Chapter 11
I know- an update so soon after the last one?! What is this world coming to??
Enjoy!
Lily awoke to a furious pounding in her head. She couldn't remember what had happened the night before and when she tried to the pounding intensified. It was as if a hundred owls were pecking their way through her skull. She was going to die, she was sure of it.
She snuggled deeper into the covers, trying to burrow her way through the bed. Hopefully this would make things more comfortable. It took a few seconds to notice that what she was burying her head into wasn't cotton. It felt more like blue jeans, in fact. And smelled like oranges for some reason.
Sitting up, Lily discovered that opening her eyes made it far too bright in the room, what with the sun streaming in through the wide windows. When she could finally focus again she couldn't believe what she saw. She rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't dreaming.
James was lying in what looked like a rather uncomfortable position, his head turned at a weird angle to avoid the headboard. Apparently Lily had slept on his lap all night.
Now it felt like someone was drilling a hole through her head. Holy crap.
Did something happen last night that lead to this? Did…did she and James…? No…No!! For Merlin's sake, we still have all of our clothes on! Nothing happened…right?
Lily closed her eyes and tried to picture last night. Memories were blurry; she could see a myriad of butterbeers, lots of dizzying colors, and her sitting on top of something really fuzzy, but that was it. Nothing too out of the ordinary. Except for the fact that she and James slept in the same bed all night.
James turned over on his stomach, catching Lily's hand beneath his body. A blush crawled over her skin, making it three shades brighter. She quickly pulled her hand out. It was still warm and now smelled slightly like oranges too.
The movement woke James up, his hazel eyes glazed over until he saw Lily, which brought a bright smile to his face. Lily's blush deepened, if that was possible.
"Why do you smell like oranges?" she blurted out, unable to control her motor skills. James looked at her with a lopsided grin, making her insides turn to mush.
"Who wants to hurt the green puppies?" he countered.
Lily's eyes widened and she nearly crumpled in pain. Apparently any movement of the face resulted in mind-numbing throbbing. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She said evasively, picking at a snag in the bed comforter.
"Then you will never know the reason for the oranges."
Lily got up, ignoring more head pain. "I need caffeine." She got halfway to the door before James spoke.
"So…don't you want to know?" He asked enigmatically.
Lily froze. "What are you talking about? I'm not telling you about the green puppies, if that's what you mean." James laughed.
"I meant `don't you want to know why we're in bed together'?" His grin was now almost too wide for his face.
"Um…no," Lily stuttered, trying to hide her overwhelming curiosity. "I really don't know why I would…" All she wanted at the moment was the get the hell out of there. This was quite possibly the most embarrassing thing that had ever happened to her. Unless there was something that she couldn't remember from last night, Merlin forbid.
James laughed, sitting up. "So you liked it?"
Lily sighed, agitated. "What could I possibly like about this situation, James?"
"Oh I don't know…waking up next to me? Isn't nice?" James' smile diminished a bit, his face almost turning serious.
"W-what?" Lily was thinking seriously of backing up and running towards the door. Her heart fluttered a bit, something she hoped was a sign of a heart attack and not anything like feelings.
James paused, looking seriously at her for probably the first time since they had met. "Because I really liked it. Waking up next to you, I mean."
Lily's heart stopped beating. In her mind she thought of a million responses, ranging from the absurd ("I know exactly what you mean") to accusing him of some obvious prank ("You're kidding, right?"). But all that came out of her mouth were four words, tripping over themselves as she said them.
"I've got to go."
She practically ran from the room, trying hard not to stumble over her own feet. This wasn't happening. James never said things like this. He was there to annoy her; to make obvious dirty jokes and prank the Slytherins whether or not they deserved it. None of this is happening, she justified to herself. He did not just say that, I did not just get excited that he said that, and I definitely did NOT just wake up in bed with him. This whole party was just a horrible, horrible dream.
But even as she thought it all out and rationalized it in her mind, she knew it wasn't true. And to add onto the confusion, her headache was only getting worse from all of this unnecessary thought and rushing she was doing trying to get away.
It was too much. She needed something to calm her down. A puppy or a really thick book, perhaps. Or possibly a psychologist.
Remus awoke to a very rude Lily opening and slamming the cabinets in the kitchen and muttering to herself.
"This cannot be happening, this cannot be happening," She was saying as she slammed the last cabinet above her and continued with the ones on bottom. Obviously she was unaware that Remus had been sleeping soundly on the kitchen table before she had stomped in. "This isn't happening. That's right; nothing happened. Nothing happened…and why is there nothing to eat in this stupid place?!"
