In the Tower
Chapter Twenty-one (21!) Say Good-bye
Summary: Sirius, Remus and Peter lock James and Lily in a tower over Christmas Break. They don't have anything, except a little bit of food, lots of French Almond Coffee, and the passion within themselves. And right now, they're just letting it out.
Disclaimer: If I owned it, why would I be posting here?
Author's Note: My Dumbledore is really OOC, I know. Sorry!
Previously: Her crying turned slowly to soft sniffles, and she wiped her eyes on his shirt. "Well," she said, moving so she and Remus were side by side on the small bed, "that feels better."
Remus knew that Somailia would never do something like that. But hey, her best friend just died.
Even if you were a tough girl, wouldn't you cry too?
And as she fell asleep, he started to cry.
He felt that his whole life was some kind of dream and he sometimes wondered whose it was and whether they were enjoying it. Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
James ate his muffin nervously; he had grown a fondness of them, as he looked at his watch every few moments Wednesday morning at nine. He was decked out in black and he looked completely morbid and entirely vampire in his getup. Sirius was sitting next to him, his eyes out of focus as he stared at the Pumpkin Juice jug.
Lily was sitting uncommonly quiet in front of James, and they were holding hands under the table, her squeezing his hand so tight he felt the bone would pop at any moment. Remus was sitting in front of Sirius, and with his sallow skin, being it so close to the moon, and his thinning hair and his black robes, he looked like a zombie.
Somailia looked none the better for ware.
The school was filing out all around them, until they were the only five left, and Somailia sullenly got up from the Ravenclaw table and sat down heavily next to Remus. He automatically put an arm around her shoulders, and she moved closer to him, as if he were her life support.
Come to think of it, he probably was.
James mother and father floated into the room half an hour later and sat down at the edge of the Gryffindor table, their house table.
Remus' mum, Tina, and Brendan all sat down at the Ravenclaw table not three minutes later, and Remus noticed fleetingly that Tina had a ring around her finger. Oh, what should he care, she was happy.
Somailia' family ran into the room at fifteen `til and sat down at the closest table, Hufflepuff, and looked quickly around the place. Somailia's mum saw her and gave her a quick smile, which she didn't return.
The Ah Bleu's came in last, and a little nine year old was clutching Mrs. Ah Bleu's hand and looking around for any sight of someone she knew. And that's when she saw James and Sirius. She called their names loudly in that high pitched voice of hers and tugged her hand out of Mrs. Ah Bleu's and ran toward them. "Mêlée," they said, trying to sound cheerful, and Sirius raised himself out from the benches to catch the running girl. "Hey babe," Sirius said to her as he stepped away from the tables and swung her around before setting her back on her feet.
She grinned back up at him, and Lily looked up at the interaction. How can he even stand there and smile? She asked herself. The little girl- her name is Mêlée right? -looks exactly like Katie.
"Hey Sirius!" Mêlée said and hugged him around the middle. She let go and climbed over the table and hugged James around the neck, and he gave her a one-armed hug.
Sirius sat back down with a semi-happy smile on his face and Mêlée sat down on James' lap, squirming happily.
She looked around at all the morbid faces, and said to them quieter, but still happily, "Do you know where my sister is? I really want to go see her!"
Lily almost fainted, and Somailia admitted a dry sob. The older Ah Bleu's, who had just sat at the other edge of the Gryffindor table, heard her, and Mrs. Ah Bleu's great racking sob echoed out within the vacant hall.
James looked hard past Mêlée's head and at the huge windows in front of him. He told her quietly, "Katie isn't here, Mil, but I'm sure you'll see her when the time comes."
"Why?" She said her eyebrows furrowed. "Where is she?"
"She's-" Somailia started bluntly.
"We can't tell you that, Mêlée, sweetie." Sirius said, giving Somailia a reproachful look.
"She deserves to know, Sirius." She hissed at him, keeping her face content as possible.
"I deserve to know what?" Mêlée asked, staring hard at Sirius with her puppy dog face.
James hesitantly hugged her around the middle, enveloping her in his arms. Lily had let go of his hand when she had almost fainted, she had gone slack though, and she let go of his hand, which he flexed, trying to get feeling back into it.
