A/N: HBP IS OUT! WHOOP-WHOOP! Aren't we all satisfied? I'm gonna be reading that book like 10 times. And if you are going to too, then read it once or twice, then review then read it the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth time, k? I mean seriously I am asking for a minute of your time!
A/N#2: Wonderful readers I am terribly sorry for the extremely long wait for this chapter… but when I was in the middle of the chapter I had no ideas as to how I should finish it and so I had to start the chapter over. Once again I am terribly sorry for the wait but I made it extra long to make it up.
Disclaimer: I-do-not-own-the-people-you-recognize. How many times am I gonna have to say that to those lawyers out there who have nothing better to do than to sue people. (I am not saying all lawyers are bad, just those who constantly annoy us.) BUT, I do own my pride and joy Charlie Condon (I also have to keep Charlie safe from Trisha because she wants to kill her off because of—I mean something that is going to happen later in the story. Me and Trisha share Mel.
Chapter 4: Drastic Measures
Mid-October
The portrait door opened and the Quidditch team trooped in looking desperately tired, tracking mud all over. Remus and Mel were behind them and they made their way over to Lily along with James and Sirius.
Lily didn't take notice of the dirty group seeing as she was so engrossed in her Transfiguration essay. Only when she saw a shadow fall over her did she look up to the grimy yet grinning face of Charlie Condon.
"Hi Lils!" Charlie said cheerful yet tired.
"Hallo Char—STOP!" Lily screamed to James and Sirius who were about to sit on the sofa. They froze squatting down 2 inches away from the seat.
"Scougrify!" Lily said waving her wand at the two boys and they instantly became clean. And after a moment of thought, she cleaned up Mel, Remus and Charlie as well.
"Very well. You are now entitles to sit down in the near vicinity of me." Lily said sitting back down.
The boys followed suite only doing so cautiously. Mel and Remus sat on the other two armchairs and Charlie sat on the floor arms holding her knees loosely leaning on Mel's chair.
"So how was practice?" Lily asked hoping to start a conversation. And she did…just not the kind she hoped.
"TIRING!"
"WONDERFUL!"
"CRAZY!"
was her reply and instantly a squabble broke out.
"What do you mean it was tiring? What did you expect a day at the beach?" James asked, his not seen to much temper slowly getting the best of him.
"Yeah what did you expect?" Sirius asked who, as usual, was sticking up for his best friend.
"Well what did you expect, Monsieur Black, saying it was crazy? A nice afternoon with tea and cookies?" Charlie asked narrowing her eyes.
"Well at least practice a bit crazy to say the least! And it was great fun too!" James said defending Sirius.
"JAMES! You think every practice is great! Even if it started raining BLUDGERS!"
"Well I'm sorry if I enjoy the feeling of the wind in my hair and doing something other than reading all day!"
"DO YOU HAVE SOMETHING AGAINST READING, POTTER?" Lily intervened. She was planning on ending the skirmish but James had touched a nerve in her.
"Uh-oh." Remus said an itty bit apprehensive and resigned to sitting down along with Sirius.
"What?" James asked confused.
"You said you would rather be up high in the sky than down here reading." She said slowly biting down a scream of rage.
"Oh- I didn't mean to offend you or-"
"I know you didn't. But you did." She cut off sharply.
"Well I'm sorry if an offensive statement slipped my tongue Evans!"
"Yeah Evans he's sorry if an offensive statement slipped his tongue!" Peter, who popped up out of nowhere, said.
"You'd better be!" She said coolly.
Her cool voice somehow triggered his full temper.
"You aren't queen of the world ya know!" He said angrily.
"Ya Evans! You aren't queen of the world!" Peter echoed.
"Glad you think so. I was getting to be a bit worried about your little infatuation with me."
"At least I don't turn to books for consolation." James said nastily without really realizing what he said.
"Ya, at least he doesn't turn to—"
"SHUT UP PETER!" James, Sirius and Remus yelled.
Knowing what was going to happen, Mel and Charlie jumped up and grabbed Lily's arms and held her back as she was saying, "Why you little impudence, impertinent, infamy, maladroit jerk!"
Lily tried to wriggle her hand out of Charlie's grip to get her wand but James caught her movement and said "Expelliamarus!" in blink of an eye and in the next blink, her wand flew from her pocket and in his hand.
