I Loved You More

Chapter #12

Lily's First Detention

"Look...She's with him, the tramp..."

"Yeah. What a tart..."

Lily was almost used to it now. Everyone loved to gossip about how she and Remus had broken off whatever they'd had after she spent a night locked in a classroom with two of his best friends. To add to their interest, she was now seen quite often with one of those two friends. She had endured the glares and whispers for the past two days and she was getting very good at pretending she didn't notice.

James, surprisingly, had made it all easier. He had made Tara see how ridiculous she'd been and people were afraid to insult Lily with him around. As for Remus, Lily didn't bother herself with him anymore. It was simple; he had abandoned her when she had needed him...and James had been there, despite the unwanted feeling he had always received.

Because of these straightforward facts, Lily permitted herself, though not exactly consciously, to open up to his friendship and James did not make her come to regret it. He was always able to say or do just the thing to amuse her; allowing her to forget about the gossip or how much work she had ahead of her.

However, Lily never actually stopped to contemplate this. Once James was welcome in her life, it felt like he had always been there, as if nothing had changed, and thoughts about how he was affecting her just never crossed her mind.

They were on their way to McGonagall's office for their first detentions. Sirius and Summer lagged behind a bit, laughing over something. James was chatting lightly about his plans for the Quidditch team and Lily was quite absorbed in what he was saying. No one would have been able to tell that she was heading toward something as unpleasant as her first detention.

They reached the door of her office. Lily stared at it. Suddenly it seemed dark and foreboding and she took a long unsteady breath. James peered sideways at her, giving her a smile and a wink. She exhaled deeply. Sirius and Summer caught up with them so James raised a hand and knocked on the door.

"Come in," came the severe voice of Professor McGonagall.

James opened the door and they all approached McGonagall who sitting behind her large, tediously-organized desk.

"Good evening," she said briskly, standing up. "You will be doing something useful for your detentions tonight. Mr. Black and Ms. Evans, you two will be helping Professor Sinistra tonight in the Astronomy tower. She prefers all her equipment to cleaned the muggle way. Mr. Potter and Ms. Blisse, you will be helping Professor Kettleburn on the grounds."

"Yes, professor," they answered mechanically.

"Don't keep them waiting," she ordered sternly.

They left her office and departed, Sirius and Lily toward the Astronomy tower and James and Summer to the Entrance Hall.

"This will be jolly good fun, I'm sure," declared Sirius dully.

"Oh well, what can you do?" replied Lily absently.

Professor Sinistra, a fresh, young teacher, smiled and gave them instructions on precisely how to clean the telescopes and models when they got to the Astronomy classroom in the tower. Then she left them to do their chore.

Lily delicately picked up a telescope from the closet and a rag and began wiping with a resigned sigh.

"You better start working or we're going to be here all night," Lily told Sirius who was pulling something out of his robes. "What are you doing?"

"I just want to see what Prongs and Blisse are stuck doing," said Sirius without looking up from what he was holding.

Lily then saw that the thing in his hands was a mirror. She put down the telescope and went to stand next to him so she could examine it closer.

"Why do you have a mirror?" Lily asked, raising her eyebrows at him, a slight smirk beginning to form on her face.

"Oh Evans, it's not what you're thinking...I don't need a mirror to tell me I'm gorgeous," assured Sirius. "Got plenty of girls handy to do that. This has more important purposes."

"What do you mean?" Lily asked skeptically.

"James," said Sirius.

Lily's expression changed from mystified to amazement as she watched Sirius' reflection vanish and James' face take its place.

"Padfoot!" he exclaimed jovially.

"Jimmy mate!" returned Sirius. "How's Kettleburn treating you?"

"He's making us move the Nogtail dung out of the pen with shovels," he grimaced. "But he left us alone..."

"Hey Lily! Isn't this mirror brilliant?" said Summer, whose face appeared next to James. "This is disgusting! You've got it easy."

