I'm late again... Surprise, surprise. I'm so sorry everyone! I feel horrible. I may move my posting day to Saturday... Fridays are so hectic at work that I am dead on my feet by the time I get home. My wonderful beta deserves some mention here... She's so awesome! Thank you Summer for all that you do... Responding to my late night freak-out messages and calming my muse when it tries to run away. :)
Thank you to everyone who reads and reviews. I love seeing your names on my screen.
enjoy.
The dinner was quiet, slightly tense, but for the most part it was comfortable. Remus asked all the questions Lily didn't want to. She didn't want to ask questions that she felt she should already know the answer to. Who doesn't know what their sister's profession is? Who doesn't know if their sister is seeing someone? Turns out, Petunia was interested in a man she had met at work, and his name was Vernon.
Petunia took another sip of her tea and then looked up to address her sister. "Lily, you've made this tea so sweet," she critiqued.
Lily furrowed her brow in confusion. "It's unsweetened tea, Petunia."
Petunia huffed in frustration. "Don't patronize me, I'm drinking sweet tea."
James looked around the table and noticed Sirius fidgeting guiltily in his seat. "Sirius. A word please." James pushed his chair back and made his way into the living room. If Sirius hadn't followed him, he would have gone back and dragged him out of his seat. The two sisters could be heard speaking tensely about the ingredients in the tea from the other room. When James spun around on the spot, he looked expectantly at Sirius. "What have you done?" He demanded.
"Why do you think I've done something?" Sirius defended heatedly.
"Because Petunia is drinking unsweetened tea but she's convinced that it's sweet and you can't stand still." Sirius stopped moving when James mentioned it. "What the hell did you do?" He demanded again.
The guilty party huffed uncomfortably. Sirius shuffled his feet slightly and then mumbled something under his breath.
"I'm sorry, what was that?" James' tone showed his unwillingness to be patient.
"I said, I may or may not have put a potion in Petunia's tea." Sirius refused to make eye contact with James and so settled on glancing nervously around the room.
"You have-" James realized his voice was raised, so he started over in a harsh whisper. "You have got to be shitting me. You know how much this means to Lily! What is it? What's the potion? Maybe we can undo it somehow." he suggested. When Sirius shook his head, James stepped forward and attempted to tower over the mischievous man. "Damnit, Padfoot, answer the question. I need to try and fix this."
Sirius laughed a bitter and short laugh. "I'm not being unworkable, there's nothing you can do. It's a beauty potion. They have to be waited out, you know that." James was convinced when he saw the look on Sirius' face.
"Alright, alright. But what was it?" he questioned again.
"It was a potion to temporarily change the color of one's hair." Sirius sounded too calm in comparison to his previous fidgeting. James stared back at his best friend with angry eyes, and he didn't even have to ask the next question. Sirius just answered it. "It changes hair to be a... shade of green." James' body language shifted from annoyed to panicked in mere seconds.
"What?" A small huff and some pacing later, James was back in Sirius' personal bubble. "Why on earth would you pick Petunia's glass? Of all the people here, you picked the Muggle?"
"Hey now, I was trying to put it in your glass! Lily mixed them up, this isn't my fault." Sirius sounded incredulous.
"Not your fault?" James mimicked his incredulous tone. "Not. Your. Fault. Let's look at that statement real quick. Think about that for a second. You put a potion into someone's drink and it's not your fault?" Sirius nodded animatedly. "Sweet Merlin, you're daft. We have to fix this before it takes effect."
Right as the words came tumbling out of his mouth, Lily rounded the corner like her heels were on fire. "Does someone want to explain to me why Petunia's hair is a bright, bright, bright green?" she inquired accusingly.
James was about to open his mouth and attempt to do some damage control over the situation when Sirius opened his mouth and shocked everyone. "It's my fault." He admitted. "I was trying to mess with James but you gave his glass to Petunia. Lily, I'm so-"
"Save it." she cut him off angrily. "You can try to apologize once we've fixed this." Lily turned and walked past the two men, trying to take a few deep breaths so that she didn't lose her temper.
"I don't mean to be ignorant, but, what's the harm in letting it run its course? Just tell Petunia to wear a hat until tomorrow or something." Two pairs of eyes shot to Sirius as he finished his sentence.
"What's the harm?" Lily mocked. "The harm, Sirius, is that Petunia hates magic. She's hardly spoken to me since I got my letter from Hogwarts and she realized that she couldn't tag along. If she leaves here with green hair, and knows it, she'll never come back." Lily took another step toward Sirius and he began to fidget again. "I could lose my sister because the two of you... idiots decided to be children. Grow the hell up, Sirius. And James," she turned to address him. "I can't believe you let him do this." Her tone was sad and both men, though only one was guilty, felt horrible.
Sirius slumped his shoulders forward and rubbed his face with both hands. Lily turned to head further into her house with a hand over her mouth. James recognized her body language; she was about to cry. He had only ever seen Lily truly cry once before and it was when she had heard the word 'Mudblood' come out of the mouth of her best friend. He ruffled his black hair and headed after her, just like last time.
Even James would admit that maybe they had gone a little far this time. Four against one wasn't exactly fair as far as odds go. Typically Lucius was there to defend Snape, but this time the Marauders had found him all alone down by the Black Lake. He was sitting at the base of a tree twirling his wand, seemingly doing nothing. "Snivellus!" Sirius shouted out. The black haired boy whipped his head up to see the four young men approaching him.
