm not doing anything!" Damn it Lily, learn to just shut up!

"Lily, stop!"

"What am I doing?!"

"Fine!" yelled James. He stood up, sending his book and parchment flying off his lap. "If you're going to be like that, then don't bother talking to me at all!" He turned around and stomped out of the common room.

"James!" cried Lily. "Damn it, James! Don't leave!" I must not chase him. I must not chase him. I - oh, damn! I hate me right now! Lily pulled on her cloak and ran out the door after him. She knew exactly where he was going.