November Rain
Chapter One: You're My Best Friends – Queen.
Disclaimer: J.K Rowling owns Harry Potter and all that goes with him. George Lucas owns Star Wars and that awesome galaxy far far away. Someone else owns James Bond. Aston Martin owns Aston Martin and Guns 'n' Roses or a record company own November Rain and Guns 'n' Roses. Queen owns You're My Best Friends. Have I missed anything?
James Potter had just started his seventh year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. He sat at the Gryffindor table in the great hall with his three best friends, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew. The ravenous boys waited impatiently for the Sorting of the First years into their houses to conclude enabling them to start eating. James' best friend, Sirius picked up his knife and fork and stared at his plate in anticipation as Joahn Zefry was sorted into Huffelpuff.
Professor Dumbeldore stood up, his blue eyes twinkling as he looked down at the students over his half moon spectacles.
"I won't say much at this moment, for you see; I am rather starving." he said with a mischievous grin. "Tuck in..." Dumbledore was however interrupted by the giant oak doors to the hall being slammed open. The whole school watched with growing curiosity as a girl crossed the threshold.
"Oops." she said simply.
"Ah," said Dumbledore. "You must be Miss Storm?"
"Ay Ay Captain." She said as she walked down the rows of staring faces.
"Miss Storm has been transferred here from a very small Wizarding school in Australia called Augustines" He told the school, "Correct me if I am wrong; you will be going into your seventh year of magical education?" She replied with a "Spot on Sir."
James' initial reaction to this girl was that she seemed very confident, cheeky and slightly cocky, very much like himself. He turned to Sirius to comment on this but was surprised to see Sirius staring at the girl with a look that said 'wow.' James looked at her again, she had long violet hair that came just above her belly button and was worn in a 'just got out of bed' sort of way, her eyes were shockingly blue with dark purple eye shadow surrounding them. Her eyelashes were coated in mascara and her eyeliner gave her a feline appearance. She wore a black Guns 'n' Roses tee-shirt with jeans cut to make short shorts and dark blue Chuck Taylor Converses laced up around her ankles. Altogether, not the sort of thing your average Hogwarts girl would wear and yet, there was a familiarity about her.
The hall was silent as each student took in her appearance and attitude. Professor Dumbledore was explaining the four Hogwarts houses and that she will be sorted into one of the four, she nodded, looking confident, although when McGonagall brought the Sorting Hat and stool back out she looked uncertain. She sat on the stool and the Hat deliberated for a moment before yelling. "GRYFFINDOR!" The school broke into applause, much more, James noticed than the First Years received.
McGonagall directed her towards the other seventh years at the Gryffindor table. She filled the gap between James' group and Lilly's. Lilly was a girl by whom he had been taken since their first meeting on The Hogwarts Express. Lilly however, had never returned those feeling to James. On the contrary, she despised him and had taken to turning around and walking in to opposite direction whenever she saw him. This had never swayed James from his hopeless attempts at wooing Lilly.
Dumbledore said his final "Tuck in" at last and the whole school broke into talk, no doubt of the mysterious girl who sat at the table on his opposite.
"Hi." said Lilly cautiously. "I'm Lilly Evans." The rest of the table thought she was very brave and were glad she didn't
"Hey, I'm Storm." She said with a smile. This seemed to relax Lilly.
"This is Mel Barry and Jedda Thomas." They each gave her a nod in response.
"And I'm Bond, James Bond." Said Sirius, leaning across the table, succeeding in capturing Storm's attention.
"Sure, take me for a spin in your Aston Martin?" Laughed Storm.
"Shit, girl knows her cars and Bond, you just aced two of the three 'perfect woman' questions."
"Oh yeah, and what's the other one Black?' asked Jedda
"Star Wars" said all four boys simply.
All the girls accept storm looked confused.
Storm filled them in.
"A movie, it's brilliant. It's like the god of sci-fi."
"Yeah, sounds shit." Jedda retorted.
"Nice Jed, you don't even know this girl and you're already being a bitch." Lilly laughed.
"Shit sorry"
"It's all good man." Storm replied with a grin.
"It is not!" Sirius piped up astounded. "Star Wars deserves respect! You don't bag Star Wars. Ever"
"I agree with you whole heartedly, Bond. She just needs some educating." Storm winked at Sirius.
Sirius looked proud of himself as he raised his eyebrows at James in a way that said, "I'm in." James rolled his eyes and introduced himself.
