In the Tower
Chapter Eleven: Cranberry Sucks
Summary: Sirius, Remus and Peter lock James and Lily in a tower over Christmas Break. They don't have anything, except themselves, a little bit of food, lots of French Almond Coffee, and the passion within themselves. And right now, they're just letting it free. Sirius and Remus are big parts in the story; they have chapters about themselves as well.
Disclaimer: J.K.R! I own this computer, but only barely.
Author's Note: Ahaha! That's all I have to say…
Previously: She pulled back, smiling stupidly at him. He had stars revolving around his head. Not really, of course. She pushed his glasses back onto the bridge of his nose so he could see clearly. "Je goûte sur votre bouche le souffle fiévreux d'un enfant abandonné de moitié meurt de faim. To make it complicated." He breathed out.
She slapped him on the arm. "I am not a homeless person!"
"Too bad, it sounded good." He said, and then kissed her again.
"Do you know," he said again, softly, addressing his hands, "what it is to love someone, and never -never! - Be able to give them peace, or joy, or happiness?" He looked up then, eyes filled with pain. "To know that you cannot give them happiness, not through any fault of yours or theirs, but only because you were not born the right person for them?" Lord John, Voyager.
"You fucking bitch!" He screeched, rounding on her as she cowered in a corner. Tears were prickling at the back of her eyes, but she promised herself she would not, could not, cry. He stalked forward, the group surrounding them and her back was against the wall. She shook her head and tried to make herself go through the wall, but it wouldn't budge. It wanted her to be there. "Never do that to me, again!" She shook her head meekly but they didn't care and only laughed maliciously because that was the only thing they knew how to do.
"No, no, I didn't do it!" She cried out hysterically but they didn't listen to her. She had punched the man, but he had been screaming at her, and she only did it out of self-defense. He wouldn't listen to her side of the story of course. Who would listen to a little Mudblood brat like her?
No one does, or would, listen to her, except James Potter. His scrawny face immediately appeared, grinning cockily in her mind, not knowing he was blushing bright pink. She instantly shot the memory away. Why would she be thinking about Potter at a time like this? But against her better judgment, she whispered out pleadingly, "I wish you were here,"
"Wish what?" The man spat, and she felt his spit hit her cheek. She wiped it away with her hand, and the man caught her wrist and squeezed. She whimpered as she felt bones pop and break under the pressure, and he let go, wiping her `dirt' off on his pants. He muttered a spell and a long gash appeared on her hand, and blood oozed from it.
She gasped and looked up at him. "I didn't say anything!" She instantly bit her tongue and cowered down. "I didn't do anything," she repeated to herself.
The man behind the mask who was the closest to her smirked, saying, "If you didn't, mutt, you will. `The road to hell is paved with good intentions.' If you don't give us what you want, then there will be no good intentions on this road to hell."
"I-I don't know what you want!" She stuttered loudly, and all the masked people grunted around her. A sarcastic thought went into her head. What is this, an army of cavemen? She batted it away and went with that it must be their form of laughter. They had stopped their advancing on her, for only one step closer and they would be on top of her.
"Yes, I think you would," a smooth voice said from behind the man she had previously been talking to. Her head whipped around and she felt her neck crack. She gasped involuntarily and massaged her neck with her uninjured hand. He took off his mask elegantly, and she gasped again right before clapping her bloody hand onto her mouth to keep from screaming. He had been in seventh year while she was in first, and he scared her like no person ever had. His blonde hair tumbled down his shoulders gracefully.
"Ms. Evans, hello," He said smoothly, pushing the others out of his way. They complied before he had to touch them. "I am Mister Malfoy, girl. I am your better. Show your respect!" He boomed the last sentence.
"I don't know how," she said quietly, letting her knees buckle and she slid to the ground, pulling her knees up to rest her aching head on them.
"Oh, I think you do." He whispered haughtily, and he stepped closer.
"Lucius…" A squeaky voice warned. He turned toward the others and said loudly, "SHUT UP!"
A small voice was whispering among the throng of people, but none were paying attention to it. The outer rims of people were falling, but were making no noise. "Stupefy!" The voice screamed. Immediately whoever that was surrounding the small voice between three or so, fell instantly. Lucious slammed himself against the wall above her to keep from going unconscious like the other's had.
About twelve people fell, but there had been many, around twenty she had seen falling before that. What did they want with her? Five people still seemed quite awake and they had ripped off their masks and their wands were pointed in random directions. None of them looked familiar but there was the other man whose face she had seen the whole time.
He was rather cute; she concurred to herself looking through her hair and blurry eyes to see his face. His hair was stylishly flipped onto one side of his head and his blue eyes stood out amazingly well against his tan high cheekbones. But the blue of his eyes were icy looking and dangerous. She sniffed and put her head on her knees again, vulnerable to the outside.
"Miss Evans." Was said again, and she instantly shot her head up and wiped her eyes. He was looming over her with a fake smile on his face. "Delightful to see you," He said cheerfully.
"Charmed," Was all she said.