But in spite of being wandless, Lily grinned maliciously. She freed her hand from Charlie's grip and then waved it in the way she would have done with her wand screaming 'Levicorpus! in her head. (You have no idea how much I love to spell. Compliments to Mrs. Rowling.)
And before he could do anything, James was dangling upside down from the ceiling.
"EVANS!" James yelled.
Mel let go of Lily's other hand and Remus and Sirius just stared at Lily open-mouthed.
Satisfied Lily thought 'Liberacorpus!' and with a downward jab of her hand, James fell in a heap on the floor.
"What the bloody hell was that for?" James asked fearfully thinking that Lily was some dark witch of some sort.
"That was for acting like an idiot who thinks they know everything and for being a dormant jerk who rifle threw girls as if you were a coat-hanger that get can't get enough coats! You're not on top of the world of the world either, FYI! With all you're pranks and Quidditch skills and—"
"Stop." James said softly. "You've made your point. But do me a favor Evans. Spare me." He said coldly but the pain on his face was clear. With that said, James walked up to his dormitory silently.
For once Lily felt like the dirt that Snape always told her she was. Ignoring the glares (Remus, Sirius and Peter) and confused faces (Mel and Charlie) she went up to her dormitory noiselessly as well.
In the common room Charlie whispered "Its all my fault!"
"What? How did Lily and James' fight become your fault?" Mel reasoned.
"Because if I hadn't started a fight with James then he wouldn't have ended up fighting with Lily which wouldn't have led to her eventually ranting till she can't rant no more!" Charlie whined.
"In that case it is your fault!" Sirius said angrily.
Charlie sat on the floor head down, yanked the scrunchy out of her hair and threw it into the flaming fire.
That was her sign of depression. Charlie hated it when her hair was in her face. The only reason she didn't cut her hair was because Lily and Mel refused to let her do so. Therefore whenever Charlie let her hair out at will…uh oh.
Mel saw what Charlie did and then asked Sirius "What was that for?" matching his tone.
"Well your temperamental friend didn't have to yell like that! Now he's gonna be sulking around just like he always does when he gets in a fight with Evans!"
"Are you forgetting that James said the first insult?" Mel asked narrowing her eyes.
"He didn't even realize what he said! Lily takes things too seriously."
"No she doesn't!"
"Yes she does!"
"No she doesn't!"
"YES SHE DOES!"
"NO SHE DOESN'T!"
"YES SHE DOES!"
"NO SHE DOESN'T!"
"UH-HUH!"
"NA-UH!"
"UH-HUH!"
"BOY DON'T YOU DARE UH-HUH MY NA-UH!"
There was a pause where Sirius drew his head back from 2 inches from Mel's face in surprise. But he regained his surprise saying:
"Uh-huh."
And with that Mel chased Sirius up the boy's dormitory with Sirius screaming "REMUS SAVE ME! THIS WOMAN HAS CLAWS! AHHHHH!"
They then heard a door slam and then saw Mel coming down smoothing out her shirt.
"Job done!" Mel said cheerfully.
Remus shook his head grinning but Charlie didn't move and then Mel sat down next to her and draped her arm around her shoulders and then said soothingly, "Come on Charlie, lets go upstairs."
"Its my fault that I'm not gonna be the maid of honor!"
"No, its not." Mel said firmly.
"Yes it is!" Charlie whined.
"I am not going through this again." Mel muttered under her breath.
"You can still be maid of honor." Remus said.
"No! I ruined the idea of James and Lily having a wedding and little replicas running around!" Charlie whined again.
She then pulled off an unintentional puppy dog face with her sad eyes rolled to the top looking up at Remus.
Mel let herself fall on the floor so that her vision was now focused on the ceiling.
Remus melted at Charlie's distraught look because she looked like a little 5 year-old with butterball eyes. He knelt down on one knee and then said,
"Don't blame this on yourself. It's their job to fight like this. Sure they usually don't talk to each other for about a month, but now they have to because they're Head Boy and Girl. Now their job is to control prats like…say Sirius. And since me and Mel are prefects…we'll make sure their talking. And you and Sirius can talk to James at Quidditch practice."
After his speech, Charlie's face visibly brightened.
