A/N: Yeah, I know it took forever but hopefully you'll all forgive me. Obviously I didn't come up with Harry Potter, that would be JKR's brilliant work, I'm just borrowing them for a while. So here's the 4th chapter of Time's Gone By.
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Well Belinda was right, nothing important happened over Christmas break. The time was spent avoiding my family or out around town. After break though we had an interesting few classes in Ancient Runes, which I personally think is a horribly boring class and Professor Bennett didn't help the matter.
For all of you who know Professor Bennett, you're aware that she doesn't tolerate anything. You step one toe out of line and you're glad to be alive. So when one day I looked up to see her grinning I was intrigued, until I saw the reason.
"Sirius," She said, trying to hide the smile that was threatening to emerge. "Get your feet off my desk and put my peanuts away!" I turned around to see Sirius Black, another infamous Marauder, relaxing in her chair with his feet on top of her papers. When she said this he feigned astonishment.
"These are my peanuts! I brought them in!" She just gave him a look and a frown crossed his face. "Well fine." He stood up and put the can away in the cabinet, exchanging it for one of her extra waters.
"Sirius," She had given up trying to teach as we were much more interested in the boy who had Professor Bennett wrapped around his little finger. "What are you doing?"
"I'm taking a water bottle." His tone said 'isn't it obvious?'
"You can not just take a water bottle." She was failing miserably at sounding stern.
"No, no, no, see last year I left some Sickles in here, so I paid for it." He answered with a shrug. Professor Bennett rolled her eyes as he started to wander aimlessly around the room.
She returned to her lecture, but everyone's attention was one Sirius, as he sauntered over to the windows and glanced out, before sitting in an empty desk near the back. Professor Bennett looked expectantly at him, waiting for an explanation, but he just waved a hand at her.
"Just pretend I'm not here." While she started talking again he turned to Ashley who was sitting next to him. "What's she talking about ?" He asked and Ashley shrugged, she had zoned out with the rest of us when Professor Bennett had started talking.
Sirius threw his hand into the air and without waiting for Professor Bennett to call on him, he called out. "Professor you're not teaching there student very well! This girl doesn't know anything!" His words brought more laughter from the class as Ashley looked horrified.
"Sirius," he looked up as Professor Bennett said his name. "Where are you supposed to be?" She asked, deciding that teaching the class would be useless.
"History of Magic, but Binns didn't notice me leave." He answered.
She sighed again, "Sirius go back to class."
He stood to leave. "I guess I'll go." Walking reluctantly toward the door he glanced back to be sure she had gone back to teaching. Taking a detor he grabbed another one of her many water bottles. "Thanks!" He called.
She looked up, "Sirius…" She warned.
"I need one for lunch." He defended his actions but she shook her head, and his voice drifted off. "But I need a drink, just this once." He stammered but she shook her head again. "Well fine, I'll put it here then." He opened her bottom desk drawer and popped it in.
"Goodbye Professor!" He yelled smiling. "I love you!"
Her voice was weary as she returned. "I love you too Sirius." and then she continued teaching, as though nothing had happened, but the class was restless and she couldn't keep our attention.
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The next day he returned closer to the beginning of the class. I'll admit I thought he was a little funny, I had to force myself not to let a grin cross my face. As I kept reminding myself: he was a friend of James' and that couldn't be good.
"Hello Professor!" He said, waltzing in as if he actually belonged here. She smiled wearily, knowing another class period was cone, but her sparkling eyes revealed her good mood.
"Hello Sirius."
He grinned and walked across the room, dropping his books onto her extra desk. Professor Bennett stood at the front of the room, watching all this with a smirk.
"Where can I sit?" His voice was filled with joy as he asked. Professor Bennett sighed and ignored him, returning to lecturing the uninterested class.
Sirius collapsed into an empty chair near the back of the room, where he stayed for about three seconds. Jumping back up he skipped over to Professor Bennett's desk and pulled out the water bottle from the bottom drawer. At our laughter Professor Bennett looked up and sighed.
"Sirius," His head jerked up in confusion. "You can not just take a water bottle."
He scoffed at her and dismissed her scolding. "Course I can." At her raised eyebrows he continued. "I put it there yesterday so one could take it." As if that explained everything.
