A/N: I updated! I honestly didn't realize how much I missed writing this story until I truly started to get into it. I'm really, really sorry for the late update, but I couldn't really update with the summer going on, I do a lot over the summer related to golf, and so that tends to be my main focus. If it means anything, I didn't do any studying for the SATs either, which I probably should have done, nor did I even open my computer. Hopefully with the summer ending and school starting, I will be able to update in the way that I used to, seeing as I have full access to my computer. Anyway, enjoy this chapter, I think you'll like it!
Chapter 14: The Quaffle, Seeker, and Hearts
"Remus, just put down the wand," James said. "I already said 'yes' to Quintin!"
"And you know…once you say 'yes' to Quintin, we must do it," Sirius said dryly.
Peter smiled. "There's no point in trying to argue, Remus."
"I know…but one can always hope, can't they?" Remus asked with a wry smile as he stood up.
Obviously, James and Sirius saw this as an opportunity to whoop and cheer in triumph obnoxiously loud so that they received a lot of stares.
"Be quieter," Remus hissed, but he knew the battle was lost. He found that the easiest way to direct the attention away from him was if they left the Great Hall. So that was what he did.
The four left the Great Hall and headed for the Quidditch Pitch…Peter was lagging a bit behind. No one really wanted to sit too close to him, for fear of him wetting himself once more.
Soon, they arrived at the Quidditch Pitch, which was empty. This was probably because all the players were in the change rooms, and no one else was supposed to be there. Remus was not pleased that he had to be among the idiots who showed up at the Quidditch Pitch who were not part of the team, and had in fact shown up before the actual team. Of course, none of the others seemed to feel that they were an abnormality.
"C'mon, we're sitting here," James said, pulling Remus down.
"You're too eager for all this, honestly," Sirius commented. "I mean, I'm obsessed with Quidditch, but real Quidditch."
"He's being like Blake," Peter said.
"Oh yes," Sirius said, nodding solemnly. "His role model…"
"He's fairly successful," Remus said fairly, trying to get his mind off of the Quaffle that would soon be tossed around the Pitch. "If James had to have a role model, I would rather Quintin than someone else."
"Yeah!" James said happily. "Listen to the smart man over here!"
"Me?" Sirius queried cheekily. "Of course I listen to me."
"Not you, the actual smart one!"
"Hey, I resent that!"
"That was the point."
"It's good to know I'm so special that I'm worth arguing over," Remus said, before seeing a hoard of boys – and girl – walk onto to the field. "Oh great! The team is here."
"There was no sarcasm in that statement," Peter added helpfully.
James and Sirius were busy giving a standing ovation to the Gryffindor team. Quintin and Chase took a few bows, much to Lee's annoyance.
"And the worse part is, that would be what James and Sirius would do," Remus muttered. "Seven years of dealing with this stupidity is just too much."
"It's funny, really," Peter said.
"For you. You're not the one who has to watch a bloody Quaffle fly around the place!"
Peter tried to raise an eyebrow, but it didn't quite work; he held down one of his eyebrows with his finger.
"Peter," Remus looked like he was seriously considering Peter's mental health. "What are you doing?"
Peter felt his face grow hot. "I'm looking skeptical…"
Remus stared at Peter and shook his head. "No, Peter, you don't look skeptical when you do that…maybe we should leave and pra—"
"REMUS!" Quintin called. "You're here!"
"This the one who doesn't like Quidditch?" Chase asked, holding out his hand. "Chase Phillips."
Remus looked as if the last thing he wanted to happen had just happened, but he took the hand nonetheless.
"Pleasure. Remus Lupin. I don't want to be here."
Chase laughed, but Quintin looked insulted.
"Oh you will once we're done with this practice. Seriously, mate, you don't know what you're missing. Quidditch truly is a fun game, and most of the ti—"
"You should really start now, Quintin. Before Remus finds a way to get outta – Remmy! Get back here!" Remus groaned and let Sirius drag him back.
"ALL RIGHT, TEAM! Let's get started," Quintin bent down and reached for the snitch. "I'm letting the snitch go, Trevor, shut your eyes."
Trevor grumbled under his breath as he shut his eyes. "I still don't get why we have to do this."
