Wizarding Betrothal

Chapter 10: Lily Straddles the Fence

"You don't have to try and pretend like nothing happened, Lily." Laura showered Lily with advice as they sat down for breakfast. "Knowing Benji, I doubt he'll let you do that anyway."

"I just don't know what to say when I see him." It was easier to pretend nothing had happened.

"If something comes to mind that you want to say, then say it. If not, keep your mouth shut and smile."

"I wish my mouth and my brain were always that well connected."

"Morning everyone!" Dinah slid into a seat nearby, and her boyfriend, Chas Croaker, sat next to her. Looking over at them, Lily remembered what Benjamin had told her last night about how Dinah used to fancy James. Laura would get a kick out of that titbit, but they were too close to discuss it just yet.

"Charlie Valerian or Simon Ackerly," Lily whispered. Charlie snuck in the door and headed towards the end of the Gryffindor table.

"Simon," Laura answered without looking. "I doubt Charlie would do it." Poor Charlie; he was so shy around girls! If only all boys were that shy...it would prevent a lot of her problems.

"There's Scott! I'll be right back." Laura stood up and trotted over to greet her new boyfriend at the Ravenclaw table, leaving Lily to tackle her bacon.

A small ruddy owl landed in front of Lily's plate, and she looked up from her breakfast in surprise. Lily hardly ever got owls; most of her letters were delivered to the dormitory in the afternoon when the Muggle post arrived. The owl looked familiar somehow; who's was it? The letter was in a tight roll, which seemed to have been quite a feat considering how rumpled the parchment was - a corner even looked singed. Smoothing it out, her eyes jumped to the bottom of the page: it was from James.

Dear Lily,

I hope school and everything is going well. I thought you

Hi sugar! James has been staring at this blank parchment all morning (and I mean ALL morning,) so I'm coming to his rescue while he's distracted. Don't get me wrong when I say this, but for all his most excellent qualities, the chap's not much for letter writing. He'll rattle off about Lily-this and Lily-that all day and then, hand him a quill, and his first-rate brain turns to Pumpkin Juice! Don't fret your sweet head, though - me and Remus will get him trained up just fine! Why, before you know it you'll be reading top-notch love letters that'll have your sexy little toes tingling all night! Your friends will be green with envy! If any of them are looking for their own pen pal, you just send them my way.

Lily, This is James again. I'm really sorry about that! Sirius poured a jug of Pumpkin Juice over my head and then took over my letter when I left to clean up. I tried to throw it away and start over, but he said he would just get it out or rewrite it and send it anyway. He's weird enough to do it too, so here we are.

Anyway, I was thinking that you might want your own owl, and this one reminded me of you. She doesn't have a name yet, so you can call her whatever you want. I thought of calling her "Stinksap" because she's so sweet, but I'm sure you can come up with something better! I hope you like her. Take care, Lily.

James

Lily turned her attention back to the owl, who was drinking out of her goblet.

"I remember you, now," she cooed, stroking the owl's soft, reddish-brown feathers. "I met you in Eeylops a few weeks back." It was, in fact, the very owl over whom James and Lily had debated the sweetness of Stinksap. How did he ever remember?

Laura dropped back into her seat and was refilling her orange juice. "Who owled you?" she asked.

"James."

"I should have known; you're grinning like a first year in Honeydukes."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You never look that happy when you get a letter from that Mike boy, or from your mum."

"Shut-up, Laura. I'm smiling because James sent me this owl."

"I know. Like I said..."

"No! I mean he's giving me the owl itself. To keep. As a present!"

"Ooh! Really?" Laura immediately found the owl more interesting. "How sweet. She's really pretty too; he's got good taste!"

"He saw me admiring her at Eeylop's that day were in the Alley."

"What are you going to call her?"

James,

Thank you so much for the beautiful owl! She's wonderful! I named her Hadassah. She's too sweet to call Stinksap. And no, I still don't believe you that it's possible for Stinksap to be sweet.

On the other hand, I do believe you now about how much harder classes would be this year. I'm already drowning!

You might think this is kind of a weird question, but I was wondering who all knows about the whole betrothal thing. It's just that someone said something to me the other day that made me think he knew.

