Offended Sensibilities

This is another FanFiction from the German "Harrypotter-Xperts" site which I would like to bring to you because I think it is too good to be kept to the German speaking world alone. Heidi, the author of this great story, gave me permission to translate it and I would like to thank her very much for this honour. You can access all of her stories here: http://www.harrypotter-xperts.de/fanfiction?author=11876

Disclaimer: All characters you recognise belong to Mrs. Rowling who created the wonderful Harry Potter universe, giving us room for our imagination.

A/N: This chapter was beta-read by Professor M McGonagall and "gamma-read" by notsosaintly, who found the solutions to some very tricky and almost untranslatable puns for me: woman, you are incredible!

5. Offended Sensibilities

Finally, the first week of school came to an end – but the seventh-years were flooded with homework. Lily was knackered and had slept through her breakfast date with Jackie. So when someone knocked at her door, shouting, "Hey, Evans, your friend is here. Are you still in there?" she jumped out of bed and rolled her eyes. This voice obviously belonged to a certain person who was responsible for her sleepless nights.

"I'm coming," she answered while she hastily threw on her bathrobe. She glanced at her alarm clock and she murmured, "Oh great, now I have missed breakfast."

She opened the door to the head students' common room in a hurry and stood rooted to the spot. Jackie sat on Lily's desk. James, Remus and Sirius were sitting on the sofa with James's broom on their laps, talking in low voices.

"Oh, Lily. We aren't back but a few days and you already sleep through breakfast on your first Saturday." Jackie laughed.

The three Marauders' heads turned, and Lily answered sarcastically, "If I had known that we had such nice visitors at this time already, I'd sure have gotten up earlier." Then she stomped towards the bathroom in a snit.

Sirius smirked. "It seems that her hair is not the only fiery thing about her."

James poked his elbow into Sirius's side, and Jackie hissed, "Seeing you on an empty stomach does that to a girl, you know."

James and Remus snickered, but Sirius stood up very slowly and stood close to Jackie. She was still sitting on the desk and had to look up to face him. Sirius bowed slightly and put his hands on the table to her right and left. He smiled his characteristic 'Black the seducer' smile and said, "No lady has ever complained about me being the first thing she saw in the morning."

He looked Jackie in the eyes while he spoke, and their noses almost touched. Her brown locks and his black hair hid their faces from view. Remus and James held their breath, eagerly waiting for Jackie's reply. They both knew that Sirius's ego had been heavily bruised on the day Jackie had given him a black eye.

Jackie leaned back a little, crossed her arms in front of her chest and said with a grin, "Well, Black, that does not surprise me at all, since the geese who happen to wake up next to you in the morning usually store their brains in other places than their head."

Sirius swallowed. James looked discreetly away, and Remus laughed openly. Jackie, on the other hand, just pushed Sirius aside, brushed some wrinkles out of her robe and said mockingly, "You are the main subject of conversation in the girls' bathrooms, you know. Those birds who keep their brains in certain southern areas give particularly detailed accounts of your qualities."

She wanted these words to hurt him. Hurt him like he had hurt almost all his past girlfriends, whom he had always exchanged for another after a short adventure. What was more, she did not want to reveal one bit of her true feelings.

Sirius was speechless and felt more than just hurt at that moment. He bowed his head, turned his back on Jackie and sat back down with his friends.

James looked at Jackie, who was biting her lip, and shook his head. This cheeky witch had indeed managed to bring his friend down to his knees. She had destroyed Sirius's ego – that seemed to reach the size of a solar system sometimes – with a few words.

Remus, on the other hand, admired the girl more and more. To him, it was crystal clear that Jackie had Sirius hooked. He put up a tremendous fight, but Remus suspected that Sirius would never be able to free himself and fall for her – hook, line and sinker – soon.

Nobody had seen Lily observing the whole scene. She was very proud of her friend and knew for sure that Jackie would soon have Black Beauty right where she wanted him to be – at her feet.

Remus cleared his throat and said to James, "I don't think that your broom has been permanently hexed. I'm sure that it was just someone playing a nasty trick on you."

Lily and Jackie looked at each other and had a hard time suppressing their laughter because the Marauders had been trying to find out what had been wrong with James's broom ever since the "broom event."

Lily dressed as fast as she could. Then she disappeared with Jackie in tow, leaving the three Marauders alone. The girls headed for the black lake where they wanted to find a secluded spot and do their homework. Jackie sat down clumsily under a tree and said, slightly depressed, "I guess what I said earlier was not very fair. I've never seen Sirius look so dejected."

