Chapter 17: Mostly Happy With A Chance of Strangeness
"Whoever said money can't buy happiness
Simply didn't know where to go shopping." - Bo Derek
"What's the use of happiness? It can't buy you money." - Henny Youngman
Wednesday November 12th, 1979
Lily rested her head on James' shoulder. Sarah had kept her up last night until one o'clock making her help her study for their potions exam. Sarah said she couldn't study by herself. Lily stifled a yawn and earned a few angry looks from her peers still taking the exam. James wrapped his arm around her shoulder. He was so comfortable that she almost fell asleep right there.
I swear I failed that test. That was hard!
Lily groaned. She wasn't in the mood for this she was too tired. You did fine Sarah. We studied all last night. How could you not have passed? You knew everything.
Yeah, I did. Until he handed out the test. Damn. I can't believe this.
Just let it go. How can you even be awake right now? I'm half-asleep.
I had chocolate this morning.
That explains it. I should write a letter to the house-elves so they know not to give you, caffeine, sugar, chocolate, or ice cream of any kind because you get too hyper from it.
I do believe Miss Cassidy is giving you evil looks.
Why now?
Because you and James are so adorable together. And James pays more attention to you than Remus does to her. She's jealous.
But she has a boyfriend!
Nothing I can do.
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Saturday, November 15th, 1979
"Sarah's coming," Lily sighed, untangling herself from James' on the sofa where they had started out studying transfiguration but graduated to the anatomy of each other's tongues.
"What?" James asked in a daze. "How do you know?"
"Hey guys!" Sarah greeted them as she walked into their common room and crossed the room to enter Lily's room where she had moved all her stuff.
"She's still in your room?" James asked her with disbelief.
"What? She's my best friend. And you know her and Cassidy don't get along together at all. Would you really want a repeat of the party just because you can't deal with her sharing my room?" Lily asked him.
"Why don't they get along? They didn't seem that bad off last year," James said.
"They just never really liked each other. I don't know if something happened between the two of them that I don't know about or what. I doubt it, if something happened, Sarah would've told me. She tells me everything," Lily said.
"What about you? Do you tell her everything?" James asked.
"Almost everything."
"What about me?"
"What about you?"
"Would you tell me everything?"
Lily was caught off guard. How was she supposed to answer that? Would she really? If she couldn't even tell Sarah everything, how could she tell him? But she made the mistake of looking into his eyes, filled with concern and love and hope. And she knew she would. He would know everything about her. "I would." This answer seemed to satisfy him and they just sat together in silence, not having any use for words. Suddenly, a loud thump was heard. It came from Lily's bedroom.
Lily jumped up and rushed to her bedroom, flinging the door open. Sarah was lying on the floor with her chair on the floor beside her. When Sarah spotted Lily she picked herself up off of the floor and slammed the notebook on her desk shut and began throwing things into the drawers.
"What's wrong Sarah? Are you ok?" Lily asked.
"Yeah I'm fine," Sarah said, closing the drawer. She picked up the chair and placed it on the floor the right way. "I just fell off the chair. No big deal."
"What were you doing?" Lily asked her, trying to see the cover of the notebook.
"Oh nothing of importance," Sarah said, picking up her notebook and holding it at her side.
"Are you sure?" Lily eyed her suspiciously.
"Yeah, positive Lilei darling. I'm fine. Just go back down to James," she said sitting down on her chair again and placing the notebook on the desk.
"Ok," Lily said half-heartedly and closed the door behind her as she walked out.
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"Well, it was only a matter of time before you succumbed to the infamous Potter charm," he told her, as if it was a common fact. They were patrolling later that night, glad to be alone.
Lily cocked her head to the side. "Is that so?" she asked him.
"Yes," James replied.
And before she could think of a suitable response, James had her up against the wall, his mouth covering hers. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer to her if possible. Lily felt so many different emotions all at once, lust, desire, excitement, nerves, happiness. They stayed like that, Lily's back to the wall and their tongues playing a game only they knew of.
Suddenly they heard footsteps and a shh-ing. They reluctantly broke apart.
A girl giggled, "Trey, stop," she whispered as quietly as she could. The couple rounded the corner, without paying attention. Elisha was pushing Trey's face away from hers with her free hand. The other was holding his. Once they took their eyes off each other they froze in their tracks. Before them stood a very agitated James Potter.
"Detentions, Elisha, Trey, for the next 3 days. And 5 points each for being up past curfew," James told them. "Now, get yourselves to your dorms."
Elisha nodded and the two scurried off in the direction of the Gryffindor Tower.
"Aw, did you have to be so hard on them?" Lily asked, intertwining her fingers with James'.
"Yes, they shouldn't be up at this hour," James replied.
"But usually you give them one detention. Giving them two wouldn't happen to have anything to do with them interrupting anything would it?" Lily asked him.
"Of course not," James told her.
"Ok then," Lily replied, not believing him at all.
