A/N: All right guys, I'm really sorry about the long wait for the next chapter, but this has been on the back-burner for such a long time that it's hard for me to get back into it! However, the outline is done and all is well; I hope to have updates every week – maximum every two.
This story will be told from varying points of first-person view. We're starting off with Lily, but it'll change every chapter.
Chapters shall be long and infrequent, with the exception of this mood-setting exposition chapter – which, for people who are used to the way I run things – will be a little weird.
There was an edit to the first chapter. If you did read the first chapter previously, revisiting would be a good idea because it's changed enough to be significant.
Enjoy guys, and please review; even if you're like my brother and find this idea completely and utterly ridiculous!
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Lily Evans
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In this school, it's true when they say that anything is possible here.
I wouldn't have thought it could be possible, but something worse than the Marauders' eternal reign as Masters of the School has finally hit us here at Hogwarts – the Marauders sparking an inter-house competition with a reward for being the biggest troublemaker.
It's probably one of their most arrogant schemes to date, which is a difficult position to win with the other contenders hatched throughout the years, but lo and behold, the sign comes up today in the Gryffindor common room saying the following to a large throng of interested people:
Dear Gryffindor House,
Yes, it is indeed us, the Marauders – Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs.
And we have officially decided that this school needs a bit of a shake-up.
To host a bit of healthy competition in you lovely ladies calling yourselves witches here at this fine institution of magic, we Marauders have set up a bit of a modeling programme. We call it Hogwarts' Next Model; and it's quite a game, if we geniuses do say so ourselves.
The fun part about this game is that the whole school (we assume you understand we are excluding those disgusting, slimy Slytherins in this collective) can play along with us as we select, out of ten young women, who is the best natural model here. Each day, these girls will be put through a challenge or a photo-shoot of some sort, which shall be judged by us; and each day, one girl will be out of the running for the top spot based on her performance.
To add some more incentive to play here, we have graciously agreed that the winning girl, whoever she may be, has the option of going on a date with the Marauder of her fine fancy as a reward.
Of course, because of this prize, we have already pre-selected the ten girls that will be playing, and we would like to make it very, very clear: THE LINE-UP WILL NOT BE CHANGED.
Girls cannot be added in place of others…nor can they be taken out.
All you lovely people need to know is that this game is going to be played (though it shall need to be kept a fair secret from the teachers) in the evenings in various undisclosed locations – the rest of the "logistical rules," as dear Moony refers to them, will be revealed to only the ten girls listed below, shared with you if and how they choose.
Thank you for your attention, and truly, let the games begin!
Sincerely,
James
Sirius
Remus
Peter
THE TEN PARTICIPANTS:
Alice Prewitt, Gryffindor, Year 6
Georgiana Welsh, Ravenclaw, Year 7
Lucille Jansen, Ravenclaw, Year 7
Sydney Shaw, Hufflepuff, Year 6
Alicia Harrison, Gryffindor, Year 6
Lily Evans, Gryffindor, Year 6
Hannah Middleton, Ravenclaw, Year 6
Rosaline Lewis, Hufflepuff, Year 7
Sadie Clark, Gryffindor, Year 6
Verity Robinson, Ravenclaw, Year 7
I knew even before they put the list up there that my name would be on it.
Of course it would be. Anything with James Potter involved inevitably has my name attached with it as well, although I don't think I shall ever fathom the reason why.
I just didn't think they would be serious enough to keep me in this so-called "competition."
I find the whole thing rather silly – and quite discriminating as well. I didn't expect for a moment that the Marauders would include Slytherins into their "game," but even so, the blatant disregard for people in that house is astonishing.
And, obviously, their arrogance never fails to astonish either. The audacity of this whole endeavor is simply stunning! They expect girls to come and model for them, eager as new puppies, because they have the opportunity to win a date with one of those damned Marauders!
I don't know how this is going to work. I don't know how they expect it's going to work. I don't even know what they expect to get out of this whole ordeal; it's simply mind-blowing how bored these boys are with their lives. If they put even a fraction of this brain-power and creative thought into their school-work, perhaps the teachers wouldn't dislike their work ethic so much.
They really are intelligent, when they're not being arrogant prats bent on seeing a woman from as many perspectives as is humanly possibly.
Naturally, the whole school is in something of an uproar because of this whole ordeal. Nobody will stop talking about this preposterous "Hogwarts' Next Top Model" business. The girls are finding themselves to be the newest celebrities of Hogwarts castle, because the Marauders found them good enough to be the ten women in the running.
I'm already well-accustomed to jealous looks from girls who are not in the favor of the Marauders, because of the ill treatment Potter has always condemned me to. The rest of these lucky victims are enjoying or loathing their fate in their own ways.
At the very least, though, I have my best friend in the world, Alice Prewitt, here to suffer through this torture with me.
I don't know what I would have done if the Marauders had put me in this all alone with only nine other Marauder-obsessed females. Now there are only eight to deal with, and I have my life-jacket with me to help me through.
At least one stroke of good luck has come to me this far; otherwise, I honestly don't even know how I'm going to survive the next few weeks living the newest Marauder nightmare they are unleashing in a torrent into this poor school.