Lily waved her aside and said coolly, "It was time he was brought down a peg or two. I bet he will recover from the shock rather quickly." Only a short while later, she was proven right.

---

Lily and Jackie had almost finished their homework. After lunch, they wanted to lie lazily in the September sun, enjoying one of the last warm days of the year. Some students were playing in the lake, and there were quite a few people around them.

The Marauders were roughly twenty feet away. Peter and James were lying in the sun and Remus was reading a book. Black Beauty wasn't there, but he appeared a little while later. He was accompanied by a blonde girl from Hufflepuff and had his arm draped around her waist.

Lily was the first one to spot him. She rolled her eyes when he sat down on the ground with the pretty sixth-year less than 15 feet away from them. She knew exactly what this was supposed to mean. He wanted to put a damper on Jackie – and he succeeded. As soon as Jackie saw him, her eyes were glistening with tears. Her coolness had gone, and she quickly turned onto her stomach to put her nose in a book. However, she did not manage to suppress a little sob.

Full of concern, Lily said, "Maybe we'd better go now." In this moment, she inwardly cursed Black and decided to teach him a lesson.

"No," Jackie sniffed. "I will not give myself away like this. I have a much better idea. I will go for a swim now." She did not wait for Lily's answer, but went past Sirius and his newest conquest with her head held high. Lily shook her head and was quite interested to see what Jackie had on her mind.

Jackie was a rather uninhibited person, and it did not bother her at all to undress in public. Wearing nothing but her light blue underwear, she went slowly into the water, completely ignoring the wolf whistles of some fellow seventh-years. She turned to Lily one last time to give her a small wave. Then she dived into the water.

Lily could not help but look in Black's direction, and she stifled a small laugh. Sirius sat rooted to the spot, eyes and mouth wide open, ignoring the girl by his side completely. However, she could not enjoy this sight for very long because someone plopped down next to her and demanded her attention. "Potter," she snorted and gazed back towards the lake, searching for her friend. When she finally found her, Jackie was romping about in the water with Remus.

James cleared his throat and murmured, "Well, I thought... maybe we could talk about the ball again. You looked as if you had time now."

Lily gave him a frustrated sigh, but then she nodded and pulled a pencil and some parchment out of her bag. Actually, she did not feel like wasting her time on head girl stuff on such a beautiful Saturday afternoon, especially not with Potter, but her sense of duty got the upper hand again.

Expectantly, she turned to James, but he was busy gazing at the lake. She observed his features, saw the light flicker in his brown eyes and the small smile on his lips. The butterflies were doing somersaults in her stomach, but before she had a chance to suppress the feeling, James laid back into the grass and said, "We had already agreed on the masked ball. I thought that 'creatures of the night' would be a good subject." He looked up to Lily, full of expectation.

"Well," Lily said while she thought about it, "there aren't too many of them. At first go, I can't think of any but vampires, death fairies and werewolves." She lay back on the grass, too, turned on her stomach and looked at James.

He replied, "Oh, there are many more. The Azrael, the so-called Angel of Death, the Satyr, some kind of forest spirit from Greek mythology. Then there's the Manticore, some kind of lion with a scorpion's tail and wings. Oh yes, and the Lamies – they crave the blood of young men – and there are many more."

Lily was amazed about James's explanations and said with an appreciative tone, "You know quite a lot about them."

James rolled onto his stomach next to Lily and said, "I know even more: for example, that your friend is starting to turn my best friend's head while he doesn't even notice."

Lily closed her eyes. James was definitely too close, and she could not help but notice his scent very clearly. He smelled like grass, fresh air and some indefinable aftershave that started charming her senses.

"Ah, so I'm right?" James pressed the subject as he had interpreted her reaction wrong.

Lily blushed and stammered, "What? About?"

James came even closer and whispered in her ear, "Jackie has a crush on Sirius."

Lily got away from him with a jerk, her breath quick and unsteady. She was a little flushed, and she murmured, "Is it that obvious?"

James sat up and gazed at Remus and Jackie, who were applying drying charms on each other, and he said in a low voice, "Not for Sirius – but for me."

Lily moved away a little and gave a small sigh. She would not have expected James to see through her friend's feelings. She asked, "Will you tell Black?"

James shook his head, and he smiled a devilish smile when he replied, "No, I won't. I think that Padfoot does need a challenge for once. Until now, he always got everything that he wanted..."

"Just like you," Lily blurted out without thinking. She bit her lip immediately and turned her head the other way.

