Chapter 23: Love Will Find A Way...
Song: Love Will Find A Way
Artist: Christina Aguilera
No the rain won't last forever
Find a way to make it better
Long as we can stand together
Love will find a way
Gonna make a new tomorrow
Say goodbye to tears and sorrow
Better listen when I say
'Love will find a way'
*-*-
It was mid January, and Lily and James were planning on going to Hogsmeade.
Katie had pleaded with Lily to stop studying for ten minutes and come to Hogsmeade with her and Remus. She told Lily that she wanted Lily and James to double date with them.
Lily had told Katie that she could go with Remus by herself perfectly fine, but Katie had pleaded and begged until Lily finally agreed.
Lily had been a little nervous about asking James if he would want to go to Hogsmeade with her, but ended up not having to ask him. A week before the trip, James had come up to Lily and asked her quiet politely if she would go with him to Hogsmeade and double date with Remus and Katie.
Lily had agreed and everyone was happy. Katie had been up since five in the morning getting ready. She had decided to curl her straight hair and it had taken forever. Lily, being a good friend, had gotten up at seven and helped Katie with the back of her hair.
Lily had decided to wear her necklace with the L on it that James had given her. Most days at school, Lily wore the heart shaped necklace because it went best with her ring, but today was special and Lily decided she would also wear the charm bracelet.
Lily had written to James's mom asking her if she knew any stories about the charms and if any of the charms had special powers, but no reply had yet come back from her even though it had been almost two weeks. Old charm bracelets that were passed through old wizarding families were known to have hidden charms.
Both girls looked quite nice when they met the boys at the Great Hall at nine o'clock. James strode straight up to Lily and kissed her on the mouth and then pulled back and slipped his arm around her waist as he dragged her out the front doors.
Remus had been a little bit more polite and kissed Katie on the cheek as the two nervously held hands and left through the front doors following Lily and James.
Sirius and Silva had also gone with to Hogsmeade, but were not planning on meeting up with Lily and her friends. Peter, when Lily had asked him what he was planning to do, had mumbled something about meeting a few Hufflepuffs and studying.
Alyssa and Bekka were meeting a few Ravenclaw boys that day at the Three Broomsticks. Alyssa and Theodore seemed to be making out every extra second they had in their time. Yet Lily had begun to get a little worried about Theodore and Alyssa's relationship because Theodore was often seen walking down the halls with other girls.
When Lily had tried to confront Alyssa about her suspicions that Theodore was cheating on Alyssa, she ignored Lily. Lily gave up on trying to reason with Alyssa and instead decided to just keep a good watchful eye out.
"Lily m'dear," said James as they walked into Hogsmeade. "Where would you like to go?"
"Katie," said Lily as she turned around and saw Remus and Katie following her rather slowly and awkwardly. "Where do you and Remus want to go?"
"Umm..." said Katie as she looked at the ground. "I don't care." Lily rolled her eyes and looked back to James who had been staring at Lily quite eagerly.
"Let's go to the Shrieking Shack," said Lily with excitement. "Apparently last month a large black dog was seen wandering out of one of the windows." Remus and James's faces grew a little pale as they casually glanced at each other.
"Sounds good to me," said James cheerfully as he started walking toward the Shrieking Shack. James and Lily held hands as they walked cheerfully down the crowded streets. Lily and James waved as other students walked by and said hello to the two Heads.
When a group of Slytherins walked by, James and Remus both grew silent and sent death-looks to the other students.
"Here it is," said Lily as she walked up to the fence that surrounded the building. Lily leaned on the fence and gazed at the building. It was a newly painted gray building that had been built only seven years ago. A family had been planning on moving in when a few months before their moving date the building had begun issuing loud screams and howls.
Rumors had quickly spread that the house was haunted and the family decided not to move into the Shrieking Shack and instead decided on a nice condo off of Key West, Florida.
Lily had never been to the house when it was haunted, but anyone that had said things were even thrown out the windows. Dumbledore had warned the students to never go inside the house because he himself had said it was haunted. Dumbledore's word was law to the wizarding families in England and no one tried to enter the house. Except possibly a few mischief young wizards at Hogwarts.
"So what do you think haunts it?" asked Lily and she tilted her head as she tried to peer through the boarded up windows.
"Ghosts," said James as he looked like he was laughing. "Lots of them. And they hate people who are living and try to kill any living person that enters the house."
"How would you know?" said Katie with a laugh as she spoke for the first time that morning to James.
"Because I've been inside," said James quietly as if anyone else was listening. Remus groaned as Lily laughed.
