The Dance
By Booklovr
A/N: Yes, it's true. I've finally posted the third chapter. Here we see the beginning of Lily and Jim's charming relationship, and just a few episodes from their many…adventures…in their first year.
Disclaimer: All characters, places, ideas, and everything else Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling and Warner Bros. "The Dance" is by Garth Brooks, from his CD "garth brooks."
Chapter 3:
Let the Games Begin… I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end the way it all would go
Our lives are better left to chance I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance
The three things that bothered Jim the most about Hogwarts were homework, the Slytherins, and Professor Reticly, although Professor Bolda was a very close fourth. But the main thing that stood between Jim and his complete enjoyment of his year at Hogwarts was not any of these things. It was Lily Evans. He thought that she was a nice girl, and was quite annoyed that she seemed to do nothing but ignore him. Jim was quite determined to stop this, either by making her a friend (which he would have preferred) or an enemy (which seemed more and more likely). Still, he didn't really know what to do.
"Nothing," Sirius suggested. "If she doesn't want to be your friend, what can you do about it?"
So, Jim continued as he had been, with Lily ignoring him consistently. That is, until their first major schedule addition came along.
"Flying lessons?" Jim asked. "With the Slytherins?"
"Not that bunch of—" Sirius started.
"Flying?" Peter looked scared. "Like, on brooms?"
"How else are we going to fly?" demanded Vicki from another table in the Common Room. "Don't worry, it's a piece of cake. I do it all the time!"
"Yeah, your experience is going to do me a fat lot of good," Peter mumbled.
"Don't tell me you've never flown before," Jim asked incredulously.
"Oh, I've flown," Peter said. "Or, actually, I've sat on the broom, gotten into the air, and fallen painfully to the ground."
"Maybe Madame Hooch will give you some pointers?" Remus suggested. "She usually gives her students ten minutes or so of free time at the end of the class."
"Oh, she does, does she?" Jim mused.
"I really don't like the look on your face," Peter moaned.
Peter turned out not to be the only one with difficulty flying, though he did appear to be exceptionally bad. He did wind up asking for pointers and being corrected far more times than anyone else in the class. Finally, the free time came and they were allowed to fly around the Quidditch pitch however they liked. "But no foolish tricks!" Madam Hooch warned. In fact, she probably said more, but Jim was too busy trying to fly out of her range of vision to pay much attention.
And it wasn't like she could do anything about it, since she was busy giving Peter even more help, and most of the students were well aware of this.
Severus was flying slowly, about ten meters off the ground. Jim flew around him, arms crossed, steering with his knees. "Look, ma, no hands!" Jim shouted.
"Look, ma, no brains!" Severus snapped back.
"You're just jealous!"
"No, you're just stupid!"
"You should talk," Jim said, flying off.
A few minutes later, he flew over to Lily. "Hey, Lilliputian!"
"Shut up, Jim," she snapped.
"Come on, won't you even look at me?" Jim pleaded.
"Why don't you just go—Jim! What do you think you're doing?"
Jim was hanging from his broom upside-down, holding on with his knees. His robes had fallen so that Lily could see he wore Muggle jeans underneath, though Lily was a little too preoccupied to wonder about this. His mop of hair fell straight down and his hat was perched on his legs. "Flying," he said.
"Are you crazy?" she demanded. "Well, I already knew you were but have you finally gone completely INSANE?"
"Nope, I've been this way for a while." Jim grinned.
"Go away, Jim, I'm trying to fly."
"Come on, Lily, won't you be my friend?"
"WHAT?"
"I'm gonna hang like this until you say yes."
"Jim, your face is turning red."
"I can hang like this a long time."
"Jim!" Lily was paying no attention to where they were going.
"Come on, please?"
"Oh, you're such a—"
CRASH!
THUD!
CRUNCH!
"JIM!"
While they weren't paying attention, they had flown all the way to the far end of the pitch and, in Jim's case, straight into the goal post. The sound his arm had made when he hit the ground had not been very comforting. It took about three seconds for him to notice his arm was at a funny angle, and at that exact moment the pain flooded through him. He gritted his teeth to keep from screaming, but he doubted he could hold one back for long.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Jim was somewhat satisfied that he was keeping it down to a very loud shout.
Immediately, Madam Hooch and the entire class had surrounded him, Gryffindor and Slytherin students looking down with morbid curiosity. He could see Snape sneering, and guessed that the greasy bat was laughing at him.
