Lily stumbled to her feet, after Rodger let go of her collar and pushed her to the ground. A circle had formed around them, and the crowd, delighted, had begun to chant. Lily spied James over in one of the corners. He was being held by one of Rodger’s friends. Obviously he didn’t want ‘Lily’ intervening.
“Rodger,” she yelled, trying to put some sense into his head, “can’t we just talk about this?”
“Expelliramus!”
Or not. Lily’s wand flew out of her hand before she had a chance to use it. Normally she was a better witch, but the whole situation had her flustered. She hated these kinds of conflicts, always attempting to break them up between her classmates.
“FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT! FIGHT!”
The chanting grew louder as more people arrived. Lily could see Sirius trying to push his was through the circle, but he was being blocked by a rather solid looking Hufflepuff boy. Rodger began to move, pacing the circle. Lily followed his lead, trying to keep as much distance as possible between them.
“There is nothing going on between Lily and me!” she yelled above the noise, hoping that the smart caring boy she knew would return to Rodger’s body.
“There is nothing going on between you and me, Ronald!” yelled James. Lily wanted to hit him. Hadn’t he just proven he was mature? Why was he making things worse? And for Merlin’s sake, how hard was it to remember one name?
“Please,” Lily begged Rodger, shooting a scowl at James, “give me back my wand.”
Rodger threw Lily’s wand to one of his friends. The guy then sprinted off, and Sirius, realising what had happened, chased after him.
Strangely Rodger put down his wand also, making Lily feel hopeful for a second. Maybe he did want to sort things out. Her hopes, however, were dashed with Rodgers words, “I am going to fight you like a man, Potter. You going to wuss out?”
Oh dear. Lily knew nothing about fist fighting. How could Rodger be so immature? She had dated him because he wouldn’t do things like this. Suddenly she felt as though she didn’t know him at all. Was this his real nature that he had been hiding from her? Was he just another jealous and aggressive little boy? Maybe it was a good thing James had broken up with him.
“You are an idiot,” she spoke calmly, unwilling to waver on her principles regardless of who she appeared to be. “I refuse to fight. Lily should be disgusted with you.” With that, she turned to walk away, but she didn’t get far when she felt a sharp pain the back of her knees. Rodger had kicked her when she had her back turned! Fury took over her mind as she swung out her elbow, connecting with soft flesh. With a satisfying grunt, she heard someone hit the floor.
She knew that she could easily finish Rodger off. It wouldn’t even be difficult. However, she still didn’t want to fight him; it wasn’t something she believed in. But she did want one last cutting remark before she left.
Lily turned around to face him, a retort on her lips, just in time to see a fist flying towards her face.
Then Lily saw black.
“Should we take him to the hospital wing?”
“Nah, remember what McGonagall said “ one more fighting related injury and all four of us would be in detention. He’ll be fine in a second. This happens to him all the time.”
“Oh there he is,” a new voice called out in the distance and there was the sound of footsteps approaching. “Er, what is he doing on the floor?”
“He was in a fight,” Sirius’ voice replied calmly. “Lily’s ex-boyfriend knocked him unconscious.”
“Oh that makes sense,” said the unknown voice, “but when do you think he will come around?”
“Soonish,” came Remus’ voice. “Why?”
“I was wondering what’s going on with Quidditch. He is the captain and he hasn’t scheduled any trainings in the last three days.”
“Yeah, I think he was affected by some sort of love potion gone wrong, perhaps given to him by that Lauren girl in sixth year. You know the one?” There was a pause, probably while the still unknown boy was nodding. “He seems okay now though. This morning he rushed off to find Lily and then got into a brawl with her boyfriend, which shows he is behaving like himself again. I’m pretty sure he will schedule something soon.”
Lily groaned for three reasons. Firstly because her head felt like a million garden gnomes were holding a party inside her skull, secondly because she was mortified that she had obviously been knocked unconscious and was currently lying on the ground, and thirdly because of one word, Quidditch.
Please Merlin, no…
“Good morning Princess,” called Sirius, noticing Lily groan. “I got your wand back for you.” He threw the wand onto her chest, somehow having retrieved it from Rodger’s friend. Lily decided not to ask what happened.
Lily barely had time to sit up before an eager voice piped in. “Do we have Quidditch training today?” It was a Gryffindor boy from fifth year. Lily was fairly certain his name was Adam Douglas and he was the keeper of the Gryffindor side.
“Actually I was thinking...” she started.
