James and Lily: A History

Chapter 8: Confrontations

Shivering despite wool scarves wrapped around their necks and soft mittens warming their hands, the Gryffindor and Slytherin students in Professor Icthius' N.E.W.T.-level Potions class waited impatiently while their teacher assigned them new seats for the remaining first term.

"Potter! Black! Right up in front of my desk," barked Professor Icthius, tapping his fingers on top of the two adjoining desks in the front row.

"Evans! DeGrasse! Over here, to the right in front, next to Potter and Black's table," pointed Professor Icthius sharply before moving onto the next set of students.

Hoping things changed for the better after the Death Eater Brigade fiasco, Lily gave Logan a small smile as she took the seat next to him but received nothing in return. Logan stared blankly at his desk, taking a pencil from his bag and making random etchings into the wood. Confused by Logan's refusal to acknowledge her, Lily decided to do the same and took out her potions textbook to start reading about their next elicit mixture--the Draught of the Living Death. Although they had studied the potion briefly before, it had never been part of the practical aspect until now.

Yet Lily could not concentrate, disturbed by Logan's behavior. Before he'd invited her into the forbidden forest, Logan at least greeted Lily, usually with an annoying wink or arrogant smirk that made her want to kick him in the shins. Now Logan was simply ignoring Lily completely, refusing to even look at her Lily couldn't resist shooting him concerned looks as Professor Icthius demonstrated the trickiest steps of the potion, yet Logan either stared blankly at the blackboard, or returned to his random doodling. Scum, Lily thought, upset. I was fooled. He tried to erase his guilty conscience but failed. He's back to his old self again.

Meanwhile, Lily felt a trickle of fear tickle her spine, and she turned around to see Bellatrix Black staring intently at her. It was a hungry look, as she licked her pale, thin lips slowly, refusing to look away. Gosh, Bellatrix is giving me the creeps again, Lily thought. What is up with all the Slytherins today? Realizing that Professor Icthius had been staring at her angrily for the past few minutes, Lily gave her undivided attention back to the potion and began taking notes on step four of the Draught of the Living Death.

James wasn't paying attention to Professor Icthius either. Actually, he was holding one of Dr. Filibuster's Fabulous Wet-Start, No Heat Fireworks, while Sirius clutched to a small vile of Forgetfulness Potion, a simple first year mixture. What would be the effect of throwing a Dr. Filibuster firework and a Forgetfulness potion into Professor Icthius' half-finished Draught of Death? Well, Sirius and James were about to find out.

Although James couldn't exactly reveal how he knew Lily hadn't been totaling patrol hours for Logan on Halloween night, he spent the past two and a half weeks until now asking how her Halloween night was with Logan. Unfortunately, he got many answers: 'fine,' 'bugger-off, Potter,' 'none-of-your-business, Potter,' 'do you have anything better to ask Potter?,' 'are you deaf Potter?,' and finally, 'Ask me again, and I'll hex you Potter.'

James decided not to press further. After all, Lily was rather handy with the Jellylegs Curse.

When Professor Icthius turned his back to the class to grab more ingredients with five minutes left in the period, James and Sirius threw the vile of Forgetfulness Potion and the Filibuster firework into the half-finished Draught. Immediately, a large ball of bright purple smoke exploded in the air, creating a stench of rotting eggs and spraying those in the line of fire with a chunky purple gunk. Ironically, the mixture didn't seem to have any negative effects, as James and Sirius were both sprayed with some amount on their heads. Bursting with laughter, James' hair had turned a bright blue, while Sirius' hair had turned a toxic pink, clashing with his black eyebrows and making him look very feminine. Over on the right hand side, Lily and Logan had ducked just in time, but unfortunately, the Slytherins sitting in the front on the left side were covered in purple gunk and had orange hair, including Severus Snape.

Despite the rather brilliant hilarity, James and Sirius both received two-week detentions and were ordered to leave the class first, leaving the remaining students behind to clean up.

"Padfoot, I love that pink hair, makes you look so cute and pretty! Maybe you should start giving your snogging girlfriends hair dye tips," laughed James, walking out of the dungeons to their dormitories to wash the (hopefully) temporary dye off. "But no one's hair was better than Snivelly's. His greasy, slimy head turned bright orange."

