It started with a dance… and detention
A/N: This is my newest story and my first to be set in the Marauders' Era. So please be kind when reviewing and don't throw too many banana skins at me after you've read the story and seen how I portray the characters. Well, I'll let you be the judge of this first chapter of It started with a dance... and detention, start reading when ever you feel… P.O.Vs will change through out the story and often more than once in a chapter. It will mostly switch between James and Lily, but a few sections will be in the P.O.Vs of the infamous Marauders and Lily's best friends; Rosa, Alice and May.
-x-
The days leading up to Valentine's Day had always been a nightmare for Lily Evans and this year, as the dreadful day drew ever nearer, was no exception. Annoyingly perky cupids flew around the school, scattering pink and white confetti over the heads of passing students, giggling with each other and seeming to speak more in the language of love than English. Over 99.9 of the female student body talked of nothing but the upcoming dance; new looks, shopping sprees and dates also fell under this category. Honestly, Lily and her best friend, Rosa, seemed to be only girls in the entire school who weren't looking forward to the Dance. Lily because she hated the very idea of Valentine's day and what it stood for and Rosa because of the date that she had to attend the dance with. Lily couldn't say she blamed her; no one wanted to be stuck with Larry 'octopus' Keegan as a date.
There was a week to go until the actual date arrived and Lily was trying to make the most of the free time she had by spending her days in the library, catching up on a well-earned read. She had only managed to read a few pages of Noughts and Crosses (A/N: Sorry, couldn't resist, it's my favorite trilogy of books!) when one of her best friends, Rosa, found her hiding behind the science fiction books. Lily cursed under her breath, as Rosa caught sight of her, waved and wandered over. She had been positive that this time Rosa would not have found her! She hated Science Fiction books, Rosa knew that, so how had she known to look for her here?
"Hey Lils!" Rosa greeted, flopping down onto a squishy, red beanbag, that lay next to Lily and resting her chin in her hand. She tilted her head to the side and smiled at Lily, "Don't tell me you're still worrying about the dance, are you?" Lily thought it best to remain quiet, rather than answer. Rosa sighed, "Look, don't worry! You're head girl; a Gryffindor, a nice person to be with and you have looks to die for! Any guy would be crazy not to ask you to be his partner for the dance!"
Lily shook her head, "It's not that I'm worried about. I just don't want a date for the dance! In fact, I don't even want to attend it. However, my head girl duties require that I do go and considering that I'm also on the dance preparation team, helping with decorations, refreshment, entertainment etc. etc., there isn't a chance that I'll be able to not go with out McGonagall noticing and sending out her army of evil dwarves to find me!"
Rosa's mouth formed a small 'o' and she nodded, an I-wouldn't-want-to-be-you-right-now look on her face. The two girls remained in silence for a few seconds, their thoughts still on Lily's problem and the dance. Suddenly Rosa snapped her fingers, "I've got it! All we have to do is tie you to a tree in the center of the Forbidden Forest and wait until a herd of hungry centaurs come galloping by and see you. They can't force you to go to the dance if you're in the Hospital Wing!"
Lily stared at her friend in disbelief, observing the serious look on Rosa's face. She finally decided that Rosa was joking and she shook her head pityingly, turning to stare out of the window. It was already February and yet, the snow that had engulfed the wizarding world over the Christmas holidays, was refusing to clear and instead had covered Hogwarts in a ten inch blanket of pure white snow. From merely glancing out of the window, Lily could see various snowball fights taking place, a hundred or so students skating on the frozen lake and three groups of Hufflepuffs having a sledge race. She turned back to Rosa, wearing a fallen expression, "Never mind… I suppose I could always go with Carlos, you know the Italian transfer. He asked me out a few weeks back and I'm sure he'll give me another chance if I ask. Bye Rosa." And before Rosa even had the time to raise her hand in farewell, Lily had disappeared around the corner and through the open door of the library.
-x-
The Marauders were sitting by the fire, playing a game of Exploding Snap, when the portrait hole swung open and in stormed an angry Rosa. She noticed the Marauders and glared at them, before walking over to the girls' dormitory stairs and stomping her way up to the dormitory she shared with Lily, Alice, May and Cassandra. She was not in the mood to talk with any one, especially not the Marauders. She could not believe that Lily had just deserted her like that… and why? So that she could go and ask pretty boy to the Valentine's dance! Lily knew how much Rosa hated libraries, even though she loved reading, which was strange, as many people had often said, so why leave her there by herself? Besides, Lily was head girl. She would most certainly be able to worm her way out of going to the dance one way or another and then Rosa would be stuck with no-one to help her escape from Larry, the octopus (he had that name for a reason).
