Inside a dark and somewhat mysterious classroom, a tall teacher, with wispy, yellow hair and a stubby nose was busy stalking up and down the length of the room. With a lazy flick of his wrist, a large stick of chalk zoomed off of a desk and began writing the lessons tasks on an ancient class had already begun, and the absence of Lily and James caused both her friends and his to worry. Luckily for the two missing students, Professor Wolsey, who was now occupied with sorting out multiple jars of cursed-off limbs and cages inhabited by dangerous creatures, didn't notice that the class was two short. Ten minutes had passed, when Emma finally spoke.
"Surely they haven't blown each other up already?" Emma mouthed quietly to Alice, trying not to call Wolsey's attention to their missing friend. Alice did not get a chance to reply before a familiar loud, shrieking voice was audible outside the classroom. Professor Wolsey nearly dropped his wand as he looked towards the door, astonished. The rest of the students rolled their eyes, although slightly curious to hear the first Lily and James showdown of the year. They had most certainly lasted longer than last year, which began before the train had even left the station.
"I WAS IN THE BATHROOM, POTTER! HAVEN'T YOU EVER HEARD OF PRIVACY?" Lily screamed. A few boys winked at each other, while a group of girls huddled together, giggling and gossiping.
"I didn't mean to! I mean, I didn't exactly ask Dumbledore to let us share a bathroom, did I?" James shot back. Gasps sounded.
"WASN'T THE RUSHING WATER A BIT OF A GIVE AWAY?" Was the half-snarled reply.
"It was seven o'clock in the morning, I didn't pay much attention to it!" James answered defensively.
By this time, Professor Wolsey was marching towards the door, his eyes holding a manic expression. Muttering about detentions under his breath, he swung open the door, stepped outside of the classroom, turned around to give a warning glance to the students who were already half-standing and slammed the door shut after himself so hard that several jars filled with limbs fell from the desk and spilled out on the floor. Jasmine Marlo, a Ravenclaw, moaned as a severed finger landed on her robes, and screamed as the finger moved on its accord.
In the chilly corridor, Lily and James didn't notice the presence of their professor, until, clearing his throat loudly and tapping his foot in faux patience, Wolsey yelled-
"What on earth is going on here!" Both Lily and James' heads snapped to the direction of their teacher.
"Professor, I. I. I, er, it's a misunderstanding between Potter and I" Lily stammered, too ashamed to explain to her professor that Potter had caught her, entirely naked, in the shower.
"It was a mistake, totally not planned!" James stuttered to Lily quickly, his hand rubbing his hair so fast that it stood completely static.
"You are both fifteen minutes late to your first lesson, so right now I don't care about the particulars. But you can both be certain that I will be enlightened tonight- during your detention. Seven o'clock. Now both of you, get inside and have some dignity!" Professor Wolsey barked sharply.
As the door handle turned, the students that had their ears glued to the door ran back to their seats, picked up their quills and looked at their books in earnest concentration. Professor Wolsey wasn't convinced, and he shot Lily and James another furious glance, before making his way up to his desk so he could glare at the pair of them more comfortably. Without needing any instruction, both Lily and James sank into their assigned seats, which were luckily as far away from each other as they possibly could be. As she sat down in her seat, mortification plastered on her face, Lily's piercing eyes shot Sirius a murderous glare as he held one hand to his mouth to cover his hysterics, while the other hand gripped at the stitch in his stomach. Lily's teeth ground together as she saw the tears of laughter glistening in more than one pair of eyes.
Throughout the lesson, James had tried to catch Lily's attention so he could begin a stream of many apologies, but Lily, who had felt his gaze on her, jutted out her chin stubbornly and scribbled down the instructions before facing Alice and Emma to practice her wand work. To both of them, Lily especially, it seemed that finding themselves in trouble was becoming an extremely bad habit.
It was not long after the rowdy entrance, when a loud squawking noise came from the hourglass that was walking up and down the front desk, signaling the end of the lesson. After a frosty departing from Wolsey, Lily, James, Sirius and Emma made their way to Charms, while an already anxious Alice walked hesitantly with Frank to Herbology, the pair of them glancing periodically towards each others' direction. Lily took her mind off of the morning's bathroom situation by organizing exactly what she would say to Alice about Frank's facial expressions and body language.
