-Chapter Five: Like A Chain Around My Neck
-By Natali
Rachel popped into Lily's house, infuriated. She masked that quickly though, when she saw that Lily was looking straight at her. "Hi," she smiled.
"Where were you?" Lily asked, as she took a bite of the cookie in her hand. It was nice to see her pigging out, but Rachel prayed she didn't get fat or anything. Lily had such a pretty body.
"Oh, nowhere. Where's Grace?" Rachel asked, changing the subject.
Lily's eyebrows knitted together. "I'm not sure. She asked if I would mind it if she disappeared for a few hours. I said no, asked her where she was going to go, but she totally ignored the question."
Rachel smiled. "Sounds familiar."
"Doesn't it?" Lily laughed. "Just like when she was shagging Remus. You don't think…?"
"No. She's over that. So is he for that matter."
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(-Where Grace had disappeared to…-)
Grace sighed happily as Remus played with her hair. This was pure heaven-in more ways than one. Yet, in the back of her mind, she couldn't help but worry about Lily and what James had done.
That is, whatever it was that he'd done.
"What's bothering you?" Remus asked her, kissing her temple. "You seem distracted."
"Forgive me if I'm unable to carry on an intelligible conversation now," she laughed, burrowing closer to him. She fiddled with his chest hairs as she contemplated how to begin. Finally, she went with the obvious. "You know what's bugging me."
He sighed. "Yeah, I do. It's been bugging me too."
"Alright, I know that something happened, and maybe James has a good reason, but the way he did it!" she exclaimed. "I'm so fucking pissed at him right now!" One of her fists clenched. "Damn it."
"I know, but what do you want me to do? The bloke's my bloody best mate-I can't tell him to shove it or to get back with her. I can't even talk about it with him; he's forbidden us to."
"He hasn't told you anything?"
"No. I told you, we wouldn't even have found out if we hadn't asked."
"That's just… not James!"
"Obviously is."
"There has to be something more. There has to be."
"Keep dreaming."
They fell silent, pondering their own thoughts. Of course there was something else. This little dilemma had to get resolved, and soon.
Their sex life was hurting.
"You know, for all this, Lily doesn't seem to want to get back with him," Grace mused. "I mean, yeah, she's upset, she's hurt, and she's cried river and an ocean. But she's never actually said she wants him back. The love's still there, but not the desire."
"The desire is there," Remus insisted. "Trust me. I've heard James muttering in his sleep. He was so loud once that I went to see if something was wrong. He was crying."
"In his sleep?"
"Yes. I don't know. I think we should butt out."
"But they're not going to get together on their own! We need to help them," she persisted.
"I really do think you should stay out of this, Grace. Maybe it's not meant to be. They obviously broke up for a good reason-maybe she's still mourning it?"
"No, she kept saying something about why he would do this or that. Some relationships need a second chance, you know. I say we force them to see each other."
"Grace…"
"Our relationship needed another chance!" she continued, sitting up now and holding the sheet over her naked body. "Are you saying that we shouldn't have had one?"
"We are very different from James and Lily."
"How?"
"For one, they've been together for years."
"Bull shit! What's that got to do with it? If anything, it further proves my point. Years shouldn't be wasted. I won't rest until they're together again, Remus."
"I hope you don't mind being on the go for a few lifetimes then."
She glared at him and got out of the bed.
"Where are you going?" he asked. "Grace, come back. Don't be stupid."
"You, Remus J. Lupin"-she pointed a finger at him-"have absolutely no sense of love in your coldhearted body."
"Grace," he sighed.
"No! How can you say that? They are our best friends, and you're lying there like you're the king of the world!" She grabbed her robes and began to put them on. "Well, guess what-you're not!"
"Grace," he repeated, rolling off the bed. Such a drama queen…
"I hope you rot in hell, Lupin," she sputtered, looking around wildly. "Where the bloody hell is my underwear?"
He smiled as she bent down to look under the bed. When she came back up with the item she was looking for in her hands and turned around, she jumped.
"Don't guys have any modesty? Do you always walk around naked as if it's nothing?" she snapped.
"It isn't anything," he chuckled. "It's just a body. And you've seen it a few times, Grace."
"Not the point." She tried to fight his charm, but found herself smiling as he wrapped his arms around her. "I'm still going to leave. You're not changing my mind."
"As long as you don't leave mad," he whispered. "As for our little situation… Give it some time. If it counts for anything, I haven't seen James in about four days."
Grace rolled her eyes. "Makes me feel splendid. He's probably wasting his fortune on some whore."
Remus laughed.
"It's not funny!"
"James would never hire a whore, Grace. What I meant by it is that I think he's been around Lily's place."
"And you think this because…?"
"I asked a buddy of mine for a favor," he smiled. "I took a sample of his clothes and sent it into a lab, because I was curious to know as to where he'd been disappearing all this time. Turns out that there was dirt enough for three days there. And a certain element could only be found in Lily's little town…"
Grace squealed. "How nice!"
Suddenly the door opened. Sirius stepped in, finding a clothed Grace and naked Remus, who was hidden by Grace's body.
"Heh, hey, Sirius," she smiled. "Long time no see. I'd go over and give you a hug, but…"
"Do you mind, Padfoot? We're kind of busy," Remus frowned.
Sirius snickered. "This again, huh? Lord, this should be interesting. I knew you were seeing some girl. I'll talk to you two later." He shut the door.
Grace giggled. "Funny. Oh well, so much for the secret. But tell him to keep it from Lily and James until this shit is resolved-I want to concentrate on them." She looked at the clock on his dresser. "I've got to run. I have a few lesson plans to write up, and then Lils is telling me a story."