At that moment all the tables told them loudly that they had to be in the Forbidden Forest in ten minutes. Mêlée got up to let James stand as the rest of them stood, and then she jumped on his back and whooped. He had always given her piggy back rides whenever he came home with Katie after riding. Lily came close to him and grabbed his hand, which he squeezed gently, not looking at her.
The whole group, fifteen in all, set off flatfooted toward the forest, where Dumbledore and McGonagall were waiting in the richly engraved wooden coffin that held Katie's body.
When the funeral was almost over, at her coffin was lowered neatly into her grave, Dumbledore, somberly, started to say, looking at James', Sirius', Somailia', Lily's, and all the family members faces, "Remember Katie.Remember what happened to a girl who was good, and kind," James, Sirius, Somailia, and Lily smiled at this for a brief moment, "and brave. Remember Katie Ah Bleu."
THREE MONTHS LATER
Lily and James ambled slowly across the Quidditch Pitch sweat trickling down the backs of their necks and rolling down into their shirts, which were sticking uncomfortably to their backs.
The unnatural heat of the April evening was beating heavily down on them, and James looked wistfully up at the sky as he watched some house team, at the moment he really didn't care, zoom overhead.
"Lily," James breathed out as they circled the pitch for the third time. She made a questioning noise in her throat, looking indifferently at the distant spread of the forest. "What are we doing?"
"Walking," she told him with an indifferent tone.
"I knew that," he said calmly, forcing his eyes to look at his girlfriend instead of the sky, "but what are we doing, really?"
"James, we're walking." She told him, not grasping it.
"I know that!" He said that so hysterically that Lily looked at his surprised.
"Oh, well we're thinking." She hurried on, seeing a glint of hysteria in his eyes, "In three months we'll never be at this school, home, sanctuary again. What are we going to do after that? Am I going to be a Healer, like I've been dreaming? Or are you going to be a professional Quidditch Player? What are we really going to be?"
As soon as she caught her breath, a tawny owl flew toward them, looking oddly cool. It landed on Lily's shoulder, digging it's talons in painfully. It was cold to the touch, and as soon as James untied the note around its leg it used Lily's shoulder as leverage and propelled itself off from her, mockingly hitting her cheek with one of its talons.
She cried out, "Ow!" And James made a "whoa" noise in his throat, making Lily look at him curiously. He finished the letter and handed it over to Lily, who read it quickly as he fixed her gash.
"What the…?" She said, trailing off, looking at James with big, wide eyes. He shrugged; looking scared, and started tugging her quickly toward the main entrance.
"Do you know where Dumbledore's office is?" He said, and she couldn't answer as she panted along behind him.
He stopped once they reached the front steps and waited impatiently for her to catch her breath. As soon as her breath was almost normal, he was off like a shot again, and she was sprinting slowly behind him. He screeched to a halt in front of McGonagall's office and knocked on the door hurriedly. She opened the door after a moment, and raised an eyebrow at their state of disarray.
"Mister Potter, Miss Evans, you know that it is against school regulations to have-" but James, blushing scarlet, cut her off.
"We weren't doing anything, Professor, I promise, but we really need to see Professor Dumbledore."
"Do you now?" She said, looking at them with her hawk stare.
"Yes, Professor McGonagall, it's very imperative that we see him," Lily said earnestly.
She looked at them for a moment before she heaved a sigh. "Fine," she said grudgingly, stepping out of her office and leading them away, "but I must warn you, he's a little out of sorts at the moment."
James threw Lily a look and she looked at him with raised eyebrows. She grabbed his hand and walked purposely forward. After many odd turns and narrow stairs, they reached the Phoenix. McGonagall gave them one last look. "Are you quite sure?"
"Quite sure!" They said chirpily, and she sighed again, waved her hands and cried out, "Wonky-Faints!"
The phoenix opened up for them and she gave pushed them toward it. As they spiraled upward, James swore he heard McGonagall mutter to them, "Good luck," and he expressed this thought with Lily.
"You're just hearing things James; she wouldn't say anything like that." Lily said loyally.