Remus sat up, his legs swinging over the table and stared at her. "You do know that to the untrained eye you look crazy, right?"
Lily jumped about a foot in the air. "Remus! I didn't see you there." She said, looking embarrassed.
"The definition of insanity is repeating an action over and over expecting different results." He gave her a look. "Just in case you were wondering."
"Point taken." She sat down at the table, burying her head in her hands.
"Hangover?" Remus asked, getting off the table and opening the fridge, searching for anything that might be edible. He took her moaning as a yes.
"Worst. Morning. Ever." Lily groaned. At least, that's what Remus thought she said. It was kind of hard to understand what she was saying when her mouth was facing the table.
Remus grabbed a bottle of milk and two glasses, setting them down on the table. "I'm guessing that this has something to do with where James is this morning." He sat and poured Lily a glass.
Lily lifted her head and sniffed the milk cautiously. "How did you know that?" she glared at him suspiciously.
"Well, since he never came back down after he carried you up to your room, then I just thoug-"
"He carried me to my room?!" Lily now looked physically sick. "This is bad, this is very bad."
Remus took a sip of the milk, thinking. "Exactly how much do you remember from last night?" He phrased his words carefully.
Lily shook her head. "This is extremely bad."
He understood. "Ah. That much, huh?"
She chugged her milk, leaving a slight milk moustache. Taking a deep breath, Lily steadied herself to try to explain the situation to him. "This morning James and I…" she couldn't bring herself to say it.
"…did unspeakably naughty things to each other?" Remus and Lily turned around to find Sirius leaning in the doorway, trying to get the pain in his neck to subside. Sleeping all night on a pile of coats could do that to you.
Lily gave him a glare that let him know in no uncertain terms that she was going to kill him. "Sirius, go away or I'm going to surgically attach Kat to you." She threatened, but Sirius only smiled.
"How's that hangover hanging, Lils?" He teased, grabbing the milk off the table and drinking straight from the bottle.
"Sirius, can you just leave? The instant you walked in I had a premonition that I was going to kill you in the very near future and it's looking like that's going to be coming true."
Sirius was impressed. "Uh, wow. Note to self: Never speak to Lily when she has a hangover."
They sat in uncomfortable silence as Lily massaged her forehead. Three minutes later, Sirius couldn't help but say the phrase that had been running around his head for two and a half minutes.
"So…You and James looked awfully comfortable when I checked on you this morning. New sleeping arrangements, perhaps?" The instant after he said it, Sirius knew he shouldn't have. Lily's eyes locked with his and it was like seeing his life flash before him. Lily was out of her chair so fast that Sirius didn't even see her get up. All he felt was the slap and then the floor when he hit it.
From the floor Sirius stared up at Lily, half in admiration and half in shock. He knew she had it in her, he just never thought her anger would be directed at him. He always though James would be the first to feel her wrath. He locked eyes with Remus, who was as shocked as he was.
Lily was breathing heavily, her hand still in midair from hitting him. It took all her willpower to calm herself down. For a moment she felt amazing, her hangover forgotten. Who knew all it would take was to slap Sirius? Then everything from this morning came rushing back, along with this nagging feeling that she was missing out on something big from last night.
She turned and stalked out of the kitchen, nearly running over Rachel in the process. Rachel took one look at the scene before her and started giggling. Sirius in the meantime had recuperated his wits, calling after Lily, "I didn't hear you disagreeing there, Lils!" But his heart wasn't in it.
Rachel finally stopped giggling long enough to help Sirius off the floor. She looked at the both of them. "One of us should probably go after her," She suggested. Both boys were incredibly silent at this statement.
"Don't look at me. I'm the one who just got slapped." Sirius rubbed his cheek defensively.
"For something that you said to her, I'm sure. You should apologize!" Sirius didn't meet her eyes. Rachel sighed and looked towards Remus expectantly.
Remus shook his head. "For once, I'm with him." He pointed at an ego-bruised Sirius. "Lily's very scary right now."
Rachel sighed. "Fine. I'll go comfort her." She walked out, muttering, "Idiots."
After nearly an hour of searching Rachel finally found Lily sitting in the garden, silently pulling the petals off of flowers. Kat was next to her, sitting with her elbows on her knees, head in her hands. She was staring at Lily with curiosity, as if she couldn't figure her out.
Rachel sat down, putting Lily in the middle. "So, judging by the welt that Sirius is sporting, I'm guessing that something happened this morning."
Lily said nothing, her gaze transfixed on pulling off each individual petal and adding them to a rapidly growing pile to her left. Rachel tried again.
"What did James do now?"
