Chapter Eighteen: Same Old School Funk

* “God Hagrid! This guy, Vernon, he’s a bloody weasel! Do you know, even when he was engaged to Petunia he told Lily he would sleep with her if she washed her face? And then, when she said no, he just slammed her name. He was a disgusting slob, a big fat man who only hurt Lily worse than she was already hurt.”

“He was that bad was he?” Hagrid narrowed his eyes.

“I told him off. Told him Lily was mine, and as long as I was around I would protect her. I think he got the message after that. Still…”

“Lily is yours? See here, when did this happen?” Hagrid asked, eyebrows rising.

“I didn’t mean it literally! I just meant that I’m going to be there to protect her no matter what. Jeez! What is wrong with everyone today! First Sirius, now you Hagrid? I came out here to get away from all of that.”

“Sirius? Now what did that boy say?”

“That I liked Lily. Impossible to get around these days, I’m telling you! Everyone’s purely mental about every little thing!”

“Well James, it’s true, isn’t it?”

“What’s true?”

“You do like Lily, don’t you?”

“No!”

“Well. That’s just what I saw. And Sirius must’ve seen it too. Come on James! Didn’t you ever wonder now what it might be like to love Lily?”

“Love? Lily doesn’t believe in love.”

“But you do, don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“So make her believe.”

“How?”

“Don’t you love her? Show her!”

“I don’t love her! I don’t even like her!” James shouted. Hagrid laughed.

“Have it your way James.”

“Hagrid, I’m sorry for yelling. I’m just tired of people assuming Lily and I… well, that I like her. I don’t. I mean, she’s just my good friend. Not even my best friend.” James tried to explain out everything to Hagrid.

“I understand James.”

“I mean, so what if we’re close? That’s a good thing, right? I mean, I wanted her to trust me, and now she does. And I trust her.”

“I understand James.”

“And it’s a good thing for her. I mean, she’s changed a lot. She isn’t even wearing the heavy black makeup anymore. Her mindset about being a freak is slowly starting to change.”

“I understand James.”

“And she’s still herself, but she smiles and jokes more. And she laughs… that’s good!”

“I understand James.”

“And it’s not like I need to hear her laugh or anything. I mean, her smile doesn’t make my stomach twist, and my heart doesn’t race when she’s looking at me.”

“I understand James.”

“So do you understand Hagrid?” James finished. Hagrid stared hard at him. “I really am pathetic, huh?” James rubbed his temples, feeling a headache coming on.

“You’re a fool who’s falling in love. It’s not your fault.” Hagrid smiled at James.

“Hagrid…” James warned.

“I’m sorry.” He stopped for a moment, then he couldn’t help himself. “So her smile makes your stomach twist and her eyes make your heart jump do they?”

“Yes.” James moaned. “And I don’t know why.”

“I think you do.”

“Sure Hagrid. I’m going to go to bed.”

“Alright then James. Come back soon, I’ll bake some rock cakes for us.”

“Sound great!” James lied through his teeth. “I’ll be back soon. I’m sure Lil will be in tomorrow to say hello too. Night Hagrid.”

“Night James.” And James was gone.

>>>)(<<<

When Lily woke in the morning, she found Arabella’s bright and shining face hovering over her. “Morning sleepy head.”

“Morning Ara.”

“Guess what we have first?”

“Double potions with the Slytherins?”

“Darn it! How did you know?” Arabella looked hurt she hadn’t been able to tell Lily.

“I didn’t, you just told me my guess was right.” Lily smirked.

“You are so evil sometimes!” Arabella laughed and pulled Lily’s sheets off.

“Hey! It’s cold!”

“I know! That would be the point! Get up!”

“Hey Ara?”

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you something?”

“Of course! We are best friends! You can ask me anything.” Lily blushed.

“How did you know you liked Sirius more than a friend?”

“Lily, does this have something to do with James?” Lily paled. “It does!”

“No!” Lily yelped. “I just wanted to know.”

“You like him, don’t you!”
“No! Listen Ara! I just, I don’t know. I had the craziest dream that James and I were kissing. Kissing! But he’s just my good friend- my best friend, aside from you. I don’t know anymore.”

“So it was dream? You know, people say dreams are a way to act out repressed feelings that we can’t in reality. Maybe you really want to kiss James.”

“But, but…”

“But what? Come on Lily! You can honestly tell me you’ve never thought about how cute James is? Or what it would be like to kiss him? Or even date him?”

“No. I…” Lily blushed and hung her head, her red hair dripping over her face to cover it. Ara brushed her hair aside and looked at her.

“Lily?”

“Ok! I have! Ok? I don’t know! I couldn’t help it! It’s just… James is always there for me- not that you aren’t, but…”

“Don’t worry Lily, I understand.”

“And his smile… he’s always so cute when he smiles at me. His eyes light up and his whole face is so happy…”

“I understand Lily.”

“And his laughter… He always makes me laugh, especially with his pranks! He even dedicated a prank to me.”

“I understand Lily.”

“And he trusts me. He really does, I know he does. He tells me things and asks my honest opinion, and doesn’t treat me like a freak.”