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Monday November 17th, 1979
"LILY WAKE UP!" Sarah called out as she tried to shake her friend awake.
"What?" Lily moaned, pulling the covers over her head.
"It's MONDAY!" Sarah squealed, doing a crazy little dance next to Lily's bed. "Do you know what today is?!"
"Your birthday," Lily mumbled from underneath the comforter of her bed.
"YES! I'M SEVENTEEN!" Sarah yelled. "It's my birthday! It's my birthday! It's my birthday!" Sarah sang as she danced around the room.
"Calm down Sarah," Lily said throwing her covers off and getting out of bed. "You have all day to celebrate."
"Hurry Lilei, I'm hungry," Sarah said.
"I'm going, I'm going," Lily said as she grabbed her uniform and went into the bathroom. She tried to move as fast as she could because she knew Sarah would not hesitate to burst right into the bathroom and drag her out, even if she was half naked. When she emerged from the bedroom she found Sarah on her bed laughing at something. Lily walked over to her. Sarah was holding a picture of her and another girl in a city. They were shaking hands with a taxi driver and he looked thoroughly confused.
"Who's that?" Lily asked, pointing to the girl she didn't recognize.
"Oh that's my cousin Mish. She took me to New York City over the summer, remember?"
"Yeah I remember," Lily said sitting down next to her so she could see the pictures better.
"Come on, we better get down to breakfast," Sarah said standing up and dragging Lily out of the room by her wrist. Lily managed to grab the pictures and her bag before the door shut behind them.
Once they reached the Great Hall Sarah pulled Lily down into the seat next to her.
"Mmmm, pancakes," Sarah said as she piled a stack of them on her plate and drenched them in syrup.
"Sarah, you're going to get sick with all that syrup, that cannot be good for you," Lily said shaking her head.
"It doesn't matter. It's my birthday, I can do whatever I want!"
"Hey guys. Happy birthday Sarah," Lane said sitting down across from them.
"Hey Lane," Sarah greeted her. She noticed Cassidy wasn't around.
They ate breakfast in peace. Lily noticed that Sarah didn't even complain about classes once the whole day through. She seemed blissfully peaceful and didn't talk back to the teachers, and even answered a few questions.
Once classes were over for the day Sarah told Lily that she was going back to her room and Lily nodded. As soon as Sarah was out of earshot, Lily turned to James. "James, you have to take me down to the kitchens," she told him.
"Why?" he asked.
"Because it's Sarah's birthday, and I want to see if they can make her a cake or something. Please?" she asked him.
"Of course," he said.
"Hey! I want to come too!" Sirius said. James led the way down to the kitchens and once inside they were surrounded by house-elves. Tibby, the elf that had greeted them before stepped forward.
"What can Tibby be getting for the masters and miss today?" he asked, bowing.
"Is there any way you could make a cake?" Lily asked them, praying that they could somehow.
"A cake?" Tibby squeaked.
Lily nodded.
"Of course!" Tibby said and motioned to some other elves who started to bring out supplies.
Lily bit her bottom lip nervously. "Um, could you possibly send it to the Heads' room around seven-thirty? Along with some other food?" Lily asked Tibby.
Tibby nodded vigorously, "Of course miss!"
"It wouldn't be too much trouble?"
"Oh no miss! We'd be happy to oblige!" Tibby reassured her, clapping his small hands together in anticipation.
Lily breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you," she said and nodded to James who led the way out of the kitchens.
"Alright, Sirius I need you to take care of Sarah while James and I decorate the Heads' room," Lily told him while James wrapped his arm around her waist.
"Sure," Sirius nodded.
"Thanks," Lily said.
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"Alright, Remus could you help Lane put that banner up?" Lily asked handing the banner to Lane. Remus nodded and walked towards Lane and took one end of it. Suddenly Tibby and a mass of house elves and food appeared in the middle of the room. "Tibby!" Lily exclaimed at the sight that appeared before here.
"Is this enough food, miss?" Tibby asked her peering over a huge tower of ice cream, which was white with little chocolate specks. Cookies 'n cream maybe?
Boy they have good memories. "Yes, Tibby. This is enough food. Thank you," Lily said.
Tibby nodded, "Anything for the masters." And with a little pop he and the rest of the house elves disappeared.
Lily took a deep breathe and surveyed the room. It looked good, with the banner Remus and Lane had just hung, the food, and the little pile of presents on the table. Remus, James, Lane, Lia, and Celia were all standing in a circle talking, waiting for Sarah to arrive. Lily walked over to their little group, when she heard the portrait moving. "Shh!" she called out quietly. "She's coming!"
"Stop it Sirius," Sarah's voice could be heard saying, getting closer. "Why is it so-" she was cut off by the sight of her friends and the decorations spanning the room.
"Happy Birthday Sarah!" everyone shouted at the same time.