“Don’t make it after dinner,” Sirius interrupted. “Alex and Jake have Gobstones, so Alex won’t be able to make it. Plus, I thought we could have a bit of a Marauder meeting while the dormitory is free.” Peter and Remus, who had obviously joined them when she was unconscious, nodded enthusiastically.
“Okay, but I was going to say…”
“McGonagall said that the pitch is free after lunch,” Adam put forward.
“Well there is the problem of…”
“Don’t worry,” he interjected helpfully. “I can get the team ready quickly. Is two o’clock good for you?”
“I suppose, but…”
“Fantastic. See ya there.”
Fantastic indeed, Lily thought to herself. I have precisely two hours to find James and learn how to play Quidditch.
Lily couldn’t find James anywhere. According to Remus, who had arrived just in time to see her knocked out, ‘Lily’ had disappeared right after the fight. When she was lying on the floor, ‘Lily’ had broken free of her captor and slapped Rodger across the face, before kneeing him in the groin. When he was lying on the floor next to ‘James’, ‘Lily’ had then stated clearly, “I told you, scumbag, it is over between us.” Then she had stormed off, muttering about her reputation being damaged.
“I don’t think she liked the whole fighting thing.” Remus then added with a kind pat on the shoulder. Lily strongly suspected that it wasn’t the fight he was unimpressed with, rather the way the immortal James Potter had been beaten by Rodger. Now he was probably off sulking somewhere.
On completely different note, Lily was surprised to find that the way she saw Remus had not changed. If anything, she had gained a sort of respect for him. Perhaps, being a Muggle-born, she hadn’t grown up with the stories, but finding out what he was had not made her scared or disgusted. To her, Remus was the same person, and a brave person at that.
With James nowhere to be found, Lily accepted the inevitable and slowly made her way down to the Quidditch pitch at one thirty. Pacing the locker room and waiting for her team to arrive, she tried thinking of as many excuses as possible. None of them were in any way, shape or form plausible. Of course, none of them were as far-fetched as the actual truth, but she couldn’t think of one single way out of it that didn’t involve her ending up in the Hospital Wing.
Eventually she ran out of time and six Gryffindors filled into the small change room.
“Hello team,” she said nervously as the last player sat down. The team stared back at her. They all looked excited and pleased that training had been scheduled. They obviously deeply respected James, as they were staring at her with an intensity that awed her, as though the next words out of her mouth would be some kind of gospel.
“Um,” she stumbled, before finding a good idea. “I thought we’d start of this training session with a bit of a pop-quiz.”
“Alex,” she said, pointing to a boy she knew from her own year level. “When is our next game and who are we playing?”
“Saturday and Hufflepuff.”
Oh Merlin no.
She would still be James. If James was a less important player, she could have faked sickness, injury or something else. But he was James Potter, hero of the Gryffindor Quidditch side and captain to boot. She would need a big plan to get out of it. She made a mental note to consult James as soon as possible. But right now, she had to act like she knew what she was talking about.
“Rebecca,” she pointed at a sixth year, who she had talked to occasionally as her normal self. “What did we talk about in the last training?”
“You talked about how playing Quidditch is all about teamwork,” she replied fluently. “You said there are no individual winners or losers on a team, but we all win or all lose together. Then you gave us all nicknames, to make us feel more ‘spiritually bonded’ together,” she let out a laugh. “Mine was Daisy, because as a Chaser, I should be everywhere.”
“All right,” said Lily, stalling for more time. “Does everyone else remember their nicknames?”
“Elm,” said Benedict, one of the Beaters, “because I’m tall, strong and rather solid.”
“Willow,” said Eva, the other Beater, “because while I may look feminine, underneath I am highly aggressive and can beat people up.”
“Vine,” said Adam with a grin, “because I need to wrap myself around the goal posts.”
“Moss,” said Alex, another Chaser, “because I can stick to people like glue and I’m hard to get rid off.”
“Venus Fly Trap, or Venus for short,” said Robin, the Seeker of the team, “’Cause I need to catch, small flying objects.”
He named his entire team after plants? thought Lily, What on earth is that all about? That wouldn’t have anything to do with my name would it?
Almost afraid to know the answer, Lily asked, “Do you all remember my nickname?”
“The Gardener,” they all chorused. “Because you like to keep control of the plants.”
After using her “pop-quiz” idea for fifteen minutes, Lily finally emerged onto the pitch. There were only so many questions she could ask after all. During the questions however, she had come up with a new plan. James was captain and as captain could do whatever he wanted. There was no reason she couldn’t just watch a training session and run it from the ground. All she had to do now was to formulate a plan to get out of Quidditch on Saturday and she would be fine.
