Hey-sorry this chapter took so long, but I had to keep rewriting it… It was a surprisingly difficult chapter to write! But it's finally done, so here it is… Oh, and thanks so much for all the fantastic reviews! You guys are great!
Chapter 7: Silence
The silence seemed to last forever.
"You were standing there the whole time?" Marlene repeated finally.
"I think we've established that he was," Lily said scathingly.
Marlene smiled shakily. "You know, I didn't mean any of that stuff. It was all just a joke."
"That was a pathetic attempt," James laughed. "I would have expected better from someone as manipulative as you. If you expect either of us to believe that for a second, you're crazier than I thought."
"No, really. It's not at all what it sounded like! If you'll just let me explain…"
"I think you've done enough explaining for one day," James chuckled.
Marlene looked up at James pleadingly. "No, really. You don't understand!"
"Give it up, Marlene," Lily said. "It's over."
"Shut up, you stupid bitch! This is all your fault!"
"Don't you dare talk to Lily like that!" James shouted. "She doesn't deserve that, and you don't deserve her."
"Oh yes, none of us deserve the precious Lily!" Marlene shouted back. "She's just too perfect-too good for everyone! We're not worthy to stand in her shadow!"
Lily gaped at her. "What are you talking about?"
James looked as if he didn't know whether to laugh or not. "Have you lost your mind?"
Quietly, Marlene said, "Maybe it seems like it." She turned away. "But it wasn't supposed to be like this."
The silence returned for a few seconds, and then Marlene seemed to find herself again. "Well, I'm going to dinner now. Goodbye. I hope you two are very happy together." She started towards the door, and then stopped and turned back to them. "Just kidding." And then she left.
"Well, that was very, very strange," James said after a moment.
Lily collapsed in a nearby armchair. "I really thought I knew her. And the whole time she was…" She trailed off. "I just feel stupid."
"It's not just you," James said slowly. "No one realized what a manipulative bitch she was."
"But she was my best friend for seven years!" Lily said, getting up and starting to pace the common room. "You'd think in seven years I'd realize that my best friend hated my guts!"
"Well I didn't know either… Not that I was even remotely as close to her as you were, but we still…" He trailed off.
Lily stopped pacing and looked at him. "What did happen between you two?"
James paused for a long time, and Lily was beginning to think he would never answer, but finally he did. "It all started a couple of years ago. I had just pretty much accepted the fact that I'd never be with you, so we…" He paused.
"You what?"
"I had told her from the beginning that I would never feel about her the way I felt about you, but it all happened anyway."
"What happened?"
"She told me she didn't want you to find out, and that was fine, because I didn't particularly want you to know either. So for a while, we just did it in secret."
"Did what?"
James paused. "It was all about sex."
Lily was silent, and looked away.
"I'm sorry, Lily. I really am. But it didn't mean anything. I don't know why it happened. I guess she just manipulated me, just like she did with everyone else."
"You… slept with her." Lily said slowly. "How long was this going on?"
"About a year," James said quietly.
"You two were having sex for a year and I never knew about it? You and my best friend were screwing each other, and I never even guessed?" Lily shouted, sounding completely miserable. She collapsed in an armchair, and stared into the fire, whispering, "I told her everything." Lily wasn't quite sure if she was upset that it had happened, or that Marlene had kept it from her. She was feeling as though the last few years had been a total lie.
"Look, I really am sorry, Lily," James said sincerely.
Lily gave him a small smile. "It's fine. I'm ok." She felt as though her world was collapsing around her.
"Don't pull that, Lily. I'm not stupid," James said, sitting down next to her. "I know you're not ok."
Lily laughed. He knew her too well. "Ok, genius. I'm not ok. But I will be. Eventually."
There was a long pause, and neither of them spoke for a while. They didn't need to. Lily put her head on James' shoulder, and James wrapped his arm around her.
"Do you think we can fix this?" Lily said after a while. "Fix us?"
"Definitely," James said softly.
There was another long pause, longer than the last, but the two of them weren't thinking of Marlene anymore, because it just didn't matter.
"I love you, Lily Evans," James said softly.
Lily looked up at him, and smiled. "I love you, too."
~The End~
Hope you guys liked reading this as much as I liked writing it! Thanks for reading, and for all the great reviews!
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