"Aw! You guys!" Sarah said as she made her way towards everyone. Lily reached her first and gave her a hug. "Thank you Lily," Sarah said.
The eight of them sat around and ate the food that the elves had brought. James and Remus bought Sarah what seemed to be like half of Honeydukes. Sirius bought Sarah a small silver bracelet. Lia and Celia bought her nail polishes, a bottle of perfume, and other girly things.
"My turn," Lily said and handed Sarah a small wrapped box.
Sarah took the box and unwrapped it. It was a small jewelry box. Sarah shot Lily a questioning look and Lily just shrugged. Sarah opened the box and gasped. It was her necklace with that had broken years ago and she had never gotten fixed. It was silver with an XO hanging from the chain and a little topaz stone, her birthstone, dropping from the O. It was her favorite necklace and she was devastated when it broke in the middle of fourth year. "Thank you Lily!" Sarah said and wrapped her best friend into a hug. When she released Lily, Sarah carefully picked up her gift and placed it around her neck.
Celia let out a yawn from her spot on the sofa. "It's getting late. We should probably head back to our dorm," Celia said as she stood up with Lia by her side. "Happy Birthday Sarah," she and Lia said as they made their way to the hole.
"'Bye thanks guys!" Sarah called back as the two figures made their way to the other side of the portrait.
"We should probably go back too," Lane reasoned. "I don't know who's patrolling tonight." Remus nodded and they all wished Sarah a happy birthday one last time before leaving James, Lily, and Sarah alone in the Heads' Room.
Sarah turned to the couple. "Thanks for doing this for me. It really means a lot. And thanks for not letting Cassidy come."
"Of course, babe. I didn't think you'd want to get into a fight on your birthday," Lily said.
"You were right. I'm going upstairs to bed. 'Night you two," Sarah said as she left Lily and James alone.
"Thank you James for helping me," Lily said, wrapping her arms around his neck once Sarah was gone.
"Anything for you Lily," James replied, kissing her on her forehead.
Lily smiled and gave him a quick kiss goodnight. She walked to her door, feeling James' eyes watching here. It sent shivers up and down her spine, just knowing he was always watching her. She changed into her night clothes and as she crawled into bed, she noticed a large box next to Sarah's bed that hadn't been there before. Sarah was fast asleep, turned on her side away from the box. Lily pushed the covers off of her, and quietly stepped out of bed. She crept to the box, and slid it across the floor to the small lamp beside her bed. Lily tried to open it as quietly as she could. The box was filled with notebooks and painting supplies. Lily pulled out assorted sizes of brushes and different coloured paints. The notebooks were all blank on the inside. Beneath the paintings she found boxes of coloured pencils of every imaginable colour. Lily looked up to Sarah's sleeping form. These had to be for Sarah, but why? Sarah had never mentioned that she painted or drew. Or that she even wanted to. At the very bottom of the box was a brand-new wizard camera. That Lily understood. Sarah had always loved to take pictures. She carefully placed everything back inside the box. On the side of the box, there was a letter that Lily had missed seeing. She opened the envelope and took out the letter. She quickly scanned it. Happy Birthday…know you'll like this…a present…forever to find it all…right kind...Love, Dad. It was from Sarah's father. Didn't her mum send her anything? Strange, Lily thought as she stuffed the letter back into the envelope and pushed the box back into its place next to Sarah's bed. Lily climbed back into her bed and pulled the covers up around her. She decided to ask Sarah what was inside the box the next morning, hopefully being able to get some answers from her that way. At least she liked her necklace. Thank goodness she didn't notice it was gone. She would've had my head if she knew it was gone. She does love that necklace.
A/N: Eeeek. Yeah. It's been like forever. My bad. But I did survive the AP World History test!!! Omg it was so great, we had a fire drill right in the middle of the essay part. And all three of the essays had to do with China (which we spent the least amount of time on) so basically every single one of us BS-ed the essays. And then we went to Fiorie's (a pizza shop) afterwards to celebrate being done.
But school is over!!!!!
So now I can start on my summer work =[
Next year I'm taking AP Biology (with the same freaking psycho-lock-her-up-please teacher), AP American History (I have been informed is really really hard. One of the hardest courses, yay me), Pre-AP English and Pre-AP Chemistry (incredibly difficult, plus I hate math). Thank god I suck at math so I'm not in Honors Algebra II. That'd be overload. tests next year. Everyone thinks I'm crazy because I'm taking all these courses. So yeah, can't wait for next year and all that work….
BUT NO SPANISH NEXT YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So happy about that. She's like the meanest strictest Foreign Language teacher EVER!
And I have been writing. Basically everything but this story. (sorry) But maybe you should go and read my other stories while you're waiting for me to update.
I'm like 273583x excited for the next chapter. I love writing those kinds. (Hopefully it'll come out like I want it to. I'm hoping.)
Review?? (I know you want to.)
[July 1st = Panic! At the Disco concert!!!!!!!!]