Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognise - it's all Jo's
Author's Note: Hello Readers, this is my first fanfic and I would be ever so grateful if you could review. Let me know what you think good or bad about characters, plot or anything at all. I will try to update regularly, but life is busy, as no doubt you know, so please bare with me.
And without further ado, here is chapter 2.
Something was poking my head, so I did the logical thing and rolled over. The poking increased in intensity, so I threw my hand at whatever it was. A second later, I heard a scream and cursing as my hand collided with something. I'm going to take a guess here, and say that the thing I collided with was somebody's face and judging from the pitch of the scream, I reckon it was Lily. So, in order to prove my theory like the scientist I was, I rolled over and opened a bleary eye. I was greeted with the sight of a vivid green eye staring back at me , with hand clamped over the other. I concluded that my theory was indeed right, and that I had somehow managed to hit Lily in the eye with my hand. I tried to say "Are you okay?" but it came out more as "Ayukayl?". She grimaced in pain before saying "Pardon?" I zoned out, sleep was calling me so I rolled over and went back to sleep.
At least, that's what I would have liked to have happened. Within a minute, I was being attacked by some red-haired thing and it's safe to say, I woke up pretty quickly.
"You. Hit. Me. In. The. Eye" she said between hitting me with her pillow "You. Stupid. Excuse. For. A." and before she could continue her sentence, I apologised.
She wasn't expecting that and so momentarily stopped beating me, which allowed me to scramble out of bed and dash to the bathroom. I could her moaning and getting ready through the door. It sounded as if Ava and Fay had already gone to breakfast, whilst Lily had waited for me. I'm not a morning person, you see, so Lily, being a kind and loving friend waited for me. After washing my hair, and wrapping myself in my towel, I crept out of the shower looking guilty.
I smiled at Lily, as she sat on her bed looking up from a magazine she was reading. 'Sorry about hitting your face. I wasn't really thinking.' I said sincerely, not a hint of a smile on my face. I was quite proud really, of being sincere despite wanting to laugh inside, not for hitting her accidentally of course. It was actually really quite funny if you thought about it. I'm sure in ten years time, when Lily and I look back on all our good times at school, I will probably bring this up and we will probably laugh. But right now, it was no time for laughing. 'Don't worry about.' Lily replied smiling 'I should have known better than to poke a sleeping Bebe.' I chuckled before grabbing my clothes and throwing them on. I quickly charmed my air dry and wavy, and then applied a small amount of makeup.
'Right' I said suddenly. 'Let's go.' Lily leapt off her bed and we trampled down the stairs, whilst she was telling me about Potter's latest attempt to win her over. It had occurred last night when she was attempting to get into the common room with the first years. Apparently, Potter had somehow managed to persuade the fat lady to change the password to 'Yes, I will go on a date with James Potter.' To my credit, I didn't laugh that much. It's hard to when Lily is glaring at you. James seemed to be becoming quite creative with his attempts to win Lily over and I had to admit that was one of my personal favourites. We (Ava, Fay and I) have, since James became infatuated with Lily in third year, kept track of his most creative, impressive or downright hilarious attempts to obtain Lily. I made a mental note to tell Ava and Fay about this one later.
We continued down to the Great Hall amiably chatting about quidditch. Admittedly, quidditch wasn't really Lily's thing, but me? I couldn't love quidditch anymore. The feeling of being free to go anywhere, do anything, the release it provided. I played seeker on the Gryffindor quidditch team, and I couldn't wait for the new season to start. It was one of the best things about Hogwarts, and then the parties afterwards were always... memorable shall we say. Especially when one remembered the bets we made.
We entered the Great Hall and made our way over to where Ava and Fay were sat, eagerly discussing the Marauder's first day prank. Despite how much I disliked three quarters of the Marauders, I had to admit their opening prank was always funny. The Marauders are a group of four sixth year Gryffindor boys who are always pulling pranks and causing havoc. It's just what they do.
They are made up of James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.