“I understand Lily.”

“And he compliments me, always calling me beautiful or gorgeous, or lovely. It’s so nice to feel pretty every once in a while.”

“I understand Lily.”

“Do you understand Ara?”

“Lily, you can’t help it. It’s a natural thing.”

“Oh, but I don’t want to lose his friendship! It would be so weird! And Ara, I’m not ready. I’m still only a freak…”

“You are anything but a freak Lily.”

“Ara…” she sighed. “But even so. I don’t even believe in love. How is that possible?”

“I’m still confused as to how you can’t believe in love Lily.”

“I’ll explain it sometime. It really is quite ingenious. But right now we have that double potions class.”

“Oh! I forgot!” Ara exclaimed. “But hey Lily?”

“Yes?”

“You asked me the way I knew I liked Sirius more than friends before I was his friend. It’s a different situation for you. See, I was attracted to Si for his looks, then I got to know him, and I liked his personality too. But you, you got to know James’ personality first, and now you’re starting to notice his looks. It’s different for everyone Lily. Love is funny that way.”

“I don’t love him! I don’t even like him that way!” Lily growled in frustration.

“Sure. Come on, get up!” Lily rolled her eyes, but said nothing. That morning breakfast was quiet. Neither James nor Lily wanted to say anything, and Remus was strangely absent. Sirius and Arabella had already eaten, and Peter was with the Hufflepuffs, more specifically his girlfriend.

“So… double potions with Slytherins. Should be interesting.” James tried to begin a conversation. What was wrong with him? He was never this tongue-tied.

“Yeah.”

“I wonder what they’ll say about last night.”

“Yeah.”

“I mean, you got them good Lils!”

“Yeah.” Ok, that was it.

“Lily! Something wrong?”

“Huh? Oh, I’m sorry James. Just thinking.”

“About? Anything I can help with?” James asked, desperate to have Lily speak to him, to smile at him, to have her laugh.

“No, don’t worry about it James. Just something Ara and I were talking about.”

“Are you sure? I’m good with girl stuff too!” James mock sniffled. Lily looked up and seeing James’ pathetic face had to smile. But then, that was what she liked about him, wasn’t it? He always made her laugh, even when she was down.

“Yeah James, I’m sure. Don’t worry about it.” Her words didn’t convince him, but at least he had her smiling! That was something!

“Hey Lils, let’s get going to class, we don’t want to be late, now do we?”

“Never!” She shook her head. They stood and began the walk to class. “So have you seen Hagrid yet James?” Lily asked, thinking it would be a safe conversation. She didn’t notice James pale.

“Yeah. I went and visited him last night after we said goodnight.”

“Oh?” Lily perked up. “What did he say?”

“Not much. I did a lot of talking.”

“About?”

“The summer. Told him about the wedding.”

“The wedding?” Now Lily paled. She wondered what exactly James had said.

“You know, about the bouquet and garter and things.” James lied through his teeth. His heart ached as he did it, but he needed to, for her sake. Lily was so delicate when it came to personal things that he didn’t want to hurt her.

“Oh!” Color returned to her cheeks. “Did he laugh?”

“Though it was hilarious!” And then the conversation ended in an awkward silence. They entered the classroom and Lily made a beeline for Ara, as James went for Sirius. They drug their respective friends off in separate directions and sat beside them.

Half way through the class, Arabella asked if she could use the restrooms. The professor allowed her to, and Lily was left alone working on her potion. She was fine for the first few moments, but just as she was adding the ragweed to the complicated memory potion, a dark figure loomed over her.

“Hello Evans. How was your summer?” Lily spun around to find herself face to chest with the tall Severus Snape.

“Fine.” She muttered, turning back around.

“I didn’t say you could turn back around Evans. Show me some respect and look at me when I’m speaking to you.” Snape growled.

“Please leave me alone, I’m busy working on the potion.” She asked, still not facing him.

“You dirty mudblood! How dare you ignore him!” Malfoy joined Snape.

“Go away Slytherins.” Lily brushed them off. Malfoy grabbed her wrist and spun her around.

“You know, Professor Blad? He’s in the store closet. He won’t see anything we do to you.” Malfoy teased.

“You’re hurting my wrist. Go away.” She tried one last time.

“I don’t think we will. We want gratification.”

“Of what?” She spat.

“We need to see that from now on you’re going to treat us with respect. You think because you’ve moved up the social ladder and are friends with Arabella Figg and the Marauders you can get away with things? Think again you little whore. You’re ours, Evans. Mudbloods like yourself are our play toys. Now we can either do this the hard way, or the easy way.” As Malfoy finished his speech, he laughed. Then Snape went in for a kiss. His face was met by an angry fist. Yelping, he jumped backward.

“Potter!” The two sneered.

“Don’t you dare lay your hands on her again.” James warned them, stepping in front of Lily. “Or you’ll find yourselves in so much trouble you won’t even be able to begin to comprehend it. And the pranks won’t even begin to add up to all the physical pain I’ll personally give you.”