Again, nothing. Except for Kat licking her hand, the three sat in what seemed like permanent silence. Rachel was about to give up when Lily spoke.
"Nothing. He didn't do anything. He's perfect." She started demolishing the rest of the flower, still not meeting Rachel's gaze.
"Well, I wouldn't go that far, but yeah. He's not bad." She smiled encouragingly, but was a bit frightened to see Lily like this.
"No, I mean it!" Lily threw the broken flower down, her voice quickly rising. "I did Merlin knows what last night-"
"Oh good, so you heard about the table dancing?"
"And the sitting on the moose!" Kat interjected, happy to help.
"And the jumping off of the moose." Rachel elaborated.
"And the jumping into James' arms." Kat finished.
Lily stared at them as if they had just told her that James and Graziana had eloped and Graziana was now pregnant. "Please tell you you're joking." Rachel and Kat's guilty faces were all that Lily needed to go completely over the edge.
"Well that's just wonderful, isn't it?" She stood up, brushing the dirt off, and began pacing furiously through the healthy flowers. "because not only have I damaged my reputation, embarrassed myself in front of nearly all my peers, and potentially given myself a concussion, but I also did all of this in front of the boy that I maybe, possibly, could be in `like' with!"
Rachel sat in shock. She looked at Kat for backup, but she seemed more confused than anything else. "Lily, what-"
"Why does he have to be so perfect? It's not fair that he gets to be the one to act completely sane and I'm the one who acts like an utter moron! It's supposed to be the other way around, isn't it?"
Rachel tried to interject something here, but Lily was on a roll.
"And why does he have to be so infuriatingly dense?!" Most of the flowers were trampled now, becoming mush under Lily's stamping feet. "How could he not tell I like him? I mean, it's just not right! All he does is mope after me for years as I continue to dash his hopes to pieces; how can he subject himself to that day after day without suffering a meltdown?"
You mean like the one you're having now? Rachel thought to herself. Out loud she added, "James does bounce back quickly."
"Then, when I finally get to the point where James makes me feel something other than anger, he doesn't notice because something has to magically go wrong. Like Graziana shows up out of nowhere, or I get drunk and act like a complete idiot!"
"Now, I don't think that last one was magic's fault completely." Rachel reasoned. Lily stopped pacing.
"No, but you would think that James would see that I only came here and went through all this trouble because I…" She couldn't say it again. Twice in a frustrated rage was apparently all her mind and mouth could handle.
Rachel smiled. "You like him."
Lily moaned and buried her head in her hands. "No I don't!"
Kat giggled. Rachel pulled Lily back down to sit, reassuring her, "Alright, so maybe not a creepy stalker-ish like that Kat has for Sirius, but in an adorable way. The kind of like that makes your insides turn to goop when he smiles at you or when you're close to him."
Lily looked at her, her eyes beginning to tear up. "But if I like him, then he's won."
Rachel laughed, surprised. "Lily, I don't think it's a competition."
"Not usually, but with James it is." Lily shook her head. "I just know the moment he finds out about this, he's going to shout `I knew it!' and then he's won."
"He's not going to do that. He'll be too excited to remember to shout. James isn't that smart. He can't even remember to shower on a regular occasion."
A smile began to warm its way onto Lily's face. "Thank you."
"You're quite welcome." Rachel grinned. "Now, when are you going to tell him?"
"Tell him?! Oh, no, no, no, no, no! I'm not going to tell him; that wasn't part of the plan!" Lily's face changed color several times, from red to green to pale and back again.
"But you have to!" Kat chimed in, her face distraught.
"Look, I'm not even sure if I want to punch him or kiss him yet. I can't tell him." Lily looked at the two of them in pure panic, her meltdown threatening to come back.
Rachel nodded. "That's ok; you don't have to." Her face turned serious for a second. "I know exactly how you feel." Lily met her eyes, comprehension dawning.
"Ah. Well. Good luck with that."
"Thanks." Neither looked at Kat. Kat didn't notice; she was too busy following the flight path of a robin at the bird feeder.
Just then all three of their stomachs growled simultaneously.
"Breakfast?" Rachel asked.
"Absolutely."
Kat stayed behind as the two of them made their way back through the garden to the house. Her breakfast was currently snacking at the bird feeder, never knowing that it was to be his last meal.
That's where I'm leaving off this time, readers. Because it was much longer than the last chapter and it accomplished waay too much, lol.
But for next chapter:
We'll see what the boys were up to while the girls had a heart-heart time in the garden.
And
There might be a couple of people going out on a date…or maybe a double date?!
Hmmm…
Until next time!!
Emmablk1
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