Finally, Lily got bored with glaring at raindrops, so she stood up and left for her dormitory, mumbling about brainless atoms that didn’t know better than to combine. Her comments earned her a lot of odd looks, but it wasn’t as if she cared much.
Once in her dormitory, she threw herself onto her four-poster, trying to ignore the drafty breeze that was sweeping the tower. But when she had finished ignoring that, her attention was inevitably drawn to a group of giggling girls on another bed.
“Right. So then I told him-“
“You didn’t!”
“Well, of course I did. You don’t think I’ll let him go after her without a fight, do you?”
“I didn’t think you would. You’re you, of course!”
“I know. But what do you think I should tell him next?”
“I don’t know. The ‘damsel in distress’ mode worked pretty well back in third year-you could try that.”
“Well, but that’s so cliché. I need something new. Does he like smart girls?”
“I guess so. He seems to like that other one there-“
“Don’t ruin my day. I don’t need to think of that right now.”
Their voices dropped after that, but Lily had already heard enough of the conversation to bore her to a sort of dozing mood. Not sleep; she wasn’t exactly sound asleep, just sort of lightly unconscious, so she was able to sit up quickly when the girls had gone to dinner and someone tapped her on the shoulder, hitting that person in the jaw with her shoulder. Which she did.
“OW!”
Lily cringed, rubbing her shoulderblade. “Sorry. But don’t ever do that again. By the way, you’re not supposed to be in here.”
James shrugged. “It’s dinnertime-are you hungry?”
Lily thought about that for a few minutes and decided no, she wasn’t.
“You’re impossible.”
“I know. Any other reason you came up here to talk to me?”
James sat down on her bed. “Yeah-kinda. There is. Lily, I want to talk to you about that Amen Beach thingy.”
”The who?”
“With the funky unicorn.”
”Ah.” Lily closed her eyes. “The Alendoren Cove. What about it?”
“Yeah-that-hey, Lil, what’s that Tom character’s real name?”
She frowned as she sat up straight. “Tom Marvolo Riddle. Why?”
James gulped. “Lily?”
“Yeah?”
”You do know he’s wanted by the Ministry?”
Lily nodded. “I could see that.”
“You know? How could you-I mean-“
Lily gritted her teeth. “James, if Sirius were wanted, would you turn him in?”
He saw her point. “Well-no-but still!”
“But still what? Tom and Lith are my friends. Live with it. And if not, then you can die.”
He frowned. “Lil, Tom hates all Muggle-borns. He could kill you.”
She tossed her head. “I saved his fiancée from death. He isn’t going to kill me.”
James’ eyes opened wide. “You what?”
“Oh, no.” Lily clapped a hand to her forehead. “Me and my big mouth.”
Frowning, James pulled her off the bed. “Lil, we’ve got to talk.”
He pulled her towards the house-elf exit, and she followed, grumbling, frowning, and scowling all at the same time.
When they reached the chamber and James had shut the door securely, Lily managed to shake his hand off of her arm.
“Will you kindly leave my arm in the socket! Contrary to popular belief, I do like having the use of it!”
James sat down in a chair and directed her to one. Fuming, she placed herself in it, sitting Indian-style.
“So, what’s this about your saving Litharelen from death?”
Lily sighed. There was no use asking him not to tell anyone; either he knew not to or he was a complete prat who would delight in seeing her disembowel a basin of Flying Squids every night for a month.
“James, this isn’t going anywhere.”
“Besides my brain, that is.”
“Besides what brain?”
“Ha. Ha.” James was grinning bleakly. “I’m dying laughing. Lily. Tell me.”
Lily took one good look at him, then, satisfied for the moment that her secrets were safe, she plunged into her narrative. Several times, James flicked his wand, providing her with a mug of hot chocolate, but otherwise, he simply sat there, listening to her talk. When she had finished, she set the mug down on the nearby table with a loud crash.
”Wow. You know, Lil, if you changed the names around a bit, you could publish that as a book.”
“That may be. My question is: what are we doing about this?”
He looked surprised. “We?”
