Origins of the Recipe: this is, in fact, the DISCLAIMER. Meaning, it states that I do not own the rights to anything. You're very lucky for that.
Note from the cook: reviews are lovely. Feel free to leave me one, even if you're just starting to read this here thang. Rissa, I hate you. :-P
Recap from Last Time: Lily thinks about Elijah (her graduated boyfriend), argues with Snape and James, talks about Quidditch, and wants to resign from Head Girl, but is advised against it by Dumbledore. James tries to convince the other Marauders to go into the forest with him at the full moon, but they out-vote him, and they go to Hogsmeade instead. Eden and Sirius presumably are reconciled for "differences of opinion" from the previous year concerning Remus.
Chapter 9- High Spirits
"Pain is inevitable; suffering is optional." –Anonymous
"Where's Lex?"
"Montreal... shut up. If you... lose count... I'm gonna... kill you."
"Okay, okay. You're on nineteen."
"I'm... on... twenty-one."
"Right. That's what I meant."
"Ugh, James! Will you... keep... count... for me?"
"Don't talk to him, E; he's pacing. That means he'll kill you if you interrupt him."
"Speaking from experience, Sirius?"
"You have no idea."
"Lexi's late..."
"No shit, Sherlock."
"It's fine, Frank. She'll... be... here. Why'd you... stop... counting, Paul?"
"Twenty-four, twenty-five..."
"I'm... on... twenty-nine... now I'm on thirty!"
"Right. That's what I meant."
"Damn it! Sirius, keep count for me!"
The locker room was much like it was before all Gryffindor's Quidditch matches. James was pacing near the curtain that led to the pitch, and Sirius was alternating between lifting weights, practicing swings with his beater club, and bantering with Eden. Eden was doing push-ups, and Paul was supposedly keeping count, except he wasn't. Frank was just nervous, and Mackey Simpson was going over the notes that James had given him about his chasing technique.
"We're all going to be fine, you know," James reminded them all.
"Ya, we know, James," said Sirius, rolling his eyes.
"You told us."
"Six times."
"At least."
"Probably closer to seven."
"Or eight."
"Or twenty-three."
"And a half."
James rolled his eyes. "Why did I let you two on the team?"
"'Cos we're the best damn beaters in the school."
"I wonder where Lex is..." Frank was saying.
"She died. I ate her," said Eden, getting up from the ground and picking up her own beaters' club.
"You're such an encouraging force, E."
"Of course I am, I'm blonde."
"What in hell's name does that have to do with anything?" laughed Mackey.
"You're just jealous."
"Why? I'm blonde too."
"Gasp! Does your mother know?"
"E's high," Sirius observed, tossing his club upward and catching it. Eden made a face and lay on the ground again to do some crunches, only she didn't ask Paul to keep count for her, and he didn't volunteer.
"Am... not..." she contradicted. "I'm... just... special!"
"And high."
"Shut up... or I'll... tell Filch on... you."
"And he'll care that I called you 'high' because...?"
"He'll care who replaced his entire stock of coffee with dung beetles..."
"Okay, ya... he'll care about that..."
"Okay," James was now saying to Frank; "so remember. High-Low strategy. You did really, really well on it during the last practice, but you need to make sure you keep good balance. You drifted low after a little while, and you didn't get the quaffle as much."
"Hey, Cap... you don't need to worry about seeking. I hear Rian Orlando pulls Harrighagen," Mackey said, sounding glad.
"Alas, not true," sighed Eden, who was now engaged in a club-duel with Sirius. "I was talking to him the other day, and he was bashing Harrighagen to death."
"You going out with him?" asked James, grinning.
"Who? Harrighagen?"
"Rian Orlando!"
"No, but he's asked me twice. Touché!" She'd stabbed Sirius in the shoulder.
"Ouch!"
"E! Don't kill the other beater!"
"Sorry, James..."
"If I die, E, I'm blaming you."
