PLEASE READ BEFORE CONTINUING TO THE STORY: Ok so last year i had posted three chapters of this story. I realized looking back on it that there were some details that I wanted to input/output so I decided to kind of start over. Most of the material is the same, however, it is actually planned out A LOT BETTER. I have a ton of documents full of notes so I will actually be updating this as much as possible! The first few chapters will be updated either on an every Tuesday&Friday basis or just every Friday. I am currently on winter break from college so I have had plenty of time to really work on this story! HOWEVER I GO BACK TO COLLEGE IN TWO WEEKS! I will be in season with a sport and taking 18 credits so I will be busy but I don't have any class on Tuesdays or Fridays! I will make time for this story if people do read it! Please enjoy and review!
I was inspired by a lot of music while writing this story so I may keep up with placing a song below that inspired the chapter or relates to a certain part etc.
Now Playing: Hello Cold World by Paramore
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING, JUST ANOTHER FANFICTION, J.K. ROWLING IS THE GENIUS OK BYE.
Screams erupted in The Great Hall of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as the students' breakfast foods became enchanted and wreaked havoc against the entire school. Slices of toast were crying, bacon strutted across the table, the plates of scrambled eggs could not stop laughing, and the sliced fruit kept running away, screaming if a student dared to try and pick one up with their fork. The professors who sat at the long table in the very front of the Hall were quickly trying to get the situation under control. Of course the enchanted food did not appreciate the counter-curses being thrown at them, so there was a bit of an uproar as the eggs, toast, fruit, and bacon all hurled themselves at the school's teachers. It was a mess, and fourteen-year-old Lily Evans thought it was possibly the funniest situation of chaos she had ever witnessed.
Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster of Hogwarts, waved his hand in a casual fashion and all the food returned to its rightful place, immobile once more. It was evident that he was trying to hide a smile as all of the professors got out from underneath the table and took their seats as if there had been no major chaos. There was no question on who was responsible for the silly prank that had left all the students of Hogwarts in tears from laughing so hard, and all the professors in a frustrated, yet confused state.
"POTTER, BLACK, PETTIGREW, AND LUPIN!" Professor McGonagall, Head of Gryffindor House, roared, "STRAIGHT TO MY OFFICE, NOW!"
"What? Why us?" James Potter stood up, his crew quickly stood up as well behind him. His tone was far from clueless.
"You four are the only four troublemakers who would even come up with such an elaborate, childish prank!" McGonagall's shrill voice echoed, "Office!"
James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew all walked behind McGonagall to her office, but not without waving to the admiring student body first. This was a routine now; the four boys pulled an unforgettable prank and were soon after led to some professor's office for their discipline to be decided. Everyone loved them for it, and they knew it.
"The Marauders strike again!" Some third-year boy from Hufflepuff cheered, which led to a slow clap starting in The Great Hall. Little did the students know that Professor Dumbledore was clapping along underneath the table, in support of the 'Marauders'.
The Marauders were four Gryffindor fourth-year boys who gained their unlimited admirers by creatively using magic to wreak havoc. The mayhem was harmless of course, but caused just enough of a frenzy to be thoroughly entertaining. The Marauders were basically Hogwarts royalty, and countless people wanted to be close to them, because to be close to the Marauders would be that much closer to royalty. Lily Evans, the frizzy red-haired fourth-year Gryffindor was just another face in the sea of their admirers.
"I don't get why you are so enamored with them," Alice's voice snapped Lily back to reality. Alice Prewett took a bite into her inanimate toast and shook her head at her daydreaming best friend.
"I am not enamored with them, Alice!" Lily hissed, begging Alice to keep her voice down.
"Right, my bad, it's just James that you're smitten with," Alice rolled her eyes, "You know, why don't you just try talking to him already, we are all in the same House, the same Year, the same classes…and you just admire him from afar!"
"Alice!" Lily shushed her, looking around frantically to make sure no one her confess her deepest secret.
"Lily calm down, no one's going to judge you; you're not the only one after all."