“Okay team!” she yelled, “Just do all the drills I have taught you this year and I will stand here on the ground and watch.”
One by one the team shot into the air and dutifully began playing drills. For half an hour she watched them fly and yelled out encouragement. Everything was going fine until Alex dived to the ground and came to stand beside her.
“Dude, are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay.”
“Then why aren’t you flying? You should be out there man, feeling the wind in your hair! There is something different about you…” He leaned in closer, as though he was playing spot the difference.
“I’m fine!” Lily nearly yelled leaning away. Alex gave her a sceptical look.
Obviously James had never ‘watched’ a session. Lily eyed the broomstick next to her. She tried to remember back to her flying classes in first year. She had never been awful, but she hadn’t been particularly good. Plus, they had only ever gone five to ten feet off the ground. After those few lessons, there had been the option of signing up for another class designed to cater for the people who wanted to learn how to fly properly. Lily had decided that she had no interest. A decision that she was starting to regret.
Slowly, Lily clambered onto the broomstick. I can do this, she whispered to herself. Alex had taken off again. There is nothing wrong with flying.
She pushed her feet to the ground and the broom shot into the air. The ground rushed away from her. Her hands began to shake and she could feel vertigo coming on.
You can do this!
She sped up a little bit. The ground was a long way away now, so she didn’t want to try anything too fancy. Wind whipped through her hair. It felt kind of cool. She sped up a bit more. It was actually kind of fun.
“James!” someone yelled, causing Lily to look over her shoulder. “Are you going to join in on the drills?” Lily sighed to herself. She might be starting to enjoy the flying, but there was no way she was up to playing Quiddich properly. Besides, there was no way she was going to take her hands off the handle.
“JAMES!” This time a few people yelled at her. She twisted further in her seat to reply.
“Just give me a minute…” she started, but she was interrupted.
“TURN AROUND!”
Lily turned around just in time to see a rather large white goalpost.
Then for the second time that day, Lily saw black.
Meanwhile, James was engrossed in a book.
While it had been rather comical to see himself knocked to the ground, it had left James in a rather sour mood. Lily had had the upper hand, but she had allowed herself to be sucker punched, something that would have never happened to him. He did have a reputation to maintain after all.
After his dramatic exit from the fight, he had come back to his dormitory to plot his next move. Calming down, he decided he would go and go and find Lily immediately, as they would need to plan a few things. He thought back to their previous conversation and he could no longer be annoyed with her. After all she had taken his secret so well, he felt so much closer to her then before. He got up to leave, but he noticed a book on the end of his bed.
Orsha’s Wish
By Catherine Joyce
James picked up the book and turned it over in his hands. It must have been one of Lily’s favourites because it looked as though it had been read a number of times. He began to read the summary on the back.
A tale of true love among the ruins…
Usually that would have turned him off. After all, no self respecting guy liked to read a romance tale. But he was interested in what Lily liked so much about the book.
Seventeen year old, Orsha Waitè, had everything she could ever ask for. Wealth, status, popularity and beauty were a part of everyday life and Orsha couldn’t have been happier.
But in the year of 1940 her world came crashing around her. The war arrived in France and after the death of a close friend; Orsha must decide if she will flee with her family or join the resistance movement of the French underground.
Yet, amidst the disaster, Orsha finds herself falling for the last person she ever expected. As her country’s situation becomes desperate, Orsha learns she must fight for what is right, but will she come to her senses and fight for her love before it is too late?
Scoffing at the plot summary, James had decided to read the first page only before trying to find Lily. That way, when he returned back to his body, he could charm her with a few lines.
Before he knew it, four hours had passed. James stared at the book, devouring the words. The tale was beginning to reach the climax.
“For god’s sake Orsha!” Alain sighed. “I’m perfect for the job. I’m strong, a good fighter and I know what I’m doing. By achieving this mission we can gain so much for the resistance movement!”
“But it’s a suicide mission!” yelled Orsha, fighting back the tears forming in her eyes.
James felt so overwhelmed. After all Orsha had been through, how would she react if she lost Alain? A tear slip down his face and landed on the page.
“There’s a chance I’ll come back…”
“But a higher chance you won’t.”
“It doesn’t matter. It’s a risk I’m willing to take. Besides, I’m not married or attached. If I die, no-one will be left behind.”
