☆UNEDITED☆

Published on 18th January 2021, 10:11 am, IST

¹⁸ The Fight

"No matter how much we change, the bad things we do in the past stay with us."

━━━━☆━━━━

☆    THERE WAS Quidditch practise the next evening, but James' teammates had refused to practice in the heavy rain.

    Then he had yelled at him where their Gryffindor spirit and bravery was, to which they replied him to 'Kindly fuck off'.

    So the Marauders were sitting by the Gryffindor fireplace, in which the fire had been extinguished long ago.

    Sirius lazily flicked through a Potions textbook, "Man," he sighed, pushing the book away from himself. "I wish that Lily was here to help us with potions. None of us is particularly good at it. And Lily can help us now too! We're friends with her now, still don't know how Prongs managed that, an impossible feat!"

    James grinned, leaning back in his seat, resting his hands behind his head. "I'm James Potter! I can do anything! That Aubrey is one lucky bloke though, getting to date Lily, some of us would kill for that chance." He chuckled sadly to himself at the end.

    "Oh, Didn't you know?" Remus asked, making the other three look at him. "Lily broke up with him last night, she told me this morning."

    James stood up from his chair, it toppling over due to the force. "Lily broke-up with him?" He asked in a strained voice, a hopeful look in his eyes.

    "Yes," Remus frowned, staring at him with furrowed eyebrows. "Why did you ask?"

    "Do you know where Lily is?"

    "James. . . are you going to do something stupid?"

    "Just tell me where she is, please."

    "She was going to the library when I last saw her," Remus said after a short pause.

    "Thanks, Moony!" James took off running.

    "Don't do anything stupid, James!" He yelled after him, though doubting whether he heard him or not.

    Lily was nearly there on her way to the library when James stopped her.

    "Lily! Flower! Wait! I need to talk to you!"

    Lily's face lit up in a small smile when she saw him. "James! What can I do for you? Did you need something?"

    "I- I heard," James hesitated, taking a step closer to her. "I heard that you and Bertram Aubrey broke up."

    Lily's smile faded into a small frown. "Yes, we did. . . What about it?"

    "So I just thought- I couldn't help but wonder," James whispered, a soft expression on his face.

    Lily's eyes widened as she realised what was happening, she took a step backwards as James took one forward. "James, please-"

    "Lily, please I just- I have to know-"

    "James- no, I thought we were past this-"

    "Lily- I have to know if- You broke up-"

    "James, I thought you were over this."

    "Lily, I have to know!" He said in a pained voice, resting his forehead against her, both of their eyes screwed shut.

    "Did you,"

    "James. . . please. . . don't do this. . ."

    "Break-up with Aubrey because of me? Do you- is there even the slightest possibility that you might ever. . ." He trailed off, his voice was soft and tender.

    "No, James," Lily said faintly, a tear exiting her eye. "I did not break-up with Bertram because of you. And. . . I thought you knew, James. We were finally becoming friends, why did you have to do this? I see you only as a friend, I never will see you as anything more. I'm sorry."

    Lily peeked open her eyes to see James with a pained, heartbroken expression on his face.

    "Of course," he chuckled quietly and sadly, moving away from her. "Why would you ever like me? I'm James Potter, the arrogant, selfish toe-rag."

    And at that moment, Lily was afraid that she had truly broken James Potter, shattered his heart, as if he would never be happy again.

    "Goodbye, Lily," James whispered to her and walked away.

    And Lily entered the library with her face contorted, her mind thinking.

    Of course, she didn't fancy James Potter! He was just a friend to her. An amazing friend who always made her laugh, a friend who's smile brightened up her whole day, a friend who was the most caring and loveliest person she had ever met.

    'A friend,' Lily told herself firmly. 'Nothing more.'

━━━━☆━━━━

    "Hey guys," Rin smiled, coming down the girls' dormitory stairs and into the common room, where a moody James and amused Sirius was sitting.

    Rin snorted when James just grunted in reply, turning away from her.

    "Woah, what's got your wand in a knot, James? I heard Quidditch practise was cancelled, but I didn't think that you'd be this upset!"