"Broken arm," the teacher announced. "What on Earth did you think you were doing, flying like that? Detention, and—"
"Wait," said Lily. "It's my fault. I should have been watching where we were going, should have warned him."
Jim would have been surprised, but his arm hurt horribly, and he was only dimly aware of what anyone was saying. It didn't seem very important, really.
"I had a part," Sirius added. "I was doing a distraction…"
Vicki broke in, "I thought something was up but I didn't say anything…"
Peter closed his eyes. "I-I-I had a part, too…"
"Yeah," said Remus, "and I was supposed to keep and eye on them, to make sure he didn't go too far out." He grimaced. "I thought he might like some privacy..."
Madam Hooch looked incredulous. She was speechless for about a minute. Then, "I don't know what you kids are trying to pull here, but you've all got detentions. Sixty points from Gryffindor! And if I ever catch anyone trying something like this again, you'll all be expelled! Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," they chorused, with a moan of pain from Jim.
Fortunately, Madame Hooch had not forgotten about his arm, and brought him to the Hospital Wing as quickly as possible. Madame Delta, the school nurse, had him fixed up in no time, though he was not spared a lecture.
"You children and your flying!" Ranted the elderly Mediwitch. "Do you have any idea how lucky you were that it was only a broken arm? What if you had landed on your head? That was much more likely, you know! Do you think I can work miracles? Do you think brain tissue just grows back? You could have caused permanent damage! Or what if you had broken your spine? Go the rest of your life without being able to feel your legs, I bet you'd like that, wouldn't you? Or…"
It was more than half an hour later that Jim finally managed to get back to the Common Room, thinking that it would be worth giving up all dangerous activities if he never had to live through another lecture like that again. As he climbed through the portrait hole, he found Lily waiting to confront him.
"I don't believe you!' she screamed. "You got me a detention, you—"
"I got you a detention?" Jim demanded. "You didn't need to say anything, you would have been fine!"
"What else was I going to do? It was partly my fault! Of course, that was before I knew you has a whole…conspiracy going on!"
"What's that supposed to mean? Besides, it was your choice to speak up, wasn't it?"
"I was trying to do the right thing!"
"I don't get it…"
"You wouldn't! You don't have an ounce of nobility in you, do you? I don't know how you even got in Gryffindor!"
Jim was about to tell her, but changed his mind. "Well, next time, don't bother!"
"I won't!" Lily turned to walk away.
"Lily…do you like me at all?"
"Not even a little bit!" She turned to glare at him. "I hate you, James Potter, and I will never talk to you again!"
She stormed out of the Common Room to her dorm.
Well, Jim thought, if you can't get them on your side…
~*~*~*~
The following Monday, at the breakfast table, the owls delivered their notices of detention.
"Tonight?" Vicki moaned. "But I'm going to have so much homework…"
"I told you to do your Charms work over the weekend," Lily scolded.
"What are we going to have to do?" worried Peter.
"Depends on the professor," said Jim. "Could be almost anything."
"What if we got Reticly?" Remus looked scared.
"Imagine if we get Bolda!" Sirius laughed.
"I heard it's going to be Professor Sprout," Helen offered.
"Where'd you hear that?" Jim wondered.
"The rumor mill," Helen said vaguely.
"Hogwarts has a rumor mill?" Lily wondered.
"Well, yes," Helen said. "Why wouldn't it? More accurately, Hogwarts has a collection of people who always desire to know precisely what is going on everywhere at all times, and by simple exchange of information, boom, you've learnt what you wanted to know."
Everyone just looked at Helen for a few seconds. Finally, Lily said, "Let me get this straight. Somewhere in Hogwarts is a collection of busybodies with nothing better to do than collect all the rumors going around and use them to barter for more information? And you shared some sort of secret with them to find out who we have detention with?" Lily shook her head. "Nothing else is normal here! Why on Earth should the gossip be?"
"What did you tell them?" Jim wondered.
"Well," Helen explained, "my older sister, Bertha, is a Hufflepuff, and she's very high in the rumor mill, so to speak. Hears all the really good gossip. She knew where to find this out, but she needed something good to trade for it. So, I gave her an eyewitness account of how all six of you got detention…"
"WHAT?" demanded Vicki. "I don't believe you! You sold us out!"
Helen rolled her eyes. "Calm your nerves. You know the Slytherins had already released their own version, so I presented an account that did not make you lot out to be the biggest densest prats ever to enter Hogwarts. In return, I was told whom you would have for detention, and…some other information which I do not feel the need to disclose at this time."
