The Diary

Chapter Seven - The Excuse

Disclaimer: Although the possibilities are intriguing, I do not own Harry Potter.

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You can count on me to mess it up
You can count on me to let you down again
And in time you'll see that I'm your only friend

"Next Time" - Barenaked Ladies

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At breakfast the next morning, James, Sirius, Remus and Peter were all recounting the previous day when Lily had discovered their prank.

"Potter!" Sirius yelled in a startlingly similar fashion to Lily, "What have you done this time?!" His comment sent the others into hysterics yet again.

"I'm glad you found it so amusing, Mr Black." Sirius was startled to find Professor McGonagall standing directly behind him. They all stopped laughing. "Mr Potter, you will serve your detention with Professor Slughorn tonight at eight o'clock sharp. Don't be late." Without another word, she swept off to the Head table.

"Bad luck on getting caught, James," Sirius said, helping himself to some toast.

James shrugged. "Well worth it for the look on Evans' warty face."

Sirius nodded in agreement. "Too true."

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"Come in, Mr Potter, come in!" Slughorn opened the door to the Potions dungeon, allowing James to enter. "M'boy, how are you? Been off getting into trouble, no doubt."

James forced a grin. "Of course, Professor."

Slughorn chuckled. "How many detentions have you had now?" He laughed again. "Don't answer that!"

James internally rolled his eyes. "So, what am I doing tonight, Professor?"

"Right to the point, then. Well, you'll be organizing the supply cupboard. As you can see," he gestured to the open cabinet, "it's not in the best of conditions."

Slughorn chuckled and headed over to his desk to correct papers. James repressed a groan and got to work; the cabinet was incredibly disorganized, and he needed to get out of there before Evans decided she fancied a chat.

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Damn damn damn! James raced through the castle as fast as he could. Detention had taken ages, as he'd been half done when one of the shelves had broken and ruined all of his hard work. Bloody shelf, making me late!

He shouted the password at the Fat Lady, earning himself a cheeky remark from her. Once inside, he wildly scanned the common room. It was empty, save for a few stragglers finishing up homework. Evans was nowhere in sight. Double damn! James flew up the stairs to his dormitory. Checking to make sure the others were asleep, he almost ripped his curtains while shutting them. He whipped out a quill and the journal from their hiding place and opened the book.

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Earlier that evening...

Lily was exhausted. She'd spent the morning finishing up her homework, then had rewarded herself with a book from the library. Not too long after she'd started enjoying herself, Emily had dragged her away to play a game of wizard chess. Neither of them was brilliant by any means, but they weren't terrible, either. It had been a good game, and Emily had defeated Lily. Her plans to sneak off to read more were thwarted when a second-year girl had asked for help with her Potions homework. Lily had acquiesced, and had spent the next two hours correcting the many mistakes. It was frustrating work.

Just as Lily was going to step out of the portrait, Adam and Matilda had pulled her back over to the fireplace with them. She'd finally been able to slip away an hour later to head up to the dormitory. She pulled out her diary from its hiding place and shut her curtains.

Hello again.

Lily waited, but nothing happened.

Hello?

She tried again, but there was still no response. She checked the previous pages. It was definitely the same diary, but why wasn't it writing back?

Are you there?

A few more minutes ticked by, and Lily began to worry. What do I do now? Determined that it would write back any minute now, Lily left the diary open and set it to the side. She grabbed her library book and began to read, periodically glancing over at the nearly empty page. It was getting late, though, and Lily soon fell asleep.

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Bloody hell! James had flipped to the next diary page, only to find the three lines signalling Evans' attempt to communicate. What would he tell her? Should he write something now, or wait until the next night? And why hadn't he figured this out earlier? He'd have to come up with a plausible lie to make up for his absences.

Not for the last time, James wondered if the diary was really worth all the stress it was causing.

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The following morning, Lily was disappointed to find no writing from the diary, but resolved to try again later.

When she arrived at Charms class, she sat down next to Emily in their usual seats.

"A very good morning to you, Lily," Emily said a little too cheerfully.

