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Chapter 2 - Damn My Swooning Instincts

June - Six Months Ago

"Should I cut my hair short?"

"Huh?" I abruptly snapped out of my daydreams to find myself in the middle of History of Magic class. My best friend, Pippa Birch, was whispering to me while pretending to take notes.

"My hair. Should I cut it?" She whispered again as she began to comb a strand of her perfectly curly blond hair.

"I like it long," I whispered back, shrugging.

Professor Binns was prattling on about some giant war a thousand years ago and I honestly couldn't care less. I had spent the last hour of class drawing intricate designs around the edge of my parchment. I turned my attention back to the particularly elaborate star I had been drawing before Pippa interrupted me.

"But I want to do something different. Should I colour it? Or maybe have it straightened?" Pippa whispered to me. I barely heard her as my full attention had been turned to the sketched star.

"Lily, you're not even listening to me," Pippa poked my unfortunately ticklish side with her quill and I let out a high-pitched squeak, nearly toppling out of my chair.

Luckily, Professor Binns did not seem to notice but several of the other students in class did. I heard my two other best friends, Emilie Quinn and Marley Marquette, giggle in their seats behind us.

Next to me, Sirius Black turned towards me with a stern expression on his face and hissed, "Do you mind? Some of us are trying to learn." He shook his head with mock exasperation and turned back to his parchment where he and James Potter had been battling it out in Tic-Tac-Toe. Potter leaned forward over his desk and waggled his eyebrows at me. I rolled my eyes at him and turned my attention back to Pippa.

"I was saying that I want to do something different," she hissed at me, clearly not caring that she had caused me a near heart-attack.

"I think you look fine, Pip," I hissed back. I loved Pippa more than anything in the world, but sometimes she could be a bit caught up in her looks.

She let out an exasperated sigh and crossed her arms, ready to pout, if necessary. I clenched my teeth. I was in no mood to humor Pippa right now. I had my own drama to deal with.

"Fine. If you want, I'll cut a fringe for you tonight," I said through my teeth while giving the star I had been drawing a rather violent stroke.

"Geez, what's with you? You're not even paying attention to class. I don't think I've ever seen you not take notes," Pippa said, turning her chair slightly in my direction. I could feel Potter's and Black's eyes on me now. They were listening, too. I turned my chair toward Pippa, hopefully blocking them out.

"Nothing," I muttered. "Just a stupid fight with Chris." Christopher Penley was my boyfriend of almost eight months. We had started going out together at the beginning of the year. He was a sixth year, like me, but he was in Ravenclaw. He was wonderful in a lot of ways, but there were plenty of times when I wanted to strangle him. Now, for example.

"What happened?" Pippa asked, forgetting all about her "hair problem". "You guys seemed fine over the weekend."

I heard the scraping of two chairs on the stone floor and I knew that Potter and Black had not stopped listening. I was almost positive that Sirius was right behind me now, so I shoved my elbow back behind me and a punctured grunt came from Sirius. I whirled around in my chair to see Sirius doubling over with his arms around his stomach and Potter, his chair considerably closer to me than the last time I looked. He gave me a guilty smile and quickly turned forward, pretending to be paying rapt attention to the senile old ghost. I shot him a warning look and turned back to Pippa.

"Nothing serious. Just… he blew me off again to hang out with his friends tonight. I wouldn't be so mad, but this isn't the first time he's done this." I muttered.

Pippa frowned and a crease formed between her eyebrows. She opened her mouth to say something but Sirius cut her off by putting an arm over my shoulders and turning me in my chair to face him.

"Forget about him, love. Hang out with us tonight," he said.

"As much as I'd love to, I can't," I said shrugging Sirius's arm off my shoulder while eying him and Potter distastefully. "Besides, I'm allergic to idiot," I muttered in an undertone and Pippa giggled.

"Then how can you stand to be around that boyfriend of yours?" Potter asked in a polite voice, his eyes still on his notes. I fumed at him and opened my mouth to tort but Sirius cut me off.

"Lily, we're not going to let you waste the last few weeks of school sitting in your room pouting for your stupid boyfriend," he said, not looking the least bit scared as my expression became even more furious.

I opened my mouth to argue and to tell him off for calling Chris stupid but Sirius put his hand over my mouth so all that came out was a muffled jumble.

"You don't have to hang out with us, just please don't waste your time being mad and not enjoying life, okay?" Sirius said and dropped his hand from my mouth.

I stared at his earnest face, thinking. It wasn't that I was opposed to hanging out with the Marauders. For all intents and purposes, we had somehow managed to become friends in the past year. Sirius had actually proved to me that he wasn't an arrogant womanizer and I could actually talk to him about certain things. He always astounded me by giving surprisingly insightful answers. Before I knew it, he had become one of my closest friends whether I liked to admit it or not. With Remus Lupin, of course, there was no trouble being friends. He was genuinely nice, but he still had his moments of idiocy like the rest of them. Potter had gotten better, though my friendship with him hadn't progressed as much as with Sirius. He was still intolerable most of the time and never missed a chance to ask me out, but he wasn't totally horrible. Peter Pettigrew was still a complete mystery to me and I was still at a loss as to how he had joined the Marauders.

"I don't really want to spend my night playing useless pranks on Slytherins and first years," I said, brushing my vibrant red hair out of my face.

"Who said anything about pranks?" Potter said, flashing me a wicked smile. "Sirius swiped a bottle of firewhiskey from the kitchens last night."

I rolled my eyes at him. "Thanks, but I'll pass. Maybe another time."

"Come on, Evans," Potter pleaded. "What else have you got to do? You said yourself that Chris ditched you tonight."