Jim muttered something under his breath about not trusting Helen with any secrets ever again. Consequently, no one spoke to Helen for the rest of the day, except for Lily, who was making it a point to do the opposite of whatever Jim was doing.
But it did turn out that she was right. Or at least, detention was in the greenhouses, and they started with Professor Sprout.
"Scrubbing plant pots. Wonderful work," Remus said dryly, picking up the first pot and looking at it distastefully.
"Aw, a little dirt never hurt anyone," Vicki said with somewhat forced cheerfulness. "Just roll up your sleeves and dive right in!"
Remus gave an unenthusiastic smile before dunking the pot into a bucket of soapy water. Vicki idly noticed that Remus had actually not rolled up his sleeves, and as a result they were promptly soaked. But it was quickly reaching the point where nothing Remus did ever really surprised anyone.
While she scrubbed, Vicki glanced around the greenhouse to see how everyone else was doing. Jim was standing next to Sirius, and every few seconds one would "accidentally" spill water all over the other. At any moment, Vicki mused, they might break into an all-out water fight. Lily, standing on Jim's other side and looking none too pleased, was pointedly ignoring them, except for an occasional glare whenever she was splashed. Peter was scrubbing very efficiently (probably, Vicki assumed, because he didn't want to get into more trouble) and was just finishing his first pot. He was walking quickly across the greenhouse to put it on a shelf, when suddenly…
WHAM!
CRASH!
CRACKLE!
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Peter cried. Somehow, Peter had managed to trip over a creeper that was stretching across the floor. He immediately dropped the pot to the floor, but managed to save himself from following it by falling backwards into the plant. That, however, seemed to be very little of an improvement; the plant was a Poison Barbed Throttle Bush. The more Peter struggled, the more tangled in the plant's vines, creepers, and branches he became. The wicked looking thorns, some as much as two inches long, dug into his skin, which was beginning to turn a very unnatural color.
The other five Gryffindors rushed over to help, but it became clear that the plant would not allow this. Sirius tried to pull one vine away, only to discover that it twisted in his hand, trying to grab him as well as Peter. The trapped boy continued to struggle, but his shouts were now dulled to whimpers.
"STOP MOVING!" Professor Sprout ordered, running across the greenhouse and pushing the other students aside. She was holding a spray bottle of some sort in one hand, and was shaking it rapidly. Peter stood absolutely still, and the plant seemed to stop tightening, though he was still tangled and the thorns still pierced his skin, pumping in who knew what kinds of poisons.
Professor Sprout squeezed the bottle she held, and something clear and sweet smelling sprayed all over Peter and the plant. Almost instantly, the vines and runners loosened completely, and fell to the ground, leaving bleeding gashes all over Peter.
The professor quickly conjured up a stretcher and had Peter lie down on it. As she pushed him outside of the greenhouse, she shouted across the grounds at a passerby. "Hagrid! Could you watch over these five while I run to the Hospital Wing?"
There was a muffled agreement, and suddenly a giant man was standing in the greenhouse door. He was twice as big as anyone Vicki had ever seen before, and she doubted he would actually fit in the building. Somehow, Hagrid managed to squash himself in, and he sat on Professor Sprout's desk as if it was a char. Certainly the chairs would have broken instantly under his weight, though she wasn't so sure the desk wouldn't.
"'Ello," he said, cheerfully, "Detentions? What did yeh all do?"
"Jim flew into a goal post," Lily explained. "The rest of us tried to cover for him." She glowered at Jim, then marched past him with all the dignity she could managed, returning to a bucket to scrub more pots.
"What did yeh do that for?" Hagrid asked.
"Seemed like the right thing to do," Vicki said, feeling a bit offended. "We were all sort of responsible, after all."
"I understand that," Hagrid said. "I meant, why weren' yeh watchin' where you were goin'?"
"Oh, that," said Sirius. He pointed at Jim. "He was trying to talk to Lily, but she was ignoring him. Somehow, he thought flying upside down would change her mind." Sirius held up his hands defensively. "It wasn't my idea."
Hagrid shook his head, looking amused. "And why wouldn' yeh talk to him?" Hagrid asked Lily.
Lily shrugged. "He's an idiot. I mean, he was hanging upside down from a broom for goodness sake!"
Everyone but Jim actually got a laugh out of that. The Gryffindors all introduced themselves, and they all started talking as they scrubbed, though Lily and Jim still refused to look at each other.
