Unofficial Portkey Archive

Chapter Sixteen

After Christmas, James seemed to forget all about his projects, and wanted to spend time with Lily, for obvious reasons. But Lily decided to give him some of his own medicine, by spending dawn until dusk with her own girlfriends, Dorcas, Alice, and Emmeline, as they pursed stores for after Christmas deals, which left little time for James.

However, Lily wasted no time showing off her new necklace.

"That is absolutely beautiful!" Alice squealed, admiring her new necklace inside Fortescue's Ice Cream parlor. They were all trying his new 'Hot Cream' (ice cream that warmed you up) flavor of caramel pecan maple. "It must have cost him a fortune!"

"I wanted him to take it back," Lily admitted.

Dorcas snorted. "Come now Lily, if he wants to shower you with gifts and put himself in the poor house, let him. He obviously loves you enough."

At that, Lily blushed. She'd still not gotten used to it when he told her that nearly every five minutes. "Yes, he does. And I love him too."

"Have you told him?" Alice asked, completely lapping up all of this sugary sweet sap.

She nodded. "Yes, the first time was when we got into an argument over this necklace because I wanted him to take it back."

"What did he say?" Alice asked.

"He told me that I was impossible to please," Lily fumbled with her napkin. "And then I told him that I was just his girlfriend and then he said that wasn't true, and that he loved me."

"And then you had passionate, hot sex, we know the rest," Dorcas said.

Lily cleared her throat. "No, not....all the way sex, but that really isn't much of your business now is it?" She finished, blush on her cheeks.

"Lily? Not being prudish?" Dorcas said, in mock shock.

"I am not prudish," Lily scowled.

"You've been dating a guy for close to 6 months yet and you haven't slept with him?" Dorcas said, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Unless you're one of those types saving yourself for marriage."

"If you must pry," Lily said, after eating another spoonful of her hot cream. She lowered her voice. "The reason why I'm not sleeping with him is because I'm not comfortable being....naked around him."

"Why?" Emmeline asked. "It's not as if he's going to judge you for it or anything."

"No, but I've been...oh I don't know!" Lily frowned, playing with her hot cream.

"Well, you'd best tell him it's not him that you're worried about," Dorcas said.

"I did, and he told me I have nothing to worry about but still...it's not the right time," Lily said, sitting back and playing with her necklace. She was quiet for a while, running her hands over the engraving on the back.

"Six months," Emmeline shook her head. Lily glared at her.

"Well, how long have you been dating your boyfriend, Em?"

She snorted. "Three months now? Yes, I believe that's it."

The three girls gaped at her. "What?!"

"Why didn't you tell us you were dating someone!" Lily said.

"Nobody really knows," Emmeline shrugged. "Not even his best mates."

"But, you should have told me and Sirius. We were trying to hook you up with..." Lily trailed off and watched Emmeline's smile turn into a knowing smirk. Lily's jaw dropped and she reached over the table to hit Emmeline.

"You've been dating Remus for three months and you haven't told anyone?!"

"Ouch, Lily," Emmeline rubbed her shoulder. "He didn't want to have to deal with Sirius and James ribbing him about it."

"Please tell me that you've slept with him and have more sense than Lily here."

Emmeline nodded, and blushed a bit. "Yes, a few times."

"And?" Alice asked, leaning in over the table. "How was it?"

Lily snorted and folded her arms over her chest as Emmeline and Dorcas leaned over the table as well to talk in semi-private.

"Well, before the full moon, or really close to it, he's really aggressive, but afterwards, he's really sweet and loving."

"It's like having two different guys," Alice giggled.

"I'll bet the reason why Remus isn't telling anyone is because he doesn't want James to feel left out," Dorcas snorted.

"That's not fair!" Lily exclaimed. "It's my own personal choice!"

"That's slowly killing your boyfriend," Alice sniggered.

"James is perfectly fine," Lily pouted. "And our relationship is built on more than just sex!"

"We're just kidding with you, Lily," Alice placated. "We know that you and James are more than the normal teenage relationship."

"Yes, don't get all offended, now, Lily," Emmeline grinned. "After all, Remus and I aren't really after much, and you and James are going to get married."

To their surprised, Lily gave them a grin. "To be honest, I was afraid he was going to propose when he gave me this."