"We have to clean about a hundred telescopes to that they're up to Sinistra's standard...Not that easy," said Lily, groaning.

"You mean you're really not going to use any magic?" asked James, looking at Sirius with surprise.

"She said we had to do it the muggle way-"

"Course we are! What, did you think I turned into a houselve?" Sirius cut into Lily's reply. "Aren't you?"

"Yeah! A few simple spells will do the trick. Then we kick back and relax until he comes back," said James airily.

"We are? But-" began Summer.

"-Yeah, yeah, we're not supposed to. So what? They should know by now not to tell us not to use magic then leave us alone to do the job," scoffed Sirius.

"Won't they know if we use magic?" asked Lily.

"Possibly. But they've never said anything to us before and how many times have we done this, Prongs?"

"At least fifty...They love thinking that they're making us do real labor," grinned James. "You girls are welcome to do it by hand if you really want to."

"But please, don't let me hear you complain about it," Sirius said pleadingly to Lily. Then he turned back to the mirror. "We've got to get to work then, Prongs. Have fun, you two."

"We will," James winked then he and Summer disappeared.

Sirius put the mirror down and pulled out his wand. He pointed to the telescopes lined up in boxes and said, "Scourgify!" Half of the boxes jumped up and shimmered, free of dust. Then Sirius went to the grimy shelves that held all the different models of the universe and made half of them sparkle with the cleaning spell. He lowered his wand and blew on the end agilely as though it were his weapon.

"I love magic!" he declared happily. "I've done my half of the work. Are you sure you want to do all yours with a rag?"

Lily hesitated but finally said, "Fine, do the spell."

"That's my clever girl," gushed Sirius, patting her head with a fatherly air.

Then he cleaned her half of the telescopes and models with two skilled flicks of his wand.

"Don't worry. They always say that they can tell the difference between the muggle way and magic- but, they never can," said Sirius, answering her doubtful expression. "Except maybe Dumbledore. James and I were told to clean the entire Great Hall without magic when we charmed all the plates to mash food into everyone's faces at dinner. Dumbledore came to inspect us and I'm almost certain he knew we'd used magic. He had this peculiar smile on his face and he kept going on and on about how fast we could clean."

"Oh yes, I remember when you did that. I got hot stew shoved into my face," said Lily coldly.

"Evans, Evans, Evans," Sirius said wearily, shaking his glossy black head. "It's no use to hold grudges, my dear. Besides, you have to admit...it was brilliant."

"I don't have to admit anything."

"Maybe not but facts are facts," he replied, heading for the door. "I'm going to get a little snack. Want to come?"

"And get five more detentions? Not a chance."

"Suit yourself. If she comes in to check on us, tell her I went to the loo and just take a rag and pretend to be busy cleaning."

He closed the door, leaving Lily all alone. She shook her head exasperatedly and sat down next to the closet with a telescope and rag ready in case Sinistra decided to pop in. She waited there for Sirius to come back until she got so bored she almost wished she had gone with him.

She stood up and looked around the room restlessly. The winding staircase that led to the roof in the corner of the room appealed to her boredom. Lily climbed it and stepped out onto the roof at the top of the tower. The cold winter wind pushed her hair away from her face as she walked to the edge and leaned against the wall, looking down across the grounds.

The sky around her was deep black, dappled with silver wisps of clouds. An enormous glowing moon, perfectly round and full, sailed through the haze above her. Lily watched it with awe.

Suddenly, a chilling noise sliced the silence of the night. It was an eerie howl, echoing loudly throughout the grounds. Lily abruptly stepped back from the edge and shivered. She dashed back inside and down the staircase. She returned to her position next to the telescope closet and went back to waiting for Sirius and feeling lonely.

Sirius' mirror, lying on a desk, caught the light of the great moon peeking through the window. Lily reached over and picked it up. She looked into the glass and spoke to it uncertainly.

"James."

