Ah finally! I'm updating on time! I hope you like this chapter. It's a little predictable and a little long, but don't let that put you off.
Thank you all for the reviews and story alerts! I really love reading all your reviews!
As always, the interruptions are in bold.
Hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer : I definitely do not own Harry Potter.
James and Albus settled back into their chairs with their lunch and looked at McGonagall expectantly.
"I wish you'd listen to my classes with as much interest," she said smiling slightly.
"I do," said Albus.
"He doesn't. If only you could see the guilty thoughts running through his head right now, Minerva," said Snape, looking at James with an evil grin.
"Oh come on! Not the evil grin and the Legilimency again. Besides, I do listen in Professor McGonagall's class, it's not like I have a choice anyway," said James.
"He doesn't need to work all that hard. His grandfather's genes are coming out in him. He excels at Transfiguration, unlike you," said McGonagall glaring at James first and then at Snape.
"It was one incident and you make it sound like I can't transfigure a pin," grumbled Snape.
"That one incident happened to be what made you fail your Transfiguration OWL," chuckled Dumbledore.
"Whose side are you on?" demanded Snape.
"No one's. I'm just enjoying a quiet laugh at that memory. You were fortunate I was in the room at the time," said Dumbledore.
"What happened?" James and Albus asked together.
"His Transfiguration OWL was a disaster," said McGonagall. "Somewhere in the middle of the exam, he happened to see James. Severus was never good at Transfiguration but his exam had been going well enough to get him an A but then he saw James who was on his way to getting an O. Severus got distracted and so, instead of transfiguring his vase into a flamingo, he said the wrong spell and turned his examiner into a toad."
The boys burst into laughter. "It was the only OWL that I failed. And in my defense, that examiner was already pretty warty," said Snape.
"Severus' Transfiguration landed him in trouble during the exams but James' got him into trouble with Lily," said McGonagall. She began with the story.
James continued to be nice to Lily for the next month. She too seemed to be happier with the new James. Sirius was also being very friendly with Alison. Because of his reputation as the heart-breaker of Hogwarts, however, Alice and Mary were keeping a close eye on him.
Just before Halloween, there was a Hogsmeade weekend. Lily had a date- a very handsome Ravenclaw from her Ancient Runes class named Steve Robins. James was unaware of this until Sirius came bursting into the dormitory with the news.
"James! Did you know that Lily has a date for this Hogsmeade weekend?" he yelled.
"What? Who is it?" demanded James.
"It's that Ravenclaw Keeper, Steve Robins."
"That guy? We should keep an eye on them," said James.
"Don't even think about it," said Remus. He'd been reading but now he looked up. "Lily's just beginning to like you. Do you really want to ruin it?"
"Aw, come on Moony, girls don't want men to be just sensitive. They need to be strong. Besides girls like guys getting jealous," said Sirius.
"That's only when they actually like the guy who's getting jealous. Last time I checked, James and Lily weren't even friends. Besides, do we need a repeat of the shouting matches they have every time James stalks her on a date?" replied Remus.
"I like being the good guy, Remus. It feels like I'm finally being myself. But I want to impress Lily for which I also need to be bad once in a while. I won't do something crazy; I'll just make sure she's safe on her date. And I hate to admit it, but Sirius does have more experience with girls than you do," said James.
Remus snorted, "The only experience Sirius has with girls is snogging them and then dumping them. It's why he gets so flustered around Alison Hayes because he knows she won't stand for being snogged and dumped. He needs to clean up his act more than you do. When you're serious enough about Lily to listen to me, I'll be happy to help."
"He can't be serious, I'm Sirius," said Sirius suddenly.
"Sirius!" yelled Remus and James throwing their pillows at him.
"It's okay, Moony. Hogsmeade weekend will be fine," said James, confidently.
Remus sighed, "It's your funeral." Maybe he could convince Lily over the week to not go to Hogsmeade on Saturday…
-X-X-X-X-
Monday:
"Psst…Hey Lily," hissed Remus in Arithmancy.
