A/N: So, I hope that everyone is well and all are enjoying this story. I know I haven't really given much time between the release of chapter ten (this morning before 7 AM EST) and this chapter (this afternoon just after 2 PM EST), but we still have so many chapters left to share. To those of you who have read and reviewed, thank you for doing your part. For those who haven't, I guess you really don't like it (why not just say something…lol.) I have a bit of a cold, in case anyone cares and specifically to Mud: I'm noshing on Slim Jims and watching Dora, and listening to Youtube (and typing of course). Oh, and I swear if you review… I'll tell you a secret. Ha ha ha <- goes for everyone!
Disclaimer: Just borrowing.
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Chapter Eleven
It had failed. Lily stared at the potion with tears in her eyes. She was not used to failure, not at something she was great at, and yet, there it was plain as the nose on her face. A turned potion, not more useful than her collection of thimbles had been when she was a small girl. Worse than that, for the potion looked like boiled mud and smell of death, Lily felt as if she had really failed.
She knew she was done. She had three attempts to get the potion right. She had three golden unicorn hairs, like spun gold, and they were so strong not to be severed by any means she knew, but not strong enough to keep from being ruined by Lily's failed potion. She slammed her fist on the table and buried her face in her arm. She had failed Remus and he didn't even know about it. It was all just too much for her and Lily begun to cry.
"Are you ok?" James' voice echoed in her now stuffy head and she looked up at him. She had forgotten she wasn't in classroom B alone.
"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Lily said as she forced the tears from her face roughly with her palms. "How's the memory potion coming along?"
"I can't remember," James teased lightly as he looked at her with great concern written on his face.
"Very funny wise guy," Lily said as she forced her failure from the front of her mind and looked at the potion. It wasn't exactly the right shade of sunshine, but it was close enough. In the weeks and months that Lily had been tutoring James he had become better at the potion making, and even Slughorn had joked that he might be out of a job soon.
"What is that you're making?" James asked curiously. Lily put her hand on his shoulder, her face near his as she peered over his shoulder from behind.
"None of your business, really," Lily said as she squeezed his shoulder lightly. "It doesn't matter, anyways, because it failed."
"You failed?" James asked incredulously as he brushed her off and stood. He walked to Lily's small cauldron and peered inside. "Perhaps it is supposed to be that funny shade of brown and lumpy?"
"No, James, it's not," Lily said as she waved her wand and cleared the cauldron of the potion. "It is supposed to be a creamy white not a lumpy brown mess."
"I've never seen you be unsuccessful before," James said incredulously.
"I guess I am slipping in my old age," Lily teased weakly as she stretched a moment.
"Are you going to try again?" James asked as he touched her hair slightly. She found it quite soothing, despite what it could mean.
"No," Lily said. "I'm out of a secret ingredient I need and it's very rare. There is only one place I know where to get it, and there's no guarantee it's the right season for it."
"Well, I don't think that you should give up. If there is even a slight hope, you should take it. This potion means a lot to you," James said as he tried to glance at the books Lily was working out of secretly. He had seen these books before in the restricted section.
"You don't even know what I am making, James," Lily said as she pushed all of her books and papers to the side and sat on the table, putting herself out of his reach slightly more than she liked to have moved. She caught him looking at the books again and hoped the act of moving them would draw his attention away from them.
"You could tell me?" James asked, momentarily distracted from the books and focused on Lily. She laughed and shook her head.
"Fat chance," she said. His eyes wandered to the books again and Lily knew he needed a proper distraction. Short of getting him to drink his own potion, Lily could only think of one thing to do that would quickly distract him enough. She leaned forward and kissed him quickly on the mouth.
"What… what was that?" James asked as heat rose to his cheeks. Lily blushed.
"I don't know," Lily lied. Inside she felt her stomach twist unexpectedly. She couldn't believe she kissed him. Sure, he had kissed her just a few days ago but he had made that move. She couldn't believe she had been so forward.
"I thought you said nothing had changed. Hey, can we do that again?" James asked eagerly. Lily shook her head. She had done it, properly distracted him. Anything more and she would be seen as leading him on. She never wanted to lead him on, and if she listened to her body she would be do a whole lot more with him in the classroom alone than just leading him on. She blushed again, the heat rushing to her cheeks.
"No," Lily said as she quickly gathered her things. "I, uh, will see you later."
