A/N- Can you say long time and no update? I can. I'm terribly sorry…I forget that I actually have readers and I don't just write for fun. Well, I do…but…back to the point. This chapter will magnify Lily and James' relationship like many of you requested. I always planned to do this chapter for a very good reason. I also have to update my other story that has more of a plot than this one. REMEMBER, they are still in first year. They're naïve. So, none of that PG-13 stuff just yet. Alright? Alright. I'm a realistic person when it comes to writing and I follow canon. I just do it my own way. Enjoy!
DISCLAIMER- I never did one of these…hmm. Anyway, the storyline and almost all the characters belong to J.K. Rowling. The plot and Jade belong to meee.
Oh, I've started to do song lyrics…they go perfectly with this chapter. I realized AFTER I wrote the chapter. Can you tell?
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When marimba rhythms start to play
Dance with me, make me sway
Like a lazy ocean hugs the shore
Hold me close, sway me more
-Michael Buble { Sway }
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"Aren't you going to pack, Jade?" inquired Lily as she daintily folded a pressed, lavender blouse and gingerly laid it inside a smooth, black trunk.
"What? Oh, about that…" Jade trailed off as somebody rapped his knuckles on the mahogany door of the girl's dormitory. The two ladies traded suspicious glances.
"Lily? Are you in there?" came an unfamiliar voice.
"Lils, who is that?" asked Jade. Lily shrugged and opened the door. James was there standing in his pajamas with little snitches all over them.
"Hey! How'd you get past the stairs? Aren't they supposed to turn into a slide?" asked Lily disbelievingly as she eyed the stairwell.
"Nevermind that, I need to talk to you. It's about your charms essay," said James nervously. Lily could sense something askew. First of all, James wasn't looking her in the eye and thought the flower pattern on her headband to be much more interesting. Secondly, there was no charms essay. For him to lie so badly would mean something important.
"Er…sure. I'll be right back, Jade. Get a move on packing!" warned Lily as the door shut. Jade looked around to see if anyone else was there. When the coast was clear, she reached under her bed and pulled out a broken chrome music box. The ballerina was inside with many notes and letters. She chose a cream-colored envelope that bared the ministry emblem on it. Jade slipped out a white piece of parchment. It read:
To Charlotte,
I have recently heard of your house visiting Illustris in Switzerland over the winter break. I'm sorry to say you will not be going for your mother and I are hosting a ball and you must help us prepare. This is a very big promotion for me at the ministry and it would only be proper if my only daughter was attending. Your mother will buy your dress without you, any tailoring will be done on Sunday. Come home on the train, Eliza will pick you up. Am I clear?
-Your father
As Jade read every word over and over again, the anger in her throat boiled and made its way to her mouth but stopped there as the mahogany door opened once again.
"What's that?" asked Lily, seeing the envelope from the Ministry.
"It's just a-," Jade began, but, yet again, she was cut off.
"Did you start packing?" asked Marian as she flung the door open. Lily looked at her as if the answer was obvious.
"Good because a first year Hufflepuff is throwing a party tonight! And to think, the night before we leave. How could he pull it off? All the people the matter are going," shrieked Marian excitedly. Leave it to her to know about the latest things.
Lily scoffed. "I'm not going. I have only packed a few good blouses, I need to finish before morning. When is it?" commented Lily as she sauntered over to her suitcase.
"Only and hour and a half from now. How about you, Jade? Are you going to go?" asked Marian as she plopped onto Alice's bed and sat on her fairy statue. The crack sounded throughout the room. The girl looked in horror at the beheaded fairy.
"No…no, no, no, no, NO! Alice is going to go bonkers!" shouted Marian. Lily laughed and, with the swish of her wand, the fairy found her head. The sweet, purple little thing kicked her feet angrily at Marian. Jade giggled.
"Actually, I think I'll go," said Jade.
"Go where?" asked Marian as she cautiously sat on her bed, making sure nothing was there.
"To the party, of course," answered Jade as she put away the letter and picked up her broomstick. Marian nodded her head, remembering her unanswered question.
"Have you gone mad? You haven't even brought out your suitcase!" said Lily. Sometimes, she could act just like anybody's mother.
"I'm not going to Switzerland," said Jade trying to shrug it off as if it wasn't a big deal. But of course, it was.
"WHAT?!" cried the two girls in unison. Marian stopped fiddling with her picture album and Lily dropped some lacy knickers.
"My dad is making me stay home to attend his "promotion ball". I would've told you earlier, but I didn't really have a chance," Jade said as she rolled her eyes and searched under Marian's bed for a quaffle.
"I can't believe it! Yours and Sirius' only time outside of school and you aren't even going?" Lily teased. Jade threw a stuffed giraffe that she uncovered from the bed at Lily and stuck out her tongue.