"You should be," He smiled, not exactly genuine but, what the hey. At least he smiled. "Miss Evans, I would like to tell you about something's. Some day very soon a man will come to power, and he will need much help in the area of charms. I think you could do it, when you're old enough."
"I'm not power hungry."
"You will be after you see what he can do, what he will do. And he wants you to join him. Don't you want to?" She shook her head and felt her matted hair fall around her shoulders.
"I'll see you in a few years to talk about it."
"She doesn't want to do it!" A small voice cried by her shoulder. She looked up, and saw nothing there. But the wall close to her started to shift and she yelped and jumped away from it, landing on her back. The first thing she saw was a long wand, and then a small hand, then a small arm attached to the small hand, then the cloak was completely thrown off and James Potter was standing furious next to her, looking up at the handsome man. Why was he here?
"Ah, Mister Potter!" The handsome man said laughing. James didn't, and still kept his wand trained upward on the man's face. "I was expecting you here, wondering what took you so long. Then of course, I wondered, `Who could have enough power to knock out twelve of my Death Eaters at one time, and twenty before them?' Then I laughed. `Why, James Potter of course!'"
"Shut up, Tom!" Tom's, she presumed, face immediately darkened.
"Never call me that accursed name, boy!"
"Why not? What's so bad about having a muggle as a father?" James inquired, pointing his arm farther up so it reached Tom's nose. "Lily here has both her parents as muggles." She held her tongue from saying, `James!'
"You wouldn't know, would you Mister Potter?" Tom spat. "Being a pureblood, you must think you're so high and mighty. Well your not!" James backed up as if he had been slapped. Tom laughed at him.
"Never tell me who I am, Tom. I know who I am, and I don't care if the rest of the world knows it too. You just need to realize you're another one of those freaks who think they're better than the rest of us, no matter who we are. So back off, jackass!" James retorted. Her head snapped in James's direction. He shouldn't be saying that! He turned to her, and lowered his wand for a moment, saying softly, "Lily, come on, get up."
She shook her head. "Lily, please. We have to go." He said softly again, placing a small hand, hesitantly, delicately on her shoulder. His hand was warm as he clutched her. She still sat there, stubbornly. His hand left and she missed it, but then she felt it on her arm, trying fruitlessly to pull her up. She gathered up her strength and got up, and he kept his hand on her arm.
"Miss Evans, you finally decide to stand?" Tom said pleasantly, handing her, her wand. She grabbed it out of his hand and instantly pulled it towards her chest. One of the Death Eaters, as Tom called them, had stolen it when they had first found her. She shuddered, and felt James tightens his hold on her arm, and she could tell at that point they, obviously, were both very frightened. All of the Death Eaters he had stunned were starting to wake up. She stepped closer to James unconsciously, and Tom watched their going-on's with a curious smile on his face.
She finally looked up and met Tom's gaze, a little unsure. "We'll, uh, just be going now." She said quickly, and James let his hand slip from her arm only long enough to get his cloak. They walked quickly away and then heard Tom scream, "AFTER THEM, FOOLS!" Pounding of boots on stone quickly followed them, and she looked at James, scared.
"Sh, Lily, don't worry." And with that, he slung the cloak over them. He took her hand and started running, pulling her along. She struggled to keep up with him, before he just picked her up, which was a bit weird to say in the least, hauled her over his shoulder, and then took off running. She wondered a bit at this point in time why he was being so nice to her. So not who he usually is. He slammed them through a hole in the ground, and they tumbled until landing in a little pit that seemed too small.
"James," she said as politely as she could, "how did you find me, why were you following me, and why did you save me, be nice to me, and then carry me? Hello! You're not being," she searched for words, flailing her hands about, "you!" She finally came up with.
He snorted at her, and strained his ears a bit before he sighed and answering. "Ever heard of a façade? Everyone has one. I happen to have a thicker one then most people." She scowled at him and tried to get away, but it was a pretty tight fit. The farthest she could get away was barely a finger distance.
A hex bounced around the pit and hit the cloak, and she screamed, but James put a hand over her mouth before the noise could be made. She was shaking and felt him press his small body against hers, to make themselves smaller in hope that none of the hexes would get to them like this. She groaned ten minutes later after the hexes had stopped. "Lily, I…" A last hex was hurled down the pit and it hit James. He slumped unconscious, maybe dead. She screamed.
Lily jumped up in the bed, sweating and her chest heaving. She craned her neck and looked at James, who was peacefully sleeping, clutching his empty hand where her waist was. She watched him, calming down slightly, as he watched his chest move up and down rhythmically. Just watching him, she almost smiled, but she couldn't tell at that point what was going to make her feel better. What was she doing?
Why, did she kiss James Potter, three days ago? And why the hell did he kiss her back? He fancied her since, whenever. But didn't avoiding him, hitting him, yelling at him, and deducting points from him for no reason at all not faze him? She hated him! The disgusting, womanizing, absolutely wonderful pig!
Whoa, freeze and reverse. What the hell was she thinking? She didn't know what was real anymore. So she was going to calmly, rationally, rant. Rant the definition of love from her dictionary.
