Of Mistletoe and Holly Leaves

Ten: Ridiculous Antics

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

Each dedicated to a person on FFNet:

Dedicated to Lady Elizabeth of New York who I hope is reading this.

Beta read by CloSalvatore

-l-Sirius-l-

Valentine's Day.

In my opinion, the best day of the year.

Why? Girls simply love me.

They give me presents, and shower me with Valentine's day cards.

Even Remus and Peter get some.

James and I used to have competitions before he had his heart captured by Lily Evans.

But even without the competitions, it's still the best day of the year. Except April Fools and Halloween, and..well it's one of the best.

Easter is pretty good too.

Anyway, back to the story.

So where was I? Short memory right?

Oh yes, I remember.

It was a typical Valentine's Day, though James looked like he had given up on Evans finally.

Or maybe that was just my opinion.

Anyway, point is, he was either giving up, or was plotting something.

Both were equally unlikely.

Usually Valentine's day was our happy, cheerful day. Not plotting day.

And James would never give up on Lily Evans.

Which left only one option.

He was plotting something to give Lily.

I looked across the lake where she and her best friend were sitting.

She looked across the lake, and when she saw James, her eyes widened and she left without a word.

I knew she'd caught that gleam in his eyes, he was plotting something, and she, didn't want it to involve her.

That's when I noticed he was grinning, his eyes shining in that way that meant he had a plan that he 'knew' was going to work.

Most of his brilliant plans ended in catastrophe. No less than ten times, Lily had either slapped, kicked, cursed or else thrown something at James.

" What's your plan?" I asked.

He tore his eyes away from where she had vanished inside. " What plan?"

I rolled my eyes. " Come off it. I know you too well James. You're planning on asking Lily out again."

He nodded. " I'm going to sing to her."

I choked. " Sing to her?"

He nodded. " It sounds like a good idea," he replied. " I've heard of guys singing to girls before."

If they are actually GOOD! I mean no offense Prongs, but seriously...you can't sing to save your life! I mean, really, I think all the birds would drop out of the trees, girls would scream for mercy. Honestly, if you were as good at singing as you were looking, then you might have a chance. But you aren't, in fact it is the exact opposite. Sing to her and she'll probably break your chances of EVER reproducing.

Face it. No girl wants you to sing to her. Unless they are one of your crazy fangirls...but Lily Evans is not one of them. She would kill you given the chance. I wouldn't give her that chance if I were you. Yes, even singing. She could say it was annoying, and trust me, it is. It's bad enough when you sing in the shower...but really Prongs? To a girl. Particularly HER?

You've just sentenced yourself to both humiliation and hurt.

Haven't you already tried hard enough to get Lily Evans?

Can't you just move on? I would say she would rather make you unable to move than she is to ever EVER even date you or give you a second glance.

I shook my head. Really? What was he playing at?

But James looked around brightly.

-l-Third-l-

Peter, James, Sirius and Remus all sat on one bench.

On one end, James was trying to shove Sirius off, with Peter on the other side of Sirius, he was trying to look innocent, while also trying to help James push Sirius off the bench.

On the opposite end as James, Remus sat, looking purely innocent, and continually glancing as his friends, wondering when they were going to stop. And to anyone who passed by, he gave them a look that said he had no idea who these three idiots next to him were.

After a minute or two, he leaned back, resting his head tiredly, watching as his friends succeeded in pushing Sirius off.

He laughed along with them when they cheered happily.

Which only lasted until Sirius got up and dragged James off the bench, and they toppled over, wrestling furiously.

After a moment, Peter jumped up and cheered, although he hadn't seemed to have chosen a side.

Sirius won, and got up, pulling James up, and then pushing him back down.

James then tackled Sirius yet again, but this time only once, and then jumped up again, straightening his robes until Sirius got up, and messed James's hair up.

James glared in warning.

" I'm just helping," Sirius said defensively.

" I'll help you," James said, turning and Sirius jumped like a cat, and with a head start, tore off, racing through the halls, with James right behind him.

They sprinted into the Transfiguration classroom, skidding to a stop when they nearly crashed into the Deputy Headmistress, she looked down at them both coldly.

