A/N: Hey, can anyone guess where the title for this fic came from? If you think you know, e-mail me the answer! The first couple people to reply might get parts in a coming chapter! Happy reading! (p.s. Sorry this part is so short, I promise the next part will be MUCH longer!)
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In the last few months of school before the summer holidays virtually all of our free time was spent in the library poring over large, heavy spellbooks and crinkled old documents about Animagi. We had found the recipe for the Animagus potion that was needed to initialize the spell and decided to start work on it right away, as it needed to simmer for exactly three years. We had taken to rifling through Professor Lipnicka's private stores of potion ingredients during mealtimes and after lights-out, as only a few of the ingredients that we needed were directly accessible to students. This resulted in many near misses with both the teachers and Filch. Late one sultry night in early May, Sirius, Remus and I were creeping down to the dungeons (we had been unable to wake Peter, which was just as well because he tended to get into the way) to "borrow" some more boomslang skin. We slipped through the Entrance Hall and had almost reached the sloping passageway that led to the dungeons when we heard a familiar, raspy voice getting nearer. Filch! We froze. Thinking fast, I dragged my friends towards a door off to the side of the hall. We rushed in and quickly closed the door. An interesting sight reached our eyes. We had stumbled in on a very busy looking Carrie and Patrick, neither of whom noticed our sudden intrusion. Remus turned bright red, and I quickly looked away. Sirius, however, cleared his throat.
"Ahem, are we interrupting something?" Carrie gave a surprised yelp and pulled her face away from Patrick's, looking flushed. They looked guiltily up at us.
"Erm, fancy meeting you here?" said Patrick, grinning awkwardly. Sirius mock-tutted.
"Now, children, this is not proper behavior for a school setting." Carrie snorted.
"Oh yeah, you're one to talk, with you and Sarah disappearing every other night for hours on end! Hmm, wonder what you've been doing?" Now it was Sirius' turn to redden. I put my ear against the door.
"I think Filch is gone now. Come on, we don't have any time to waste. See you." Carrie looked up curiously.
"What's so important that you have to sneak around the school at night to do it?" But we were already out the door. Patrick and Carrie shrugged and returned to what they had been doing before they had been interrupted.
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"James? James?" I twitched as I felt Lily poke my shoulder.
"Five more minutes," I mumbled. She poked harder.
"James!" I jerked my eyes open and sat up abruptly. I had fallen asleep in the Great Hall, my head resting on my breakfast plate. Lily raised her eyebrows and picked a piece of fried egg out of my hair. "What's up with you?" I shrugged.
"I guess I'm just tired." She raised her eyebrows even higher.
"You must be, with all that late-night sneaking around that you, Sirius, and Remus have been doing." I stared. "Don't look so surprised. You three make quite a racket, clomping down the dormitory staircase. I'm surprised you don't wake the whole house up." The bell rang. I groaned as Lily jumped up and dragged me off to History of Magic.
I looked over sleepily at Remus, who was absentmindedly doodling on a scrap of parchment. Professor Binns was droning on about Magical Catastrophes of the 17th century or something equally dull. Sirius and Sarah were in a far corner of the room. Nudging Remus, we turned to glance at them.
"Think they ever come up for air?" I shrugged and looked over at Lily, who was gazing out of the window with her eyes half open, humming some Muggle song under her breath. Remus balled up his parchment.
"Watch this." He aimed and threw the ball at Sirius and Sarah, who sprang up, looking stunned.
"What?" They noticed me and Remus cracking up, and decided to retaliate. After a few minutes we were in the middle of a full-fledged war. Peter was hovering anxiously on the side, trying to get in. I ducked as Sirius sent his Charms book whizzing over my head. People sprang out of the way as it hurtled past them, finally flying through professor Binns and hitting the wall on the far side of the classroom. We all froze and turned to gape as the professor who, despite all the noise, did not once look up from the textbook that he was quoting from. Shrugging, we returned to our battle, this time with the whole class involved.
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Professor McGonagall tapped her foot impatiently. I tried not to smile.
"I'll ask you again. Potter, Black, what were you doing out of bed tonight?" Sirius and I put on our best innocent looks.
"Neither of us could fall asleep, Professor. We were anxious about the exams, so I suggested that we go for a short walk to clear our heads." In truth, we had been returning from adding more daisy roots to the Animagus Potion, which was simmering away in an abandoned broom closet on the fifth floor, but McGonagall wasn't to know that. She fixed us with her piercing stare, as if trying to read our minds. Sirius smiled sweetly.
"I'm sorry if you thought we were causing trouble." He grinned slightly.
"We'd never do anything like that, honest," I added, quickly suppressing a smirk. The professor frowned.
"Well, there is no proof that you were causing trouble…" she shot us a stern glance, "But you were still out of bed, and that is firmly forbidden. Five points from Gryffindor, and I do not want to see you out of bed again." We jumped up and headed for the hallway. "One more thing." We turned. "If I do find out that you've been causing any mischief…" She raised her eyebrows as we grinned at her, darting out of the door. We ran back to the portrait hole. The Fat Lady gave us a stern look.