"That's true Prongs. But I like your hair too," said Sirius, pretending to scrutinize James' hair with a connoisseur's eye. "Yours is bright blue, very sporty--Kristen would like it very much."

"Well... actually--" started James.

"Hey, Potter!" interrupted Anthony Mitsu, a sixth year Ravenclaw who just walked out of Transfiguration. "What happened to the Quidditch schedules? Scared you might lose your Quidditch Cup to Murray? I don't doubt it; Murray's an excellent keeper who hasn't let any Chaser get pass him..."

Fuming with anger at being taunted again by a moronic-Ravenclaw-Murray worshiper, James took out his wand and muttered, "Petrificus Totalus," causing Anthony to turn rigid and fall flat on his back.

"Potter!" yelled Lily, stalking over to where James stood with his wand pointed at the flattened Anthony. "What the bloody hell are you doing?! No magic in the corridors! You know that! Ten points!"

"Yeah I do!" said James in indignation. "But he was taunting me about Madam Hew's mistake in putting us against Ravenclaw instead of Hufflepuff this weekend. It wasn't my mistake!"

"That's it?!" cried Lily, rolling her eyes. "You hexed Anthony just because of a little Quidditch joke? When will you stop hexing people in the corridors just because you can?"

"Evans, m'dear," said Sirius, smirking and putting his arm on Lily's shoulder. "There are many things in this life you understand, but one that you never will is a man's love for Quidditch."

Giving Sirius a disdainful look, Lily stomped away, too furious to look James in the eye and feeling slightly guilty at the same time.It seemed some people would never grow up.

It was a very uneventful day. Severus Snape took revenge the very first period after lunch, putting a hex on James' bag so it bit his hand whenever he reached for his books, and hexing Sirius' quill to release large splutters of ink. In the end, all three of them ended up in Madam Cox's office, all bruised and bloodied up with plenty of extra detentions.

Meanwhile, Lily ate even faster than usual at dinnertime, causing Alice, Roxy, Kristen, and Vivian to watch her suspiciously as she wolfed down her beef casserole and gulped down a glass of pumpkin juice.

"Whoa Lily, have to help Logan add up numbers again?" asked Alice innocently, who like James, didn't believe Lily's 'I tripped walking downstairs in the dark' excuse. She had been trying to get Lily to reveal why she woke up the morning after Halloween with bags under her eyes and several bleeding cuts and large bruises on her face and wrists. However, she'd thus far failed to extract anything.

"Nope, tutoring Murray's sister in Astronomy," snapped Lily. "Why are you picking on me anyways?" asked Lily unjustly. "You should ask Roxy why she didn't join us on our planned 'quadruple' date on Halloween."

"Because Nick isn't into dating with other couples," replied Roxy, her cheeks blushing pink. "He wanted to just walk around Hogsmeade and talk with me alone."

"Right Roxy," replied Lily, rolling her eyes and smirking. "Just kidding--I have to go, don't wait up for me--got patrol duty tonight," called back Lily, walking out of the Great Hall and almost bumping into Bellatrix. She stood like a dead zombie, sending Lily the same hungry glare, as though longing to taste her, eat her... or murder her.

The Gryffindor Quidditch team landed softly onto the squishy, slopping field and sprinted back into the Quidditch locker rooms to dry, each member longing to sit in front of the comforting fire in the common room. After James gathered his broom and his Quidditch robe, he saw Kristen waiting for him at the doorway.

"Got a few minutes, James?" she asked sweetly. Her long, wet, curly blonde hair was worn down. James noticed she was prettier with her hair tied up.

"Sure," said James. Unexpectedly, Kristen held out her hand for James to take, which he accepted with a strange feeling of awkwardness.

"Uhm, James... I had a really nice time at Hogsmeade with you. You're a really great guy, and it's wonderful to see you getting over Lily," replied Kristen, her eyes refusing to meet James' hazel eyes.

"Yeah, we could do it again," said James nicely, although he wasn't too sure what he was supposed to do in these situations, "Next Hogsmeade weekened?" Where's Sirius when you need him? Probably off snogging or lounging in front of the common room fire when he was supposed to get started on our Charms homework.

"Definitely... I really like you James," said Kristen, stopping outside the castle's oak doors to turn around and look at James, her cheeks pink. "I've always liked you."

"Really?" replied James, blushing a shade of crimson red. Wow, who would have thought all this time I was chasing Evans I had a secret admirer?