James appeared in the mirror. For some reason, it eased Lily's nerved to see his face.

"Evans!" he exclaimed cheerfully. Then Summer's face moved in next to his. "How's detention going?"

"Everything's clean. What about you? Where are you?" she asked. From what she could see behind them, it looked like they didn't look like they were outside in the pen anymore. James appeared to be sitting comfortably in a wooden chair inside a fire lit room.

"Hagrid's. We moved all the dung with a quick spell then decided it was pointless to stay outside in the cold where it stinks," he explained.

Lily knew Hagrid as the big gamekeeper that lived in the hut on the grounds but she had only spoken politely to him on a few occasions.

"Does he know you're supposed to be in detention?" she asked tentatively.

"Sure he knows, don't you, Hagrid?" James looked up briefly from the mirror, apparently at Hagrid. "We told him the whole story and he says if you can do magic, you might as well use it. He won't tell anyone...Padfoot and I are his best mates. Speaking of, where is Padfoot?"

"He said he went to get a snack," Lily replied. "I don't know when he's getting back."

"Oh, so he left you all by yourself?" James asked with a sympathizing smile.

"Yes, but I wouldn't go with him. I can't imagine the amount of trouble we'd be in if we were caught," said Lily.

"If' being the keyword, Evans," said James with a mockingly wise expression on his face. "It would take you your whole life to consider all the 'ifs.' Then you would find yourself with no life and realize that it was all a waste and that you should have just gone and done whatever it was you were 'if-ing' about. Can you tell me where the sense is in that?"

"Very deep, Potter," Lily laughed.

"I thought so," James replied loftily. "Well, we'd better go."

"See you later, Lil," Summer said.

"Okay," Lily answered, and the next moment she was staring at her own reflection.

Lily placed the mirror on the floor next to her and sighed. After a few minutes of agitated waiting, she heard footsteps climbing up the tower stairs and approaching the door. She snatched up the precaution telescope and started wiping it nervously.

"I'm BACK!" announced Sirius very loudly and very suddenly as he thrust the door open violently. Lily jumped up skittishly, banging her head on the corner of a nearby desk. She groaned in pain and frustration and put a hand wearily to her forehead in an effort to gather her wits.

"Ouch," said Sirius unhelpfully, wincing at her clumsiness. "Did I frighten you? Sorry, darling. I brought you plenty of warm, gooey, pasties and a nice chess set I nicked from some first year. Are you any good?"

Lily's impulse was a delighted smile at the pasties and cakes he presented to her in a brown paper bag for her stomach was quite empty having used her dinnertime to get some homework done before detention. Then she remembered the badge pinned to her robes and she hastily rebuked his.

"You stole it from an innocent first year?" she demanded in her best horrified tone.

"I'll give it back to the kid. What do you think I am?" he asked, flashing her an are-you-crazy smile that she returned with a scornful look. "Don't answer that. Just think of it as borrowing without asking."

"Nah, it's easier just to say stealing," Lily smirked as he set up the chess board in between them and handed her a cake. "Oh, I'm rotten at this game."

"So am I, believe it or not. It's my only fault," he grinned. "Prongs and I still try to play just to make Moony mad. Chess is his forte and he gets so aggravated at how bad we are."

Lily occupied herself with taking a bite of her cake and gave no indication that she had heard any reference to Remus. The mere thought of him still infuriated her.

"I'm guessing chess is Potter's only fault too?" she said with a roll of her eyes.

"No...you should hear him sing!" Sirius said and Lily chuckled.

So there they sat on the floor of the Astronomy classroom, arguing over the rules of chess and stuffing their faces with pasties. If you had told Lily a week prior that this is where she would be and who she would be with, she would have told you you'd been drinking too much firewhiskey. Yet here she was, in detention and enjoying herself. Life can surprise you.

When they heard Professor Sinistra marching up the stairs hours later, they hastily hid the bag of cakes and chess set and pretended to be finishing up with their muggle dusting. Sinistra praised them on a job well done and dismissed them.