"What have you two been doing out of bed?"
"Nothing important. Chocolate Frog." We climbed through the portrait hole. Someone cleared their throat.
"About time you showed up." I froze as I saw a figure lounging in a chair by the fire. It was Lily. She looked suspiciously at me. I laughed uncomfortably. "Er, Lily, what are you doing up this late?"
Sirius bit his lip as a second person emerged from the shadows. "Sirius! We want to know why you two have been sneaking around every night. Remus too." Sarah narrowed her eyes. "Well? Aren't you going to say anything?"
"Erm… I'm sorry?" His sheepish smile quickly disappeared as he saw the look on her face. "What are you so mad at us about, anyway?"
Lily tapped her foot, her bright green eyes flashing. "It's not so much that you've been sneaking out that bothers us, it's just that you won't tell us what you've been doing." She turned to face me, a slightly hurt look on her face. "I thought you could tell me anything." I melted.
"I'm so sorry, Lily, but I can't tell you this. It's not my fault; I would if I could! But it's Remus' own private business…" Lily cast a glance over at Sarah, who was nose to nose with Sirius, her dark brown eyes narrowed. They seemed to be engaged in a staring contest of some sort. Sirius' eyes were open wide, gazing into his girlfriend's. Sarah bit her lip, looking as if she wanted desperately to laugh. Finally, she broke down and burst out laughing. Sirius half smirked, half-grinned and grabbed her, swinging her around.
"You lose! You lose!" They collapsed on the floor, both laughing uncontrollably. Lily's gaze softened as she turned to me and rolled her eyes, though she was grinning.
"Those two are crazy…" Sarah and Sirius rolled behind a wide couch with a dull thump. There were some whispers, a few short giggles from Sarah, and then silence. I looked at Lily, raising my eyebrows suggestively. "Shall we?"
Lily smirked. "We shall." She moved closer to me and laid her head on my shoulder. I wrapped my right arm around her and pulled her to a dark corner of the room.
"Does this mean you forgive me?" I asked as she settled into my embrace.
"Reckon it does…" Any further conversation was cut short as our lips found each other's.
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"Can you believe we've already finished our first year here?" Remus asked as we boarded the Hogwarts Express to return home for the summer holidays. Mary sighed. She had recently broken up with her sort-of boyfriend, Robert Bell, having found him in a passionate embrace with a black-haired Ravenclaw 2nd year. Remus patted her arm comfortingly as she gazed plaintively out the window at the bustling station. Peter settled himself in a corner to feel sorry for himself. Exams had come and gone in a flurry of stress and harried nerves. To my surprise, I had come out top of the class alongside Lily and Sirius, closely followed by Remus and Sarah. The only person in our little gang to come off with barely adequate marks was Peter. Carrie, Liz, and Mary had all scored very highly in all subjects. Snape, Sirius had been disappointed to find out, had passed all subjects, scoring extremely high in Potions. We were now off to a relaxing summer at home. I was a bit apprehensive of my mother's reaction to the detentions I had accumulated- she had warned me of severe consequences if she received any more owls home from Professor McGonagall. I was not too worried, however; Mum tended to fail to follow up on her threats. As the train chugged through the green countryside, I leaned back in my seat. Remus was already starting on his homework. I noticed that he was sitting quite close to Mary, explaining to her the differences between two different types of magical plants. Sirius and Sarah were nested in a corner involved in a game of Exploding Snap. As I watched, Sirius yelped as the deck exploded, nearly singing his eyebrows. Sarah, laughing hysterically, tried to comfort him and stifle her giggles at the same time. Carrie had trotted off along the corridor with Patrick just after the train had left. Mary and Liz were making plans to go to some sort of Muggle camp together.
"We'll have so much fun! Sailing is a blast, and there aren't that many campers there so you can…" Confused, I turned away and glanced at Lily, who looked troubled.
"What's wrong?" She looked at me, her deep emerald eyes filled with sorrow.
"I was just thinking that my holidays aren't going to be as fun as everyone else's. My sister Petunia hates me now, and she's sure to have her horrid boyfriend Vernon Dursley over all the time…They so enjoy making fun of me." I closed my arms protectively around her shoulders.
"Maybe I'll come visit you if you like. We can show your sister who's better, anyway." Lily smiled. We gazed out the window at the rapidly moving countryside. I sighed. Nothing else mattered to me at that moment except the person wrapped in my arms, loving me simply for me.
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A/N: Sorry, this chapter was mostly fluff. Tell me, do you think I should extend this series for the whole seven years at Hogwarts? That might make it kinda long…
Disclaimer: Okay, okay, I own nothing except the plot line. Has anyone seen the movie trailer? The music was kinda creepy, but basically the movie looks like it'll be pretty cool as long as damn WB doesn't cut out too many of the important parts…