Chapter – 3

Lila looked at Michael. This was going to be difficult. Michael gave her a reassuring look and said ‘I’ll take care of it.’

He turned to the others. ‘There is a slight problem here.’

Lily scoffed. ‘Slight? Understatement of the year!’

‘Yeah, well, James and his friends decided to stay here for the summer and you guys are spending it at my house.’ Michael said.

‘The entire summer?’ Kristi asked.

‘Yeah.’ Lila nodded.

James snapped out of his daze. ‘So, now that we’ve gotten that figured out, the Marauders need to have a discussion.’ He said.

Everyone in the room looked at him incredulously. James was passing up this opportunity to ask Lily out? Something was wrong in the picture. The Marauders walked out of the room.

‘Hey, Lily?’

‘Yes Lila?’

‘Michael and I have to go meet my parents, can you stay here for half an hour? I’ll make sure that we come back soon.’ Lila said.

‘Sure.’ Lily turned around to see her friends giving her Looks. ‘What?’

Alice walked up to her and said ‘Lily, darling, why didn’t Potter ask you out?’

‘How will I know?’ Lily shrugged. ‘I don’t give a damn anyway.’

Kristi and Nikki clicked their tongues. ‘Maybe something to do with what you two talked about in the train before summer began?’

Lily gulped. She was caught. ‘Alright, I’ll tell you.’

Flashback

James stuck his head into the girls’ compartment and asked ‘Hey, Evans, can I talk to you for a second?’

Lily raised her eyebrows. ‘Why do you think that I’ll say yes?’

‘Go, Lils, we’ll be right here.’ Nikki said.

Lily sighed and followed James out to an empty compartment. ‘What do you want, Potter? I swear, if you ask me out again-’ James cut her off.

‘Evans, will you do me a favour and just shut up? You are so frustrating!’ James aid.

Lily bristled. ‘Me? You are the arrogant, big-headed prat who called me here to talk!’

‘You never even tried to see me for who I am! Evans, thinking that you know everything and everyone in this world is going to get you nowhere. You don’t know me; you just don’t want to accept that I’m not that bad.’ James said.

‘YOU ARE SO ARROGANT AND CONCEITED! HELLO, NEWS FLASH, YOU ARE NOT THE KING OF THE WORLD!’ Lily screamed.

‘Well then, maybe I made a mistake in falling for you – you can’t even sort out your own feelings. If you want it like this, then alright. Forget that I even liked you.’ James said before storming out of the door.

End Flashback

‘Oh, Lils,’ Alice sighed. ‘Why did you have to scream at him? All he wanted to do was talk to you!’

Nikki nodded. ‘Yeah, can’t you give him a chance? Hasn’t he always shown that he truly cares about you?’

Lily looked at them and scoffed. ‘Yeah, right! Like turning my hair green is caring! Or is burning my homework a second before class caring? You guys crack me up!’

Nikki and Alice looked at Kristi, who was being her normal, quiet self. ‘What do you think, Kris?’

‘Let Lily do what she feels is right.’ Kristi replied. When she noticed their shocked looks, she added. ‘I mean, you can’t force her into anything! She will eventually figure out for herself that she is in love with James.’

Lily glared at Kristi. ‘Not you too! You were the only sane one here!’

Kristi smiled sadly. ‘Lils, you don’t know how lucky you are that the person you love loves you back.’

‘I DON’T LOVE HIM!!’ Lily screamed. A second later, she noticed Kristi’s teary eyes. She looked around at Nikki and Alice, and then moved forward to hug her best friend.

Lily and Kristi were closer to each other than Nikki and Alice. Kristi was pure-blood, and was from one of the most influential families in the wizarding world. In fact, she was descended from Rowena Ravenclaw herself. Unfortunately, her father, a Muggle-hater, had married another Muggle-hater after her mother’s death. They had two sons – Liam and Josh - who were five years younger than Kristi. She was abused at home, and her father wanted her to join the Death Eaters, just like Sirius’ parents. In fact, she and Sirius were childhood friends, and they related to each other as they were both the black sheep of their respective families.

‘What happened?’ Nikki asked, breaking the silence.

‘They’ve fixed my engagement with…’ Kristi broke down into tears.

‘Shh..’ Lily soothed her friend.

Alice placed her arm on Kristi, and forced her to look up. ‘Who?’ she asked simply.

