Standing Still

Special thanks to those who liked the first chapter so much that they found me on FF.net to read the rest. That means a lot to me! And as for the guesses concerning my FF.net penname, yes, einahpets is Stephanie backwards. (My name is Stephanie Jade.)

I'm more than a bird... I'm more than a plane
More than some pretty face beside a train
And it's not easy to be me

Standing Still 02
The Favor

Lily's third class, History of Magic, never failed to bore her to no end. That day, Binns was droning on and on about some goblin revolution or other and Lily was doodling in the margins of her parchment where she was supposed to be taking notes - supposed to being the operative phrase. Even if she wasn't paying attention, she couldn't fall asleep so every time she felt her eyes closing, she'd pinch herself on the arm. She'd pinched too hard a few times and now she had a reddish spot growing across her lightly freckled skin... at least she wasn't asleep.

“Could you tell us the answer, Miss Evans? In case you didn't hear the question, it was which goblin led the revolution of 1700?”

Lily was startled out of her daydream by the inquisitive voice of Professor Binns. “Um, of course,” she murmured, trying to look inconspicuously around the room for any sight of the answer, or anything that could trigger her memory. There was a light tap on Lily's arm from her left side and she looked down, grateful when she discovered the answer scrawled on her parchment in Juliet's loopy script. Lily told Binns the answer confidently.

“That's correct, but I believe I asked you, Miss Evans, not Miss Sinistra. Five points from Gryffindor.” He turned his back and picked up a piece of chalk, beginning to write questions on the board.

Lily sighed heavily, scribbled a quick “Thank You” on Juliet's parchment, and tried to pay attention to the incredibly boring lecture Binns was giving.

~*~

“Lily! You're not busy, are you?” Juliet was wearing a drippy smile on her face and the second Lily saw it, she knew Juliet wanted a favor. A voice in the back of her head was screaming at her, telling her to pretend she hadn't heard a word her friend had said to her. However, the kindness in her took over and Lily looked up at Juliet with interested, albeit worried, eyes.

“Oh, no. I was just trying to transfigure this damn pillow, but it's not working.” Lily sighed and waved her wand again, a few red-gold sparks emitting from the tip. The white pillow remained a white pillow, however, and Lily threw her wand violently to the floor. Transfiguration was her worst subject and she was barely pulling an eighty, which lowered her final average and class standings a great deal. Lily was not looking forward to her Transfiguration OWLs next year, needless to say.

“That's simple, Lily!” Juliet fished in her robes pocket and came up with her own wand. With a small wave and an incoherent mumbling of words, the pillow now sat in front of Lily as a cat. Juliet smiled proudly as she turned it back to a pillow and holstered her wand. “See? Simple!”

Lily frowned. “You're a whiz at Transfiguration, so of course it's simple to you. Me - well, I'm a different story. I'm more of a Charms kind of girl, most likely because Mr Ollivander told me my wand is good for Charms work. It's my best class.”

“All of your classes are your best classes.” Juliet sank down onto Lily's bed. “Anyway, are you willing to do me a huge favor that I will love you forever and ever if you do it?” The hope was shining so evidently in her eyes that Lily caved. Juliet had that effect on people.

“Sure, sure. What's the favor?” Lily had a sneaking suspicion that it had something to do with a certain sixth year named Sirius Black.

Lily's sneaking suspicion was soon proven when Juliet launched into the favor. “So if you could just talk to him and maybe put in a few good words for me... you know, tell him that I'm a nice girl, etcetera etcetera. Maybe then he'd ask me out!”

“Juliet...” Lily's voice trailed off as she gazed at her hopeful-looking friend. “Even if I did talk to him, what makes you think he'd listen to a fourth year like me? You know that he's got seventh year girls fawning all over him.”

