There is a character here named Asiata MacRulla. It's pronounced ASS-SEE-ATTA. The nick name James gives her is Asia, pronounced ASSIA (all short vowels).
-Chapter Seven: Just My Cup of Tea
-By Natali K. A.
(-What Really Happened That Night In The Car-)
"Don't blame Dumbledore," he whispered against her mouth. "He wasn't the one who sent you here, so don't be bitter about it."
"I'm not bitter," she said quickly. "I was, I'll admit. But it's so different. I don't-"
"Have to fake being someone else?" he offered. He silenced her with another peck on the edge of her mouth.
"Mmm hmm," she agreed, begging for more with her deep, all-seeing eyes. "If Dumbledore didn't send me here though, who…?"
James gave her a brief, evil grin. "I did."
Lily pulled back, then said slowly, "I thought you knew something I didn't know. There's more, isn't there?"
"Too much."
"Should I get ready for an earful?"
"And then some."
Lily laughed, and relaxed in his arms. "You're just full of surprises aren't you? Go ahead then. It can't be worse than what I already know-that I'm at the mercy of some prick in some God-forsaken second world country."
"Haven't you ever noticed anything weird about you, Lily?" James whispered close to her ear, making an intimate conversation a lot more intimate. "Like… certain things happen without you actually trying to make them happen?"
"What on earth are you talking about?"
"That you can… do magic… without a wand."
Lily almost stopped breathing for a moment, then furrowed her perfect eyebrows before James smoothed them down with his lips.
"That's not possible."
He smiled in an almost wicked way. "Oh? Why don't you try it?"
"What exactly should I do?" Lily said, almost sarcastically. "Kill Victor from all the way over here with his dinner fork?"
"I don't know. Something easy. Try…I don't know, a warming charm. It's somewhat cool, isn't it?"
She did, and to her surprise, it sort of worked. She felt a warming sensation down at her toes, slithering upwards until she stopped thinking the incantation. "That must happen to everyone. Every witch and wizard can do that."
James shook his head. "Nice try. Why don't you try it again, and concentrate this time."
"Might help a bit if you got off me," she laughed. "I can barely breathe."
He blushed, not easy for a suave guy to do, and pushed himself off her with his arms. "Alright, so go ahead. I dare you to try and tell me that you can't do it."
I can do this, Lily thought, wondering whether she should twitch her nose, or blink and cross her arms, or do something special… What is all this about? she wondered.
"Do I… say it, or just… think it?" she asked, still uncertain. Was he playing with her, maybe trying to make fun of her?
"No need. But if that's what you want to do…" he shrugged.
This time, when she thought the incantation, the warmth spread all up and down her body, and she was warmer than she'd been a bare minute ago.
James laughed. "You'll get used to it. Dumbledore thought you should know-"
"He's known all this time and he hasn't told me?" she whispered, hugging her knees, suddenly self consciously of her half-naked body. "I'm more of a freak than Petunia thinks?" She hung her head, fighting tears. "She was right, all these years. Not even in a world where I'm supposed to belong do I belong. It's not fair."
"It's not something to be ashamed of," James told her softly. "Hold your head up high, Lily, and never be ashamed of what you are. And if you are, then change it so that you're not."
"So what does this mean?"
"I'm not sure I'm the one to tell you. There's a lot of questions that you'll want answered that I can't. We can meet up with Dumbledore and-"
"I just want to be a normal person. I don't want riches, I don't want the world, I don't want a million clothes. I want to be able to wake up every morning without counting down to my last day of freedom," she told him, looking away. "I've only been here a few days, James-I'm being tossed around! I don't know up from down or left from right, and I just want to know what the truth."
She seemed distressed, and he felt honestly sorry for her. But he couldn't tell her-he didn't even know where to being-and he felt useless.
"Look, life was never supposed to be easy," he sighed as she put up the proverbial wall between them. "We were chosen-"
"Don't give me that crap!" Lily snapped. "I was `chosen' to sacrifice my life for my father's stupid whims. I've got enough on my plate!"
James didn't deny it. "But you're strong enough to handle it, Lily. Most other people aren't. You are who you are because there was no one better to do it. Do everything to the best of your ability." He gave her a look of sympathy, but not pity.
It was refreshing. She didn't want it. She might deserve it, but she didn't want it.
Those who wanted pity didn't deserve it, and those who did, didn't want it. It was how the earth worked.
You want something but shouldn't get it, and you should get something but don't want it.
"Tell it to someone who wants to hear your sob story," he said firmly, but not unkindly. Something else she wasn't used to. "Tell someone who cares that you were a bitch at school. Tell someone who cares about the fact that you're going to go off and screw some weirdo on your birthday."