His facial features were that of contempt toward the Gryffindors. "Black," he spat. Sirius bowed slightly as if he was being introduced to the Minister of Magic. Peter began shifting his weight from foot to foot, he was uncomfortable with the feel of the introduction. "What brings the brave Gryffindors all the way down here? Something scary maybe?" he mocked effortlessly. James stepped forward and, now close enough to do so, nudged the pile of books that sat next to the boy who was the center of attention. Snape sneered up at him and stood up, grabbing his stack of school books on the way. "Watch it, Potter." he warned lightly.
The five of them stood there, somewhat awkwardly, for a few moments without saying anything. "This is ridiculous." Remus announced. Peter nodded avidly in agreement. Snape seemed to agree as well and made to walk away. He turned and began walking parallel to the lake to get around the other bodies close to him.
Sirius stepped out slightly to invade his path, instead of frustrating the Slytherin boy, it merely forced him closer to the lake. James and Sirius glanced at one another and in an instant were on the same page. Poor Severus Snape never saw it coming. As the two best friends continued to walk towards him, he continued to hug the lake's edge. Once he was close enough, James stuck his foot out to trip him. The moment he lost his balance, Sirius nudged him with his shoulder. Snape went tumbling sideways into the murky water with his school books. There wasn't anything dangerous about what they had done, per say. He was hardly in danger, sitting in about two feet of water.
Remus didn't step in to stop them, he turned his back. He was a prefect and if he was watching the altercation, he'd have to take points away from his own house. Potentially even award points to Slytherin if Snape reacted in a tactful manner, though that was doubtful. His shoulders were slack and he had his arms crossed over his chest lazily. It was only when he heard James say the words "Accio Severus' wand" that he became slightly concerned about where this was all headed. Snape sputtered in exasperation. "Wingardium Leviosa" Remus heard next. He couldn't hold his curiosity in any longer, so he spun on the spot and saw Snape's things fly further out into the lake.
"Swim for it, Snivellus." Sirius busted out in laughter when Peter finally chimed into the situation.
"Enough!" Five sets of eyes searched for the voice and eventually landed on a petite redhead. A few of the boys groaned inwardly because they knew of her temper. "How dare you? Traumatizing a fellow student?" The tone she was using reminded James of McGonagall. "It's bad enough that you pushed him into the water and stole his wand, but then you send his things half way across the lake?" she huffed a few puffs of air, but her face only seemed to get more red. "Accio Severus' school books!"
Dripping wet school books came flying toward her and then two books from the castle came tumbling through the air from behind her. "Impedimenta!" she snapped. The books slowed in their movements and then dropped to the ground around her. "Exaresco." she whispered with her wand aimed at the books. They went from wet to dry in a mere second. The four Marauders looked everywhere but at Lily in a guilty manner. "You should be ashamed of yourselves! That was incredibly dangerous. Severus can't even swim," she explained. She had only meant to make them feel bad for their dangerous actions, not to give them ammo against her friend.
"Snivelly can't swim?" Sirius choked out, fighting back his laughter. "Isn't that quite appropriate. Useless on land and in the water." he taunted. The four boys who weren't dripping wet began to laugh loudly at the misfortune. Remus attempted to fight the laughter, but the idea of a boy almost of age unable to swim was too good of an opportunity for a chuckle.
"Enough!" Lily snapped for the second time. "Stop. Sirius, twenty-five points from Gryffindor for your words." She glanced at Snape who had since gotten out of the water and stormed over to James to retrieve his wand. "Twenty-five points for stealing Severus' wand." she announced weakly. Snape performed the same spell Lily had only moments before and his robes stopped dripping. He grabbed his books from her feet and glared at her. "Sev? I'm sorry. I'm trying to help." she defended.
"By lying and telling them I can't swim?" Lily found herself confused by his claim that she was lying. Hadn't he told her a few months back that he couldn't swim? His embarrassment was quite apparent on his face. She realized that the boy standing in front of her would rather have her seen as a liar than have the Marauders know he can't swim. Her heart sank and it was then that she realized that she had played right along with the Marauders completely on accident by revealing a secret of her dear friend.
Lily stuttered her way through an explanation, "I- I didn't, I wasn't. I'm sorry." her shoulders deflated. "I was just trying to help." she admitted defeatedly.
"I don't need help from a Mudblood." he spit out before storming off without his dignity. Sirius stood up straighter and moved to follow him out of anger, but Remus grabbed his arm to stop him.
"Oh!" Lily exclaimed in anger. "Now you stop them. Fifty points from Gryffindor, because you," she looked straight at Remus. "Are a prefect and couldn't be bothered to do your job." her tone was biting and the realization that they had just lost one hundred points from their house wasn't lost on anyone. She had been fighting tears since Snape called her a Mudblood, but couldn't hold them in any longer. She covered her mouth and proceeded to speed walk toward the castle. James looked at the faces around him and surprisingly, even Sirius looked disappointed. Though he couldn't tell if it was in their actions or about the lost points. He ruffled his hair and then followed Lily up to the castle.
James sighed quietly, snapping himself out of his memories once more and turned around from the hallway to direct his attention back to his best friend. "Fix this. I don't care what you have to do, but fix this. Now." Sirius, for once, merely nodded and moved to do what had been requested of him. James began walking in the direction that Lily had taken off in.
Ooooooooh... I love that flashback. That one and one that I'm going to have in one of the next few chapters are my two favorites. :)
Random update in my life... I bought a betta fish. My dog hates me so I bought a fish. :) It's name is Sheldon Junior 2 of the female variety (Shelly for short.) Because I bought a fish a few days ago and I named it Sheldon Junior. He died, so I bought a female betta. But I'm too lazy to pick another name.
