Centripetal Motion

Chapter 1

Dawn of a New Day

Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry rustled awake as an early sun filled the grounds. A rather furry gamekeeper by the name of Rubeus Hagrid strode across the courtyard towards the castle, whistling a pub song to himself. It was the first day of the new term and Hagrid was intent on looking properly polished for the occasion. His original objective was to introduce a clean appearance at the welcoming feast the evening prior, but an unfortunate incident with some gnomes ruined his efforts.

As he reached the doors of the castle, he happened by chance to look above him at Gryffindor Tower. There he saw a dark haired boy of seventeen balancing on a broomstick and reaching his wand hand through an open window. Looking quite pleased with himself, the boy withdrew his wand, shut the window, and climbed through a different window on the other side of the tower.

Hagrid chuckled and decided it best not to mess with James Potter's efforts for his newest stunt.

Asleep in Gryffindor Tower at that moment was seventh year Lily Evans, who also happened to be Head Girl of Hogwarts. She was just beginning to awaken, but not quite ready to open her eyes. Savoring her last moments of sleep, she nuzzled into her pillow and inhaled deeply, surprised but pleased to be met with the gorgeous scent of roses. It was a perfect match with the heavenly music of the harp that gently roused her from slumber.

Now this, Lily thought, is the way to wake up in the morning.

Yet Lily could not help but wonder why there was music in her room, and why it smelt so delightful. Curiosity overcame her, and she blinked her eyes open and stretched her arms above her head. Adjusting her vision, her sight settled on a golden harp hovering aside her bed with the curtains drawn open.

She shot up straight, and as she moved, she was blasted with a shower of rose petals. Harps, rose petals, Lily would not have been surprised if a halo adorned her head.

"Potter," she muttered, oozing with contempt.

Her feet slammed on the cold stone floor and she stomped out the door, down the stairs, and through the common room—screaming all the while.

Remus Lupin awoke much less pleasantly than Lily had, mostly because he awoke to her scream. He lifted his face from its place in his pillow. "James?" he asked the bed next to him, as both of them had their curtains drawn open.

"Yes, Moony?" James replied, his arms crossed behind his bed with satisfaction.

"Might I ask what the hell you've done?" Remus replied.

"You may, Moony."

Remus bit his lip, "What the hell have you done?"

James grinned. "I thought I'd welcome Evans back to Hogwarts for a new term."

"Well that was stupid," came a voice from the floor. They turned to see Sirius Black pull his mop of black hair up from the floor. That was how he slept: with his head on the floor and his body on his bed.

"Yes," James replied dreamily. "Yes, it was."

"Then why'd you do it?" came a voice from the fourth bed. Peter Pettigrew popped his round head out from in between the curtains, the only one of the four boys to actually use them as intended.

James did not have time to answer though, for at that moment, a petite girl with dark red hair swung open the door to the boy's dormitory, surrounded by rose petals, a harp trailing after her, and looking thoroughly pissed.

"Good morning, Lily," James greeted her, not bothering to sit up. "Nice rest?"

"What the hell did you do, Potter?" she asked.

Sirius Black sat up in his bed, and Lily frowned when she observed that he was most definitely not wearing a shirt. "Tsk, tsk. You should watch that mouth of yours, Tiger Lily. What would your mother think?" He tossed his hair for dramatic effect.

"Answer the question, cretin," she snapped.

James obliged. "I enchanted a harp to play Pachelbel's Canon as it followed you and rose petals to shower you whenever you move."

Lily stared at him incredulously.

"I thought you would appreciate the effort," he concluded. "This is the dawn of a new day."

Her eyes widened in rage as she leapt towards him, convinced a sharp slap across the face would be an appropriate precursor the pain she would make certain he felt later.

Luckily for her, because James would not have minded so much if the object of his unrequited affection leapt on him, Lily was caught midair by two girls slightly taller than herself.

"Sorry about that chaps," the one with the chocolate-coloured ringlets apologized. "We'll just be returning Lily to her room now."

