You belong with me- Chap. 20

"Sometimes I can't believe you're that stupid, Potter."Sam said with a little bit of compassion in her voice. James didn't even look up, concentrated on touching a knot that stood out on the wooden table.
"I know." He said, sighing. Sirius patted him comprehensively on the back.
"James, I've told you hundreds of times," said Remus, shaking his head. "You have to stop behaving like a bighead if you want Lily to notice you." Becca smiled at the lycanthrope and nodded.
"You should listen to your mates for a change, Potter. Moony here is right." She asid, using the nickname she had heard the Marauders give him. Lupin looked at her with a half smile; he knew she had said it mockingly, and Rebecca answered with a saintly smile, fluttering her eyelashes with fake innocence.
Everyone tried to cheer him up uselessly; James seemed really depressed, without a trace of the arrogance  displayed just a few minutes ago.
"James, why don't you come with me for a walk around Hogsmeade?" Brianna suggested, surprising the Marauders. The girls, however, smiled: Bree was the most empathetic person on earth, she was understanding, sweet, she never judged you, and her advice was difficult to ignore. Sirius understood it immediately and nodded:
"Come on, James, go, you're depressing us all, mate" That took a tiny smile out of the boy, who stood up and followed the brunette dragging his feer.
They both walked around the town for a while without saying anything. The truth was that it came in useful for James; he needed some minutes of reflection without being interrupted. Bree knew it, and that's why she let him think as they walked under the drizzle that had started to fall. She waited for him to be the first one to break the silence, which happened after half an hour:
"It's raining," anyone would have laughed at such an obvious statement, but Brianna waited. "Lily must be freezing."
"I'm sure Aidan will lend her his coat." She answered softly. The boy's face contorted at the mention of the Hufflepuff. "Now tell me, James, do you mind that Lily went out with him?" she asked, using his name for the first time.
"Of course I do!" Potter exclaimed, inevitably irritated. "He's a jerk; he's not good for her" Brianna raised her eyebrows and looked at him with the playful reproach that one can recognize in grandmothers when they reprimand their grandchildren. James couldn't help but laughing, which made him relax. "Fine, I mind because I'm jealous" He said. The girl nodded satisfied: even if he was clarifying the obvious, it was necessary that he admitted it out loud.
"And if you like Lily so much, as you acclaim all the time, why did you invite Corner to Hogsmeade? And not just her: what about all the other girls?" The brunette asked. Potter opened his mouth to reply, but Bree kept saying: "I'd understand that you dated other girls if you had decided to give up on Lily; but you have to think a bit on how all you do looks from her eyes. A bloke that gets on your nerves since you were eleven years old starts to chase you around the castle announcing to all and sundry his love for you. You think it's just another one of his nonsense, but the thing persists beyond third year, and now we are almost in fifth and the boy keeps with it. At first, it annoys you, but then, it confuses you; what the hell does he hope to gain with all of this? If it's just another one of his pranks, like the ones he usually plays on your best friend (which apparently have no reason at all), then they have gone too far: what if you had believed him? But the thing goes on, and you start to doubt thinking that he really does want to go out with you. That's what your friends tell you. And at the same time, you see him parade up and down Hogwarts with tons of different girls, which only confirms that his egocentrism and arrogance are more than just a pose. And you realize that even if it's true that he wants to go out with you, you're just some kind of trophy for him. Just like the rest of the girls."
James was stunned with Bree's little speech. No one hade ver made it more clear. He looked at her in the eye, mute, and the girl's expression softened a bit.
"She will never realize that you love her if you keep behaving like this, James. I can't guarantee she will if you change, but don't expect anything else if you don't." Potter smiled and put his arm around her shoulders, though not haughtily, but with affection instead.
"Thanks, Brianna." He said, letting her go and staring at her curiously. "Sirius is right, you're great."
She smiled sweetly.
"And I'll tell you another thing, though you probably won't listen to it now. I know you'll try to change, I really do, cause I'm sure you love Lily. But you won't change from one day to another, and probably more than once you'll forget this conversation; they've been many years of behaving like the golden boy."
"I won't forget this, Bree," he started to say, puzzled, but she interrupted him.
"Yes, you will, many times. Sometimes you'll even try to call her attention the same way you've been doing until now, playing the fool and behaving like a bighead. Don't take it bad. But as long as veeeery deep inside you take into account what we've talked about today, it'll be fine."
