A/N: Whoot whoot! Chapter 9 marks the halfway point of the twenty chapters (including the prologue if you're why I can't do math) in The Marauders Era: Year 1! Thank you so much to those of you who have followed/favorited/reviewed on this story! You rock! Soon enough, Year 2 will be a work in progress, and at one point, all seven years will be finished! I am beyond excited! I have already begun writing some chapters for Years 2-7, and they are looking pretty great! In the meantime, enjoy this halfway chapter!
Chapter 9:Let it Snow!
First Weekend of December, 1971
Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry
It was a cold December Friday, and the rather gloomy weather was beginning to take a toll on the attitude of the students at Hogwarts.
"And as a result of the Werewolf Code of Conduct developed in 1637…" Professor Binns lectured in a monotone voice of disinterest. However, hardly any of the students were looking at him, but were now staring out the window eagerly.
"Look, look! It's snowing!" Marlene yelled in excitement, breaking the silence upon the students and Professor Binns' lecture.
"Yes, yes, nothing you haven't seen before. Now, although the Werewolf Code of Conduct seemed a great plan to some, not a single person showed up to sign the actual document…" Binns continued, droning on about the lesson.
James felt like he was about to fall asleep. "This class is so useless," he whisper-grunted to Remus, who was a pale color of white. "What've we got to learn about werewolves anyway? It's not like there's one in the school," James complained.
The little color left in Remus' face drained. "Er...right."
"You all right?" James asked, finally noticing Remus' state of discomfort.
"Oh, yes. Er...quite all right, just cold," Remus quickly lied.
"Ah…" James did not quite believe Remus entirely, but was not in the mood to interview him about it.
Longingly, the student's tuned out of Binn's lesson, excited to go outside and play in the snow. It seemed that everybody but Lily had taken an interest to the white flakes floating and drifting outside rather than to Professor Binns' lecture.
Busily, Lily scribbled down notes, the sound of her quill scratching against the parchment echoing through the rather silent classroom.
"All right, students. Class is out. Leave now, please. Have a great weekend, blah, blah, blah…"
Everybody's bags were already packed, and students jumped out of their seats and scurried out of the classroom the second the words left Binns' mouth.
"Hurry up, Lily! Honestly, why do you care enough about this class to take notes?"
"Because, Marlene, I actually wish to do well in this class. Plus, what's got you rushing? We've still got herbology!"
"Yes, but we get to go outside in order to reach the herbology classroom, Lils! Then, we'll be able to see the snow!"
"What's everyone so excited about? It's just snow. Like Professor Binns' said, it's nothing we haven't seen before."
"Yes, but it's our first snow at Hogwarts, Lily! Now, hurry up or else I'm leaving without you!"
Lily glared at Marlene, packed her last quill into her bag and then scuffled out the classroom to herbology.
"Wonder what Professor Sprout's got to teach us today," Lily chirped curiously.
"Don't know, don't care," Marlene responded flatly.
Lily frowned.
When they reached outside, Marlene threw her hands out above her head and began twirling under the snowfall. "Come on, Lils!"
Lily's cheeks were already stinging numb with the cold, and she looked at the snowflakes questioningly. "Eh…"
"Come on, you have to come out here to get to herbology anyways!"
"Yes…"
Lily stepped out into the snow, and quickly walked past Marlene into the herbology greenhouses. She could feel Marlene judging her as she passed her.
In the herbology greenhouse, there was still a chill lingering in the air, but for the most part, the greenhouse was humid.
Lily sat down next to Mary, who was prodding a plant with her finger, looking bored.
"Hey, Mary!" Lily said sweetly as she slipped her bag off her shoulder and began emptying it out.
"Oh, hey, Lils," Mary responded, rather bluntly.
"Long day?" Lily asked.
"Quite."
"Well, after this class, it will be the weekend at least!"
"Yes, that should be exciting. With the snow as well!"
Lily beamed. "Cheer up, Mary, we're going to need quite the positive attitude for herbology."
"How come?"
