A/N:
As always, I don't own Harry Potter.
Duh.
Elise sat quietly alone at the Ravenclaw table. She had some half eaten toast on her plate but was far more focused on sipping on the coffee in front of her. She'd slept little and had gotten up early that morning to make sure she'd be around when the Marauders came down for breakfast. Growing impatient, she drummed her fingers on the table, looking toward the Marauderless Gryffindor table.
Sighing, she opened her copy of The Daily Prophet and began reading. She'd nearly finished the final articles in Announcements Column when Cynthia plopped down in the seat opposite her. Elise jumped with a start and put the paper back down eyeing her fellow classmate warily before she shifted her gaze around to find the Great Hall was quite populated now. Lily and Dorcas were seated at the Gryffindor table and Kim at the Hufflepuff with some Housemates but still no Marauders.
"A little jumpy this morning, eh?" Cynthia commented, reaching for the pitcher of water between them.
"I suppose so. I'm waiting for Black and Pettigrew to come down and enjoy the surprise I've put together for them." Elise replied taking another sip of coffee, glancing at the Gryffindor table again.
"Ahh," Cynthia said knowingly. "So, that's where you were last night and why you have bags under your eyes the size of galleons."
Elise gave her a sheepish look. "You heard me leave?"
"I heard you come back. The room stank something awful. What exactly did you brew last night?"
But before Elise could answer, the Marauders came bursting into the Great Hall. Sirius and James talking loudly while Peter laughed at whatever they said. While Remus trailed quietly behind.
Cynthia rolled her eyes and picked up her own copy of The Daily Prophet, taking a bite of toast.
Elise picked up her copy too but watched the Marauders over the top of it.
The four unsuspecting boys sat down and began helping themselves to food and drink. James was spreading jam on his toast while Peter began filling a bowl with cereal and Sirius was pouring himself a cup of coffee.
And Elise smirked. Too easy.
"Well, you lot are ballsy this morning." Remus commented while he buttered his toast.
Sirius scoffed indignantly, reaching for his mug of coffee. "Like she could have planned anything so soon. I don't even see her down here." He said without looking up.
"Yeah." Peter agreed next to him, scooping out a bite of cereal on his spoon. He brought the food to his mouth but the moment the boy's lips touched the spoon the bowl exploded in a cloud of glitter that covered him in purple sparkles with a soft 'poof!'
When the cloud settled Sirius pushed his plate away "So, just coffee for me this morning, I think."
The poor boy blinked heavily and shook his head, a shower of glitter falling onto the table top and into the boy's breakfast.
James, who was sitting next to him, took a hefty scoot away from him. "Heya." He nodded towards Lily who was seated a few feet down. "Budge up, wouldja? I'm attempting to avoid a bit of a mess down here."
Lily rolled her eyes but smiled and moved over for him.
"So, what do you think she's going to do to you, Sirius?" Dorcas called down the table.
Sirius shook his head with a grin. "Not a thing. There's no way I'm eating anything now." He took a loud, slurping sip of his coffee while waggling his eyebrows. He scanned the Ravenclaw table and found that he had been mistaken earlier as he spied Elise sipping her own coffee, eyes down on her paper.
"Oy, Simon!" Sirius called, standing up at his spot at the table, coffee cup in hand.
She head looked up suddenly and upon seeing who had called her, she set her paper down and scowled.
Sirius held his cup high before adding, "Nice try but you'll have to work harder than that!"
After receiving her schedule, Elise made her way out of the Hall looking to make her way outside for a bit of fresh air before the morning classes. She nearly got to the front doors when none other than Sirius Black stopped her.
"That was a good try this morning. What do you say you just give up on this clearly lost cause. You'll never get me back." He said confidently.
"Mmm and just how long ago did you drink that coffee, Black?" Elise asked him, seemingly innocently.
Sirius' eyes narrowed. "Twen-...What did you do to my coffee, Simon?"
Elise eyed her watch. "Five… four…" She counted watching the second hand go by.
