Chapter 16: ── 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗿𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻

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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍

┗━━━━━━༻❁༺━━━━━━┛

LILY EVANS IS ASHAMED TO admit that the first thing she did upon entering the Great Hall was to search for a mess of jet black hair and the chocolate locks that's always beside it. The two people she hasn't seen at all the whole day whether it be in breakfast or their classes. However, all she found was three fourths of the Marauders sitting with Katherine Summers and the first year Lucas Morgan. The two she had been searching for were nowhere to be found.

Tucking her red hair behind her ear, she allowed her gaze to go through each faces again, her eyes lingering on the unlikely group James Potter and Olivia Kinsley is often with. She convinces herself that the reason she chose to sit next to them had nothing to do with wanting to hear their conversation.

"Eavesdropping is bad, Lily," Marlene Mckninnon whispered with a manic grin as the group of five Gryffindor girls sat down.

Lily's face flushed at being caught, but she played it off by shaking her head in denial. "I'm not eavesdropping."

"So you're telling me that we're here, sitting three feet away from the marauders, has nothing to do with the fact that James Potter and his lady friend is nowhere to be found?" Dorcas Meadowes prompted.

Lily's face seemed to turn as red as her hair as she shook her head once more. "Of course not."

"Sure," Alice Fortescue teased.

"Oh leave Lily alone, girls," Mary Mcdonald, always the voice of reason, scolded.

"Thank you," said the redhead gratefully.

And yet as her friends laughed it off, she couldn't help but glance back at the tightly knit group, hoping the one she was looking for was there.

"So, Lils," Marlene started. "What were you and Potter talking about last night?"

Lily's face flushed again, thinking back to last night. "Not much."

"Oh, come on, there has to be something," Dorcas persisted. "Are you telling me James Potter got you to dance with him without having a heart attack?"

"Why would he have a heart attack?" The redhead asked. "We just talked and danced a little."

"The boy's been in love with you since second year," Alice says. "And now he's suddenly not?"

Lily simply shrugged.

"I doubt James cares about Lily anymore," Mary, always the blunt one in the group, said honestly. "He's been fawning over Olivia for the past couple of months."

She thought back to how James seems to manage to involve Olivia in every topic they talk about, whether it be her favorite food or how sometimes when they're doing homework and he's sat by her leg, she'd absentmindedly play with his hair, not at all realizing that she was doing it. Whatever James Potter felt for Lily Evans no longer held any romantic intentions. It was as clear as day. So painfully obvious, in fact that Lily wonders how the girl herself has not seen it yet. A woman has a strong hold on James' heart, and that woman was not Lily.

"The Slytherin?" Marlene scoffed. "Her parents are deatheaters."

"Lower your voice," Alice scolded. "Remember she's still related to our professor."

Marlene rolled her eyes in a way that made Lily's skin crawl. She's gotten used over the girl's unfiltered mouth, but there were times where she'd just love to use the silencing charm on her.

"Do you think she used a love potion on him?" Dorcas wondered out loud.

"Why do you think so?" Lily asked, trying to sound curious and not let the hint of anger show in her tone. Lily Evans is kind and talking unpleasantly about an innocent who's currently unable to defend herself such as Olivia was not something her morals found comforting. However, she bit her tongue, wanting to give her friends the benefit of a doubt.

"She's a Slytherin," Dorcas says as if it was obvious.

"Frank says she's kind," Alice defended. "He's had to spend time with her a little bit while she watched them train."

"Of course, she'd be kind," Marlene says. "She's probably watching to leak tactics to her house. Don't want anyone to be suspicious."

"Don't be mean, Marlene," Mary responded. "By the small time I spent with her during practice, she does seem genuinely kind. A little shy and more on the quiet side, but she seems much open to her friends."

"You're all very gullible," Marlene says with another roll of her eyes.

"We don't know her," Lily told them. "We have no right to judge."

"And this is just okay with you?" Dorcas asked skeptically. "She practically stole your man."

It was Lily's turn to roll her eyes. "Potter and I were never a thing, Dorcas. He's allowed to be with whoever he pleases."