"What's the occasion?" Lily was suspicious, as she hadn't seen her friend at breakfast. "You don't like mornings in general, much less Mondays."

Emily grinned deviously. "I just might have a little something planned for today."

"Oh really? And what would this plan entail?"

"You will have to wait and find out, Lily dearest."

They didn't have a chance to further discuss it, though, as Professor Flitwick had started class. The class was practising Banishing Charms that day; typically, Lily was the first to master it.

Class went by uneventfully, which surprised Lily. Emily's comment had led her to believe something exciting would happen. She was almost disappointed.

There were only a few minutes left in class when Professor Flitwick remembered he had assigned an essay the previous week. The students began to filter up toward the desk to hand in the homework.

Lily's was one of the first on the desk, and she was heading back to her desk when she noticed that Emily was near the Marauders. They were too busy talking to each other while walking to the front of the room to notice her presence. Lily watched with anticipation as Emily quietly sent four identical spells at them before turning in her own scroll of parchment. Although Lily refused to let herself cast such spells, she didn't mind if Emily chose to practice her magic on the Marauders; it wasn't like they didn't deserve it.

Emily made her way back to Lily and winked at her. "We should be seeing the results of my work next Charms period."

Lily raised an eyebrow, but couldn't resist a faint smile. "Don't keep me in suspense, Emily, what'd you do to them now?"

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That night, Lily hesitated before placing her quill on the diary.

Hello.

Hello hello.

Lily smiled with relief. She wasn't going crazy after all.

So, where were you last night?

Straight to the point, eh?

What else?

I was out visiting a friend.

She was baffled.

You can do that?

Indeed we can, much like portraits.

So you can tell other diaries what I'm writing?

Lily began to panic; she was supposed to be able to write anything in her diary!

Well, technically, yes, but don't worry, your secrets are safe with me.

So what do you discuss with your friends? And how do you meet them?

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James was ready with an answer; he's spent all day refining his response.

How do paintings meet? By wandering around, of course.

I see.

And we talk about entries, in a manner of speaking, but it's more general. If a person is struggling with a certain problem, one diary might mention it without specifics to get advice for the writer.

That makes sense, I guess.

He sighed with relief - she'd bought it. The Fat Lady had given him the idea when she was missing after dinner, thus keeping him and the Marauders from entering the common room.

Anyways. What's new?

Well, I suppose it's worth mentioning that Emily got back at the Marauders. Again.

James' relief quickly turned into concern. He didn't remember anything out of the ordinary happening today, especially not from Emily Wood.

Well, she apparently changed their Charms essays to be about something other than the assignment.

He cursed out loud, thankful for the silencing charm he continually cast over his drapes to keep Peter's snoring from disrupting his sleep. Damn you, Wood!

What do the essays say now?

She wouldn't tell me, but I suspect they have nothing to do with Charms anymore.

James was certainly annoyed; the essay hadn't been difficult, but still. How had she done it without them noticing?

Wait, I thought you didn't want to talk about the Marauders anymore.

There was a noticeable pause before a response appeared.

I don't. I just thought I should keep you informed.

Ah. Well, please, keep me updated.

That I will.

So... Changing topics...

Yes, let's do that.

Hogsmeade?

Very funny, you are.

Tell me about it.

What's there to say?

I obviously don't know.

Do you want to know about the village itself? Or just about my love life?

Both?

Ha. I'll tell you about the village.

Very well...

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James shut the journal and hid it in his pillowcase. Hearing about Hogsmeade from Evans' point of view had been somewhat enlightening, but it was strange to think of visiting the village without a stop at Zonko's. Evans had barely mentioned it, besides to say that Emily was fond of the store. He and his friends had spent many a Galleon in that particular shop.

James extinguished his wand light and rolled over onto his side. He reconsidered the original plan; maybe he should put off the diary prank for a while longer. At least until the Emily business had been sorted out. Yes, Evans could help him and the others determine when they had succeeded. Plus, she had already proven useful in letting him know about Emily's plans. The essays would be easy enough to fix; he, Sirius, Peter and Remus could sneak into Flitwick's office and change them back. He couldn't help but smile as he drifted off to sleep; everything was turning out fine.