Lily laughed. "I'm such a screw up sometimes. So what exactly can you tell me?"
James reached into his back pocket, and came out with a gorgeous gold band, plain but mysteriously alluring with a radiant dull glow to it. "Not much, but this is yours."
"And what does it do?"
"No idea."
"What do you know?"
James smirked for a moment. "It's complicated."
"And Dumbledore? What does he know?"
"Possibly everything."
Lily sighed heavily. "If it's not one thing, it's the other."
"Definitely," James agreed. "Are you… Are you ok with this?"
"No, but I don't really have a choice. But what about Victor? When he comes for me, what am I supposed to do-refuse and say I've got these `special powers'?"
James didn't reply immediately. "Patience. Anyway, Dumbledore wanted to come for a visit as soon as I grew the balls to tell you this. But I have a feeling he has no idea about your father's little deal with Victor."
Lily scrunched her nose. "I don't think so either. I guess we've all been keeping secrets from each other. So what's your secret, Potter?"
James hesitated. "Not now. Maybe some other time." But there would be a time.
Lily nodded, resting her head in his lap. "Alright. Would you mind it terribly if I went to sleep? I can't think of another way to relax…Sometimes I get tired of dealing with life."
"I get it," he chuckled, conjured a blanket for her. "No problem. Is here ok, or inside?"
"No, I'm just fine right where I am…" she sighed. "I can't be bothered to move."
*~*
One week later, Lily and James were in Dumbledore's office. She reviewed that night in James' car-when she'd been so close to losing that damned virginity of hers-in preparation for what was to come.
She'd finally find out what James had been unable to explain. Well, she would anyway, if Dumbledore would decide to show up already.
Just as she thought it, the door to the office opened up. "How are you feeling, Lily? I'd heard from James' mum that you weren't feeling 100% the other day," Dumbledore said kindly, kissing her cheek and shaking James' hand before sitting behind his desk.
"Let's be blunt, shall we? I'm a druggie," Lily said, only half joking. "But thank you for asking. I'm feeling… empty. I'm used to having some sort of drug in me…"
Dumbledore nodded. "Muggle drugs are very interesting. I was once enrolled at a local college just to take a course about them. Muggles are very different from the magical world, even in the drugs we take to stimulate us."
"Sounds riveting," James remarked, nodding hello to the old Headmasters hanging on Dumbledore's wall. "Hello all! Have you missed me?"
"Not precisely our feelings, you little trouble maker!" one gray-haired witch snarled, in an almost loving way.
"Nice to see you too, Asia."
"Do not call me Asia, you little scoundrel! My name is Asiata MacRulla, and that's what you'll call me, or-!"
"Enough," Dumbledore smiled. "Both of you know that you love being called Asia, Asiata, especially by James. Now, to business. I've looked over the letter you sent me, Lily, explaining your… erm, complication. I've also tried to figure out who this Victor character is." Dumbledore looked at her over his half moon glasses. "I've got a few people who owe me more than a few favors, and they're on that as we speak. But as for now…"
"As for now, I need to find out exactly what you've withheld from me, if you please," Lily demanded, taking charge as she always did. "I only wish that we didn't have to be here in this school. These were not the greatest of memories for me, Dumbledore."
"I insist that you call me Albus."
"Alright, then."
"What kind of things was your father into, Lily?" Dumbledore asked, settling into his chair.
"A lot of things relating to time. Father was very much absorbed in his work. He did a lot of work for the British government concerning computers-a muggle device. He would often be gone for a year, easily. He was devoted to his work, and even if he wasn't such a great father, he was a bloody good scientist."
"Who did he work for?" James asked. "Do you want something to drink or munch on?"
"You say that as if you live here instead of Albus," she smiled.
"I spent a lot of time here during school," James smiled. "Tea anyone?"
"That sounds like just the thing, James," Dumbledore smiled, taking off his half moon spectacles. "Your father did work for who?"
"I'm not sure," Lily chuckled, as if hiding some secret. "My father wasn't either."
"That doesn't make any sense," James said, puzzled. "Wouldn't your father have been told who he was going to be working for?"
"Naturally," she shrugged, accepting the cup of tea that James handed her. "But they would wipe his memory after it." She sipped her tea and savored the looks of shock on their faces.
"Like... a memory charm? Did he work for wizards?" Dumbledore asked.
"No. They were muggles."
"I've never heard of muggles wiping someone's memory before. Would there be any side effects or dangers?"
"Not that we ever knew about. But they did it with some sort of machine." Lily shrugged. "He could never remember much."
"Why would they wipe his memory?" Dumbledore questioned. "Wouldn't it be more logical to keep him in case something he worked on went wrong?"