"This douche is Sirius Black, and I'm..."
Sirius interrupted with a "How you doing?"
Everyone groaned but Storm, she giggled and said, "Good meeting you, but I'm afraid you're stuck with Bond now."
"Good with me, he's a spy, he wears awesome suits, drives a Vantage, and get's laid all the time."
"Okay mate, that's where I'm stopping you!" Cried James, exasperatedly.
"Just 'cause you wish you were me."
"Yep that's it Sirius, I want to be you so bad."
"As if you don't. As if you wouldn't."
"As if you would!"
Remus took this as his cue to butt in.
"Guys, you're making a brilliant first impression. Shut the fuck up."
Everyone stared at him, Remus was usually the quiet one. He looked around at their shocked faces and laughed.
"Hey Storm, I'm Remus Lupin, this is Peter Pettigrew, you've been introduced to Sirius already," Sirius made to speak but Remus covered him mouth with his hand. "And this is James Potter."
Storm's smiling face faltered as she whipped around to stare at James. "Holy shit."
Everyone looked confused and James looked slightly scared, Sirius who had licked and bitten his way out of the trap that was Remus' hand said, "What? It's just James?"
Storm however was not listening.
"James Potter of 188 Lord Street, Son of Amelia and John?"
"Uh, yeah. How do you know all..."
"Oh my god, wow, Jam Pot, that's insane I can't believe this."
As soon as she said Jam Pot realisation hit him.
"No shit! Scar! You still don't use a hairbrush!"
"Typical, that's the first thing you say to me after all these years!"
"Typical, after all these years you still don't use a hairbrush."
"Fair call." And they both laughed. James got up from his chair crawled under the table and popped up beside Storm again. They both laughed again and hugged.
"Yeah, you want to explain this?" Lilly said looking slightly disgruntled. Sirius nodded pointing at Lilly in agreement. James looked around the group and saw the same confused expression playing on each of their features.
"Thought you weren't talking to me, Lilly?" Said James, failing to suppress his look of triumph.
"Huh?" Said Mel and Remus at the same time.
"Lilly hasn't spoken a word to me since she found out I got Head Boy."
"Lilly Marie Evans!"
"Yeah, Jedda?" Replied Lilly innocently.
"You promised you'd give Potter the benefit of the doubt until he does something really jerky again. And don't you deny it, we had three witnesses and we quoted you on it." At this Jedda tapped her wand on the table and said "Quote 3, Lilly Evans, regarding James Potter and his doucheyness"
At that moment a thin silver strand came out of her wand that resembled an amateur Patronus and materialised into a silhouette of Lilly.
"I, Lilly Evans, will try, to the best of my ability to give James Potter the benefit of the doubt and won't jump down his throat all the time. I will, however act as I see fit if he does something that we all agree is inappropriate, like him asking me out every day. Just saying. And yes, I admit I have noticed the changes in him." Lilly's voice sounded frustrated and the body language of her silver wispy silhouette looked as though she was being restrained.
The real Lilly had her head on the table with her arms covering her very pink face. Jedda tapped her wand on the table again and the silver Lilly disappeared into the tip of the wand.
"And seeing as James didn't do anything pricky by becoming Head Boy, congrats by the way man," she added holding up her fist, James knocked his fist to hers. "So therefore you owe us all butter beers next Hogsmead trip." Said Jedda.
"Damn you Jedda and your awesome spells you invent." Replied Lilly, as she finally lifted her head from the table, her cheeks and the tips of her ears matched her vibrant red hair. She looked at James and muttered and apology.
"It's all good Lilly." He replied, amused.
"So?" Said Lilly, her normal colour returning to her face.
"So what?" Said James.
"What's with this!?" She shrieked, gesturing between James and Storm.
"Scarlet lived next door to me when we were young. We were best friends until the day before my eleventh birthday."
"Why'd you stop?" Asked Peter, speaking for the first time. This wasn't unusual for Peter, he liked to focus on eating as much as he could before the food vanished from their plates. He only stopped as he was waiting for the desert to appear on the gold platters.
James looked uncomfortable. He looked at Storm questioningly. Storm nodded and spoke.
"I left." Everyone - except Peter who was attacking a Sticky Date Pudding – looked confused. "I think it's time I explained Jam." She looked at James apologetically, "As you know, Mum died the month before I left; Ministry thinks she may have been the first person killed by Voldemort and the Death Eaters." Everyone's jaw dropped. She explained, "Mum worked for the Ministry inventing spells and shit. But you know, the other side wanted her. She was killed, but she took three death eaters out with her." A flicker of pride stood out in her eyes.