"Dunno. Last class before the weekend, would like to start the weekend off on a cheery note, wouldn't you?"
"I suppose so, yes."
"All right, class," Madam Pomfrey called, wobbling to the front of the greenhouse. "Let's get started!"
The rest of herbology class was quite dull to most of the students, and when it was time to pack up and leave, everybody was more than willing to do so.
Marlene, in particular, was in such a rush to get out of the classroom that she started "helping" Lily pack up by grabbing all of Lily's books, quills, and notes off the table and dunking them into her bag with a thud!
"Whoa! Calm down there, Marly!"
"All, right! Time to get out!" Marlene cheered and she zipped out of the classroom and twirled around under the snow once again. "Oh, it's so beautiful! Come out and play, Lils!"
"Er...don't you want to grab dinner first?"
"No, it'll be dark after dinner! Come on, Lils! Let's just play for twenty minutes and then we can go to dinner."
Lily sighed. "Oh, I suppose. It really is so cold, though, Marly."
"You'll forget about the cold when you have fun! Here, let's make snow angels!" Marlene lay down in the snow and began moving her arms and legs around her.
Lily looked down at her, awkwardly playing with her mittens. "Er...Marly, you're going to catch a cold. You're laying in the snow with just your robes on."
"Oh, come on, Lils! Why so serious?"
Lily stared at Marlene, whose nose and cheeks were tinged with red. "Marly, you look cold. Maybe you don't feel like it, but perhaps we should go inside."
Marlene stopped swinging her arms and legs, and sat up. She glared at Lily for a second, and then grabbed a tuft of snow in her mittens and threw it away from her, the snow landing with a poof as it exploded into a cloud of flakes. "Fine, then. If you wish to be such a killjoy."
"I'm not trying to be a killjoy. Let's play tomorrow when we can get coats and be a little more warm."
"Yeah, yeah…"
Marlene marched through the snow irritably back into the castle, Lily hurrying after her.
"All right, everybody! Wake up! Hurry, before the snow melts! And put on your coats as well, that way Lils doesn't try to kick us back inside again!"
Lily sat up and glared at Marlene. "Better be warm than have you complaining about a cold you caught outside."
"Whatever, Lils, you're always so uptight. Anyways, let's hurry outside so we can meet up with them and play some snow games!"
"Them?" Mary asked. "Who's them?"
"Oh, just the boys. You know, Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew."
"WHAT?" Lily shrieked. "I'm not going then," she said flatly.
"Oh, please, Lils! What've you got against them?"
Lily's eyes bulged. "You have got to be kidding me!"
"Okay, fine, I suppose you don't get along the greatest. But please come, Lils! It'll be so fun! You don't even have to talk to them!"
"Of course I will not talk to them! But they are just so loud and attract so much unwanted attention that it is right impossible to ignore them!"
"Fine! If you want to be stubborn, fine. We'll just be heading out to have some fun, while you can shut yourself up in here alone."
Lily glared at Marlene coldly. After a momentary staring contest, Lily gave up, tossed her blankets into the air, and screamed "Fine!"
Marlene grinned victoriously.
When the girls were all dressed and ready, they marched down to the Great Hall, where the boys were nonexistent. "Ah, the Marauders' sleep pattern is in your favor, Lils! Looks as if they will be late!"
"Marauders?"
"Oh, yes, have you not heard? They got themselves a name, fashioned by Minnie McGonagall herself!"
"Marlene!" Lily snapped.
"What?"
"Don't call Professor McGonagall that!"
"What? Minnie?"
"Yes!"
"What's wrong with it?"
"It's disrespectful and degrading!"
"Oh, please, Lily! Loosen up!"
"You tighten up!"
"Are you kidding me?"
"Enough!" Gwenog silenced the girls. "When are we going to learn to keep the Marauders out of our conversations? It always ends with you two quarreling!"
"You use their name too?" Lily asked incredulously.
"Well, it's certainly faster than saying Potter, Black, Lupin, and Pettigrew!"
"Oh, I'm sure that's the only reason!"
