A/N: SORRY for the wait. Read ending authors note for excuses and grovelling
STEALING SHEEP
CHAPTER 12: Guarded Moments
Lily hurried down the corridor, her footsteps echoing along the labyrinthine passages and reminding her that she was alone. She could slow down now… She was all alone and had no one else to run from.
Where was she going? She had no idea- she just had to escape. After she'd groggily awoken from her slumber she'd jumped up and sprinted away from her enquiring friends. It was too weird. She wasn't in the right frame of mind to deal with warding off them and their worried questions. She was worried enough for them all. And frightened.
What did it all mean? This was the question that plagued her continuously, rolling around her mind night and day alongside the mental image of him. How she hated him. Of course, she was supposed to be indifferent to him but now she had been forced to feel something for him via those- those nightmares, she couldn't help hating him. She hated him for making her feel this way.
And that last dream…it was too much for her to handle. She- her- her dream self- had actually seduced him, for God's sake! And she'd loved every minute of it.
Lily knew of her reputation as the 'Ice Queen'- cliché as it was- and it was relatively accurate. On the outside she was cold, unfeeling, indifferent, but inside…well, she was just like everybody else. Ok, not just like everybody else- she was extremely cynical and as far from touchy-feely as a person could be.
She hated herself as well as him for it but…she'd really liked melting the façade. Her dream self had revelled in it, loved every heated second, luxuriated in having the power for once. Ok, so she had been tipsy but she was no where near as drunk as James had thought she was. She had been just inebriated enough to lose her fears and gain confidence. And she had wanted him, by God had she wanted him.
The present Lily paused to lean against a rough stone pillar to catch her breath and gulped as she remembered the pure lust that had rushed through her. It was an unfamiliar feeling that merely the memory of it took her breath away and she couldn't resist conjuring the mental image of the man who had turned into a quivering wreck.
Lily smiled as she recalled how scared he had been. James Potter, scared! She would've thought it impossible in the first place let alone her being the cause of it. She wasn't that threatening. But her forwardness had shook him and she had been absolutely thrilled that she could effect him so much. He had resisted with all that he had and yet it wasn't enough- he couldn't help himself around her.
For the first time she wondered if she could effect him like that now. If it were the future then surely he'd have some reaction to her in the present?
She blushed and continued down the corridor as she realised the direction of her thoughts, all the while mentally slapping herself. She didn't blush!! She was most definitely not the sort of person who blushed! And she was certainly not the sort of person who blushed at the thought of James Potter. Why did she even care what he thought about her?
Unbidden and unwelcome, came the image of James as he'd been in her dreams just before she'd woken up- smiling sleepily at her, the happiness and satisfaction evident on his face and the look of what appeared suspiciously enough like love shining in his eyes.
That was why she cared, even though she really really didn't want to.
Whether she liked it or not, for some reason he was important enough to her to be making recurring appearances in her dreams and she couldn't help smiling at how he'd been. Kind. Funny. Loving. Gorgeous. She really didn't want it to, but that dream version of Potter had somehow struck a cord in her and if that was really what he was going to turn into when he'd matured a bit…
Well, then it was worth holding in a few of her more cutting remarks and attempting to be a bit nicer to him.
Lily was dragged from her thoughts by a sudden shout from around the corner and she quickened her pace to investigate. She fully expected to see maybe a few first years in a scrap or a Slytherin bullying a Hufflepuff but the sight that greeted her eyes left her frozen in horror.
Lily had attempted to prepare herself for seeing him and the images that she just knew would be conjured up but when she first caught sight of him standing there yelling chocolate brands desperately at the stone Gargoyle it was like something had slammed into her, making her feel a hundred and one things at once. His presence alone made her instantly recollect the dreams and how she'd acted in them...
"Jupiter gums!"
Silence.
"Mars bar!"
Silence.
"Kit Kat!"
Silence.
"FIZZING WHIZBEES, FRUIT GUMS, LIQUORICE STICKS, JUMPING JELLYFISH.... JUST LET ME IN!!!" James screamed at the offending statue and slammed his fists against them in pure frustration, making Lily blink with surprise and horror at his mood. She had never seen him this agitated before- he must have dealt with the whole dreaming thing much much worse than she had and though she was loathe to admit it, it disturbed her quite a bit.
However, as he began dancing around shaking his hands in what rather looked like a tribal mating ritual but was actually a pain dance she burst into hysterical laughter.
At the sound of her giggles he immediately stopped prancing around trying to shake off the pounding agony and pushed his one good hand through his hair nervously, his back straightening automatically and a guarded expression sliding into place. "What do you want?" he snapped, while edging closer to his previous enemy, the stone Gargoyle, for protection.