"You've been inside the most haunted building that ever existed in England?" said Lily in a sarcastic tone.
"Yes," replied James as he looked cocked one of his eyebrows and looked at Lily.
"I don't believe you," said Katie.
"He has," said Remus as he looked at the two girls. "All four of us have, and trust me; it's nothing to brag about. We were nearly expelled. Dumbledore thought we had just gotten out of Hogwarts and not gotten all the way to the shack, but we had. No one knows but us four. We had promised to never tell anyone."
Lily turned away from Remus and looked at James, impressed; she didn't give him nearly enough credit.
"I suppose that changes things," said Lily.
"Changes what?" asked James.
"You better not be teaching any of your secret passages to younger students, I don't want them sneaking out," said Lily.
"Why not?" asked James as he turned away from Lily. "I think it would be fun to lure students away from the castle and show them some real wizarding areas."
"But it's dangerous!"
"Who cares about the danger when you could buy a bunch of stuff from a joke shop?"
"How did you ever become Head Boy?" said Lily more to herself than to James.
"Well," said James slowly. "I'm pretty sure that we paid Dumbledore about 4,500 galleons." Katie and Lily's eyes widened as they stared at James but realized he was joking when Remus tried to stifle a laugh.
"You-You!" exclaimed Lily as she whacked James on the butt with her hand and then began running back towards the town.
"Get back here right now Evans," called out James as he began to chase her.
"In your dreams Potter," yelled back Lily as she ran as hard as she could. James finally caught up to her as they reached the edge of the town and grabbed her and buried her in the snow. He jumped on top of her and began kissing her on the forehead and her cheeks.
"Get off me James," said Lily as she laughed and tried to push James off her with all her strength. Lily was quite strong and athletic even though she didn't do sports, but James Potter was still stronger than her. She finally stopped fighting James as she went limp in the snow and looked up at him and saw his gorgeous hazel eyes staring at her,
"I really think you look nice today," said James as he leaned over her.
"Thanks," said Lily. "But I won't if you continue to get me wet by pushing me into this snow!" James laughed and then began kissing Lily passionately on the mouth.
He finally stopped when two people pulled him off Lily. Sirius, Remus, Katie and Silva all looked as if they had been laughing really hard at James and Lily. Lily sat up blushing as she attempted to straighten her jacket and re-zip it up.
"We were wondering if you wanted to go to the Three Broomsticks?" asked Sirius as he looked at James with a hint of amusement behind his eyes.
"Lily?"
"I'd love to!" said Lily as she and James walked off leading the way.
"They are just so adorable together," said Sirius cheerfully as if he was a mom of one of the two.
"They do seem to like each other a lot," agreed Silva as she walked excitedly beside Sirius.
"Oh they do," commented Remus as he and Katie walked beside each other, bringing up the rear of their little group.
"You see Silva," said Sirius. "James has liked Lily for a really long time."
"Very long," added Katie.
"So long that we don't think he's ever liked anyone else," said Remus. Sirius coughed, yet it sounded very much like the name 'Jordan'.
"But Lily hasn't always liked James," said Katie.
"She thought he was a trouble maker," said Sirius as Remus nodded his head very gravely and looked at Silva who was listening earnestly.
"But then one day."
"James grew up."
"And Lily looked around."
"And guess what she found?"
"What?" asked Silva excitedly as they walked into the crowed Three Broomsticks and sat down at a table.
"A grown up and no longer childish man," stated Remus.
"Her man," said Katie.
"He was tall," said Remus.
"Handsome," said Sirius.
"Smart." This was Remus.
"Responsible." Katie nodded.
"Dashing," added Sirius as the other five looked at him in horror.
"Then what happened?" asked Silva.
"Well, James was careful," replied Remus.
"Very careful," said Sirius.
"He didn't want to screw up his chances," said Katie.
"So one day this summer," said Remus.
"He went up to her house," said Sirius.
"He had flowers," added Lily.
"He had flowers," repeated Katie.
"And he knocked on her door," said Remus.
"And she came out," said Sirius.
"And he asked her," said Katie.
"Will you be my girlfriend," said Sirius dreamily.
"Lily paused as she took one long look at him," said Remus.
"And then she said yes," said Katie.
"And he leaned forward and kissed her," said Sirius as he nodded at a giggling Silva.
"Then what happened?" asked Silva.
"Lily got pregnant and couldn't come to school so James put her under the Imperious Curse and plucked her hairs and put them in a Polyjuice Potion which he gave to a different girl and all this time someone else has been acting as Lily because the real Lily is pregnant somewhere hiding from everyone," said Sirius very gravely as if he was speaking of someone that had died.