Lily, amazed and relieved, had wanted nothing more than to go to the comfort of the common room but Sirius dragged her off in the other direction. He led her outside where the moon made the snow shine radiantly and toward a little hut on the edge of the forest whose lights were gleaming cozily.

Sirius knocked on the gamekeeper's door and Lily stood next to him waiting and listening to the joyous laughter from inside.

The big door swung open and Hagrid came into view, smiling in welcome.

"Sirius! Come ter join us? Good, good, the more the merrier!" he said. "And who've yeh brought along?"

"I'm Lily Evans. Nice to meet you," Lily said shyly.

"So yer Lily Evans, eh? Heard plenty 'bout yeh! Top of yer class, Prefect, a Quidditch star...and beautiful ter boot!" Hagrid said, beaming.

Lily smiled blushingly and immediately saw how soft Hagrid truly was under his large, rather frightening appearance.

He beckoned them inside and Lily noticed him send a mysteriously approving look to James, who was sitting at a large table with Summer, as he closed the door.

"What would yeh like? Tea? Cake?" he asked them.

Tea's fine, thank you," replied Lily.

"Yeah, just tea, Ruby," Sirius said, sitting down next to Summer as Hagrid turned to get their tea ready. Lily took the chair next to James. "Don't you want any cake, Evans?" Sirius whispered with a devious air.

"I wasn't hungry. We ate all those-" Lily protested.

"No, Lil," Summer stopped her. "You made a good decision, trust me. I had some of Hagrid's cake because someone recommended it," she said quietly, glaring resentfully at James who shrugged innocently. "And I think I cracked a few teeth."

They laughed softly and Lily said, "Thanks for the warning, Sum."

"Here yeh are." Hagrid set two steaming teacups in front of Lily and Sirius and joined them at the table. "So, how's school goin' for yeh, Lily?"

"It's been okay. There's a lot of work and I go mad with all the stress sometimes. And er- lately had been sort of tough." Lily surprised herself at how openly she answered. She had never felt so comfortable around an adult so soon after she had met them and her troubling truth just spilled out before she could stop it.

"Remus is being a prat to her about this whole thing," offered James and it was clear that Hagrid had heard the story of the night in the classroom.

Hagrid smiled kindly at her, his twinkling beady eyes full of sympathy.

"Really?" he asked, sounding surprised about Remus. "Ah well, not ter worry. He'll come around. Remus is a sensible lad."

"Maybe, but he's been acting like such an idiot," sighed Lily, taking a sip of her tea. Then she yawned widely. "I'm just so stressed out...I have so much work to do and I won't have any time to do it with all these detentions and my Transfiguration marks are starting to suffer...I'm sorry. I must sound so whiny. It's been a crazy couple of days."

"Nonsense. Yer holdin' up well. Yeh've got a lot on yer shoulders...enough ter get ter anyone," said Hagrid. "Just keep yer friends close ter yeh. Best advice I've got."

Hagrid caught her eyes and smiled a smile that made her accept his words as facts without question.

Lily returned it readily, "Thanks."

Then Sirius inquired about Hagrid's latest expeditions and they were launched into a flow of stories about Hagrid's adventures as gamekeeper. Lily listened intently and found herself entranced, enjoying the peaceful time with a newfound friend. She had never imagined that Hagrid was so interesting and from his stories, she could see how caring he was, equal to all species.

"It's really late," said Summer regretfully as she checked her watch, breaking a brief silence. "We should go. Thanks so much, Hagrid."

"Yeah, thanks for the tea. And I'm really sorry we haven't gotten to know each other before this, Hagrid" said Lily, getting up from her chair. "I hope you won't mind me coming back to visit."

Hagrid was about to reply but a sharp rapping at the door distracted him. He opened the door to find none other than Professor McGonagall standing there, looking impatient and ever intimidating even with Hagrid towering over her.