"Bullshit," Marlene called. "She knew James liked you. The whole school does, and she still went after him? Smells fishy to me. She's a snake who probably slipped James a love potion, poor lad."

Lily slammed her hand on the table, gathering her books as she glared at Marlene and Dorcas, having enough of their judgment. "Just because she happens to be in a different house doesn't mean she deserves less respect than any of us do."

And with that, she marched out of the Great Hall, thankful that the group beside them hadn't heard their conversation. Lily, truthfully, was never too fond of Marlene and Dorcas, but was only too kind to voice it out. And she adored Mary and Alice, who seem to like the two enough. She's usually very good at holding her tongue back considering she's had a lot of practice with her sister, but there has to be a line to be drawn, and judging and belittling their fellow women without any valid reason other than their prejudice is disgusting to her.

She misses Katherine, who was kind and never judged without reason. She misses the Hufflepuff's warmth and kindness. She seems happy enough with the Marauders and the two Slytherins. Lily often finds them laughing among themselves or helping each other out on their schoolworks. It would be six months now since the two broke off their friendship and had any contact and she misses the girl more than anything. Unfortunately, there's no one to blame for their falling out other than herself. Her displaced loyalty to Severus Snape had lost her her best friend. How much she regrets choosing the traitor over Kat, Lily can never put into words.

Deep in her thoughts, Lily hadn't realized that she'd reached the Defense against Dark Arts classroom, though ten minutes early. To her surprise, someone already occupied it. Finally, she found the mass of messy jet black hair she had been looking for the whole day, however, his hair seems to be messier than usual as if he'd ran his hair through it multiple times, dark circles covers his under eyes and he had opted to ditch the necktie all together and had decided to uncarelessly push up the sleeves of his dress shirt, revealing his forearms.

Lily wondered what could possibly be the cause of his distraught appearance, all the while noticing how he lacked the grey eyed female often seen by his side. However, before she can ask, the Marauders - minus Peter who didn't qualify to attend the class - and Kat entered the room, instantly going to his side.

"Hey, prongs," Sirius greeted softly, seeing the same look of distraught Lily had seen. "I thought you'd be staying with Olivia?"

James nodded tiredly. "Yeah. I'm only attending this class. Didn't wanna miss it and have Amara talk shit again."

Lily knew it was wrong to eavesdrop, but she really can't be blamed. They're talking loud enough for her to hear so of course she won't be able to do anything but listen.

"How's Liv?" Kat asked worriedly, not even noticing her former best friend sitting behind them, which if Lily's being honest, kind of hurt.

"She's sleeping," James says. "She's not feeling much better and if there's no improvement when I come back then I'm going to bring her to Madam Pomprey."

"Why didn't you guys go to Madam Pomprey sooner?" Sirius asked his best friend.

James sighed. "You know Olivia. She's stubborn. And she says it's only normal."

"It is normal," Remus tried to reassure him with a smile. "I've read about it. Don't worry too much, mate. I'm sure she'll be okay."

So Olivia was sick, which is why the two had missed their classes. And whatever sickness she has seems to be recurring, which was why it would be 'normal'. Lily realizes that maybe there truly is more to the two's relationship than meets the eyes. And it only makes her more mad at Marlene and Dorcas' words. Olivia was obviously going through something and yet, it's so easy for them to throw out judgemental words when they knew nothing about her.

The classroom was starting to fill up, and fortunately for her, both Dorcas and Marlene's grades didn't qualify to attend this class or most of the classes Lily attends so she doesn't have to worry about facing them now. Upon entering, Alice and Mary went straight to her sides, the two of them giving her sad smiles as an apology for their friends.

"Sorry about Mar, Lils," Alice started. "You know how unfiltered she can be."

"I can work with unfiltered, but what I can't work with is a bad personality."

"We'll talk to them," Mary assured. "I'm sure they don't mean it."

Lily is 100% sure they meant it, but she didn't want to add further drama to an already bad situation so she kept her mouth shut, only giving a stiff nod in response. If they wanted to deal with Marlene and Dorcas then they can, but she's honestly had enough.

Thankfully, professor Kinsley finally entered the room, not giving her friends anymore time to talk. The woman's blue eyes seemed to search each of her students' faces as Lily did, her gaze lingering on James' who had his chin on his hands, not at all paying attention.