An hour later, Professor Sprout and Peter returned from the Hospital Wing, Peter now looking a much healthier color, and all his cuts were gone. Professor Sprout shooed them all back to their dorm, saying they'd been there long enough. The six students eagerly ran back to the Common Room, where they found Helen sitting by the fire and waiting for them to get back.
"So," she called, "you guys have any fun?"
Jim, Sirius, Vicki, Remus and Peter all glared at her, Peter especially hard. But Lily just smiled and said, "Talking with Hagrid was good." Then she rolled her eyes and muttered, "The rest of it…"
"Oh, gee gosh darn it, what a pity I wasn't there." This time even Lily gave her a dirty look. "Oh, by the by, do you all remember when I claimed to have acquired 'some other information which I do not feel the need to disclose at this time'? Well, I know it's just been devastating to you that I haven't disclosed all the information that I've gathered, so…" With a grin she pulled a basket out from behind her chair and asked innocently, "Did any of you know how to get into the kitchens?"
Since none of them had, and they were all starving, Helen and her offering of food was enough of an apology that everyone was soon talking—and eating—with her again. The six who had had detention related the story of what had happened, and Helen (after much begging from her housemates) admitted that she had felt bad about being the only one without detention, so she'd "sold their story to the rumor girls in exchange for information about the night's detention assignments and the location of the secret entrance to the kitchen." Still, she refused to let any of the boys know where it was, telling them they would just have to find it for themselves.
However, there were still two members of the group not talking. "Who's got the pumpkin juice?" Lily wondered while looking around.
Jim held it up, but since Lily didn't even look in his direction, Vicki had to take it for her and pour three cups. As the girls drank, Vicki thought the boys' smiles all looked a little odd.
She shook her head. I'm probably just exhausted, she thought, scrambling to her feet. It was much later than she usually stayed up on a school night. "Goodnight, everyone," she yawned.
Everyone else stood up and started heading to their respective staircases, calling over their shoulders.
"Night girls."
"Goodnight people."
"See you in the morning."
"Goodnight Lilliputian."
"Shut up, James!"
"DON'T CALL ME JAMES!"
As they climbed into bed, Vicki asked, "So why don't you like Jim?"
"Because he's…well…annoying."
"I don't think he's that bad," commented Helen.
"You should give him another chance," said Vicki.
"I've given him plenty of chances!" Lily snapped.
"How many? Two?" demanded Helen.
"Please, Lily, just give him one last chance?" asked Vicki. She sincerely believed Jim was a good boy at heart.
Lily sighed deeply. "Fine, one last chance. But he pulls on more stupid…anything, and that's it! Understand?"
"Sure, Lily," Vicki yawned. She fell asleep thinking that they could finally have some peace and quiet while the two were getting along.
The next morning, three green haired girls glowered across the table at four cheerfully waving and laughing boys.
"That's it," said Vicki. "Let the games begin."
~*~*~*~
The boys all thought that turning the girls' hair green was hilarious. And when the boys all found themselves unable to talk for three hours, the girls thought it was equally funny.
At first it was nothing but simple hexes and curses. One day, Jim could write nothing but advertisements for Gladrags Wizard Wear. Another time, Lily's fingernails grew at an alarming rate for four hours straight. In mid-October, all of the boys' homework mysteriously vanished overnight several days in a row. The next week, the girls kept finding flobberworms in their backpacks, and Lily's Charms book somehow transfigured into an onion. But when the girls cursed all the boys with such an awful Indigestion Curse that they spent two days in the Hospital Wing, one of those days being Halloween, it became an all-out war.
Peter was the most reluctant of the four to start anything, even after two weeks of researching their Great Revenge. "Look, guys, the harmless stuff is ok, but this is taking it a little far, don't you think?"
"Come on, Peter, you were as sick as the rest of us!" Sirius pointed out. "And we missed a smashing Halloween feast—don't tell me you want to let them get away with that!"
"I still don't feel good," Remus supplied, rubbing his stomach.
"Remus, you never feel good," Peter pointed out. "And on top of this, why do we have to get Snape, too?"
"Because," Jim said with some frustration, "there is no way they just happened to know that curse. The Lilliputian has been getting very friendly with that Slytherin…how else could they have learned it? But don't worry, I'll take care of Snape myself."
"You sure you can manage all this?" Remus asked. "I feel a little guilty ducking out…"
"Hey, I am Jim Potter, Master of Transfiguration! And I'm sure Sirius and Peter here can manage the little stuff between them."
Sirius nodded. "You did enough, what with all the research and being Jim's Transfiguration Guinea Pig. If your mum's sick again, you take that Portkey home to see her, and don't worry about us!"