"So James Potter is evil then?" asked Silva as she giggled into her Butterbeer.
"Very evil," said Sirius.
"So evil he might be a Death Eater," said Remus, at this James laughed and shook his head at his friends.
"That was all just a load of crap," Lily said as she looked at Silva. "I've never been pregnant and James didn't create a Polyjuice Potion. He's probably not smart enough to make one."
"You would be surprised," said Remus as he took a swig from his glass and set the empty Butterbeer on the table.
"And what's that suppose to mean," asked Katie as she giggled and smiled at Remus.
"We've made that potion before," said Sirius proudly. "We were Third Years and we nicked the ingredients from old Sluggy's office!"
"That was you!?" asked Lily in a shocked tone.
"Yes and you better not tell your friend Slughorn," said James in a warning tone.
"No one knows but the Marauders, but I suppose now the Slug Club will know," said Sirius as he laughed and smiled at Silva.
"I wouldn't tell him," said Lily. James, Remus and Sirius smiled at each other with a knowing look.
"That's good," said Silva finally as she stood up and stretched.
"Very good," said Sirius as he stood up and copied Silva.
"Sirius," said Silva as she had a thinking face on, "you haven't shown me yet how to get into the Shrieking Shack; I did your paper for you for a reason."
"I know, I'm sorry," said Sirius. "Off we go!" Sirius waved goodbye to his friends as he literally ran out of the Three Broomsticks.
"He and Silva get along rather well," said Katie as she gazed at them through the window.
"Yes," said Remus. "They are very good friends."
"I thought they were dating?" said Lily as she looked at James. Remus and James at once began to laugh as Katie and Lily glanced at each other surprisingly.
"Sirius-ha ha-likes-ha ha ha-some-ha ha ha-other-ha-girl," said Remus between chuckles.
"Who?" asked Katie.
"No clue," replied James as he looked out the window.
"It's almost noon," said Lily as if she was reading James's mind.
"We need to be heading back to Hogwarts," said James as he stood up.
"I have to tutor a Third Year," said Lily with a sigh.
"And I... don't remember what I have to do," said James.
"Your mom," said Lily.
"Ahh yes," said James.
"What do you need to do with your mom?" asked Remus.
"She's been writing me letters lately, about seven, I need to reply, oh bull," said James as a silver owl swooped into the Three Broomsticks. "Make that eight."
The owl though, didn't head to James it went straight to Lily. Lily, surprised, took the letter off the owl before it went shooting back out the door.
"It's from your Mom," said Lily as she opened the letter. Lily laughed and smiled at James. "She wants us to write out our final list of the wedding party."
"What a booger," said James. "OK, Sirius and Remus." Katie and Remus laughed as Lily frowned at James.
"OK, well Katie and...," Lily sighed as she looked back to the letter, how could she decide between Alyssa and Bekka?
"Why not Peter?" asked Katie.
"Yes, Peter would make a great Bridesmaid," said James seriously. "We have it decided then."
"No you dumb ass," said Remus. "She means why isn't Peter one of your groomsmen?"
"Oh, well then Peter, too," said James. "That way you can have both Bekka and Alyssa in the wedding."
"Sounds good to me," said Lily as she smiled.
"Did you pick a date yet?" asked Katie.
"Yes we're taking each other," said James.
"End of June," said Lily. "It'll be a little get together for the Seventh Years."
"It won't be very little though," said James.
"Yes, that's true, we're expecting lots of people," said Lily with a laugh as she left the Three Broomsticks.
"And lots of gifts," added James as he followed Lily.
AN:
This will be fairly long...
Just to tell anyone that cared the song from the last chapter was called From this Moment ON... By Shania Twain... She's awesome and I don't even like country
Thankx for all the Reviews I got! It made me very happy.... I think I had like 18 or something.. But yea... That made my day!
Because so many people talked about the song I had in my story I decided to post a little chorus from a song before every chapter... I know a lot of Authors do that so I thought it would be fun to try and see what my readers think!
I sent the next chapter (24) off to my new Beta and she's pretty good at getting it back to me soon.. problem was she had a new email address... So yes.. But we have it all figured out... And then
IMPORTANT NEWS: I have a new fanfiction that I will post in hopefully less than 10 days depending on how soon I get it back from my beta... It's a prequel to this story... A ONE-SHOT... Just basically what happened during the Sorting Ceremony when Lily/James and the gang were sorted!
Cheers and Please Review!
Love ya guyz tonzzzzzzz
x0x0
Kaci