Potter is the Gryffindor Quidditch captain and the self-professed future husband of one Lily Evans. He has brown constantly messed up hair, hazel eyes, framed with his circular glasses and a tall, athletic frame. He would have girls chasing after him, if he wasn't so obsessed with Lily. Its been 3 years, and Lily is still rejecting him, but he hasn't got any less determined. I genuinely think there's something wrong with him. He also captains me, and if I thought I liked quidditch, it's nothing on Potter. He gets a bit crazy when if comes to practices, games and anything to do with quidditch.
Black is Hogwart's resident player. He is what we like to call a man-whore. He sleeps with all the girls he can, and all these girls degrade themselves by doing it because he is, for lack of any other word, beautiful. He has black hair, grey eyes, a tall muscular frame and I swear, in the least cheesy way possible, that you just melt into them. Black is also on the quidditch team - he plays chaser, and is pretty good, not that I would admit it to him. He is already arrogant, egotistical and confident - he doesn't need any more compliments. Remus is the quarter of the Marauders that I don't mind. He is a nice, fairly quiet guy with sandy coloured hair and blue eyes. Then there is Peter Pettigrew. To be perfectly honest, he doesn't really fit in with the Marauders. Perhaps he secretly is the mastermind behind their plans, who knows? He idolises Black and Potter, and follows them about.
Every year, the Marauders open the school year by playing a prank. Last year, they changed everyone's hair colour to the Gryffindor colours. Dumbledore looked incredible with a red and gold beard. So this year, we were eagerly awaiting the prank when we were joined by the Marauders themselves. 'Hello Ladies.' Black said as he swaggered his way over to us.
'Ava, Fay, Bee' greeted James 'Lily, I didn't see you there. And how are you this lovely morning?' he asked innocently.
'Fine.' she replied, eyes narrowing, before turning and starting a conversation with Fay.
'So, boys.' began Ava eyes glinting mischievously 'the prank.'
'Now, now. We know you are going to ask and probably be disappointed, but the Marauders have decided that it is time to grow up. And so, we have decided this year not to have a opening day prank.' James announced to shocked faces. Silence followed his little speech.
'You're kidding right' said Ava in shock.
'Nope.' Even Lily had turned to watch in shock. I was disappointed in them. For the first time ever, I was disappointed in the Marauders for lack of a prank.
We were disturbed by McGonagall as she came round handing out our timetables. I glanced up from mine to see Black and Potter sharing a look.
We were quickly distracted by our timetables, as Lily shared with us how glad she was to have dropped divination. We all heartily agreed, and discussion soon turned to the start of Newts.
I collapsed into my seat in Slughorn's classroom for Potions, but I looked up in confusion when I saw Gracie Kent, a 7th year Ravenclaw sat in the front row. Weird. I glanced back to see the Marauders sat in the back row laughing about something. A giggling 4th year Hufflepuff was sat on Sirius desk, flirting with him. He caught me watching and winked. I rolled my eyes, and turned to the front. Lily's brow was furrowed in thought. Her gaze shifted on to the Marauders, and it was as if a light bulb went off. Before I could ask her what was going on, Slughorne marched in slamming the door. He turned to face the class and his face suddenly became a mask of confusion. I could hear the Marauders cracking up behind me and everything suddenly became clear. They had changed the timetables. All that crap about giving up the first day prank. Bollocks. Complete and utter bollocks. And judging from the look on Lily's face, she had already figured it out.
It was chaotic all round school, with different years and houses mixing all day. Most of our lessons were with the Marauders and it seemed to get funnier to them as the day progressed. Lessons continued on in much the same way up, with the teachers becoming less and less confused as the day wore on. By lunchtime, McGonagall seem to have figured out the perpetrators of this prank, not that there was much to figure - they were perfectly willing to take credit for a good prank. She handed out new timetables, and the Marauders earned themselves two weeks of detentions. Nothing like a few detentions to start of the year well. I reckon they were pretty proud of themselves, and they could be heard to be discussing how they could possibly beat this prank next year. Putting the whole school into chaos in the first day is no small achievement, but at dinner that evening, Dumbledore laughed it off, apologised to the more studious amongst us for the loss of a day of lessons, and urged us all to focus on our studies.