Peter frowned, wondering why he had a sense of déjà vu. He seemed to remember that Remus's mother had gotten sick once or twice before, and that Remus had had to rush home for two or three days, returning looking rather pale. However, Peter refused to be sidetracked and continued his argument. "We're going to be breaking into the girls' dorm! How are we ever getting in there without being caught?"
Jim gave them a big grin. "I'll show you, but I gotta swear you to secrecy first."
This caught Peter's interest. "Swear us to secrecy over what?"
"Hey, what did I just say? Ok, repeat after me: I do solemnly swear…"
"I do solemnly swear…" the others echoed obediently.
"To never ever tell what I'm about to be told…"
"To never ever tell what I'm about to be told…"
"To any—hey, we need a name for ourselves!"
"Like what? 'The first year Gryffindor boys'?" Peter demanded. He wasn't very imaginative, and he wanted to hear what Jim was getting at.
"Nah, something better," said Jim. "Like, the Super Spies?"
"The Pranksters," suggested Sirius.
"No, I got it," said Remus. "The Marauders!" The other boys murmured agreement.
Jim beamed. "That's brilliant, Remus! Now, where was I?"
"…Tell what I'm about to be told," prompted Peter eagerly.
"Right: To any non-Marauder…"
"To any non-Marauder…"
"And especially not to our sworn enemies: Lily, Vicki, and Helen…"
"And especially not to our sworn enemies: Lily, Vicki, and Helen…"
"And possibly Snape, if we can prove he's helping them…"
"And possibly Snape, if we can prove he's helping them…"
"If I break my word may my hair fall out, my teeth rot, and my skin turn funny colors…"
"If I break my word may my hair fall out, my teeth rot, and my skin turn funny colors…" Peter was starting to get anxious.
"I further swear to worship Jim Potter like the god he is…"
"That's enough, Jim," said Sirius.
"Sorry, just wanted to see how much I could get out of you nuts." Jim grinned maniacally. "Alright, feast your eyes on the answer to all our sneaking problems!" He opened his trunk and reached in. "The one, the only, the Potter Family Invisibility Cloak!" And he pulled it out with great flourish.
"Ooooh," they collectively gasped. Not that they could actually see the Cloak, but Jim's hands were now invisible and the air around them was rather shimmery, so Peter assumed it had to be there.
"Actually, It's an heirloom from my mum's family. But, now she's a Potter and it was hers. It became Ric's a while back, but, as he is too honorable to ever use it, he decided to give it to me. And, as my brother Harry has an unusual allergy to Demiguise pelts, it shall remain mine until I choose to pass it on to an heir of my choice. And, as that will never happen, it's mine forever!" He looked very pleased with himself.
Peter wasn't really listening. He was too much in awe, as he'd never seen an Invisibility Cloak before. "So…so we use that to sneak into their dorm?"
"That's the plan!" said Jim proudly. "Now, everyone go get their homework done. We've got a lot to do tonight."
Under the cover of the Invisibility Cloak, the three boys snuck into the girls' room just after midnight. Moving silently, Jim began the complicated series of spells they had worked out. Sirius went through the draws and trunks, finding every article of clothing and charming each one. Peter did have the easy part, and that involved his most prized possession: his camera. It had been a going away gift from his mother, though he had tried to keep his photography skill secret. It was rather an embarrassing hobby for a wizard of his age, but Jim and the others hadn't teased him when they found out. Instead, they put him to use.
Tip-toeing around the room, Peter began taking pictures of each of the girls.
Lily had pulled her thick blanket up to her ears and was cuddling a small rag doll, her plaited hair looser than usual, red wisps escaping all over the place.
Helen was curled up like the small white Persian cat at the foot of her bed, with her blonde curls veiling her oddly innocent-looking face.
Vicki lay on her back, short black hair wild, one arm flung out as she snored softly beneath the Holyhead Harpies poster proudly displayed above her bed.
They were so sweet, so innocent looking. This had amazing blackmail potential.
When they were finished, the Marauders returned to their dorm under the Cloak. Outside their dorm window, a distant animal cried by the light of the full moon.
At exactly seven-thirty the next morning, when nearly everyone in the school was eating breakfast, the three girls entered the Great Hall looking ready to kill. Everyone stopped eating to stare in disbelief. Peter made sure to take plenty of pictures, though he stood well back behind Jim and Sirius.
