FINDING LOVE IN THE PAST
Chapter Eight
Lily slammed the cabin door and
fell to the floor next to her bed. Tears ran down her face. She heard footsteps
running towards the door. She quickly dashed to the door and locked it.
The doorknob turned. "Lily!
Lily, unlock the door, please," James said calmly.
"Go away, James!" Lily
exclaimed.
"Lily…"
"Go away!" A few
moments later, she heard him walk away. She leaned against the door and slid to
the floor, crying.
*****
James walked away from the cabin
with mixed feelings. He was angry, angry about being kissed by Linda. Why
did she kiss me when she knew full well that I love Lily? he thought. Then
his mind flashed back to when he first realized he was in love with Lily. It
was this morning. He woke up and Lily was in his arms. He remembered the
sunlight coming through the porthole. He also recalled the smell of Lily’s
hair. He had felt so content holding Lily in his arms. He remembered thinking
that this was where he wanted to be, with Lily. He had never felt like this
before about anyone.
Suddenly, James felt the floor
shaking slightly. It was barely noticeable, but he felt it. Then he heard a
loud noise. What is going on? James thought. Oh, no. He quickly
turned around and ran to Lily.
*****
Lily was still sitting against
the door, thinking, her tears subsiding. James, why did you kiss her? Her
mind flashed back to that horrible scene--Linda talking with James in the
middle of the room, Linda kissing him, and then James turning around and
looking at her…with that look of guilt in his eyes. I should have known
better, she told herself. Once a Marauder, always a Marauder. She
recalled hearing about James at Hogwarts, about him having a new girlfriend
every week. What makes me any different from any of his ex-girlfriends? Her
mind flashed to the time she spent with James since they were brought to the
past, thoughts of kissing him and enjoying every moment with him. She smiled
inside. She had never felt happier than when she was with James. Oh, no. I
think I’m in love with him! This is so confusing. Lily said out loud to the
empty room, "If I’m in love with James Potter, send me a sign!"
As if on cue, Lily felt movement
underneath her. "Oh, my God! It’s a sign!" Lily stood up and sat on
her bed. She wiped her tears away. Okay, she thought. I’m guessing
that sign means I’m in love with James. Weird. It actually worked. Okay, if I’m
really in love with James, he’ll knock on the door in five seconds.
Five…four…three…two…one…okay. Never mind.
"Lily! Open the door!"
Lily immediately ran to the door
and unlocked it. As soon as she opened the door, James walked in.
James put his hand on her cheek,
noticing the redness under her eyes. "Lily, are you all right?"
She touched his hand before
answering. "I’m fine."
He didn’t want to start another
argument by badgering her, so he walked into the middle of the room, looking
around. "Where would the lifejackets be?"
"The what? Oh, that was the
iceberg," Lily said, then added, with a whisper, "not a sign."
"Of course it was the
iceberg. What did you think it was?"
"Nothing. You’re right.
Where are the lifejackets?" Lily changed the subject.
"I’m looking." James
looked on top of the wardrobe. "Found it, but there is only one." He
held it up.
Lily thought for a moment before
saying, "Well, we’ll be on a lifeboat, so why would one of us need a
lifejacket?"
"Well…"
There was a knock on the door.
James opened the door to find
John out of breath. "What’s wrong?"
"You will not believe this,
but we hit an iceberg." Seeing the unsurprised expressions on their faces,
he continued, "We struck an iceberg. The post office is already
underwater. I wouldn’t believe it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes. This is
serious. We need to get up top to the boat deck."
"Give us five minutes to get
ready. We’ll meet you in the general room," James said to John.
John nodded and left quickly.
They didn’t waste any time. They
both put on their Hogwarts robes over their clothes. Lily used her wand to
expand the pocket in her coat. She put the rest of her Hogwarts uniform and her
wand in the pocket. James did the same thing.
"Lily, I think you should
wear the lifejacket."
"But I thought I didn’t need
one."
"But what if we don’t get to
a lifeboat in time? We might end up in the ocean. That’s why I would feel
better if you had the lifejacket."
Lily murmured, "You’d
probably feel better if Linda was wearing the lifejacket."
"What did you say?"
"I said, I don’t know how to
put this on," Lily said quickly.
"Let me help." James
put the lifejacket over her head and then tried to secure it. Lily was trying
to ignore the fact that James’ face was only inches away from hers, and that
James had his arms around her waist, trying to secure the lifejacket. "I
can’t figure this out!" James said, starting to get frustrated.
"It’s fine." Lily took
off the lifejacket with difficulty and took her shawl. "We’d better get
going." They left the cabin, heading for the general room and leaving the
lifejacket on the bed.
*****
It took them twice as long to get
to the general room as before because the hallways were crowded with passengers
trying to find their way up. "Lily! James! What took you so long?"
John asked when he reached them.
"Sorry. The hallways are so
crowded," Lily apologized.
"It’s all right. I just got
here myself," John said. "We need to get to the boat deck, but all
the gates blocking the way there are locked."
Lily paled. "What should we
do?"
"We could go with everyone
else and wait for the stewards to unlock one of the gates. Mind you, that will
take a lot of time. But we will get into a lifeboat."
James thought for a moment and
realized that John didn’t know that there were only enough lifeboats for about
half the passengers on board. "I think we should try to find our own way
up."
"Okay. Let’s go."
"Wait," Lily said.
"Where is Linda? Shouldn’t she be here?"
John didn’t notice the coldness
of her voice and answered, "She didn’t believe me, and she still thinks
the Titanic is unsinkable."
"Let’s go. We’re wasting
time."
They were following John down a
flight of stairs when Lily asked, "Does anyone else notice that slight
tilt?"
Lily was right. Everything was
tilted downward. We have to get out of here, James thought. John was in
the lead. They went down another flight of stairs. That was when they found one
of the locked gates. A large crowd of third class passengers with some of their
luggage was waiting for the stewards to unlock the gate. The stewards were
trying to calm them down. They moved past the crowd and kept walking down
hallways that led to Scotland Road. "There’s a gate down these
stairs," John said as he started to walk down. When they reached the end
of the stairs, they noticed that there was some seawater leaking in.
"The water is
freezing!" Lily exclaimed. They started to walk faster toward the gate.
James tried to open the gate.
"No! It’s locked."
"Damn," John said
tiredly. "Wait. Do you hear footsteps?"
They turned around and saw a young
man they didn’t know running towards them. The man ran up to the gate and shook
it. He turned to them and yelled out, "Ouvrez cette porte en ce moment!"
"We don’t speak
French," Lily said calmly. "Calm down. We can lead you to the main
gate."
"Je vous commande
d'ouvrir cette Porte. Je dois obtenir à la plate-forme de bateau."
"Sir." John took a step
towards the livid Frenchman. "Follow us. We’ll take you to the gate."
John was saying this slowly in hopes the man would get the concept.
"Stand en arrière. Ne
venez pas plus étroitement."
"We’ll help you."
In one sudden movement, the
Frenchman pulled an object out of his pocket and lunged at John. John collapsed
to the floor, while the Frenchman ran away.
"John!" Lily shouted as
she and James knelt beside him. "Oh, my God, James. He’s bleeding!"
"He’s been stabbed!"