"Because, it allows you to start fresh without knowing where the snitch is. Otherwise, this practice becomes useless if you just follow it with your eyes and then as soon as I say 'go' you dart towards it."
"Yes, but that's what I do in a real game."
"So, this is harder. Now quit arguing with the captain."
Trevor crossed his arms moodily.
Remus turned to his friends.
"I don't get it. I didn't come here to watch Quintin be a prat, did I?"
"Shut up, he is not a prat," James said. "He's coaching a team, and the way he does it is to make sure everyone knows whose boss. It's very clever. I think that I have never seen a captain order his team successfully and still remain well liked. It's amazing."
Remus glanced at Sirius, who had mimed a gunshot to his head. Peter, on the other hand, was doing everything James was doing. James seemed to be concentrating quite hard on what Quintin was saying, therefore, Peter did as well.
"Kaitlin, get to the posts, now," Quintin ordered. "I'm going to have the Chasers play on you as always, but I'm going to get Lee to hit bludgers at you."
"What the hell, Quintin!" Lee exclaimed. "I'm not doing that! She's a bloody girl! I'm not hitting at a girl."
"Shut up!" Kaitlin looked furious. "Lee, quit treating me like a separate entity! I'm on the team, and I can play just fine without you going all princess on me."
"Sorry, Kate, just looking out for you…"
"Well, I don't need it."
Kaitlin flew off huffily, and Lee followed, looking apologetic. Quintin stared on wistfully.
"Feisty, eh?" he muttered to the first years.
James nodded – which meant Peter did as well – while Remus rolled his eyes.
"I thought I came to watch Quidditch," Remus said.
"Yeah, I thought we did too," Sirius agreed. "And believe it or not, that is exactly what we are about to do."
"And to think, I thought you were actually going to stand on my ground for once," Remus mumbled.
"Okay, and I'm going to want my Chasers to play with the Quaffle whilst flying in random directions. Eye contact cannot be made with any of your fellow Chasers as you strive to throw it through the hoops where Kaitlin is, while I'll be sending a Bludger in your direction. Of course, this is only the first drill, I am not saying that Lee and I are so spectacular that we don't need to practice our own flying in unison, but this is just for now. Now, let's go!" Quintin finished with a way too happy smile to be sane as he watched the other members of the team fly into their position.
James nodded at the whole escapade appreciatively, giving a thumbs up to Quintin when he looked at them. Peter furrowed his brow, not in the mood to continue acting exactly like James; it was really difficult! Sirius grinned at Remus, who was now looking as if he would rather die than have to witness the game.
"It's fun, Remus! Look, watch Trevor!" Sirius exclaimed.
Remus looked at Trevor and tried to not look that impressed. Peter, on the other hand, did not attempt to hide his awe.
"He's amazing! I wish I could fly that fast."
"He's going to catch the Snitch!" Sirius shouted a second time.
James and Sirius cheered quite loudly when Trevor reached out and grabbed the Snitch. He grinned at the four, the prior animosity diminishing as they cheered.
What Remus was more focused on, though, was the Keeper. He didn't quite understand how anyone could be brave enough to play a position where people are whipping highly dangerous looking balls towards you, and you have to fly towards one of them and risk your life while blocking it.
Sirius was focused quite a bit on the Beaters, once he had watched Trevor caught the Snitch. He found it entertaining to watch them fly towards the heavy balls and whip them away with the bat. He also enjoyed watching the amount of control the Beaters were able to put upon the uncontrollable Bludgers…it reminded him of fighting a war, which seemed to be quite fun.
James was watching the Chasers. He watched them fly, almost as if they were on a seesaw. He saw that when Quintin would hit a Bludger towards one of them – Chase – he would fly down, but then Fergus would be prepared to catch the Quaffle that Chase would drop, while Rufus would attempt to distract the bludger until Lee would come to hit it away.
Peter found the entire match fascinating. He longed that one day he would be good enough at Quidditch to even play half as good as the Gryffindor team. But he truly admired the Seeker. There was a lot of pressure on Trevor who was looking for the Snitch, knowing that the fate of the match would depend on him – along with the team members' butt pain. He also found that Trevor's flight style was rather sneaky. As he would look for the Snitch, he would weave in and out between team members, around the Bludgers, and underneath most of the match, somehow avoiding the Quaffle that was constantly being dropped as part of the Chasers' strategy, without a second glance. He looked natural in that position, and Peter admired that. Not that he was being a fan girl over the Seeker, it was just a thought of course.
