Disclaimer: This story is based on characters and events from J.K. Rowling's wonderful Harry Potter books. I am writing this for my own enjoyment and hopefully for the enjoyment of readers. Anything you recognize belongs to JKR. The rest belongs to me.
Chapter 55: The Hogsmeade Date
The next month passed by with a few notable events. Lily's fourteenth birthday arrived and she celebrated with her friends. She was surprised to receive flowers that morning from Adam. She had not told him about her birthday and she wondered how he had found out. She suspected that Alice had told him and she wasn't sure if she should be annoyed or pleased. She hardly knew Adam and she felt a bit embarrassed by the grand gesture of receiving a dozen roses in front of everyone at breakfast. She glanced over at the Ravenclaw table and blushed as she saw Adam smiling at her. He stood up and approached her, sitting down next to her.
"Happy birthday!" he said.
Lily smiled and asked, "How did you find out?"
"A little bird told me," he said with a small grin.
"More like a little lion," she muttered, glancing at Alice Lyons. Alice noticed Lily's stare and she smiled innocently and winked back.
"Ready to go?" asked Adam. He had escorted her to her first class every morning for the past few weeks.
Lily nodded and started to gather her books but Adam swooped down and grabbed them, insisting on carrying her things. Lily smiled, thinking that he was rather sweet.
"Lily!" called Alice from behind her. Lily turned around and saw Alice smiling like a Cheshire cat. "Don't forget your flowers!"
"Oh!" exclaimed Lily as she hurried back to gather the large bouquet. As she turned to join Adam something made her glance down the table. She felt a tug at her stomach as she noticed James staring at her. His gaze shifted to Adam and darkened. 'Not good, not good, not good…' she thought. Feeling a nudge on her arm, she turned to see Adam's smiling face and followed him out of the Great Hall.
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"What's wrong, mate?" Sirius asked James.
James had been brooding since Lily had left the Great Hall with White. He shrugged and pushed his eggs around on his plate, not really hungry.
"Lily got roses from White for her birthday," said Remus.
James looked up, surprise written all over his face. "It's her birthday?!"
Remus held up his hand and said, "Whoa there, Prongs! I thought you knew."
James, with his elbows on the table, bent his head down and ran his hands through his hair. "No, I didn't."
"Really?" mused Sirius. "I thought you would know that since you're so obsessed with her and all."
James gave Sirius an irritated looked and said, "I am not obsessed with Evans."
The other three Marauders all stared at James, clearly in disbelief.
"Uh, Prongs," squeaked Peter, "if you're not obsessed with her, then why are you always looking at her, and why are you always scheming about ways to humiliate White?"
"Wormtail has a point," said Remus.
James clenched his jaw and looked away guiltily.
"Speaking of revenge plots," started Sirius, "what have you come up with?"
"I have a few ideas…" said James as he launched into some of the plans he had formulated.
Sirius chuckled saying, "That last one is really good. If you could pull that off…"
"It may be difficult, depending on who else is around. If it's crowded…" said Remus.
"Prongs'll be able to handle it," said Peter.
"It is my favorite idea," said James. "And the best part is he'll never see it coming and Evans'll never have to find out I did it. I still have to fine tune the details."
"We can talk about it after practice tonight," said Sirius. He had made the Gryffindor Quidditch team. He had by far outshone all the other contenders for the Beater position.
Carlton Wood was beyond thrilled to have Sirius on the team. This was his final year at Hogwarts and his final year as the team captain. He wanted to leave in a blaze of glory with 3 straight victories of the Quidditch Cup for Gryffindor. His frenzy to win drove him to schedule longer and more grueling practices. If the team did well enough, Carlton hoped to impress scouts for some of the professional Quidditch teams. He would be the eighth generation in his family to join professional Quidditch. Now, with two members on the team who owned Nimbus 1900 broomsticks, he felt optimistic about the Gryffindor team's chances of winning the cup.
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"Lily!"