In that moment Orsha realised that she had to say something. She finally realised that…
“Lily!” Alice bounded into the room, grabbed the book from James’ hand and slammed it shut. James panicked. What did Orsha finally realise? Would Alain go on the mission? Would she admit to herself she loved him? Would they end up together? With all these questions unanswered, James eyed the book. Maybe if he somehow gave Alice a concussion…
“Oh stop looking so upset,” the girl in question stated. “I have seen you read that book millions of times. We need to talk!”
Luckily, James was prevented from saying something he knew he would regret later by three more girls entering the dormitory. Eva, Jannelle and Lorèley, the three other girls who shared Lily’s room, came in and sat down on their respective beds.
“We’ll talk later,” Alice whispered to James, who was still staring at the book. “How was Quidditch training?” she asked Eva.
That got James’ attention. Why hadn’t Lily consulted him before she scheduled training? Did she even know how to fly? Oh dear Merlin! The match on Saturday! After ending up in Lily’s body, for the first time in five years, Quidditch had completely slipped his mind. What were they going to do?
“It was very strange,” Eva was saying. “At the start we pretty much told James everything we had remembered from the years’ training so far. It was an interesting change, useful though as a recap. Then James watched us train for a bit, which again was interesting because I don’t think he has ever done that before. But that was nothing compared to what happened after that. Pretty much the minute James got on his broom, he got distracted and rammed straight into a goal post, giving himself a concussion. Luckily, Adam and Benedict were close by, so they managed to catch him. The boys took him up to the hospital wing.”
What had she been thinking! James clambered to his feet. “I’ve got to go,” he murmured. “I’ll talk to you girls later.” With that he ran out of the room.
“So you say this is the second time today he has been rendered unconscious?”
“Yeah, concurrent concussions,” replied Sirius, laughing at his own joke. “Hopefully he doesn’t decide to make it a hat-trick”
“You say the first time he fell down the stairs?”
“Ah-Huh.”
“That’s odd, he has no other injuries to match that description.”
“Um, we healed him?” Peter put forward.
Lily groaned. Why was this happening to her? What had she done that had been so awful that the karma gods were ultimately punishing her?
“Good afternoon, Princess-Prongs,” said Sirius, “You seem to be making a habit of this.”
Lily opened her eyes to see Sirius, Peter, Remus, the three guys from the Quidditch team and Madame Pomfrey watching over her. Madame Pomfrey held her out a cup. “Drink this,” she said thrusting the cup into her hands. “Then sit there for half an hour while the potion takes effect. I have a short errand to run, I’ll be back soon.” With that she walked away, still muttering, “Playing Quidditch after a concussion...Never have I seen such stupidity, if those boys hadn’t caught him…”
After Madame Pomfrey left, the remaining Quiddich team members also said their good-byes. As soon as they had left, the Marauders began to all talk at once.
“Man, Prongs, you are an idiot.”
“Goal posts are solid. You throw the Quaffle through them, not yourself at them.”
“Seriously,” said Sirius. “I am never,” he grinned, emphasising the word never, going to let you live this down.”
Lily laughed. She hoped he wouldn’t. It would serve James right for disappearing this afternoon.
“Prongs, mate,” said Remus. “Is there anything going on between you and Lily?”
Lily paused. Although it was a useful alibi for all the time they had been spending together, she refused to let James’ friends think there was romance going on between them. “I have decided to stop pursuing her,” said Lily. “I think it’s in both our best interests.”
Sirius snorted, Peter shook his head and Remus rolled his eyes. “Here we go again,” Peter groaned after their unusual display. Lily raised her eyebrows in question.
“Remember last time you tried to give her up,” asked Sirius, taking in Lily’s perplexed expression, “You barely lasted a fortnight mate. Then you were straight back to, ‘I’ll never get over her, she’s just too beautiful.’”
“Or the time before that, remember?” Remus added. “After ten days you were right back to droning on and on about how smart, witty and intelligent she is. You even wrote a poem about her.”
“Some things in life you just have to accept,” Sirius added again, “You told me that. You said that you always wanting to be around Lily is just something you have to accept, whether or not she returned the feelings, it wasn’t something you could control.”
“Why didn’t I just tell her that to her face?” Lily asked confused at James’ words to his friends. “Why do I always go and act all cocky and annoying?”
The boys laughed, “You always act like an idiot around her. Don’t start beating yourself up over it again.”
Just at that moment James burst into the hospital wing.
“I need to speak to Lily.”