"Sorry, Sirius."
"Where is Lexi?"
"And we still don't know, Paul."
"Damn, Sirius! That hurt!"
"Sirius, what did you do?"
"He stabbed me in the stomach!"
"Oh great, now both my beaters are out. Lovely."
"How much longer till the game?"
"Twenty minutes."
"Didn't you say to meet up here an hour before the game?"
"Yes, why?"
"Nothing. I just wonder why Lexi's so late."
"She probably fell asleep eating noodles."
"What are you talking about, E?"
"I have no idea."
James challenged Sirius to a push-up contest, and they were thus occupied while Frank and Paul had a rock, paper, scissors tournament, and Mackey and Eden discussed such important things as potatoes.
"By... the... way... Prongs... Who's... judging... this... cont... est...? "
"Er... I dunno... What... number... are... you on?"
"I wasn't... ouch... counting..."
"Me... either..."
"Hurry up, Lex!" said Frank, frustrated with his paper-loss to Paul's scissors.
"Ya, I'm beginning to agree..." said James, getting to his feet.
"Ha! You lost!" cried Sirius victoriously.
"Did not. I won, so I stopped. Now shut up..."
"Damn. You always think of something," murmured Sirius.
Eden got up from where she had sat talking with Mackey about potatoes. "I'll go look for Lexi," she volunteered, shrugging. "I don't know why she's not here yet..."
"Nah, I'll go," said James; "you're liable to see something shiny and get distracted."
"I would not!"
"Yes, you would."
"Okay, maybe."
"I'll be back in a second..."
James darted through the "other" curtain, out of the locker room, which led- not to the Quidditch pitch- but down a rickety staircase to the grassy ground below. Once there, he sprinted, top speed to the castle. In two minutes, he was there, and halfway to the Gryffindor common room. In another minute, he was dashing up the stairs to the boys' dormitories.
There, he pulled open his trunk and tore through the contents once more, looking for the Marauders' Map. Once it was located, he pulled out his wand and pointed it the parchment, saying authoritatively: "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good!" As before, the map appeared on the blank parchment a moment later, and James scanned it for the name of "Alexandria Shaw" or anything remotely related.
Most people were down at the match by now, which meant it was not hard to find her. The little black dot labeled with her name was moving slightly faster than usual down the second floor corridor.
James was springing out the door a moment later, the map still in hand. Thanks to the much-trusted secret passageways that James knew so well, he was to the second floor almost instantly. Lexi was jogging down the hallway, a mere speck of red and gold robes and black hair.
"Hey, Lex!" the Quidditch Captain called after his chaser, running even faster than before towards her.
She stopped and looked over her shoulder, then waited a moment for him to catch up. "Where the bleedin' hell have you been?" he demanded, once he was level with her. They walked briskly towards the stair.
"Slughorn asked us to do him a favor and... oh get your mind out of the gutter, Potter... he asked us to transport a potion to Madame Pomfrey about twenty minutes ago, and then she asked us to transport a memorandum from her, and thenugh... it's too ridiculous."
"It's fine. But E's going wonky, and we need you to sort her out before the match."
"What do you mean?"
"Just the usual... talking about potatoes and so on."
"What-ho."
"C'mon. let's run, or we'll be late."
They quickened their pace, and were sprinting down the staircase, jumping appropriate steps automatically a moment later. But when they came to the entrance hall, the first sign of danger arrived.
"What are you two doing?"
The two seventh years simultaneously looked over their respective shoulders at Professor Grossman.
"Going to the Quidditch match," replied Lexi, because it was wiser for her to reply. Grossman did not hate her as much as she hated James.
"Why were you running?"
"We're... late."
"There's no running in the corridors."
James was pretty sure that Grossman had just made that rule up, but didn't say so. "Sorry, Professor," he replied, in unison with Lexi.