After a few rounds, Remus was finding it harder to look bored. The flying had been rather fun to watch, and watching the swiftness and smoothness of the players' flying was intense. Of course, this momentary peace would never last long when you looked as who he had chosen – forced – to be friends with.
James and Sirius had noticed Remus' change in demeanor, and high fived that their plan to make their friend like Quidditch was working. Remus gave them an annoyed glare in return for their, er, kind gesture.
After three hours, the team had stopped flying.
"Finally!" Remus said unnecessarily loud. "That was the longest hour of my life!"
"Er, Rems, it was actually three," James rectified.
"It was still really, really long. I found it painful!" Remus said, trying not to look surprised at the new information. It didn't really work as well as he hoped, but no one commented on it. It was Remus' mistake to believe it was out of the goodness of their hearts.
James had walked up to Quintin and shook his hand, puffing out his chest to make himself look older.
"That was some brilliant flying, Quintin."
"It was, wasn't it? I know, it's taken quite a bit of…"
"There the two lovebirds go again," Sirius muttered, watching Quintin speak animatedly to James, who looked just as eager.
"But honestly, Sirius, did you expect anything different?" Remus said, smiling a little.
"No, not really…this is really bad for my reputation, being friends with a boy like James."
Peter had called it upon himself to defend James.
"What are you talking about, Sirius? James is a really cool person. He comes up with so many cool ideas, and he is a really nice person who is nice to me and likes me and is my friend and –"
"Peter, Sirius was joking," Remus said.
Peter started to blushing furiously and started to look very put out. It wasn't his fault he had thought Sirius was being mean to James. But James defended Peter, and he thought he had to return the favour. Peter did not understand why Sirius didn't announce that he was telling a joke; it would have cured much of the confusion.
"It's okay, mate," Sirius said, patting Peter, who was apparently looking quite distraught, on the back. "At least we know your heart is in the right place."
"Yes, thank you, Quintin!" James exclamation was suddenly heard throughout the entire field. The other members of the Quidditch team had actually turned around to see what the big fuss was about.
"No problem, I'm trusting you. If anyone could get it done, it could be you. Just keep up your end of the stick," Quintin responded, grinning at James' obvious enthusiasm at whatever was about to take place. "I'll stop by next week onwards."
"Sounds good, Quintin, thank you!" James said again.
Quintin flashed a wink in James' direction before running towards the rest of his team. He could be faintly heard giving a lecture about how the team shouldn't have to stop and watch any drama happen when they see that the outburst is from on the First Year Gryffindor boys, much to said boys' amusement.
"James, what was that about?" Peter asked. "I heard you screaming."
Sirius and Remus rolled their eyes at Peter's bluntness, but after a look from James, made the smart decision to not comment.
James was positively beaming as he was getting ready to explain, and Remus just seemed to know that this wasn't a good sign.
"So…" James drew the 'so' out to create suspense, which Remus added to the list of reasons whatever James was going to say was definitely a bad thing. Sirius, on the other hand, was looking more excited with the added drama, and Peter, well, he was practically drooling. "I was talking to Quintin…"
"No, really?" Remus deadpanned, not hiding in any way that he was annoyed with the overly dramatized statement.
James looked at Remus. "Seriously, you're going to like this."
Now, this probably would have been more comforting if it was said by someone else, or if James wasn't saying it with one very cheeky grin, or if the wink James had given in Sirius' direction after the statement was said hadn't taken place.
"I better," Remus muttered, trying to find even the smallest reason to believe James.
"You will," James repeated confidently. "So anyway, Quintin and I were talking about Quidditch," Sirius refrained from pointing out the redundancy of that fact. "And we agreed that in order to take Remus' love for the game to the next level –"
"Damn it. You'll never just let me be, will you?" Remus said.
"Nope!" James said, grinning. "So Quintin said that we could use the Quidditch pitch right now, and starting next week, he'll be giving us lessons!"
"No way!" Peter's jaw had dropped. How was James so good?