Kristi sniffed. ‘Drake Black, Sirius’ older brother, He joined the Death Eaters in spring.’

‘James! Where are you taking us?!’ Remus demanded, irritated, as James led the through a series of stairs and corridors. He finally stopped at a door and pushed it open.

The room was magnificent. It was green in colour, and had a king-sized bed in the middle. There was a desk on the side, complete with writing requirements. The closet was open, and it was obviously a walk-in closet. The ceiling was enchanted to look like outer space, and there were photos of James and Lila on the walls.

‘Whoa…’ Peter said as he took in the beauty of the room.

‘James, why did you pull us away like that?’ Remus asked.

‘Yeah, I wanted to speak to Kristi, I haven’t seen her since the last day!’ Sirius mumbled.

‘Whoa…’ Peter repeated, after he realised that he was expected to say something.

James sat on the bed and his friend sat next to him, crowding around as they did in Hogwarts. The current attention-holder put his head in his hands. ‘She hates me…’ he said silently. The others understood that he was talking about Lily.

‘No, mate, she’s just as smitten with you as you are with her, she’ll realise soon enough.’ Sirius consoled.

James looked at him hopefully while Remus and Peter looked at him like he was an alien. Sirius ignored the looks as long as he could (read 1 second) before snapping.

‘WHAT? I’M NOT A BLOODY ALIEN! WHY ARE YOU STARING LIKE THAT?’

Remus shook his head. ‘Sirius, don’t you think James will be even more disappointed if what you said wasn’t true? I mean, come on, see how Lily has acted around him for the past six years. Do you honestly think that she’ll fall in love with him?’

Peter just sat there. What are they talking about? Oh, forget it, I’ll just do what I do best, look confused. And he did just that.

‘She’s already in love with him, Moony.’ Sirius said, quietly.

James put his head on the pillow, shifting his position so that he was lying down. ‘She isn’t.’

Sirius hit his best friend on the head. ‘Stop being so pessimistic!’

Remus looked at Sirius. ‘Si, sorry to break this to you, but James has always been optimistic about Lily. It’s time he came back to the real world, even when Dreamland is more satisfying!’

‘Guys, why don’t you notice it? Lily laughs at his jokes, albeit discreetly! She stares at him in Transfiguration, I’ve noticed it because you and James sit in front of her with me and Peter behind her. She blushes when he asks her out, even though it’s only for a nanosecond. And there’s lots more to the list, which I will not go over right now.’ Sirius blurted out. ‘Oops.’

Remus narrowed his eyes. ‘Si, what’s wrong?’

‘I promised Kris that I won’t tell James. But,’ he turned to the subject of their conversation. ‘James, believe me! Kris has noticed and so have I! Don’t give up yet. Try to be her friend first, and don’t ask her out at all.’

James closed his eyes. ‘Okay, Pads, but if you’re wrong, I swear I’ll take you off my will!’ he said.

Sirius and Remus laughed. ‘You won’t have to.’ The former assured.

‘So,’ James began, desperate for a change of subject. ‘What about you and Miss. Fowler, eh?’

Sirius turned a light shade of pink. ‘Nothing. We’re just friends.’

‘Yeah, right. Do you really expect us to believe that?’ James asked.

‘Um, yes?’ Sirius replied, uncertainly.

Remus threw his head back and laughed, joined a minute later by James. ‘Si, you are so comic when you like a girl!’ Remus managed to splutter before breaking into peals of laughter again.

Sirius gave them a glare.

James ignored it, and began dreaming about an auburn-haired girl.

Remus glared back at Sirius, before he could hold himself no longer and started chuckling.

Peter sat there, well, looking confused.

Hey, guys! I know that I said that I’ll be updating only in March, but I had my Maths exam today and I did really well!! So I gave myself a break and wrote this. I have Science on Monday, so I still have two days to study. I’ll try to update sooner, but my Board Exams get over only on March 26, so it’ll be tough.

And, my reason for Michael and Lila going to Beauxbatons is that wizards don’t choose their schools, the schools choose the students. Or that’s how it is in my story, anyway. Sorry for the confusion.

And last but not the least, I GOT TEN REVIEWS FOR THE LAST CHAPTER!! YAY!! Will you be dears and continue reviewing? It’s not very difficult…

NEXT ON “A MARAUDER LOVE STORY” :

Who is Liam Black?

Till next time,

James1257