"Very well... get going, now," said the Herbology teacher reluctantly. James and Lexi turned to leave, when a new voice stopped them.
"Wait!" came the voice of Argus Filch, and James and Lexi were obliged to do as they were told. James was reluctant to turn and face the caretaker, because his bad experiences with him were numerous. "Wait there, you two," continued Filch.
"What seems to be the problem, Argus?" Professor Grossman asked, pleased enough for a reason to delay two students so eager to leave.
"Someone's been in to my office, they have..."
James had a sixth sense as to when he would need to be getting himself out of trouble soon. His back still turned to Grossman and Filch, he slowly and unobtrusively reached into his pocket for his wand so he could disable the Marauders' Map. But there was a slight problem. His wand wasn't in his pocket.
He'd left it in the dormitory.
"Son of a bitch."
"What was that?" screeched Grossman.
"It was... the... um... the... Pitch? We need to get down to the Quidditch Pitch, or Dumbledore will be very displeased." James had turned around to face the teachers, for no doubt they would soon take anything otherwise as a sign of disrespect, but the map was held in his hands behind his back.
It wasn't the first time James had been in a situation like this- where he didn't have the faintest idea of how to get out of trouble, but he did have something on his side at the moment. He had Lexi standing next to him, rather than Sirius. Lexi had a spotless record, and an undeniable reputation for being a genius, if an eccentric one.
"Five points from Gryffindor for your language, Potter," snapped Grossman. James held his breadth, hoping that that would make him unable to retort. He kicked Lexi in the ankle.
"Ouch... er... um... Professor, Caretaker, can we go now? We're going to be late..."
"I don't care! One of you was in my office!" growled Filch.
"No we weren't!" said both Lexi and James at once.
"Yes, yes you were!" insisted Filch, practically trembling, as the ever constant cat at his feet meowed triumphantly.
"But, Sir, we w..."
"There's no one else in the castle!" Filch kept on, and James felt his stomach sink. "They're all out at the match..."
"Well perhaps someone was in your office before they went out to the Match," Lexi threw in. James cast her a grateful look: everything sounded more credible when she said it.
"Argus," said Professor Grossman, and James had the feeling that she wouldn't help the situation any, "what exactly did they do?"
"Nothing!" shrieked Lexi. James did not think he had ever seen her so discomposed.
"They..." Filched seemed a little embarrassed to say it... "they meddled. With things..."
"I highly doubt Miss Shaw was involved," Grossman began slowly. Filch looked flustered. James was beginning to get very, very annoyed, and decided it was time to take action, before bad and scary things happened.
"Yes, yes... but Potter..." grumbled Filch.
"Potter, where have you been?" said Grossman.
"We've been over this," snapped James, hoping that what he was doing wasn't too obvious. "I went up to the Gryffindor tower to find Lexi, and she wasn't there, so I went about the castle and looked for her. I found her on the second floor, and we were on our way down here when Professor Grossman here stopped us. That's it. I didn't go to your office."
Filch took a step closer, and looked keenly in James's eyes. The Head Boy tried not to look too defiant, but probably failed miserably.
"I didn't do anything," he insisted, though he had a very good idea who had done something. He was going to kill Sirius later.
Some people thought of James as a little bit thick (namely, Lily), but he wasn't. In fact, at the moment, he was being rather clever. For one thing, he had managed to obtain a wand. For another thing, he had managed to obtain said wand, by swiping it from Lexi's left pocket, though he stood on her right. For yet another thing, he had managed to whisper so that no one noticed: "mischief managed!" while pointing said wand behind his back at the Marauders' Map, hence wiping it blank. James really wasn't too thick.
However, he did have moments, when he really wasn't too sly, either.
"Potter, what the hell are you doing?" shrieked Lexi, jumping back, for she had noticed James slipping his arm seemingly around her waste. In reality, he had been trying to return her wand to her left pocket. She gave him a bewildered look.
