Of Books and Boys (Emme)

[Lily Evans]

Spring was just around the corner, and students everywhere were getting just a little bit stir-crazy. It had been a long, miserable winter made worse by violence and loss. Now that spring was on the way, there was a new hope in the air, a feeling of rebirth and renewal. That kind of feeling, a positive energy, was hard to resist.

Lily was one of the many students enjoying a warm afternoon. She was sitting in the courtyard on a bench that was perched under a pink magnolia tree that was just starting to get some tiny buds on it. In a week's time, it would explode in lush pink blossoms that resembed tulips, but for now, the potential was more than enough for Lily. She could almost smell the spring flowers.

As always, though, she was also trying to get some studying done. She had her nose buried in her potions book, carefully reading the assigned chapters. She was so involved in her reading that she didn't quite hear when someone walked by her.

[Emmeline Vance]

Emmeline looked ridiculous to say the least. She had books, and on top of those, she had parchment, and stacked on those, she had quills and ink. She had her hair tied back in a loose ponytail and her long blond strands were falling into her face as she jogged across the courtyard. She really had no idea why she was rushing. It wasn't like the library closed anytime soon. Maybe it was just the adrenaline of all the stress that was making her run around like a banshee.

Emmeline was so consumed in her thoughts, she didn't quite make it around a bench that was conveniently placed in her way. Her knee made a hard contact with the corner of the bench, which made her cry out in pain, which made her grab her knee, which made her drop all her books, which had parchment on top of them, which had ink, which accidental spilled all over the pristine robes of whoever was sitting there. Emmeline gasped and looked up. It was Lily Evans. Lily and Emmeline never talked. Actually, it was more like Emmeline avoided Lily. Mainly because she didn't want Lily to hate her for liking Sirius.

"Lily! I am so so so sorry." Emmeline exclaimed. She quickly started gathering her things, tears stinging her eyes. "I'm so so sorry. I'm such a klutz. I didn't even see you or the bench. I was so distracted. I'm so so sorry."

[Lily Evans]

Lily hadn't actually seen Emmeline coming, either. She'd already become absorbed in her book and didn't even look up until Emme's knee made contact with the bench. She winced in sympathetic pain and didn't even realize right away that her robes were covered in ink.

Some people thought she was judgemental, but that wasn't really true. She found James and Sirius annoying because of their jokes and pranks, but she certainly wouldn't hold it against Emme or anyone else if she liked them. After all, they could be charming when they wanted to be. Sometimes James... no. She refused to let her mind wander down that dangerous path.

"Oh, no, seriously, don't even worry about it. I'm sure I have a stain-removing spell I can use on my robes. But are you OK? It really sounded like it hurt when you hit your knee like that."

[Emmeline Vance]

Emmeline felt the hot tears slide down her cheeks and just stared at the pile of books on the ground. Her lower lip trembled and she kept taking deep breaths to calm herself. "I'm really sorry Lily. I just wasn't paying attention. I have a lot on my mind, I just...I don't know." She bent over and started to gather her things.

"Why didn't I just use a spell for these?" She mumbled to herself and shook her head. "I actually just read a good spell for stains in one of these books I'm returning now. Do you need me to do it for you?"

[Lily Evans]

Lily felt terrible. Her robes were really not a big deal, and certainly not worth crying over, but Emme was upset... and that upset Lily. She was the kind of girl who always wanted to make other people feel better, not worse... and now that Emme was crying, Lily had to choke back her own tears.

Wrapping her arms around Emme, she tried to comfort the girl. "No, please don't cry. It's perfectly fine, I promise. We can remove the stain. You weren't hurt or anything, were you? I can take you to the hospital wing..."

[Emmeline Vance]

Emmeline sniffed quietly and hugged Lily back. She was never comforted when she was upset, especially not if it was her fault. She pulled back and noticed that Lily looked like she was going to cry too. She smiled a watery smile.

"Please don't cry too. I really am sorry about your robes. I've just been under a lot of stress and I wasn't paying attention. It won't be a problem for me to pay for new robes." She winced. She didn't like to hint to the fact that her family was wealthy and she hoped that Lily wouldn't notice, just accept the offer.