"You could come too, Birch," Sirius winked at Pippa, whose cheeks turned a faint pink color. We all knew Pippa still liked Sirius, even if she would never admit it. Sirius of course, was completely oblivious.

A wad of paper hit the back of my head and I snatched it up before Sirius or Potter could. It was a note from Marley and Emilie.

"Sorry guys, girl talk tonight with the Clique," I said putting on a pretend sad face. Girl talk was a weekly ritual that the four of us had. Since we were usually busy with homework, we rarely got a chance for all four of us to talk. And now that Chris bailed on me tonight, the timing was perfect. The bell rang, and before either Potter or Black could say a word, Pippa and I were out of our seats and walking toward the door. Marley and Emilie followed closely behind.

"Hmm, fringe. I kind of like that idea…" Pippa said, back to her obsession with her hair.

The four of us walked to lunch after History of Magic, talking excitedly about weekend plans and possible subjects for discussions at tonight's girl talk session. Emilie had a ton of gossip that she was bursting to share with us but we made her save it until later. Plus, the Marauders were following us so they would undoubtedly hear anything we said.

We sat down at the end of the long Gryffindor table for lunch. Pippa and I sat on one side of the table and Marley and Emilie sat across from us, as usual. Pippa was still idly twirling her golden hair between her fingers, occasionally muttering "fringe". Emilie and Marley were whispering between themselves and I overheard comments like "can't pull off that sweater/sock combination" and "did she really think that pigtails were still in?"

Potter and Black dropped down onto the bench next to me with Remus and Peter following closely behind. Pippa, who was still combing her hair, didn't seem to notice this. Marley and Emilie, however, quickly stopped whispering to each other and froze with their eyes on the Marauders and myself, clearly waiting for something else to gossip about.

Potter, who was closest to me, draped his arm over my shoulder casually as he bit into a piece of toast.

"Ya know, luff, Ah know you faid you were biffy, but –"

"Swallow, Potter," I growled, shoving his arm off my shoulder.

"Look, I know you said you were busy tonight, but I can understand if you don't want to hang out with a bunch of immature boys," Potter said, throwing a quick glance to Remus and Peter, who were making smiley faces out of the food on their plates. "So why don't just the two of us hang out. We could go somewhere…quiet?"

I sighed and looked across the table at Marley and Emilie, who were suppressing smiles, and rolled my eyes. "In your dreams, Potter."

"Yes, you are…" Potter said, his eyes slightly losing their focus. "But look, Evans, we have fun when we hang out in a group, right? It couldn't be so bad to hang out just the two of us. You hang out with Sirius by himself."

"Are you jealous?" I asked, turning back towards him. I noticed that beside me, Pippa was suddenly paying attention.

"Not in the least," He said, trying to brush it off, but I saw a faint hint of something underneath. Was that irritation? "I'm just saying, to be fair, you should at least give me a chance, too."

"But you would think of it as a date," I accused. Potter opened his mouth to reply, but we were interrupted by a figure moving in between Potter and myself.

"Who's got a date?" Christopher Penley asked, squeezing himself backwards into the space between Potter and I.

"No one's got a date," I said shooting Potter a warning glare.

"Oh, well hello, then," Chris said, changing subjects and giving me a peck on the cheek. "How is your day going?"

"Fine," I retorted, still annoyed that he cancelled our plans for tonight.

"Come on, Lil, I am really sorry," he pleaded, catching my mood. I looked at his face, his square jaw and deep brown eyes. He looked so sincere. "Really, though, I completely forgot it was Blake's birthday and you know how important my friends are to me."

I stared at him for a moment longer. It was selfish of me to have gotten so mad about stupid cancelled plans. It was for a friend's birthday, right? I could never ask him to choose between his friends and myself.

I reached up to his face and brushed my hand through his shaggy blond hair. "Of course, no worries, love. Really. Have fun tonight, I'll see you tomorrow?" I asked.

He answered by putting a hand under my chin and tilting my face up so he could kiss me on the lips. He made it so impossible to be mad at him. My head swam and I tried to remember that I was in the cafeteria with lots of people watching. Damn my swooning instincts.

He dropped his hand and he moved his lips toward me ear. "I have to go to class, But I'll talk to you soon, ok? I love you," He whispered so only I could hear. He kissed my forehead quickly and before I knew it, he was gone from the Great Hall.

I must have been staring after him like an idiot because I didn't see the potato Sirius had lobbed at my head. It hit me right at the spot Chris had just kissed.

"Ow! Damnit, Sirius." I hissed and brushed the chunks of baked potato off my face.

"That's disgusting," Potter said, shaking his head.

"Blame Sirius. He's the one who threw it," I muttered as Pippa pulled a piece of potato out of my hair.

"No, not that," Potter said. "You. And him. Disgusting," He wrinkled his nose as he stabbed another potato from the dish in the center.

"I think they're cute," Emilie said, propping her head in her hands. "I wish I had someone like Chris. I wish I had someone at all…"

"You mean you want someone who ditches you all the time and then lulls you into a false sense of security by snogging you senseless in front of the whole school? Yeah, he's a real catch," Potter sneered.

I ignored him. "You'll find someone, Emilie. No one here is good enough for you. They're too immature." I said, elbowing Potter in the side.

Emilie let out a small, musical laugh as Potter doubled over. "Thanks, Lily."

"Whatever," Potter said roughly, shoving away from the table. "I'm going to class."

"Class isn't for another twenty minutes, though" Marley said, staring at him curiously. He didn't respond, but simply walked out of the hall with the rest of the Marauders on his tail.

A/N: Hey everyone! I figured since the prologue is rather short I should just go ahead and post the 2nd chapter. I hope you like it! I'd love some feedback so leave a review!