Staying Behind
It was the night of Hogsmead; all the students rushing out of the common room, grabbing their cloaks on the way out. All but two people. Females, to be exact. They sat huddled around the warm fire, the winter wind seeping through the windowpanes causing a chill to loom about the room. Their excuse was studying, though their books lay scattered about the floor, forgotten.
Once they had made sure everyone was gone, the red head stood up, bounding over to the stairs. She listened to see if anyone else was clomping about Gryffindor tower. Hearing nothing, she smiled at her companion.
"We have the entire common room all to ourselves!" she laughed, running over to the couch, flinging herself onto the squishy material. She sunk in a bit, her laughter muffled by the cushions.
"Lily, I can't tell you how much I appreciate you staying behind with me," the brunette smiled, seeing that Lily had removed herself from the couch. Suddenly, Lily pounced onto her friend, rubbing the top of her head so she would mess up her hair-do. "Lils! Stop!" she whined, pushing Lily off of her.
"Awe but why Gaily-Waily?" Lily joked, jumping off of her. Gail shook her short brown hair, rolling her matching brown eyes. She picked up her Charms book in a rather serious way, motioning that they should be studying for their Charms test, which was the next day.
"You look like me… scary. I thought I would never see you serious!" Lily gasped, sarcastically scooting away from her friend on her bottom across the floor. Gail huffed.
"No, this would be more like you… 'Guyyyyyyyyyyys we need to studyyyyyyyyy'!" she laughed, impersonating what was called Lily's study whine. Lily rolled her eyes.
"I think Sirius has had too much an influence on you," she grumbled, pulling the book out of Gail's hand. "You made me sound like that amazingly retarded git, I don't sound as nearly as annoying."
Gail let out a loud laugh. "Bullocks you don't! The only reason he started talking like that was to make fun of you. Honestly, you can be really daft…" Lily gasped, covering her gaping mouth with her small hand.
"No, you're not serious! Sirius actually does that to make fun of me…?" she was shocked, and hurt, though found no consolation in her friend, who, was laughing so hard she looked like she was going to wet her pants. Lily shot her a cold glare.
"Don't take it seriously Lils," Gail let out a loud laugh, causing Lily to cross her arms over her chest. "He makes fun of everyone…"
"Yes, I guess so. Have you seen his James strut?" she sighed, giving up on being annoyed. It just wasn't any fun.
"Oh, Merlin yes. I laugh my arse off every time I see it!" Gail cackled, doubling over with laughter at the thought of Sirius walking around like a female model.
"Though, I think I do it better…" Lily grinned, standing up. Gail, forgetting about her Charms test, watched eagerly as her friend untucked her shirt, letting it fall down around her knees. Gail may not have expected it, but Lily pulled her skirt down, letting them rest just around where her shirt ended.
Lily began to walk around the room, limping every time she stepped on her left foot, placing her hand down around her crotch. She added the final touch by placing a goofy grin on her face, turning to Gail. "Hey, meet me at the library after hours, I'll be waiting for you…" she finished, lowering her voice, cocking her crimson eyebrow into the depths of her forehead.
Gail chuckled, slapping the floor in amusement, laughing even harder when Lily spoke again. "I don't see how I can stand him in our prefect meetings, but I suppose I do it!" When the brunette looked up, her eyes were wide, a peculiar expression plastered to her face. She bit her bottom lip, turning her gaze from Lily to where the stairs to the dorms ended.
Gulping, Lily pulled up her skirt, returning them to their rightful spot at her waist, turning around only to see James Potter standing in the doorframe. He was once a point of amusement, now a point of fear. Lily slumped to the floor, her face turning redder than her hair. She began mumbling some incomprehensible words, twiddling her thumbs. She barely noticed when Gail picked up her books and rushed past James to their dorm room.
Looking up to see Gail had left her all alone with the raven-haired monster, Lily whimpered. She didn't mean to, but she did. James laughed, pushing his glasses up his nose.
