A/N: Second chapter, part one. Yay or nay? Review!
Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JKRowling!
Last Chapter:
"So, the next two days, I don't want to see anything but you three moving your little wands in here. Decorate. Conjure. Be innovative." Malcolmby began to walk away, then turned around with a smile on his pasty face.
"Starting now, boys."
Glass Is In The Air
"You're kidding me." Sirius stated blankly, looking around at the huge hall.
"Don't they have committees for this sort of stuff?" James said nasally, due to his hand pinching his nose to stop the blood from his recent run-in with a tree.
Remus took in the scene; it was so plain, they would have to stay up for ages making enough decorations and conjuring balloons. The floor was so dirty in areas that it would take hand-scrubbing, not magic, to get off the scuff marks.
"He could have at least given this to us earlier…"
"Well, in future I'll remember to set his eyebrows on fire two weeks before any major event Moony." James laughed dryly, as they began their work.
The doors creaked open and there stood Peter, in shock that they were actually cleaning something.
"I…what…happened!!" he gasped!
"Macolmby happened." Sirius spat, "Come and help us or I'll hex your only chest hair off."
Peter jumped and ran over to Sirius, taking out his wand.
"What can I do?"
Sirius had conjured a ladder, and was climbing it to get to the tops of the walls, where he was going to hang plastic 'silver moons' Remus has gotten.
"Use that thing in your head. Heres a hint; it starts with a B." Sirius said distractedly.
For some reason known only to Merlin, Peter decided to move the chandelier. James and Remus turned their heads to see what he was doing and it all seemed to happen in slow motion….
With an unsteady hand, Peter managed to smash the chandelier against the glass ceiling and a particularly pointy piece of shiny gold broke off and like a missile, went straight for Sirius's clenched buttock (as he was stretching to hand a decoration).
James, Remus and Peter all sucked in their breath as it zoomed closer.
Sirius's eyes bulged and he stood stock-still, hand shaking from where it was out-stretched. He opened and closed his mouth a few times, like his pain was too extreme for words to express and then slowly looked at his now wounded buttock.
"WORMTAIL!" suddenly finding his voice again, Sirius hobbled off the ladder, the piece still lodged in, hands out ready to strangle Peter, who was now running as fast as his little legs would permit.
James began to howl with laughter, forgetting his nose and the fact that Sirius was angry and had a wand in his hand. Remus joined in to and soon they were both beside themselves. Peter had just managed to escape Sirius and his wrath, by going into his rat form, slipping through cracks in the wall.
Sirius was now grinding his teeth and went to sat down-
"MERLIN!!" apparently he had forgotten where the pain had been coming from.
"Smooth move." James returned Sirius's previous insult to him that day.
Caught up in their painful, yet funny escapade, the marauders had forgotten that it was dinnertime and students were now entering the hall to eat. The first was none other than Lily Evans.
The look on her face was priceless.
Eyebrows raised, she looked around at the Great Hall. A huge ladder was on the floor, tables pushed skewif, glass everywhere from what looked to be a broken chandelier, pieces of silver paper cut into circles and was that blood on the ground?
"What…what did you do?" she whispered aghast, covering her mouth. Her other hand subconsciously drew her wand out, and she began cleaning up quickly, as Lily Evans hated mess.
The other students began to pile in and luckily most of the damage had been repaired, aside from Padfoot's, well, bottom. The marauders stood around him, covering his 'injury' from view as they quietly sided out into the castle and towards the hospital wing.
Lily found Judence sitting at their usual spot on the dining table. She quietly put down her books and bags, and sat. Judence hadn't noticed her presence, because she was staring at the few places Lily hadn't fixed up.
"Merlin…they sure know how to… I dunno… destruct things?" Judence said once she saw Lily.
"You should have seen it before. I thought Professor Malcolmby would have known what would happen if he left them in here alone." Lily sighed as she reached for the bread, "In seventh year and on the first day, they manage to do something."
"Still, you have to admit, they got style!" Judence laughed, "Its never boring being around them, you know? Like, I'm not friends with them, but I do potions in their class and whoa, let's just say things explode a bit!"
Lily wasn't listening though. Judence noticed a far away look on her face, and worried for her friend, she tried to break the silence.
"But, that Gregory over there, he's fine too!" she laughed uneasily.
This got Lily's attention.
"Why would I care who's 'fine'?"
"Don't you remember the reason Potter and his mates were decorating, or, trying to, the hall? Silver Moon!" Judence exclaimed!
Inwardly, Lily groaned. It took all she could do to not roll her eyes at Judence. The noise in the hall was building as more students and professors came in to eat, knives and forks scraping plates and glasses being slammed on the table, making Lily have to speak louder.
"You get so excited over it, Ju! You believe that the guy who asks you is madly in love with you, so you go with him when all he wants is one date! Then, ten days later, you're on the bed crying your eyes out over why your love left you!" Lily exclaimed. She was sick of Judence believing in love so much.
It's not like Lily came from a harsh background; her parents were married, and love her deeply, but Lily just didn't believe in it. With the quiet rise of Voldermort, people wanted to believe that had someone or something before they died. And that was just preposterous.
Love wasn't going to save you from dying. It wasn't going to get you Outstanding in your OWLS and NEWTS. It wasn't going to do anything but cloud your head with thoughts of invincibility.
Judence looked at Lily, and tears formed in her eyes. Judence was a pretty girl; she had dark brown hair that just fell to her shoulder blades and brown eyes that swimmed with emotion a lot. Judence was pleasantly plump. But she had a self-confidence thing; she thought she looked plain, ordinary. So whenever any guy took notice of her, she thought it was love.