"Good Afternoon, class," the woman greeted, allowing a smile to stretch across her face. "I figured we can have a break from identifying dark artifacts and do something fun like a pair work to introduce us to our new topic, wandless magic."

Personally, Lily likes the younger teacher. Her youth enables her to connect to her students and talk to them efficiently. She's able to remind them to do their assigned work without nagging and chat with them without the air of superiority that almost always puts students off. She's kind enough, her approach often looking and sounding inviting, yet also held a certain level of professionalism. Amara Kinsley held firm but loving hands towards her class, often duplicating McGonagall in fact.

"You and your assigned partner will write a ten page essay about the importance, advantages and disadvantages of wandless magic. You'll turn it in on friday," professor Kinsley explained patiently, the muggle clothing she wore making her look younger.

Lily is sure there must be some sort of dress code for teachers, but it's obvious the youngest of the staff had opted to ignore it. "When I call your names, I need you to sit beside your partner."

Lily zoned out a bit, her gaze landing on who used to be the most important people in her life. She had ended up losing one because of the other, and losing the other because of poor judgement.

Kat sat beside Sirius. The boy's arm lazily draped over the back of the Hufflepuff's chair. Sirius whispered something in her ear, which made Kat playfully roll her eyes before letting a smile slip.

Lily wasn't aware of the two's relationship, but it had been the talk of the castle a week ago when Sirius' devoted fan club noticed the change in the boy, whose adoring eyes seem to always be glued to the Hufflepuff. She wished she could ask Kat about it like old times, but Lily had lost that privilege.

With the painful sting in her heart, she let her eyes wander once more, landing on no other than the reason for the two's fallout, Severus Snape himself. Truthfully, Lily misses him. The old him who she adores. However, it's clear that Severus is gone, replaced by someone bitter and unkind and a complete stranger to Lily. Kat never liked the greasy Slytherin, and so when the man called the redhead a mudblood, Kat had been beyond pissed. And when Lily revealed that she forgave him, Kat had given an ultimatum. It's Severus or her, and it's obvious which choice the redhead made.

What a regret it is. A year after the mudblood incident, Severus and his friends had hexed and cursed Mary because of her blood status, who ended up in the hospital because of it. It was then Lily finally realized how much her friend had changed and that maybe Kat was right.

"Potter and Evans," Amara called from the front of the class, snapping Lily out of her thoughts.

Everyone in the classroom turned to James, whom everyone assumed would be dancing in joy by now as he does each time they've been paired together in class, but the Gryffindor only glanced at their professor before he went back on taking notes.

Red faced, Lily realized that James was obviously not going to move to sit next to her and so she gathered her stuff and headed to him, smiling at Remus who stood up to give his seat next to James to Lily.

"Hey, Lily," the soft spoken member of the Marauders greeted kindly, which she gave a friendly smile in return.

"Potter," Lily greeted the boy. "What's our plan? I was thinking that we should work on it as soon as possible so we don't end up cramming at the last minute. How about we meet at the library later after dinner?"

"I can't today," James says without looking up from his parchment.

Remembering the conversation she overheard about Olivia being sick, she nodded her head understandingly. "Okay. When are you free?"

James shrugged, obviously not caring about the outcome of their project. "I don't know."

Lily let out a sigh at his answer. "Well, we have to do it."

"I really can't be bothered, okay, Evans? I have much important things to think about." James snapped, looking up to glare at her before he realized what he was doing. Sighing, he let the quill drop and ran a hand through his hair, giving her an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have been so mean."

"You shouldn't have."

"I'm just tired and worried," he told her. "And I took it out on you."

"It's fine," she dismissed nonchalantly. "I get it."

"I have something to tend to today, and I'm not sure if it'll extend tomorrow, but maybe the day after that if it's okay with you?"

Lily, knowing that what he has to tend to is Olivia, nodded understandingly. "Great."

James gave her another apologetic smile before going back to writing.

James Potter has changed in the short couple of months. He's no longer the immature boy Lily is accustomed to. He seems to have his priorities straight, and at the top of that is Olivia.

Lily would be lying if she said it didn't hurt a little.