Her warning look was plenty enough to tell them that if they didn't stop, she would take away points.

Laughing, they returned to the halls, where James pushed Sirius down and ran, dodging one girl, and crashing into another.

" Watch it!" he cried, leaping up, ready to run.

" Potter! Watch it," Lily Evans, her green eyes narrowed, hair flying, was getting up from where he had pushed her down.

" Sorry Evans," he apologized with a wink that would make most girls swoon. The only effect it had on Lily was cause her to roll her eyes and sigh.

Then Sirius came rounding the same corner, but Lily was smart enough to figure that James was messing with one of his friends, and was out of the way.

James, who hadn't realized Sirius was still chasing him, was standing right where Lily had been.

Which meant, that when Sirius rounded the corner, despite slamming on his brakes, he crashed right into James, sending them both tumbling.

" You git!" James was shouting.

" Sorry! You were the one who stopped!" Sirius shouted back.

Lily simply rolled her eyes and left the boys arguing where Remus and Peter found them, minutes later, Sirius and James now arguing about chocolate flavors.

-l-Remus-l-

I walked, with Peter right behind me, to dinner.

" Look, it's beef casserole." I turned my head, making the simple observation.

James sat down, looking nervous, which meant that he was going to either present something or ask Lily out again. Probably both, I thought, putting casserole on my plate, and cutting a dinner roll in half.

I noticed that Sirius was watching James as well, a slight smirk on his face, and I knew that Sirius knew the same thing, and was just waiting for James to make his move.

I sighed, and put a bowl of alphabet soup on his plate, knowing he preferred it to the casserole.

Peter, not one to be shameful, was helping himself to both without assistance.

I would have given James some casserole, but knowing him, he would eat it and then get nervous and probably throw it up later.

Sirius picked up his fork, and not realizing he had soup, put his fork in and stuck it in his mouth.

Soup at Hogwarts is hot. Very hot, but good.

And sticking your burning hot fork into your mouth, is not a good idea.

Not to mention he was supposed to use a spoon.

" HOT! HOT! OW! That burns!" Sirius yelled, dropping his fork, which landed on his toe, causing him to shriek, forget his tongue, and grab his injured foot. This unbalanced him and sent him tumbling backwards off the bench and bang his head rather hard on the floor.

I turned to look at him, or rather his spot.

Then I looked down at the floor where he lay, clutching his hand and his foot, which kind of made him look like he was trying to do the Asparagus but on the floor. He was clutching his head which he had banged, while trying to get his shoe off to rub his foot at the same time. He really did look like he was doing the Asparagus.

I laughed, and Peter peered over the table, and lost his balance, falling forward over the table, though first he landed in the food, and landing on Sirius, who shrieked something with some choice words. Peter yelped, rolling off of Sirius who was busy repeating some of his favorite of those choice words.

I looked over to see James's reaction.

He had his head on the table and was shaking with silent laughter. But after a moment, he let out a shaking laugh.

He looked over the table, trying to keep a straight face, but then he went to shaking again, a weak laugh escaped, and then it all tumbled out.

The other Gryffindors were in fits of hysterics.

" Hey Evans!" Jame shouted over the laughter.

The hall fell silent.

Lily's head whipped up, her eyes narrowing dangerously.

James jumped up on the table, deciding to do this before he lost his nerve.

Then he sang.

I wasn't sure what he sang, only that Lily's face went red as her hair, and her green eyes widened in horror.

And she had every right to.

James was awful at singing, for all of his talent at Quidditch, he had none when it came to singing.

Sirius, and Peter, despite having had their own humiliation, were roaring with laughter, Peter was laughing so hard he was crying.

Next to him, Sirius banged his fists on the ground, laughing so hard that he was wheezing. They clutched each other, laughing loudly.

The rest of the hall was laughing too, for Lily Evans was not one to stand for what she called 'ridiculous antics.'

And she had pointedly decided to throw the mashed potatoes that had yet to reach my plate, in James Potter's mouth, causing him to choke before someone pounded him on the back to dislodge the potatoes.

Then Lily was storming out of the hall, yelling something that sounded like a furious, "NO!" at James, who only laughed.