James breathed out rather loudly and got to his feet. Quietly, with a touch of sadness in his voice, he said, "No. I haven't got what I really want yet." Then he returned to the castle in large, fast strides and did not look back.

James's words kept repeating in Lily's head, and in spite of his departure, the butterflies in her stomach kept on fluttering. An unusual warmth spread through her, and she let her eyes wander, lost in thought. Her gaze caught on Black. He was actually rolling around in the grass with the Hufflepuff girl and had his tongue stuck down her throat. This image made her see red, and she knew that the next prank would be due that night. And it would be directed exclusively at Black's ego.

Jackie and Remus approached her, but Jackie stopped next to Sirius and said, full of disgust, "I see – if you like being the talk of the girl's lavatories as much as it seems, just keep it up!"

Remus grinned, and Sirius fumed with anger. He pushed the other girl aside, jumped up and hissed at Jackie, "At least they're talking about me, while nobody wants to have anything to do with you. Doesn't even help that you are running around half naked, does it?"

His eyes were gleaming with anger, and Jackie struggled to keep her composure. His words had hurt her deeply, and Remus gave his friend a glance that was meant to make it unmistakeably clear that Sirius had gone too far.

Jackie threw her long brown hair over her shoulder and stomped up to the castle straightaway. She wanted to hide her tears, but Lily was at her side already and put an arm around her shoulders. "He's not worth it!" she insisted. Before they had even reached the common room, Jackie stopped and looked at Lily, tears pouring down her face.

"But he's right! I'm not as pretty as these birds, and I..." Lily hugged her and pushed her through the portrait hole into the deserted common room. Then she headed for the head girl rooms and pulled Jackie inside with her.

James was sitting in on the sofa, staring into the fireplace. Lily hesitated, but James understood without a word and cleared the field with a concerned look at Jackie.

Lily had never seen her friend so utterly devastated. It took half an eternity for her tears to subside. Of course, they had missed dinner – Jackie had finally fallen asleep on the sofa.

Suddenly, the door opened silently, and James peeked into the head common room. He held a tray and whispered, "I did not see you at dinner, and so I thought..."

Lily smiled at him thankfully.

James gazed at Jackie, and he said apologetically, "Sometimes, my friend is as much of an idiot as I am."

Lily did not answer, although his words registered deep inside of her. She hesitated a little. Then she said, "We are going to make our rounds for the first time tonight. Do you have any objections against Jackie sleeping here on the sofa?"

James shook his head and said, "You should eat first. Then we can go."

Before he left the room again, Lily whispered, "Thank you."

James had his back turned to her, and so she was unable to see his broad smile – a winner's smile that made his whole face gleam.

Lily draped a blanket over her friend before leaving the head students' rooms. Then she let her eyes wander over the people in the crowded Gryffindor common room: James was playing a game of wizard chess with Remus, Peter was brooding over his homework and Sirius was sitting on the windowsill, absent-mindedly staring into the darkness. Lily was sure that he was thinking about something, and she hoped that he would find the courage to apologise to Jackie. But first, she would teach him a lesson.

From the corner of her eye, she saw that James hastily put a piece of parchment into his cloak and said good-bye to Remus. A moment later, he stood next to her and said with a grin, "Okay, let's take a walk around the castle."

Outside, in the corridor, James looked around. Then he grabbed Lily's arm and pulled her behind a large tapestry.

Lily gasped in surprise and hissed, "What...," when she realised that they were standing in a small, dark corridor. She took an involuntary step back, but James had already lit his wand and was rummaging in his cloak pockets. He extracted a piece of parchment, dabbed it with his wand and murmured a few words – very quietly, so Lily could not understand them.

She was angry that he had caught her by surprise, but her curiosity got the better of her and she gazed at the parchment.

James held it out for her and said cautiously, "This map shows where students might be out after curfew. I have no intention at all to keep running through the castle all night."

Lily looked at all the small dots and lines in fascination and asked suspiciously, "Where did you get that from?"

James scratched his head in embarrassment and said, "Sirius, Remus, Peter and I made it. It was a hell of a lot of work, I can tell you."

Lily was speechless and continued staring at the map. James observed her, and he hoped that she would keep this secret to herself.

As if she was able to read his thoughts, she said, "Now I know why you never get caught when you sneak around outside. I am impressed about your achievement, and I promise that your secret is safe with me." However, she did not feel quite all right: if one of the Marauders consulted the map while she was on one of her mischievous missions, all her beautifully laid-out plans would go pear-shaped. What was more, she did not even dare to think about the things the Marauders would do to her.