Tell Sirius that I didn't realise he was so turned on by my toes and that if he likes them so much he should get me some new sandals for Christmas. I'd like some brown strappy ones.

Lily

PS: Good luck against Puddlemere on Saturday. LE

PS2: Laura says she 'wouldn't mind a pen pal,' but please don't tell Sirius that - Laura's too boy crazy and plus he's too old for her. LE

Ever since Benjamin's profession of affection for Lily - and Lily's rejection of said affection - things had been a little awkward between them. Their friendship could probably have gotten back to normal if he would have dropped the subject, but he felt the peculiar urge to remind Lily of his fondness for her almost every day. It was like he had made a new-school-year's-resolution to do everything he could think of to get Lily to go out with him, and he wouldn't give up without one heck of a fight.

The main trouble was that Benjamin was so sweet about it, and Lily was beginning to feel sorely tempted by him - when she didn't feel annoyed anyway. Confusion was her new middle name.

"Hey gorgeous!"

"That's not my name, Benjamin."

"It should be! It fits you perfectly."

"Please stop it, Ben."

"I can't."

"Sure you can. Just put your mind to it."

"I'm not going to pretend that I don't like you, Lily. I tried that last year and it didn't exactly work."

"Then don't pretend. Just stop liking me."

"You say that like it's so easy!"

"Lots of people don't fancy me. It can't be that hard."

"Yeah, well...those people are crazy."

"Benjamin, please. You're making this really hard on me."

"If you would come along willingly, it wouldn't be so hard."

"I can't come along at all, Ben."

"That's not true, Lily. You can do whatever you want."

Dear Lily,

I'm glad you like Hadassah. That's a good name for her, by the way. And you never know about Stinksap. It could just taste better than Chocolate Frogs. Who knows, maybe you'll work up the nerve to give it a taste one day. We can try it together.

I'm going to ignore your comment about Sirius being too old for Laura. However, I still didn't tell him what she said about wanting a pen pal. He's too girl crazy. It was hard to keep your letter out of his hands. I did read him the part about your Christmas request though, and then I told him to stop looking at your toes.

So, you've started following the British and Irish League! That's really cool. I never realised you were so interested in Quidditch. We trounced Puddlemere, but our Seeker got injured, so we'll have to use a reservist for a few weeks. The Wasps are going to be tough.

None of the students at Hogwarts should know about our engagement without you telling them. Who is it that you think knows and what did he say? And don't ignore that question or I'll keep asking.

Love, James

Tap, tap, tap, tippity-tap, tap, tap, tippity-tap, tap - "Lily!"

Lily looked over at Laura who was firing a death glare in her direction.

"Can you stop with the tapping already?" Laura asked.

"Sorry." She wasn't really. Lily was agitated, and it was all the fault of the boy sitting next to her. Placing the tap-happy hand in her lap for safekeeping, Lily chanced a glimpse over at him; Benjamin appeared absorbed in his Potions essay. He wasn't really concentrating on Potions though, was he? Impossible!

Lily dipped her quill and glanced around the room. She hated the library; it was always so stinking quiet! How anybody could concentrate in that unnatural silence was beyond her.

Benjamin's quill was scratching again and Lily looked over to see him pause to flip to the next page. His fingers followed the text line by line, and Lily's hand burned as she remembered the way Benjamin had brushed it earlier when they entered the library. Lily knew he'd done it on purpose; it was no accident the way his fingers had briefly traced her palm and caressed her wrist. What had really caught her attention though, was that she could still feel it an hour later.

Tap, tap, tap, tippity-tap, tap...

"Lily!"

Dear James,

I'm still going to pass on the Stinksap. I think you're full of hot air.

I'm sorry to say that I only knew about your game against Puddlemere because there's a Gryffindor girl that is always talking about the Cannons. Actually, to be specific, she's always talking about you. She has a life size poster of you in the fourth-year dorm. Whenever I have to go in there it's always whistling and catcalling at me. You make a really annoying poster...you know that?