The smile was wiped off of Lily's face as she realised that he was not going to co-operate; he was not going to make it at all easy for her to be nice. She found it difficult to be 'nice' at the best of times but, really, she couldn't be expected to be pleasant towards him when he acted like a flaming moron! She knew very well that he was just reacting to the dream and all the trauma of it but…It was just so tempting to explode at him and let out all her frustration/anger/confusion….
Lily smiled tightly. "Try 'Curly Wurly'." As the Gargoyle obligingly stepped aside, she swung around and strode away down the corridor, pushing herself to keep walking and not to turn and give him a piece of her mind as she longed to do. No. She was strong. She was in control of her actions and she was in control of her temper. He could be a rude imbecile if he so wished because she was above it all.
Except she wasn't above it all, she was silently fuming inside and she secretly longed to rip his stupid head off for talking to her like she was about to pounce on him.
Ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.
Dude, get a grip.
James was still completely freaked out. When he had left the other Marauders he'd been calm and extremely determined to do what needed to be done. Dumbledore would know what to do and he would make everything right again; he and Lily would go back to barely noticing the others existence and then he would sleep peacefully again. However, when he had reached the statue and it had refused him entrance he had started to get really pissed off. His cool exterior melted and suddenly he was screaming and stamping at the Gargoyle, letting out all his anger on the mostly inanimate object. WHY wouldn't it open? He was sure it was just pissing him off on purpose- it had that little smirk on its stone face that he was just aching to pummel. So he had attempted to get his revenge on it but then a thousand strands of pain had laced through his fist. It was just bad luck that she had happened upon him at that exact moment of weakness. And she had laughed! He had to be sharp with her because: a) he was still freaked out from the dream and just seeing her almost sent his body into nervous convulsions; b) he had just punched a stone statue in a moment of stupidity; and c) she had seen and apparently enjoyed the sight of him punching a stone statue in a moment of stupidity.
James sucked in a breath and had a crack at regaining his composure. He was calm now. Collected. Cool.
He sent that smug-looking Gargoyle another death glare and stepped onto the moving staircase that he had ascended so many times and before he knew it he was stood outside of the door reading 'Headmaster Dumbledore' in gold swirly writing.
"Come in, James," he heard the ever-so-familiar voice call.
He entered the impressive room at a confident stride and stopped directly before the Headmaster. If anyone would know what to do it was Dumbledore and he was positive that by the end of the meeting his problem would be solved and this time next week everyone would be able to simply look back on it, laugh nervously and change the subject.
"Professor, I have a really big problem…I need your help, Sir- See, it started last month…I don't know what to do- Its really distracting and it makes me go all funny in the knees and its just got to stop…its all her fault, I'm positive- but, Sir, you have to understand it was just disgusting and…just YUCK!" James exclaimed both passionately and inarticulately.
Dumbledore twinkled at him from under his spectacles. "And what, may I venture to ask, are you talking of, Mr Potter?"
James went quiet. It wasn't until the most inappropriate of moments, when stood in front of the Headmaster himself that he realised that telling a hundred-odd year old Professor about his sexual fantasies involving a fellow classmate was one of the most embarrassing things that he could ever wish to do. James flushed the colour of a lobster and mentally strangled himself for such stupidity. Tell Dumbledore about his pornographic dreams? No matter how groovy the old man was, he would still probably just think he was a normal perverted teenage boy, although maybe a bit more twisted than most because he apparently enjoyed sharing aforementioned sex fantasies with various members of the faculty.
"Erm…Thanks Professor for all your help…Couldn't wish for a better Headmaster, really…" James was extremely embarrassed at this point and edged towards the exit as quickly as he could without appearing like a complete loony who just randomly burst into peoples offices, spouted nonsense then ran back out again. "…Keep up the good work."
Oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
"So he has seen the visions," Dumbledore remarked calmly, while steepling his fingers and frowning into the shadows where he knew the stranger lurked.
"You didn't believe me."
The old man smiled. "I'm sorry to say that I'm not accustomed to being told that magic- powerful magic- is being performed directly underneath my nose and that I have been blissfully unaware of it all."
The unknown man stepped from the shadows that danced across the room and seated himself, allowing Dumbledore to make a proper appraisal of him. The man was obviously young, not more than twenty but there was something about him that suggested that he had faced more than a few horrors in his lifetime. Maybe it was the strange haunted, hollow look in his eyes, maybe it was the way that his mouth was permanently set in a grim line, or maybe it was the way he held himself, back straight, chin up as if he had faced the worst that the world had to offer and survived. "I'm sure there's nothing that you are unaware of, Professor."