Rosa frowned, remembering her not so appealing date. She forced herself to think of some thing else. Like Sirius. She didn't know why but just lately, her feelings towards him had changed ever so slightly… or maybe a lot. It was because of him that she'd turned down all the previous invitations to go the dance. Maybe she'd been hoping that Sirius would ask her to the dance, even just as friends, after all, they were closer now than they had been all through their years at Hogwarts. But she'd grown tired of waiting and not wanting to be dateless, she had made a promise to herself to accept the next proposal to the dance. Unfortunately for her that had been Larry.
Rosa sighed, swinging her legs over the side of her bed, enabling her to perch on the edge of her bunk and keep her eyes on the dormitory door, that she had charmed to lock itself, if anyone other than her roommates should try to enter the room with out permission. Needing to take her mind off things, Rosa reached inside her school bag and took a personal CD player from within it (A/N: This isn't set in a specific time, so CD players, televisions, laptops etc. all exist). She had bought it a few weeks back from Dervish and Banges. The shop, unknown to them, had accidentally created the newest 'fad' or 'craze', which was to bewitch normal muggle objects, under the force of the law of course, and to sell them to Hogwarts students. Rosa had been browsing through their newest pranks when she'd first saw it and with just a single letter home, she had one.
She pressed 'play' and slowly fell back into her pillows, closing her eyes, and losing herself with in the music.
-x-
The portrait hole opened again and a raven-haired boy, one of the four who was sitting by the fire, glanced up from his hand of cards to see who the new arrival was. He let out a sigh of relief, when a small group of first years ran in, his gaze returning to the small table that stood between him and his friends. "SNAP! HA!"
Remus rolled his eyes and Frank groaned, as Sirius began to collect his winnings, a smug look gracing his handsome features. James shook his head at Sirius, trying to look pityingly at his friend and failing miserably. Luckily Sirius was too busy shuffling the cards to notice his friend's amusement. He finished shuffling and dealt them out again. "Not me, Padfoot old friend. I think I'm going to sit this one out. Besides, I need to go and get ready." James handed back the cards and rose to his feet, heading over to the portrait hole, grabbing his cloak from the cloak stand and shrugging it onto his shoulders.
"Where are you going?" Sirius asked, also getting to his feet, the cards lying forgotten on the table. He moved to take his own cloak but James held up a hand, which stopped him in his tracks. "Prefect meeting, remember?" Sirius 'oohed' in understanding and re-took his seat, but not before giving James's a re-assuring pat on the back, "Good luck, mate! You'll need it!"
James nodded shortly and exited through the portrait hole, "I'll need more than luck…"
-x-
"Excuse me? Excuse me! This meeting is about to start, will you kindly settle down, stop chattering and listen to what I say!" Lily exclaimed angrily, balancing her clipboard on her hip and glaring at the Hufflepuff prefect. The blonde haired girl noticed neither her nor her anger and continued talking. Lily let out a frustrated cry, rolling up her sleeves and glancing at her watch. 5:15pm. James was fifteen minutes late. She couldn't believe the cheek of that boy! He was constantly abusing his head boy privileges, turning up late for meetings, docking house points off every Slytherin that looked his way and setting a bad example for the first years. Why, it was only last week that he'd been handing out free dung bombs to at least a dozen students in the common room.
It wasn't just James's lateness that had her in a bad mood but the fact that Carlos had taken her invite to the dance as a sign to force himself on to her. Lily wrinkled her nose in disgust at the memory, trying not to gag. Stupid moron… no worse than James Potter…
Lily removed her cloak with a flourish and hung it on the back of her chair, shifting the clipboard into a position where it didn't dig painfully into her side. Her green eyes scanned the list with great care. Items on the agenda were to discuss the matter of the shortage of plastic cups by the school water dispenses, reach a decision on whether the gob stones society would be allowed to hold their meetings in the Great Hall after dinner and finally decide on the entertainment for the Valentine's Dance. The dance had been underlined twice in red marker and circled. Lily sighed heavily, slumping in her seat and rubbing her forehead tiredly, her head throbbing from the noise that the prefects were making. She was fighting a losing battle, she might as well just leave the prefects to it and wait for a teacher to arrive and tell them all off with their irresponsibility.
"Evans." Lily broke away from her thoughts, long enough to glare coldly at the tall boy who stood before her. She nodded briefly and turned her back on him, muttering obscenities under her breath in greeting. If she had looked properly at his expression, she would have seen the exact look that she had given on him mirrored on his own face.
-x-
"I much prefer the suggestion of having the gob stones society meetings held in the library, like every other unofficial organization among the student body that takes place in this school!" James had to fight off the temptation of turning around and just hexing Lily right there and then. She had been acting like this through out the whole meeting, interrupting his speeches and disagreeing with everything that he suggested. Usually he wouldn't have cared less but with Evans being in such a funny mood and simply refusing to help him, as Head Boy, it was his duty to take over the organizing of the meeting and so far it wasn't going too well and although he didn't know much about how to be a spokesman at a prefects meeting, he did know that Lily's catty comments were not helping.
