A/N: Yay! Another chapter! Hopefully more sweet and fluffy L/J to satisfy everyone.
*******
I didn't tell James right away about my discovery, or at least I wasn't planning to. I hardly spoke to him at all during Charms, I was too focused on my work. But Transfiguration had always been his favorite subject, so his head tended to swell even larger than normal during that period, and gave him more gall than ever.
"So Evans." He worked his way over to my desk while he was supposed to be transfiguring a rabbit. "Have fun last night?"
"Yeah. I did hall duty, then my homework, and then went to sleep. Exhilarating, huh?" There was no way that he knew I had seen the map. I had left it under the table, right where I found it.
"So you didn't find anything interesting in the Common Room after I left?" He lowered his voice to a whisper. "Because I left something really important there. And when I got back, it had moved."
I was a horrible liar, so I didn't even try. James always saw through me, anyway. "Fine. So I saw your stupid map. My question is, how many rules did you break to make it?"
He shrugged. "None, actually. It was completely legit. There's nothing wrong with practicing our charms privately in our dorms. So did you like it?"
How could I help it? It was a pretty extraordinary map. "The question is not whether I like it or not. It was impressive."
"Thanks." He strutted back to his seat as if we hadn't had any conversation at all, and nonchalantly transformed his rabbit into a black top hat.
"Potter!" McGonagall shouted. "You were supposed to turn it into a wizard's hat!"
He smiled. "Too late."
She tried to look angry, but the hat was too impressive to criticize. "Next time, try to stick by my guidelines." But she couldn't repress a smile. "Nice hat, though."
If our professor was impressed by the hat, I couldn't imagine what she would say if she saw the Marauders' Map. The hat was nice, of course, but nothing I couldn't do. On the other hand, I had no idea what kind of advanced magic the boys had put into the map.
And after all, there was the possibility that they were Anamagi.
If the map was impressive, that was nothing short of incredible.
*******
I didn't see Emily until lunch that day, and she rushed across the Great Hall to give me a hug and tell me something of great importance.
"LILY! LILY! LILY!"
I sighed. "Emily, Emily, Emily."
"You'll never guess what just happened!" The smile on her face made the "unguessable" all too obvious.
"What, Sirius asked you out?"
"HOW'D YOU GUESS?!?!"
I smiled. I was happy for her. "Emily, you've always had a knack for wearing your emotions on your sleeve."
"Fine, then." She tried to scowl playfully at me, but she was obviously too elated for even the tiniest bit of sarcasm. "Be a know-it-all."
"Since it's my trademark, it'd be so unfair to disappoint. But I couldn't be more happy for you. See, I was right!"
"Know-it-all. But I'm too happy to complain at this moment. I'll get you later. If you find a hex on you when you wake up in the morning, it'll be my retaliation."
"Okay. So where's the lucky guy?"
"Coming, I guess. We didn't have the same class last period."
"Well, what are you waiting for? Aren't you going to tell me every word he said?"
"Of course! So we were in Muggle Studies, and we were working on assembling a radio."
"Keep going."
"And he wanted to use his wand, and asked me to get it for him."
"Don't keep me waiting in suspense. Speed it up."
"So I went to get the wand, and as soon as I touched it, it turned into a bouquet of roses." Emily concluded with a blush that made her face indistinguishable from her hair.
"That is beyond sweet. Well, I guess you got the only guy worth having in this school."
"Come on! You're always so unfair to James!"
I smiled. "Forget about James. Sirius is here."
*******
Bellatrix watched from the shadows of the Slytherin Table. Her cousin had a girlfriend, and even though Emily wasn't a Muggle, her family would've been horrified to know. After all, Weasleys weren't exactly at the top of the wizarding social ladder.
Bella never thought about what her parents would think about James, and in truth, it wouldn't have mattered. She was always loyal to her family, of course, but up till now, there had been no reason not to be.
She had often thought of Rodulphus and his offer. Had she ever considered taking him up on it?
Maybe not yet, but she watched darkly as James patted Sirius on the back. Sirius was happy with his girlfriend; that was apparent. What if James decided to ask Lily out?
Bellatrix firmly decided that was never going to happen.