When they were nearly halfway between the long walk from their previous lesson to Charms, the silence was finally too much for Emma, who timidly asked what happened, although by Lily and James' screaming match she already had a good idea.
"As if sharing a common room with James is bad enough, I found out this morning mid-shower that we also share a bathroom!" Lily stormed immediately.
"Oh James would have loved that!" Said Emma, bent over laughing.
"I'm not sure! I didn't take the time to ask him, unless telling him to fu-"
"Lily!" Emma interjected before her friend could finish her sentence. By the fast pace Lily had set the moment she had left the classroom, the two girls were almost fifty meters in front of James and Sirius, who too were going over the bathroom run in.
"So. You and Lily. In a bathroom. Together?" Sirius began, his tongue almost wagging.
"Har har. Yes I accidentally walked in on Evans in the shower. No I did not do it on purpose. No I did not see anything!" James answered before Sirius could ask. As James had predicted, Sirius looked truly disappointed.
"Well if you didn't see anything, what is Lily's problem?" Sirius bellowed.
"I think that is kind of obvious. Anyway. Are we meeting up tonight, just because I live with Evans doesn't mean I'm not a part of Remus' fury little problem?" James asked. Although he couldn't deny that sharing a dorm with Lily had made a few of his choicest dreams come true, he was going to miss the usual pranks that went along with being with the other Marauders.
"Of course! Me and Peter were already going to bombard the love nest of Lily and James Potter tonight, just in case you were too in love to remember! What time is your detention?" Sirius replied, with a twinkle in his eyes that usually represented a prank that would soon play out.
"Whatever you are thinking of, don't! My detention is at 7, so I will meet you in the Gryfindor common room at 10:30. Leave Lily alone, she hates me enough already!" James nearly yelled.
"Oh come on! I was only going to turn her hair blue and give her nose a little more character!" Sirius moaned, his mouth set into a pout.
"Definitely not! She would think it was me!" By the look on Sirius' face, this was exactly his plan: to see how far James could push Lily before the wizarding world witness a Evans meltdown. James groaned, before walking through the door into Charms, with more luck than in the morning, as the class had not yet started.
After dinner, Lily and James made their separate ways to Wolsey's office for their detention. For Lily this was a first, so nobody questioned why she slammed her books onto the dining table, speared her food and slammed her cutlery and goblet, before picking up her books just as furiously and stomped off towards her detention, her emerald eyes glaring darkly all the while. Not even the Slytherin's dared to comment. James on the other hand, had been in detention more often than being out of it, but his regretful expression had Emma surprised.
"What, James? Finally grown a brain and realised that detentions do actually affect your schooling?" Emma muttered sarcastically. "Actually Emma, I was upset because the reason that Lily is in her first detention is because of me!" James barked, not caring to be polite, before grabbing his books in the same fashion as Lily, and marching off just as angrily. Emma and Sirius merely looked at each other, flabbergasted, before smiling and talking about their first school day. Next to Emma a fellow seventh year, Georgette Jones, looked excitedly between the two, before scribbling down her imagined love match on a piece of parchment and charming it to Rita Skeeter, the school gossip.
While the news of the latest couple circulated around the students and staff of Hogwarts, Lily and James were busy scraping Zonko's stickiest bubblegum- without magic -off from underneath the desks, as Professor Wolsey circled them like a hawk. For a long while, the scraping of metal onto wood and the occasional heavy sigh were the only sounds. This is going to be a long night, Lily thought dryly, while James stared at her miserably, watching her freckled nose wrinkle as her delicate fingers accidentally touched the fungal covered gum.
James was so intent on watching Lily's progress, that he didn't notice how little he had done himself. When just over two hours had passed Professor Wolsey came over to look at each of the students piles of gum. Towering over James, Wolsey stood looking furiously at the meagre three pieces he had scraped off, in comparison to the 70 odd Lily had removed.
"Miss Evans you may go. Mr. Potter you can stay here!" Professor Wolsey fumed with his hands crossed over his chest and his nostrils flaring. Lily smirked to herself, and walked out of the classroom with smugness radiating off every inch of her body as she heard Wolsey assign Potter another night of detentions.