Lily turned to him, "What?"
"Are you going to Hogsmeade this weekend?"
"Yeah."
"Well don't," said Remus.
"Why not?"
"They're enacting the 'Pied Piper of Hamlin,' there'll be rats everywhere," said Remus.
"What?" said Lily, loudly.
Everyone turned to look at her.
Professor Vector raised an eyebrow, "Would you like to share the shocking news, Miss Evans?"
"Oh, um, Remus was just telling me how you can replace epsilon by pi in Wulfric the Wise's equation which would make it similar to the mathematical from of Darius' Law of Magical Energy and a whole lot easier to understand," said Lily quickly.
Everyone stared at her like she'd spoken Greek and Latin.
Professor Vector smiled, "I do like my students discussing new theories, but I'm afraid it'll have to wait till after the class, Miss Evans, Mr. Lupin," she said.
"Yes Professor," they both said.
After the teacher had turned back to the board, Lily turned to Remus again. "Are you sure about the rats?"
"I think you're confused Remus, the play they're enacting is 'Babbity Rabbity's Cackling Stump'" said Alison.
"Oh I've always wanted to see that. I'm definitely going to Hogsmeade, then," said Lily.
Tuesday:
"Lily, you really shouldn't go to Hogsmeade," said Remus.
"Why not?"
"Er, there's supposed to be a freak snowstorm."
Lily raised her eyebrows, "A snowstorm in October? I think I'll take the chance," she said and walked away.
Wednesday:
"Hey, Lily, I didn't really understand today's lesson. Could you go over it with me on Saturday?"said Remus just as they were walking out of Potions.
Before Lily could answer, Slughorn replied from behind them, "Why Mr. Lupin, I thought you did quite well in today's class. If you haven't completely understood the lesson, however, I'd be glad to help you this Saturday."
"Oh, err, thanks Professor, but I think I've got the gist of it," said Remus hurriedly.
"In Potions, just the gist of the lesson is not enough Mr. Lupin. I expect you in my office on Saturday morning," said Slughorn firmly.
Great, thought Remus, now I can't even go to Hogsmeade myself and prevent James from doing something stupid.
Thursday:
Remus was getting desperate. He'd always come up with really convincing stories for the teachers whenever the Marauders needed to get out of trouble but now, he couldn't think of a decent story to keep Lily from going to Hogsmeade.
"Lily, did you hear about the disturbance at Honeydukes? What if Death Eaters are hiding in the shops?" he said during lunch.
"It was just a stray dog that broke into Honeydukes and caused all the panic Remus. Didn't you read the paper this morning?" asked Mary.
Remus cursed silently. He was running out of ideas.
Friday:
"Hey Lily-"
"Remus, if this is another daft story about why I shouldn't go to Hogsmeade tomorrow, give up," said Lily.
"Oh. You realized what I was trying to do," said Remus.
"I didn't get my good grades in the OWLs without a decent brain," she replied.
"Is there any point in me telling you not to go to Hogsmeade?"
"No."
Remus sighed. "Good luck, then."
-X-X-X-
Saturday dawned, sunny and just pleasantly cold. Lily found Steve waiting for her outside the Great Hall.
"Hey," she said.
"Hey. You look really lovely," said Steve, smiling at her.
"Lovely? She looks positively breathtaking! Sirius have you written down the first point on our list?" said James, from behind a pillar.
"Mate, I don't think Lily's even going to look at your 'Reasons not to date Steve Robins' list," said Sirius.
"She will. She's going to realize how wrong he is for her soon," said James.
"Why did I agree to tail them with you? And why are we hiding behind pillars instead of just using the Invisibility Cloak?" asked Sirius.
"Peter's on standby with the cloak at Location 001. Are you ready Agent Padfoot?" said James.
Sirius sighed and shook his head, "And he tells me I watch too many muggle movies," he muttered.
"Come on Sirius, they're leaving," said James.
"If they go into Madam Puddifoot's, I'm not following them in with you," said Sirius as they set off behind a happily oblivious Lily and Steve.