We were making our way to the common room after dinner discussing the Harpies fate in their next match against Puddlemere, when one Hamish Dield bumped into Lily. They struck up a conversation and so we wondered back to the common room, eagerly anticipating news of their discussion. Lily soon returned, refusing to disclose much information, but told as that no, he hadn't asked her to Hogsmeade and that they were just friends. We continued to interrogate her but, Alas! To no Avail! Lily remained tight-lipped, refusing to tell us anything else, but I know they like each other. Partially because she gets all smiley when ever we mention him, and secondly because 'well... I'm kinda psychic. I have a fifth sense.' - Yeah, I'm quoting Mean Girls. Lil and I love it. She introduced me to it back when I visited her house in 4th year and, well it's stuck with us ever since. Anyway, that was off topic. Basically I know something is happening/will happen with Lily and Hamish. And boy, do I want to see little Jamsie's reaction when it doesn't.
Life continued in this way and pretty soon the first week was over. The teachers were piling homework on us to make up for that first day, and lessons began to get gradually harder. Fairly quickly James was announcing Quidditch trials, and so I has headed down there bright and early one Saturday morning to try and select a new beater and keeper.
When I got down to the pitch accompanied by Ava, who was not Quidditch player but loved watching it, it seemed like the whole of Gryffindor had turned up. "Most of them probably can't even fly" Ava whispered to me chuckling.
"Probably not, I think I might come join you for the first part of this. Plus, it's probably going to be quite entertaining watching these girls attempt to fly in their efforts to impress Black." I replied, wandering over to where James,Black and Charlie were stood as she entered the stands. Charlie was in the year above, and had brown hair, brown eyes and was really sweet. He was a good player, and worked well with James and Black.
"Hey James, Black, Charlie. Is it okay if I go sit in the stands for this first bit. Most of them can't even fly and I doubt you'll need me."
"Fine, whatever." he replied concentrating on his clipboard.
I joined Ava in the stands when James booming voice rang out telling everyone to shut up and get into groups of five. James, Charlie and Black all play chaser for the team whilst I am seeker, and Patrick Gallagher plays Beater. We needed a new beater and keeper after Zackary and Tamara had left last year.
Fairly soon, he had each group doing a lap around the pitch, and as Ava predicted, most of them couldn't even fly. It's a wonder there were no accidents with the amount of out of control people attempting to fly. There looked to be about 15 good flyers in the group, but whether they could play their positions was a different matter. I grabbed my broom, and flew out to join James and Sirius hovering in the air.
"So, boys."
"I resent that." said Sirius, glancing at me.
"What?"
"I'm not a boy, I'm a man." he said with a pointed look down. I laughed, giving him a push. He laughed before James addressed us letting us know we would trial the keepers first. We trialled all the potential keepers until we were left with two decent keepers - Timmy Macpherson and Alex Tull. James decided to start a game, swapping on the prospective beaters. It was a challenging game with a fair amount of rogue bludgers and uncontrolled swing at what is more likely to be called someone's head than a bludger.
About half an hour later, we had narrowed our beater selection down to Harold Marven and Aidan Kent. So James set us up on another game, where we managed to get anybody hanging about to come fly. James eventually decided on Alex Tull as keeper and Aidan Kent as beater, despite my insistence that Timmy was the better keeper. Black just said that's because I thought he was hot. I let him know that I wasn't as shallow as him, and that when I looked for a guy, I look past their looks unlike Black the man whore. Then I stormed up, and can I just say, I thought it was an excellent exit.
"He's so arrogant. Just because his goal in life is to sleep with every girl he can, doesn't mean we all have that aim. He is such a philandering prick with no morals and why? Why, Merlin, do girls fall for his crap? I don't understand it. Sure he may be decent looking but he is an arrogant bully!" I ranted to Ava, and had just come to a stop after a good 10 minutes.