"Ok." He agreed, still doubting that it would happen. The brunette smiled, and in her blue eyes James found a girl much older, and he saw all that Sirius saw in her.
"Now let's go back to the castle, before your friends think I've kidnapped you."

…

After being interrupted by that berk of Potter, the date with Aidan had went back a few steps, though Lily wasn't sure why. They had finished eating chatting so politely that it was almost formal, and then they had decided to go for a walk around the town. They had had fun, but the conversation seemed a little forced and the redhead didn't know why. The boy seemed slightly uncomfortable, and Lily found it hard to forget the incident, so, despite she tried to avoid it, she was still quite irritated.
In the end, it had begun raining, and she hadn't helped spitting out a string of insults directed to Sam that had made the Hufflepuff laugh, easing the situation. He had given her his coat so that she would be covered while they walked towards the castle, placing an arm over her shoulders. From then on, the conversation seemed natural again, but the boy hadn't attempted to kiss her again. When they had reached the Entrance Hall and they were saying goodbye, he seemed to have the intention of doing so, but he changed his mind half-way, giving her a clumsy kiss on the cheek instead and wishing her a nice day.
Lily went up the stairs lost in thought, thinking about Aidan and about how Potter seemed to enjoy screwing her life up. When she was about to arrive at the Common Room, she realized she still had the Huflepuff's coat over her shoulders, and she told herself that she would have to give it back to him the next day. A sneeze made her notice that the garment hadn't helped too much; she had probably caught a cold.
The Common Room was warm and almost empty, except for a couple of first and second-years, but the redhead went straight to her room to change her clothes before going back down to read for a while.
When she arrived at her room, she placed the coat on the bed and before she could finish unzipping her dress, she saw Prince standing obediently on the windowsill with a letter tied to her leg. She rushed to open the window and let him in; he was probably bringing a letter from his parents: Severus had lent the owl to her some days ago and she had sent him home. She took some candies out of the night table's drawer and gave the to the bird, softly stroking his head as she untied the letter.
The redhead took the envelope and sat on the bed with her legs folded, anxiously unfolding the parchment: she missed her parents so much! But when she read a couple of lines her expression changed, bursting into tears and dropping the letter.

…

"So, now that the drama is over, why don't you tell us why you are in such a good mood, Perks?" Sirius asked perceptively once that James and Bree had left The Three Broomsticks.
Sam rolled her eyes but smiled a little, almost imperceptively. Becca looked at her with suspicion, narrowing her eyes.
"So you've been all day in a good mood? I was thinking how weird it was that you could stand being with this moron longer than half a second." She said, pointing at Black with her head. Remus let out a chuckle and his friend smacked him on the nape with his palm.
"You must admit she's right, Sirius" He commented, and Peter laughed too.
But Rebecca didn't want to let it go.
"I knew I had seen the Rivers' owl flying around the owlery," she said. Sam blushed, surprised, and Sirius gave a start. "Eli already invited you to go with him this summer holidays, hasn't he?"
"Yeah," the dark-haired girl answered, apparently concentrated on observing a piece of bread. "His mother has to go to Portugal because of some Ministry business, and right then they'll be playing the finals of the Regional Quidditch Torunament. It's just four days, but I really wanted to see that match"
"I didn't know you were dating Rivers, Perks!" Black exclaimed. Sam gave him a withering look, and Becca burst out laughing.
"And why they should've told you, Sirius?" Remus asked, laughing.
"I'm not dating Eli!" Sam exclaimed, red to the roots of her hair. Everyone ignored her.
"You're a nosy old besom, Black." The blonde nodded, agreeing with Lupin. "Sam has no reason to tell you about her love life. But you have to tell me, Sam, so spill the beans"
"I said I'm not dating him! Can't a boy invite me to the Quidditch Tournament finals without everybody thinking that we'll be snogging during the half-time?" Sam grumbled angrily.
"Well, that  visible blush tells us otherwise, sweetheart." Sirius commented mockingly. The girl quicked him under the table. "You should all give up that bloody habit of yours." He said after groaning in pain.
"Well, I know he fancies you," Rebecca crooned. Now it was Sam's turn to ignore her.
"What time is it?" she suddenly asked, unpolitely. The lycanthrope glanced at his wrist watch before answering:
"Four o' clock, why?"
