We Have to What?
-A Fanfiction By Crystaltambaia
Summary: Lily and James are told by Dumbledore that in order to be Head Boy and Girl in their seventh year at Hogwarts, they have to learn to live together! In a two room flat! Chaos ensues…
Rated: PG-13, although might be R, depending on how I want the story to go. Plus, what's a good living-together fic without some dirtiness? Lol…
Disclaimer: I feel kind of guilty that I never put one up, so here it is. I don't own anything you recognize. I do own Podis Bagmore.
A/N: I know, I know. This idea has been used thousands of times, but you know what? That's because this idea is so fun! All my other fics are serious, so this one's going to be less so…and maybe, this time, I will decide not to stick entirely to canon!
And to my other readers of other fics of mine: don't scream. It was a plot bunny! I promise I can keep up four fics! Plus, one of them is almost finished!
The day dawned, bright and sunny, and Lily Evans, witch extraordinaire, woke up with a yawn and a stretch. She blinked, and glanced out the shades in her room, starting suddenly when she realized that she was to have a meeting with Dumbledore today.
It was still summertime, and the seventeen-year-old had recently acquired her apparition license. The day before, she had received her school letter, and was overjoyed to find that she had been made Head Girl.
However, along with that notice was the summons from Dumbledore. She was still wondering what exactly it could mean while she put on a white tank top and shorts, looked at herself in the mirror, and changed again.
She sighed. Whatever people otherwise thought of her, she was a total and absolute girl. She might look like she studied hard, but she had stepped in the Hogwart's library all of four times last year. Mostly, she got her best friend, Alice, to fetch her stuff if she needed it.
She just had a problem; she didn't feel like she had accomplished enough if she didn't finish and ace all of her homework. She hated herself for it, and balanced that out by planning lots of pranks. Most of the time, she was too busy to carry them out, but when she did, they were incredible!
Thinking of pranks made her think of a certain group of Gryffindor boys, and she frowned. In order to not get into trouble for the pranks that she did do, she credited it to those boys, and it gave them egos that even Podis Bagmore, the world's number one quidditch player, would have trouble competing with.
To give them credit, the boys were smart, just incredibly annoying and conceited. Well, two of them were conceited. Remus Lupin was nice, if a little lax in disciplining his friends, and Peter Pettigrew was just, well, there.
Sometimes she wondered why the other boys even put up with him. She knew she couldn't.
By the time she was finished with all of this thinking, she had picked out and discarded four more outfits, finally settling with the white crop top and shorts she had picked out first.
She apparated downstairs and walked towards the door, picking up her purse from its perch on the stairs, and called to her mum,
"Bye mum!"
"Where are you going, dear?" her mum called from the kitchen.
Lily rolled her eyes. Sometimes her mother was too curious for her own good. "School stuff. I'll get my stuff at Diagon Alley too, and I'll be back tonight sometime!"
"Are you sure you don't want me to come with you? Petty's staying with her fiancé for the week."
"No, mum," Lily replied emphatically. "I'll be fine!"
With that, she disapparated.
James Potter's morning was very different.
He had been woken at five o clock in the morning by a screeching owl, then promptly tripped and fell down two flights of stairs in order to shut the owl up.
He now had a black eye, and a bloody nose, and he was supposed to meet with Dumbledore in a half an hour. Unfortunately, the only time he could get his apparition license was next week, so he had to take the train to the Leaky Cauldron.
His mum had said that she would drive him.
She wasn't awake yet.
He had even thrown a bucket of ice cold water over her head, like in those movies that his muggle friends were always taking about, but all he had accomplished was a soaking wet bed, and, when she finally got up, a very angry mother.
He went back downstairs after yet again attempting to wake up him mother and grabbed an ice pack out of the refrigerator. He walked over to the mirror and slapped the ice on his black eye, squinting with his other eye at the mirror.
"You don't look in good shape, m'dear. Have a run-in with that nasty broom cupboard again?"
The mirror's voice caused James to jump, even though that mirror had been in the same place, saying the same unhelpful things for all of his seventeen years of life.
"Shut up," he said, yawning.
The mirror didn't answer. With a last futile attempt to flatten his hair, he looked at the clock.
Fifteen minutes.
Great.
Well, he thought, time for some drastic action. He went to the drawers where his mum kept her purse and stuff, and drew out her wallet.
He knew he was breaking several laws doing this, but he had never let Dumbledore down before. Well, not in ways that really count in the real world, he thought ruefully.
He quickly cast a charm on his mother's old and raggedy driver's license, making it show his picture instead. He grimaced when he looked at it, wishing that he was better at charms so he could make it better.
James Potter
Age: 23
Eyes: Hazel
Hair: Dark Brown/Black
Height: 5'11"
He just had to hope that he wasn't stopped, because he definitely wasn't twenty three years old.
The keys were lying on the kitchen table so he grabbed them and left.
Where was he?
Lily had been informed when she arrived that James Potter was to be joining them shortly. She hoped that it didn't mean he'd been made Head Boy, although, Dumbledore's refusal to answer that question made the answer obvious enough.
Lily was pacing around the small room in the Leaky Cauldron, steaming.
Dumbledore, on the other hand, looked perfectly calm. He had a slight smile on his face, and he was reclining in an armchair. Lily stopped in front of him suddenly.