"You know what? You're right! They have to tolerate each other! Come on Mel, we gotta throw water on Lily's head!" She then pulled Mel off the floor and dragged her upstairs with a determined look.
Remus shook his head again and then went upstairs to deal with a friend who is down in the dumps and a friend who is now scared of claws.
In the girl's dormitoryWhen Charlie and Mel reached the door that marked '7th Years', they heard absolute silence.
They glanced at each other and then Mel cautiously and quietly opened the door, and the sight that met them, or what didn't meet them, alarmed the two.
Alice had gone to sleep, which didn't surprise them seeing as she was an early sleeper and slept through anything. But what scared them as the fact that Lily wasn't awake. In fact she was appeared to be asleep with her curtains drawn.
Ever since Lily hated James, every fight that took place would lead to a late ranting where Lily waited for Mel and Charlie and then she would go on and on about how she couldn't stand James and how she would've strangled him if it weren't for the school rule saying 'DO NOT COMMIT MURDER,' which crushed her hopes immediately.
Mel and Charlie knew better than to think that Lily was asleep. So they made their way to her bed silently and then Mel softly drew back the curtains.
There she was, covers pulled up to her chin and eyes closed tight as if bracing for something.
Once again Charlie and Mel gave each other worried looks.
"Lil?" Charlie said softly caressing her back.
Lily bolted up with her eyes wide open.
"HE IS SUCH A PRICK! A PAIN ALL OVER! HE--!"
"LILY!" Charlie screamed. This brought Lily back to reality. Lily may be loud but nobody can compete with the famous voice box of Charlie Condon.
"Mel?" Alice called half-asleep.
"Yeah?"
"I beg of you! Take this somewhere else! I need my sleep!" She cried.
"Its OK Alice. This shall be quick and painless. You may sleep."
So Mel changed into her pajamas and then tied her hair up in a high ponytail while Charlie soothed Lily down.
"OK. So what happened? What made you so…mad?" Charlie asked sitting on the bed. Mel joined her shortly.
"Well, I closed my eyes because I wanted to sleep because I felt sorta guilty because of the fight. But then flashes of pranks on me, and Potter picking on Snape and more idiotic pranks and Potter's big ego and fights and more pranks popped into my head. It was torture. I can't believe I thought for a second he changed! After all these years how can anyone think he changed? I'm such an idiot!" Lily let out and then took a book from her nightstand and then proceeded to bang herself in the head.
"Lily stop!" Charlie screeched.
"Why should I? I was an idiot!"
"Because…because all the information you read and studied is going to fly out of your brain faster than you can say 'idiot.'" Mel retaliated.
Lily immediately dropped the book and then sank back into the covers.
"Charlie, I'm gonna go to sleep, k?"
She nodded saying "You do that."
"Try and forget that idiotic, son of a slug."
She rolled her eyes saying "You know, for a bookworm, you don't have any other words but idiotic."
"Uh-huh." Lily said closing her eyes and falling asleep.
"Finally." Charlie mouthed to herself. She then changed into her pajamas, tied her hair up in a messy bun and went into a blissful sleep.
The next morning both girls and guys woke up knowing that it would be a
work-free day. All except Lily and James.
Lily and James shocked everybody. Lily made Charlie scream, Mel's eyes bug out, Sirius faint with a little help from his dramatic self, and Remus…just sit there because he knew that why they weren't doing their daily routines…and they made Peter think which shocked everyone even more. All in all this is how the morning went:
In the girl's dormitory
Charlie woke up in a giddy mood in spite of what happened the night before. She woke up Mel, changed into a sweatshirt and jeans and then tied her hair up in a high ponytail as usual, while Mel changed into jeans, white top, jean cardigan and then tied her hair in a low ponytail with a white fuzzy scrunchy and then draped it over her shoulders.
Alice had already left for breakfast, and Lily always wakes up extremely early on Saturday mornings, so she can beat the common room rush and read quite cozily. Fortunately, Lily stopped trying to wake them up in the morning as well when she first realized that Mel, cool-composed Mel, was NOT an early riser.
As they went down to the common room, Charlie jumped on the chair that Lily always sat on but instead of saying, "Hey Lil!" she opened her mouth and let out a blood-curling scream.