The girls' skin was covered with scales. Their hands were like solid brass, with long, wicked claws. Sharp fangs showed under their thin lips, long tongues showing, and they were all bearded. Worst of all, their hair had been turned into a live, writhing mass of snakes. Peter hated snakes. These harmless little garter snakes weren't so bad, but still…
Names were written in bright green letters on the backs of their robes. Helen was "Stheno the Gorgon," Vicki was "Euryale the Gorgon," and Lily, front and center, was "Medusa."
"Alright," she snarled, "we're here, so fork them over!" She threw down a note reading, "If you want your wands back, come down to the Great Hall, just like that, at 7:30 am." Clearly, the girls knew who had written it.
"Why, Lily," said Jim, the picture of pleasantness, "you look absolutely lovely! Whatever did you do to your hair?" The entire hall burst into laughter.
Lily snarled again. Peter stepped back, thinking she looked very frightening right now.
"Look, James, take off this stupid spell now, or you'll wish you'd thought of one that doesn't make us more dangerous!" She growled, showing fangs and brass claws. Vicki and Helen looked absolutely bloodthirsty.
Jim, however, looked almost bored as he waved his wand. "Perseus!"
Immediately, the girls turned back into their normal selves. Peter quickly handed back their wands, being careful to keep the table between himself and his murderous Housemates. Lily was shooting death glares at him and his camera. Then they turned and stormed out amidst great applause. Sirius howled with laughter as Peter continued to take pictures.
Jim, however, was watching Lily retreat, her long, thick, red hair hanging down her back rather than in it's usual braids. He seemed very deep in thought, and Peter hoped he wasn't planning anything crazy.
~*~*~*~
Lily was glad to see the three boys get detentions. Even Remus lost the house a few points when he confessed to researching the spell and the Medusa myth, but that wasn't enough to earn him a detention. She was even more pleased when they each got a bright red letter the next morning, which Vicki called Howlers, and had to run out of the room, being followed by the sound of screaming parents. Then Lily shocked everyone, including herself, when she stepped forward and confessed to aggravating the boys, and earned herself a detention as well.
The day of the detention, the following Friday, they had Potions, and Jim was able to get his revenge on Severus. As Lily and her partner had almost finished their Basic Slug-Killing Potion (which seemed to be mostly salt water with random ingredients thrown in), Jim walked past and dropped God-only-knows-what into the cauldron, causing it to melt into a heap at their feet, liberally splashing Severus with all manner of nasty things. Severus immediately hexed Jim with something that stuck his legs together but gave him an amazing ability to hop around. Professor Bolda never even looked up.
However, Lily was finally able to come up with a nickname to match "Lilliputian."
"Hey, Jiminy Cricket!" she called as she walked into the Great Hall for detention.
Their assignment: scrub all the tables and chairs in the Great Hall, without magic. They worked for a while, one to a table, in complete silence. Not that having Argus Filch breathing down their necks was helping the mood any. When Lily was a third of the way done, Filch's cat, a horrid dust-gray creature by the name of Mrs. Norris who was rumored to be both immortal and supernaturally smart, came into the Great Hall. After a moment, Filch barked that he would be back, so they'd better not get any ideas, and followed the cat in the direction of Gryffindor tower.
As soon as Filch was gone, Jim started talking.
"Hey, Lilliputian."
"Yeah, Jiminy Cricket?" She looked up to see him flinch at the name.
"Why are you here? I mean, why confess?"
She knew what he meant. "Well, we've gotten this far without anyone getting caught." She shrugged, and scrubbed a few more minutes while deciding what to say. When her thoughts were in order, she looked him square in the eyes. "Here's the deal. We fight this fairly, the Gryffindor way. As long as this war goes on, we keep it just within the House, within the seven of us." She paused to duck under the tables and move next to him. "No tattling, no running to teachers. We cover for each other if anything goes wrong or becomes obvious."
"Like when we never accused you of stealing our homework?" he suggested coldly.
"Exactly. Or when we told the teachers there were flobberworms in our bags because we wanted to practice for when we take Care of Magical Creatures in two years. And if anyone gets caught and has to serve detention, everyone confesses his or her role. No one ducks out. It's that whole nobility thing again. Deal?"
"One more thing," added Jim. "No outside parties. So stop asking Snape for curse suggestions."
"Will you stop bothering him in Potions?"
"As long as he doesn't bother me."
"Promise?"
Jim held up a hand. "I swear on my honor as a Marauder."
"A what?"
"Marauder. Me, Sirius, Peter, and Remus. The Marauders."
"You have a name?" Lily looked at him as if she had lost all respect for him.
