~*Author's Note*~ Hello, and welcome to the mad house! Only joking. This is the first instalment in my James and Lily showcase. I'm going to write a story for every year starting with the fourth year, but they aren't going to be related. If you have suggestions or comments, don't be afraid to review (us authors like recognition)! :)
P.S. I've changed this chapter yet again! Explanation: First thought James was Chaser, then informed was Seeker, now discovered was definitely Chaser. No biggie, but I was kind of annoyed…
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I am not the brain behind this whole Harry Potter phenomenon. The genius that is, is Ms. J.K. Rowling. So if you see something you recognise it probably was her idea. If not, I was the genius who thought it up (yea!)(No autographs, please).
CHAPTER 1: DOUBLE BOOKING
Suddenly, there was a loud scream. The comfy crimson couch that Lindsey Rundell had been sitting on had bucked her off and was now chasing her round the crowded Gryffindor common room. People jumped out of the way so as not to get stuck in the mad couch's path. James Potter and his best friends Remus Lupin, and Sirius Black, and their faithful follower, Peter Pettigrew, rolled around on the floor, howling like laughing hyenas.
After ten minutes of the crazed sofa running after the terrified fourth year, seventh year Head Girl, Arabella Schmidt came in through the portrait hole entrance to Gryffindor Tower. She took one look at the red sofa, now preparing to charge Lindsey down like a bull would a matador, and then she saw that group of impossibly immature fourth years going red in the face from laughing so hard; it didn't take long beofre she put two and two together.
She took out her wand, pointed it at the couch-turned-bull and said, "Patrificus!"
Lindsey slid down the red wallpapered wall and into a heap on the floor as Arabella ran over to her to see if she was all right. But Lily Evans, another fourth year girl was too fast for Arabella and was already by Lindsey's side comforting her and asking if everything was alright.
"Don't worry, Arabella, she's fine," Lily told her.
With that comfort, Arabella turned around and marched straight over to where the infamous pranksters who called themselves the Marauders were. They were still shaking and gasping with laughter.
"That's what you get when you date that slimy grease ball Severus Snape," James whispered to Sirius. His friend, still laughing to hard to speak, simply gave James a high five.
They were obviously too busy congratulating themselves to look up and see Arabella, who looked astonishingly like Professor McGonagall, the sternest professor at Hogwarts, towering over them.
"Ahem!" she said loudly. "Sorry to break up your little 'victory party,' " she said in a voice that clearly said she wasn't. "You have cursed school property, attacked a fellow student, terrorised about two dozen others, obviously premeditated this ambush, and don't seem one bit remorseful," she ticked off their charges on her fingers. "So that will be two weeks detention and fifty points from Gryffindor. Have a nice day," she concluded with a broad smile on her face.
This quickly ended their party, and they were complaining loudly when Lily came over to them, hands on hips.
"Why, hello my florecilla," Sirius said suavely, his lips curling from a frown to a flirtatious smile. "Fancy meeting you here." Lily just glared at him.
"Look, I know you guys don't like Severus Snape that much, I mean, neither do I, but you just went a little too far this time." And with that, she pivoted on her toes and stormed as gracefully as possible up the stairs towards the girl's dormitories.
Lily's reaction upset three of the four boys more than Arabella's had. They were usually on good terms with Lily. In fact, she had even gone out with Remus in their third year. James didn't really know Lily that well, however. She had always talked to his friends while he was at Quidditch practise. But soon Lily was forgotten as they started to talk about new routes they could take to the kitchens that night so they could nick some food from the house-elves.
That was how James Potter had spent most of his four years at Hogwarts: pranking various classmates (usually unsuspecting Slytherins and whoever else they'd get into a patch with) with his group of friends, who had dubbed themselves the Marauders only last year. When he wasn't goofing off, James was soaring around the Quidditch pitch. This year he had been christened captain of the Gryffindor team, seeing as he was the best Chaser they had had in years, and because the two seventh years on the team, Frank Longbottom and Ashleigh Stevenson, were hopeless fliers.
