Disclaimer: No new characters yet, but the thoughts and plot's mine. So no plagiarizing!
Chapter Three: Sundays
(Chapter's Song: '59th Street Bridge Song (Feelin' Groovy)' by Simon and
Garfunkle)
I rolled over and yawned, slowly stretching and willing myself out of my peaceful slumber. I settled back into bed contentedly and pulled the crumpled piece of parchment out from under my butt.
Dear Lily,
We know how you and Grace are on Sunday mornings, so we left without you guys. Most likely won't see you till
dinner or so.
Love,
Kate, Georgie and Sophie
I laughed at my friends and the routine that we've all grown accustomed to over the past 6 years. Grace and I always like to sleep in on Sunday mornings, enjoying our last day of freedom and the first day of the week. Whenever Kate, Georgie or Sophie had ever tried to wake us up to do something, they always ended up just leaving us alone and letting us do our own thing.
You see, I hold Sundays in high regard. Sundays are the days that I reserve for complete relaxation and for complete me time. I basically just lounge around, draw up a bath or snuggle up in an armchair with a book. I have this rule where I absolutely forbid myself to do any work on Sundays. If I were Catholic, God would be so proud of me. But alas, I'm not so whoopdeedoo.
After getting ready for the day and pulling on my favorite sweater and my comfiest pair of jeans, I settled down on my bed with Ella Enchanted, a childhood favorite of mine. My copy of the book is so worn that bits of the spine have already started to fall off and several chapters have been detached as a result of countless readings. Of course, I could just do a simple repairo spell, but that would take away from the experience of the book. It just wouldn't be the same if chapter 24 didn't fall out every time I opened the cover.
I sighed as I thought about Prince Char and Ella sliding down the banisters, completely caught up in the moment and with each other as I stared out the window at the blue expanse, dotted with signs of an oncoming storm. I frowned at the gathering grey clouds rolling in from the south, threatening to ruin a fantastic mid-September day.
A mumbled phrase made its way out of Grace's curtains, then a loud crash and sleep-induced cursing. Startled, I looked up and saw Grace in a pile next to her bed with her duvet tangled around her body.
"Grace, are you okay?" I asked, laughing.
"Uh huh," she mumbled sleepily. She reached up into her bed, pulled a pillow down and proceeded to go back to sleep on the floor.
I shook my head at Grace's antics and then put my book down on my bedside table. After pondering my options and feeling a little restless, I decided that I definitely wouldn't be able to get back into the mood for reading, so I meandered down to the common room.
A couple of students were scattered here and there talking or studying together, but what caught my eye was a certain studious boy with his nose in a book.
"Hello there," I said, plopping down into a chair.
James marked his page in his book, pushed his glasses up his nose and looked up at me. "Hey," he said simply.
"You wanna go do something? Everyone left and I'm kind of bored," I said.
James leaned back in his chair, closed his eyes and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sure. What do you want to do?"
I shrugged. "A couple of days ago you told me that you wanted to get to know me, so I thought that I'd take you up on that offer. Plus, I've always found you an interesting person as well," I said, continuing our last conversation.
James opened his eyes and looked at me for a long time before saying anything. "Yeah, okay. Come on."
"Where are we-"
James put his hand on my lips and shook his head, smiling a mysterious smile. "Just trust me."
A couple of minutes later, I found myself in a place that I knew all too well.
I raised my eyebrows at James. "Of all of the places that you could have taken me to on the entire campus, you took me to the Quidditch pitch? Really original, James."
"Hold on, Evans. Give me a chance to explain myself first," said James.
I plopped down on the grass rather unceremoniously and waited for James to continue.
"So, I know, and everyone else knows that you're here almost as often as you're in the common room, but no one knows why," said James, lying down on the grass. He turned his head and looked at me, waiting for an explanation.
I drew my legs up to my chest and rested my chin on my knees, thinking for a bit. "Do you really want to know?"
James shrugged and watched the heavy clouds roll by.
I sighed. "There are actually several reasons for why I come here… The first one that comes to mind is that I had my first kiss here. Right up there," I said, pointing up at the topmost seat in the Gryffindor section of the stands. "You have to understand that I'm a sucker for romance and so I was waiting for my first kiss since I understood what a kiss is. Obviously, the memory of it sticks with me. I can still recall when it happened, what the air smelled like, everything." The wind picked up and I fixed my collar against it, shivering. At the thought of the kiss or the wind, I'm not quite sure.
"Sorry to interrupt," said James. "But who was the lucky chap?"
I blushed and leaned back on my hands. "Remus Lupin, actually."
James laughed. "Funny how that works out, eh? Anyway, go on."
I cleared my throat. "Right. Another reason is that when I… got the news, the first place that I could think to run to was here, because of that kiss. And then while I was hiding out here I heard some music coming in from the Forest. Ever since then, I come here all the time to hear it again because it keeps me sane."
