Five: The Whirling Winds of Emotion
"Remus, forgive me!" Lily called after him. Earlier that day, they had been paired up in Charms, but Remus, whose emotions caused the hawks they were supposed to charm to dance, ended up making them fly out the window paralyzed. Lily had attempted to explain, only making it worse. She walked towards James sulkily.
"You know what this means, don't you," Lily said, "I can't see you James; I can't do this to Remus."
"But--"
"We can still be friends, just I need to work things out with him." "See you later then."
"Remus, I'm sorry, James and I aren't seeing each other anymore. I don't want to hurt you, it just happened," Lily said to Remus.
"'Kay, I'll be fine," Remus said, "So, we're back to where we were?" Remus kissed Lily lightly, but passionately, and she returned it carefully.
"Don't worry, I am totally over James," Lily said. It was a lie, but Lily was willing to start over with Remus and forget that one kiss.
Remus. That's right. It will never be the same. He'll resent me. I'll see James when we kiss. I can't love him. He won't love me. I love James. Lily walked through the corridors lost in thought, and she didn't even notice that she walked straight through a wall. She snapped back to reality, and sitting in an armchair, she recognized the Room of Requirement. She realized that she had missed dinner, and food appeared on a small wooden table with a setting for two.
Two? She thought.
Then, she heard the floor creak, but she saw nothing. The body seemed to be coming toward her, she could hear someone breathing. Then James appeared in front of her.
"I should have known," she muttered, too preoccupied before to remember that James had an Invisibility Cloak. "James!" she cried out loud, "just the person I need to see."
"I came here because I needed a place to study," James said. He knew that studying was the only thing that Lily would respond to.
"Okay, let's go back to our dorm then," she smiled. Just then, she heard the 10:00 chime, and said, "We need to patrol first, though." Lily got up, and made to leave the room when James pulled out the Marauder's map. Even though they had been good friends since 6th year, James had only shown Lily the map for use with Head Boy and Girl duties, and earlier, he had given it to Remus for his prefect patrol. He had put a special charm on it so it would only reveal what was needed for patrolling, so he could still keep the other features (such as various recommendations on what prank could be pulled safely) secret.
"Tell me who is up to no good," James said to the blank piece of parchment. The map of Hogwarts spidered out, red dots signifying anyone who was out after hours unauthorized. James scanned the map, muttering things here and there to see the different levels, and satisfied, wiped it clean by saying, "Information attained." "Now, let's go." Lily insisted that they double check some of the hallways, and check the library. Once they were done, they headed back to their dorm, showered, and began to study. James was doing an essay on the theory behind Transfiguration for cooking, titled "Now it's a bagel, now it's a steak." The assignment was to write about why you either agree or disagree with food Transfiguration. James was scanning Advanced Transfiguration of live things, a guide to animal transformations and meat preparation charms, a book that James felt was extremely useful for his animagus transformation. Lily, on the other side of the room, was studying for the Charms N.E.W.T.s, because even though they weren't for another three months, the Charms professor, Prof. Flitwick, was holding a practice exam for the class to know what they needed to work on. She looked sleepily over to the clock, noticing that it was already past midnight. She picked up another book: Practical Charms of the 20th century.
"Lily, would you come over here? I can't figure out what this means," James was lying on his stomach on his bed with pages of notes and several books open before him. He was now studying for a Potions exam, what Professor Kaldron called a check-up, but what in actuality was a grueling three day practical potions exam with one day of essays, one of actual potion making, and one day of a rigorous 500 point test. Lily, having started a Defense against the Dark Arts essay that wasn't due for two weeks, leaned over James' shoulder to read the text.
"Moonstone powder, combined with monkshood extract, simmered for six hour during a full moon, will cause restlessness and recklessness, while a similar compound, of Moonstone powder, Mint, and mothsmane essence brewed during the new moon can placate even the wildest beast," Lily read, "Well, the assignment was to determine the effects of each moon phase while brewing a base potion such as the moonstone and mothsmane compound. "Well, you know what the full moon and new moon does, so just find out the others. Let me see, first quarter, last quarter, waning and waxing gibbus, and waning crescent is all you need, because waxing crescent and first quarter have the same properties. Lily sleepily rested her head on James' shoulder, lying beside him on the double bed. James read the book for a little while, then closed it and put his notes away. He noticed that Lily had fallen asleep, so he carefully shifted his body and fell asleep as well.