Sirius thumped James on the back. "I knew there was a good reason for keeping you around!"
No one seemed to ask what Remus thought on the matter, so Remus took the liberty of pointing it out himself.
"I think that's a horrendous idea."
"Oh come on, Remus, don't be such a buzz kill," Sirius said. "It'll be fun."
See, there were a few reasons Remus did not like this arrangement. Number one, when he came to the school, he had decided to not make many friends to not bring attention to his lycanthropy. That plan backfired the second the stupid hat had put him in Gryffindor. Number two, he would have to change into a Quidditch uniform, and with all those damn suspicious scars he had on top of his body…let's just say it wouldn't be easy to inconspicuously always seek privacy when he changed. Number three, a Seventh Year would be much more likely to notice patterns that Remus was a werewolf; he was certain that werewolves would be covered at some point in time during a student's education at Hogwarts. So, in response to Sirius' question, no the bloody arrangement wasn't such a good idea, it would just make Remus more stressed.
"I'm not being a buzz kill, I'm just being practical," Remus said, not voicing his true thoughts.
James and Sirius rolled their eyes.
"Remus," James said. "Quintin said it would be fun, and he's a Seventh Year and is obviously responsible since he's Quidditch captain. So pull that stick out of your arse and just have some fun."
"Or I'll have to pull it personally," Sirius said helpfully, with a cheesy wink at the end. "You know how much fun that's gonna be."
Realizing he had absolutely no hope at winning this argument, Remus agreed with a simple, "It's 'going to'."
Peter grinned happily, now that Remus said 'yes', there was no way he would be the worst flyer in the entire Year; he was going to be getting personal lessons from the Quidditch captain! This was turning out to be better than he had ever expected.
"Brilliant!" James said, sprinting to the broom shed.
Sirius ran behind him, quickly catching up to James, whilst Peter was breathing heavily a few meters behind. Remus started running fast, but then compared his speed to James – who was clearly the fastest runner of the lot – and slowed his pace down. By the time they reached, James, Sirius, and Peter was gulping air as if their lives depended on it, while Remus was breathing a little faster, but nothing in comparism to his friends.
"How – are you –" Sirius paused to make sure he was breathing finally. "How are you not dying?"
Remus was having a mental panic attack at what to tell Sirius. He didn't know how to fake pant without it looking oddly deliberate. Fortunately, he had a really good friend to save him from this dilemma. Peter was furrowing his brow, looking confusedly at the question Sirius had posed to Remus.
"Should we be expecting a student Remus' age to be dying?"
Remus actually chuckled at that, but was careful not to catch Sirius' eye for fear of bursting into an uncontrollable fit of laughter that couldn't be controlled.
"Yeah, Sirius, should I be dying?"
Sirius rolled his eyes at Remus' dumb response, but dropped the topic and grabbed a broom.
"These brooms really aren't that good. I'm going to see if I could get my dad or someone to owl us some real broomsticks," James said, looking at the broomsticks with distaste. "I'd expect them to at least have decent brooms for the reserve spots on the team."
"Perhaps that should be something you invest in when you become Quidditch captain," Sirius said, his grey eyes sparkling with amusement.
James looked very determined as he stared at the rotten broomsticks. There was no way he would let the team suffer with the century old pieces of wood. That would be the worst!
"Yes! That'll be the very first thing that I do."
Remus debating bringing up the fact that First Years weren't allowed to have relatives owl in brooms, and that there was probably a reason there weren't amazing brooms in the shed, but decided not to. After this much time spent around James, it appeared that whatever he wanted, he did. And that was that.
"Okay, whatever, pick up a broomstick and let's fly!" James announced. "I'll grab a Quaffle that we can toss around; Peter can be Keeper."
"Wait, I don't want to be Keeper…" Peter's voice got softer and softer as he spoke. "Why do I have to be Keeper? Can't Remus be Keeper?"
"We're not going to be throwing Quaffles at Remus, Pete," Sirius said exasperatedly.
"Besides, do you really think you're going to be able to catch the Quaffle? You have to take your hands off of the broomstick," James added.
Peter looked slightly put out, but decided that being able to fly and play Quidditch was better than doing nothing at all.