Lily was actually enjoying herself. She and Steve had many common interests and he was nice, not full of himself like Potter. She wondered briefly why she was even comparing him to Potter when he was clearly no standard. She shrugged and pushed the thought away.
"How about we get some chocolate?" asked Steve.
"Okay," said Lily. They walked into Honeydukes, which was filled with students as usual.
Steve held her hand, "Don't get lost now," he said smiling.
She grinned back, "You'll need that hand to grab as much chocolate as you can. I know you like chocolate as much as I do."
"Between you and chocolate, I definitely like you more," he said. Lily blushed slightly, but looked pleased.
"She's blushing! They're holding hands! How can she like that guy's lame cheesy lines and not mine?" said James, sounding anguished.
Sirius paused in biting the head off a chocolate frog, "They're on a date, Prongs. It's what you do on a date. I'm sure it's not an alien concept to you."
"Oh, shut up," grumbled James. "Let's go over to them."
He walked over, with Sirius following warily in case Lily decided to hex them. "Evans! What a pleasant surprise," said James.
Lily groaned, but at Steve's 'be polite' look, she turned around, "Potter," she said curtly.
"So…you're on a date?" he asked.
"Yes," she said pointedly.
"Ok," said James. Everyone fell silent, not knowing what to say.
Unable to stand the awkward silence, Steve grabbed Lily's hand, "I think we've got enough chocolate, why don't we go? It was nice meeting you two here. Bye." He and Lily exited the store quickly.
"Come on," said James, looking at Sirius.
"But James, I was just getting started," whined Sirius, looking longingly at all the chocolate.
"You can sneak in here whenever you want to. Hurry up," said James.
"If this is how you treat all the girls on your dates, no wonder they broke up with you," grumbled Sirius, following him.
That was how the afternoon went. James and Sirius 'accidentally' bumped into Lily and Steve all day. They ran into each other in Scrivenshaft's, Zonko's and even Gladrags. Finally Lily managed to shake them off. "Let's go to the Three Broomsticks, we'll be able to lose them in the crowd," said Lily.
"Isn't it funny how we keep running into them? It's almost as if they're following us," said Steve as they sat down at a table, butterbeers in hand.
Lily looked at him incredulously. Over the day, her interest in Steve had begun to wane. She'd soon realized that he was not one of the smartest Ravenclaws around. Heck, he wasn't even one of the smartest students in school. In fact, the only subject he seemed to excel in was Ancient Runes. He'd been pretty boring, and she was actually waiting for the day to end. But, she had found him a nice, decent, sweet boy and was not entirely regretful about spending an entire day with him. She thought he would make a nice friend but she was definitely not interested in a relationship with him. She was only going to go along with the date for the day. she opened her mouth to answer him, when-
"Lily!"
She looked around and sighed in relief. Alice, Mary and Alison walked up to her. "Hey, I'll be right back," she told Steve and joined her friends.
"So, how's the date going?" asked Alice.
"It's horrible! Steve is a nice guy, but he's absolutely unintelligent. And to make matters worse, James Potter has been following me around," she moaned.
"Well I did tell you that guy is all looks and little brain," said Alison.
"Why's Potter following you?" asked Mary.
"Same reason as always, I guess. He deems my date 'wrong' for me," said Lily.
"Oh, look, here he is now," said Mary, looking at the door.
"Okay, if I accidentally kill him, do visit me in Azkaban," said Lily.
She joined Steve again just as James called, "Lily! Fancy seeing you again. You're not following me are you?" He and Sirius slid into seats beside Lily and Steve. "How's your date going?" asked James.
"It's wonderful. How's your date with Sirius going?" said Lily.
"He's not my date! We're just bonding as brothers over butterbeer," said Sirius immediately.
Lily drained the last of her butterbeer. "Well, it's getting late. Shall we head back Steve?" she said. He nodded and got up. Lily threw James a look that said 'I-know-what-you're-up-to' and left.
"She's on to us Prongs. Let's get out of here," said Sirius.