“Sure.” Lily shrugged. “You forced me to spill, so you’re sharing the consequences. What are we doing about this?”
James frowned, thinking hard. He ran his hand through his hair one more time before he looked up.
“Well, obviously, you’ve got to keep this away from Dumbledore, which means away from your friends.”
Lily raised an eyebrow. “Only a rocket scientist would have figured out that much.”
“And you’d better stay away from Tom for a while-you gave him an excuse last time you were there. It’s getting dangerous-from what I’ve gathered, he’s getting more impatient for that necklace every day. If he finds you with it, and that you’ve kept it from him-well, your future really depends on how much he likes Litharelen.”
“I figured that, too.”
He continued as if she hadn’t interrupted him. “And this would also mean keeping that necklace hidden, since I don’t think it can transport itself there. How does it work again?”
Lily pulled it our from underneath her robes. “You hit it against something.”
“Oh.” James held his hand out for it. “Let me see something…thanks,” he added as Lily unclasped the necklace and laid it in his palm. Curiously, he examined the stone. Not one scratch mark or dent had defaced the golden talons or the midnight-blue stone, and a small silver mist was swirling around inside it. James handed it back to her, but then stopped in mid-gesture, his mouth half-open. Lily frowned.
“James?”
No answer.
“James?”
His fingers curled around the chain.
”Potter!”
He frowned, and just as she prepared to raise her voice again, he jumped up, holding it out. “I just had a stroke of genius! Here, Lil, put it back on.”
She grimaced. “What?”
He threw it at her. “Just put it on!”
As she obeyed, still somewhat confused, she saw him retreat to the other side of the room, brandishing his wand.
“Lily, I’ll use a small hex at first. Keep very still.”
Lily nodded as she stepped forward two or three feet; there were only six feet between them. James aimed and flicked his wand once.
“Tarantallegra!”
A blast of almost clear blue light shot out of his wand and wend straight for Lily; when it reached her, James had aimed it at the necklace. It hit the stone and surrounded it in a blazing blue light, and before the blast of the hex had vanished in a flash, James could see the light of the curse being jerked back into the wand.
James nodded. “Just as I thought. It’ll repulse any spell aimed straight at it.”
Lily frowned. “What does that mean? Bad or good?”
He dropped his wand. “That depends on the way you look at it. The way I see it, for right now it’s good, because as long as it hits the necklace, you won’t get hit with any curse or anything like that. The bad thing is that I don’t know how long it’ll do that; under how strong a curse it can hold up against and it wearing the necklace affects you in any way; and if it does burst under a strong curse, whether the hexes will all come flying right out at you, which, at the least, would render you near death, depending on the amount of hexes it’s got in itself. I also don’t know whether it has a mind of its own and gets a bit of power every time it sucks in the magic, and if it does that, will it get a mind of its own and/or can it control you. You see,” he finished.
Lily quickly shut her mouth. “I see.”
“So,” he asked, “are you going to continue wearing that?”
Lily nodded. “I have to. Who knows what could happen if it were stolen and that person angered Tom or Lith in any way?”
James looked at her appraisingly. “That is really brave of you.”
Lily shook her head. “Not really. I don’t feel brave-I just figure that each of us has to die sometime, and I’m one of the few people who don’t want to die old and wrinkly and in a bath-chair.”
He shrugged. “I don’t want to die.”
Lily laughed. “Well, if you want to keep hanging around me, that’s going to have to change.”
“Why so?”
“My friend, look at where you landed when you followed me about a month or so ago.”
He shrugged. “True. But I sorta enjoyed that.”
”Ah.” Lily smiled. “You’re turning into me now. Starting not to be scared of death…tsk, tsk.”
“And that’s a bad thing?”
“Depends on who you’re with.”
“True.”
They were silent for a few moments; then Lily broke out with a completely random thought.
“What are you planning to do after Hogwarts?”
James frowned. “Why?”
“So we can have a topic of conversation.”
“That’s a decent reason.” He considered it for a minute, then got an extremely wicked grin on his face. Lily was instantly alert.
“What?”