"Now what is that? You just stop that…"
"Three… two…"
"What's going to happ-" and suddenly Sirius was finding out exactly what was going to happen. The muscles in his face began to twitch and his eyes widened in alarm. His lips pulled up into an impossibly huge grin as if the corners of his mouth had been tacked up with nails.
"Is that it? You bewitched a smile on my face?" Sirius laughed. "If that's not the most genius thing…" He stopped. His eyebrows knit together in confusion but the smile remained intact. "I meant 'genius'. No, 'genius'." His gaze lifted to the smirk growing on Elise's face. "If you aren't the nicest girl!" He growled, followed by a scream of annoyance. "I cherish you, Simon!" Sirius yelled with that huge grin plastered on his face.
"Well, what has gotten into you!" Elise cried. "Woke up on the right side of the bed this morning, did we?"
Sirius's eyes narrowed in a glare while the smile remained steady.
Elise chuckled at the interesting facial expression Sirius donned before adding. "Don't worry too much. It'll wear off by dinner and then you can scowl and go back to your normal crabby self."
"Elise!" Lily called from down the hallway as she spotted the blond. "Did you get your schedule yet?"
Elise waited for her to make her way over before responding. "I did. I've got Charms first at ten o'clock. What do you have?"
Lily frowned and handed Elise her schedule. "I've got Arithmancy at ten. Hi, Sirius. Why are you smiling like that? I'm not sure I've ever seen you grin so big. It's kind of creepy."
Sirius glared through his grin as Elise snickered.
"Simon is a talented and beautiful witch." Sirius grit through his enchanted grin.
Elise blew a kiss at him. "But we've got Potions together at two, right?" She asked, turning to face her redheaded friend.
Lily nodded slowly but looked between the two of them. "Yeah, we do… Now, I'm not sure what's happening here but I think I'll see you guys later…" Lily drifted off and slowly walked away, looking back over her shoulder at them.
Elise watched her go before turning back to Sirius. "Well," She chirped. "I'm off for a walk. See you later, Black. Enjoy your day!"
"Padfoot, what in the hell is the matter with you?" James asked dropping his bag beside his desk as he sat down. "That's a bloody terrifying grin, mate."
"Simon put something in my coffee this morning, the goddess." He replied grimly.
"She's a goddess now, eh? Did you two snog or something?"
Sirius glared.
"Shag?!" James exclaimed, his mouth dropping open.
"I can't stop smiling and it turns out I can't saying anything rude."
"Oooh," James whistled. "So, when you called her a goddess… you meant… bitch?"
Sirius nodded, smiling widly.
"I told you so, mate."
"Told him what?" Dorcas asked taking a seat behind the two of them, Lily close behind.
"Oh, we told him to take Elise's threats of revenge seriously and he didn't listen and now," he gestured to Sirius. "Padfoot's got one hell of a day ahead of him."
"Ohhhh," Lily sighed. "That makes much more sense then. Is that why you were acting so peculiar this morning with Elise outside the Great Hall?"
Sirius nodded, aggressively pulling parchment, quill, and an ink bottle from his bag.
"So, what is the trouble exactly? That smile, obviously, but that hardly seems like the extent of something Elise would put together." Dorcas supplied, pulling her own class materials from her bag.
"Oh, that's the great part." James snickered. "He can't say anything rude to anyone. It comes out as a compliment or just the polite version instead."
Dorcas and Lily shared a glance. "Wow. That's pretty impressive actually. She must have made that up on her own. I'll have to talk to her later about how she concocted that in such a short period of time." Dorcas said.
"Oh, I know. I wonder if it's some sort of bellus potion." Lily replied. "Maybe combined with some risum charm work?" She hypothesized.
"Like it matters how she so positively influenced my day…" Sirius muttered as the Arithmancy professor glided in through the door.
"Good morning, class!" Professor Wexley said, placing her belongings on the lectern at the front of the room.
"Good morning, Professor Wexley." The room responded dully.