In the boy's dormitory
Sirius bolted up straight as he heard a scream. As he wondered who was being murdered, he went to the bathroom and there he decided that the person being murdered would probably be dead by the time he got down there. So he thought 'Oh, what the hell' and took a shower.
When he got out, he then got dressed and went down to find Remus sitting on a sofa munching on a apple. Peter was slowly closing his eyes and then snapping them open, then closing, and then open…clearly Remus dragged him out of bed.
Charlie's mouth was open as if she was screaming but no sound came out. Mel probably put a silencing charm on her so that she wouldn't wake anybody up. 'To late for that' Sirius though wryly.
Mel was standing against the wall unnaturally pale and her eyes strangely wide. It looked like you were staring at a crystal ball if you liked at Appleby's eyes.
"So…Nobody's being killed here?" Sirius asked relieved. Waking up to a dead body in the morning was not exactly how he had planned his day.
Charlie started moving her mouth, eyes ablaze, like she was yelling at Sirius, who never looked so innocent, when in fact he had bothered to take a SHOWER when someone was supposedly being murdered.
Charlie glared at Mel to get her to say the counter-curse, but Mel was too deep in her trance to notice. She then looked hopefully at Remus who took pity on her. He put down his apple and then said "I'll say it if you PROMISE not to yell."
Charlie nodded so Remus kept to his word.
"Lily isn't in her chair" Charlie said fearfully.
"Meaning?"
"Meaning someone kidnapped her or something because she ALWAYS sits in her chair." She wailed.
"So why don't you go look for her?" Sirius suggested.
"YOUR RIGHT! Mel, we gotta go look for her! What if she is being locked in a closet as we speak? C'mon!"
They ran out of the Common Room in a flash.
Remus looked at Sirius and said "Aren't you being Mr. Logical today!"
"What do you expect…I haven't eaten in an HOUR that's SIXTY MINUTES!" Sirius yelled frantically. He whipped out his wand and summoned food from the kitchens, which is normally forbidden. But does Sirius care if it's forbidden or not? NOOOOOO!
They pigged out.
Common Room 10 minutes later
Sirius and Remus were just finishing their delightful breakfast, when Mel and Charlie clambered through the portrait hole.
"Did you find Lily?" Remus asked the two girls.
"Nope," Mel replied, "We were getting nowhere by the end of the hall, and Charlie was hysterical so we gave up."
"Whoa," Sirius said spraying food everywhere, "What great friends you are."
"HEY!" Charlie yelled. "Like you're any better!"
"Padfoot, where is James?" Remus piped up at that moment.
Sirius looked like this was obvious. "Outside practicing as usual, duh!"
"Uhh…no he isn't, Mr. I am such a great friend." Charlie's voice oozed with sarcasm.
"Yes, he is!"
"No, he is not! Look outside Mister!" Charlie finished pointing to the window.
Sirius went to the window and what he saw - or what he didn't see - made him
stagger backwards and fall in a dead faint dramatically.
Peter woke up with a start at the noise that Sirius made.
"O Sweet Merlin! PADFOOT!" Peter ran too him and shook his shoulders violently screaming, "SIRIUS! PADFOOT!" in his ear.
Remus then took out his wand (NOT that wand u pervs... I cant b the only one that thought that!) and recited "Augamenti!" which caused water to splash on Sirius. He woke up with a starts and seeing he was awake, a chubby boy by the name of Wormtail, hugged him in a way that would make people question his sexuality.
Remus laughed not-so-quietly at the two. And Sirius noticing what Peter was doing, pulled him back to arms length and shook his head as if teaching a little baby right from wrong.
Peter scrambled back onto the seat next to Remus.
Mel looked disgusted. "That was just... just WRONG!"
"NO shit Sherlock! Of course it was wrong !" James called from the doorway of the portrait.
"JAMESIE POO!" Sirius called, running to tackle him, knocking "Jamsie-poo" over.
"And that's NOT wrong?" Peter muttered to Remus.
"Yes it is... but Sirius is definitely straight." Remus rolled his eyes.
Charlie overheard them because she added "As straight as a bendy straw."
"Oy! I heard that!" Sirius yelled.
He helped James up.
"JAMES! Have you seen Lily? I can't find her ANYWHERE!" Charlie was on the verge of tears.
James looked around. "Err, she is right behind me." he exclaimed.
Lily walked into the room, carrying a book using her finger as a bookmark.