James grumbled, but agreed.
The door was thrown open as Lily and James finally reached the even ground, and Dumbledore looked at them happily. "Hello, hello! Please, come on in." He opened his door wider and swept into a bow James was pretty sure would break his back. James and Lily hurried in.
"I would just like to say, sir," Lily began, stepping farther into the room, talking to Dumbledore over her shoulder, "that what you said about Katie at her funeral was heartbreaking. I wish I could have written it down to remember forever."
"Did you like it, really?" He asked eagerly, shutting the door behind himself. "I think I'll save it for a later time…"
Fawkes looked at James and Lily as Dumbledore started murmuring to himself about the speech, and then shook Fawkes head rapidly, telling them to leave. "Um, is he okay?" Lily said, looking at James.
"I think he wants us to leave," James murmured to her.
"I'm all for it," Lily said backing up. And backing right into Dumbledore.
"Miss Evans, are you well?" He said looking at her searchingly. She gulped.
"Fine, sir," she managed to squeak out.
"Oh, good!" He said, waving his wand and producing two big, overstuffed armchairs. "Sit!" He said, excitedly. "Please sit!"
Lily and James looked at each other uncomfortably, flowed over to their separate chairs, and uneasily sat down. James almost fell off his chair. "Oh, dear, oh dear, that's no good, can't have the head boy falling every few moments, can we, oh, no not at all, not at all." Dumbledore said to himself, and James looked at Lily frightened.
"Its okay sir, really, I'll be fine."
Dumbledore wasn't listening. "Ah!" He said, and waved his wand at James' chair, and James clapped his eyes closed sensing the worst. He sunk immediately into his chair and flailed around. "Oops," Dumbledore said cheerfully, watching as the water seeped out of James' chair, leaving him sopping wet and on the ground again, sitting up agitated as the water dropped on his head.
"Chinese water torture," James muttered to himself, angrily glaring at Dumbledore.
Dumbledore smiled sheepishly. "So sorry, James, so sorry, I'll just fix you up," He raised his wand, and James jumped up, trying in vain to not huddle next to Lily.
"It's all right, sir, really!" He said to him hastily, and Lily gave him a drying spell, which he smiled at her gratefully for. "I can just sit with Lily!"
Dumbledore frowned. "Well, if you must." He sat at his desk, and James and Lily squished closely in her chair. Then Dumbledore cracked a grin, and held up a jar right in front of their noses, making them involuntarily move backward, toppling the chair over. "Lemon drop?" Dumbledore called, as James shoved the chair off him and Lily, before struggling up and helping Lily up as well.
"Ah, no thank you sir," Lily and James said together, sitting back down in the chair. "We came up here for a reason, sir." Lily started, and Dumbledore looked at her, popping a Lemon Drop in his mouth, making James suddenly cringe.
"We got a letter sir," Lily continued, "from a certain Tom Riddle." Dumbledore choked on his Lemon Drop, and James, grudgingly, hurried over to him and started doing whatever you're supposed to do when someone is choking. It flew out of Dumbledore's mouth and sailed narrowly near Lily, making her move away quickly in fright and it flew past her and crashed through one of the windows.
James rushed back to Lily's side. "He sent us a threat letter, sir," she continued on, looking harassed, "and I think that it suggests that James and I should go into hiding." Then she added as an after thought, "sir."
Dumbledore pondered it for a moment, and then looked at them. "What are you doing here?" He said, standing up so suddenly that James flew back in fright, and Lily jumped off the chair just as he toppled it over again.
"Really James," She said to him as she lifted the chair off him. "Get a grip!"
"Sorry, sir, I didn't mean to." James said, getting the chair upright again and sitting in the middle of it, looking ashamed.
"We were telling you about the letter we received from Tom Riddle, sir, and the message seemed to imply that James and I should go into hiding."
Dumbledore thought over it again. "Should go into hiding?" Lily nodded quickly and James nodded sullenly behind her. "May I see the letter?"
"It's written in blood," she said, handing it over. "Who's we didn't try to figure out."
"Would you like to go back in the tower?" Dumbledore asked, conversationally.