James wasn't listening. He strode off behind them with Sirius walking along helplessly. James watched with growing frustration as Steve put his arm around Lily. He got closer so he could hear their conversation. Steve was saying something about monsters and Lily was laughing. She suddenly shivered and cuddled closer to Steve.
"That's it," said James pulling out his wand.
"No, James! She'll never forgive you for this," said Sirius. James just raised his wand.
Lily smiled at Steve as he described the monster in the funny movie he'd seen. He was a muggleborn too. "It had a funny round face, all covered with blue fur and two tiny horns. But it had this really funny red nose too," he was saying.
Lily suddenly frowned, "Are you feeling cold Steve? You seem a little blue in the face."
"Really? I feel fine," he said.
Lily watched in horror as blue hair grew on his face and in seconds he looked as funny as the monster he'd just described. But Lily was not finding it funny. She was growing angrier by the minute and suddenly, Steve saw his reflection in one of the shop windows.
"Arrghhhh! What's happened to my face?" he screamed.
Lily whirled round and screamed, "POTTER!" James was too slow in pocketing his wand.
She marched up to him, "What on earth do you think you're doing?" she demanded.
"Come on Lily. He's boring. He just described a funny monster of all things. I even have a list of his negative points. He's just not right for you," said James.
"It's not your job to decide who's good for me Potter. You think you're my perfect guy? You're the exact opposite. You're a jerk. Change his face back," she shouted.
"Fine," said James, also getting angry. He waved his wand, "There you go."
"Come on Steve, let's go," said Lily.
"Er, actually Lily, I'll just head back to the castle myself," said Steve. He took one, slightly frightened look at James and pretty much ran back to the castle.
Now Lily was enraged. She rounded on James, "You arrogant, self—centered, annoying prat. You always ruin my dates. You claim you want me to be happy but you never notice that I am happy when I'm on a date until you show up," she yelled.
"Hey at least the first person I came to Hogsmeade with wasn't Severus Snape, a potential Death Eater," James yelled back.
"You're as bad as he is! You think you're so much better than a Death Eater? They humiliate and bully people who they think are beneath them. Are you any different? You pick on younger students and Slytherins because you think you're better than them all. You're just an annoying hypocritical toe rag," she said and walked away, leaving a very stunned James and an astonished Sirius behind.
James finally walked back up to his dorm to find Remus waiting there. "I take it the date went badly?" he said.
"It was a disaster! Now, she hates me more than ever. I thought I was making progress over the last month," said James.
"Maybe you should think about what she said. When you're ready to talk, I'll be in the library," said Remus, leaving James and Sirius alone.
"Okay, Lily was a little harsh," said Albus.
"At least it got Potter thinking," said Snape.
"James' love story wasn't the only one going downhill. That day had more drama than the whole year put together," said McGonagall.
That night, Sirius awoke with a gasp. He looked around and sighed in relief when he realized he'd been dreaming. He'd been having nightmares for a few weeks now. He looked at his alarm clock and smiled. Remus had given it to him on his twelfth birthday in the hope that Sirius would use the alarm. It was two in the morning. He just wasn't feeling very sleepy now, so he put on a dressing gown and padded down to the common room. The fire was still burning and he could make out the silhouette of a person sitting on the couch in front of the fire. He moved closer.
"Alison?" he said, surprised.
She jumped violently, "Sirius! Don't scare me like that," she said.
"What're you doing here at this hour?" he asked.
"Couldn't sleep. You?"
"Same here," he sighed. He sat down beside her. Alison was trying to breathe normally and forget that she had a crush on him.
"Why couldn't you sleep?" he asked.
"I woke up from a really weird dream and I couldn't get back to sleep," she said.
"What was It about?" he asked.
"It was really random. I was climbing up the beech tree by the lake but it was in the middle of an airport and then I lost my balance and fell. That's when I woke up."
"Okay, that's weird."
"I told you so. Why couldn't you sleep?"
"Nightmare," said Sirius, shortly.