Lily bolted out of the classroom, books in hand as she retreated to her dorm room. Her face felt like it was on fire. She groaned as she tossed her books on her bed, thankful no one else was in her dorm room at the time. She closed her eyes for a second, reliving the kiss. She was horrified. She had never kissed anyone to distract them. Then again, up until this year she hadn't needed to. Up until this year, she hadn't been up to secretive things.
"Why is James Potter walking around with a stupid grin plastered on his face?" Alice asked suspiciously as she entered the dorm room. Lily opened her eyes and looked at Alice helplessly.
"Why would I know?" Lily lied as she busied herself with shelving the books on her bookcase. Alice put her hands on her hips and looked at Lily quite defiantly.
"What have you done, Lily?" Alice inquired. Lily couldn't meet her eyes.
"What do you mean?" Lily asked. Alice looked at Lily exasperated.
"We're not playing twenty questions, Lily. I know that both of you have just come from your tutoring session and I find you blushing like mad up here and him grinning like crazy," Alice accused. "Do you want to tell me what happened, or shall I just make assumptions?"
"Oh, Alice," Lily groaned as she threw herself across the bed. "I just don't want to talk about it tonight. I have patrol later, and on a full moon at that. I just need to rest."
"You aren't getting out of this that easy," Alice said. Lily covered her face with her arm. Sighing, Alice nodded. "Alright then, we're done for now. But, just so you know, you're going to tell me soon enough anyways when it eats at you enough."
"I know," Lily groaned.
Lily remained splayed across her bed, deep in thought. Sure, she didn't give James much credit for anything, but he had a point. She shouldn't give up just because she botched another cauldron of potion. After all, wasn't Remus worth another trip into the forbidden forest? Lily sighed. She knew that Professor Slughorn would be in Hogsmeade tonight, despite the full moon. She could lie to Hagrid and tell him that the professor wanted her to gather more supplies.
Lily shook her head. While she was doing a fair share of evading as of right now, she had still never managed to lie well. Hagrid would see right through it, and frankly Lily wasn't sure he wouldn't check with Professor Slughorn. Last time, he had given Professor Slughorn a stern talking to about sending Lily out there on a full moon.
Lily glanced over at the coat rack and saw her hair ribbon peeking out of the pocket of her cloak. She bolted up right. The cloak! James had a cloak that would allow her to head out of the castle undetected! She sat back down disappointed. There was no way that he would ever let her borrow it without knowing why, and she couldn't tell him. She couldn't tell anyone until she was successful. There was no sense in getting everyone's hopes up if she was just going to let them down by failing.
Not wanting to stay in the dorm room alone, she headed out to the common room to find it deserted. She glanced at the large clock. It was dinner time, so all of the Gryffindor students were down in the great hall eating dinner. Lily glanced up towards the boys dormitories. They were certain to be deserted as well, especially the seventh year boys dorms.
Without a second thought, Lily bolted up the stairs taking two at a time. She didn't stop to knock, fearing it would take up precious time should anyone return. She stood alone in the darkening dormitory. She held her breath, the pungent aroma of dirty socks and uneaten food too much for her to bear. Covering her mouth and nose, she headed over to what she hoped was James' trunk and flung it open. She flipped through the layers of miscellaneous debris that covered every free space in the trunk.
"This can't be his," Lily said aloud as she held up a pair of knit socks with the Black family crest on it. She threw the socks back into the case and moved on to another trunk very close to the one that was obviously Sirius' trunk. Like Sirius', the trunk was quite disorganized. Lily was half tempted to iron and fold the mass of dirty, wrinkled clothes that had been tossed quite carelessly into the trunk. Shoved in a corner of the trunk was something shimmery. Lily's fingers closed on it and she pulled it free, standing. In her hands was the most unusual cloak that she had ever seen. She knew deep down in her heart that this must be the cloak that Dumbledore was so interested in. She shoved it in her back pack. She pulled on her back and turned back to the trunk to close it.
"Lily?" Peter asked as he looked at her curiously. Lily spun around to see Peter standing there, looking at her. He looked as if he had just walked in and Lily hoped he hadn't seen her steal James' cloak.
"Peter, hi," Lily said slightly flustered.
"What are you doing in the boys' dormitory?" Peter asked as he looked at Lily.
"I, uh, was looking through James' stuff," Lily said as she gestured to James' opened trunk. Peter hiked an eyebrow up at her in a way that rivaled James and Sirius in the skeptical department.
"I can see that," Peter said as he crossed his arms and leaned against the door jam. He had a smirk on his face. "But why?"