"That's exactly the problem. He would never go for a girl like me," Lily frowned, tugging at her frizzy red hair sadly.
"That's true, because you're too good for him!" Alice smiled encouragingly, "Now, come on, we have class!"
Peering over the brim of her cauldron, Lily Evans snuck another glimpse of the boy with the messy brown hair that sat exactly 3 seats diagonal from her. She paused her brewing for just a moment to admire the boy with the hazel eyes and glasses above the permanent smirk plastered on his face that displayed his soaring level of confidence. He was laughing about something with his friends and Lily couldn't help but sigh dreamily. Smiling to herself, Lily added the final two porcupine quills to her cauldron.
"Miss Lily Evans, a star, you are!" Professor Slughorn cried out as he stood over her cauldron. The fourteen-year-old girl with the frizzy red hair looked up at her professor shyly, "This young lady here is the only student in this classroom able to successfully brew a Babbling Beverage!"
Lily smiled as the rest of the class clapped in awe. Her emerald eyes glimmered through the green smoke her cauldron was emitting. Gryffindors shared Potions Class with Slytherins, and Lily did not miss the envious stares shot at her by her classmates.
"Hey, good job, Lil!" Alice praised, as her own potion sizzled with failure.
Of course, there was one boy in the class who appeared as if he could not care any less. It was the boy that Lily Evans adored the most, James Potter, the star Chaser on the Gryffindor Quidditch Team, the leader of the Marauders, and the most sought after boy in the Fourth Year. Lily watched as he elbowed his partner in crime, Sirius Black, and flicked a Golden Snitch in the air only to catch it seconds after.
"What does she do, stay up all night memorizing the text book? I've never seen her before in my life," James mentioned coolly to his inner circle of friends, not even slightly concerned that Lily was clearly in earshot, being that she was only a few seats away. His friends chuckled and shrugged as James smirked, content that the attention was directed back to him. Lily sunk back down into her seat and went back to being invisible as the rest of the class went back to being infatuated with James Potter.
"Now Mr. Potter, if you spent more time paying attention instead of tossing around that Golden Snitch then maybe you too could have brewed a Babbling Beverage!" Professor Slughorn mused as he returned to the front of the classroom.
"Maybe next time, Slugs," James threw the Snitch up again and skillfully caught it. He kicked out his feet on the table and leaned back on his chair, making himself at home. He took a long swig of his water bottle as he rocked back on his chair, clearly hydrating for Quidditch practice later. Lily's admiration for him was turned to disgust as James' spoke and acted with such arrogance. She was heartbroken and it didn't help that the rest of the class found him so charismatic, along with Professor Slughorn himself.
"Slugs, huh? I like that, Potter! It makes me sound young and cool," 'Slugs' rubbed the bottom of his chin with his fingers, flattered by the nickname.
Lily was livid by the fact that someone could possibly be that supercilious and get away with it. She eyed his water bottle that he was thirstily gulping down and smirked. Taking out her wand underneath the table, she muttered a quick spell and waited for Potter to take another swallow from his bottle.
Lucky for Lily, James didn't disappoint.
"Iguana piss!" James suddenly hiccupped. Lily covered her mouth; half surprised her potion and spell actually worked. The class went silent.
"What was that, Mr. Potter?" Slughorn asked, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. James' eyes were opened so wide and it looked as if he was trying to swallow every word that was trying to come out.
"S-Sorry, pr-professor but there are bubbles in my ear," at the point James tightly gripped his hand firmly over his lips. The class exploded with laughter, including Lily.
"Err, James, you alright, mate?" Sirius Black raised his eyebrows.
"Shut up, Sirius, you smell like a bridge."
"What does that even mean?"
"You milk puncher! Fat and fluffy clouds and desk lamp monsters and carpet lickers and ice rice dice mice lice," James continued to involuntarily blurt out nonsense, earning nervous, bewildered laughter from the rest of the class. All of his pride had evaporated and was replaced with embarrassment.