Ignoring her look he skipped over to her extra desk and flopped down in the chair. Noticing that she was watching he looked up. "Don't worry about it Professor." She rolled her eyes and continued lecturing as Sirius started rummaging through the desk. Pulling out a pair of mittens he gasped. "These are MY mittens!" Professor Bennett looked up startled and calmed down when she saw it was nothing important. "You stole MY mittens! No wonder my hands were so cold!" He put the rainbow colored mittens on as she ignored his accusation and
The door opened and James stuck his head in. I groaned inwardly, this was my one period without him, as in I wasn't supposed to have to deal with him.
"I love you Professor!" He yelled, and seeing Sirius his face showed his surprise. "Hey it's Sirius! What are you doing here?"
"Oh I told Binns that helping her move something." He replied, taking no notice of our laughter.
"Hey can I help?" James asked excitedly. Professor Bennett shook her head, at how her classroom was turning into a circus. James took a piece of paper from Sirius and started muttering to himself. "Pencil… Pencil… Ah here we go!" The class watched intently as he picked up the 'sign' and walked over to the wall. Pulling a tack from one of the posters, leaving it to hang lopsided, he murmured. "You don't need all these tacks." Pushing it into the wall he called out once more. "I love you Professor!"
She smiled and replied. "I love you too, James." As we read the sign giggles broke out. 'Professor Bennett is beautiful.'
Now, for those of you who don't know Professor Bennett, let me tell you something… nothing could be further from the truth. Maybe in her day she might have been borderline on pretty, but she'd let herself go. At a ripe old age of… to high to count, she weighed ten times more. All of her extra weight was right around her hips, making her waddle when she tried to walk. The fat came in handy though, when she wanted to rest her chubby little fingers somewhere. When she laughed her triple chins jiggled and her shoulders heaved up and down. So either James was sucking up, or a liar, or both.
"James really is quite bright." Sirius laughed as she said this. "No really."
"Yes really Professor."
She continued laughing, complete with the chin jiggling and shoulder heaving. Moments later Sirius jumped out and rushed out the door. We faintly heard a thunk and then Sirius' voice:
"Oops, sorry!" Followed by laughter, before he skipped back in and collapsed in the chair. Waving his hand at Professor Bennett he smiled confidently. "Don't worry about it Professor." Our class ended with just some minor incidents, which are too funny to record.
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The next class Professor Bennett was in the Hospital wing, or just trying to avoid Sirius. So Headmaster Dumbledore stood in her place and let's all admit it, he has a soft stop for the Mauraders. He was okay with Sirius staying, as long as he was 'good'. Which of course Sirius was, all he did was glue her desk drawer shut. And for the first time that year, I'd found myself waiting for the next Ancient Runes class, just to see Professor Bennett's reaction.
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"Professor, you might want to get someone to look at this drawer!" Sirius giggled. "It won't open." He had of course, being the smart kid he is, used 'super-everlasting-completely-unremovable-stick-to-everything-glue.' So after Professor Bennett got us started working on our project, and tried to open the drawer, all of the spells she used were completely useless. And all the while Sirius stood behind her smiling innocently. We all found this quite amusing and when realization finally dawned on her we broke into laughter.
"You glued my desk drawer shut!" She accused Sirius, who pretended to look horrified that she'd even consider such a thing.
"Of course not!" He denied, but Professor Bennett had already figured it out.
"You DID glue my drawer shut! Sirius how could you?!"
"Now Professor Bennett," Sirius started, trying to calm her down. "I can fix this, don't you worry." He started investigating the desk. "Well, it certainly does look as if someone used 'super-everlasting-completely-unremovable-stick-to-everything-glue'." He sounded as if he just stepped out of an add. "Now why someone would do this, I don't know." He ignored her astonished face. "All I need is a knife." As Professor Bennett's eyes widened he flounced back to her main desk and started fumbling through it.
"Sirius, what are you doing?!" She shrieked, her unusually low voice suddenly rising a few octaves.
He waved a hand in her direction. "Don't worry about it, I'm just looking for a razor blade."
"A…A razor blade!?" She asked over the classes laughter. Sirius looked up and nodded.
