James and Lily: It Took A While

Chapter Seventeen

I saw James only once over the course of the next week. I was still living in the library, and he had been training like crazy for Gryffindor's second Quidditch match of the year. They were playing Ravenclaw, who had (according to James) put together a rather good team this year. As James was captain, he was working extremely hard to book the field every night for the whole week, and when he returned from practice, I was either in bed or in the library, and he went straight to bed once he returned to the common room anyways. Elle and Sirius still had no idea that we were dating, and I was perfectly fine with keeping them in the dark for as long as possible.

Although, I had told myself that if Elle asked me straight-out, I would confess. She was my best friend, and I had a duty to share with her the details of my love life. After all, she had told me about her Muggle boyfriend. At least, I thought he was her boyfriend. I was confused about the whole thing, but I didn't think Elle knew exactly what to do about her situation either.

I did finally get to see James for a little while on Saturday before the match. I walked down to the pitch with him about thirty minutes early. "Are you nervous?" I inquired.

"I'm confident that the team is as fine-tuned as possible, but I know that Ravenclaw is good too. It all depends on how we play today. But I have faith that we can win."

"Well, good -- "

"Just go!" A voice rang out from the corridor we we were passing. "Let's head back to the common room, they'll be heading down for the match any moment now!"

James reacted a lot quicker than I did. He grabbed my arm and yanked me back around the corner so that whomever was talking in the corridor perpendicular to the one we were in wouldn't see us. I was pretty sure I knew who it was.

I peeked around the corner and saw, to my surprise, two other Slytherins that Snape sometimes hung out with: Bellatrix Black and Evan Rosier. Bellatrix had her back to us, and Rosier was staring down at her.

"Don't boss me around! I say we confront that coward the next time we see him. I want to know just what he's up to!" Bellatrix's voice was low, yet simpering.

"You know what? Fine. Let's just wait a few days, all right? Then we can do whatever you'd like," Rosier sounded frustrated. No wonder, because from what I'd heard about Bellatrix from Sirius, she liked to get her own way, and was willing to go to any measures to get what she wanted. No wonder Rosier was relenting so easily. He didn't want to get on the wrong side of Bellatrix.

"Come on, let's go." Bellatrix shook her wild, dark hair out of her eyes and stalked off down the corridor in the opposite direction of where James and I were standing. Rosier followed a few steps behind her. He was almost to the end of the corridor when I noticed a small, white piece of parchment float down out of his robes. James must have seen it too, because he turned his head to look at me, his eyes widened. A few moments after both had turned the corner, James and I darted towards the paper. James reached it first, and he whispered what it said aloud.

To: SS

A month from today. The books are in his office. You better have a plan. I'll be waiting.

"It doesn't say who it's from," James said.

"But you must know what this means?" I asked him incredulously.

". . ."

"Bellatrix and Rosier must have figured out that Snape is up to something. They probably stole this from him! See the address? Those have got to be Snape's initials! It's probably from whomever is on the outside of the castle helping Snape carry out his plans?" I started talking to myself. "Perhaps Lucius Malfoy. . . It'll be in a month. . . Could his office possibly mean Dumbledore's?. . . And what books?. . .February 28th. . . But that's so soon. . . And I still don't know what it is they're trying to do -- "