"I, um, was looking for something," Lily said quickly. She could almost feel the cloak in her back pack swirling around inside it, taunting her with her crime.
"I gathered that as well," Peter said. Lily laughed.
"Why are you so suspicious, Peter?" Lily asked as she slammed the trunk shut.
"I'm just curious as to why the head girl is poking around in the head boy's trunk while everyone else is down at dinner," Peter said. Lily started walking toward the door that Peter was leaning against.
"If I tell you a secret, Peter, do you promise not to tell anyone? Not even James," said Lily as she stopped in front of him. He frowned and looked at her suspiciously.
"Depends," said Peter. Lily sighed. Figuring she had to take a chance, she took a deep breath. Now was the time for half truths and stretching of said truths.
"I like James," Lily said quickly. Peter smirked.
"That's not a secret," Peter said. "It also doesn't explain why you are poking in James' stuff."
"I'm getting to it," Lily said impatiently. She smiled at him, regaining her composure. "I just wanted to poke around and see what kind of person James really is. You can learn a lot about a person from what they keep in their trunk."
"Really?" asked Peter as he slowly began to believe her.
"Yeah," Lily said. She lowered her voice and leaned a little closer to Peter. "Let's keep my little visit here a secret between you and me, ok?"
"What do I get in return?" Peter asked with a devilish grin on his face.
"You certainly have picked up a lot from Sirius and James, haven't you?" Lily said grinning. She was almost out the door.
"Yeah, so what do I get for keeping your snooping in his stuff a secret?" asked Peter. Lily made a face.
"What do you want?" Lily asked quickly as she glanced at her watch. Dinner was almost over and soon the others would be returning to the common room.
"Um," Peter said thoughtfully. He laughed and looked at her. "A favor, to be called upon at any time I wish it."
"Fine, done," Lily said as she headed down the stairs. "Just keep my secret and I'll owe you a favor, Peter! See you later, ok."
"Ok," Peter called as he waved. Lily glanced back up the stairs at him before she bolted down to the great hall to get some dinner. She slid into her seat, hoping that no one noticed her late arrival. She began to eat and tried to ignore Alice.
"Where in the world have you been?" Alice asked. Lily looked over at her, sickened at the sweetness between Frank and Alice, sitting there holding hands. Lily shot Alice a look.
"The dorms," Lily said. She smiled. Technically, she was telling the truth.
"Why?" Alice said. Lily hesitated.
"I was busy," Lily said quickly. She glanced at her watch. "I'm starved and I promised to meet Remus down in classroom B. I have like ten minutes to inhale a bit of grub."
"But isn't Remus like right there?" Alice asked pointing to where Remus, James, and Sirius were just a few people down. He had already stood and was gathering his stuff to leave.
"Uh, you know," Lily lied. "Official prefect business."
"That's right! You have patrol tonight," Alice said as she realized that it must be related. Lily was thankful when Alice returned her attention to Frank and off the lies that Lily was telling. Alice normally would see right through her, but thankfully she was distracted.
"I'll see you later," Lily called with her mouthful of food. Normally she would have swallowed before talking, but she was under strict time constraints. Lily ran full throttle to classroom B to find Remus impatiently waiting for her.
"You think you could push the time anymore?" Remus asked her. There was great annoyance in his voice.
"I'll pretend I didn't hear that tone, Remus," Lily said through gritted teeth. "I understand how temperamental you get on the night of the full moon, so I won't take that to heart."
"I need the potion and I need to get the hell out of the school," Remus said. Lily nodded and opened the cupboard near the sink, a small cauldron bubbled merrily underneath. Lily ladled the potion into a cup and handed it to him.
"Be careful, Remus," Lily said as she headed to the door. "It's the last of it." The cup shattered. Lily looked at it in disbelief, and Remus looked panicked and horrified.
"What happened?" Remus asked. "What am I going to do?"
"You must have gripped it too hard. We have to siphon as much as possible back into a cup," Lily cried as she conjured a new cup out of thin air. The two of them worked fast, knees grinding into the stone floor. Lily looked at the cup.
"Is it enough?" Remus wondered aloud. There was only two thirds as much potion as had been in there before.
"I don't think so; I just don't know," Lily said. She checked her watch. "We're out of time, Remus. Drink it and go! Now!"
Remus threw the drink back and sprinted out of the classroom. Lily held her breath; fingers crossed, and hoped that there was enough time for him to make it wherever he went for his change. Lily glanced out the window; the full moon was on the rise.
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