"Wow, I had no idea Scar." Said James. He looked at her and pounced gabbing her around the shoulders and hugging her tight. "I'm so sorry. You told me it was an invention gone wrong."
"I thought it was; I was only ten. I mean, how would you tell your ten year old kid her mum was murdered. But yeah, anyway, Dad packed our stuff and when we got back from school, he told me we were moving to Australia. And yeah, I went to a school in the middle of Australia."
"Well, why are you here now?" asked Mel. Mel was a shy, smart girl who was very stunning. Her hair was blonde and her eyes were blue, and the only thing stopping most the Hogwarts boys from trying anything on her was her reputation as a nerd.
Storm cast her eyes to the floor, squeezed them shut before opening them and spoke.
"Dad never got over Mum. He committed suicide three months ago."
James tightened his grip further around Storm's shoulders.
"Augustines is sort of an etiquette school for snobby girls. Not my kind of place. After Dad died, I wanted to go home."
Everyone was silent.
"There's something important I have to say to you James." She said seriously.
James let go of the chokehold he had on Storm.
"Go on." He said timidly.
"Pinch and a punch for the first day of the month!" She yelped.
"You got me first!" He said miserably.
At that moment the whole table burst into laughter. "So that's where James got that from?" Asked Remus.
"Yip," Said Storm simply.
"Whoa! Bull shit! I started it!" James looked mortified.
"Uh, pretty sure that's been around since before you were born James." Lilly Laughed.
James flushed. "Yeah, but my Dad taught me and I taught Scar." He poked his tongue out at Lilly.
"Does that count? Can I punish James as I see fit?" Lilly asked Mel and Jedda.
The two girls deliberated for a second before Mel stated, "Okay, we give you permission to punish James for his failed attempts at subtle flirting. You have a ten second limit though! Use it wisely."
"Yes!" cried Lilly
"Oh, no! Whatever shall I do?" James responded, sarcasm dripping from every word. He winked at Sirius, who laughed but turned it into a very unconvincing cough at the look Lilly gave him.
"Okay, your time starts... now!" said Jedda, looking at her watch.
Lilly picked up a bowl of blueberry pie and custard and poured it over James' head. Sirius swore and James just sat silent with his eyes tight shut. As a grinning Lilly applied the finishing touched to James, (rainbow sprinkles) Remus and Storm burst into laughter while Jedda, Sirius, Mel and Peter sat mouth opened and dumfounded.
"You'll catch flies." Lilly said to the four, still grinning from ear to ear.
James rubbed the custard out of his eyes before opening them. Everyone accept Storm and Remus who were pounding their fists on the table stared at James, waiting for his reaction. His reaction surprised them all; he his finger along his cheek and put it in his mouth, deliberated for a moment then said, "I've lived my seventeen years thinking I hate custard, custard is really good."
The group laughed. James then leant over and rubbed the top of his custard soaked head on Lilly's.
"I think I'm going to like it here." Storm said with a laugh.
A/N So yeah, I attempted a fan-fiction three years ago. *fail*cough*fail* Please, don't read it, I'm seriously embarrassed by it and I CBF figuring out how to take it down. This is sort of a, 'Bek, you've been on Holidays for two months, you've forgotten how to use the English language properly, do something that doesn't involve watching how I met your mother or star wars or getting severely sunburnt' sort of thing. Just putting it out there – This is sort of M.A 15+, sexual content, explicit language, who knows what'll be in it. Please, don't read it if you're young or naive or homophobic or anything like that. =) Doubt there will be any slash, but just in case.
You may have picked up on the fact that this is slightly AU. Let's just pretend that this story is present day for the sake of Star Wars and Bond quotes?
One more thing, I'm a seventeen year old girl who goes to boarding school. I live with 60 other girls. We don't play truth or dare, spin the bottle or have 'boy gushing sessions' which include lots of sugar and girly magazines. We drink beer, talk about shit all and don't EVER have pillow fights. You will not find pillow fights or truth or dare or 'sugar fests' in any of my writings.
Wait another thing, apologies for my gross injustice on the English language, like I said, I've been on holidays for two months and it's really late at night.
Reviews?
Love bek, or whatever screen-name I'm using. =)