“Are you saying that I'm no competition?” Juliet demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. “Lily Evans, if I remember correctly, I stood behind you one hundred and seventy percent - no, two hundred percent - when you liked Amos Diggory! I was there for you. I daresay that I got you together, so the least you could do is talk to Sirius for me. Mention my name or something, that's all I'm asking! Something completely inconspicuous! He won't realize a thing.”

“Oh, right. Sirius has fourth year girls who are otherwise invisible to him and his group of friends come up to him and nonchalantly strike up a conversation about her best friend every day. Totally inconspicuous.”

Juliet pursed her lips. “That was sarcasm, wasn't it?”

“Yes, it was.”

“Come on, Lily! Of course it's just like you said. He's the most sought-after guy in -” She was cut off by a rather unladylike snort from Lily.* “What, pray tell, is so funny?”

“'The most sought-after guy in school',” Lily repeated, snorting again. This time, she fell back against the pillow she'd been trying to transfigure and dissolved into a massive giggle attack. “Please, Juliet. That sounds like a line from some cheesy teenage romance/drama thing. In fact, I bet that's where you picked it up!”

Juliet shrugged. “Probably so,” she admitted. “It sounded like it fit, so you know. But will you?”

Juliet was basically groveling at Lily's feet. Although Lily really didn't want to have to approach a guy she knew only by name (and that was because of his and his friends' infamous reputations around Hogwarts as pranksters) to throw in a mention of Juliet, Lily would feel terribly guilty if she didn't. Just last night there had been an argument between the two friends, and they had went the rest of the night behaving frostily to each other before reconciling in the morning. Lily could only imagine the cold shoulder that Juliet would give her if she didn't agree.

“I'm not sure it's such a good idea,” Lily responded hesitantly, sitting up again. Changing the subject abruptly, Lily slid to the floor and began crawling around on her hands and knees, putting on a rather dramatic show of searching for her wand. “Where's that wand!?” she cried.

Juliet did not look impressed. “You're a terrible actress, Lily. Remember, that's my department. And you wand is right by my foot.” She kicked the ten and a quarter inch wand and it rolled over to Lily. “Will you?” Her voice had taken on a persisting tone, and Lily knew she wasn't going to give up without a fight.

“I don't know him and I'd feel strange going up to a complete stranger. You know about my shyness.”

“You conquered the majority of your shyness last year, Lily! And if you talked to him, you'd know him!” Juliet stood up on Lily's bed, causing Lily to let out a shriek (“Don't get dirt on my covers!”), and pumped her fist into the air. “Girl power, Evans! Girl power, girl power, girl power!”

Lily stood up and fought with Juliet but finally managed to get the girl to sit down again, leaving only a minimal amount of dirt from her chunky shoes on her bed. “If you're such a girl power activist, why don't you go talk to him and make yourself sound like a saint!”

“Because then it would be stupid,” Juliet said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “Lily, I will kiss your arse if you do this for me. Please.” She got down on her knees and clasped her hands together, looking up at Lily hopefully. “Please?”

Lily groaned. The puppy dog face Juliet always used to get her way would be Lily's downfall. She could never refuse it... she felt herself slipping away from her refusal until finally she said, in a strained voice, “All right, I'll do it.”

Instantly, Juliet flung herself at Lily, wrapping her into a very tight hug. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you!” she cried, jumping off the floor and allowing herself to hang from Lily's neck. “Oh, you're the bestest best friend a girl could ever ask for! I love you, Lily Evans!”

“I would love you too,” Lily wheezed, feeling her face turning blue, “but you're disrupting the flow of my respiratory tract.”

Juliet immediately let go and dropped to her feet on the ground, looking up at Lily with wide, happy eyes. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

“My breathing should return to normal within the hour,” Lily told her, only half-joking.

“Oh, you're such a laugh.” Juliet delivered what she thought was a soft punch to Lily's arm, but was told otherwise by the loud scream of pain Lily let out. Juliet apologized profusely for the rest of the night, at the end of which Lily had decided that a trip to the Hospital Wing would be a wise choice if she wanted to remain without any broken bones.