“I’m picturing you as a fashion model.”
Lily narrowed her eyes. “You’d better be glad that you’re sitting several feet away from me.”
“I know. That’s why I said it when I’m not three inches away from you. I’d get slapped or worse.”
She nodded emphatically. “You would. Preferably ‘worse’, if I got my way. Which I would.”
“Hey now!” James was grinning. “You’re not counting the fact that I’d fight back!”
“Actually,” Lily smirked, “considering your fighting skills, I am including that in my calculations.”
“Hey!”
“It’s true.”
He dropped back. “Yeah. But one day I’m going to get you to teach me how to fight.”
“One day.”
“Today would be good.”
“But today isn’t going to happen.”
“Demon.”
“Wizard.”
“I don’t take that as an insult, since that is what I am.”
“Ditto, ditto, Mr. Brooke.”
He was confused now. “Mr. Brooke?”
“Um-hum. From Little Women. ‘I do it to please you, my dear,’ said Mr. Brooke, nodding at his wife. ‘Ditto, ditto, Mr. Brooke,’ was her answer.”
“Ah.” James shook his head. “You read too much.”
“You read too little.”
James was about to respond, but then he and Lily froze. Footsteps were sounding down the hallway, and James could tell Lily recognized them, as she cringed.
“Who is it?” he whispered.
Lily shrank back. “Severus.”
“Snape?”
“Yeah, him. Can we leave?”
“Why?”
“Well-"Lily knew there really was no way out of this-“he asked me to be his girlfriend a while back, and I said no, and if he finds us in here, I’m pretty sure I can say goodbye to his friendship and that of any of the Slytherins.”
“And that would be a bad thing?”
Lily gave him a Look.
“All right, all right.” He pulled her towards the exit, but just then, Severus’ feet stopped right in front of them. James and Lily withdrew from the door as if it had just turned white-hot.
“What do we do now?” Lily’s voice was rather small and scared.
James’ eyes roved the room, and he quickly pulled her into a niche that was mostly covered by a statue of a Quidditch player with a “K” on his robes. As the entrance swung open, James quickly jumped back.
“What’re you doing here?”
Severus grinned. Evilly. Very evilly. “I found this in a room. Potions room, to be exact.” He held out a bit of parchment.
James snatched it from him. “You son of a -“
“Easy on the language, Potter,” Severus drawled. Lily hated to think this, but she understood now exactly why James and Co. hated Severus, Inc.
“Since when do you have the right to go through my things?”
“I gave myself that right. So…” he waved his hand around the room, “interesting place you’ve got here.”
James clenched his fist. “I know that’s not a compliment.”
“No, it’s not, seeing that the only good thing in here is the stuff you stole from our common room.”
Lily really wanted to sock him.
“It’s not as if anyone in your House would notice, seeing that they’re all lacking all of their brain cells.”
Lily really wanted to sock both of them.
“That the best retort you can come up with?”
“No. I just didn’t say what I really wanted to, because then, well, the people in the portraits’d be scarred for life.”
“Interesting. So-does McGonagall know about this?” Severus pointed to the room again.
James re-clenched his fists. “Yes, genius, and she threw a party for the Easter bunny in here, too.”
“So she wouldn’t mind if I re-informed her of it?”
“You-“ Lily toned out the rest of his speech, as she knew she really didn’t want to hear that stream of language. It included several words like ‘bloody’ and worse, though.
“Language, Potter.” Severus smiled nastily. “So I take it she wouldn’t? All right-I’ll just take the liberty of refreshing her memory-Lily!”
Both Severus and James were shocked beyond anything else. Lily had stepped out of the niche. Immediately, as usual, she took control of things.
“James, this place doesn’t seem to be as secret as you thought it would be. Look-Severus found it, and now me-you really should keep it more hidden.”
Luckily, James wasn’t capable of coherent speech yet. His mouth was still flopping open like a drunk goldfish’s would.
“Well, it really oughtn’t to be such a shock.” Lily turned to Severus. “I caught the last bit of what you two were saying-Severus, dear, please don’t turn him in. I use this place for homework late nights.”