"How can you be so calm?" she hissed, then sobered. "Sorry, I didn't mean—"
"It's quite alright, Miss Evans," he said calmly. "I sometimes find that gripping things hard helps deal with frustration."
Lily looked down at his hands, and to her surprise, found that his knuckles were white with gripping the armchair.
She smiled slightly.
Maybe it wasn't so bad...
A horn sounded and tires screeched. James grimaced, but kept going, determined to make it to London on time.
Unfortunately, he wasn't sure that he was anywhere nearer London than he had been when he set out, and perhaps he was further away.
A siren sounded behind him, and he attempted to bring the car to a stop. He hadn't reckoned on a slippery patch of road which caused his car to skid out of control.
It caught the edge of the road and flipped, causing James to hit his head very roughly on the side of the window.
A tap on the window caused him to look up, and he blinked stars out of his vision.
"All right there mate?" asked the officer.
"Yeah, yeah I think so," said James vaguely, but the officer frowned.
"I fink we better go on up to the 'ospital. They can check you out."
James didn't have the strength to argue, as he felt himself fading in and out of consciousness.
He woke up sometime later in a white hospital room.
Sitting up quickly, he tried to shove himself out of the bed, but gentle hands suddenly pushed him back down.
"Calm down, sir," a light female voice said. James looked up, squinting, realizing that perhaps the reason why he had crashed the car was that he had completely forgotten to put on his glasses that morning.
"No," he said, pushing back. "I have to get out of here. Have a meeting—"
"Now, now dear," the nurse said, interrupting, "I'm sure whoever you're meeting will understand."
Thinking of Dumbledore, he agreed, and let himself fall back onto the pillows.
"You what?" shouted Lily Evans, causing James Potter to cringe.
"I got in a car accident," he mumbled.
"Oh, of all the stupid things…"
"Well, at least I'm not a know-it-all bitch," countered James, saying the first insult that came to his head. Somehow, he thought that it wasn't the smartest insult to tell a girl with a volcanic temper.
"What did you just call me?" she breathed furiously, eyes narrowing.
Without knowing why, James felt his cheeks flushing at the redhead's anger. In fifth year, he had had an overwhelming crush on her, but it had sort of died out once James had realized what an incredible prat he had been to her.
Maybe the feelings never went away? James thought, but then he snapped back to reality when he heard Dumbledore finally interrupting their arguments.
"Well, as you two probably know, after careful deliberation and thought, you were made Head Boy and Girl of Hogwarts. Now—"
Dumbledore was interrupted by a shout.
"What?" It was Lily. "That—that thing was made Head Boy?"
James cringed at Lily's anger. Apparently, even though his feelings had disappeared – probably — hers evidently had not.
"As I was saying," said Dumbledore, causing both James and Lily to look back towards him, "Even thought you two have been made Head Boy and Girl, you have not been known to get along splendidly in the past."
Here, Lily snorted.
"Anyway, the teachers and I have decided to help you along with that little – issue of yours by having you two live together for the rest of the summer."
Now, the room was full of shouts of protests, not just from Lily, but from James as well.
"You can't—"
"It's not fair—"
"I'd rather die—"
"You'd rather die? I'd rather kill myself than put up with that for an entire summer!" That was Lily, but at a look from Dumbledore, both teenagers fell silent, red with embarrassment.
"Unfortunately, since it is so far into the summer, all I could find for you was a small two room flat in the city. The good news is that it's practically next to Diagon Alley." Shouts of protest filled the room again until Dumbledore held up a hand. "We – the teachers and I – felt that it was best for you two to have a productive a seventh year as possible, given the current conditions. Naturally, either of you can refuse, but that would mean giving up your head position." He paused, waiting for their responses.
They each agreed, but for different reasons.
"Yes, I'll do it," said Lily. 'I won't give up this position to have some other seventh year girl lording it over me,' she thought.
"Yeah, fine," said James. 'She's an interesting person. And cute too. If only she wasn't so horribly mean!'
"Brilliant," Dumbledore said, then got up, brushing off his robes. "Now, if you two will just follow my directions, we can be there in no time. I have connected this flat to the floo network, so any problems you have James, you can get places fast."
James flushed. He didn't want Lily to know that he couldn't apparate, although he supposed that she might have guessed by the fact that he chose to drive to the meeting.
A few minutes later, and they were there.
"This is it?" asked Lily, incredulously.
It was a tiny, unassuming little building, and didn't look like it could fit one two-room flat, let alone seven.
"Yes," said Dumbledore. "I think, however, once you get inside to your flat, it will be much more to your liking. I took the liberty of splitting up the bedroom into two separate rooms, so you will each have your own private area."
Lily nodded dumbly, not trusting her voice to say anything other than insults, she was so angry.
"Well," said Dumbledore cheerfully, turning towards the two teenagers. "Here are your keys, and I hope you enjoy your stay."
With that, he disapparated.
James and Lily looked at each other, disgust on each of their faces, and sat down on the side of the street.
A/N: Wow, that was a very long chapter for me! I have trouble writing long chapters! Be warned, however, that this isn't usual for me, so don't go expecting really long chapters in later chapters.
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-Crystaltambaia