“Damn mudblood lover! Go ahead and leave with your freakish bitch Potter! Your time will come, don’t worry.”

“What is going on in here?” The professor asked as he re-entered the room. The entire class had been focused on the interlude between James and Lily and Malfoy and Snape.

“Nothing professor. We were just discussing the potion ingredients.” Malfoy spun.

“Well… Potter, get back to your partner!” James growled, but nodded and went back to Sirius, who was so mad he was red. Arabella, who had come in half way through the scene, ran back over to Lily, and the class quieted down again until it was time for them to leave.

As soon as the class ended, Lily picked up her books and left, walking quickly away. She couldn’t wait around; she needed to leave, now. As she walked, she picked up her pace and finally broke into a sprint. When she stopped, she found she was in the library’s restricted section. How had she gotten in here? Did she care? No. She just wanted to hide from the world. Dropping her books, she crawled into the corner and curled up, letting hot tears drip down her cheeks.

James ran to his room after the potions class was over and Lily had disappeared. He had to see if she was all right. But he had no idea where she had gone, so of course the trusty map was needed. Throwing on his invisibility cloak, James checked the map and, seeing Lily was in the restricted section of the library, he went for it.

“Lily?” He called gently as he entered the restricted section. He heard the sobs and a hiccup and followed his ears. Then his eyes fell upon a heap on the floor and his heart broke. “Oh Lily.” James knelt beside her, but was afraid to touch her.

“James?” She whispered as the tears continued to fall. James brushed a few of the drops away from her porcelain cheeks, but it did little good. There were too many. Gently, as if she might break if he was too rough with her, he pulled her into a hug. She fell into his arms easily and just cried on. The words had stung … ‘mudblood’… ‘whore’… ‘freakish bitch’… they had all stung.

“Shh. God Lily. I swear they’ll never come near you again. I swear it, I’ll protect you. I’ll never let the touch you. They’ll never do anything to hurt you ever again.” He promised over and over. She just cried harder.

“I want to go away James. I just want to get away.” She murmured through her tears. Get away? James had an idea. Still trying to calm her, he picked her up and wrapped the invisible cloak around them. Then he headed out towards Hagrid’s hut.

“Hagrid!” James pounded on the door. Soon the door was flung open and Hagrid, not seeing anyone, assumed it was James again and stepped aside to let him in.

“James! Shouldn’t you be in class?” Hagrid asked the air as he looked for James.

“No. I should be right here.” Hagrid looked towards his bed, where James’ voice had come from. Then James appeared, and Lily was lying on the bed, still and quiet. Her face was tear streaked, and a frown played on her soft, full lips. Sleep had taken pity on the poor, hurt soul.

“What happened?” Hagrid asked worriedly.

“Double potions with Slytherin. Malfoy and Snape ganged up on her and said a few nasty things- particularly that she was a freakish bitch.” James spat, so angry with Snape and Malfoy that he wanted to break their necks. He wanted to hurt anyone who ever even thought about hurting his Lily.

“Where was the professor?”

“Store room, missed the whole thing. She waited until after the class, then ran off and broke down. She said she wanted to get away from everything, so I brought her out here.”

“Poor Lily.”

“And I didn’t get there in enough time to stop it. I could have, and I didn’t. I broke my promise.”

“James, you didn’t. You still stopped them didn’t you?”

“Yes, but by then the damage had been done. I can’t even believe how foolish I was, not to see something happening until it was too late.”

“She won’t blame you.”

“She’ll blame herself, and that’s even worse!”

“Sit down and calm down James. Have some tea. When Lily wakes up, then you can worry.”

“I’m worried now. I care so much about her… It hurts me to her hurt.”

“That’s love my boy.”

“But we haven’t even dated! I can’t just jump straight to love!”

“Why not? If that’s what your heart is telling you?” Hagrid asked. James paused. Everything seemed to come so simply from Hagrid. Why couldn’t he just follow his heart? Who made the rule that they had to date before he could fall in love? He could just fall in love. And he was nearly positive he had. Nearly.

“Hagrid, do you think Dumbledore and McGonagall will be angry we’re missing class?” James switched the subject. Hagrid saw right through it, but decided not to comment.

“Maybe. But I’ll talk to them if they are.”

“Thanks Hagrid.”

“James?” Lily moaned. In seconds James was by the bed.

“Lily?” She sat up rubbing her eyes and then burying her head in them. “Don’t worry Lily, we’re out of there. We’re at Hagrid’s.”

“Hagrid’s?”

“Yeah, I brought you here. How do you feel?”

“Horrible.” She moaned, leaning on James’ shoulder. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. “Am I really that much of a freak James?” *

~~~Oh! How do you all like this? It’s actually close to the end believe it or not. Maybe three more chapters or so. But don’t worry, there’s still plenty for me to discuss… Remus, animagus (spelling), Snape, Formal dance, graduation! Joy! PLEASE REVIEW! Much love, Vixen~~~

PS: Anyone ever heard of cokemusic? If you have and you have a V-ego, come find me! I’m AngelVixen, owner of Angel Mafia