The Marauders
Lily Evans was a highly unusual girl in many ways. She was inquisitive, where other girls were incurious. She was stubborn, where other girls were docile. She hated James Potter with every fibre of her being, where other girls found him 'charming' and 'roguish'. She was also a witch.
Back home, Lily had to hide her talents; lock away her spell books and wand, in favour of maths textbooks and pencils. Her older sister Petunia would watch with a smug expression on her horse-like face as Lily's wand was placed in the cupboard under the stairs and locked away. Everything unwanted was put in that cupboard: her spell books, cauldron, brass scales, telescope... She came to think of it as the place magical things hid from the monotony of the muggle world. She often laughed to herself that Petunia would hide her own child under there if – god forbid – he turned out to have magical blood.
However here, at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, there was always something magical going on. Ghosts roamed the halls wailing in mock anguish (or, in the case of The Bloody Baron, real anguish). Students hexed each other into sludge in the middle of the ever-crowded hallways. Peeves the Poltergeist zoomed over the heads of students and teachers alike yelling foul curse words at the top of his lungs. Someone always forgot to walk quietly on the corridor of the North Tower and set the portrait of Sir Cadogan off, threatening and challenging: 'Get back, you scurvy braggart! Back you rogue!' Every minute was a new and exciting adventure when you were at Hogwarts… unless of course you had the misfortune to be sitting in a double History of Magic lesson with the ghost of Professor Binns – which was just what Lily Potter was doing. As if a two hour, non-stop lecture about the Goblin Wars wasn't riveting enough, Lily had the pleasure of being drooled on by her partner- a dozing Peter Pettigrew.
'Peter,' she whispered 'Peter, wake up!' A loud snore, which actually made Binns look up from his notes for a moment, was his only response. She tried again: 'Peter, you're drooling on my sleeve.' Nothing. Suddenly, a sharp spurt of icy water erupted from the desk behind, dousing both Lily and Peter. Pettigrew screeched and jerked bolt-upright, toppling off his chair in shock; Lily pulled sodden strands of bright red hair from her face. She whirled around, fuming, to where James Potter and Sirius Black sat howling with laughter.
'What the fuck do you think you're doing, Potter?' she spat, impatiently pulling her drenched hair back into a ponytail.
Potter composed himself long enough to gasp, 'just helping you wake Wormtail up, Evans, he'd sleep through a bloody acromantula attack if we left him.'
'You'd probably let him too, you little toad,' she glowered 'I can't believe you just used the Aguamenti charm on us, I'm soaked through and I don't have enough time to go and change before potions!'
'I think you look great as you are,' he replied, looking almost sincere. 'The drowned rat look doesn't work for many girls, Evans, but it does for you.'
'How about you go and shove your wand up your-'
'Now now, Evans!' Black interjected with mock severity, 'none of that language! Prongs was just paying you a compliment, the customary response is a polite 'thank you.' Or is it only Snivellus whose allowed to check you out?'
Lily rounded on Sirius, 'one more word, Black. One more word and I'll hex you into next week!'
Sirius raised his eyebrows coolly but seemed to take her threat seriously; he slouched off to help Peter, who was still snivelling pathetically, up off the floor. Everyone began to pack up but James held Lily's gaze. She curled her lip; 'You can stop looking at me like that, Potter, you look like someone's stuck the Confundus charm on you.'
'Maybe you just confunded my heart, Evans'
In spite of herself, Lily snorted with laughter, 'You're an idiot Potter.'
'But you love me.' His smile was cocky.
Lily looked down slightly, 'maybe…'
'Maybe what?' His smile deepened.
Lily stepped closer to him; 'Maybe…' she reached into the pocket of her robes. 'Maybe…' She pulled out her wand; 'Maybe you should think before you piss me off, Potter! Petrificus Totalus!' There was a flash of light and James Potter lay immobilised on the ground, his limbs locked completely. Sirius rushed over to see what had happened, tripped over James' prone body and sprawled to the floor, once again howling with laughter.
Lily blew James a mocking kiss as she left the classroom, feeling much better than she had five minutes ago.
To be continued…