Remus was forever grateful that at least he wouldn't be the one who had to use himself as a shield for the posts against the Quaffle.
The four kicked off the ground as hard as they could, James holding the Quaffle in hand. It was obvious that James played Quidditch a lot, he seemed to look natural holding the Quaffle under his arm and flying.
Sirius seemed comfortable too, but his arms would waver slightly when he'd look to the ground, although he was clearly trying very hard to stay stoic.
Remus wasn't deathly afraid of heights, but to be frank, he really would rather be anywhere but here. Except for maybe the Shrieking Shack. But other than that…
Peter was looking very pale. However, he realized that, and was very frustrated with himself for being so frightened of heights. None of his friends were, why couldn't he just act the same way as them? It clearly wasn't so difficult.
James whipped the Quaffle in Sirius' direction, which Sirius, reached his arms out to catch, but found himself having to steady his broom for a second, of course being the second which the Quaffle needed to be caught. He looked down as he watched the Quaffle fly to the ground.
"I call a redo!" Sirius called, looking slightly embarrassed. "It doesn't count. I wasn't ready."
It was clearly a terrible excuse, but Remus and Peter didn't have the heart to call him out on it, knowing that they probably wouldn't have done much better. James hadn't heard Sirius' lame excuse, instead whizzing downwards and picking the Quaffle up in what neat swoop. He tossed the Quaffle up towards Sirius again, which Sirius caught.
"That's more like me!" Sirius said, beaming. He then tossed the Quaffle in Remus' direction.
Remus stared at the Quaffle and misjudged the parabolic flight of the Quaffle slightly. He arrived in time, but bumped his head against the Quaffle as opposed to catching it. James had already flown in to save the Quaffle from falling down again.
"Nice try, Rems, again!" James called, throwing it again to Remus.
Remus pulled his arms up, surprised at how steady the broom was being. Unfortunately, in his stupor thinking about how brilliant he was at flying, he ended up missing the Quaffle again. Sirius caught it this time, much to James' chagrin. Sirius stuck his tongue out at James childishly.
After a few more throws, Remus caught the Quaffle, and didn't miss it after that. He seemed to understand how to catch it once he had done it the first time.
Peter was getting very bored. He didn't understand why his friends needed a Keeper when they weren't throwing the Quaffle at him. But he was going to stay patient and show that he was a good friend and could be trusted. Maybe then he would fit in with the rest of the Gryffindors better. He was yanked out of his reverie, however, when he heard his name being yelled. He looked up and saw the red Quaffle racing at him at what must have been 6000 km/hr. Following his basic survival instincts, he flew out of the way and allowed the ball to fall straight through the middle hoop.
"I scored!" James exclaimed. "I'm the best thing's that's ever happened to Quidditch."
"It's only because Peter moved out of the way. It wasn't that hard of a shot," Sirius said. "Anyone could've done it with Peter in the goal posts."
Peter flew down to catch the Quaffle, really wanting to prove to his friends that he could fly just as good as any of them. As he flew down, however, he could feel the wind rushing in his face, but he also felt as though his stomach was dropping. He jumped off of the broom and clutched his stomach, trying to hold back the nauseated feeling he was having. He knew he shouldn't have eaten the extra whipped cream on top of his fruit at breakfast.
"Pete!" James said suddenly, rushing down to his friend's side. Sirius and Remus hurried quickly behind him, feeling bad that they hadn't noticed Peter themselves.
"I'm okay," Peter said, trying to muster the strength to look like nothing had happened.
"We should probably go to the Hospital Wing," Remus offered.
"No, I'm fine. I'm not a sick weakling," Peter said.
"Feisty!" Sirius said, grinning, but didn't say anything more.
"I'm pretty sure you didn't use 'feisty' in the right context, Sirius," Remus said.
"Shut up."
"Guys, guys?" James said, looking worriedly behind Remus and Sirius.
"I'm not going to shut up. In fact, I'm going to explain to you the true definition of 'feisty' to save you from the embarrassment of using it in the wrong context," Remus continued, ignoring James.
Sirius didn't appear to notice James' very worried look either.
"I'm not stupid, Remus, I know the meaning of 'feisty', it's just that I wanted to say something that sounded funny, and that worked."
"How was that funny? It's purely annoying."