"No!" Lily and James screamed. They looked at each other narrowly, and James said politely, "No thank you, sir, it's a bit too cut off and cramped for our likings."
"Ah," Dumbledore said again, aggravating Lily as he read the letter.
"Sir, just tell us what we should do!" Lily said with an edge in her voice.
Dumbledore looked up at them with such a scary twinkle in his eye that Lily backed up into James from fright, and he protectively wrapped his arms around her middle, looking at Dumbledore with his chin resting on top of her head, his eyes narrowed in suspicion.
"Get married."
"Sir?" They both squeaked out.
"What?"
"We're only seventeen sir, that's too early to even think about marriage." James said in his odd high pitched voice he gets whenever something frightens him or startles him completely.
"Of course it isn't!" Dumbledore told them offended.
"Sir," Lily started out defensively, trying to look up at James.
"If he's after you, and probably your baby," Both the teenagers blushed scarlet, "then I suggest you do it. And after all, it's a sin to have premarital marriage."
"Sir that was the only way we would be able to get out of that bloody tower!" James said, outraged.
"Ah, but didn't you find out after you, er, completed it that it opened for you? And James, didn't you go to Godric and he told you it was unlocked the whole time?"
"How'd you know?" Lily gasped, trying to bury herself in James' arms. Then she muttered to James, "You're so embarrassing!"
Dumbledore waved his hand lazily, and a crystal ball floated toward them. "I have my ways of seeing."
They gasped. "PERVERT!" Lily screamed, as James whispered, "How much did you see?"
"Enough, enough to know you two and completely and utterly in a deep love," And then he looked them straight in the eye. "With each other."
"Duh," Lily called out annoyed, not caring that she was talking back to a teacher, he was really bugging her. And the fact he was watching her and James in the tower. She shuddered. Dumbledore bade them to sit down, and they did quickly.
"So," James said, pulling him together, "what should we do?"
"In three months you are both gone from Hogwarts, forever. I will not be able to protect you once you're gone. You need to protect each other. And I know that you'll want to, because of the whole tower time." James and Lily blushed furiously.
Lily burst out, "it's the bloody stupid- sorry professor," she added hastily, covering up her mistake.
He merely sat at his desk and twiddled his thumbs, staring intently at the ceiling. "I have temporarily gone deaf and haven't an idea what you've just said."
"Er- right." She said uncomfortably, shooting a withering glance at James, who had shoved his fist in his mouth to keep from laughing outright. She punched him lightly in the stomach, and Dumbledore was still twiddling his thumbs in front of them. "Professor," she said hesitantly, and he looked down at her with that damn twinkle in his eye. "Are you suggesting that James and I get married for safety?"
"Indeed." The word was light, but the tone was final.
"Okay," Lily said, and stood up and motioned for James to get up as well. He stood behind her. "Thank you sir, but can you let us think it over?"
"Of course, Miss Evans, take as much time as we need." They hurried out of the room, leaving Fawkes alone to deal with the insanity.
"So?" James said with an unusual dash of arrogance that surprised Lily. "Marry me will you? You'll know I'll protect you at any time." He then raised his eyebrows and gave her that heart melting smile. "And best part is we could be in our bed at anytime we want."
"I'll slap you if that's what you want, James." Lily told him coolly, not looking at him. He recoiled and slapped a hand to his cheek to protect it, instead making him shout in a small split of pain. He glared half-heartedly at her. "You did that on purpose."
She laughed loudly, taking his hand away from his face so she could hold it. "I didn't expect you to slap yourself in the face, but hey, that was just as entertaining." He laughed lightly, brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed it.
"Lovely,"
"My hand? Oh, sorry, he's taken. Name's Fred. Other hand is name Ted." She added in an undertone, "With each other."
"You're being odd." He commented amused.
"I've been around you and the Marauders too much lately."
"Fin," Remus said semi-cheerfully, falling into step with them, emerging from a tapestry next to them.
"Fine," James and Lily said together, walking casually with Remus. "Seen Somailia lately?" James said, trying to start up a conversation.
"Yesterday," Remus answered shortly.
"Oh," Lily said, searching her mind for something to talk about with two of her boys around her.