"Oh. Do you want to tell me about it?" asked Alison, concerned.
"It was about Regulus."
"About the night you ran away?"
Sirius picked at the cushions for a few moments. "I hated them all so much that I think I gave all the love I was supposed to have for my family, entirely to Regulus," he said slowly. "Running away was one of the hardest things I've done."
Alison remained silent. She understood that Sirius needed to talk about this.
He continued, "When he told me he was joining the Death Eaters, I knew I couldn't love him anymore. But Lily was right. It's not easy to forget someone you cared about so much. When I walked out the door, I kept hoping I'd hear Regulus calling after me and calling me back because he needed me. I was foolish to hope for it. It's just that I keep feeling that if I'd turned back that day, I could've made him see sense."
Alison took his hand and looked him in the eye, "Sirius, it isn't your fault. You tried to keep Regulus away from the Dark side, but even with all your efforts, he chose that side. You showed him that he had a choice and he made the one he believed to be right. If you hadn't walked out that night, Regulus would have taken it as a sign of your approval of his choice. By leaving, you showed him that you didn't approve. Somewhere, inside him, everything you've taught him to be right is still there. Maybe in a few years, he'll realize he's made the wrong choice. The moment he realizes it, he'll let you know somehow and Professor Dumbledore will be ready to help him take a second chance at life. He's growing up, Sirius. You need to let him see the world thought his own eyes, not yours or your parents."
Sirius looked at her, respect, admiration and something more in his grey eyes. He leaned over and hugged her tightly. "Thank you," he said, breaking away.
"Anytime you need to talk, I'll be there. All your friends will be there. You shouldn't keep things bottled up. It always helps to talk about it," she said smiling.
"I'll go up to bed now. I thinks I can sleep much better," he said.
"Me too," she said, standing up.
"don't worry, if you fall off the tree again, I'll be there to catch you," he said grinning.
She smiled and walked back to her dorm. As she got into bed, she resolved to ask him out in the morning.
Sirius got back into bed. He really liked Alison, but he was too scared of getting rejected by her. For some reason, he felt she only thought of him as a friend and her rejection would hurt him. He was known to not be a one girl kind of guy and she was one of the kindest people he knew. He was too afraid of letting her down to ask her out.
"They are one confused lot," said James.
"I agree! James likes Lily but she hates him. Sirius and Alison like each other but don't know it. Mary and Remus are too shy to ask each other out. What a bunch of confused teenagers," said Albus.
James looked insulted, "You wait. Next year, you'll be a confused teenager too. But it is so much fun."
McGonagall continued with the story.
Mary and Alice had to drag Lily and Alison down to breakfast. Lily was still angry with James about ruining her date. Alison was nervous about asking Sirius out. When they went down however, they were in for a shock.
The girls pushed Alison in first. She looked around for a moment and then froze.
"Alison, what's wrong?" asked Lily. She walked in and froze too.
Alice and Mary waked in to see what they were staring at. Mary's jaw dropped and Alice gasped.
Sirius was snogging a dark-haired girl like there was no tomorrow.
Alison stared at him and suddenly, he looked up. His eyes met hers and he looked guiltily away. Alison ran out of the hall with her friends following her. They found her in the dormitory, crying her eyes out.
Lily put her arms around Alison, "Don't cry honey, he's not worth it."
"But I liked him so much and I thought he liked me too," she sobbed.
Alice and Mary hugged her too. "He's hurt you Alison. You shouldn't just take it lying down. It's time for some payback," said Alice.
Lily grinned, "I think it's time to give the Marauders a taste of their own medicine."
Alison wiped away her tears fiercely, "I'm in."
"It has to be something big, a prank even they wouldn't have thought of," said Alice.
A slow smile spread across Mary's face, "I think I have an idea."
So did you like it? Any constructive criticism? Please let me know with a review. Oh, and I'd also love to have some ideas for the girls' prank, because, honestly, I have no idea what it's going to be. I just typed that last line of the story because it sounded good...Do review and help me out!