Indeed, he and his friends were discussing James' excellent Woollongong Shimmy followed by a perfect Porskoff Ploy in the recent match against Ravenclaw when they sat down in History of Magic the next day. Professor Binns, their teacher, had just been droning on about goblin rebellions when he announced that the fourth years were going to be doing a project on which goblin rebellion was the most affective in the their fight for freedom and why. They were to work in pairs. James and Sirius caught each other's eyes (they always worked together on projects), just as Professor Binns said, "I have the pairs you will all be working in right here."
The class let out a long, sonorous moan as he began to read off of the list he had.
"Bones and Pettigrew… Moss and McKinnon… Black and Rundell (Sirius groaned at the thought of having to work with Snape's girlfriend, and then asked himself how Snape had landed a girlfriend?)… Potter and Evans… Lupin and—." James had stopped listening; he had fallen back into the stupor he was in before the Professor had announced the project.
After History of Magic, the Marauders walked through the corridors to lunch discussing their newest prank on Snape (getting a house-elf to squeeze all the grease out of his hair and into his pumpkin juice). James felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and came face to face with his new History of Magic partner for the second time in two days. He didn't know much about Lily Evans except that she was almost always the first one done with an exam, she was very pretty, and they had once given her a Cockroach Cluster and told her that it was chocolate covered peanuts.
"Hello, James," she said with a slight edge, still looking a tad angry about the previous night. "I thought we could go to the library after dinner tonight and start researching our History of Magic project."
James tried to ignore his friends sniggering behind him. "Er… I have Quidditch practise after dinner, but what about at seven o' clock?"
"Alright then," she replied, jotting something down on a notepad. "See you later. I have to find Derek." With that she hurried off towards the Great Hall.
"Who's Derek?" asked James once his friends were through laughing.
"Her boyfriend," said Remus a little resentfully. Remus had never fully gotten over his and Lily's break up. "Some fifth year Hufflepuff, I think."
"Aww, has Jamsie-Wamsie found a new wovie-dovie?" said Sirius in and annoyingly high voice.
"You know I'll have no one but Luna Faucette," James shot back quickly.
Luna Faucette was a pretty popular sixth year Ravenclaw who played Chaser on her house team, and was very good at it, James thought. She was fairly tall, had straight black hair that never seemed to be messy (very contradictory to his own), deep blue almond shaped eyes, olive skin, and a nice pair of blud—
"Then ask her out," James' thoughts were interrupted by Peter, who had an evil grin on his face.
"Yeah, today after lunch," Remus demanded.
"Or you'll wake up with blue hair tomorrow," prodded Sirius.
"Stuff it, Sirius. I'll do it," replied James with an air of confidence.
Following lunch, James waited for Luna outside the entrance of the Great Hall. She walked out in a big group of girls who were all giggling madly over something. He took a chance and called to her.
"Luna!" She turned at the sound of her name and looked around for the speaker. When she saw James waving her over, she waved to her friends and told them she'd meet up wit them later. The group then left, giggling harder than ever. Luna walked over to where James was with a quizzical smile on her face.
"Yes, James?"
He led her to a quiet corner and turned to face her. His stomach did a mini flip-flop. He had to admit it, he was kind of nervous. Even though he had done this several times before, James always felt a little less than confident when asking a girl to go steady with him. After all, he wasn't one to take rejection very well.
"Er… I really like you, Luna (he could feel himself gong red), and I was wondering if—,"
"I would love to be your girlfriend, James Potter!" exclaimed Luna. James looked up, a little surprised.
"Really? Great! You want to do something after my Quidditch practise at seven o' clock tonight?"
"That'd be great!" said Luna beaming, thinking how lucky she was to have the James Potter as her boyfriend. Sure he was two years below her, but he definitely didn't look it. She said goodbye and rushed off to tell her friends. James walked off to Transfiguration, quite pleased with himself.
*A/N* Reviewing is so much fun! So if you liked (or hated) this crazy little thing I call a fan fic, review! Yay!