She began to drag Lily backwards down the stairs, but the tall blonde resisted slightly. She rolled back her shoulders and batted her eyelashes, "See you later, James," she breathed and all but blew him a kiss.

James bit back a laugh and answered, "Yeah, see you later, Marlene. And you, Lily?"

Lily growled.

"Okay, Lils," the brunette announced. "Time to go."

The second the door closed, Sirius busted out laughing.

James glared at him, but Sirius continued. "Oi, shut it!" Sirius just laughed harder until he fell off his bed.

Then he just laughed some more and began pounding the floor. "Padfoot, do we need to get you a muzzle?"

Sirius tried to hold it in for the sake of his best mate, settling on the occasional snigger. He had been muzzled before and found in to be quite the unenjoyable experience.

Remus sighed as he pulled himself to his feet. "You know, you are probably the most stupid Head Boy to ever walk these halls."

"And proud of it."

Peter furrowed his eyebrows, "Of being Head Boy or of being stupid?"

James shrugged, "Both."

"I hope you realize you've brought shame upon this dormitory by becoming 'Head Boy,'" Sirius said.

"And I didn't knew you knew the meaning of shame," James snapped, "Seeing the way you shamelessly eyeballed Marlene in her nightdress."

"And you can blame me?" Sirius grinned.

"You have no standards, do you?" Remus interjected. "She's about as deep as a cat's water dish."

Sirius looked confused, "And that's a problem?"

Remus rolled his eyes, "Besides, you've seen the way she looks at our boy, James, here."

"Considering James's complete lack of interest, you'd of thought she'd move on," Peter said as he made his way to the bathroom.

"And we'd have thought James would have moved on from Evans," Sirius reminded them. "And he hasn't. You know, Prongs, you could have Marlene at the snap of a finger. Why do you insist upon making things difficult for yourself?"

James sighed, "Because it is Lily that I care about. And as I told you before, this year is going to be different."

Across the tower, Lily Evans begged to differ. "I can see that this year will be no different."

The curly haired one, whose name was Abigail Figg, answered. "It already is different, Lily. He's Head Boy, and that wasn't dangerous. In fact, I thought it was cute." But she dispelled the enchantments anyway.

Lily snorted and muttered something rather undignified about "cuteness."

"Oh, that's becoming, Lily," said a small girl with a pixie cut from the back of the room. Alice Cartwright rolled onto her stomach and began fishing through the trunk at the end of her bed, at last retrieving a quill and piece of parchment. "The poor boy is just trying to make you smile. The least you could do is humor him."

She began scribbling on the parchment as Lily glared at her. "Now who in the world is important enough to be writing to this early?"

Abigail hopped onto Lily's bed, tucking her legs underneath her. "Who do you think, Lily? Her fiancé!"

"Oooooh!" Lily giggled.

"Frank is not my fiancé…" Alice muttered, but her face flamed fuchsia. Alice had been seeing Frank since she was in her fourth year and him in his sixth. Their correspondence was at least twice daily.

Lily grinned, "You're right, Frank isn't your fiancé—yet!"

Alice scolded her, but she appeared positively giddy with the idea. "You think so?"

"Alice, darling," Abigail adjusted the imaginary glasses on her nose, "The whole of Hogwarts has been planning your wedding since you were thirteen. Frank will be donning a set of peach dress robes."

Alice scrunched up her nose at the thought of her boyfriend in peach, but Marlene and Lily erupted into giggles.

"You three are cruel," Gwendolyn Meadowes told them as she pulled her sheets off from over her head and submitted to the senseless banter around her.

"I work hard to be so," Abigail nodded. "Now, I wonder how Frank feels about purple taffeta. Perhaps we should ask the boys, I'm sure they've discussed this as well."

"I wonder what they do discuss over there," Alice mused.

"Well, that's easy," Lily grumbled. "They've probably just exploded something, so they retreat in a cloud of smoke where they will congratulate each other on being masters of the universe."