"WHERE WERE YOU MISSY! YOU GOT SOME 'SPLAINING' TO DO!" Mel screeched.
"I was in the Heads Room." Lily said.
"And where were you James?" Peter asked.
"I was in the Heads Room." James said.
Charlie gasped and then said, "You guys were in the same room TOGETHER?"
"NO!" They yelled simultaneously.
"We have our own rooms, with doors that lock." James cried exasperatedly
"Besides... why in the name of Indiana Jones would I want to hang out with an
arrogant little..." Lily trailed off as James glared at her as if saying
"Don't go there!" Well she went. "AN ARROGANT LITTLE SON OF A..." she
stopped there at the look of shock on Mel and Charlie's face.
"Who is Indiana Jones?" Peter asked, oblivious to the fight surrounding him.
No one bothered to reply.
"Anyway, Evans, we need to plan the dance, because it is in 3 weeks, and we haven't planned that much." James said, trying to keep calm.
"Fine," she said avoiding his eyes, "but we should enlist the help of our 7th Year prefects." She smiled pointedly at Mel.
"Ok, that okay with you Remus? Mel?" James asked.
When they both nodded, the four marched back to the heads room 'xylem' and sat in a circle in the common room.
They decided that the prefects and Head Boy and Girl would chaperone the first dance for the younger years, and McGonagall and Dumbledore would oversee the 4-7th year party. And other teachers were welcome to join in the festivities.
They were picking out decorations from "Macgillivray's Magical Merrymaking Materials" catalog. The decorations would arrive in a week.
Everything was fine except the fact the Lily and James refused to talk to each other, and instead were using Remus and Mel to communicate.
Lily was whispering to Mel, who turned to the boys and said "Lily says we need a Hogsmade trip before the parties to get costumes, which means the younger kids have to go too. Which means that we will need ALOT of supervision. But I am sure we can do it though. We would need a lot of help and permission from everyone's parents." You could hear the irritation in her voice.
James whispered to Remus, who looked rather pissed off and then said "James says that it would take too long to get permission from parents. I do not think too many will give it anyway, they would all be worry about their children's safety since they can�t defend themselves as well as we can."
Lily looked annoyed, not at Remus or Mel but at James, because he shot down her idea.
"Mel!" she practically yelled, "Would you tell Potter here that it was HIS idea to make costumes mandatory, so HE should better come up with a better idea if he is gonna criticize MY idea!"
Mel rolled her eyes, "I think he heard you loud and clear!"
James's eyes were livid; he didn't bother speaking through Remus this time.
"DON'T WORRY EVANS! I HAVE A PLAN! NOT THAT I WOULD TELL YOU!
REMUS AND I WILL HANDLE IT ON OUR OWN!"
Lily went pale. "DON'T YOU YELL AT ME POTTER! I GET ENOUGH OF IT AT HOME FROM MY SISTER AND AT SCHOOL FROM SNAPE! YOU TIHNK I LIKE BEING CALLED MUDBLOOD AND FREAK? DO YOU!"
She was on the verge of tears. So was Mel. Even Remus' eyes looked a tad watery, James closed his eyes for a minute. When he opened his eyes, he looked like he was going to apologize.
"Don't apologize Potter! But I'll let you know this, I DID think you had changed. I was starting to think maybe you could be my friend, but I was just being delusional if I thought that you had grown up! YOU WILL NEVER GROW UP!"
At that moment, Sirius burst into the common room, sucking on a sugar quill. He held out the Sugar Quill box and asked "Sugar Quills Anyone?" Everyone took one, and Lily and Mel left the common room, Lily slapping the door behind them.
James went into his bedroom, slamming his door so hard that it shook that floor.
Remus left, to go to the library, leaving Peter and Sirius alone.
Sirius turned to his rat buddy and asked. "Do you ever get the feeling that you missed something really important Wormy?"
He nodded and replied, "All the time Pads, all the time."
They thought for a moment, and went back to their sugar quills.
A/N: This is our longest chapter ever! We are ever so proud. The next chapter might take some time, sorry again for the wait on this chapter, but Trisha is in the middle of writing the first chapter of her new story, which is a Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione fic. The Halloween dance is in the next chapter, and you get to see what everyone decided to go as! Muh-ha-ha-ha-ha!
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