    "Oh, didn't you know?" Sirius asked jovially. "Lily rejected him again!"

    "What? But I thought James was now friends with her! That he'd stopped asking her out!"

    "Nope!" Sirius laughed, flouncing here and there, finally coming to a stop behind the couch, leaning forward against it. "He didn't ask her out, really. He was like 'Lily I heard you broke-up with Aubrey! Was it because you're in love with me?'" Sirius mocked James, not noticing the way James' hands clenched into fists.

    "Honestly, Prongs," He laughed. "Why don't you just give up? She'll never like you that way! You got friend-zoned, mate! That's worse!"

    "Oh yeah?!" James finally snapped, rising up from his chair. "You think you're any better, do you?"

    "What-?"

    "Playing with all those girls' hearts,"

    "James-" Rin said warningly, not that he heard her.

    "Being with one girl a day, another girl the next," He taunted Sirius, pushing him back way.

    "Did ever even think what those girls might have felt like? At least I care about Lily! You think it's so cool, don't you? Being the bad boy, being a player?"

    "James stop-" Rin tried.

    "No woman will ever love you! Not even your mother could love you!" James shouted.

    "James!"

    He froze as he realised that he had taken it to far. "Padfoot-" he tried, looking at Sirius' contorted face, eyes slightly glistening.

    "Goodbye, Prongs," With that, Sirius dashed out of the portrait door, leaving Rin and James alone in the common room.

    "I shouldn't have said that-"

    "What the heck James?!" Rin yelled, shoving him. "You think?!"

    "I need to go talk to him-"

    "No, you don't!" Rin replied fiercely. "He wouldn't want to see you right now. I'll go. You can talk to him later. Do you have any idea where he might have gone?"

    James took out a piece of parchment from his back pocket; the marauders' map.

    "What's this?"

    "Watch. I solemnly swear that I am up to no good."

    The map worked its magic, showing everyone and everything.

    "What's this?" Rin asked, running her fingers over the paper.

    "The marauders' map," James replied. "The boys and I made it. It shows the location of everyone on the Hogwarts grounds."

    Rin looked impressed. "Now find where Sirius is."

    "There," James pointed to his name on the map. "He's outside by the black lake."

    "In this rain?" Rin looked out of the window, where sheets of rain were splattering against the glass, creating a loud sound. "He might catch a cold!"

    "Now go!"

━━━━☆━━━━

    Rin squinted, trying to spot Sirius in the dark by the black lake.

    She could finally make out a silhouette, and she quickly went over to him.

    "Hey," She whispered, staring at the lake, where many ripples were forming in the water when the rain hit it. "You shouldn't have come out here in the rain, you might catch a cold." She grimaced when she realised that Sirius was not going to reply.

    "James didn't mean what he said, you know?" She said after a long pause. "He was just angry that-"

    "You know what bothers me most about what James said?" Sirius cut through her sentence, chuckling miserably.

    "That yeah, I am a player, And no, I never thought about the feelings of those girls. I was horrible to them. But the thing is, I've been trying really hard to change. I haven't played with any girls since the beginning of this school year. But I guess that no matter how much we change, the bad things we do in the past stay with us."

    "You aren't a player Sirius," Rin sighed, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Well, not anymore. So yes, the rest of the world doesn't believe that but who cares? What matters is that the people you care about doesn't think bad about you."

    They're silent for a few minutes.

    "Even you?" Sirius asked, turning to face her. "What matters the most to me is that you believe that."

    "Even me, yes," Rin laughed, looking into Sirius' deep grey eyes. "But why does what I think matter the- mmph!"

    Sirius didn't need to explain why with words, for he had done it just fine by cutting her off.

    With a kiss.

━━━━☆━━━━

And they finally kissed!
I'm really sorry to do this, but my teachers completely swamped our class with work.
And my family bought a puppy.
He is tons of work but is the cutest thing ever!
I hate to end this chapter like this, but I don't have the time. So I don't think I can find the time to write a chapter for next week.
So I'll be updating the week after that week, on the 26st, I think.
But it might be earlier if I manage to finish the next chapter.
See you at the next update! :)

Kathu