"Don't be silly, Lily," Abigail chided her. "They aren't masters of the entire universe—just of Hogwarts. And you know perfectly well they are far too busy discussing a certain redhead."

The girls took a turn giggling at Lily's expense. Lily stuck her tongue out at her friends and proceeded to dress in her school uniform and robes. "Well, I still bet there's a cloud of smoke."

And indeed there was. "Damn you, Sirius!" Peter shouted.

"You take too long in the shower, you sissy," Sirius spat as he brushed his teeth, spraying toothpaste over Remus, who in turn spit out his water in James's face.

"Doesn't mean you have to set me on fire," Peter grumbled as he pointed his wand at the bald spot on the crown of his head.

"I didn't set you on fire, I put petrol in your shampoo," Sirius justified. "James set you on fire."

"I did not," James argued as he squirted cologne in Remus's eyes for spitting water in his face. "I sent sparks at your head. I had no idea Sirius had spiked your shampoo with flammable substances."

"What was the point of contaminating his shampoo anyway?" Remus asked as he flushed his eyes clear with water. "It just would have made him smell foul, and he does that fine on his own."

Sirius shrugged as he grabbed his robes, "I was planning on sending sparks at his head. James beat me to it."

"So, you were planning to set me on fire?" Peter asked.

"More or less."

"I need food," James announced. "Who's coming to breakfast with me?" In a matter of seconds, all four boys were tumbling down the stairs to the common room. James reached the bottom first, only to stop suddenly, creating a pile up of the other three boys.

"What the hell, mate?" Sirius groaned. James glanced around the corner, and watched Lily Evans enter the common room with Abigail in tow.

"On second thought, let's wait a few minutes."

Remus pulled himself out from under Peter and saw Lily. "You'll have to face it sooner or later, Prongs."

"Later," James told him. "The Great Hall has more witnesses."

Lily sat on a bench with Abigail in the middle of the Gryffindor table. "This is our last first day," Lily whispered.

"I'm excited," Abigail smiled.

"I'm scared," Lily replied.

"A little excited?"

"A little bit," Lily conceded. "A little scared?"

"A lot," Abigail admitted.

They each reached for a scone and took to discussing which classes they would probably have together. Abigail planned on a career in Healing and Lily, well, she was thinking about becoming an Auror but was keeping her options open to become a Healer or a Charm Developer for the ministry. All in all, Lily was taking a lot of courses, but because of this, she felt justified in dropping Care of Magical Creatures and History of Magic. She had already dropped Divination quite some time ago and had never bothered to take Runes, Arithmancy, or Muggle Studies, though she had always been curious about a magical perspective on a people she was so close to.

"So I suppose you'll be in Astronomy while I have a free?" Abigail asked.

"I assume," Lily nodded as she swallowed some pumpkin juice. "We'll have to wait for McGonagall to give us our schedules."

Just then, Marlene sat down on Lily's left while Gwen and Alice sat across the table. "You won't have to wait long," Marlene told her.

Professor McGonagall was finished handing schedules to several second years and headed their way. "Miss Figg," she said, holding out a piece of parchment. "Miss McKinnon, Miss Meadowes, Miss Cartwright, Miss Evans…"

Lily hurriedly scanned her schedule her eyes immediately falling on one subject: Care of Magical Creatures. She scanned again and noticed there was no space marked Herbology.

"Professor McGonagall?"

"There was no place for Herbology, Miss Evans," came the curt reply.

"Pardon?"

"You requested to take Astronomy, which coincides with Herbology."

Lily hesitated, "I believe I'd rather take Herbology than Astronomy, Professor. And I don't really care to take Care of Magical Creatures."

McGonagall looked at her with understanding. "You planned on becoming either a Healer or an Auror, correct?"

"Yes…"

The older woman debated whether or not to continue with her statement. "You'll do best as an Auror, Lily. Aurors come in frequent contact with magical creatures, so you are taking such a course. As for Herbology, you will need excellent marks in your other courses, and a… less challenging class, such as Astronomy, will be beneficial to you."