"So I'm annoying now?"
"Yes! You've always been annoying."
"WHAT IN MERLIN'S NAME ARE YOU DOING OUTSIDE WITH BROOMSTICKS IN YOUR HANDS?"
Sirius and Remus stopped arguing at once and turned around to see one very mad Minerva McGonagall staring – no, glaring – at them.
"I tried to warn you," James muttered.
"Shut up, Potter! I asked a question."
"Well, Professor," Remus said, sounding very mature, and for a second, Sirius was certain Remus was going to blame him and James. "As you can see, we are obviously holding broomsticks in our hands and are not sweeping the Quidditch field, because you can clearly see the Quaffle laying right over there, so I believe it can be safe to assume that we were playing Quidditch."
McGonagall looked mutinous, but James and Peter had burst into laughter. Before McGonagall could respond, Sirius felt the desperate need to add in his two cents.
"Honestly, Minnie, with observational skills like yours, do you really think you're fit for being considered one of the cleverest professors?"
"SILENCE!"
DETENTION CONTEST: 1978 GRYFFINDOR WIZARDS
James Potter: X X 11
Sirius Black: X 15
Remus Lupin: X 11
Peter Pettigrew: X 5
Sirius beamed, "Well now I'm clearly leading this contest."
"Don't you think we could've handled that a bit better? Sirius, really, was all of your input necessary?" Remus asked, seeming very disturbed at what had been mentioned before.
"It was! Merlin knows, it's obvious Minnie wears silk pink underwear with hearts on it to go to bed!"
"Why do you even know that?" Peter asked.
James furrowed his brow. "Tell me you were joking, Sirius."
Sirius shot James a look. "Improvisation is an art, my young apprentices."
James looked very relieved.
"I don't even want to know what other art forms are going on inside your head, Sirius," Remus said, grimacing slightly.
"My head is a beautiful place."
"Yeah, I doubt that."
James was continuously glancing at the clock, looking a little nervous.
"What're you worried about, James?" Peter asked, and Sirius and Remus turned around quickly to see what the matter was.
"Me? Oh, er, I," James sighed before continuing. "I'm started to realize how bad this could probably go."
"Er, what could probably go?" Sirius asked, looking very confused, glancing at Remus for some sort of recognition on what James was referencing, which he did not receive.
"You'll see," James said, watching the second hand on the clock tick.
Sirius raised his eyebrows, but didn't press.
"Do you think we should remember what you are about to do? I mean, the way you're looking, it seems like this would be something very humiliating…" Remus said, his eyes giving off a devious glint.
"No! I mean, no, it's not going to be all that memorable," James said.
Remus glanced at James, and then looked at Sirius, who looked very excited. Peter, too, was looking forward to not being the only one who had been humiliated today.
James didn't miss the looks, but knew that if he said anything else, he would just be digging himself into a deeper hole. As soon as the clock struck 3:17, James got off of the bed and went to the bathroom.
Within a grand total of thirty seconds, Sirius was getting very jumpy.
"Ooh, come out, James, what's taking you so long? Are you getting your tresses all glittered up? Or perhaps dying that hazel eye pink? Come out!"
"Sirius!" Remus hissed. "Let him take his time! It will probably look worse."
Sirius actually obliged.
"I like this troublemaker you, Remmy."
"I've always – you guys are a really bad influence."
At precisely 3:31, James came out of the bathroom and shut the curtains in front of his bed.
"Hey – James!" Sirius exclaimed.
"He's looking hideous," Peter said, who seemed to have caught sight of what James had done before. "He had long hair. Long red hair."
Sirius was already grinning at the prospect of seeing James in long red hair.
At exactly 3:43, James asked, "How'm I doin' time wise?"
Remus looked confused but responded nonetheless, "3:43, James."
"Yes! Right on schedule!" James exclaimed, coming out of the curtains.
Upon seeing James, the three other First Years fell onto the floor in hysterical laughter.
"All right, laugh it up, you guys. Remus, you owe me!"
"Me?" Remus barely gasped between his laughter. "Is this your side of the deal with Quintin?"
"Yes, okay, now, just, shut up. It's bad enough as it is," James said, his face going bright red.
"Oh, that really compliments your hair," Sirius choked.