James suddenly sat up, with a curious look in his eyes. "Why would you of all people need to take a step back from life to put things in perspective? You're one of the most put together people that I know."
I looked at him for a second and then laughed. "Wow. You really have no idea, do you? My life is a complete mess. Well, it sort of is, anyway. I just seem to be so 'put together' as you, well, put it, but that's only because of my mini-breaks. When Mum died, god, I was such a complete wreck. It would always take me two tries before I could get a simple alohamora to work. But I guess I hid it well since you and pretty much everyone had no idea, but… I was this close to just giving up."
"You loved her that much, huh?" said James softly, resting his elbows on his knees.
I nodded and looked down. "She was always there for me when I needed her. I was so incredibly homesick during first year and Mum used to send me letters every other day with a kiss on the bottom until I finally got adjusted to the whole boarding school and 'I'm a witch' thing. And aside from school stuff, she taught me basically everything I know."
I glanced at James for a second to see if he was following and I almost gasped at what I found. His eyes were a swirl of different colors and showed so much emotion. They were so full of sympathy, care, understanding and a whole slew of other things that I couldn't quite make out. He watched and listened to me as if everything that I said would be groundbreaking. He looked at me almost as if he could see right through me and I was beginning to think that he actually had the power to read my thoughts and know everything about me that I keep hidden from the world.
I looked away and stood up. "Come on, let's walk around. I can't stay still for another second." I brushed grass off my butt and swept my hair back from my face.
"Alright. But answer me this one question," said James, getting to his feet.
"Shoot."
James paused mid-stroll and looked at me with a serious face. "Do you believe that fire ants get randy off of pickle juice?"
Birds fluttered by overhead. The wind rustled the trees off to the left, sending down a shower of red and orange and yellow and gold. Laughter could be heard in the distance. Fire ants get aroused because of pickle juice… My world came to a screeching halt and I blinked. "Wait, what?"
"Do you or do you not believe that fire ants get randy off of pickle juice?" James asked again.
I immediately burst into a fit of laughter, my eyes almost closing and tears of mirth forming at their corners. "You're a daft buffoon," I finally pronounced, once I caught my breath.
James shrugged. "Peter said that once. Sirius and I were arguing over one thing or another and he stopped the fight by asking us that oh so important question. Ever since then, we've used it whenever we needed to throw off the tension."
"Then why'd you have to do it now?" I asked, pulling down my sleeves to cover my hands.
"Because I didn't want to make you think about something that makes you sad."
"Oh," I said softly. We continued to walk in a companionable silence towards an undisclosed location, lost in our own thoughts.
"Do people always give you lilies because of your name?" asked James all of a sudden.
"Do you always ask weird questions that start with 'do'?" I shot back.
"Just answer the question, Evans."
I shrugged. "Sometimes. Usually it's just as a joke though, but sometimes people are off their rocker enough to think that it's an original gesture. Other times it's roses, but I don't really like people giving me roses because they're too complicated."
"How the bloody hell are roses complicated? They're all just flowers to me," said James, frowning.
"Roses are way more complicated than you think. Every color has a specific meaning and I've always taken it rather seriously. For example, a dozen red roses mean really deep love, white roses mean purity, yellow means happiness, friendship and hope, and pink means thank you. I don't know. Just something that my mum passed on to me," I said, shrugging.
"Well, a rose by any other word would smell as sweet," said James.
I couldn't help but feel a little brushed off by James's comment. I mean, sure, I'm impressed by the fact that he knows at least a little bit of Shakespeare (no matter how famous that line is or how he said it in such a blasé way), but I felt a little disappointed that he would disregard it so easily.
"Anyway," I said, moving the conversation along. "I've told you enough about me for today. Let's talk about you."
"Well, what do you want to know?" asked James, glancing down at me.
"Why do you hate Snape so much?" I asked. Hmm, I didn't really expect that to be my first question.
Apparently James didn't either. "Pretty straight forward, aren't you, Evans? I thought that you were going to ask me something about the guys or my family, but hey, whatever floats your boat. Anyway, Snivellus… What's there to say about him? He hates me, his family hates mine and we just… can't get along. There's just something about him that immediately ticks me off. I don't know. It's sort of complicated, but at the same time not really."
"Um, okay. That was kind of really unclear and sort of answered my question, but whatever," I said, frowning. "Oh. What's with the whole Moony/Wormtail/Padfoot/Prongs thing?"
I felt James stiffen beside me and stop for a split second, but he quickly composed himself and kept his stride.
James shrugged. "It's sort of a group thing. We came up with it sometime around the end of last year as… codenames for our 'extra curricular activities'," said James, making air quotes with his hands.
"I see," I said. Why does James keep on skirting around my questions? A light rain started to fall, but we kept on walking anyway, heading towards the general direction of the Whomping Willow.