She gave him a quick kiss before disappearing.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(-Lily's House…-)
"You two need to stop disappearing on me, you know," Lily said, chugging a bottle of beer. "Gosh, that felt good."
Rachel chuckled, throwing a glance Grace's way. Someone had just gotten laid… But by who? Hmm, she'd take care of that later. Grace had that sedated look on her face.
It'd been awhile since she'd had it.
"Story?" Grace asked lazily, smiling at her hand. "Please? It's been such a nice day. I'd love for it to end well."
"I'm sure it has been," Rachel whispered into her ear while Lily grabbed the diary. "You will tell all later tonight. You can count on it."
Grace humphed.
"Alright, on with our story," Lily sighed. "Where were we?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(-Memories: The Explanation of what else occurred on the night of their first date…-)
There is fun.
And then there is fun.
Lily and James were having the latter. It was fun to sit in silence, fun to hold hands, fun to be with each other…
On a deeper scale, it was even great. Fantastic. Everything they'd ever subconsciously wanted…
Of course, since it was subconscious, neither knew that all the sex and all the boyfriends/girlfriends were all an attempt to find what they really wanted-love.
Many people believe that you fall in love once. Others believe you fall in love more than once. Some don't even believe in it.
So what's the truth?
They didn't know exactly, but they did know that there was something special between them. Love? Lust? Acid reflux?
Something had to explain the jittery feeling in her stomach that Lily felt whenever they touched.
Something had to explain the leap James's heart would take every time their eyes met.
Something had to explain the quickening of their pulses every time their lips touched.
Some people believe in love at first sight. Others believe you grow to someone. And again, some don't even believe in it to begin with, and therefore do not care how it is that you fall in love with someone.
It wasn't love at first sight, though maybe attraction.
Did it grow slowly?
And yet, they'd only really been "interested" in each other recently-though perhaps a little longer on James's side.
So then… what?
"About what time is it?" Lily asked, leaning on James as they headed back for Hogwarts. Her stomach was full, and she was warm inside from the butterbeer.
"It must be around one or so. Maybe later," he replied, squeezing her hand. "Did you have a good time?"
"Yes, a great time. I hope you did too."
"I did."
She smiled, and kissed his cheek. "James, I… Well, I didn't think this would be so nice, to be honest. I knew I'd have a good time, but…" She shrugged. "I'm not sure how to explain."
He didn't answer, but only kept walking.
Bothered by this, she asked, "Is something wrong?"
"Just thinking."
"About?"
"Oh, a few things, this and that." He sighed, switching her hand from his left to his right so that he could put his left arm around her waist.
"Don't we have to go in the same way we came out?"
"No. Filch is in bed. Besides, I brought something along. I don't think we'll be running into anybody. We'll just have to hurry."
Lily nodded as James dropped her hand to look for something in his pocket.
"Yeah," he smiled. "Filch is asleep."
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(-Later…-)
They stifled their laughter as they made their way up the stairs. Peeves had been roaming one of the corridors, and he'd threatened to turn them in for sneaking around. They couldn't wait to see what the Bloody Baron was planning to do to him.
James had called in a favor of the Slytherin ghost.
"Shh, we're going to wake up the whole of Gryffindor," Lily giggled, turning to go into her dormitory.
"Hey, Lils," James whispered. "Aren't you going to say goodnight?"
"Say goodnight, or show goodnight?" she grinned. "Come here." He obligingly leaned forward and she wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him soundly.
A few minutes later, they were still "saying goodnight".
"You know," she whispered against his lips. "We could just make this a whole lot easier if we went to your dorm and got it over with."
He raised an eyebrow, seeming to think about her proposal. "That would make sense," he replied slowly. "Are you sure? No pressure."
"Yes, I'm sure."
Hand in hand, they hurried to the Seventh Year boys' dormitory, where James first stuck his head in to see if anyone was awake.
"No one," he mouthed. "They're all still out, except for Peter."
Lily nodded and followed him, tiptoeing past the sleeping boy's bed. He looked especially rat-like in the poor lighting.
"Your bed?" she mouthed to him, pointing at the object in question.
But he shook his head, and led her to the other side of the room, where he felt for something on the wall. Finally, he found a latch and pulled back the wall. It was only about a foot and a half in width, but they could squeeze through if they tried.
"Ladies first."
She went in, trying to see in the darkness.
He too went in, but not before hanging a tie on his bedpost. That way, the others knew that the room was… occupied.
He shut the door and felt around for a light. Once found, he lit it.
"I have to ask. What is this room? Do I even want to know?" Lily asked quietly.
"You can talk at a normal level. It's soundproof. This was a room that Sirius found once quite by accident. He leaned against it and it fell open. And so, we bring a few friends here every once in awhile," James explained. "Water?" He walked to a pitcher and poured them both drinks, handing one to her.
"Well, I have to say that I'm mildly impressed," Lily nodded. "And it's not too bad looking either." She watched, puzzled, as James probed through the room in search of something. "I'm not very patient, James. I think you should know that."
She walked over to him and pressed her lips to his, nipping his bottom lip.
"I've learned," he said throatily, and plunged his tongue into her mouth-still looking for whatever it was he was looking for.
"Mmm," Lily sighed happily, trying to slip off her shoes.
"Damn it, where is that extra blanket?" James hissed, searching blindly with his hands while his lips were otherwise occupied with Lily.
"Forget the blanket."
"I get very cold at night. It's a curse of a sort."
She gave him a siren's smile and whispered into his ear, "You won't be getting cold tonight. Trust me."
With a promise like that, it was all James could do to not rush and finish it right then.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-A/N: Ok, then! I think this went well… Let me know what you guys think. I need to sleep, really… I have a lot of pressure to remain up to par. I hope my writing isn't declining…
-->