Emmeline didn't think anything about her offer of the Hospital Wing until she tried to put weight on her knee again. It hurt. Bad. "Do you think I could take you up on that Hospital Wing visit? I hope it's not too much of a bother. I tore my meniscus in this knee when I was young. I think I might need someone to check it out for me." She smiled slightly. Poor Lily probably wanted to kick her and just leave her to crawl. She would do if she were her.

[Lily Evans]

But Lily would never do that, not to anyone. Even if Thaddeus Avery, the Slytherin boy who called her mean names, had tripped in front of her and injured himself, she would have stopped and taken him to the Hospital Wing and stayed with him until she was sure he was all right.

"Oh, of course it's not a bother!" Lily said quickly. "Here--lean on me. I'll help you get there. Although, I'm afraid I'm not strong enough to carry you, so if you can't walk, I'll need to get some more help."

She began looking around the courtyard, hoping that an older student, preferably a boy, might be walking around. The Hospital Wing was on the first floor, after all, and not on the ground floor.... which meant that they would have to make it up the stairs. Emme was small, but so was Lily.

[Emmeline Vance]

((It'd be cool to get a guy in on this. Since the title does mention boys. I have Marco Moore and sadly, that's the only guy. Lol. We can keep it just these two or if you have a guy that needs posting time, you could bring him in))

Emmeline smiled and did as she was told. She leaned her body against Lily and winced a little. Neither her nor Lily were strong enough to walk like this so she was trying to keep some of her weight off of Lily but the tension in her other leg was definitely killing her knee. "Yeah, I think I definitely hit something. I don't think I tore it again but it hurts really bad."

Emmeline tried to hop. It worked, but they had to go to the first floor, not a couple of feet. "Maybe I could just sit here until someone comes along? Do you have other plans? I'd hate to make you late for something." She smiled and sat on the bench. Being hurt sure can exhaust someone.

[Tucker Williams]

As he wandered up to the Hospital wing, Tucker wondered if helping out Madame Pomfrey in the hospital wing for the next month was a suitable punishment for "accidentially" getting a handful of first years struck with the "Slug-Burp Curse" and messing up the hospital wing. Either way, he was stuck dealing with kids trying to ditch classes and others who jynxed each other every day for the next month.

He was on his way up to the Hospital wing when he saw Lily Evans, a second year from his house, and a Ravenclaw girl who was crying and leaning on Lily.

"Hey girls," Tucker waltzed his way up to them. "What happened?"

[Emmeline Vance]

Emmeline blushed when an older boy walked over. Like this wasn't embarrassing enough for her. She was still sitting and her knee was definitely swelling to almost twice its normal size. She went to rub it and immediately pulled back with a wince. It was very tender. She didn't understand how such an innocent little bump could effect her so much but apparently she hit her knee in exactly the right spot.

Emmeline sighed. "I hit my knee on this bench. I've already torn the meniscus in when I was younger. I think I hurt it pretty good. We were just trying to figure out how we could me to the Hospital Wing." She smiled, but it probably came out as more of a wince.

[Tucker Williams]

"Well as luck may have it," Tucker grinned at the girls, "I'm on my way to the Hospital Wing to be Madame Pomfrey's slave for the afternoon." He knelt down to the Ravenclaw girl's eye level nd took a look at her knee. It was swollen and red, and he had seen her wince and just the slightest movement.

He didn't need to be a healer to know that that knee had to of hurt. Luckily, Lily was here th help her.

"You shouldn't even walk on this," Tucker said. He looked up and held out a hand to her. "I'm Tucker," he said, ading another grin.

[Lily Evans]

"We're really glad you came along," Lily said gratefully. Unlike Emme, Lily was usually not shy around anyone, even older boys. Well, some of the Slytherin boys gave her a little hesitation, but she refused to let them get to her when they called her names. Tucker was a Gryffindor, and she was pretty sure she'd seen him around the common room. But she would have been very surprised to know that he knew her name.

"I'm Lily, and this is Emmeline," she explained. "Thanks for your help, Tucker."

[Tucker Williams]

"It would be my pleasue," Tucker said. No only would it be a good deed, helping out a couple of younger students in a spot of trouble, but maybe it would get him some brownie points with Madame Pomfrey.

Tucker examined Emmeline's knee a little more. Even after only talking with them for a minute of two, it had swollen up even more. Tucker was sure any pressure on it at all would be bad.

"I think I'm going to have to lift you up," Tucker said, an almost apologetic smile on his face. "If that's alright with you? I just think that if you walked on it at all, it would get worse."

"I'd try to levitate you," Tucker offered, "But I'd warn you now, I'm much better at potions then charms..."

[Emmeline Vance]

Emmeline smiled back and shook his hand as Lily introduced them both. When he bent down to examine her knee more closely, she jumped a little every time he got close to touching her knee. Luckily, he didn't touch it. He understand that it probably hurt worse than it looked.

Emmeline laughed when he mentioned levitating. She couldn't imagine just floating along behind them as they made their way to the Hospital Wing. "Do I have any other choice?" She laughed some more. "Where are you gonna make a potion for this thing?" Emme asked referring to her knee.

[Tucker Williams]

"Sadly, my specialties aren't in healing," Tucker shrugged. "More so just to have fun and cause attention. I don't have any potion ideas for you knee, but hey, if you ever want to turn your dormmate's hair green, I'm your guy." he laughed as the fond memory of doing just that.

Gently so as to avoid Emmeline's knee at all costs, Tucker Knelt closer and gently reached around her before lifting her off the ground. Tucker wasn't terribly tall for his age, but he did tower over the second years, "Not too high for you, eh?" Tucker asked.

[Emmeline Vance]

Emmeline pondered the green hair thinking about all the people she would like to prank for the first time and before she could answer, Tucker was down beside her with his arm around her ready to lift off the ground. She blushed. It wasn't necessarily that he was a boy, a good looking boy at that, it was just that now all she could think about were things like her weight and if she'd be too heavy for him to lift or her hair and how it looked or her breath and how it smelled. Merlin, she annoyed herself sometimes.

"Um, nope. I think you're just the right height actually." Emmeline put her arm over his shoulder and adjusted herself so that they wouldn't fall when he went to help lift her.

[Tucker Williams]

Tucker actually thought Emmeline was pretty light when he lifted her. He was pretty strong though.

"Alright, everybody ready?" Tucker announced, "And we're off." He led the way to the hospital wing. "Lily, just make sure I don't trip on the stairs or anyting huh? I would wnat to get hurt myself, or hurt Emmeline more you know?"

"So you tore your meniscus huh?" Tucker asked, figuring it would be good to keep convorsation with the girls, especially the one in his arms. "How'd you do that?"

[Emmeline Vance]

Emmeline was surprised at how strong Tucker was. The trip so far was surprisingly easy for her to take. Her knee was throbbing slightly, but other than that, Tucker was doing a great job of keeping her weight off her knee.

"Well since my mum is a muggle and my father a wizard, I was raised partially in both worlds. I played soccer, do you know what that is? Well, I played it before I came to Hogwarts. When I went to kick the ball at the same time another girl did she missed and kicked my knee. Very hard. She tore my meniscus." Emmeline shrugged the best she could with her arm around him. It came out as more of a one arm fidget.

[Lily Evans]

Lily was just sort of tagging along behind them both, carrying all of Emme's books. Even though she didn't really need to come along, she felt a little guilty that Emme had injured herself, even though it wasn't Lily's fault. She hoped that this would be the beginning of a nice friendship between them.

"Oh, I know soccer," Lily spoke up behind them. "I played it one year, until my sister Petunia begged me to take dance lessons with her instead. It's a fun game, though... sort of like Quidditch, only with just one ball. And no broomsticks," she added with a laugh.

[Emmeline Vance]

(I realized I put soccer instead of football. Oops)

Emme smiled back at Lily. "Football is quite a game. Really intense and physical. Hence why I have a bad knee." She felt really bad that Lily was lugging all her books and still had that look like she was guilty. "It's okay Lily. I promise. The bad part is getting there, but afterwards, Madam Pomfrey can fix it in mere seconds." She smiled encouragingly.

She looked slightly at the boy beside her. All she knew was that his name was Tucker and he was in Gryffindor. She knew because of his robes. She imagined he was a bit older than her too. He was good looking, obviously polite, but she imagined he was only that way because he either felt bad for them or he was trying to be on his best behavior.

"I appreciate this. I hope Madam Pomfrey isn't too upset with you." She said, smiling slightly. "Hopefully, she'll forgive you since you're helping me."