"Sirius is the best friend anyone can ever hope for," offered James suddenly. "He's almost like a brother to me. Fuck it, he is my brother. He's always willing to lend an ear, always backs me up and he even lets me punch him just to get some frustration out. I've only done it once, but he keeps on insisting whenever I'm stressed out. He's really dependable. Never lets you down. I think that one of the reasons why we barely ever fight is because we're just on the same wavelength. He's the type of person that you'll only ever meet once in a lifetime. He's so god damn crazy that it's sometimes admirable. I can't even begin to recount all of the pranks that he's come up with. Some of them are purely strokes of genius and others are just so… difficult that you have to be close to insanity to pull it off. And let me tell you: Sirius did carry them out, flawlessly, no less, and he didn't get caught. He has balls of steel, that one. Not afraid of anything. In a sense, he's everything that I could ever aspire to be. His outlook on life is just so laid back and carefree, that it's impossible to tell that he has some funky stuff going on at home." James paused here and looked at my expectant face. "I probably shouldn't have told you that, so if you could just… keep that bit of information to yourself."
I nodded, but couldn't help feeling curious about what's going on at home and why it's all so hush-hush.
In all honesty, I didn't expect James to open up the way he did. The words all tumbled out of his mouth, all in a rush to explain the indescribable bond between a man and his best friend, proving the truth in all of his words. That speech of his was all just describing one person and I'm pretty damn sure that he could have gone on for at least an hour without saying the same thing twice. It's really admirable to have such complete trust in one person. I don't think that I can ever/will ever be able to have a bond with someone that even remotely resembles the friendship that Sirius and James have. I mean, sure I have Kate, but girls are just… different from boys. Haven't you ever noticed how a girl usually won't hesitate to say something behind her friend's back, no matter how close she is to her? Us girls just have a sad fixation on petty things and getting ahead, that we don't really realize how it affects each other or even ourselves.
"So what's your analysis of me?" asked James suddenly.
I looked up to find his eyes dancing and laughing at me, waiting to see what kind of judgment I had passed.
I smiled. "Well, Mr. Potter. I can't tell you much except that the root of all of your personality defects is your bad childhood, which we will have to thoroughly go over in the next couple of weeks. Oh and you also owe me 60 quid for today's session," I said, perfectly playing the role of a psychiatrist.
Big drops of rain began splattering in our faces before James had a chance to respond. The light rain that had been falling earlier suddenly escalated into a huge rainstorm. The sky had broken and sheets of rain began pounding mercilessly down on us, creating a misty and dreamlike haze wherever you looked.
James began running towards the castle but I reached out and caught his hand.
"Wait! Let's stay in the rain for a little bit. I love rainstorms," I said, grinning and tilting my face up towards the skies.
"Lily have you gone mad? We're going to get so sick!" said James, staring at me with a bewildered look in his eyes.
I laughed at him and began spinning around, hugging myself. "The rain is beautiful, James. Embrace it! It gives everything life. Have you ever noticed how green and alive everything looks after a heavy rainstorm?"
"Yes," said James. "But have you also seen how muddy and murky and cold it is after a rainstorm?"
"You're no fun," I said, frowning at James. I stopped my happy spinning and laughing and began walking back towards the shelter of the castle.
James ran ahead of me and then walked backwards to keep eye contact. "Oh, come on. Don't be angry. I just don't want to get sick. That's all. I love the rain."
Normally, I would've been rather angry for having something that I love so ill-treated, but I was just too happy from the sudden downpour to keep a sour countenance. "Okay," I said, smiling.
A couple of minutes later, we pushed open the heavy front doors and stumbled into the Entrance Hall, shivering and wringing ourselves free of excess water.
At that moment, I suddenly saw James in a new light. His wet hair was wild and all over the place, his bangs damp and plastered to his forehead. His hazel eyes were alight and shining with a happy glow and his cheeks were rosy from the cold and exercise. If there's one thing that I discovered about James at that exact moment, it's that he's sinfully attractive and I felt as if a blindfold had just been taken off my eyes. Even his glasses make him attractive. In fact, they add to James's 'look'. My heart skipped a beat when he reached out for my elbow and began leading me up the stairs back to Gryffindor Tower.
When we got back to the Tower, we were accosted by our friends, asking us where we'd been all day and why we were soaking wet.
Still in a happy daze, I meandered back upstairs to my dorm and changed into something warm and dry. For the rest of the day, I hung out with my friends, exchanging stories about our day and going over homework to make sure that we had everything right.
The next day at breakfast, I received a bouquet of yellow and pink roses.
"Dear Lily,
Just letting you know that I was listening. The yellow's a toast for our future friendship and the
pink's to thank you for spending your day with little old me.
Rain on,
James."
…..
Let the morning time drop all its petals on me
Life I love you
All is groovy
…..