"I think a razor blade will work better than a knife," He paused for a minute searching through her desk to ask. "Do you even have a razor blade?" As she shook her head Sirius' eyebrows met above his nose in concentration, and then he shrugged. "Scissors will have to do."
He bounced back to her side and said trying to sound intimidating. "Stand back Professor, I can handle this."
Professor Bennett shook her head in dismay, surprised that she was letting Sirius anywhere near herself with a knife. "Be careful Sirius."
He scoffed at her. "I won't hurt my… oops." He paused for a moment scared at whatever he saw, before looking up and grinning forcedly.
"Sirius…" Professor Bennett cautioned. "What did you do?"
Sirius just continued smiling and pushed what he was holding further under the desk. "What are you talking about? I didn't do anything." As he said this he seemed to be convincing not only her, but also himself.
"Did you break my scissors?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Of course not, I am ver responsible with…" He trailed off as Professor Bennett said:
"Accio Scissors." and the scissors flew out, in two pieces. He smiled again.
"Now Professor Bennett," He began. "Remember that you love me."
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Belinda's not going to be very happy with me but… I thought this was important. Wow, it's been a while since anyone cam to check on me. I'm going to write one little thing about Sirius and then I'll go check.
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That was when my opinion of Sirius changed, before I that week I had always though of him as an arrogant, annoying, full of himself bastard, the same as James. But for the first time I saw him for what we was, is, a carefree child, so happy just to be alive and no once could take that joy from him. All the little things that we take for granted, he adored. He could spend hours on end lying on the grass watching the clouds drift overhead.
His pranks weren't done to make the opponent's life miserable, in his own twisted way he was trying to get them to be thankful. That their hair wasn't always bright green, and they didn't always talk in rhyme or tell their deepest secrets. He was trying to show everyone how he saw the world and if we all saw it that way then it'd be such a better place.
Not only that, he was trying to show others that in order to be happy, you had to be able to laugh at yourself and stop caring so much what people thought about you. As soon as Sirius thought a 'victim' had learnt those two things, he would insist the pranks stop. Amazingly enough he was slowly converting people to his way of thinking. And that's when he convinced me.
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I found out where they all went. They're having a snowball fight outside, without me! Of course I did tell James to go away this morning, but still! It's the second day of break and I'm still writing this, I was sure it wouldn't take longer than a day, because my life is so unbelievably boring. But I guess there is stuff to write about.
The next few weeks consisted of massive amounts of homework. Our teachers said they were "preparing us for OWLs." Wouldn't it be smarter though to let us rest right before them. I mean really, they were Hell, and they're nothing compared to NEWTs. God, I am so not looking forward to those. Oh my God, those are coming right up, damn, that's really going to suck. I really should study for those. Of course I also should buy James a gift. I know I should have done it a while ago but… I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO GET HIM!
Belinda, great, just in time.
She asked what I want. As if I can't greet my best friend without wanting something. What does she think I am? All I need is something to get James. Well that's great, she has no idea.
Now what am I going to do. Belinda's supposed to be the one with all the great ideas. Oops, she didn't like that much. And she told me to stop writing. Well fine, I was only writing for her in the first place. Ha, knew that would work. She said she'd think about it and ask James. Then she told me I'd better start writing or I'd never finish and had I written about the time James and I got paired together. Which reminded me that I haven't yet.
It wasn't as horrible as you'd think. We agreed not to talk to each other unless completely necessary. Well I agreed for James.
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"Lily, stop being so stubborn." James was sitting across from me at the library as we tried to study, or I tried.
I glared at him over the open books. "James, you're violating our agreement." I pointed and James sighed.
"Lily, it we're going to work together, we'll need to talk."
"Only when necessary." I had returned to studing, only looking up when I absolutely had to. James sighed once more and gave in. As we were sitting in silence Casey and Remus came over to visit us, sitting down in the two empty seats.
"So, how's it going?" Remus asked.
James looked up from his book to glare at me. "She won't talk to me." He complained.
"Not true," I denied, staring at my open book, but not really reading. "I agreed to talk to him when absolutely necessary."
James threw his hands up in disgust. "See what I have to deal with. That's all she'll say 'when absolutely necessary'. Have you come to save me?" He pleaded.