He sighed heavily, running a hand through his hair, ruffling it in the process. The tables had turned on him and for the first time in his life, James Potter knew how Lily Evans must feel at every meeting. Today he'd been left to his own devices, whilst Lily had sat stubbornly in the far corner of the room, refusing to speak to anyone unless it was to object to something he was saying, but at the usual meetings, Lily was the one who was busting her ass off, trying to regain the attention of every prefect in the room, whilst he just sat in the chair in the corner of the room, stubborn as she was now.
"Miss Evans, Mr. Potter, what on earth is going on here!" Professor McGonagall shouted angrily. James looked up; only noticing the presence of his Deputy Head teacher in the room after the rowdy teenagers had fallen silent. The young woman stood in the doorway of the Great Hall, her arms crossed in an indignant manner, her lips pressed together in a thin, stern line. She had pulled her thick black hair back into a loose ponytail with her fringe pushed back under a black Alice band. At the age of thirty, McGonagall was the youngest teacher in Hogwarts and the most threatening. She was also the only teacher in the entire school to have her personal army of goblins. Unfortunately for the students, the goblins took pleasure in patrolling the corridors at night to make sure that no student should be out of bed or up to anything they shouldn't be, which made it near to impossible for adventures or secret meetings to take place after nine o'clock.
"Professor, I can explain…" Lily started.
"Miss Evans, I am appalled at you! The state that you've let this meeting get into! As Head Girl, you are required to do certain duties, you of all people should know that!" McGonagall scolded. James smirked, feeling rather than seeing Lily's discomfort at being told off in front of him and the other prefects.
"But, Professor, Potter is just as much to blame as I am! He's Head Boy after all!" Lily protested, her finger pointing accusingly at the appearingly innocent James.
"That may be the case, but I have come to expect so much from Mr. Potter, however, I do not expect that from you, that includes the back chatting, and I refuse to accept such behavior any more. If I get the slightest sniff of your actions repeating, you will lose your Head Girl position, do I make myself clear?"
"Yes…"
"Good! 50 points will be taken from Gryffindor! 50 points each! Yes, I haven't forgotten about you, Mr. Potter! Both of you will receive a week of detentions with myself in the third floor Transfiguration classroom. I expect you to both be there at eight o'clock sharp tomorrow, to begin your detentions. Is that understood?"
"Yes, Madame…"
"..."
"Mr. Potter? I said do you understand me?"
"YES!"
"Well, answer me next time! Now, as I initially came here for a reason, I shall continue with my business. First things first, how are the dance decorations going?" The Professor asked, her expression calming considerably, yet the anger not quite gone from her narrowed eyes.
"All done and dusted, Professor." Lily replied almost instantly. James rolled his eyes. That girl was so blatantly obvious. She could have at least attempted to hide her eagerness to get back on the Professor's good side. "James Stanley and Charlie Megson, the Ravenclaw prefects, sorted that out a few days ago. There will be pink and white streamers to hang from wall to wall, enchanted hearts, magically tweaked to float around the ballroom and serve as a substitute for mistletoe. Peeves, I believe, has offered to dress up as Cupid, if we agree to his terms of a week pass for the library, why he should want that is unknown… err… let me see… ahh, yes, the Sterlings have been booked for entertainment… and that's about it."
Professor McGonagall had begun to pace the room when Lily had begun listing off the sorted items, only pausing to nod thoughtfully and glance around at the seated prefects, all of whom had remained silence since her arrival at the meeting. "All seems fine… of course, Professor Dumbledore and myself will be there to supervise, making sure that there is no inappropriate behavior and to make sure that Peeves behaves himself. Professor Slughorn will discuss matters of refreshments with the house elves and dates amongst the prefects will be put into arrangement—"
"You mean to say that we can't have our own dates for the dance?" A petite girl with blonde pigtails piped up, her voice shy and timid. She winced, as the Professor fixed her with a piercing gaze.
"Of course not! You will attend the dance with your opposing prefect a.k.a the prefect who shares the same year and house as you."
"WHAT!" James and Lily shouted simultaneously, jumping to their feet. James gawped at McGonagall unable to believe his ears. He was already stuck with a week of detentions with Evans and now some one was telling him that he'd have to be her date for the Valentine's dance as well!
"You can't be serious!" Lily spluttered, her cheeks practically on fire from the heated blush that had spread over her cheeks, clashing horribly with her red hair.
"Oh, but she is…"
-x-
E/N: Promised I'd update this chapter, didn't I? I added another thousands words or so and have decided to change the title of this story to 'It started with a dance… and detention'. So please review!
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