"Somailia and Sirius have been off together lately," Remus confided in them uncomfortably.
"Oh dear," James said.
"I'm sure they're just talking about her still. They were closest to her, after all." Lily said logically.
"Bugger off," the boys said together, "we're trying to be depressed."
"Well, look on the bright side, she's in, as I'm sure you've heard a few too many times now, that she's in a better place."
"That's such a cliché," Remus said nastily.
"I'm just trying to help," Lily said, hurt, but then composed her and kissed both the boys on the cheek. "I'm going to go study." She walked quickly away, glancing over her shoulder at the boys before disappearing around a bend in the hallway.
"Don't keep doing that, Remus," James said quietly, speeding up his pace, which Remus matched easily.
"Can't help it. I've been bitchy these past few months, and then the full moon is two weeks away and the N.E.W.T'S coming up within two months," he heaved a great sigh, "I'm really stressing out."
"Then," James said in the same voice, "release your anger on something that deservers it. And most of all breathe." He then walked away, leaving Remus to ponder what James was saying exactly.
Remus ambled through the cold corridors, hugging himself against the biting cold. Lily's old best friends, Miranda, Guinevere, and Sapphire, came walking up toward him, gossiping loudly and most oblivious to Remus coming. He caught a few snatches of their talk, on accident, of course, "… really, I didn't even know why he liked that stupid little girl, she was just an annoying little bitch. She always had to get the answers right… stupid Ravenclaw… glad she's dead…" Remus stopped dead in his tracks, and the girls, still oblivious to him, collided into him. He caught one of their elbows and held them up, and Guinevere gave him a small smile of thanks that faded instantly into a frown.
"Remus?" She asked quietly, wincing as his grip tightened on her arm. "That hurts, let go!"
"Who was saying that?" He asked her in a low, menacing growl.
"Who was asking what?" She said painfully.
"Who was saying that about Katie!"
"Katie?" Guinevere asked, bewildered. "We weren't talking about her…"
Miranda said snidely, "of course we were, Guinevere darling, but we weren't just talking about her of course. Her, that stupid coconut Somailia Vango," Remus let go of Guinevere and she backed off quickly, looking at him with wide eyes and her hand massaging feeling back into her other arm.
"And don't forget, we were talking about the James Lily fiasco," Sapphire interrupted.
"Ah yes, and them, they'll never get together, that boy is far too arrogant. She has been disappearing lately though, hasn't she?" Miranda asked, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder to look at Sapphire who abruptly nodded. "She's probably gone off with that Black character, she needed to lose her virginity some time, and that man-whore is the perfect person to do it with. He gave me the time of my life, I'm telling you," Miranda said, still looking at Sapphire but talking to Remus.
"You know who you're talking to, don't you?" Remus asked with his teeth clenched and his fists balled so tightly at his sides his knuckles were white. Miranda looked over at him.
"Yes, a boy."
Remus rolled his eyes. "Sirius, James and Lily are my best friends. Somailia is my girlfriend, and Katie was a better person than you'll ever be."
"That bitch?" Miranda asked, and snorted daintily. "Please…"
"You have no idea what you're talking about." Remus said, watching Miranda with an intense glare, malice printed on his face.
"Of course I do, all your friends are stupid numskulls. Lily's turned into a whore's whore and we're left all alone to defend ourselves against the hordes of boys who follow us everywhere."
"And I thought James was conceited." Remus said quietly to himself.
"James is the biggest idiot in the world," Sapphire said to him, her lip curling.
"The only idiots that I know are you two," he said, looking pointedly at Sapphire and Miranda. "I'm surprised that Lily and Guinevere hung with you two for so long. You are a bunch of conceited, shallow, materialist bitches who don't care about anything or anybody but yourselves. And never, ever, talk about my friends that way." Miranda opened her mouth to give her usual retort, "oh go fuck yourself," when he continued on, "And the dead never lie quietly. She'll be back, and your lives will be utter hell."
He swept away from them quickly, breathing heavily and stormed off to the Gryffindor tower. He suddenly grasped that he took James' advice without even realizing it. Well, half of it anyway.
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