Professor Wexley smoothed her jet black hair and surveyed her class, visibly cringing upon seeing Sirius's smile.
"Erm, today we will be discussing our plans for the class, as well as going over the basic principles that you should already know. But first I'm going to be handing out a short quiz so that I can know how much you all retained over the summer."
The class audibly groaned and Professor Wexley was quick to respond, "Don't be too upset. Feel free to work on this assignment with the people around you. I'll give you twenty minutes and then we shall go over it together."
James handed back a short stack of quizzes to Lily and offered her a loose but bright smile before turning back around. In spite of herself, she felt herself smile too.
She handed the stack on after taking one for herself and began to look it over nodding to herself as she went. She was quite familiar with most of it, until she got to question number twelve. "Dorcas," she said, tapping her friend on the shoulder. "For the life of me I cannot remember the significance of numbers that run in numerical order like that. Do you have any ideas?"
"Actually, I was just about to ask you about that. Did you bring your book?" Dorcas replied.
"It usually signifies order and the presence of an anticipated pattern." James stated, turning in his seat to look at the two girls.
"Right!" Lily exclaimed, quickly making a note on her quiz. "Thanks, Potter." Lily said, with a light smile pulling at her lips.
"No, problem, Evans. Got any ideas about question five?"
"So, how did you do it?" Lily asked Elise for the third time that class.
"I told you, Lily. I don't quite remember…" Elise trailed off, looking at Slughorn's instructions for Amortentia that were written out on the board. "This looks right doesn't it?"
Lily barely glanced at her friends potion. "Of course it does, you're brilliant. How about mine?"
The blond peered into her friend's cauldron to be met with the same potion as her own. "Looks perfect."
"Indeed, they both look flawless. Well done, ladies." Slughorn stated proudly behind them. "I look forward to seeing the finished products."
Lily waited for Slughorn to move on before saying, "I'm not going to give you detention… I just want to know how you did it!"
Elise sighed. "I combined the Occid Beneficium Draught with the Bellus Elixir and then charmed the whole potion with a risum jinx."
Lily nodded knowingly. "Clever."
"So, you have any plans for tonight?" Elise asked casually. "I was thinking about having a bit of a jog around the Quidditch Pitch tonight but wondered if you would want to work on homework first, maybe with Kim? I haven't seen that girl since breakfast and you know that doesn't count."
"Mmm, I had been planning on trying to figure out how to get my record player to work so I could listen to my Eagles album but sure, I could stand to get a head start on my homework. Were you planning on a jog or, you know, a 'jog'?" Lily asked, not looking up from her potion.
"Rowena and Helen, Lily. Why do you have to say it like that?"
"Because it's against the rules and you know it. Even if you are registered, no one is supposed to be out at night." Lily replied. "I don't like knowing when you do it."
Elise looked up from her work. "I won't go tonight if you don't want me to. We'll just work. I won't fly."
Lily sighed while she stirred her potion. "No, no. I know it means alot to you, to have that time for yourself. You'll want to study in the Gryffindor Dormitory, I expect?"
Elise grinned. "Yes, please. I love you, Lilykins!"
"Bloody Godric!" Sirius moaned as he massaged his face. He had finally stopped smiling. He sank into the couch in front of the fire and closed his eyes.
"Come now. You can at least appreciate the magic behind it, right, Padfoot?" Remus asked, taking a seat beside him.
Sirius grumbled a reply. "Doesn't make my face hurt any less or reduce the number considerate things I said today."
Remus sighed and checked his watch. "Well, anyway, I think I'm going to go head out now. I've only got three more hours before.. well,"
"Yes, yes, Moony we know what before." James told him. "Run along now and get settled. We'll probably make our own ways down at the usual time."
Remus nodded, stood and stretched as he walked through the portrait hole.
"Poor bloke." Peter supplied sympathetically.
"Good Lord, Wormtail. You are still absolutely covered in glitter." James remarked impressed.