"Would you have said yes?" Alice asked.

"If he asked at Christmas? Probably not. If we're still together in a year...who knows?" Lily smiled.

"Ug, this is getting too sweet for me," Dorcas frowned, standing up. "Let's finish shopping, shall we?"

Christmas Vacation was over, and soon everyone was on the train back. After a very brief meetings with prefects, Lily and James snuck off to spend some time together. Of course, they couldn't sneak very far as Sirius had a James-Radar and found them within three minutes.

However, he, Remus, and Peter were nice and let them lay next to each other on one side of the compartment while they took the other side and ground and played Exploding Snap.

"Oh, I don't wanna go baaack!" Sirius whined, looking at his cards unhappily. "How long until we leave?"

James, who was snuggling chastely with Lily, looked up at the ceiling in thought. "One hundred and seventy-seven days."

Sirius gaped at him. "One-hundred....."

"And seventy-seven days," James sighed, nuzzling back with Lily. "Including weekends, holidays, skip days-"

"James Potter, you'd better not skip," Lily frowned at him.

"But-cough, cough-I'm coming down with the flu," he teased.

"Then I suppose I'll just have to use some more Vicks," she whispered back.

"Oh, but I am feeling feverish," James grinned.

"Will you two refrain from shagging in front of us, please, Moony and Wormtail are still virgins, you know," Sirius snorted. Lily saw a flit of a smile cross Remus' face, but he said nothing. She, on the other hand, began to chuckle knowingly.

"What?" Sirius asked, looking up.

"Nothing," Lily smiled, putting her cheek on James' chest.

"Do you know something, dear Lily-love?" Sirius asked, crawling across the compartment with the self-same expression as a cat on the prowl.

"N-No," Lily lied, not liking the look on his face. James grinned at Sirius and looked down at her.

"It's not nice to keep secrets about our friends, Lily," he turned so she was trapped between his arms. "I'm n-not keeping secrets," she laughed, but it was a nervous laughter, looking up at the two of them who were grinning down at her.

"I say...we go for the neck," James nodded. Lily continued to laugh nervously.

"I don't-" but the rest of her words were drowned when Sirius' hand shot down and grabbed the side of her neck. She squealed and writhed between James' arms,

"Talk!" Sirius said.

"N-No! I c-c-c-can't!" she laughed, trying to push James off of her. To get a better hold on her, James pulled her up into his lap and wrapped his arm around her and threw one leg as well to keep her from kicking.

"Talk Evans, talk!" Sirius used both hands but wasn't grabbing hard at her neck, just touching her gently. Even so, streams of tears were coming down Lily's face, partially from laughing, and partially from Sirius.

"Remus!" she cried. "Pete! Help me!"

Remus and Peter were too busy laughing at her to do anything else. Lily glared at Remus, because it was his secret she was keeping and relented.

"Fine!" she cried and Sirius let go.

"What's the secret?" he asked.

Lily threw a nasty glance to Remus, who suddenly didn't find it all that funny anymore, and cleared her throat. "Remus has been keeping a secret from you for three months."

"Lily!" Remus cried, but it was too late. Sirius stood up and advanced on Remus.

"Talk, werepuppy, else we start on the girl again."

Remus glared at Lily who glared right back and then looked back to Sirius. "No."

"All right then," Sirius said, turning back to Lily, who cried out in slight fear.

"He's-" she cried out as Sirius advanced on her again, "he's been dating Em for three months!"

Sirius gasped in indignation and whirled on Remus, who was frowning.

"How did you find out about that?" Remus demanded.

"She told me," Lily said, shoving James off.

"Moony?" Sirius said. "Dating Emmeline Vance? For three months? And he kept it a secret?"

"Yes, I did, because I didn't want to hear a lot of crap about it from you," Remus said, adjusting his robes.

Sirius plopped down next to Remus and put his arm on his shoulder. "Please tell me that you haven't been a complete disgrace and you've slept with her."

"That," he took Sirius' arm from around his shoulder, "is none of your business."

Sirius nodded to James who grabbed Lily's neck and she squealed out a "Yes!"

"Good man, Moony, unlike Prongs and his Lily-love here, you have finally become a man!"

