Wizarding Betrothal

Chapter 5: You Are Everything

Lily found that cruising Diagon Alley on the back of a motorcycle was a rather bumpy experience. Lucky for her, James managed to go slow enough that the bumps did not distract her from the busy task of watching everything in sight.

A head of white blonde hair caught her attention and Lily smirked, leaning forward to whisper in James' ear. "Arch enemy at one o'clock!" She saw him look up, scanning the group of teenage girls near a storefront.

"Hey Marissa!" Lily called. The blonde turned, and Lily saw her eyes widen in surprise as she took in the image of Lily Evans...on a motorbike...with a very good-looking older guy. It was priceless.

"What was that?" James wondered after they had passed the girls.

"I happen to know that I look exceptionally cool at the moment. I was just making sure she noticed." She could feel James shake with silent laughter, choosing not to comment. They pulled up in front of Quality Quidditch Supplies and dismounted.

"Why'd they have to pass that stupid ordinance against flying in the Alley," Sirius complained. "These cobblestones are murdering my shocks." He dropped his kickstand and inspected his bike.

"You do realise," James said, "that the only reason they passed it was to stop you from racing through here like a bat out of hell."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Bunch of killjoys running this place!"

Lily had already been dragging James and Sirius up and down Diagon Alley for a couple of hours, collecting what she needed for her return to Hogwarts, and generally having a brilliant time shopping without her parents. While she didn't exactly need Quidditch supplies, the guys, predictably, wanted to stop by, and she was glad to oblige.

A crowd of young wizards were gawking at the latest model in broomsticks, while a pompous salesman explained the newest features to their fathers. Edging around them unnoticed, Lily worked her way to the back and started thumbing through a rack of slick Quidditch magazines.

Pulling out a copy of The Perfect Pitch, Lily practically choked. Splashed across the cover was the headline "Quidditch King Carries Cannons to Claim the Cup" along with a giant photo of none other than James Potter.

"So this is where you've been hiding." A deep voice sounded over Lily's shoulder, and she looked up.

James was frowning down at the magazine in her hands. He was still wearing his dark riding glasses and head-wrap. How could James possibly be a Quidditch professional, let alone a star player? Wouldn't she have known? Lily blinked and looked back at the cover; that was definitely James - corny smile and all.

"I didn't know." She turned her face back up to his.

"I know."

"You should've told me."

"Why?" He was amused, but Lily wasn't. She felt like an idiot.

"I don't know. You just...should have." He really should have told her. Wasn't he supposed to be trying to impress her or something?

"It never came up."

"Really James," Lily insisted, "why didn't you tell me?"

"You didn't ask."

White-hot embarrassment washed over her as Lily realised that she had, in fact, never even bothered to ask what kind of job he had.

"I'm sorry." She really was. Did she always act so self-centred?

"Don't worry about it." He tipped up her chin and pulled his dark glasses down so that he could look her in the eyes. "I kind of liked having a friend that I was sure didn't like me just for my Chasing. Doesn't happen every day, you know."

"I'm...are we friends?" she asked. It had never occurred to Lily that James considered her one of his friends. If she had ever stopped to think about it, she probably would have classified James as one of the 'cool adults' in her life...but as a friend?

His face fell. "I like to think so," he said. "I hope I'm not wrong."

They'd been hanging out during the summer and, come to think of it, they had shared several fairly deep chats. She laughed a lot when he was around, too. While she had never actually moved him, mentally speaking, into the 'friends' category of her mind, Lily had to admit that he fit all of the requirements. Would wonders never cease?

"I guess you're right. We are friends. I just hadn't really thought about it before."

James smiled and nodded towards the front of the store. "Come on, let's get out of here. We still need to hit the apothecary and the bookstore."

Lily allowed James to lead her on what he referred to as a 'quest for potion ingredients' while she wondered what other surprises her Quidditch playing 'friend' could be hiding.

Inside the apothecary, Lily placed her order and began wandering about the shop. It was creepy in there, and she felt goosebumps rise on her arms as she passed row after row of nauseating jars. She stopped to stare at what was probably the vilest sight she'd ever laid her eyes on. Something dark and lumpy was floating in a humongous jar of what looked like yellowish pus.

"That's disgusting!" Lily felt completely revolted; bile was starting to rise in her throat, but she still couldn't look away. She just stared, transfixed, as it pulsated. "What is it?"

"You really, really don't want to know! Trust me." That was a very familiar voice!

Spinning around to face him, Lily was enveloped in a hug.

"Matt! I didn't even see you!"