"Love, a feeling of warm personal attachment or a deep affection, as for a friend, parent, or child; a strong or passionate affection for a person of the opposite sex; sexual passion or desire." Of course she knew what it meant, who didn't, but she didn't know what it meant. If that made any sense. Did she love James? Er, she didn't know that. Did love the Marauders? Not really, maybe Remus, as a friend. She don't know any other love to have.
Why was she even thinking this? She ranted to herself in her head, `I don't want to be here. I don't want to be here with James. Bloody Marauder's tricked us into coming here, well, tricked me at least. I'm sure James waltzed in here when I was sleeping, and just lay down right next to me, wrapped his arms around me and went to sleep. He might of, the bloody pig.' Another weird voice said in my head, `But he's so nice to me,'
When did James start being nice to her? Well, he's always… no, nevermind. He's been nice to her since they've been stuck in that bloody tower together. She says that too much, doesn't she? Bloody. Well damn.
Moving on, when did she start being nice to him? Oh, oh yeah. When she hugged him. Why did she hug him again? What did she care, she hugged everyone. Except the Slytherins and, uh, the Marauders. But, but then she had dreams about him. But then! But then she made out with him.
She had absolutely no control over that; no idea why she did it. Well, okay she did. But he looked so cute, at that moment on Christmas. No more kissing James for her. Nope! Ugh, she was going to have to barricade herself in the bathroom so he had to bathe and wash his clothes in the rain. Ooh, bad thoughts.
She laughed madly and clapped a hand over her mouth and looked at James. His face was pressed in the pillow, and his arm was still stretched out, though his hand was sort of sweeping the blankets and it seemed it was looking for her. She threw a muffin at his head. It bounced off; he caught it easily, then brought it to his mouth and ate it without a second thought. He went back to sleep.
She hauled the basket of muffins over to the bed and dumped them on his head. Well, it's been a few days; the house elves will come and get more muffins for them. But, ha-ha! She saved the chocolate and cranberry muffins for herself and wrapping them and herself in that freaking big cloak, she tottered over to the bathroom. She heard James chewing through the door.
"Lily? Thanks for taking all the cranberry muffins, they taste terrible. I always upchuck watching you eat one every morning."
"Gee, thanks James."
"No problem." They had an awkward silence. He finally spoke again, and said in a smooth, almost nervous voice. "Lily?"
"No, sorry, Lily is not in right now." She said in a secretary-ish, nasally voice. "But if you leave a message, I won't know if she'll get back to you." James snorted at her and leaned against the door. She leaned against the shower door. She hated being sarcastic like that. As James said, oh so long ago, `It's a façade.'
"Lil, what if I have to use the bathroom?"
"Do it somewhere else."
"There is no where else!"
"Do it on the tower."
He guffawed. "I'm not that much of a public person!"
"Well too bad, you're bathing out there too."
"Lily," James said seriously, and her breath caught and she stumbled into the shower door. "What's wrong?"
"Everything!" She blurted.
"What's everything?" He said quietly, but it was so quiet that it took up all the air in its silence, and she could almost hear his slow heart beat reaching out for hers.
"Everything is everything, James!" She cried, telling him. "My sister, Petunia got married on Christmas! And she didn't even invite me, even though she knew I was going home this break! Even though I didn't. I think my parents hate me, they ignore me and they just… they favor Petunia over me. And then there's Voldemort! He's getting even stronger! Don't you remember second year? Fifth year?
"He's after people like me and their families! He wants to kill us all. And he wants to kill Dumbledore because he's afraid of him, even though he knows he could never do it. And Remus being a werewolf, I worry about him everyday of my life! I don't want him to be alone during his transformations! All of my friends seem to hate me, and all I can ever see is a little prat of a boy in my dreams defending poor, innocent, little Lily!
"I am fucking alone in this world. No one would catch me if I feel off the tower, no one would notice except there's some blood in the snow."
There was a pause, and James took a thoughtful bite from his muffin. "That's not true, Lily. I'm sure your parents love you. I bet they might have been caught up in the wedding plans." He sighed, "Remus cares about you, Sirius cares about you, and I care about you."
"I don't believe you." She told him haughtily.
"You should," was all he said before he stood and exiting her hearing range. She walked toward the door and opened it slowly, looking out, but he wasn't there. She pouted and slipped her head in the door before shutting it and leaning against it, sniffling softly. She hit the door hard with her fist, and the tingle she was all too familiar with started again, creeping from her hand up her arm.
She bit her lip, and looked at the bathroom. It was dingy, to say in the least, but the stone shimmered like it was underwater, and it glinted and waved like the sun was on it. It was beautiful, really. And the shower was marble, like they had in Ancient Rome, the really natural kind. "Okay, why am I talking to myself about tile?" She shook her head leaned farther into the door. "I am an idiot."
She grunted and pulled herself away from the door and sat on the floor, crawling on her hands and knees to reach the cloak. She opened it and picked out a cranberry muffin and shoved it whole in her mouth, her cheeks puffing out and barely letting her chew it. She suddenly spat it out. "Cranberry sucks."
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