"You're not so peachy in the prefect meetings either, Miss Perfection. I'm flattered; you gave me a lot more spunk than Sirius usually does. I'm sure Remus and Peter would love to see your performance," he sighed, dropping down next to Lily.
Unconsciously, she scooted away from him, keeping her head down. He chortled, causing her blush to redden. She finally looked up at him, gnawing nervously on her lower lip. Her eyes shot back down to her hands, which lay folded neatly in her lap.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know you were standing there…" she trailed off, looking up at him, her face regretful.
He offered her a bright smile. "No biggie, I'd rather know what people really think of me. I didn't think you would act shallow like that, though, I thought you were better than that." Lily flinched, his words slicing into her like a hot knife. Damn, damn, damn! She inwardly cursed, mentally slapping herself.
James stood up, looking down sorrowfully at the top of her head. If she had only known how bad her imitation had hurt him, she had to have known, but maybe she hadn't. She never paid him much attention to him unless she was telling him to get away from Snape. James tore himself from thought when she stood up, smoothing out her skirt.
"Look, I didn't mean it like that. I really think highly of you," she smiled sheepishly, looking into his eyes. She diverted them back down to her shoes after thinking about how gorgeous they were. "Although you do find enjoyment in torturing people, and playing jokes on Severus for no reason, and don't really think about how your actions affect anyone else... wait a bloody minute. Why am I apologizing to you when you made fun of me my entire first year? Just for your information, I liked my pigtails!"
James couldn't help but laugh. "You may have been the only one who liked them," he managed to snort out. Lily narrowed her green eyes into slits, the blood rising to the top of her skin.
"Oooooooh, you are lucky I'm not the type of girl who participates in violence, because if I were you would have a HUGE red mark on the side of your cheek!" she boomed, her hands balling into fists. James' eyes grew wide, amazed that she would even suggest something of the sort. "And I'm not done James Potter! You are THE most arrogant person I know. Just because you have good looks, are on the Quidditch team, and seem to make girls swoon when you walk into a room does not mean you are the shit. I know countless people who are ten times better than you! So, you know what? Screw you and the horse you rode in on, because I don't care who you are. That imitation was accurate, and I'm glad you finally saw someone make fun of you to your nasty, disgusting, conceited face!" she spat, her chest heaving with her heavy breaths.
James face was clear of emotion, just plain. Looking up at his face, Lily clasped her hands to her mouth. "I didn't mean it, I'm sorry…"
"No, Evans, I've had enough apologies from you to last me a lifetime!" he growled, turning on his heel, about to march out of the common room. He stopped upon feeling a tugging on his cloak. Lily was clutching onto the sleeve of his robe.
"Really, I'm sorry…" she whispered, taking a step close to him. He looked at her oddly for a moment, not moving. She supposed it was his way of saying it was all right to come closer, so she did.
Her heart was pounding in her chest, fluttering up into her throat. Lily began feeling hot, nerves eating away at her body. She couldn't speak; she was at a loss for words, though he wasn't. "You shouldn't hold grudges for so long you know."
She felt awkward being so close to him, but then at the same time, she didn't. He blinked, his long eyelashes fluttering about his face. She sighed, her wide eyes looking into his. Her crimson hair lay messily about her back, straight strands set askew on her cloak. He pushed her bangs away from her eyes.
"Your eyes are really pretty you know," he babbled, his own breath becoming quick with uneasiness. Her cheeks flushed as she stepped away from him, her body still tingling with warmth.
"Thanks, but I'll leave you to whatever you were doing…" Lily said, looking towards the portrait hole.
"Oh bugger! I was supposed to meet Remus in Honkeydues fifteen minutes ago!" James yelped, dashing out of the common room.
Lily collapsed onto the nearest chair; afraid her knees would have given out on her if she had remained standing a moment longer. Why do I feel like this? She asked herself, gazing into the fire.
Her hand flew up to the side of her face where his hand had brushed to push her hair aside. She blinked, her vision of her fellow prefect slowly changing. Staying behind proved to be more entertaining than I had imagined. She smiled to herself, a new light in her eye that none of her friends would understand until weeks later.