James had come out of the curtain with long red wavy hair and bright green eyes. He was wearing this sort of grass skirt and shells on top of his chest, as well as no shoes, although his toes and fingers were painted deep red with small green spots on each of them. In fact, he looked quite a bit like Lily Evans.
"What was the deal?" Peter asked curiously.
"Actually, the more important question is why do you have all that stuff with you in the first place?" Sirius asked, eyeing James up and down.
"It was a prank kit, all right? My – my grandmother got it for me; she didn't realize it was items for a girl. And, er, I didn't either." This only caused the three to restart their insane laughter ("More like a dress up kit!" by Sirius). "And Quintin said I have to act like a snobby stuck up and get people to come to the Quidditch match."
"Wait, so, so, you chose Lillers?" Remus asked, stopping his laughter immediately.
"She was all I could think of, all right?" James said defensively.
"Oh, you're going to be hexed into oblivion," Sirius said. "Of all people, Evans? You could've been Remus!"
"No, no!" Remus had widened his eyes. "Sirius, don't give him ideas!"
"Number one, that would be weird, and number two, Remus breaks a lot of rules. You don't end up with eleven detention in a week by being good," James said, looking at the clock. "4:45, I gotta go. Just – just – stay in here, all right?"
As soon as James left the room, Remus, Sirius, and Peter followed.
"Did James seriously think we would miss this?" Sirius asked rhetorically.
James took a deep breath and walked to the middle of the Common Room, which had quieted upon seeing James dressed up in the way he was. Quintin was grinning like a maniac and gave James a thumbs up on his costume.
James tried really hard to not look at Lily when he made his speech. Maybe then she wouldn't recognize him.
"Hi, my name is Lily Evans," James said in a squeaky voice. "I'm a really awesome perfect student who just needs to get all O's on her OWLS, and top grades, even though it's obvious that the devilishly handsome James Potter is going to beat me. Even though I'm friends with greasy Slytherins, you should listen to what I say, because I am good at sucking up to teachers and kissing their bums! Go to the Quidditch match, everyone, and receive more entertainment from yours truly! Oh, but don't come too close to me because I stink like hell from all of that Slytherin stench. If you don't go, don't be surprised to find your dormitory smelling like me!"
James complete his routine with an elegant twirl and a flip of his skirt, then bowed to all the laughs he was getting from the rest of the Common Room; Sirius' barks of laughter were easily heard amongst everyone else.
"POTTER!" Lily shrieked, running to the center of the room.
Apparently James was much easier to recognize that he had originally thought. Maybe it was his stupid round glasses that gave him away.
"Evans, you're not going to kiss me on my brilliant performance, are you?" James asked.
This was probably not the best thing to say at the time.
"Merlin, you're so infuriating! You are the worst person I have ever met! How dare you make fun of me and Sev?! We're ten times better people than you'll ever be!"
"I dunno, judging by the room around here, I'd say people see me as a pretty good person."
"ARGH! I'm going to go get McGonagall!"
Before Lily could complete her dignified exit, James yelled out, "That's right, Evans! Go up and kiss some more people's…bums! That's what you do best, right?"
Lily turned around and pointed her wand daringly at James.
James looked worriedly at the wand that was now coming close and closer to his face.
"Ah, Evans, you're not going to be completely innocent then, are you? Man, what are those professors going to say?"
"Can it, Potter!" Lily said, shooting a red curse in James' direction.
James grinned as the curse turned around and knocked Lily down to the ground, putting large puss filled boils all over her body.
"I wasn't going to let you ruin this beautiful face and costume, Evans. Part of the pack."
Lily got up, looking close to tears and stomped out of the room.
"Oh, you made her angry!" Sirius called down to James. "Come on! That was brilliant!"
James beamed and ran up the stairs, giving a high five to Quintin before starting.
"Wickedly daring, James," Quintin complimented.
The four First Years reentered their dormitory, leaving the room conversing about James' brilliant performance.
"That was brilliant," Sirius said again. "So what, the costumes come with defensive spells?"
"Yeah, they're very complicated and don't always work, I didn't know if it would, but I certainly got lucky there."
"Don't you think that may have been a little harsh?" Remus asked.