Lily did not know quite how to respond, but McGonagall was already continuing with the schedule distribution. "The same has gone for you, Mr. Potter. You will be taking Care of Magical Creatures and Astronomy instead of Herbology, and I strongly suggest you enter into Auror training after graduation."

Lily turned to look at James, who now sat across the table from her.

"I suppose we'll be in all the same classes, ay Evans?" James asked.

"I suppose," Lily answered. She avoided his eyes for she had just remembered how terribly juvenile she'd acted that morning—and that she'd nearly leapt on top of Potter's bed whilst wearing her nightdress. She had never been close to Potter, just civilized, and they had never been on "lunging-at-each-other-in-their-night-clothes" sort of terms, whether out of anger or any other emotion.

"So," James began. "Having a nice morning, ladies?"

Abigail took one look at Lily's glowering face. "You, my dear Potter, are provoking a vicious monster. Would you enjoy it if Lily murdered you?"

"I asked him that very same question earlier this morning," Remus said as he sat down next to Gwen, who blushed slightly as he brushed against her. Putting it lightly, Gwen was shy in the extreme.

"Really, did you have a nice morning?" James looked with searching eyes, cautiously testing the waters to see if he would get off easy this time.

"I've had worse," Lily shrugged. Safe.

"Well I had a bloody brilliant morning," Sirius Black announced as he sat down next to James and reached for a piece of toast. "We set Peter on fire."

"Why? Did he deserve it, or was it for your own sick amusement, Black?" Marlene asked with contempt and glanced at Peter, who sat down beside her.

"He took too long in the shower," Sirius replied.

Abigail slammed her hand on the table, "Well, he's damn near a Death Eater, Black! Don't waste time burning him, let's throw in Azkaban this instant!"

Remus laughed, "It was James who started the actual fire." James threw him a vicious death glare, so he covered his tracks. "But Sirius put the petrol in his shampoo."

Marlene gently pushed her thick blonde hair behind her ear and said to James, "That was quite talented of you, James." It was astounding, and disturbing, how effortlessly she switched gears between insulting Sirius and adoring James.

James raised his eyebrows curiously while the rest bit back laughter. Peter tossed his nonexistent long hair and mouthed phrases such as, "Marry me, James! I'll bear your children!" Sirius, however, grinned mischievously between the two and settled on batting his eyelashes, which were incredibly long for a guy, at James in an uncanny imitation of Marlene.

"Something in your eye, Black?" Marlene hissed.

"I think he's harboring a bit of a fancy for Potter," Abigail whispered.

James turned to his mate and placing a hand on his shoulder, stated sympathetically, "Sirius, it's time we talk about our situation. I like you a lot, but I think it's best we stay friends."

"Crush my dreams!" Sirius cried melodramatically as he rose from the table. "See you in Charms, my dearest," he called over his shoulder as he left the Great Hall.

"I've always thought he'd make a fine actor," James shook his head in mock disapproval.

"Funny," Marlene mentioned. "I always thought he'd make a fine pin cushion. But I'm sure you'd make a lovely actor, James."

Taking that as his cue, James rose from the table. "I'd best be getting my books. Walk you to the tower, Lily?"

"And what makes you think I'd ever say 'yes,' Potter?" she sighed as she looked up at his face.

"Because, my dear," he leaned across the table, "It is the dawn of a new day." And with that he waltzed from the Great Hall, whistling to himself.

Lily turned to Remus, "What does he mean by 'dawn of a new day'?"

"I don't know, Lily," he shrugged. "But I'd be on my toes if I were you."

Disclaimer: I almost didn't write this, but then my feet got cold (literally) and I decided to cover my hide. I do not own anything that JKR own rights to.

A/N: I'm testing waters here. I might take this down and try again if the response is bad. I might also change the title... how do you all feel about it? I'm planning for this to be one of those monster-long-novel-sized fics. And kudos to anyone who caught the Titanic reference.

Love, Mebmarker24