"At least you and James can cozily cuddle up near a burning fire sharing a blanket," cooed Marian as she acted out the imagery. This time, Lily threw the giraffe at Marian.
"Look, I really wanted to go. But, I'm used to this. My father is overprotective. It took him weeks to actually get the idea that I'll be gone for most of the year. He can't take that. Here, read the letter," chided Jade as she grabbed the quaffle and reached for the letter.
"Oh, so that's what that was; your dad's letter!" realized Lily. She scanned the parchment and her face turned from placid to infuriated. Marian grabbed it and did the same.
"Why is he so distant from you?" asked Marian inconsiderately. She immediately realized that it wasn't the best thing to say.
"Don't worry about it. He's always like that. Not much of a family person. I grew up with it, don't feel pity for me. I know nothing else," said Jade. They knew better than to talk about it anymore.
"You're going to play Quidditch before the party? Don't you want to get ready?" asked Marian as she already started towards the bathroom and noticed what Jade had been doing.
"No. Unlike you two, taking hours to get ready is not on my priority list. It's good weather. My parents rarely let me go over to the Quidditch Pitch near my country home. I never know when I'll get to play Quidditch next," called Jade as she rushed down the stairs with her broom and quaffle.
-*-
"Catch!" shouted Remus as he threw an apple at Sirius, a pear at Peter and an orange at James.
"Wow, Lupin can throw. Ever considered trying out for chaser?" smirked James as he threw some wood into the fireplace of the common room.
"No! Remember, I'm the one who doesn't like Quidditch? There's no point in flying around during the cold weather. It's called a waste of time," said Remus truthfully.
"Yes, you are absolutely right. But, wasting my time is what I do best!" remarked Sirius.
"Oh really? Just yesterday you said it was charming the ladies," said innocent Peter.
"Yeah, that too."
"Hey, when are you going to tell Evans that you stole her knickers?" asked Sirius.
"No, I'll tell her you stole them. In fact, I'll tell her right now!" said James playfully as he started to get up, but he was pinned down by Sirius and they started tumbling around. They didn't even notice Professor McGonagall walk in.
"Potter, Black, what are you doing?" questioned McGonagall in shock. The two boys looked at her and then at each other. They sprang up from the ground and straightened their shirts and ties.
"We were just…err…practicing Defense Against the Dark Arts, Professor. One on one combat," lied James. She disbelievingly shook her head and walked into her office. The two boys went back to their chairs.
"In fact, I do have to tell Evans something. Remember when she had that sickness? Yeah? Well, how did she get it? Everyone else who was diagnosed with it went to Hogsmeade, but she didn't go," said James seriously. The boys frowned and just shook their heads in confusion. Why would they care? She's better now, isn't she?
James talked to Lily, but they couldn't hear what he was saying. All they saw was that Lily was having a civil conversation with him.
"Alright. So, are you guys going to Travis' party? He's sneaking butterbeer from the kitchens, he showed me where they are. Come on, I'll take you there," urged James. He just wanted to get out of the common room. The rest of their time was spent getting fat and then fatter. Remus, however, still looked sickly thin and pale. Was he getting that plague?
Only moments after they left, Jade came waltzing down the stairs and out onto the cold Quidditch pitch.
-*- Later that night
"Where's Jade? She said she'd be here," asked Emmeline to Lily. Lily had finally caved in, she had left her suitcase to go to the bash for just a few hours. Then, supposedly, she would leave.
"I don't know, do you think she got hurt? I'll go to the Quidditch pitch to see!" mumbled Lily a little too quickly. As she made a move to leave, Alice grabbed her hand.
"Oh no you don't! You aren't getting out of it that fast, she's probably just running late. Look! There's James, why don't you go talk to him?" goaded Selene Trimble as she spotted messy, black hair and hazel eyes.
"NO!" shouted Lily in annoyance.
"Why not, Lily? I mean, he IS your friend," smiled Alice as she pushed Lily to James and Sirius.
"Er, Hi?" said Lily weakly. James looked at her as if she was a ghost.
"Do you know where Jade is?" asked Sirius. He scanned the crowd for any sign of her, but couldn't see anything. Travis, the host, approached them.
"You mean that hot blonde girl? She just came in. Why? You like her? Because, she's mighty fine, and I don't know, man. All I'm saying is that you don't see many girls like her," sang Travis in his weird accent. He was a strange one, but he knew how to make a party.
"Yeah, I kind of am into her," commented Sirius in a gruff, superior tone. Almost protectively. How could he forget that Jade was a metamorphagus?
Lily rolled her eyes. James laughed. It was just the two of them now.