"You know, you're beginning to sound like Lily." I picked up my pillow and threw it at Ava before collapsing on my bed.
"Shut Up!" I said "I don't hate Black, I just think he's a massive prick."
"Really, your rant would have suggested otherwise." Ava replied drily. "Anyway, as much as I would love to listen to you rage about Black's oversized ego, I have a detention to get to."
I groaned before asking "What for?"
"Oh, just being caught by Filch setting off a stinkbomb. Nothing big. Anyway, laters." she said as she strolled from the room.
I rolled off my bed, and headed for a shower. I wasn't going to let Black get me down.
I met Lily down in the common room before tea, and we headed off eagerly discussing the Halloween party the Marauders throw every year. It was always exciting, especially when we had to complete our bets. In previous years, I've had to drink rather a lot to complete my bet, and this year would be no exception. I always wondered how the Marauders managed to smuggle firewhiskey in. We entered the hall and went to sit with Ava and Fay who were eagerly discussing Grace Morgan's move from Puddlemere to the Arrows.
"To be honest, she made the wrong decision. The Arrows have had consistent losing streak for the last 7 or 8 years."
"Well maybe Morgan is the talent they need to start winning games." Fay replied heatedly as we slid into the benches. "Plus Puddlemere haven't been doing well lately. It was definitely the right move. She was just getting too comfortable there."
"Well do we know who is replacing her yet?" I interjected
"Urrrr, it's either Damien Mandeer or Victor Chesney." Ava replied.
"Well, I have to say that Victor is definitely the better chaser." I said as I helped myself to some Shepherd's Pie.
"I'm not so sure." Ava began before a silence descended on the Great Hall as Dumbledore stood to address the hall.
"I have some excellent news for the fifth, sixth and seventh years. This Halloween, instead of the traditional feast, there will be a Halloween ball starting at 7:00 for you to enjoy. The younger years will still have a feast just at an earlier time. Enjoy your meal." He said sitting down as the hall burst into chatter. Ava eagerly turned to Lily excitedly discussing the dress she wanted to wear. Fay immediately turned to me and smirking said "So, how long do you think it will take before James asks Lily to the ball?" I laughed loudly.
"Well seeing as he's heading this way right now I would say under ten seconds." Fay glanced around as James cockily strolled up to Lily and slid into the bench, so that he was sat next to her. Ava broke off their conversation and started smiling.
"Lilyflower! How are you?"
"Fine Potter." Lily said through gritted teeth.
"So, I wanted to ask whether you would accompany me to the ball my dear Lilyflower?" he said brandishing a bouquet of Lilies at Lily. Now this would probably be quite a romantic gesture, but James, in his excitement, managed to hit Lily in the face with the bouquet. Lily yelled in shock before shouting at Potter that "No, I would never date a bully whose aim in life is to humiliate and embarrass her." Potter looked momentarily shocked before responding arrogantly "Well you don't have to it if you date me." Lily glared at him before storming out. James looked dejected for a moment before getting up to join the rest of the Marauders. "Better Luck next time." I said consolingly as he strolled off looking thoughtful. We waited until he was out of earshot before we burst into laughter. "That was quite a clever comeback." said Ava
"He is quite intelligent - the Marauders all are." I said.
"Well, not Peter." Fay said fairly.
"Oh yeah, Peter. I forget that he is part of the Marauders." Fay and Ava burst out laughing.
"Way to put it bluntly." Fay said between laughter.
We continued our meal idly chatting about the upcoming ball and quidditch matches. It wasn't long before we had eaten until our stomachs were full, so we left to start on the mountain load of homework we had been assigned. McGonagall had set us a particularly difficult essay on Animagi, and it would probably take me a while to get it done. We were walking out to the entrance hall when I heard my name being called "BEBE! Bee!" I turned to see Charlie Kirkwood heading over to me.