"We have Quidditch training at seven. I'm off of here; I'll need to rest a bit before bearing with Bailey's yells while I soak to the skin under the rain." She answered, standing up.
"You have training today?" the blonde asked, standing up too. "And I used to think that the Ravenclaw  team's captain was strict, he always steals Eli from me when I need him"
"I'll go with you, Perks" Black announced, and Rebecca stared at him incredulously. He shrugged his shoulders. "I always go to see James to the trainings."
"I'll go with you" Peter rushed to say.
"I pass," said Remus "But I'll go with you, I'll stay at the common Room"
At the end, the whole group decided to go back to Hogwarts; they had been at Hogsmeade since the morning and the storm looked awful: thank goodness Dumbledore had had the bright idea of proposing they visited the village earlier.  Sam headed the procession towards the castle, walking quickly and with her arms crossed, followed by Peter and Sirius, who triet to make her angry with insidious comments on her and Eli.
"They are like children," Remus laughed, walking some steps behind, next to RebeccaParecen niños," rió.
"Don't you get tired of taking care of them, Moony?" she asked, smiling so that he knew she was kidding.
"I stick my neck out you behave that way all the time." He replied, and she burst out laughing.
"Busted," she said, shaking her hair as she always did. "Lily's right, you get people quickly."
That seemed to surprise Lupin.
"I guess that's right," he answered, nodding and watching absently how Perks turned around and with a wand movement, she stuck up Sirius' nose the beans that Peter was eating.
"Well, I'm quite perceptive as well, Moony, and it's not hard to tell you have plenty of secrets," she whispered, as if she was confessing something no one else could hear. Lupin fixed his honey eyes on hers. "It'll be interesting trying to figure them out." And once she said so, the blonde winked one of her exotic brown eyes.
Remus watched her run towards Sam with a half smile on his face before trying to help Sirius with the jellybeans issue.
    They arrived at the castle pretty wet and with a Sam and a Sirius in a much worse mood than they had when the day started, and they went up the stairs among laughter and grunts to the seventh floor. They said goodbye to Rebecca before going to the Gryffindor Common Room, where each one went to their corresponding room.
"Sam!" called her Bree when she was about to went up the stairs. The girl turned around and smiled at her friend.
"How was the chat with Potter?" she asked curiously while she waited for her to catch up and they both went up the stairs together.
"Okay." The little brunette answered briefly, going ahead to open the room's door.
They were so surprised that they just stood there for some seconds, without moving or knowing what tos ay: Lily was sitting on the floor, huging her knees, the tears runing down her cheeks and the sobs desperately coming out of her throat. Prince, standing confused on the bed, pecked a lock of the redhead's hair, who hadnt even hear them enter. Around her, on the floor, there were an envelope and a crumpled parchment.
Brianna was the first one to react.
"Lily! Lily, what's happened?" she exclaimed, approaching to her friend and kneeling next to her. The redhead raised her head and looked at her with her eyes swollen from crying so much.
"Dad's sicker than we thought" she whispered, her voice choked by sobs.
Sam closed the door delicately and sat on the bed, taking Lily's hair out of her face and combing it with her fingers, while Bree got closer to her and let her put her head on her shoulder. They didn't say anything, because they knew Lily wasn't a person who needed comforting words. Besides, there was nothing they could say: her father had been sick during several months until the doctors had discovered he had a strange lung disease similar to cancer. They had thought they could cure him, and for a while the treatment seemed to work, and it looked like he was getting a lot better, that's why this letter had been so unexpected. Everyone thought Lily's father was almost cured.
After an hour, Sam carefuly stood up and whispered at Bree:
"I'm gonna talk to Becca and write to Eli." The brunette nodded, still huging the redhead, who seemed oblivious to all that happened around her. Every now and then, she begun to calm down, and her sobs were almost inaudible, until all of a sudden she burst out crying again, interrupting the sobs with strong sneezes too.
Lily knew it: her father was dying.
When the redhead felt she had no more tears to shed, Bree took her to the bathroom and washed her face, whispering that everything was going to be fine, that her friends would be with her through the ordeal. Lily smiled at her, thankful, but when she was leaving the bathroom she had to grab the doorframe not to fall.
"Lily?" said Brianna with concern, zipping up the dress she was still wearing.