*******
Of course, Bella didn't know that James had already asked Lily out countless times, and unsuccessfully.
Nobody knew this better than James, and as he saw Sirius' happiness, he wished he could ask her, and that for once, she would accept. Of course, he was never lacking in courage (in this respect, James was a true Gryffindor). But why bother asking a question if you already know the answer?
And James knew exactly what the answer would be. Well, not exactly. It varied, actually. Sometimes, it was, "No." Other times, Lily would sigh in aggravation and turn away. Another common response was, "Not this again."
But unfortunately, all these responses meant the same thing, and James was hopeless.
And Lily wasn't the only one of his problems.
Arithmancy was as hard as always, and although Lily was a great tutor (and a very pretty one as well) he was having a pretty bad time of it. Hard as he tried, the numbers and symbols still meant very little to him. James had always been a hands-on kind of person, which was why he specialized in Transfiguration.
He was desperate, studying every evening. Sirius had even taught him an osmosis spell that would supposedly help him learn the content while sleeping on his textbook. Unfortunately, the only obvious result was a severe lack of sleep for James, since the book was extremely thick and hard, making a very uncomfortable pillow.
After all, what was he going to do if he failed his NEWT's? His dream of being an Auror would never be fulfilled.
His last problem was Quidditch. Perhaps that wasn't really a problem, but it was surely going to take up a lot of time. And it was the first day of practice.
******* ~Lily's POV
I changed into my new quidditch robes. They were a beautiful red, with gold trim. Too pretty for flying in, really.
I went into the girls' locker rooms. They were noticeably empty, because there were no other girls on the team. Don't get me wrong, it that Gryffindor was sexist about women on the team-they weren't, at least not compared to the other houses. And there had been a girl on the team this year, a Chaser, but she had gotten an injury which led to my placement on the team. So anyway, the locker rooms were empty, and I changed in peace.
Peace wasn't the word to describe the practice that followed. Since all the other players were guys, they fooled around and played rough with each other. Obviously, they weren't used to having a girl on the team. Sirius was a quintessential beater, always "accidentally" aiming the black ball at a teammate. He and James were constantly joking around in the air, playfully trying to knock each other off their brooms.
But James was all business when it came to training. After the initial chaos, he organized us into flying patterns, trying out moves and passes. I'd never played in anything so organized before, and it was wonderful.
Like James.
He was without a doubt the best player on the team, and he flew beautifully. I was completely in awe, watching him zoom across the field, so engrossed that I didn't notice when he deftly passed the quaffle to me.
He laughed as the ball slipped out of my hands and fell to the ground. "Daydreaming, Evans?"
I blushed with embarrassment. My first practice, and I was caught not paying attention. "Sorry."
"No prob. It's time to go on in, anyway. I wouldn't want to deprive you of your beauty sleep."
He descended to the ground and motioned for everyone else to follow. We were just in time, too, because a distraught Peter was writhing on the ground near the entrance of the pitch.
"Peter, what's wrong?" James and Sirius ran to his side. Peter barely gasped out, tears of humiliation running down his face, that Snape had given him the full Body-bind hex . . . or at least most of it. Only his head seemed able to move.
Cursing, James said the countercurse, and Peter jumped up, relieved.
"How long ago?" asked Sirius.
Peter responded in a more calm voice, "Just a minute. He went that way."
The two boys immediately ran in the direction of Peter's finger, and Peter followed, eager to see their revenge. I reluctantly trailed them. Who knows what mischief they were planning?
So I followed, wondering what rash act they were going to do next.
*******
Ooooh! My first cliffie!
How evil of me. I know, I'm an evil person . . . evil evil evil.
Anyway, I did this cliffie for an evil purpose. So here's the deal. I've got the conclusion for this chapter written already, and I'm ready to post it, the minute I get 10 reviews. However, if I don't get that many, I won't post until probably next (not this one) weekend, when I have the time.
So is it a deal? I know I'm evil, I'm just a desperate person trying to get reviews!
So forgive me, and review!
As usual, thanks to all my fabulous reviewers! Keep up the good work! And sorry for the long delay!
~hkitty