"I know," Peter replied sadly. "she enchanted it so I can't summon it off of me. It just causes it to replicate itself whenever I try."
James let out a loud laugh. "That's brilliant, really. She got the both of you good, admit it." He demanded.
"Mmm, I suppose it was bloody brilliant, eh?" Sirius grudgingly admitted with a genuine smirk creeping on his face. "The tosser." He added as an afterthought, propping his feet up on the table in front of him.
"I just don't understand why you don't like him, Lily." Elise was saying, laying on her back on Dorcas's bed. "He's grown up a lot this year! I mean, he made Head Boy for crying out loud. Not to mention he's positively dishy."
Lily was running her wand along the perimeter of the player as she responded, "He's only acting this way now because of how mad I got about him acting the fool that one day down by the lake."
Dorcas shook her head and kicked off her shoes. "I don't think so, Lily. I think he's maturing and that whole incident with Severus was over a year ago! It's obvious that you're warming up to him. Anyway… Why don't you ask him to Hogsmeade next month?"
"Don't be silly. I don't fancy James Potter." Lily replied indignantly. "And even if I did I would not allow myself to be fooled by this act of his."
"Even after he helped us in Arithmancy today?" Dorcas asked.
"He what!?" cried Kim suddenly, looking up from the gossip rag magazine she had been perusing.
"Oh, Dorcas is making it out to be a bigger deal than it was. Potter knew the answer to a question that we didn't. That's all." Lily said shortly, tucking her hair behind her ears as she looked the player over.
"Hmmm, that doesn't sound like all." Elise said trailing off.
"What about you and Sirius?" accused Lily. "You obviously put way more effort into your payback against Black than Peter."
Elise shrugged. "Yes? So? He played a bigger role in turning my skin blue, might I remind you. It warranted something more severe than glitter."
"Uh huh. Sure. You just wait. The two of you will get together at least once this year." Lily said confidently. "I bet you."
"Hmm. Interesting." Kim said, rolling over on to her stomach, the magazine long forgotten. "Dorcas, who do you think will get together first? Sirius and Elise or Lily and James?"
"Lily and James." Elise and Dorcas said together as Lily scowled.
"Sirius and Elise will end up bonking before Lily and James are serious." Kim said.
"Kim!" Lily exclaimed while Elise glared and Dorcas laughed.
"Alright," Sirius said. "It's time to go. Moony will be up in fifteen minutes and you know how he gets when we are late."
The other two boys agreed and gathered their things. With map, wands, and cloak in tow, the three of them headed out of the empty common room. They quietly made their way down the hall, Sirius keeping a careful eye on the map to ensure that they didn't run across anyone they hadn't the intention of meeting.
It was a quiet night and the three Marauders ran into no one, easily making their way out onto the grounds in a timely fashion. The sky was cloudy, with no stars or moon visible.
A good sign.
They made their way over to the Whomping Willow where they pulled off the cloak.
James stepped aside. "Alright, Wormy. You're up."
"You know I don't like it when you call me that." The poor boy grumbled but made his transformation anyway. His body shrinking and shrinking until his rat form emerged from his pile of clothes and scampered off toward the base of the tree.
"You next, Padfoot." James instructed but Sirius was not paying attention.
As the tree froze, a hawk landed on one of the branches and appeared to be looking down at them. It's head quirking to one side almost quizzically.
"Prongs, you see that?" Sirius asked.
James looked up. "He must live somewhere in the woods or near the castle."
"Must." Agreed Sirius. "We see him almost every month we're out here."
As the boys shrugged and looked at each other the hawk gave out a shrill screech before taking off into the night.
A/N: Part two!
So, a British friend of mine told me recently that in the UK people only say "Excuse me" or "Pardon me" when they fart or burp and I was wondering if any of my UK readers would able to tell me if that's true or not? In the US we say that for everything... you bump into someone you say excuse me. You can't hear someone and you say excuse me and ask them to repeat themselves.
Lemme know what you think!
And thanks for reading!
