(JILY) MARAUDERS AND VALKYRIES : THE FALL OF SERPENT

55. Halloween (A shoulder to cry on)

Lily herself was the leader of the Charms club, so her duties have increased there and she has regretted her decision as the first meeting has bored her out of her mind, and consumed a precious hour, though she knew that once James will arrive and joined the club alongside her then it will become easier to cope up with all these responsibilities.

After a tiring Herbology lesson she made her way back to the Great Hall for lunch, she still couldn't understand why Herbology was needed for becoming Auror. What use will plants come in a fight? She took her seat next to Mary and both of them began talking about whether they will allow them to visit Hogsmeade or not, soon the others joined in the conversation and soon the topic changed to the Auror raid the previous day.

"The star Marauder has returned!" said Peter excitedly and Lily jerked her head towards the entrance to the great hall that she nearly broke her neck, but it didn't mattered, she saw him and realized how much he meant to her.

All the fears regarding James' safety vanished, he has returned to her and that too in one piece, his letter had put her in worry, James tried to keep the letter cheerful but she has intercepted that something was not right, but that didn't matter now, he is here, her James is here, a wide smile appeared on her face, the biggest smile in days, and without thinking, without paying attention that the whole school, including teachers and ghosts, were present in the Great Hall, she stood up from her seat and ran up to him and hugged him, and he too mirrored her, soon they were both wrapped in each other's arm.

The others think that she was a foolish person and that they both are hopelessly in love but she alone knows what could have happened to James, one wrong action and she would have lost him forever. 

And she now realized the grip, the hug that James was giving her, she recognized it, it was a hug he gives her when he is afraid, so not everything was right, he knows something that has disturbed him or he has faced something horrible, his grip was tight on her, a grip which told her that he was never going to leave her.

"Enough you two," shouted Sirius from his seat and it was now that they both realized that they were in great hall in front of the whole school, they pulled back.

"Umm...Hi," said Lily turning red and looking down.

"Hi," James said, "Let's go and take seats." He took her arm and lead her to the spot where she was seating.

James talked about his parents and joked around with the marauders while listening to their funny stories and Sirius' complaints about Lily. Sirius was talking like a nursery kid who has fought with another kid and was now complaining to the teacher, who was not much interested in it.

All the while James had continued holding Lily's hand, and she had a distinct feeling that James was faking his happiness and fooling everyone that he was happy. The Marauders began talking about a grand prank for Halloween and yet again Lily noticed that James wasn't interested in the conversation, he was unenthusiastic for the first time regarding a prank.

"Actually we are going to hold a costume party for Halloween," Lily informed them, "McGonagall informed me about it yesterday, so you lot are forbidden from doing any prank that night as being heads, James and I are in charge of the party." 

"Excellent!" Mary's excitement couldn't be described in words. Lily observed that in these scenarios Mary was the exact opposite of Remus, who looked bored by the idea of a party.

"Hey! Will you join us in DADA class?" asked Marls to James. 

"Yeah, I will, what are we going to study today? Any idea?" he asked to the group.

"Fighting the Imperius curse, Dumbledore after talking to the Minister has allowed us all to learn to fight against the Imperius curse, so starting from today we will fight against the Imperius curse for the rest of the week," informed Remus.