"Yeah, really," giggled Kristen, as she closed her eyes and leaned in close, rooting James to the spot. James really didn't know what to do, but he closed his eyes and leaned in at the same time. With mixed emotions fluttering in his stomach, James could see nothing.

Unfortunately, he also felt nothing.

"Lily! I'm so glad you're here," said Kyle, getting up from his seat to embrace Lily in a hug. "You know, for a couple, we do a really bad job of keeping in touch with each other."

"I know Kyle, I'm sorry," answered Lily pouting. "After the Quidditch match against Hufflepuff this weekend? Do you think we can get together?"

"Count on it," responded Kyle, giving Lily a brief kiss on the cheek before leaving. "I have to jet--late Quidditch practice. Have fun with Florel!"

Waving goodbye to Kyle as he exited the library, Lily sat down and took out her old, third-year Astronomy textbooks to help tutor Florel Murray on the planets and phases of the moon. However, Florel had more on her mind than Astronomy.

"Have you given my brother a real kiss yet?" asked Florel, her dark blue eyes shining with curiosity. "Kyle won't tell me, but you will, right Lily?"

Not wanting to start off the wrong foot with her boyfriend's sister, Lily blushed and replied, "Yeah, first Hogsmeade date, right before the feast. But, that's not what I'm here for. So what are you confused about in Astronomy?"

"Oh--but--but--how was it?" asked Florel, starring at Lily in amazement and grinning from ear to ear.

"Uhm... wet," replied Lily blushing. "Neither of us knew what we were doing. So back to Astronomy..."

After an hour and a half of tutoring, Florel was doing very well.She only had some minor problems with calculating angles of planets and their positions, and the phases of the moon. "Right, so there was a full moon on September the 20^th, the next one is October the 18^th, and this month--well there's a full moon tonight--."

Lily stopped abruptly in mid-sentence and pulled the moon chart towards her so she could see it clearly for herself. Her mouth became watery, and her palms glistened with sweat as she stared blankly at the paper, her hands trembling in shock. She didn't even notice when she dropped her quill on the ground, hoping her calculations were wrong. On every day there was a full moon, Remus was never there for his prefect duties--Visiting his mom, Lily thought bitterly, He's been lying to me all this time. Here's the proof.

"Are you okay Lily?" asked Florel cautiously. "You dropped your quill."

"Oh, th--thanks Florel," said Lily, taking the quill. "Well, you're all caught up in Astronomy now. I'm going to be late for patrol duty ...bye Florel."

Sprinting out the library and muttering a quick apology to Madam Bind, the librarian, Lily ran up to the Gryffindor common room. It was only half past seven, and the sky wasn't completely dark. On the bottom of the footsteps, Lily almost ran into Remus, stopping inches away from knocking him over.

"Lily! Is something wrong?" asked Remus surprised. "You look really pale..."

"Come with me Remus," grabbing him by the arm and pulling him down into the Transfiguration corridor into an empty classroom.

"You're a werewolf," spilled Lily in a sharp, hushed whisper as she shut the door behind her. Remus' face turned ghostly pale, his mouth hanging half-open.

"How did you know?" croaked Remus, although he wasn't entirely surprised as James, Sirius, and Peter had figured it out during their second year. "Severus has been asking me ages where I go every month during Defense Against the Dark Arts and even he hasn't figured it out yet! How did you know? Did someone--"

"Why didn't you tell me?" interrupted Lily, crossing her arms and glaring at Remus with her almond-green eyes shining with tears. "I--I thought I was your friend Remus. I--I thought you trusted me."

"I do Lily," answered Remus, stepping forward to try and calm Lily down as she bit back tears. "I do. But right now I have to head to Madam Cox's, or I'm in deep trouble with Dumbledore. I promise you I will talk to you later."

Leaving Lily stranded in the empty classroom, Remus escaped to the nurse's office to be taken to the Whomping Willow, carrying a heavy load of guilt. He doubted whether even the torture of transforming would make it disappear.

Trudging up the steps to the boys' dormitory, James couldn't believe what just happened. I just received my first kiss, and it wasn't from Evans. Holy Shite! It wasn't from Evans! Dropping his broomstick on the floor next to his trunk, James pulled off his wet, sticky T-shirt, unaware that Sirius and Peter were watching him, quite amused, from Sirius' bed the whole time.

