Heading the School

Chapter Three

"And the proper wand movement for the....and then...this and that way...and-UUUAGH!" Lily threw her pencil across the room. The kitchen table was completely covered with school books and extra books that she had borrowed from the Hogwarts library for further reference. She was studying for the much feared 1st year Auror exam that would take place in the morning.

She looked across the room and glared at her pencil that had hit the glass door. Though it took no time to get there, it was so far away, and she had to continue with her studying. Then she turned to get her wand, but she found it on the other side of the table, just out of arm's reach. She let out a moan and ran her fingers through her hair, dropping her head to the table top.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and looked up to see her pencil in front of her face. She looked up and saw Petunia leering over her, trying hard not to look at the magic books in front of her. Lily took it and frowned.

"Are you guys back already?" she asked. Her mother and father, seeing that Lily needed some peace and quiet, had taken Petunia and Oliver to a movie.

"I decided not to go," Petunia said, sniffing. She walked to the refrigerator and took out the milk, pausing when she heard Lily sniffle. She turned her head lazily and found herself mildly concerned at her younger sister's quiet crying.

"I'm never going to pass this," Lily said, quietly. Petunia, who was never good at consoling people, but, nevertheless, felt sorry for her sister (just a tad), cleared her throat.

"W-Well, why don't you go over to your boyfriend's house?" she said, trying to keep the acidity in her voice, but failing miserably. Lily looked over to her and gave a small sniff.

"James?" she asked.

"Whoever it is that hangs off of you all the time," Petunia said, pouring herself a glass and walking into the living room. Lily ran her hands down the spine of her fire-proof book and allowed a small smile to creep into the corners of her mouth. After all, what was the point of having a boyfriend if you didn't use him for a little comforting now and then?

Without saying anything else, Lily Apparated to James' front hall. She looked around and didn't see anyone so she called out in a very timid voice, "J-James?"

She heard movement from the kitchen and suddenly felt very guilty at just popping in like this. James came out of the kitchen and looked at her, concerned.

"Lily, what's the matter?" he said, at her side in three steps. Lily suddenly felt very stupid and blushed a particular shade of red.

"Well, I mean....I just...I..." she trailed off and then looked down at her hands. "I needed a hug," she said, plainly. James stared at her oddly and then enveloped her in a very tight hug. Lily returned it and buried her head in his neck.

"James? What's going on?" Mrs. Potter said, coming in from the kitchen. James lifted his head and shrugged. Lily broke apart from him and cleared her throat.

"Was I interrupting dinner?" Lily asked. Mrs. Potter smiled.

"Don't worry about it, honey. What's the matter?"

"I feel rather silly about it now, but I think I just had a panic attack," Lily smiled. "It's just that test tomorrow and-"

Mrs. Potter put her hands up. "Say no more. It's no wonder more of you haven't had panic attacks. What with these horrible classes and the recent attacks on Muggles-"

Lily paled. "What attacks?"

Mrs. Potter stumbled a bit, as James threw her a dirty look. "Er, well...there have been some recent attacks on Muggles, that's all honey. Nothing new." Lily, however, still didn't look convinced. So, Mrs. Potter decided to change the subject. "Come now, I've got a giant chocolate cake that's just waiting to be cut."

The only sound in front of the Ministry of Magic testing facilities was the sound of James' foot tapping madly on the ground. Sirius, the only other person there, was trying to sleep rather uncomfortably next to him. When that failed, he opened his eyes and looked at the clock dirtily.

"Remind me, again, why did you have to be here at 8 in the morning when the test isn't until 9:30?"

"I'm worried about Lily," James said. Sirius grumbled and rolled his eyes. "She had a panic attack. It's not as if she's threatened suicide or something," he said. "We're the only bloody people here!"

James just sighed and jiggled his leg even more fervently now. The clock on the wall said 8:45 and he was sure that Lily would be here early. He wanted to have enough time to give her some moral support.

"Speaking of Lily-"

"When do you not speak of Lily?" Sirius rolled his eyes. James didn't hear him.

"-did you notice how different she was yesterday?"

"How so?" Sirius turned his head to look at his friend lazily.

"She was....really grabby," James ran his hands through his hair.

"And this is different...how?"

"I mean, when we're with other people, she's usually very distant, but last night, even in front of my parents, she let me hold her and everything..."