"I know," he said, taking her hand. "But you were so cute standing there, talking to a jar, I didn't want to interrupt."

"I wasn't talking to the jar."

"Okay." Matt rolled his eyes. "You were talking to the unknown object inside the jar."

"Eww! No, I wasn't talking to that either!"

"Who were you talking to then?" he asked, amused.

"Umm...myself?" Lily grinned up at him.

"Hmm...they say that's the first sign of insanity."

"Is it?" Lily smiled. "I thought it was a sign of genius."

"This must be Matt." James was marching over, offering a hand in greeting. Matt dropped Lily's hand to shake his, and James continued cheerily. "I've heard plenty about you already." What was James talking about? She never brought up Matt around him.

"Hey! You...you're James Potter!" Matt was perking up with the genuine excitement of a Quidditch addict.

"That's right." James had removed his sunglasses.

"I saw you at the World Cup last week! That was totally awesome the way you pulled off the..."

Entirely forgotten, Lily was becoming impatient. She hadn't seen Matt all summer and now he was ignoring her to talk about Quidditch. James probably did that on purpose, the little git.

Interrupting what was likely a riveting discussion on integrated Seeker/Chaser tactics, Lily grabbed Matt by the elbow, offered a firm "excuse us" to James, and dragged Matt away to another section of the apothecary that looked more private.

Matt had a dreamy smile on his face. "Did you see that? I was talking to James Potter. James Potter! He's only the best Chaser the league has ever seen! I was actually talking to him - hey, wait a minute! How do you know him?"

They were surrounded by shelves full of jarred eyeballs that all seemed to be watching them; Lily shuddered.

"Friend of the family," she replied.

"Really? That's so cool! Did you know that he..."

"Matt!" Lily couldn't take much more.

"What?"

She glanced nervously over her shoulder to see a jar of small yellowish eyes staring back.

"Can you stop with the Quidditch talk? Please?"

"I thought you liked Quidditch."

"I do, but I don't want to talk about it right now."

"What do you want to talk about?"

Didn't he notice those horrible red eyeballs next to his face, gawking at her?

"I missed you," Lily sighed.

"Aww, Lily, I missed you too," he answered, giving her another hug.

"Have you been having fun staying with your aunt in London?"

Matt shrugged. "It's okay. Gets kind of boring, though. I've ended up having a lot of time to wander around on my own."

"Really?" Wow. Her parents would light their hair on fire before they would let her roam London unsupervised!

"It was cool at first, but it gets pretty dull after a while. I did make a few new Muggle friends though. They're okay to hang out with."

Shiny black eyes were now peering up from a tiny jar at her elbow; Lily tried to shake the creepy feeling.

"I haven't had an owl from you in a while." Lily was hesitant to bring that up.

"I know. I'm sorry, there just wasn't really much to say."

Didn't he mention earlier to James that he had been to see the World Cup? Since when was the Quidditch World Cup 'not much' to Matt Corner? He was so lazy sometimes. Eyeballs watched as she shrugged off the thought.

"I've got a letter waiting to send you back with your owl," she said, "but you'll have to send him first. You know I don't have one."

"I can't wait to read it! I promise I'll write just as soon as I get home tonight."

Lily rubbed the back of her neck; something else was staring at her now.

"So, anything new been happening with you this summer?" Matt inquired.

"Nah. Same old thing. You know how it is," Lily answered, still rubbing her neck.

"Yeah. Look, I'm glad I got to see you Lily, but I have to get going. I've got to meet somebody in a few minutes. I'm really sorry."

"It's okay, my friends are waiting for me anyway."

"I'll see you in a couple of weeks then." Matt squeezed Lily's hand and turned to go.

"Bye." She watched as he disappeared around a shelf of extra large Salamander eyes, which were staring at her too.

"Stop looking at me like that!"

By the time Lily's order of potion ingredients was finally filled, she was feeling completely creeped-out by the whole shop. All of the ingredients were so gross; no wonder she was horrible in Potions.

"Where's James?"

Sirius was leaning against the doorframe, waiting for her. "Flourish and Blotts. He decided to duck out in time to miss the snog session."

"We weren't having a snog session!" she said a little too loudly as she followed him out onto the sidewalk.

Sirius didn't try to hide his broad grin. "Sure you weren't."

"We weren't! We never do that!" Oh dear. Did she just say that out loud?

"Never?" His eyebrow lifted in suspicion.

"Umm..." Not exactly a conversation she wanted to be having, Lily tried to work out a graceful escape.