James managed a few words. “What-why-“
Luckily only a few, Lily thought. “Not that I care about him-“ she jerked her thumb over her shoulder at the drunk goldfish-“but he’d probably also mention my name. Do you mind?”
Severus regained his normal smile. Lily was glad of that-the nasty smile had been a bit unnerving. More than a bit.
“Sure, Lily. You going back to bed now?”
Lily shot a quick glance at James. “I meant to finish a Divination essay.”
“Oh.” He nodded. “Well-see you tomorrow then.” Severus vanished and shut the door quietly.
Almost wheezing with gratitude, James turned to Lily.
“How did you manage that?”
Lily smiled smugly. “I’m me; what can you say?”
He grinned. “Well, then ‘me’ is definitely a good person or thing to have around in emergencies! Come here, you!” He reached an arm out and pulled her close, playfully ruffling her long hair and throwing it everywhere, including accidentally in his mouth, making him spit it out. She tried to push him away at first, but ended up laughing along with him.
“Okay, stop! Stop!” She bent over double as he started tickling her, and finally she fell to her knees on the carpet, whispering frantically, “Stop!”
He took her back to her dormitory later; later being about two o’clock. As he shoved her inside the door, he pinched her cheek. “Bad, bad miss prefect-staying out at these hours of the night, with the infamous Quidditch player Mr. Potter! You know, we might have to cancel your prefect privileges for this.”
Lily turned back. “James, several words. Do not call me Miss Prefect unless you wish to walk out of here missing several vital body parts for the only kind of sport other than Quidditch you’re capable of.”
He frowned. “Huh?”
“Think about it.” She quickly vanished inside and shut the door, and by the time the lightbulb had clicked on, he was faced with a solid, locked, oak door.
Two weeks flashed by, and James told Lily that Remus had been overheard Thursday evening to say before he fell asleep:
“Now I lay me down to sleep
I pray the Lord my soul to keep.
For if the Quidditch game ends tonight,
I might as well be Fishy Delight.”
James hadn’t forgotten that if the game ended this weekend, Remus would owe James ten Galleons, and, well, Remus was currently in possession of a negative amount of money. Lily had had to stuff a fist into her mouth to keep from letting a snort that could be heard all over the common room when she heard the last line. Fishy Delight was a self-invented worm mess that James and Sirius fed their fish. It involved lots of cayenne pepper, hacked worm, crushed Filibuster’s Firework powder, and regular gunpowder.
Out of about fifty, there were two fish left alive. It only took two weeks for the forty-eight to die.
Lily used to say that if anyone wanted their enemies to die, all they’d have to do would be to purchase a can of fish food from James and Sirius and tell them it was hamburger meat. Either it’d explode while they were cooking it or they’d be poisoned at the first bite. Lily should know. Lily had been fed it once.
Lily was also the only one that hadn’t thrown up at first sight of the mess. She’d tried it because she had been bored and was feeling rather suicidal at the moment. As it turned out, she only felt like there was a minor gold excavation where one used dynamite going on in her stomach, and she managed to conceal it from the boys. It was quite an accomplishment, as the whole common room had expected her to regurgitate it onto James robes when the smell of it hit her nose.
That weekend, the Quidditch-goers left as usual, but they returned in time for lunch on Saturday. Everyone immediately jumped on them for news.
“Who won? What happened? Who caught it? What was the score? What was the speed of both the Seeker brooms? Have you got any Omnicular replays? Did Potter and Black have anything to do with bewitching brooms or players?”
The last was the most repeated question. It turned out that Japan won, the Japanese Seeker caught the Snitch, the score was four thousand seven hundred and sixty to three thousand nine hundred and ninety, the speeds were about eighty miles an hour, yes, there were several thousand Omniculars being offered that had replays, and no. James and Sirius had, for once, controlled themselves. For once. It had happened a week ago that James’ wand had slipped and that a large display of sparks had mysteriously temporarily blinded the Egyptian Seeker. Remus was not happy. He was going to have to cough up ten Galleons. Not happy at all.