Sirius nodded and cleared his throat. "Did it ever occur to you that maybe she wouldn't be so ‘weird about it' if you let her be in control of the hand holding and whatnot?"

James' brows knitted together in confusion. "I don't understand."

"Some girls," Sirius explained, "are very weird about the whole ‘touchy-feely' department in public. They don't respond well to guys who put their hands all over them while other people are watching. Lily's never had a boyfriend, am I correct?"

James nodded. Sirius shrugged.

"It's elementary then, she's just a bit nervous."

"So why was she so different last night?"

"Most likely, her want for comfort was exceeding her nervousness of you touching her." James stared at Sirius in awe.

"How on earth do you know all of this?" he asked, astonished. Sirius buffed his shirt a bit and shrugged very nonchalantly.

"I'm a man of women, Prongs," he boasted. He was about to continue, but Remus appeared in the hallway, very surprised to see them there.

"And here I thought I'd see you waltzing in an hour after the test had begun," he sat down next to Sirius.

"Lover boy here wanted to make sure his girlfriend was all right. She came over crying last night." At the worried look on Remus' face, Sirius shook his head. "You don't want to know."

As the minutes ticked by, more and more people arrived. Oddly enough, there were about 10 witches and wizards that they had never seen.

"Who are those people?" James asked. Remus looked up from the book he was reading and narrowed his eyes in thought.

"They're probably the other Auror candidates," Remus finally said. "You know we're going to be taking our classes with them from now on, right?"

"Who's that with Frank?" Sirius asked, sitting up a bit. There was a blonde woman with a beautiful round face who was walking hand-in-hand with Frank. They stopped in a little secluded corner and Sirius could see a diamond ring shining off of her finger as Frank kissed her hand. He resumed his previous position and cocked his head. "Oh yeah, Frank got married, didn't he?"

James nodded absent-mindedly as he kept his eyes glued on the hallway. Finally, he saw a flash of red and jumped out of his seat completely, rushing to meet her. She had arrived alongside Emmeline, who moved away as James nearly bowled Lily over, but stopped just before he touched her.

"Good morning to you, too," Lily laughed stepping back a bit. James was relieved to see her in such good spirits. She waved Emmeline off as she headed over in the direction of the other three Marauders.

"Are you all right?" James asked.

Lily nodded and smiled at him. "Were you here waiting for me?" James made a jerky movement to stop himself from touching her.

"Yeah," he grinned. Lily looked down at the ground.

"Are you ok?" James' head shot up.

"Why do you ask?"

"Well, you usually greet me with a hug or a kiss or something," Lily blushed. James slid his hands onto her hips and smiled.

"Well, I've realized that I may be moving a bit too fast for you so I wanted you to initiate the-"

"Remus?" Lily was looking past him.

"No, it was not Remus!" James sputtered.

"Sirius, then?" James deflated and nodded. Lily grinned and put her hands on his chest.

"Sounds better coming from you, though," she smiled, allowing her to fall into a big hug from James. Even though she had calmed down a lot from last night, this comforting hug was enough to obliterate any jitters that she had.

"Pardon me," Bartemous Crouch stepped out of the classroom and had a piece of parchment with him.

And the jitters were back.

Lily moved out of James' arms but took his hand firmly in hers. Crouch cleared his throat and swept his eyes over the Auror trainees. "Please come with me inside for the written portion of the exam."

As the eight from the Hogwarts class walked inside, Frank gave them all a thumbs-up from his perch waiting for his wife to come back out.

"I am SO GLAD that's over," Sirius stretched. He was the only one who seemed to be in good spirits, as everyone else was anxiously awaiting the results of the test. He walked over to where Lily and James were staring at the floor in anxious nervousness and plopped in-between them. "Hey kids, it's only noon, how about we go to the beach? I hear Broadstairs is absolutely beautiful this time of year?"

Neither of them made any sound or movement to show that they had heard him.

"You people take this thing waaay to seriously. I mean, I heard that everyone passes their first- year exam. I thought it was easy enough-"

Crouch silenced all conversation as he tacked up a list on the wall. Like flies to honey, the group swarmed around. Several gasps came out of the crowd and five people walked away with a disappointed and angry look on their faces.

"Well, I guess I was wrong,"

Lily was nearly cutting off the circulation to James' hand when she edged closer to the list. She looked down the list and then she exhaled a giant sigh.

"I got in," she said. James wasn't listening to her, but he was comforting Peter.