"What is that, Potter?" demanded Grossman, before James could do anything to explain to Lexi.
"What is what?"
"That parchment!"
"Oh this?" James brought the blank map into full view. "That's... nothing. Just some parchment..."
"Why are you bringing it to the Quidditch match?" Filch growled suspiciously.
"I wanted to write some notes to Mackey Simpson about his Chasing technique. You know- ways he can improve and such."
"You and your little friends carry blank parchment around a lot," muttered Filch suspiciously, and James could see why the caretaker would think this. He had caught various Marauders with the wiped Marauders' map on more than one occasion.
"Is that a crime?" he asked defiantly. This was getting ridiculous. He actually hadn't pulled the prank this time (concerning coffee and dung beetles), and he only had a few more minutes to get himself down to the pitch before the Quidditch match started.
"Let me see it!" ordered Filch, holding out his gnarled hand.
Grudgingly, James handed over the parchment.
"Professor," pleaded Lexi to Grossman, "we're going to be late for the match. Can't we please just...?"
"Not until we've got this sorted out," snapped Filch, eyeing the parchment carefully. "Er... would you like to...?" he turned the parchment over to the Herbology teacher.
James and Lexi both rolled their eyes. James knew (through sneaking) and Lexi suspected (through logic) that Filch was a squib. In other words, his parents were witch and wizard, but he himself could not perform a bit of magic. The fact that he had to turn the map over to Grossman for inspecting was further evidence and somewhat amusing, for Filch loved to terrorize the students.
"Of course, Argus." Grossman took the map in her own chubby hands, and looked it over herself. Then, she drew her wand and pointed it at the surface. "Show yourself!" she commanded.
Nothing happened.
James prayed nothing would happen.
Lexi was still eyeing him suspiciously.
"Revealio!"
Nothing.
"Commonstro!"
Nothing.
"Reveal your message!"
Zip.
"Show me your secret!"
Zilch.
"Appear!"
Natta.
Grossman was getting irate, but she refused to give up, as she threw every synonym imaginable at the parchment. James was getting even more annoyed.
"Oh come on!" he burst out angrily. "There's nothing the matter with the parchment, okay? Now can we go? There's a Quidditch match!"
"Don't speak to us like that!" ordered Grossman, letting the map go for the present.
"And I want to know who was in my office!" said Filch.
"Oh for Merlin's sake! WE DIDN'T MESS WITH YOUR DAMNED COFFEE!"
James could have shot himself there and then. In fact, he was seriously considering it. So was Lexi. She stared at him, mouth open, and a look of pure stun in her brown eyes.
"How did you know that?" whispered Filch, lethally.
"I... I didn't do it," said James honestly. He really was going to kill Sirius. "I swear it. I only knew it because... I know who did do it..."
"And who was that?" asked Grossman, an ever-growing evil smirk on her face.
"Well um..." He was mad at Sirius, but he couldn't rat him out. "I... y'see I didn't..."
"Come to my office, you two!" said Filch, sounding more gleeful than angry.
"No! Lexi had nothing to do with it... I swear. C'mon..."
Filch looked reluctant to let her go, but relented. "All right. Get along then, and don't expect Potter any time soon..."
James spun around to Lexi. "Okay, Lex. Get Frank's sub- Jamie Watson- out of the stands, and make sure he's suited up as soon as possible." Lexi nodded. "Then tell Frank to play Keeper- he's decent at that. Paul Montreal has to play Seeker, since he's the most versatile player on the team, okay? Hurry! The game starts in five minutes. If I'm not back, you'll have to play like that."
Lexi gave him a glare, and if James hadn't remembered that he had not actually pranked Filch, he would have felt very guilty. She sprinted out of the Entrance Hall, and James turned to Filch and Grossman.