Lily turned over and buried her face into her pillow, trying to hang onto the last bit of peaceful sleep before she would be forced to wake.
"Lily! Get up, you're gonna be late," hissed Marlene.
"Hmmmm," whined Lily into the pillow. "Can't you let me sleep for ten more minutes?"
"That's what you asked ten minutes ago," argued Marlene. "Now hurry up, the big day is today - Hogsmeade! Abel's gonna meet us in the entrance hall. I don't want to keep him waiting, and you shouldn't keep Adam waiting." Marlene grabbed a handful of Lily's covers and threw them off of her, causing Lily to shiver and groan in protest to the sudden rush of cool air on her skin.
"Fine, fine," croaked Lily in her morning 'wake-up' voice. She dragged herself out of bed and went through her morning rituals of preparing herself for the day. When she stepped out of the bathroom she noticed Marlene had placed some clothes on top of her bed. Lily rolled her eyes and said, "Am I your new doll now to dress as you wish?"
"Glad you're catching on," joked Marlene.
Lily walked to her bed and looked at the choices Marlene had left her. She finally settled on some dark blue jeans and red turtleneck sweater. The sweater was a little snugger than Lily was used to but Marlene insisted that it would make her look older. After all, Adam was 17 and Lily had only just turned 14 - she had to look like she was his date and not his younger sister.
Once the girls were ready they headed down to the common room and noticed three of the Marauders chatting by the portrait hole. They heard Peter telling Sirius that James was feeling ill from their midnight snack and that he would not be joining them in Hogsmeade. Sirius shook his head and marched upstairs, claiming he was going to drag James to Hogsmeade if necessary. After all, it was his turn to buy a round of butterbeer.
Remus shook his head, saying, "I don't know. He looked like he was really ill earlier. He ate a gasoline flavored Every Flavor Bean last night and ever since he's looked queasy."
Marlene and Lily glanced at each other before leaving for the entrance hall. They saw Adam and Abel waiting at the base of the stairs. The two boys looked up, each smiling at his date. Abel gave Marlene a kiss while Adam grabbed Lily's hand, pulling her toward the doors where Filch would check their names off his list.
After several minutes Marlene and Lily noticed Peter, Remus, and Sirius stomping down the stairs. Frank walked up to them and asked about James, but Sirius frowned and shook his head. He told Frank that James was still feeling ill and that he refused to join them. Marlene and Lily looked surprised as Alice joined the boys. Sirius smiled at the group and left to join a pretty blonde named Clarissa Noles, a fifth year Hufflepuff he had worked up the courage to ask to Hogsmeade.
After much stalling and many suspicious glares, Filch grudgingly opened the doors and started checking off the names of those who had remembered their permission slips that year. Sirius thought it was stupid to have to re-sign the permission forms each year. It was nearly impossible to convince his parents to do it each year so he usually had Beeste, one of the family house elves, sneak the form under some papers on his father's desk. His father usually signed things without much thought - he figured if it made it all the way to his desk without the form being destroyed by one of his security curses, it would be important enough for him to sign. Octavius Black never considered the idea that his own family could sneak past his security measures and trick him.
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Lily and Adam were walking along the path to Hogsmeade, hand-in-hand, chitchatting about various topics. Lily learned that Adam hoped to become a Healer after he finished Hogwarts.
"I hear it takes a lot of studying after graduation and it's difficult to get accepted into the program," said Lily.
"Yeah," said Adam. "IF I manage to get into the program then it will be another four years of classes and intense studying." He looked at Lily and asked, "Do you know what you want to do when you graduate from Hogwarts?"
Lily raised her eyebrows and shook her head. "I have no clue, really. Leaving Hogwarts seems so far away."
"It'll pass quicker than you know. It seems like yesterday I was 13 and going to my first day in Hogsmeade."
"What did you do?" asked Lily.
Adam was silent for a moment while he remembered. "As I recall, we were quite interested in the Shrieking Shack. Up until that year it had been known as a dilapidated old shack but suddenly there were rumors that phantoms and evil spirits had taken over, haunting the place."