"You kissed Kristen," squeaked Peter from Sirius' bed, and Peter and Sirius abruptly rolled around with laughter.

"How did you know?" glared James with his dry shirt on. "And Peter, next time, please don't scare me like that."

"The astonishment is written all over your face, Prongs," said Sirius, getting up to give James a brotherly hug. "I'm so proud of you! Ickle Prongsie got his first kiss."

"Bugger off, Sirius! It didn't mean anything!" replied James annoyed, pulling away. Sirius and Peter stepped back to give James space, not expecting James to react aggressively.

Sighing, Sirius knew what this meant. James is still hooked on Evans. That boy is seriously whipped. "Alright Prongs, how about a midnight adventure to take that off your mind? Full moon today."

"Let's go," said James impatiently, grabbing the invisibility cloak from the trunk and leading them out of the boys' dormitory and through the portrait hole.

Where the bloody hell is Logan? He's my patrol partner tonight, Lily thought, walking around the Defense Against the Dark Arts corridor to find him. I'm seriously reporting him this time if he's shirking out of his duty. It's almost eleven. Our patrol's almost over.

Sighing in disbelief, Lily decided to make her way back to the Heads' Room. She would write zero hours for Logan, and put in the three warnings to a couple of first years, who apparently idolized James and Sirius as rule-breakers. Shaking her head at the failure of future Hogwarts students, Lily unexpectedly found herself in a moving staircase, directing her towards an empty corridor.

"No problem," Lily muttered. "I'll just take another staircase leading me the way back."

"Oh... I don't think so Evans," slithered an icy, shrill voice that sent painful shivers down Lily's spine--Bellatrix Black.

"So Prongs, are you going to talk about it or not?" asked Padfoot cautiously under the invisibility cloak. "You know Peter and I--no, I--will drag it out of you."

"Okay fine. Yes, I kissed Kristen, but it wasn't like I really wanted to. She just kind of... came up to me, and I just froze. I didn't know what to do," responded James glumly. "I mean, it was nice and all, but I felt nothing."

"You still like Lily a lot, huh?" asked Peter thoughtfully.

"Yeah... I do..." admitted James gloomily as he stopped to take the Marauder's Map out of his pocket, ignoring Sirius shaking head.

Filch is in the trophy room--perfect. Icthius is in his office, and so is McGonagall. But wait-- James thought, his eyes scanning over an unknown corridor they had discovered at the end of their fifth year on the sixth floor. He saw the two dots, and his heart seriously skipped a beat this time--Bellatrix Black had Evans cornered.

"Do you know why you're here Evans?" hissed Bellatrix, her fathomless, hollow black eyes bulging from her face, staring straight at Lily without blinking.

"No," said Lily defiantly. "But I'm leaving."

"Oh, I don't think so," said Bellatrix deliciously. ""Look around. Why don't you greet your company? I've been waiting so long for this revenge Evans. You have absolutely no idea."

"What?" sputtered Lily in amazement. "You are seriously psychotic Bellatrix. If there's anyone who should be getting revenge, it's me."

"No, I'm afraid you're wrong," replied Bellatrix, walking towards Evans slowly and licking her thin, pale lips again--she has to stop doing that, Lily thought. "I know it was you at the Death Eater Brigade. Because of you, we can no longer have our meetings in the Forbidden Forest, chosen to resemble the actual meetings the Dark Lord holds. Unfortunately, because I knew our little cult was going to be leaked out to the teachers--who will surely abolish it and punish us unjustly--we can't have those meetings anymore. No problem, today was going to be our next meeting, and no teachers have caught us. And it will stay that way... even if I have to kill."

Slowly stepping back from Bellatrix, Lily felt a creeping, feverish chill through her limbs, numbing her joints as cold sweat pooled on her forehead, drenching her long bangs. Scanning different parts of the corridor, Lily found Bellatrix to be right--she was surrounded by future Death Eaters, Snape and Rosier on the right, while the Lestrange Brothers were on the left.

"You're insane," yelled Lily, "You're INSANE! I hate you! Why are you doing this to me? You're not human Bellatrix. You have no conscience. You have no feelings at all!"

Bellatrix stopped edging towards Lily, standing a few feet away from her. She sent a high, shrill laugh that echoed off the ceiling, causing Lily's hairs to stand up as she struggled to stay balanced on her feet.