Anyway, I do happen to enjoy Quidditch very much. I'm sure I've told you that before. I go to every Hogwarts game. Only thing is I don't really understand it very well. I know about all of the positions and the scoring and everything, but there's a lot more to it that gets me lost. At games, people get all worked up about things that I don't notice. Sometimes I just cheer or boo when the rest of the Gryffindors do even though I'm not sure why. Matt was the only one who ever explained the game to me, and that was in-between the matches since he's our Seeker, plus he's a little too excitable during non-Gryffindor matches to speak coherently. Did that make sense? I think I need to find somebody sane to explain it during a game so I can see what they're talking about.

Matt's still trying to patch things up. I just tell him to get lost. My friend Benjamin has been pulling some pranks on him, but I'm trying to get him to stop. It's not Matt's fault he's an idiot. I think it's just stupid genes.

To answer your question, Regulus Black is the one that I think knows, and I'm not going to tell you what he said, so don't bother asking again. Also, Laura and I think we know why he was in St. Mungo's at the end of the summer. Are we right?

Lily

PS: Am I going to see you at Christmas break? I was wondering if I could have another ride on your motorcycle. Lily

"You can't be serious, Ben."

"Of course I am, Lily. I wouldn't joke about this."

"You can't!" It wasn't allowed. Benjamin was not supposed to ask her to be his girlfriend. She'd been rejecting him all term!

"Why not?"

Oh, how she wanted to tell him. And oh, how she couldn't bear to tell him. What would Benjamin do if he knew about James? A vicious battle had been waging in Lily's mind for months. It looked like it was starting to get bloody.

Lily hadn't even made up her mind about James yet, so how could she make up her mind about Benjamin? If she told Benjamin about the betrothal, he would definitely back off; but would he be so broken hearted that he'd back off too much and abandon their friendship? And then, what if she decided she didn't want James? Would Benjamin give her another chance? What if she decided she did want James? Then Benjamin's heart would be broken whether she told him or not. No matter what she did, somebody was going to hurt.

It was easier to keep her mouth shut and dodge the issue.

Dear Lily,

Regulus Black is NOT supposed to be talking you at all. If he does it again, please tell me right away. He's bad news and I don't want him bothering you. You're probably correct about the reason for his visit to St. Mungo's. Sirius does tend to get a little carried away sometimes, but he and Regulus covered a lot of issues that night and it wasn't pretty.

Sirius and I talked it over and we think we know how Regulus may have figured it out. He used to hang around us a lot when we were little, and he probably overheard at some point that I was betrothed to someone. When we paid him a visit, we didn't explain why we cared about you, but he probably put two and two together and realised that you're my fiancée. I know you still want to keep our relationship a secret and I don't think you need to worry about him telling anyone. He values his own hide too much to risk it.

On a more cheerful note: I see a lot of posters and I've never heard of one so obnoxious as the one you described! Please don't hold it against me! I told my friends about it when I got your letter and I think they're still laughing. I should have kept my mouth shut - I'm never going to hear the end of it.

My coach wants me to meet with a Ravenclaw Chaser named Orlan Mejia. He's a seventh year student that the scouts are trying to recruit for the team. Maybe I can arrange the meeting at Hogwarts after a Ravenclaw game. That way, we could go to the match together and I could explain as much QT (Quidditch Tactics) as you want. Just an idea - let me know what you think.

You can expect to see me during your holiday. I'll be glad to take you out on the bike any time you want. You'll need to really bundle up though - it's going to be cold.

I'm going to get you some Stinksap. We can both try it and then you'll see how right I am.

I miss you.

Love James

PS: That Benjamin kid sounds cool! I'd prank Matt too. JP

The air was cold and the sun was bright and two girls stretched themselves over a rock near the lake, hoping to catch a few straggling rays of the sun's warmth before winter set in with a vengeance. It was starting to feel like a lost cause.

"James Potter or Benji Summers?" Laura asked.

Ouch. That was a harsh one. Laura wasn't playing around.

Finally, Lily answered "Benji," and Laura looked over in shock, demanding an explanation. Laura clearly hadn't been expecting that.

"Benji looks at me like I'm the most beautiful woman in the world. James looks at me like I'm his favourite kid sister."

Laura nodded and looked back towards the sky. "Guys suck."

"Amen, sister." Truer words were never spoken.

Lily saw the clouds rolling in. "So much for sunshine."