"No," James said. "She deserved it, and it was accurate."
"For what, though?"
"Lighten up, Remus, it was a joke. Her own problem that she can't take one."
Remus swallowed but didn't say anything else.
Before long, the evening arrived, and later, night, the time when students should be sleeping. In fact, even the four Gryffindor First Years were sleeping.
At some point in the night, late enough for it to be pitch black outside the window of Hogwarts, there was a knock on the door. James was startled awake by the noise, and quietly walked to the door, his wand gripped tightly in his hand as he opened it.
"Evans!" he whispered in surprise. "Your face, er, it's smooth."
Lily glared at James, her eyes red, ignoring the fact James was not wearing a shirt.
"Professor McGonagall wanted me to tell you that you have a detention."
"Of course that's why you'd come knocking at this late hour."
"And just so you know, I'm not going to forget this. So just, you know, watch your back."
"Oh believe me, I will. Honestly, what could an ordinary goody two shoes do to me?"
"And I'd watch your tongue if I were you, Potter."
"As I do, often in the mirror."
Lily paused, "That's a little gross."
"Just a little?"
"Shut it. I'm going to bed. I'm done in this nasty room anyway."
"For the record, Evans, you were never exactly in it."
"Night, Potter," Lily said, spitting the 'Potter' in disgust.
"I'll be watching for you," James responded, shutting the door. "Wow, I'm surprised she didn't bewitch the door, that would've been smart."
With that, James crawled back into his bed and went to sleep, his dreams plagued with the worst of pranks Lily would do to him. Of course, this would be forever kept a secret.
A/N: Now for the responses to the many reviews I received. I thank you all so much for the support, it was these reviews that were like nagging at me saying how many people I'm frustrating by not updating this story.
GryffindorBeth: As always, it is awesome to hear from you, and I really hope that this chapter too was worth the wait.
Isla Weasley: Yeah, Voldemort and his Death Eaters will be coming soon, I just want to keep at least part of the story nice and light hearted. He's got an awesome debut in this story that's pictured in my head. And Quintin is definitely for real ;) He exists in my head. Anyway, thank you so much for the reviews!
PhoenixTears1001: Thanks for the review, and I'm totally going to ignore any sarcasm within it XD This was definitely too long a wait for this chapter. Oh and I'm sorry for not adding you know who yet, it just didn't feel right, but it's coming. I promise.
katiek121: Wow, thank you for all your reviews! I really appreciate them! Yeah, I can understand how you could be getting annoyed with the 'Remmy', but it just seemed to fit for me when I was writing. I let the characters write themselves, in fact, I'm pretty sure it's obvious when I'm in the swing of the scene or when I'm not. So the 'Remmy' sort of just finds a way to slip in and I can't help it. And yeah, all the lack of energy was because of the arrival of the full moon. Anyway, thank you for the reviews!
LifeIsArt7: Thank you for the review. Uh, this story isn't all from Remus' POV, as you will see later, but it does focus a great deal on it. But anyway, thanks!
zzz4730: Thank you for the review! I tried to keep the marauders as in character as possible, but the reason I like preseries is that it gives a bit of freedom since we don't know EXACTLY how they acted. But I really love seeing your reviews, they make me all happy and proud of my writing.
TheBoy1004: Thank you for the review!
Filly211: Thank you for the review and I apologize for the really really REALLY late update. I feel like a really mean person, but real life got in the way. Damn real life :)
middleofsomewhere: Thank you for the review! I hope this is the 'more' you were looking for.
xXFadingNightXx: I know, Peter sucks, I'd like him to die in a hole too. But he was once the Marauders' friends, and there has to be a reason that he went bad, so I'm hoping to provide him with a backstory that his actions can be understandable. I don't agree or want to defend him, he's a terrible person, but I feel like he deserves some warranted decisions too. Thank you for your reviews!
Devon Martinez: Uh, I guess I'm going to start writing again now ;) Thanks for the review, I'm guessing it was a positive one!
Guest: It's okay, I hate Peter too. Everyone hates Peter (okay, 99.99% of the population. I have met some Peter fans, which makes me really worry for the future of this world). Thank you for the review!
If you want to, please review, I really, truly appreciate them. If you see any errors, please let me know, and I'll fix them.