"Do we have a deal or not?"
"Deal," said Lily holding out her hand.
"Deal," agreed Jim, slapping her hand as they shook. And, as they had both concealed a sponge in their hand, both were soaked.
Lily quickly slipped back to her side of her table as Filch walked back into the room, muttering about dungbombs in the Gryffindor corridor. Lily strongly suspected that Remus had something to do with this, and that he had been trying to give his friends a short detention break.
After that the detention lightened up, as soapy sponges (as well as insults) were thrown whenever Filch wasn't looking.
That night, sitting on their dorm room floor, Lily explained the rules of the war to her friends.
"This sounds good," Helen said. "I second the motion. All in favor?"
"Uh, Helen?" Lily asked. "What does that mean?"
"Hmm? Oh, it's something they say in official meetings and stuff. One person proposes a motion, someone else seconds it, and then all in favor say 'Aye.'"
"Oh, I get it!" Vicki said. "Well, sounds good to me. Aye."
Lily shrugged. "Right. Moving on…"
"Lily…" Helen hissed.
"Eh? Oh, right, fine, aye. And since we're using 'Official Speak,' then we'll move onto the 'next order of business.'" Lily paused to stroke Helen's cat, Featherfluff, as she stalked past after invisible prey. "The boys have a name for themselves: the Marauders. We need one."
"Ooh, can we have code names, too?" asked Vicki.
"Why do we need code names?" demanded Helen.
"Why do we need a group name?" countered Vicki. "If we're doing one, we might as well do both."
"What did you have in mind?" asked Lily, thinking that Vicki had this all planned out and was going to tell them anyway.
"Well, we could be 'Aves.' I'd be 'Falcon,' Helen would be 'Swan,' and Lily'd be 'Hummingbird'!"
"Hummingbird?" demanded Lily.
"How long have you been thinking about this?"
"Oh, my friends back home used to call me Falcon, cuz I was the fastest thing in the sky, natural born flier, they said," she added with some pride. "I've always thought it would make a cool code name, like a spy name. I've been trying to work out good ones for you guys, too."
"Oh, instead of Swan, can I be Phoenix?"
"Why Phoenix?"
Helen shrugged. "I just like phoenixes! They're my favorite birds, and I've got a phoenix-feather wand. Besides, why Swan?"
Vicki nodded. "Sure, hey, it's your name. Sounds good."
"Alright then! I second the motion! All in favor?"
"Aye!" Vicki and Helen said together, giggling.
"Well…aye…I suppose…got anything better than Hummingbird?"
"Oh, umm, ok, Dragonfly?" Vicki suggested.
"How about Cardinal?" supplied Helen.
"Canary?"
"Parrot?"
"Parrot?" demanded Lily and Vicki together.
"Sorry," Helen shrugged.
"I know! How about 'Pixie' since you're our queen of mischief?" Vicki suggested.
"Hmm, Pixie," Lily mused. "Falcon, Phoenix, and Pixie. The Aves." She grinned. "I like it!"
"It's unanimous!" Helen agreed enthusiastically.
Vicki grinned proudly.
"Oh, last, er, order of business," Lily announced, "Cuz it's really late. Peter has a camera. That camera has many pictures of us. These must be found and destroyed."
"I secon' a mosh-uh" Helen yawned. "All in favor?"
"Aye," they all said together with more giggles.
"But how are we gonna do this?" Vicki wondered.
"Don't know," said Lily, "but we'll make it our goal for the week. Unless there's anything else?" Vicki and Helen shook their heads. "Ok, Aves, let's get some sleep."
"I'd sleep much easier if that door would lock," Helen muttered.
Lily walked over to the door and muttered a Charm. "There. If anyone tries to walk through the door, all the lights will come on and an alarm will go off. That should wake us up. Or, at least, it should wake me and Helen." She grinned wickedly. "Vicki can sleep through anything."
Vicki threw a pillow at her. Lily threw it back.
"Good night," Helen said. It was almost an order. Lily made a face and snapped her curtains shut just in time to avoid being hit by a flying slipper.
"Aves," Lily sighed. It was a name those boys would remember. She'd make sure of that.
~*~*~*~
All day Monday, Peter felt like he was being watched. He strongly suspected the girls, but every time he turned around to look at then, they'd be pointedly ignoring him. Which made him all the more sure it was they.
He was on his way to the library after Herbology to work on his DADA assignment (Peter was failing abysmally in DADA) when he suddenly discovered Helen and Vicki just behind him. Instinctively, he reached into his backpack and pulled out the camera so that they wouldn't steal it while he wasn't looking.