Sirius said nothing else, because a small hex went his way from the other side of the compartment. Both Lily and James were glaring at him.

"In the first place, Lily will not become a man when she sleeps with me," James said, as-a- matter-of-fact. "And in the second place, it's none of your business when we do."

And with that, they scrunched into the corner to get away from Sirius and the rest of the compartment. So Sirius decided to get 3 months of overdue ribbing begun.

"Why don't you go find your little Emmy-poo, Moony?" Sirius chuckled. "I'm sure she'd enjoy a nice snog in the loo."

"You're sick," Remus said, giving him a hard stare. "Do you have any idea how many people have done Merlin-knows-what in there?"

"Having done a lot of it myself, yes," Sirius grinned.

"Man-whore," Remus said.

"I'll have you know, Moonster, that I have cut back on girls this year," Sirius snorted.

"Why's that?" Peter, quiet for most of the train ride, except for laughing, spoke up.

"I've got other things to occupy my time," Sirius said, cryptically.

"Or you've run out of girls," Remus muttered.

"I'll have you know there are plenty of girls I have not snogged or shagged," Sirius huffed.

"Only because they're third years or below," Peter chortled.

"Or Slytherins," Remus grinned.

"You two are horrible," Sirius sighed and laid back, eyes traveling to James and Lily, who were mumbling quietly to each other. "And you two are making me sick!"

"Let them be," Remus laid back and closed his eyes. "Has it registered that maybe people don't like it when you make fun of their relationships?"

"Speaking of which," Sirius scooted closer. "How many times have you two shagged?"

"None of your business," Remus replied automatically.

"C'mon, you know how many times I've shagged-"

"That's because I was kept awake by the incessant giggling," Remus said.

"My question is, how did you keep it a secret from us for three months?" Peter asked, scooting in on the other side.

"Quite easy. I didn't say anything, hence, you never asked."

"Yes, but where did you shag?" Sirius asked, amazed. "Not our room, because we would have noticed."

"Sirius you are horribly close-minded," Remus said, nonchalantly. "We just got creative."

Mumbling about werepuppies and natural talents, Sirius scooted away from Remus, and collected the cards for Exploding Snap again.

After dinner, before they even had a chance to go to their dormitories, the 7 Auror trainees were whisked by Professor McGonagall for a private meeting with Professor Dumbledore. No one knew what was going on, but they were all too stuffed and sleepy to try to figure it out for themselves.

Finally, Professor Dumbledore, not looking quite as jovial as he normally did, came sweeping into his office and sat down at his desk, looking at the faces grimly, pausing more than once on Lily's face.

"I will make this brief, as you will need to be up and gone from this school early tomorrow," he began, which caused more of a stir in those seated in front of him. "You will be attending the trail and possible sentencing of Bellatrix Black, which begins promptly at eight o'clock in the morning. Your instructor will give you the rules once you have joined with the rest of your class. You will need to meet in the Atrium at the Ministry of Magic."

"But why?" Sirius asked, respectfully.

"Because it will be part of your training," Dumbledore nodded. "Witnessing trials will be required of all of you when you become fully trained. Now, off to bed with you. You'll need to get an early start."

With one final look at them all, he dismissed them, but Lily waited to speak to him alone.

"Yes, Miss Evans?"

"Professor, am I...is it bad that I don't hate Bellatrix?" Lily said, ashamed of herself.

"No, Miss Evans, in fact, it is an admirable quality that you have," Dumbledore smiled.

"Are you sure? Because I don't think it makes me a great Auror if I don't hate the person who tried to...to, well, kill me," she blushed. "And, also, I've been thinking a lot, and I really don't want them to...well, to throw her to Azkaban. Am I completely not capable of being an Auror?" Lily asked.

"Miss Evans, I would be far more concerned with the Auror who does not care whether the Death Eater lives or dies," Dumbledore nodded. "You have nothing to worry about, Miss Evans, I think you shall make a fine Auror."

"Thank you, Professor," Lily smiled, and turned to leave.

"However," Dumbledore continued and she turned to face him. "To be an Auror means that you have to put feelings aside, at least temporarily. You cannot be afraid to do the right thing, simply because you feel pity or sorrow for those people, which is an admirable quality."

Lily nodded and left his office.