"That's what I thought!" He smirked at her silence and began ambling down the street towards the bookstore.

"No! It's not what you thought."

"Then tell me how it is, sugar." Placing a long arm around her shoulders, Sirius stopped and looked at her expectantly. She wasn't getting out of it. The man had no mercy whatsoever.

"Well, we've, umm...kissed some, but not like what you're talking about." How embarrassing could a conversation possibly get?

"I see. You mean a little bit of puckering, but no tongue action, eh?" Did he have to say that out loud? She'd never talked so frankly with a guy about kissing and Lily thought her face was about to burn right off.

Seeing her discomfort, Sirius softened up a bit. "So, why not, sugar? He's got dragon breath or something?"

Lily giggled. "No, not really."

"Well?"

"Well...." Why did he care so much anyway? She couldn't bring herself to look at him. "I just didn't want to, okay?" That was true enough.

"Didn't want to?"

"That's right, I didn't want to." Is it so hard to believe? She looked at him at last.

"He's definitely not right for you," he said matter-of-factly.

"Excuse me?"

"Hate to break it to you," he said, tightening his grip on her shoulder, "but it's no good wasting your time with somebody that doesn't turn you on."

"I'm attracted to him!"

"Then why don't you want to snog him?"

Remembering the last few months of school, when Lily and Matt had started going out, Lily cringed. She knew precisely why she hadn't let Matt get very far in that particular area. Only her best friend knew that there was another guy at Hogwarts who enjoyed harassing Lily on the sly. He would make disgusting comments and try to touch her in nasty ways. Not having seen him in a couple of months had allowed Lily to put him out of her mind and begin to loosen up again, but for a while there, she hadn't been able to stand having any guys too close to her - not even Matt.

Lily was not, however, going to be telling Sirius any of that. It was definitely time for a subject change.

"I really don't want to talk about it." Straightforward and to the point.

"Fair enough." Sirius looked a bit startled, but decided not to push her any further. He dropped his arm from her shoulder.

Continuing their walk to Flourish and Blotts, Lily wanted to break the uncomfortable silence. "I remember you from Hogwarts." Lily had not intended to bring this up, but it was all she could think of on the fly, and it was much safer than the previous topic.

"Really?" He looked at her in surprise. "What year are you going into again?"

"Fifth. I was a first year when you were a seventh year."

"And you're a Gryffindor, right?"

She nodded, and they stopped at a corner to wait for a line of wagons to cross.

Sirius seemed to be racking his brain. "Did we ever talk to each other?"

"Once."

"When?"

"It's kind of embarrassing. I think I ticked you off one time." Stuffing her hands into her pockets, Lily started across the street.

"Aww, come on, sugar, tell me," he entreated. Following her, he reminded her of a child begging for a new toy.

Fidgeting with her fingers, Lily looked away. "There was this one time that I yelled at you when you were hexing a littler kid."

He looked at her for a moment, as if he was replaying the incident in his head, and then he broke out into laughter.

"I remember now! I was completely staggered when this fiery little Gryffindor squirt started chewing me out! That was you!" He seemed delighted.

The bookstore came into view on the other side of the street. Pausing under a window awning, Lily confessed the real reason she had been reluctant to remind him of the incident. "You looked so mad; I thought for sure you were going to murder me."

"Oh, I wouldn't go that far, but I probably was mad; I have a bit of a temper myself." Sirius chuckled. "I remember, though, that I was mostly embarrassed."

"Really? Why?" That was unexpected.

"Here I was, this big, bad seventh-year, and a cute, little firstie comes along and gives me the same telling off that I'd had from James the week before." He smiled, shaking his head. "Bit of a turning point for me, actually," he added.

"I barely remember James," Lily mused. "I don't think we ever spoke two words to each other."

"That was a rough year for James. Except for his Head Boy junk, he kept a pretty low profile."

James appeared on the sidewalk in front of Flourish and Blotts. Exiting the doorway, he sat on top of a crate against the wall, kicking his feet morosely. Lily and Sirius watched him for a moment in silence.

"You mean everything to him, you know," he said.

Lily shook head in unbelief. "James and I have only known each other for less than two months. How could he possibly be in love with me?"

"I didn't say he was in love with you," he corrected. "I said you mean everything to him." Sirius returned his gaze to James. "In fact, you are everything to him; his future, his happiness, his life...everything."

How could Lily Evans be everything to anybody, especially James? Sirius wasn't making any sense.

James finally noticed that Sirius and Lily were standing across the street. Seeing that they were Matt-free, he beckoned them over, a corny smile growing on his face.