"Hello," said Vicki, coming up on his left.
"Going to the library?" inquired Helen on his right.
"Umm, no," he said spinning around and trying to run.
The girls spun him back around and forced him to keep walking down the hallway. "Oh, come on, Peter. We don't bite," Helen chided.
"If it'll make you feel better, we don't have our wands," Vicki said.
Peter saw that they both had one hand on him and the other arm full of books. They couldn't do anything sudden, and he could get away as soon as one of them let him go. Peter was very quick for someone his size.
When they were twenty feet from the library, the door opened and Lily came out, a large stack of books balanced in her arms. She looked at them as if she was puzzled. "What are you doing?"
"We're going to help Peter with his DADA assignment, right?" Helen asked with a smile.
Peter relaxed a little so he could think. One of the girls would need to let go to open the door. Probably Helen would, since Vicki held on with her right hand and thus had the stronger grip. She might try something in those few seconds, so Peter would have to get away fast. Luckily, that was what he did best. He twisted around to check his back. Lily had already turned the corner, the hall was empty and there were several side corridors he could turn down.
At the door, Helen let go, suddenly reaching for his camera. In that split second, Peter collapsed. He dropped to his knees so suddenly that Vicki lost her grip. Before either girl could react, he rolled over and ran down the hall, clutching the camera tightly. He heard the bang of dropped books and knew they were going for their wands.
Peter didn't even slow down as he passed the first side corridor, knowing Lily would be standing backup there. Dashing to the next hallway, he shrugged off his backpack and threw it in front of the third door on the right. Then he backtracked to the first door on the left, diving in just as he heard the girls come around the corner. Peter cowered behind the teacher's desk in the empty classroom and listened.
"Look! There's his bag!"
"Is he in there?"
"Unlikely. It's probably some sort of deception."
"You check that room, we'll check the ones further down."
Peter waited for about fifteen minutes, wishing he hadn't left his wand in the dorm. Then… "Do you think he's in one of the rooms before his bag?"
"That would imply that he'd backtracked…Do you think he's actually that smart?"
"You never know."
"All right, might as well check. He doesn't seem to be anywhere else." The door opened the rest of the way and the three girls entered. Peter held his breath and tried to make himself invisible. The girls were coming closer, thy would find him and curse him awfully, they would smash his camera, they must hear his heart beating by now—
"Oh, no! Did you hear that?"
"I think its Filch!"
"Back to the library! Run, Aves!"
Peter waited five minutes for the girls or Filch to enter the room, but nothing happened. Finally he climbed to his feet and looked into the corridor. Empty. The girls were gone, but they'd taken his bag!
After much running and sneaking, Peter made it back to the safety of the dorm, where he explained what had happened to the other Marauders.
"Aves?" pondered Jim. "Seems they have a name, too."
"So?" demanded Peter. "Were you listening to anything I just said?"
"Hmm? Oh, right," Jim said, snapping back to reality.
"How'd you do it?" Remus asked.
"Huh?"
"How'd you get away? You seemed to know what you were doing."
Peter shrugged. "I've always been…sort of a target for bullies. I've had lots of practice with hiding and running away."
Jim seemed thoughtful for a minute before shaking his head. "First thing first. We'll develop those pictures today. I think we can ransom some of the morning pictures for Peter's backpack. Save one or two, plus all the ones of them sleeping. Those have lots of potential. Oh, and I want the one of them all leaving the Great Hall, too." Before Peter could ask why, Jim changed the subject. "Ever considered a career in espionage?"
"Espio—? What? No!"
"I think you'd be good. You already seem to be an expert sneak."
Sirius nodded. "Yeah, we could use a spy—"
"Um, I gotta go develop this film. Now!" Peter ran from the room before Jim or Sirius could come up with any other ideas.
The next morning, the girls—the Aves—returned the backpack in exchange for "all" the pictures. Peter fervently hoped he wouldn't have to be the one to tell the girls about the pictures they'd kept.
He didn't discover the dungbombs until they went off in his bag. As he tried to explain to Reticly that he'd forgotten his homework—again—Peter's brain was already thinking up a suitable revenge.
~*~*~*~
A/N: Imagine something like this happening on a weekly basis between here and Christmas. The next chapter will pick up around Christmas Holidays, and we'll get to see the home of one Ave and one Marauder. It might take a while to appear, what with term papers due and other college-y things, plus the chapter itself needs a major overhaul. Please review so I'll know you're waiting!