"Look, mate. I'm sure that you'll find something else that you're good at, you know?" James said, patting him on the back. Peter's face was ashen and his eyes were glassy.

Lily turned to look at the scores on the list and noted that only eleven out of the twenty proceeded onto the next level. She was grateful that Emmeline, who was talking with another young woman, was also passed on, and that Frank's wife had proceeded on as well. She felt a tugging on her hand and turned to follow James who was walking away with the rest of his group.

"Let's go to the beach, Wormtail! I'm sure that'll cheer you up!" Sirius clapped him on the back. "Maybe we can find you a girl, and some Firewhiskey-"

"Sirius..." Lily glared at him, bumping into the back of James who had stopped. They were watching Remus have a conversation with a black-haired man who was regarding him tersely.

"...passed my test."

"That's good, son," he replied. "I'm afraid that I won't be home until later on tonight, so be good and tell your mother that-"

"It's not until the 29th, Father," Remus said, very coldly.

Mr. Lupin gave a nervous laugh. "I'm not avoiding that Son. Things at work just come up-"

"What a coincidence that they always come up during that time, isn't it?" he continued walking, not saying anything more. James finally let go of Lily's hand and ran after Remus, along with Sirius. Peter hung back, still dejected about his failing grade. Lily made the decision that Remus was a closer friend that Peter and ran after Sirius and James.

"Sirius, it's so beautiful here!" Lily grinned, adjusting her sunglasses on her face. They had spent the day of the exam comforting Peter, so the first day that they had free all summer was spent going to the beach. The seaside at Broadstairs was alive with the hustle and bustle of tourists and holiday-makers. Sirius bounded past her and threw his stuff on the sand, jumping, head-first into the water.

"This is what we should have been doing all summer!" he called out to them. James threw his stuff down next to Sirius' and jumped in after him. Remus, looking pale and peaky, spread his towel down next to their giant pile and walked calmly to the shore, wading in. Of course, this was before Sirius jumped on him, causing him to fall face-down into the water. Peter had been too dejected to join them on this day, so Lily was alone on the shore.

"Lily!" James called to her. "Come in!"

"I'll be there soon!" Lily called back, taking out a tube of suntan lotion and taking off her white shirt. She had wanted to wear a one-piece, but her mother, so enthralled that she finally had a boyfriend, had insisted that she wear a two-piece. So, in effect, she was very self-conscious of how she looked. She began rubbing lotion on her body, because she burnt very easily.

James stopped his horseplay with Sirius and Remus to glance at the shore, but never took his eyes away.

"Wow," he grinned stupidly, watching her rub lotion on her arms. Sirius let go of Remus' head and pushed James down into the water, causing a large splash.

"What'd you do that for?" James came up sputtering. Sirius leaned in close.

"James, it's not polite for a bloke to get a boner at the beach," Sirius' eyes darted downwards for a fraction of a second and James blushed.

"‘s not my fault that she's beautiful," James defended himself.

"What are you guys talking about?" Lily said, behind him. James turned around, sheepishly, glad that the water was more than waist high.

Sirius sniggered and slung his arm around Lily. "Nothing, Lily love. But I would say that you need to get out of the line of fire. We play rough."

"Ah, what a shame, Sirius," Lily stuck a leg out behind his knees and knocked him over. James laughed, but then got the wind knocked out of him when Remus emerged from the water and pushed him under. The two of them came out of the water, gave their two attackers dirty looks, and swam so far out that only the tips of their black hair, one long, one short and spiky, were visible.

"So, Remus, excited about school?" Lily said, keeping an eye out for Sirius and James, who were lurking a little dangerously.

Remus nodded a little uncertainly. "Any excuse to get to a place where people don't look at me different is a good excuse."

Lily cocked her head to the side. "Do they treat you different at home?"

"I'm sure you can deduce my father's attitude from the way that he acted yesterday," Remus said. Lily put her hand on his pale shoulder.

"I'm sorry, Remus," she said. "When is it?"

"The 29th," he said.

"Are you going to be all right?"

"With those two around, I always am," Remus smiled. "They don't treat me different, but they are very sympathetic to me when I'm ill."

"I don't think of you any differently, Remus," Lily said. Remus looked at her and grinned the most he'd grinned in a long while.

But all of that was short lived as Sirius and James emerged from the water and tackled them both underwater.