"All, right! That's certainly enough this time!" Mary said. "Let's just eat our breakfast and go! Or talk about something else!"
When they finished with their breakfast, they hiked out close to the lake, and began playing around in the snow.
"Let's build a snowman!" Alice said excitedly, rolling up snow.
Marlene threw a snowball at Alice's now disembodied snowman. "Hey!"
"Oops! I meant to get you!" Marlene laughed.
In response, Alice chucked a snowball with surprising force at Marlene, who was hit square in the face. "Oof!"
"Jeez, Ali! Since when do you get aggressive?" Lily laughed, getting a snowball to the face. "Hey!"
And soon the girls were all chucking snowballs at each other, laughing and running around as they tried to dodge each other.
Lily was having surprising fun out in the cold, and she shrieked with delight when she hit Marlene in the shoulder. Her glory, however, was short-lived when she felt a very forceful snowball slam into her side, toppling her over into the soft snow.
"Hey!" Lily looked around for her attacker, picking up a snowball to get revenge on them.
"Hold your fire, Evans!"
Lily's smile vanished. "You?"
"Yep! Did Marlene not tell you who else she invited?"
"No, she told me. I just don't care."
"Of course you care, Evans!"
"Get over yourself, Potter!"
"That's a lot to ask, Eva—" Foomp! A snowball hit James squarely in the face, knocking his glasses off his perched nose. When he groped around and had found his glasses again, he opened his eyes to see Lily smiling with satisfaction.
"Oi! What was that for, Evans?"
"You hit me first, Potter! Or are you too stupid to remember that?"
"Ouch, Evans! Also, you broke my glasses, so you have to fix them!"
"Fix them yourself, Potter!"
"You fix them! You were the one that broke them!"
"Oh, please, Potter! It's a very simple spell, really!" Lily walked closer to James, still keeping as much distance between them as she possibly could. She took her wand out of her coat, and pointed them at James' glasses: "Oculus Reparo!"
As soon as she cast the spell, Lily turned around and walked back to the group, which was now an intense snowball fight between Marlene and Sirius as everyone else cheered them on.
James stared at the back of Lily through his repaired glasses in shock. She really is quite a brilliant witch, he thought, before quickly shaking himself out of his trance and running to cheer on Sirius.
Eventually, Marlene hit Sirius in one eye, leaving him sprawled on the ground crying "I'm in pain! I'm in pain!"
Everyone else laughed, as James tried very hard to drag his best friend up the hill through the snow. "Jeez, Sirius! How much do you weigh!"
"I feel heavier because I'm wearing a winter coat."
"Or maybe it's because you ate seven pieces of toast this morning," Peter chirped, walking alongside them.
"Quit talking and help me drag him, Peter!" James groaned as he tugged violently on Sirius' arm.
"Oi! Careful, James! You're gonna pull my arm off!"
"Yes, that would be a shame," James said dryly. He dropped Sirius' arm. "All right! Sorry, mate, but I'm tired of dragging you around! Peter, it's your turn!"
"I don't want to drag him around!"
"Well, someone's got to drag me!"
"Come on, Sirius," James grunted. "So what if you have a tiny black eye, your legs weren't injured!"
"Wait, I have a black eye?"
"Well, yes. Marlene hit you square in your eye! No way you could have survived that without a black eye!"
"Oh my God!" Sirius immediately scrambled up. "My face!" He ran off into the castle, undoubtedly to find a mirror.
"Jeez, what a girl," Peter sighed.
"Shall we follow him?" James asked, with a slight laugh. "He's going to be devastated."
"Yes! But we have to hurry back to Gryffindor tower after, I've still got that Transfiguration essay Minnie gave us to write."
"It's too bad Remus isn't here. We could just copy off him."
"How come he keeps disappearing without notice? He could have told us that he was leaving last night."
"Yeah, otherwise we wouldn't have wasted this morning trying to find him again."
The boys trudged back up to the castle through the snow, trying to solve the mystery of their friend as they left a trail of small footprints behind.