They walked along behind Marlene and Abel who were busy chasing each other during a tickle war.
Suddenly Adam fell to the ground, letting go of Lily's hand while he trying to catch himself. He landed face first in a pile of mud. Lily knelt down and asked, "Adam, are you alright?" She tried not to chuckle as he picked his mud-caked face off of the ground.
He tried to wipe the mud away with his hand, saying, "I'm fine. I tripped, I guess…" He looked around and noticed a tree root jutting up out of the ground. "I must have stumbled over that root," he added. He stood up and looked down and his clothes, completely bathed in mud.
Lily smiled and drew out her wand, saying, "Scourgify!" A few moments later Adam was free of the mud and the stains were gone from his shirt and slacks.
"Thanks," he said, grabbing her hand again. "Where would you like to go first?"
"How about Honeydukes?" Lily suggested.
"Sweet tooth?" he asked, grinning.
"I love their butterbeer truffles," she admitted.
They walked into the sweet shop and admired the shelves stocked with hundreds of assortments of candies. As Lily was admiring a display of Super-Stretch Taffy that was being made at the side of the shop, Adam grabbed a box of butterbeer truffles and a few sugar quills and paid for them at the counter. The clerk bagged the items and placed them on the counter in front of Adam. Before he could grab it a display of Ice Mice fell to the floor next to him. Seeing nobody else nearby, Adam bent down and gathered the mice, placing them back in their niche on the counter. He grabbed the bag off of the counter and walked over to Lily.
"Ready?" he asked.
"Sure," she replied.
As they walked outside, Adam smiled and handed Lily the bag. "I bought you something to tempt your sweet tooth."
Lily smiled, amazed at the sweet gesture. She opened the bag, her mouth watering at the idea of butterbeer truffles, for that was surely what he had purchased. Her expression turned to surprise and then confusion as she reached inside the bag, pulling out something different.
"Cockroach clusters?" she asked.
Adam chuckled and said, "No, I didn't buy those. I bet the cashier added those to the bag. Look further- there's more in there."
Lily searched the bag and frowned slightly as she pulled out a few blood-flavored lollipops.
"What the-?" said Adam as he grabbed the bag, searching for his purchases. "This can't be. I didn't buy these."
"Maybe you grabbed the wrong bag," suggested Lily.
"I couldn't have. It was the only bag on the counter," he replied. He started to turn back to the store. "I'm going back and I'm gonna have a word with the clerk."
Lily gently grabbed his arm and said, "It's okay. Let's not make a big deal out of this. Besides, these will come in useful later. I know just who to give them to…" Lily smiled as she realized she could get back at Alice for advertising her birthday.
Adam didn't like the idea of giving up, but he finally shrugged and said, "Why don't we go to the Three Broomsticks and have some butterbeer?"
"That sounds perfect," said Lily.
They walked into the tavern and found a small table by the back. Adam rushed to the chair Lily was about to take and offered to help her with it. As Lily proceeded to sit on the chair he had offered her he felt a sudden tug which caused the chair to jerk back, causing Lily to fall to the floor. Several people nearby chuckled as Lily gave Adam an annoyed look.
"I'm so sorry, Lily!" he exclaimed, helping her up. "I don't know how that happened." He grabbed the chair and once again tried to help her into it. This time, as she sat he felt another tug at the chair, this time sending the chair suddenly forward and knocking Lily into the table. "I'm sorry!" he said. "Really, I am!"
Lily turned several shades of red as she tried to gather her patience. "It's okay, Adam. Why don't you get the drinks?"
Looking relieved that she was still willing to be around him, Adam rushed to the bar and placed his order. Lily took several deep breaths, trying to gather her patience. This had been a rather strange date so far. Except for the initial pleasant conversation, things had been awkward. Lily took a moment to look around the room and noticed Sirius seated a few tables away with Clarissa. She was in the middle of some tale while he seemed half-interested. He glanced her way a few times, and Lily noticed a strange glint in his eyes. He was too far away for her to try to decipher it.