"Hi, Bee. I just wanted you see whether you were okay after the Quidditch trials and everything? I completely agreed with you but hey, James is the captain." He said smiling at me.
My heart sank. I know it's pathetic but I thought he was coming over here to ask me to go to the ball. Where on earth did I get that delusional thought I said crossly to myself.
"Fine, yeah, it's fine. I'm sure Alex will be good." I said cheerfully - a bit too cheerfully for it to be believable, but I don't think he noticed.
"Yeah, he will be. He's a nice bloke, and James must have thought he'd be good for the team. Didn't want everyone getting jealous of Timmy now would he?"
"What?" I said confusedly. I wasn't following this guy.
"Nothing, Don't worry about." he said waving it off. "Anyway, I wanted to ask whether you would come to the ball with me?" he said nervously, his brown eyes looking down on me, filled with hope.
"I'd love to." I replied smiling. So I had been right after all, fancy that.
"Great!" he said with a smile of relief "I'll meet you in the common room about 7:00." he said. I agreed and we chatted idly until he realised he was late for something and hurried off. I wondered up the multiple stairs to the common room on autopilot, mulling over what he had said about jealously. What did he mean - being jealous of Timmy.
I told Lily, Ava and Fay what had happened when I got back to the common room. When I got to the bit about jealously, they all exchanged knowing superior looks, and refused to tell me what they were thinking. Then when I told them who my ball date was, (not that it was glaringly obvious from my mood as I came in) they squealed with delight and we eagerly discussed the ball. After passing a good hour in discussion, I pulled my transfiguration towards me hoping to make a start on my essay during a lull in conversation. I spent about 5 minutes considering the title, and what I had to write, before I put it away; I grabbed a chess set before addressing my friends. "Who wants to play?"
"Ooh, I do!" Ava replied putting her books away swiftly.
Lily sighed before returning her gaze to her work. My essay could wait another night.
The following day, we wandered into potions early chatting animatedly. I sat down next to Lily - it was on the only way I didn't blow up my potion every lesson. We were soon joined by the rest of the class and Slughorne strolled in, the class quietening.
"I have decided that following the events of last lesson that I would mix up the seating plan."
"Sir, you don't have a seating plan." Lily pointed out to Slughorne innocently.
"I know Miss Evans, and so I want you go to sit with who I call out."
The whole class took an intake of breath.
"Acton and Flint.
Black and Hartley." I groaned pretty loudly. I doubt Black would stop my potion from exploding every lesson. Hell, he'd probably find it entertaining.
"Collins and Potter." Lily breathed a sigh of relief.
"Flang and Evans"
"Lupin and Townsend." Ava also breathed a sigh of relief. Remus was a nice guy and they got along well.
"And Finally Rolman and Bointon." Fay smiled flirtaciously over at Jacob. I grabbed my bag and sidled over to the back row where Black was sat.
"Hey Bebe." he greeted me, paying attention to some girl further down. I sat down, greeting him back.
"Look, here's the thing Black. I'm not very good at Potions, and I have a habit of blowing things up. So if you add things to my potion or annoy me or anything, I will make sure it blows up all over you."
"Relax Hartley. I'm good at potions." I turned back to my cauldron and began the potion.
Now, here's the thing, despite my warning, Black still caused trouble. No he didn't add something to my potion and no, for the first time in history I can say, the potion didn't blow up, but he did hex Snape. Snape was being attacked by a crowd of very angry bunnies, and in my attempt to stop Black, I had grabbed his wand. So when Slughorne wanted to know who hexed Snape, and Black and I were sat there clutching his wand which was pointed at Snape, things weren't looking too good.
"Detention." Slughorne said before returning to the front, and setting a time-consuming homework.
Great. Just great. I had detention with Black. In fact, I would go as far to say that it is splendid. Simply Splendid.
So, I would love some reviews, they can be one word - I don't care, just please review. Any criticism is welcome...