"I really don't know. All I know is that we were well kept and never saw him. And that he royally messed up my life, but nothing new there."
Dumbledore thought this over, playing with the tips of his beard. "Well, I don't really know what to tell you. Have you ever tried contacting Victor and seeing if the man would be lenient with you and allow-"
"He's very adamant about my fulfilling my father's promise," Lily muttered. "As you know, the deal was that in return for the wand he gave my father, I would have to go to him as payment if I hadn't fallen in love by my nineteenth birthday. Father died, leaving me with this pain in the arse to take care of."
"So what do you propose we do?" Dumbledore asked softly.
"How should I know?" Lily sighed. "I haven't believed in `true love' in a very long time, Albus."
"And James? What are the chances with him?"
Lily shifted uncomfortably-really, James was still in the room-and sort of thought it over. "I've come to terms with the fact that I might not live to see myself turn nineteen."
"If there's one thing you have to learn in life, Miss Evans," Asia said from her painting, "let it be that you should never settle. It is about the very worst thing you could do to yourself."
Lily turned towards the old headmistress. "That's exactly what I'm doing. I'm not settling for Victor."
"Victor will take care of himself," Asiata laughed, brushing it off. She winked at James. "Mr. Potter is very good at things like that. Aren't you, boy?"
"I don't know what boy you're looking at, Asiata," a Headmistress from the early 13th century giggled, eyeing James. "That's 100% man right there."
"Ladies, ladies, please," James smiled charmingly, and Lily couldn't resist a grin. "We've got more important matters to worry about than my handsomeness."
"Not at all conceited either," Michel Harris commented dryly from his portrait next to Asiata. "Good for you."
"Sarcasm doesn't suit you, Michel," Dumbledore interjected. "Right. Back to the matter at hand. Relax, Lily, and let life lead you to wherever life will lead you to."
Lily smiled sadly, looking close to tears. "I'm tired of being led, Headmaster. If you two will excuse me a moment, I'd like to use the toilet. Then we can come back and you can explain to me why I don't need my wand." She rose and left James and Dumbledore to their own devices.
"James, I trust that you'll take care of this little complication, correct?" the old man chuckled, eyes twinkling merrily, and not without a dash of mischief in them.
"Have I ever disappointed you, Albus?" James asked.
"Only when you were caught snogging the daughter of the Minister of Magic. I had to do a lot of begging and pleading to get you let off." Dumbledore shook his head and finished the last of his tea. "Your skills at conjuring tea improve by the very day."
"Why thank you. After inhabiting this office for so long and preparing tea, one would have to become good at it." James rose, and extended his hand, all serious. "I'll do my very best to keep from failing."
"I know."
"What do you think was up with Lily's wretch of a father?"
"I'm not sure. I know of a few influential people in the muggle world who can help me figure this out. It shouldn't take me more than a week."
"Will you be doing this illegally?" James snickered.
"Most likely. But then again, I do most of my business interactions like that, don't I?"
"Mr. Evans should consider himself very lucky to be dead."
"Why is that?"
"Because if he weren't, I would be forced to murder him myself and be sent to Azkaban."
Dumbledore suppressed a grin.
Lily came back a minute later.
"Now, what do you have to tell me?"
*~*
Lily sat numbly on the edge of her bed, thinking over the conversation she, Dumbledore, and James had had just two hours before.
Every century or so, there is a man and a woman who have inexplicable powers. They can't do anything out of the ordinary, except wandless magic which is quite difficult to do, though not impossible. It's actually very learnable. The thing is, this wandless magic is done without any effort.
Lily squeezed her eyes shut. There were so many emotions rolling around in her-pain, grief, anger, fright, confusion, and most of all curiosity… And she didn't know which one to vent first.
They came up with a term for these such people-Careo-Virga. It's Latin, as most things are…
Lily grabbed her pillow, transfigured it into a vase-without a wand-and threw it as hard as she could against the wall. The crash it made was amazing, and it described exactly how she felt. She didn't give a damn who she bothered.
But nor did she want to leave that mark on the wall, or for someone to step on the shards of ceramic. Out of habit, she pulled out her wand and picked it up, the vase coming back together again. It changed back to a pillow, and she set it back down on her bed.
There were a few things she had to do, she decided, as she walked out of her room.
"Lily, are you alright? What was that crash I heard?" Jenny asked as Lily walked straight past her.
"Don't worry about it. I cleaned it up."
There was a certain person she had to speak to.
*~*
A/N: Well, there it is! A little later in the day than usual, but on time nonetheless! Much love, my dears!!
Xoxo
Natali K. A.
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