"Oh, Ju… I didn't mean it like that…" Lily tried to pat her friends arm, but the damage was done.
Judence stood up and looked Lily in the eye.
"Fine then, Lily. You think I pick the wrong guys? Then you pick my date this year." she sniffed.
"Uh…" Lily bit her lip, "okay…"
"The catch is, I get to pick yours." Judence smiled through her tears.
People began to look at the two girls, wondering if Lily would agree.
Lily looked at her friend and remembered the last few years after the ball. Judence was so upset, so broken every time. She wasn't going to let that happen this time.
"Fine. You've got a deal." Lily said slowly.
What Lily didn't realise that Peter, who had noticed Sirius was gone from the Hall, had come back in and was sitting near enough to hear this conversation.
11.59PM THURSDAY NIGHT
With his buttock now repaired, Sirius was now not as murderously angry with Peter, though Peter still liked to keep a distance, hence the fact that Peter was working with Remus on conjuring decorations whilst Sirius was scrubbing the floors with James.
You would think, given the time of morning, the boys would be tired. But it was quite the contrary. On some sort of natural high, Remus and Peter were singing a rowdy song, taught to them by Peeves, and James and Sirius had made a game.
Both armed with scrubbing brushes and their wands, they lined up on separate sides of the hall, in sprinters positions.
Sirius's hand twitched in anticipation. James's legs shook every few seconds, waiting for the signal. They eyed each other, and turned their wands in their hands…
"GO!" shouted Peter gleefully, in mid-song, as the clock struck 12.
The tables needed to be pushed to the sides and the floor needed scrubbed. So in a stroke of genius, James came up with the game. The aim, of this game, was to see who could get the most dirt in five minutes, whilst charming the tables to block the other person.
James was winning so far, sprinting up and down the hall, charming his scrubbing brush to do its job whilst shooting spells over his back to knock the tables into Sirius.
Sirius, realizing his error, stopped trying to get dirt. Instead, he smiled evilly and waited until James was in a corner of the room.
"Wingardium Leviosa!" Sirius yelled, and lifted a large table with this wand and moved his hand swiftly, sending it zooming in James's direction.
James looked over his back to see the table flying at him. He ducked just before it hit him, smashing into wall. And smashing his scrubbing brushes into smitherines.
"NO FAIR! THAT'S AGAINST THE RULES!" James bellowed.
"Mate, I can't help it if you can't protect your brush from danger!" Sirius cackled.
Muttering some naughty words, James got up and saw that most of the tables were, well, sort-of against the walls.
"Job well done, Padfoot." James decided to laugh as well.
Sirius and James walked over to where Remus and Peter were finishing making the moons.
"Whadda we do now?" Peter asked Remus, who was dividing the decorations into two piles.
"You and Sirius can go and wash the walls, while James and I hang these."
"Remus, old friend, may I remind you of the injury I sustained last time I work with Mr Pettigrew." Sirius ended threateningly, "And I hate it if something happened to make him suffer the pain I did. And more."
Peter's eyes widened and he swallowed hard.
"Fine." Remus laughed, "You can wash the walls with me Padfoot, and Peter, you go with James."
As Remus and Sirius began the long process of shooting cleaning spells at the walls of the hall, which were tall and grimy, James picked up his pile of decorations and stood on the table.
"JAMES!" Peter suddenly excitedly yelled out as James was in mid-spell.
"Yes, wormtail?" James said monotonously (he was used to Peter's bursts of excitement).
"I heard something in the Great Hall at dinner! Well, Evans and Morr were having a fight, well no, not a fight, more of a friendly tiff."
Used to Peter's excitement over gossip, James zoned out until he heard something particularly interesting…
"…and then, Morrs said, you can pick my date only if I get to pick yours! Don't you see James; buddy up to Morrs and Evans is yours!" he finished.
James raised his eyebrow at Peter.
"For once, my wormy friend, you may have a point."
As the boys finished up for the night, which was now morning, they headed out the doors and as usual, James paired up with Sirius, telling him his plan.
"Isn't Morrs in our potions class?" James wondered out loud.
"As well as Snape…" Sirius muttered.
"Well, I rekon we should take our focus away from Snivelly next lesson and put it on a certain friend of Evans. Speaking of dates… who are you going with?" James remembered to ask.
"Haven't asked her yet, but she'll say yeah anyway…Jayda…That chick from…transfiguration?" Sirius tried to remember.
"Jayda Ferns?" Peter scurried over.
"What about her?"
"I, well, she asked me!" Peter beamed.
"You! You! Jayda Ferns is going out with…wormtail!" James exclaimed.
Sirius looked like he'd regained some of his anger at Peter again.
"You've got a date, rendezvous, appointment, engagement with Jayda Ferns! I thought she like me!"
Remus patted his friends on the back.
"It looks like heaps of things are changing this year. However, I think you've all forgotten the whole point of the Silver Moon Ball."
"What?" they said together.
"Head boy and girl are named. I think Lily's got it in the bag. However, imagine who'll be head boy? They'll have a dorm together and everything." Remus teased.
"Well, mate, your chances with Evans are looking even more shot." taunted Sirius.
James replied by kicking Sirius in the exact same spot Peter had lodged the pointy chandelier in before, resulting in a painful howl.
They had barely four hours sleep before getting up to their period one class, potions.
A/N: Next chapter will obviously be potions class! Prepare for some 'snivellus' time! And, the chapter after that is titled "You Annoyed Me All Night Long (part one)", which is when the Silver Moon Ball begins! Stay tuned fellow ficers!