"You're right Evans. I cannot feel anything. But let me show you how that makes me more powerful than you ever will be," hissed Bellatrix, taking out her wand and pointing it at Lily.

"Crucio!"

Bellatrix laughed with glee.

Lily had no time to hide. Hot knives pinched every single inch of her skin, causing her to fall to the floor and roll around in agony. Tears would not come. Every muscle tensed to the point of collapse. She couldn't control her violently shaking joints, or the pain paralyzing her spine. Lily held onto a glimmer of hope; in minutes, the curse was abruptly lifted. All that was left was a dull, subsiding pain and soreness in her muscles.

Arriving at the empty corridor on the sixth floor with Sirius and Peter panting to catch up, James felt his jaws drop when he saw the scene.

"Expelliarmus!" cried James, and Bellatrix's wand flew to his hands, breaking the Cruciatus Curse. Meanwhile, Sirius and Peter caught the four surrounding Slytherins off-guard and hexed them all with the full body bind, landing all of them flat on their backs, unable to talk or move.

"Bellatrix! What the bloody hell are you doing?" yelled Sirius, marching over to his cousin, filled with rage. "How dare you torment Evans?"

"FILTHY COUSIN! MUD-BLOOD SYMPATHIZER--"

"YEAH WELL AT LEAST I DON'T GO AROUND DREAMING ABOUT KILLING PEOPLE AND--"

"THE DARK LORD WILL RISE, AND YOU WILL REGRET NOT SIDING WITH YOUR FAMILY!"

"OUR FAMILY'S COMPLETE SCUM! THEY ARE NARROW-MINDED, BIGOTED--"

"YOUR MOTHER'S SO UNHAPPY WITH YOU, YOU HAVE NO IDEA YOU SELFISH LITTLE--"

"MY MOTHER'S A COMPLETE--"

Amidst all the raging, spitting, shouting, and cursing between Bellatrix and Sirius, James ran over to Lily and tried to comfort her. Although the Cruciatus Curse was lifted, she was wallowing in tears, and James could think of a thousand ways to comfort her, but not one that could make this horrendous night go away. He had dreamed of helping her pick up a book or a dropped pencil as a means of asking her on a date, but he never thought she'd be tortured by an Unforgivable Curse.

"Evans, Are you alright?" asked James in a deeper voice, hoping she would realize he had just saved her from the clutches of Bellatrix Black.

"I'm fine, Potter," replied Lily thickly as she wiped away her tears. The pain was fading away. Although Bellatrix's Cruciatus Curse was torture, James had arrived to rescue her. But how could he have known I was here? Lily thought, slowly coming to her senses as her vision became clearer and her tears dried. I didn't even know this corridor existed. She looked up to find James Potter looking concerned, as though scared to approach her in case she might start screaming in agony. "How did you know I was here? Did you follow me?"

"I didn't... well..." replied James stammering, unable to look at the tears pouring down Lily's almond-green eyes. "Yeah... that's right... I followed you." James sighed. It was the only thing he could say, as the truth would be more costly than the lie. Telling the truth would expose Remus' secret to Lily, the Marauder's Map, and the fact that there were three unregistered Animagi running around Hogwarts every night to create the map. James had solemnly swore along with his best friends he would forever keep these secrets safe, as revealing them would put the Marauders in serious trouble.

"Potter, thanks for saving me... but if you followed me, why did you wait?" asked Lily as James helped her up. Her strength was slowly returning.

James stared back blankly, unable to answer the question truthfully and unable to lie to Lily again.

"What is going on here?" yelled McGonagall who had just run up the staircase to the sixth floor with Dumbledore coming up behind her. Her eyes glared at Bellatrix and Sirius through her rectangular spectacles, as they were still fighting verbally. "Black and Black! Be quiet! Someone explain!"

Dumbledore surveyed the situation calmly through his half-moon spectacles and fixed his sharp, blue eyes on Lily Evans. Although Lily felt a gush of relief and calmness at Dumbledore's presence, his twinkling blue eyes saw right through her. She had a lot of explaining to do.

"Ms. Evans, would you kindly walk with me to my office please? Minerva, I trust you to take care of the rest of the students," said Dumbledore, turning around to return to his office. "Ms. Evans," he called before descending the stairs.

Ch. 8: