6-21-09
3:45am
Summary–Lily tries to enter the supposed club the girls in her year have suddenly created. But they want some proof of her worthiness before they let her in. In an not-so-well-thought through plot, the truth is...they're just trying to get Lily to give James a chance. friendship/romance
Disclaimer–I do not own Harry Potter, which belongs to its respective owner(s) and is only being used in a fan-made, fictional story.
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Shock and Awe – "quick paralyzing assault"
Chapter 1
By–Moon Prynces
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Lily Evans looked up swiftly as she felt her friend's movement.
"Where are you going?" she questioned quickly.
"Oh, you know," Alice started off nonchalantly, "Just going to meet up with some of the other girls."
"Again?" the redhead asked incredulously.
Alice sighed. "Yes Lils, again."
"Bu-but what about studying!" she hissed again, desperate for the company of her favorite companion.
"Sweetie," Alice started off slowly as if explaining how to Stupefy someone to a first year. "We have no exams coming up or essays due soon. It's only the beginning of the term, Lily!" she admonished, trying to make her friend see the light. "Shouldn't you be relieved it's sixth year? We're done with O.W.L.S. already and N.E.W.T.S. aren't till the end of seventh year!"
"All the more time to study," the redhead said firmly.
Alice once again sighed and added an eye roll. "Alright, do what you want but I'm off to enjoy my youth and–"
"Hey, Prewett!" someone called clear across the common room.
The two girls looked up from the table just as Alice shoved the last of her belongings into her bag. She smiled at the two girls waiting for her by the portrait hole and announced she'd be just a minute before turning back to Lily.
"I would ask you along but you've denied my invitation so many times I stopped bothering. But if you're willing to let go of your books for an afternoon then I'm sure the rest of the–"
Alice was cut off from any further comment.
"No thanks, it's okay." Lily smiled pleasingly and turned back to her books, covering up the dismay she felt.
She did manage to glance up as Alice left with the blonde and brunette girls, both from their year.
"What could they possibly be doing? There's not much else to do around here but study," she grumbled to herself, feeling hopeless. "Maybe I should have joined them..." she trailed off thoughtfully, feeling lonely despite the thirty or so students in the common room with her.
Lately her best friend – more like only friend – had been hanging out with the other girls in their year and leaving Lily to fend for herself when James came around with idea after idea of where they should go on dates (even though Lily had yet to say yes). It would have been less troubling if the girls hung around in the common room or at one end of the table in the Great Hall so Lily could tell what the big deal was, but they were never within sight. In fact, the redhead had no idea where they usually hurried off to, doing who knows what.
Since her concentration was broken she managed to idly scribble a few more words before staring off.
"I can't wait for tomorrow though! You think Angela's ready?" the voice of a nearby girl said, waking Lily up.
Mary Macdonald giggled conspiratorially with another girl as they made their way to the portrait hole.
"What about Alice Prewett? She hasn't pledged loyalty yet either," the other girl stated.
Lily raised a brow as she listened to them as much as she could before they were out of sight. Is there some kind of cult forming? she thought to herself. No, they're just a bunch of girls playing pranks on each other.
Still, as she gathered her things and made her way up to the dorms, she was a little disturbed. What was so great about whatever they were doing anyway? And why was it always out of sight?
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James beamed as he reached the place where his friends sat at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall.
Sirius and Peter spared him a glance before going back to their meal, and Remus didn't even bother pulling his nose out of the book he was holding.
"Today is the day!" James announced.
"Today is Thursday," Sirius corrected, sharing a laugh with Peter as James shot them a fierce look before taking a seat.
Without looking at anyone Remus questioned, "What about today?"
"Today I'm going to get Lily to say yes!"
Three of the marauders sighed and shook their heads. The last one happily went on shoveling food into his mouth with high hopes for the day.
Not even ten minutes later James was daintily tapping at his mouth with a napkin as if he had any manners to begin with. Sirius stared at his best mate in disbelief. Peter kept his head down as he ate and Remus snuck a glance.
James stood up confidently from the table.
"Already?" Sirius groaned, smacking his forehead. "It's too early for another attempt!" he tried to reason.
Remus finally stowed away the book and sighed as well. "Do you even have a plan this time? What makes you so sure she'll say yes now?"
The boy only winked at his friends as he stepped out of his seat and began the trek to the other end of the table where Lily was currently situated with her best friend.
"So," Lily started off, staring down at her muffin on the plate.
Alice barely acknowledged this as she spread jam on a piece of toast. "Mm?"
"So," she started off again, looking up this time. "What'd you guys do yesterday?"
"Who?" Alice responded distractedly.
"You know," Lily said, trying to sound flippant about the whole thing, "With the girls."
To this Alice paused the bread just before entering her mouth and stared at her friend. "What?"
"Well, you know. You guys had fun and all that?" the redhead tried again. Though in truth, she grumbled, the words sounded like something her mother would ask.
Alice blinked a few times before she let out a breath filled with laughter. The irritation on Lily's face showed.
"If you want to know what it is we do so badly then you might as well join us!" she announced.
"But I don't–"
"I've got to go anyway, Lily-dear!" Alice said in a sing-song voice, getting up and forgetting all about her jam covered toast.
Lily watched in shock as Alice nodded to another girl down the table and they both made their way out of the Great Hall.
"Where-where does she think she's going! We have class in fifteen minutes!" she said to herself, a hand coming up to rest in her hair.
"Hello Lily-flower," a voice just behind her spoke up cheerfully.
Still in her astonished state, she hardly paid attention.
"Yeah?" she asked, turning back to her muffin sitting innocently on the plate.
Why wouldn't she just tell me! Lily's thoughts spun. We've never kept secrets from each other before! Maybe-maybe she's ditching me as her friend to be with the other girls!
James smiled brightly, shooting his friends the look of triumph before taking the now empty seat next to Lily. She turned to stare right through him as her horrified thoughts continued.
It's probably because I'm such a bookworm and I never go out and have fun like normal people and...
"So you see...I've kind of been having trouble with the coursework we've got in Potions this term," he started off, putting a troubled look upon his face. Lily nodded in her own world.
I should have gone with her to Hogsmeade last weekend. And even paid more attention to fashion trends these days. I'm not even a normal girl!
"Well anyway," James shook his head as if he was getting off topic, which wasn't really the case since he'd barely spoken. "I was hoping maybe you could help me out with it...?" he said hopefully.
Lily zoned in just enough to catch this. "Are you asking me out again?" she questioned dryly.
"No, no! I mean, seriously, I am kind of failing so I just thought, you know–" he frantically scrambled. "You're top in our year in Potions and Slughorn loves you so maybe you could give me some pointers at least...?"
As the last of Lily's thoughts were her screaming at herself for being such a kiss-ass student she dazedly nodded her head.
"Great!" James jumped up from his seat, ready to get away quick before she happened to change her mind. "I'll meet you up later to study or something!" he rushed out over his shoulder as he skittered away happily.
Lily sighed to herself, putting her face in her palm. "I'm such a loser that even James Potter came over just to ask for a study session instead of his usual 'let's go on a date' scheme."
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"Oh my god!" Lily shrieked, letting the sound reverberate through the crowded hall. She stomped over to where her best friend stood talking to two other girls. "Excuse me," she said to them as she grabbed Alice's elbow and dragged her away. "What did you do?"
"What are you talking about?" Alice mumbled back, though she knew exactly what Lily was referring to as she fingered the ends of her now blonde hair.
"You're blonde!" Lily hissed as they were a good distance away from anyone. "You were gone for fifteen minutes, Prewett! What happened? Did they make you do this? Was it peer pressure?"
Alice started laughing at her friend as they stopped walking. "It was just a dare that I accepted. It's only temporary," she explained. "Besides, I think I look pretty good." She struck a pose, causing a smile to creep up on Lily's face.
"Yeah, okay, you do look good." Then the smile turned wicked. "Maybe now Frank will take a greater notice of you," she announced, her voice getting louder towards the end.
Alice slapped a hand over her friend's mouth and glanced back just in time to see Frank Longbottom walk down the hall with some other boys, laughing. The blonde turned pink as she glared at Lily, who grinned.
She finally sighed and let go. "I think class is starting now." The two glanced at the classroom door where students were filing through.
As they started to head back down the way Lily had pulled her from, the redhead started speaking. "Hey, I was thinking... Maybe if you and the other girls don't mind... I mean, maybe I could join you all with your club or cult or whatever it is," she mumbled.
Alice's head of blonde hair whipped around as she turned to grin widely at her friend. "Great!" Her look turned sinister when Lily wasn't paying attention. "You won't regret it."
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"So..." he whispered out of the corner of his mouth, eyes glued to the blackboard.
Sirius looked at his friend strangely. "What?"
"Aren't you wondering how it went?" James questioned like it was obvious.
"What's going on?" Peter asked from behind Sirius.
"James is daydreaming again," Sirius stated, turning away and winking at a girl in the class.
The boy shot his friend a look, and then turned back to where Remus and Peter sat behind him and Sirius. He looked at the two expectantly.
Remus just raised a brow. "Well? Are you going to tell us or sit there rocking back and forth?"
"I'm guessing he wants us to ask him," Sirius said, suddenly turning to the three.
"Because that's something that good friends are supposed to do: be interested," Peter continued.
Even though the speculated thoughts were true, none of them voiced the question and instead let the pressure in James' head build up.
"She said yes!" he finally burst out.
Three pairs of eyes popped out in disbelief.
"Yup," James went on proudly. "I'm gonna meet up with her later so we can sit down and start."
"Start?" Sirius asked uncertainly, no doubt conjuring dirty thoughts.
"Start what exactly?" Remus asked.
"Studying," he proclaimed.
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"So I was thinking since she's so out of the loop we could use this as an opportunity..." the blonde trailed off.
"But she doesn't deserve that!" another girl whined.
"Hey, he's the one who wants it! Who are we to argue with that kind of determination?" another voice said back.
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"Hey! So you ready?" a chipper voice awoke Lily from her slumber.
The redhead groaned and rolled over to check her watch. "Alice, why are you awake?" she muttered, unable to muster the enthusiasm her best friend had at the moment. "Oh my god! Is that the time?" she said, her voice suddenly louder.
Lily shot up in bed to glance around the dark dormitory. Alice grinned from her place on the bed where she bounced up and down.
"It's time to get up!"
"Alice Prewett, it's four in the freaking morning! It's not even bright out! There are no birds chirping! And you expect me to– Ahh!" Her rambling was cut short as the floor rushed up to meet her. Lily looked up at her friend and tugged away her arm angrily. "Thanks," she replied, picking herself up.
"It's time we meet the rest of the girls!" Alice said, her blonde hair discernible through the darkness.
"What? Why? Isn't it too late to..." Lily trailed off as she stood up, looking around at the empty beds. "Where is everyone?"
"They'll be meeting us there! They just wanted to get things set up!" Alice replied, ever-cheerful. She began walking around the bed, grabbing a sweater from a bureau and throwing it to her friend. "Stop glaring at me already. You're lucky it's a Saturday. When it's all over you can just sleep in tomorrow...er, today." She looked up thoughtfully before bending down and tossing a pair of slippers as well.
Lily barely caught any of these items, in fact ducking from one of the slippers. "Can I at least use the bathroom real quick before we go?" she sighed, pulling on the sweater.
"Well, okay. But don't think you can lock the door on me," she threatened, holding out her wand. "Technically I'm supposed to drag you down as soon as you're out of bed. You're lucky I'm such a good friend."
"Yeah, yeah," Lily shot over her shoulder as she made her way to the lavatory. "Definitely a cult," she mumbled to herself.
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"This better be good," the redhead hissed as she felt cold air hit her cheeks. "We could get into so much trouble for this." She turned her head to the side to try and speak to Alice.
The blonde only grinned as she held firmly onto her friend's shoulders from behind and steered the way. Lily looked around blindly.
"Do you have your wand out?" Lily whispered.
Alice sighed. "No Lils, whoever's on patrol tonight might see it! And stop asking questions already! Just go with it!"
The two listened to their footsteps echoing through the dark, empty corridor. Lily faced forward, trying to pick up on where they were headed because the blindfold afforded her no comfort.
"Alright," Alice whispered in her ear. There was the sound of a door opening, though it was obvious Alice was trying to be quiet about it. She then nudged Lily into the room where she heard the giggles of other girls.
Lily breathed in as the blindfold was undone and pulled away.
"The Charms classroom?" she breathed out in question, looking around the dim room. Only moonlight and a candle revealed the faces she knew.
"No time for questions Evans," Mary Macdonald said, coming forward to grab Lily's arm. The girl in question looked back helplessly at her best friend who only smiled as she shut the door and locked it.
Four girls sat around in a circle at the back of the room, leaning against the wall or furniture instead of using the chairs that Lily thought would be more practical.
"I was right. This is a cult, isn't it?" Lily asked accusingly. Some of the girls looked up in surprise at her words, before learning from the smile she had on that she was kidding.
"Take a seat." Mary shoved her down to sit in the circle and took the space next to her. "I'm sure you already know everyone in some way but I think introductions are a good idea," she smiled disarmingly.
Lily still had reservations on what cult-like activities might occur. She really hoped they weren't sacrificing an animal tonight. She didn't like blood.
Alice joined the circle, sitting across from her best friend.
"Mary Macdonald," the obvious leader of the troop announced proudly.
"Shh," another girl, a small blonde hissed. "Angela Grizzby," she said, letting out a smile.
The brunette next to her with wildly curly hair continued with a skeptical look, "Gina Foster."
The girl sitting next to her sat up straighter from her slouched position and Lily noted she must be tall. "Annie Jacobs,"she stated with a carefully blank expression.
A tanned girl with a bunch of ear piercings at the opposite end grinned happily like it wasn't four in the morning and they weren't breaking rules. "Jessica Henley." She stretched out her feet and leaned back on her hands, ruining the effect of the circle.
Lily just nodded as she studied each girl. Then there was silence as the girls looked bored. Lily cleared her throat and sat straighter.
"So...why am I here in the middle of the night?" she asked, trying not to sound like a kill-joy.
Some of them laughed at her but Mary just smiled wide.
"Well, we're letting you in on our secrets. We kind of have this little club thing going on and we're willing to have you join us," she said.
Lily frowned. "What's so great about it though? I mean why the Charms classroom? Why four a.m.?"
"Well that's–"
"Wait!" Petite Angela jerked forward as she said this. "We can't just let her in without some kind of initiation! Everyone had to go through it!" she motioned around at the group.
Lily's eyes went around, wondering what she was talking about, before landing on Alice and her blonde hair. Her eyes went wide at the realization.
"That's why you dyed your hair?" she asked in shock.
Alice shrugged. "It was fun," she argued at the look.
"I got sent to McGonagall's office to take one of her quills!" Angela said. "She was lucky!"
Gina and Jessica laughed, retelling how she'd flown away from the scene.
"Shut up," Angela grumbled with the hint of a smile.
"So," Mary went on, turning to Lily. "This is the time to decide. It's totally okay if you don't want to do anything or join our weird looking club. We'll still see each other in class, the common room, Great Hall and just about everywhere. We're not going to hate you or give you the cold shoulder. It's up to you if you think you can complete a task for us."
The words stopped the whispering and giggles that had been shared around the circle and all the girls look at the redhead expectantly. Lily took this time to really think about it.
She wasn't really close with any of these girls, save Alice. She wasn't all too sure about trusting them completely just yet. But then there wasn't a reason to not trust them. In fact they weren't doing anything to try and harm her. They weren't doing anything but trying to get to know her better – even if it was sixth year already.
Lily looked around at their faces, looking anxious and excited. She finally landed on the tall girl, Annie, and their eyes caught each other for a moment. She looked painfully tired of this ordeal but Lily caught the slight upward twitch of her lips and the barely noticeable nod of her head.
"Okay," she finally decided, turning back to everyone with a bright smile.
"Good. I would have dragged you back upstairs and not let you sleep for the rest of the day if you said no," Alice grinned.
"Alright! Your mission, should you choose to accept it–" Mary started off.
"What do you mean? Of course I'm going to accept it!" Lily cried out defensively.
Mary just nodded sagely as if she already knew the outcome of this. "Your objective..." She paused for dramatic effect, looking around at the group of girls assembled. "Is to...shock and awe."
Everyone gasped, except for Lily who stared blankly. "What?"
Mary grinned. "You are to pick a boy, in our year–"
"And in our house!" Angela added, too talkative for her own good.
Lily only nodded slowly, looking from one person to the other.
"And date him," Mary said simply.
"Casually," Jessica added, "For the next month."
Angela nodded. "And we wouldn't suggest something as mean as playing with his feelings or something."
"Wha–" Lily was reeling. "Why would I–"
Alice sighed. "Come on Lils, what's the worse that could happen? I mean in the end you could just get to know someone a whole lot better."
"And," Mary went on further. "Whether or not you decide to date him seriously in the end is up to you. Maybe you'll end up with a close friend."
"Or maybe it could be the guy you spend the rest of your life with."
Lily looked up to see it was quiet Annie who had spoken the words.
"So what'll it be?" They all stared at the redhead, waiting.
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"Angela was right," Lily said as the two slowly made their way up to the dorms, looking out for any trouble. The rest of the girls had apparently decided on a "midnight snack" and headed for the kitchens while Alice and Lily took the route back up to Gryffindor Tower. "Your dare thing was so much easier," she grumbled.
Alice just smiled sweetly like it was no big deal. After a moment of silence passed she opened her mouth. "So, have you thought about who you'll pick?" She watched her friend out of the corner of her eye. "I mean, I know there aren't that many options but who do you think you'll..."
"Actually I have given it some thought. And you were kind of right. It's a good chance to get to know someone better that I normally wouldn't have given a chance to..." Lily looked bashful for a second.
The blonde stared expectantly, a grin slowly creeping up on her face.
"I mean, out of all the boys in our house and year there is someone who I haven't really given a chance to get to know," Lily stated, staring through the darkness as they walked. "Peter."
Alice nearly tripped over air.
The two continued on in silence for a few moments.
"Oh," Alice said simply, blinking owlishly.
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"This is ridiculous! Either this is a really crappy idea or there is something wrong with her!" a voice declared.
A few heads nodded all around.
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This is chapter 1 of probably seven. Only five and a half are done but I'm trying to wrap it up. Hopefully you enjoyed.
Also, yes, I am aware of the more perverse meaning of "shock and awe".
Tell me what you think in a review, and if there are things that I can adjust before posting the next chapters I'll try. I'll try to update every week or so.
6-02-10
3:42pm