CHAPTER EIGHT
SWEET REVENGE

After going to bed, the four girls crowded in Lily's bed and put a sound- proof spell on the bed so no one would here them. Here they discussed their summers and talked about how all of the boys have changed. Remember when Sirius and James pulled that prank on us?" Lily said and Emily's eyes grew big. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?" Lily asked Emily.
She nodded. "Oh yeah. Sweet revenge." she cackled, rubbing her hands together in a creepy way.
"Okay, that was just weird. Where did you get that from?" Bridget asked.
"I was watching that Muggle box thing with the pictures. It had a 'witch'. But it looked like a green hag with a wart on its nose. Emily answered.
"Well, what can we do? We need something original. Something no one ever did." Jenny mused, twirling her hair around her finger.
"What about taking all their clothes? I know they both only sleep in boxers." Emily said.
"Good thinking! But when should we do it? Tonight?" Bridget mused, twirling her hair.
"No, not tonight. They'll be expecting it. How about next weekend? They won't anticipate revenge in a week. Plus, we'll be able to sleep in." Jenny said.
Lily yawned widely. "Well, I'm beat. I gotta get some sleep." she said. The others climbed off Lily's bed and got into their own.
"Well, 'night." Emily said.
All of the others responded with a sleepy " Good night". All except for Lily. She was already fast asleep, dreaming of far-away places.
The next morning, Professor Dumbledore had a surprising announcement for the students.
"Good morning students! This Wednesday, you will have all day off from classes." Dumbledore paused there, loud cheering erupting from all four tables. As the yelling subsided, Dumbledore continued. "The reason being is to show our gratitude to all of Hogwarts' house elves, they will have a day off every other month. That day, the students will help clean up and of course serve the food. To Houses will be randomly picked to cook and the other two to clean. It will be different each time. Please continue with your breakfast." Dumbledore said, sitting back down, and taking some scrambled eggs from the platter.
"That's new. Imagine us Gryffindors working with Slytherins! That'll be fun and horrible!" Sirius said, and the whole hall continued to whisper about it.
"Hey, guess what I saw on the notice board!" Jen said, taking a piece of toast from Remus's plate.
"Hey, that's my toast! I'm still hungry, you know." Remus exclaimed, grabbing his toast back and stuffing it in his mouth. "Fats ine. Geh for own!" he exclaimed, through his full mouth. They looked at him and at the same time, all of them burst into laughter. The noise was so loud that all the other houses fell silent and looked in their direction. Dumbledore rose again.
"What may I ask, is so amusing, young Gryffindors?" he asked, a smile twitching at the corners of his mouth.
"N-nothing, Professor." Emily replied between giggles.
"If that is so, please let us finish breakfast."
The days went by fast, and before they knew it, it was Wednesday. The day before they had found out that Gryffindor and Ravenclaw would work together to get the food ready. Slytherin and Hufflepuff meanwhile would tidy up the castle.
As Lily awoke, she noticed that the usual stacks of clean clothes were missing. Instead, there were piles of dirty clothes tossed all over the room. Lily grinned as she thought of the Slytherins having to clean up their dorm room. She tossed on an old pair of jeans along with a T-shirt with frayed sleeves. As she skipped down the stairs, she noticed a crowd around the bulletin board. When she got close enough to read it, a fourth year pushed her out of the way.
"Hey!! You can't just push me around, OK?" Lily screamed, putting her hands on her hips and standing up to her 5'2" height. The fourth year just laughed, as she was much bigger than Lily. She didn't notice, however, a mass of red hair coming her way.
Lily had thrown herself at the girl and knocked her over. She sat on her and started punching and scratching the girl until Sirius and James pulled her off and held her until the other girl disappeared, crying.
"Lilian Marie Evans! I can't believe that you were fighting!" James said in a shocked tone.
"Don't use my full name. Not everybody has to know. Do you think I was wrong?" Lily said, still fired up from the fight.
James surprised her by saying, "Nah. She deserved to have her ass kicked. Good job. I just can't believe that you would do that! You're good." James said admiringly.
Lily reluctantly smiled. " Thanks. My dad made me take defense lessons. He said that I'd need it someday. Guess he was right." She said, flashing a brilliant smile. "Now, come on. I want to see you guys cook!"