"Here, look. There are two very well known Slytherin students busying themselves in an empty classroom," James said with a grin.

After a glance at the map, Lily said energetically, "Okay, let's go! I want to have my turn at deducting points."

She had already lifted her hand to slip out from under the tapestry when James grabbed her wrist and said, "I know a shortcut." He did not wait for an answer, but took her hand and pulled her farther along the corridor.

Lily was unable to speak. She was fighting the warmth that had started spreading throughout her body, coming from her hand. James made no attempt to let go of her, even when they had reached a brightly lit corridor on the fifth floor.

And Lily? She let it happen because she did not want to lose this feeling that kept flooding through her body. She liked the dancing butterflies in her stomach and the light tingle that made its way all over her skin very much.

In front of a classroom on the fifth floor, however, James let go of her hand, pocketed the parchment and took his wand out. His brown eyes were glinting with mirth when he said, "You're on the job, Miss Evans. Go get some Slytherin arse!" Obviously, he had not thought that his words would be true in the sexual sense.

James opened the door with a flourish, and Lily held her breath. They saw Bellatrix Black, a beautiful black-haired Slytherin and Sirius Black's cousin, with her blouse buttons half undone. She was in the company of none other than Rodolphus Lestrange, another Slytherin. He had obviously been about to lay her – the situation was very clear.

Lily vehemently strode past James and shouted, "Okay. What you two've been up to is none of my business, but it's curfew for you, too. Therefore, I'd say ten points from Slytherin for each of you. If I were you, I'd stop fannying around and get off to your common room at once."

James could not help it – he grinned, as Lily seemed to be completely oblivious about the double entendre of her words.

Rodolphus quickly got his clothes in order, but Bellatrix just slid her blouse up over her shoulders and licked her lips lasciviously. Then she said, "Well, Potter, if you weren't a Muggle lover and friends with my blood traitor cousin..."

She did not finish her sentence because James started laughing and said, "Oh, please, Bella. Who do you think I am?"

Bellatrix finally decided to put on her blouse correctly. With a devilish grin, she replied, "You are nothing but a bloke, just like all the others. A guy who takes everything that's offered. But if you don't like it, there's a different approach." Before she had even finished her sentence, she already pointed her wand at James. But Lily was faster and spelled it out of Bella's hand.

"You nasty little Mudblood," hissed Bella angrily and wanted to pounce on Lily, but James had quickly Stunned her and Rodolphus.

Lily averted her eyes. Bella's words had hurt her. She was used to getting insulted by the Slytherins, but nevertheless, it still hurt every time.

James put one hand under her chin and forced her to look at him. Lily's eyes were glistening with tears when he whispered, "Hey! You are above this kind of talk, Lilyflower. You are worth the whole Slytherin bunch and then some."

Lily fought back her tears, but she did not want to expose her weakness to Bellatrix and Rodolphus. So she gave James a thankful smile and said loudly, "I guess we ought to deposit those two in front of Slughorn's office. Let him decide what to do with them."

James nodded appreciatively and made Lestrange and Bellatrix float in the air in front of him. He was looking at Lily when he said, "I'll get them sorted out. You may just as well go back." It was a concerned look, and he could not help but realise how hurt Lily really was. She had not even told him off when he had used his special name for her. The name that said it all. Lilyflower. His flower, his love. But he still had to convince her of these things...

Lily nodded thankfully. She needed some time on her own. She was sure that she would be able to clear her mind on her way through the empty and silent castle.

It was two in the morning when she finally returned to the Gryffindor common room. The fire in the grate was the only source of light in the room. Lily felt much better. The peace and quiet in the castle had helped her a lot. But now it was time to take care of Black.

Carefully, she sneaked up the stairs towards the boys' dormitories. In front of the seventh-years' door she hesitated a moment. Then she took a deep breath and pressed the handle down. Very slowly, making no noise, she opened the door and slid into the room.

The room was bathed in silvery moonlight. She saw four beds. Loud snoring could be heard from one of them as Lily approached. Peter grunted and silently smacked his lips. In the next bed, she saw Alice's boyfriend Frank, so she tiptoed silently to the other end of the room. Black's hair caught her eye immediately. He was lying on his stomach, his head turned to one side. The quilt had slid down and Lily got a good view of his naked back. She bent over him again to make absolutely sure that she would not get Remus by mistake in the dimly-lit room. With a diabolical grin, she pointed her wand at Sirius's head and murmured a few words.

Then she crept down the stairs again, not knowing that someone had had his eyes open the whole time, and another someone had followed each and every one of her steps on a certain magical map.