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WHEN JAMES RETURNED BACK to Olivia, he expected her to be sound asleep and resting. However, the sight that greeted him was not something he wanted to ever see again.

Olivia is sleeping, but her whole body is shivering despite being covered with a blanket. Her skin had paled a considerable amount and her face looked flushed. Her lips had turned blue and her eyelids fluttered uncomfortably as if having a bad dream.

The sight of her looking so ill is enough to send someone into panic, considering the fact that she's carrying a child, but James tried to remain calm as he rushed to her side, his hand reaching out to hold her face. He almost jumped at the heat her body emitted.

"Mon amour," he called worriedly. "Wake up."

James tried again multiple times, but when Olivia refused to wake, he couldn't help but finally panic.

"Sirius, Kat!" He called loudly, making sure the two heard from the living room. "Call madam Pomprey!"

Thankfully, he returned with Sirius and Kat who's spending their vacant time with him and Olivia and was able to rush to the room quickly at the sound of his voice.

"What happened?" Sirius questioned, seeing the state Olivia currently is while Kat whipped her wand to send a call of distress to the mediwitch.

"Fuck if I know, but she's burning up," James called back, his voice cracking as he tried to wake Olivia once more.

By some miracle, Olivia's eyes opened, showing pain-filled grey eyes. "J-James."

Her voice was shaky and weak and she's obviously delirious, but James is thankful for it nonetheless. "Are you okay, baby?"

Olivia said nothing, too weak to give a response, but it's obvious in her face that she's not okay.

"Madam Pomprey's on the way," James tried to reassure her as he held her face in his hands. "You're going to be okay, alright? I'll make sure of it."

It didn't take long for the mediwitch to arrive, instantly going to Olivia's other side and placing a hand on her forehead to feel her temperature.

James' heart is hammering out of his chest when he asks: "is she okay?"

"Black, prepare an ice bath," Madam Pomprey quickly instructed as she pulled the covers away from Olivia. "Potter, bring her to the bathroom. We need to bring her temperature down."

Nodding, James ignored the shake of his hands as he pulled her up and carried her to the bathroom where Sirius and Kat used magic to fill the tub with water and ice.

"Place her down," Madam Pomprey said.

As soon as Olivia's feverish skin touched the cold, she let out a pained scream and started thrashing, trying to get away from the water, but James kept a firm hold on her.

"Calm down, mon amour," he whispered softly to her.

"James," Olivia called as tears streamed down to her cheeks. "I-It's cold."

Feeling his heart break, he nodded his head at her sadly. "I know, baby. I'm sorry."

Olivia spent a few more seconds trying to get off till she seemed to finally get tired and just held onto James' arm.

"Why did this happen?" He took the opportunity to ask while Olivia was still calm.

Madam Pomprey seemed to shrug as she checked Olivia's temperature again. "It's only normal for pregnancies to have complications, Mr. Potter. Her body is in a vulnerable state, and she's still very young. Ms. Kinsley is only seventeen, barely even a full grown woman yet and her body's adjusting to accommodate the child inside her. Every little thing can trigger a reaction."

"What do you think triggered this? She was okay when she woke up this morning then she started feeling worse and worse." He said as he brushed back some wet hair that fell to her face.

"I don't know, Mr. Potter," the mediwitch admitted. "We'll bring her to the hospital wing as soon as we're able to bring her temperature down a bit. But my best bet is stress."

"James," Olivia called weakly again.

James had an automatic reaction to quickly turn to her and give her his full attention. "Yes, baby?"

"I wanna go," she whimpered.

"A little bit more, Ms. Kinsley."

"It's cold," she said weakly again, pulling at his hand.

Not knowing what else to do, James stood up and entered the bathtub, causing the water to overflow, but he didn't care as he held her small body in his arms.

"Don't worry, mon amour," he whispered softly to her. "It'll be over soon."

𝗮𝘂𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗿'𝘀 𝗻𝗼𝘁𝗲:

I know this is mostly Lily,

but I honestly adore her

character so much. And also,

she's going to be playing a

bigger part so this is a little

bit about her and also a little

bit of what's happening in

Hogwarts away from the

Marauders' little bubble.