"I'm fine, I just felt dizzy. This cold has given me an awful head-ache, I'll go to the Hospital Wing to ask Madame Pomfrey to give me something that makes me feel better." Lily answered. Her voice wasn't shaky anymore, and the only thing that showed that she had cried were his red nose and her slightly swollen eyes.
"Do you want me to come with you?" Bree already knew the answer; after seeing Madame Pomfrey, Lily would want to wander around the castle on her own for a while, and maybe to see Snape too after that.
"No, thanks Bree, don't worry"
The redhead went down the stairs with her chin up; she didn't want anyone to notice that she had been crying, she didn't want them to ask for the reason of her tears. Maybe if she was lucky they would ascribe her red nose and teary eyes to the cold.
At least Leila Corner, who was sitting on one of the armchairs at the Common Room, didn't notice. She just saw a girl with a long mane of red hair and striking green eyes leave her room with her head up in a gesture that could appear arrogant if you didn't know Lily. She was no supernatural beauty, but she was pretty, and James had chosen her, and seeing her right then on that beautiful spring dress made Leila, usually a quiet girl, mad with jealousy and green with envy.
"Who are you meeting now? You're done with Davis and James for today, whose boyfriend are you stealing now?" she asked scornfully as she approached to Lily, who stared at her, surprised. Any other day she would have just kept walking, or yelled something at her, but today, vulnerable as she was, she had just stood there, looking at her, confused. "You're not even that pretty. In fact, without that hair, you attract as little attention as anyone else."
And after saying so, she took out her wand and waved it with fury, as if she was trying to cut the air, muttering unintelligible words under her breath. A curtain of red hair fell at Lilys feet, who couldn't do more than looking down in disbelief. Only then Leila seemed to realized about what she had done, widely opening her eyes and staring at her wand as if she didn't know how it had ended up there.
Lily seemed startled by what had happened, and with her tears all on edge as she had them, she decided to leave before bursting into tears without even knowing exactly why, and without even yelling at the girl, she abandoned the Common Room at a slow pace. Only when the portrait closed behind her, she started walking quicker and quicker, resisting the impulse of running. She was so lost in thought that she barely noticed she had just ran into someone.
"Evans, did you cut your hair?" And it had to be Potter. That helpless git; Potter, Potter! It was Potter's fault that they had just cut half her hair off! And without even thinking, she slapped him as hard as she could.
"Your girlfriend did." She answered controlling her voice, but she wasn't trying to hide her anger, but her tears. However, he noticed.
"Well, that's not a reason for crying, Evans." He answered without thinking, annoyed, as he didn't think he deserved that slap. She pushed him aside and ran away.
At that moment, James realized that he shouldn't have yelled at her like that. If it was true that Corner had done such a thing, it had been his fault. Anyway, it still wasn't a reason for crying.
The boy, furious, entered the Common Room and he instatly recognized Lily's bright hair, which was still on the floor; no one had dared to throw it away. But there was no trace of Corner, so he let off steam slamming the room's door shut.
He explained briefly and unwillingly to his friends everything that had happened and headed, still upset, to the Quidditch practice along with Sirius and Peter.
The training was a mess, and the rain only abated when they were already heading to the changing rooms.
"What happened to your face, Potter?" Sam asked when he noticed his cheek was swollen.
"Evans slapped me in the face." The dark-haired boy grunted, taking off his glasses and drying them on the robes. Sam gave a hint of a half smile.
"And why did she?" She tried not to sound mocking when she asked.
"Cause apparently Leila Corner cut her hair, which seems to be my fault," Sam seemed quite surprised. Sirius and Peter had left the bleachers and joined the conversation. "Maybe it was, but I don't think it's such a big deal. Hair grows, but Lily was crying as if they had cut her arm off, and that's what I told her." Potter ended up saying it with less confidence than he expected. He was beginning to doubt he had been right at answering back at her like that, and Sam's expression, with her eyes wide open, confirmed him so.
"Oh, Potter, you're such a git," she said, and quickly turned around, changing direction to head to the castle, but James stopped her grabbing her wrist: if she was leaving in such a hurry without evem changing her clothes, something was wrong. Sam looked at him in the eye and the boy could read concern in them.
"James…" The dark-haired girl hesitated, and the fact that she had used his first name without even realizing about it worried Potter much more. "James, Lily wasn't crying over her hair. Her father is dying"
"I'm a moron." The boy spat out, cursing under his breath and running towards the Castle