"So…I'm at a loss for words," said James. Lily looked amazing. She didn't have the loose Hogwarts uniform on. Instead, she was actually wearing some khaki capris and a berry-colored fitted turtleneck sweater.
"Clearly since you aren't saying anything," smiled Lily. She also admired James' sense of style. He actually didn't dress as if `mirror' wasn't in his vocabulary.
"You know what, you want to dance?" asked James, sucking up the courage to do so. Lily didn't look shocked. She wasn't surprised. It was almost inevitable. Everyone was dancing around them.
"Sure," said Lily politely. A marimba rhythm started to play and they swayed to the music.
Back at the entrance to the sound-proof room of requirement, as the seventh years called it, Jade was nearly knocked over by Travis trying to reach her before Sirius.
"Hey there, would you care to bust a move with me?" flirted Travis in his not-so-smooth air.
Jade nearly laughed, but knew better. She said she was tired from playing Quidditch. Truth is she could've flown all day. Only a few seconds later, though, Sirius approached her.
"How was your Quidditch session?" asked Sirius in the manner of conversation. He only had one thing on his mind though, dancing with her.
"I wouldn't exactly call it a session; it was more like a spur of the moment thing. I mean, I had to take advantage of the good weather. My parents never let me play in the Quidditch pitch at my friend's house," said Jade glumly.
"What? What are you talking about? We'll be in Switzerland!" smiled Sirius.
"Actually, I'm not going. My dad is having a "promotion ball" as I like to call it. All the elite families from the ministry come. Usually, my room is locked and I'm forced to be on the first floor ballroom with everyone else like a showcase. I have to dress up in a new, sparkly dress that my mom picks out with me and smile like a little china doll. It's absolutely ghastly how every teenage boy feels obliged to talk to me. Most of them just try to be polite, others are plain jerks," complained Jade. She noticed that the whole conversation was centered on her and a blush crept up onto her cheeks.
"Sounds like great fun," commented Sirius sarcastically. They laughed. He was trying to cover up his disappointment that she wouldn't be joining him.
"Don't you notice the chemistry between Lily and James? Look at them move!" smirked Jade as she pointed at the two kids. Good, the topic was away from her.
The rest of the night, Sirius didn't get his wish. Lily and James danced until their feet hurt while Sirius and Jade just talked about everything. That one wish…just snatched away from him.
Oh, remember Lily promising to stay for 3 hours or so? It was 2 o' clock in the morning when they left.
-*-
"All first years! Step up!" shouted Urbula, the astronomy teacher, to the scared kids. When they thought their transportation was flying carpets, jaws dropped.
"What are you staring at? Oh, the carpets. No, you all will be in the boats. The carpets are for seventh years," said Professor McGonagall nonchalantly when she strode down the hill.
There were some groans and some relieved sighs from the first years as they boarded the larger boats. These boats could fit about 7 people at a time. Of course, the Marauders were sitting together. The five girl group hoped to be together, but Selene was taken by some of her Hufflepuff friends, Susan wasn't going and Emmeline was pushed onto another boat. That left Alice, Lily and Marian to sit with the Marauders. This definitely wasn't a surprise; the teachers had begun to think that they were all friends. When, actually, they were not. The three girls looked sick before they even went to sea. After they boarded, the boat drifted at a slow but steady rate.
"Remus, are you seasick?" asked Lily. He still wore the pale countenance they became familiar with, but it looked different.
"Yes," his cheeks lost even more color and he vomited over the side of the boat.
"Oh, Merlin, this is going to be a long trip," Sirius looked disgusted. He was still a little down that Jade wasn't going. She was probably on the Hogwarts Express right now.
"Look! Up there! What is that?" asked Peter. He pointed to a part of the sky, but nobody saw anything except for Sirius.
"What are you talking about?" asked Marian. She was getting a little seasick herself. The boat had no ropes, just a pole and mast. It was, obviously, magically powered.
"Oh, that's a thestral, Peter," remarked Sirius boringly as they all squinted to see what those two were seeing.
"I can't see anything," said Alice. Lily was painting Alice's nails, Remus was reading a book and James was lying on the starboard side, trying to look out into the horizon.
"That's because you've never seen someone die. Thestrals are symbols of death and grief. They pull our carriages to the school, my cousin told me so. If you haven't seen someone die, then you can't see them."
Nobody said anything, but Lily was unusually quiet. She could see the magnificent flying horse and it wasn't something she would likely share.
A/N- Liked it? Isn't it a bit longer than my other chapters? Yes, I think it is. Oh well, that'll keep you fulfilled until next time.
QUESTION- Who did Lily see die?
ANSWER- Like I'll answer it, find out in the next chapter! I'll probably upload next week, when school's over and I'm not in shock at how fast it went by.
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