Lily looked around the room nervously, seeing if anyone caught on that it was her deed. Her eyes fell upon a Slytherin girl with long dark hair. Her stare was focused on Lily with a slight, approving smirk plastered on her face. She gave Lily a simple, knowing nod before looking away.
"Mr. Potter! Did you drink a sample of your Babbling Beverage? Or are you pretending you did to make me reevaluate your grade?" Professor Slughorn interrogated him. After James carried on to exclaim another long stream of nonsense, Slughorn just let out a sigh and shook his head, "Mr. Black, please escort Mr. Potter to the Hospital Wing to see Madame Pomfrey. As for the rest of you, class dismissed!"
The fourteen-year-old girl with the frizzy red hair left Slughorn's dungeon feeling unsatisfied. She was feeling a tad guilty with what she did to James Potter, and now viewed her once brave defensive strategy as a combative overreaction. Lily tried to push it out of her mind but her introverted-self kept replaying the class period in her head, allowing her brain to depict every single moment.
"Hi, Lily," A low, silky voice addressed her from her right side. Lily glanced over and immediately noticed a tall Ravenclaw girl walking beside her whom she had never seen before.
"Hi, um-"
"Kimberly," The Ravenclaw girl answered before Lily could ask, "I'm Kimberly Shacklebolt. And you're a genius."
"Nice to meet you but I'm not sure I know what you're talking about," Lily shyly smiled as she stared at her enviously. Kimberly Shacklebolt was breathtaking. She had big brown eyes and a shocking white smile that contrasted beautifully with her dark skin. Lily noted that they must have looked strikingly opposite walking next to each other.
"My friend Phoebe told me what you did to Potter in Potions Class," Kimberly explained, "It sounded absolutely brilliant, I wish I was there to see it."
"Right, thanks," Lily nodded in agreement, about to head up the long flight of stairs to the Divination classroom. Instead, Kimberly suddenly grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her behind a pillar, "What are y-,"
"Are you familiar with the Barnabas the Barmy tapestry located on the seventh floor?" she suddenly asked in a hushed tone, her eyes searching Lily's.
"Not particularly?" Lily didn't understand this encounter to begin with and it was just getting stranger by the second.
"Meet me in the left corridor of the seventh floor; you should be opposite of the Barnabas the Barmy tapestry. Seven o' clock, alright?"
"Kimberly, what are you talking about?" Lily flat out asked.
"Seven o' clock," Kimberly repeated with a smile and sauntered in the other direction. Lily was beyond puzzled as she hurried up to Divination class.
She didn't know why she would go.
She didn't have to go.
She wasn't going to go.
Lily told herself all of these things during Divination and all throughout dinner. She continued to tell herself those things while she was pacing back and forth along the wall opposite of the Barnabas the Barmy tapestry in the left corridor of the seventh floor.
She jumped as a large door emerged from the blank wall beside her. She turned towards it and stared blankly at the door for a moment.
She didn't know why she would go in.
She didn't have to go in.
She wasn't going to go in.
Retrieving her wand from the pocket inside her robes, Lily pushed the door open out of sheer curiosity.
It was dim on the other side of the door but Lily could tell that she was in an enormous room. She could smell a fireplace somewhere in the distance but she could not hear or see much. Becoming uneasy, she took a few more steps forward, hoping to find some peace of mind.
"Hello?" Lily called out, "Kimberly?"
As soon as she spoke, a dark figure charged into view and hurled towards where she was standing.
"Everte Statum!"
"Expelliarmus!" Lily yelled, skillfully knocking her sudden opponent's wand across the room before any damage could have been done. Her foe snarled and delicate laughter grew louder in the background.
"Phoebe, I told you it was Lily coming," Kimberly appeared from around the corner, still laughing, "I knew you'd show up, Lily."
"What is this?" Lily asked, clearly annoyed.
"Lily," Kimberly grinned as a petite blonde appeared from around the corner in the vast room and waved at her, "You're one of us now. Welcome to the Renegades."
Chapter 2 will be posted this Friday 01/10/14! Leave a review and I will love you :D