"Ah, there are still a few million things that have eluded my grasp of understanding. It is my belief that everyone needs something to be confused about. Speaking of confusion I must admit that I am still baffled as to why you felt the need to inform me of your master plan, not that I am ungrateful for being updated on what is happening in my own school."
The stranger frowned and leaned forward in his seat, anxiously. "I need your help."
"Help? Why would you need my help? You seem to be perfectly capable of handling the situation without my input." Dumbledore glanced over the top of his spectacles and twinkled at the young man. "Lemon drop?" he offered.
A ghost of a smile flittered across the young man's face. "You haven't changed," he whispered to himself.
"Ah, so you know me, do you? Am I a terrible grouch in the future? I expect I've grown overly fond of knitting and have started a support group for traumatised frogs?"
The shadow slowly grew into a wide grin that lit up the man's face, chasing away all signs of a troubled past. "Something like that."
"And you want my help. All you have told me is that you are from the future and somehow have found a way to make two of my best students 'see' visions. What, may I enquire, is the point in the exercise?" Dumbledore raised his eyebrows questioningly.
The younger man smiled. "I can't tell you, Sir."
"Ah, I see." The Headmaster popped another Lemon Drop into his mouth and sucked on in thoughtfully. "The timeline cannot be broken and so you cannot tell me certain facts that may influence the future. Is there anything you can tell me? You name, for instance?"
The stranger opened his mouth to speak but caught himself before gingerly saying "I can't. Sorry."
"Oh, I understand perfectly well, dear boy."
The man clasped his hands together and stared at Dumbledore, seriously. "It's a matter of life and death, Professor."
"Life and death, eh? It all sounds very exciting," said the Headmaster merrily.
"Its not when its your life and death on the line." The raven haired man smiled grimly.
Dumbledore had taken a shine to the young man. He looked so sad and so put upon that it was almost impossible to remain unfeeling and the old man sensed a goodness about the boy. He had the feeling that in the future he knew him well but all he could do now was rely on his gut instinct. Dumbledore usually found himself quite an accurate judge of character, even though he said so himself, and he saw the man's darkened eyes and quiet way of speaking as a result of a lifetime of misery. The Headmaster wondered what horrors awaited in the future that would make so young a person seem like they had lived a thousand lifetimes and fought through all of them. Dumbledore mused on this foreboding thought as he stared at the stranger, vaguely trying to figure out what it was about the boy that was so familiar…
He dismissed the idea as simply the ponderings of an old coot starting to crack up and decided that he now liked the boy immensely, despite the amount of times he had flattered the old man with how oh-so-clever and all-knowing the Headmaster was. Dumbledore reached for the floral tea pot stationed on the desk and beamed. "Cup of tea?"
oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo
A/N: I know a lot of people have been waiting for this chapter so I thought I'd leave this a/n to the end.
I'm sorry. So so so so sorry.
In my defence a lot has happened in the past month and a half or so. First of all I had lots of exams and they were scary (passed though- 3 Bs out of 3!). Then I went on holiday 2 days after my last exam for 2 weeks. Then my granddad died a week after I came back so obviously I was really upset. Then I went away again for another week.
Ok, that was 3 weeks ago so I admit I have just kinda ignored it for a while. Writers block, what can I say? I knew exactly what was going to happen but I just couldn't seem to make it work on paper. The last scene took me about 2 weeks to write mainly because the characters were very very difficult to write but today I finally finished it! I'm so pleased! If it doesn't seem up to scratch its cos it was written over 2 months and was sooo difficult. I'm already starting the next chapter so I hope its easier to write.
My friend pointed out that the chocolates and sweets James yells at the gargoyle probably weren't around in the 70s but I just ignored her so if anyone is especially nit-picky I'm sorry.
To all those people who emailed me about continuing it, don't worry: THIS STORY WILL NOT BE DESERTED! I might take a while to update but I've spent too much creativity and time writing this to stop
By the way, if the end of this chapter didn't make much sense at the moment don't worry about it cos its not meant to. It gets explained better later on.
Just as a taster for chapter 13 I'll tell you a few hints:
- There may be a bit more between the stranger and DD. And you might find out what DD does to help. By the way, is it really really obvious who the stranger is? I think it is but if you don't get it don't worry cos you're not meant to fully at this point.
- Theres some sort of ride using a mode of transport not mentioned in any Harry Potter books (I think). And its v romantic. At least I think so. Can you guess?
-Lily and James come to terms with having the dreams a teensy weensy bit. And get a little closer.
-V random this one. Sirius in a Batman costume. Indulge me.
Catch you later dudes.