Adam grabbed the butterbeer mugs with each hand and made his way back to Lily, admiring the long deep red hair that cascaded down her back. As he approached her he felt something knock into his elbow which sent the contents of one mug flying forward, straight onto Lily's beautiful hair. She cried out, startled at the sudden splash of the warm sweet drink. As she stood and turned toward him, he felt his stomach drop at the expression on her face. She looked like she was ready to hex him.
"Lily, I-I…I didn't mean to…it was an accident!" he said.
Lily saw the look in his eyes and realized he was telling the truth. She knew he hadn't meant to spill the drink on her but she couldn't help but still feel annoyed. She tried to brush the feeling aside as she saw the imploring look on his face. Maybe he was trying too hard to impress her and was klutzy. She decided to give him another chance. "Don't worry about it," she said.
Pointing her wand at herself she muttered, "Scourgify," grateful that she had mastered the charm. It had come in handy that day. Within seconds, the sticky mess that had attached itself to her hair and outfit had disappeared, leaving her as good as new.
Madame Rosmerta brought over another mug of butterbeer and Adam tried to engage Lily in pleasant conversation, though there were several awkward silences. When the last drop off butterbeer had been drunk, the two left the tavern and walked along the street, admiring the window displays in the shops.
When they reached the end of the street Adam stopped and turned to face Lily. Looking down at his feet, he said, "Look, Lily…I realize this date has been rather awkward. The fact of the matter is, I was hoping to ask you out by the end of today. I really like you, but now I hope that after today you won't hate me."
Seeing the sincerity behind his eyes, Lily smiled. "I'll admit that this date has been a little….different…but I certainly don't hate you. In fact, I think you're rather sweet."
Adam smiled back. "Do you mean it?" he asked hopefully.
"Of course I do," she replied, reaching over to hug him.
He hugged her back, relieved that she could still stand the sight of him. As he was running his hand from her back to her waist, he felt a tug at his sleeve which sent his hand down to Lily's bottom. Lily gasped and pulled back, her face reddening. Adam looked around, certain that something or someone had moved his hand. The sidewalk and street were deserted near them. The closest people were over 20 feet away.
"What the hell do you think you're doing?!" exclaimed Lily. She had taken several steps back.
"Lily, I don't know how but that wasn't me-" started Adam.
The annoyance Lily had felt at the Three Broomsticks was now back and escalating into anger. "Wasn't you? Was that NOT your hand?!"
"It was, but-" he said.
"I think it's best that we end this date now," said Lily.
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Sirius was lounging on his bed, happily reminiscing about the events of the day. He had enjoyed a wonderful date with the lovely Clarissa of Hufflepuff and had some amusement watching the events between White and Evans at the Three Broomsticks. He heard the creak of the door but when he looked he saw that the doorway was empty.
"How'd it go, Prongs?" he asked.
A moment later the invisibility cloak slipped off and revealed James' grinning face. "Not easy, but I think I pulled it off. Evans is rather angry with White at the moment. It took a lot of convincing - she was very forgiving until that last bit. I had to take your suggestion, I'm afraid."
Sirius laughed and said, "Ooooh, I bet she wasn't happy about his wandering hands. Evans can have quite a temper if you provoke her." He knew quite well from first hand experience. She had scolded him and the other Marauders quite a bit for their rivalry with Snivellus and their pranking of the younger students.
"That's putting it mildly," agreed James.
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A/N: That was a fun chapter to write. Poor Adam…
Thanks to my latest reviewers: mystical cah (x2), A New Reader, Jo Bob, Mani12191, hpfreak, Alicia, sista7, DreamAngel (x2), nanopy, Anu, Anonymous (x2), i <3 harry…, Nyscat, delpheena (x3), Golden Phoenix, and spanish gurl.
Next chapter: Lots of stuff happening - another Marauder milestone will start to unfold with a slight twist. Also, something else from this story will be revisited.