Casey shook her head and took my side. "She doesn't need to talk if she doesn't want to. You guys can get along fine on the project without communication."
I nodded and tried very hard not to give James an 'I told you so' looks, well not that hard. "See Casey agrees with me."
"But Remus agrees with me." James shot back. "Don't you Rem?" We both glared at Remus who put his hands up in surrender.
"I'm not getting in the middle of this." He stood to go and Casey followed suit.
"we need to work on our own project. Just say if you need anything."
"A new partner." James and I said in unison, turning to smile, but we both quickly changed it to a glare.
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James has physic powers or something, he always comes in when I'm putting him down or writing about how much I hated him. He's trying to get me to have a snowball fight again. And it would be so much easier to say no if he didn't have those gorgeous brown eyes. Do you know how hard it is to deny those? So while he and all my friends are outside having the time of their lives, I'm stuck inside! There's about two feet of snow and it's light and powdery but also the perfect snow for snow-men or snowball fights. AGH! I hate this! I have to sit inside and look out the window to see the snow covering the ground but I can't play in it! Okay, so what was I talking about?
Oh right. James came in begging me to come outside, followed closely by Sirius, who's messy black hair was covered in snow flakes. Sirius insisted that it wasn't as much fun without me because Peter had gone home for vacation so the teams were uneven. I told him that I was terribly sorry, but I absolutely had to get this done. He just stuck his tongue out at me and stalked out. James gave me one last pleading look before walking after Sirius. Although I hate seeing him sad I'm forced to finish this stupid thing.
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"Lily, go to bed." And he thought I was stubborn, he refused to stop telling me that I was tired, as if I didn't already know!
"No," I started to say but it turned into a yawn somewhere.
"You're going to fall asleep any minute." He insisted. "There's no point in you staying."
"If you're staying, I'm staying." I told him in between yawns.
"Then I'll go to bed!" He agreed and scowled when I shook my head. "You're not getting any work done anyway."
I shook my head again, while I yawned. "Not true."
My yawns were contagious and James' eyelids were starting to droop. "Lily, we both need to get some sleep. We can finish tomorrow."
I let my eyes close for a minute, relishing in the relaxation, before jerking them open. "No, we'll finish it tonight."
"Lily," He groaned, rubbing his eyes. "I'm going to bed."
"Fine." I said forcing myself not to yawn. "I'll do it myself."
"Lily!" He cried out, shaking his head.
"Must I remind you that this is worth 25% or our final grade. I refuse to fail." He tried to interrupt me, but I was on a roll, "Just because I was forced to work with you does not mean that I am going forfeit the good grade I would have gotten had I received a better partner." He was starting to look outraged and I probably should have stopped there, but of course I didn't. "Now although you are a trouble maker and a jackass could you please cooperate with me for once and pretend that you're not an arrogant jerk who doesn't care about anyone except yourself!"
"Is that what you think I am? A trouble maker and a jackass? An arrogant jerk? You know I was trying to be nice, I was sure we could get along if we had to. I thought, hey, maybe for once Lily might give me a chance, but who was I kidding?" He shook his head sadly and then grinned mischievously. "Well you haven't seen anything yet." His cockiness returned. "You want to finish the project go right ahead. Have fun. But I'm going to bed. Good night Evans."
I
finished the project by myself, finally going to bed at 3:15 in the morning.
And if I thought my little speech would affect James, I was wrong. He returned
cockier then ever, as if he was trying to prove a point. The next time we spoke
was right after OWLs. But now it's time for dinner. I wasted a whole other day,
and I'll waste tomorrow too. But you know what, I'm starting to enjoy this.
It's actually kind of funny, writing about my past. I wonder what James
remembers about our little fights. Now that's a thought.
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A/N: Well here's another chapter, and it didn't take me that long. Sorry I was working on another little piece that was for a contest. I'd love you if you review either. Who know's when the next chapter will be out, depends on how much homework I have, and how much homework I do. Probably not until after Christmas, before if we're lucky, and seeing as I have no luck that probably won't work. So I'm not promising anything. Oh well I'm happy with myself for getting this one out (and you better be too Madison!) As usual I love all of you that reviewed! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!
-Gretch