The others followed them to the Great Hall. As they entered, Dumbledore stood up. "Is everybody here? Good, good. Well, as you all know what you will be doing today, please separate into two groups. Slytherins and Hufflepuffs on the right by Professor Walgner. He will assign groups for different parts of the castle. Gryffindors and Ravenclaws, over by Professor McGonagall, if you please. She will lead to the kitchens." He said and the school started to move towards opposite ends of the Hall. Lily and her friends walked towards the Ravenclaws, looking for Sammie. They finally found her in the middle of her other friends, telling an amusing story. As they got nearer, the group burst out into laughter.
"Hey, Sammie. What's so funny?" Bridget asked, hugging her friend. The other girls all gave Sammie hugs and Sirius, being the flirt, kissed her hand.
"Oh, well. I was just telling Alyssa, Meagan, and Katie about your party and how we started that splashing war." Sammie said, nodding toward Alyssa Harter, Meagan Shelby, and Katie Darling.
"Why, hello ladies," said the ever charming Sirius Black. Remus meanwhile flashed them a smile. The girls just giggled.
"I remember that! James, Sirius, Remus, and Bridget started it." Jen said. They all walked with McGonagall towards the kitchen.
"Watch her carefully. Look how she gets into the kitchen. We could try that, since there's no password. Those houselves will do anything for us." Sirius muttered to Remus and James. They watched as Professor McGonagall tickled the pear on the painting of a large fruit bowl. The pear giggled and turned into a large green handle. She opened it and ushered the students inside.
"Gryffindor and Ravenclaw, please follow me. I have asked Krittr, the head house elf to show you around." Professor McGonagall said introducing a house elf with an apron made of a dishtowel tied around her waist. The apron was stamped with "Hogwarts House Elf - Head" in purple. Krittr stood on a platform.
"Welcome young Misses and Misters! We is very glad for day off! Now, all pans and pots and everythings is over there, and food is in that way! If kind students need help, please use button and magical robot elf will assist finding things for yous! Thank you!" the elf said, getting off her platform and exiting the kitchens.
"Well, get to work! If you want to eat a decent breakfast, I suggest that you don't fool around." Their Transfiguration teacher said before sweeping out of the room.
"You heard her. We better start cooking. Let's go and make the pancakes." Lily said and they got out gallons of milk, pounds of flour, sugar, and all the other ingredients. They soon found out that each group had to make a lot of food. Lily, Emily, and Sirius were by the stove, flipping pancakes, and putting them on platters. Jen, James, Remus, Bridget, and Sammie were busy making more batter, and pouring syrup into containers. As each platter of pancakes and tray of syrup filled up, Ross put them at regular intervals on the four tables that would send up the food to the students at seven thirty.
"How many more?" Lily asked, flipping some pancakes. "It feels like I've flipped a million pancakes already!" she complained.
"Well, if Sirius and Ross would stop eating them, maybe we'd finish faster." Jen said, throwing a dirty look at the mentioned. They just grinned thorough their full mouths.
"Hey, we need to make more batter. We ran out." Remus said.
"I'll get some ingredients." Bridget said, getting out more flour, milk, and other things. "Pour some flour in here," she said, indicating to a large mixing bowl. As Remus poured, flour puffed out, getting on them all.
"Okay, that's it!! War!" Emily screamed. Soon they were all throwing flour, eggs, and milk at each other. It wasn't until a Prefect came and held them back that they stopped.
"Now, as you have made this mess, you will clean it up. With NO magic. Got it?" she said sternly. When they started to complain, she said, "Shut up. You're lucky that I didn't report you. You would have had detentions and points taken off." This silenced the group and they began cleaning until Sirius asked the girls "So, any special reason you started the food fight?"
"Oh that. Revenge." Bridget said simply. When the others gave her confused looks, she mouthed, I'll tell you later.
They continued cleaning up while another group finished off the pancakes.
At 7:30, the whole school went down to the Great Hall for breakfast. The Slytherins were very wary of their food, as Gryffindors had cooked it. The food, surprisingly to the Slytherins, was delicious. After breakfast, Lily went down to the Gryffindor Common Room to announce that they would be holding cheerleading tryouts that had been postponed because of rain.