The latter smiled sweetly. "Well, I assume you can take care of him, Argus. I'll be down at the match." She followed Lexi at a much slower pace out of the Entrance Hall, and James was forced to follow Filch up the stairs of the castle.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
There were no sounds of cheering from the grounds, so James could presume that the match was over. That was terrible. HALF AN HOUR? Either Paul Montreal had three times the Seeking skills that James thought he had, or else Gryffindor had lost.
He did not meet anyone on his way from Filch's out-of-the-way office to the Gryffindor Common room, so he could ask no one about the match. He did not remember breathing once the entire way up.
When he finally did get to the Tower, he was reluctant to go in. Couldn't he face his doom later, rather than sooner?
"Fly wings," he muttered to the Fat Lady, by way of password. She swung forward, and James entered the common room. At first, he could not know what had happened. The atmosphere was indefinable, but it was rather noisy. Every Gryffindor seemingly was in there, talking.
They were silent when he entered.
Everyone stared at him for a moment. The first person to speak was Lily Evans, who was sitting on a couch, beside a sweaty Eden.
"Good job, Potter," she muttered venomously.
"I didn't do it," he stated firmly.
"Sure," was all Lily said.
"It was my fault," Paul Montreal said, coming up to James and looking thoroughly disappointed with himself. "I had it at one point, but the bludger got me and I lost sight of it, and Orlando caught it before..."
"It's not your fault, Paul," insisted Lexi, approaching them with Frank. "Sorry, Potter," she added to James. "Eden told me that it wasn't you..."
Not everyone seemed as wise as Lexi, however. Most of the Gryffindors sent him angry glares for his absence at the match, which had apparently lost them the match. Sirius seemed the most apologetic, however.
"Shit, James. I'm sorry. I didn't imagine he'd... well... I'm so sorry, Prongs..."
"Shut up, Padfoot. Never mind. It doesn't matter."
But it did matter, as James could not help but remember as he walked up to bed that evening. The day had not been a friendly one. Unless Ravenclaw lost to Hufflepuff, which was highly unlikely, Gryffindor would be out of the running for the Cup. The day had most definitely not been friendly.
OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO
I deserve to be burned at the stake for this terrible filler-chapter. But have no fear, it does have SOME significance on the storyline. And the next chapter is SO packed with storyline significance, that there was no room for some of the little things that I wanted out of the way in it (i.e. Quidditch). I feel SO incredibly guilty about this chapter. SORRY!
Jami- more people should think like you :-P you reviewed, so it's my turn to update! Thrilled that you enjoy the writing, 'cos I enjoy providing it! Thanks for reviewing! apologies for this chapter (1st!)
Occhio di Lince- yes! You describe Lily exactly how I want her! No Super!Lily and no I'mSmartSoIHateSports!Lily. I'm an obsessive writer, but I'm also a soccer and basketball addict, and play on varsity teams for both. Lily doesn't play, but she enjoys Quidditch! Ugh. Death the stereotype-fanfiction-Lily! Cheers for the review, and apologies for this chapter.
lilalex13- well... Lily and James may take a little while yet... but don't worry. Lily's first signs of "danger" (as she sees it) are definitely becoming evident. Hence the attempted resigning in Ch. 8. Thanks for leaving me one, hope you enjoy the story, and sorry for this chap!
Maraudersrock77- "Rian" was originally named "Tristan" but I didn't have the heart to punish him that much. LoL. He's not one of my favorites, I have to admit, for some things in future chapters, but he does have a fun name. Unfortunatley, this chapter isn't as long or as good as the others, but the next chapter... well... that has potential to be quite long, and will probably require some cutting. :-P thanks for reviewing
Sango-Inu-Yasha-Lover- thank you much, and I hope you keep reading. Cheers.
Immortaleyes: am I done? No, far from it (unfortunately for you, my victims! Bwahaha!) I hope you get this far, and continue onwards. Thanks for reviewing and for putting me on your list. Gives cookies. if you get this far, forgive me for the filler, and i hope you continue to R&R.
Cheers to Readers
-Jewels-