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During lunch today, while the Gryffindors are gleefully telling the rest of the houses about the Marauders' game, I sit down to eat my meal with Alice, feeling like a war-zone veteran from all the harassment I've had to endure all morning.
It's a relief to sit down only to eat, rather than to escape people with a zillion questions about something I know nothing about. I'll have to remember to thank the Marauders later for sticking me in this atrocious position.
I pile my plate high with food – chicken and mashed potatoes, the closest dishes to me at the moment – and begin to wolf it down, talking between speedy spoonfuls, much to sedate Alice's amusement.
"So this damned competition they're making us enter," I begin, shoveling potatoes into my open mouth. "What are we going to do about it?"
Alice looks at me with distaste, nibbling a chicken leg. "Do you mind, Lil? I'm trying to keep my appetite, not let it dissipate on the way up my esophagus."
"Sorry, sorry," I say, attempting with little success to eat slowly. "So what are we going to do about it? We're stuck and we know it, and I have no idea where to go from here."
Alice considers. "Well, Lily, we are stuck and there isn't much of a choice. I thought you would already know enough to just go along with this and hope to Merlin it'll all blow over for us soon."
I make a face, eating a bit more. "It just sounds so…cowardly. I want to do something about it, you know? I don't want to participate. I ought to talk to those idiots and give them a piece of my mind, demand for them to get someone else in for my place."
"Now, you know what little that's going to do almost as well as I do," Alice says rationally. "James Potter probably made sure you were in that final list; he's not going to change it around, it's almost a guarantee. He would eat his friends alive if they tried."
"Which is, by the way, almost as ridiculous as the game itself," I remind her.
Alice only smiles. "I dunno, Lil. It might be kind of…fun."
My full fork stops just sort of my open mouth, my jaw dropping as far as it possibly can without shattering.
"Alice, don't do this to me, darling," I plead. "Don't become one of them, I couldn't stand it if you did! Stay with me here, stay with me!"
Alice laughs. "Lils, I'm not one of them! I'm just saying…well, I dunno what I'm saying. Maybe what I'm saying is…perhaps it's going to be a bit of good fun, you know? Being able to hang around after classes with a few other girls and have a fun prize at the end to work for. It could be interesting, to say the very least."
"The word interesting holds with it a plethora of sardonic connotations, and I'd like to invoke every single of them right now," I say. "Alice, this is going to be a disaster! This is going to be the worst thing to hit here since…since…since Pandora's Box, or something! It's going to be atrocious. It's going to be everything I shall loathe. I don't like the sound of this in the least."
Alice shrugs passively. "Dating Moony wouldn't be so bad, I reckon," she says so softly I almost don't hear her. "I want to try for it at least, since they like me enough to choose me."
"But Alice!" I lower my dramatic voice to a whisper just above hers so that people don't hear. "Alice, you like Frank Longbottom though; how could you think like this?"
Alice glances would-be-casually down to the end of the table where Frank Longbottom sits, accompanied by his friends, laughing at a joke someone told. She looks back at me barely a moment after, and her gorgeous brown eyes are significantly despondent, as she tells me, "Well, clearly I'm not in his line of view. Maybe I could be in Moony's, you know? He's the nicest of the Marauders. You've said it yourself."
"I have…" I bite my lip. "Alice, I can't have you excited about this. I need someone to get me through this, hold my hand and hate it as much as I do. Those girls the boys picked aren't going to do it for me. You're my only hope."
"I understand that, but I don't see the point in being negative about the whole thing," Alice says fairly. "It could be a fun experience – you know, something we did while at Hogwarts for the hell of it because we could. You can always get yourself out of the competition at the end if you don't want to be here."
"What makes you think I won't do that from the very start?" I inquire, raising an eyebrow.
"Well…the fact that your best friend wants to take the chance and give this a go, and would love to have you there for at least a considerable portion of the way." Alice looks hopefully at me.
I sigh, melting down resistance inside as only Alice can make me. "Fine, fine," I say grudgingly, hoping to make her as guilty as possible with my tone. "I'll try a little…but you can't expect me to enjoy this. It's…it's…it fails words, that's how bad this is going to be, Alice!"
Alice shakes her head. "I don't think so, Lily. Just try it. That's all I ask."
"I suppose I'll have to." I sigh. "When is initiation night again?"
"Tomorrow night, that's what I heard Sirius telling someone," Alice says. "We're supposed to meet the Marauders in the Entrance Hall at seven to get our room. Apparently, the Marauders want us all to room together while we're in this competition."
"Great," I moan, going back to my lunch with a sick feeling in my gut. "This is going to be just spectacular, I can feel it."
Alice shrugs and takes a bite as well. "Maybe, maybe not. But we've got to try to find out, and that's what I intend to do. Be open-minded about it."
Making a mental note to remain at least a little close-minded about this, purely for the sake of irritating Alice later, I smile to the best of my abilities in this current time, and I say, "Okay. Let's do it."
Alice's face lights up. "Yes, exactly," she agrees heartily.
I smile with her on the outside and finish my lunch, but on the inside, I am writhing and snickering at my stark sarcasm.
I can't believe she actually bought that one.
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A/N: R&R, por favor. I'd really appreciate your feedback!