Chapter Four-Best Friends
"And so the guy says to her, 'Pool? Is this the right house?'" finished Sirius. The entire Gryffindor common room burst into laughter at yet another one of his hilarious jokes. James, who was sitting on the couch opposite him, decided to tell one of his jokes.
"Does anyone mind a blond joke? Ok good. So a blond, a brunette and a redhead are all running from the ministry. The ministry wizards are gaining on them, so they run into a barn and each had in a sack. One ministry wizard kicks the first sack, which has the redhead in it, and she says, 'Meow, meow,' The ministry wizard figures she's not in there so he goes to the next sack, where the brunette is. He kicks it and the brunette barks like a dog. The blond thinks she knows what's going on. The ministry wizard kicks the sack that she's hiding in and the blond responds 'Potatoes! Potatoes!'" The crowd burst into laughter. Lily had heard that one, although it was funny a second time. She looked around at the room and noticed that Remus Lupin, Sirius' best friend, wasn't laughing. He actually had a sour look on his face and was glancing around the room. His eyes met Lily's and he quickly looked away. Lily walked over to him and sat down.
"What's with the sad look on your face?" asked Lily with a smile. Remus sighed.
"I don't have a best friend anymore," he responded.
"What do you mean? I thought that Sirius was your best friend," replied Lily. She didn't quite see what was going on
."So did I, but now he spends all his time with James. It's always James this or James that. I don't get to talk to him that much because most of
the time he ignores me," explained Remus. A weird feeling went through Lily,
she didn't exactly know what, as Remus told her this.
"Oh, it's always Marsha Marsha Marsha right?" asked Lily with a laugh. Remus didn't get it.
"Who's Marsha?" he asked. Lily had forgotten that he didn't know what she
was talking about.
"It's a muggle show on the tele," said Lily. Remus looked even more confused.
"The tele?" asked Remus.
"Nevermind. Maybe I can find Jamie sometime and we can tell you about it,"
said Lily. She instantly knew what was wrong with her. She hadn't talked to Jamie in the two weeks that they had been at Hogwarts. She didn't have a best friend anymore either.
"Lily, are you okay? You've been acting funny since we left the common room. And you haven't touched your chicken," said James during dinner. He took a bite of his teriyaki chicken and turned towards Lily. "It's good chicken."
"O 'ea, i's uper ood chick," started Sirius with his mouth full of food, "chicken. Ok, so what's wrong with you Lily?"
"I was talking to Remus in the common room..." started Lily.
"Oh yeah, I can see how talking to him can make you depressed, because he's the coolest, funniest person I know," said Sirius. Lily sighed.
"No, well I was talking to him and I realized that I don't have a best friend anymore," explained Lily, starting to cry.
"No Lils, no don't cry. Please don't cry. You are probably the coolest person here. Really you are. I don't think I could have gotten through the first week of school, even the train ride, if you weren't here. And I guess I never told you this, but I think that you are my best friend," said James. Lily looked up.
"Really?" she asked. James nodded.
"Yeah, he talks about you all the time. Lily this and Lily that, it's nausiating really. I should get payed for listening to him," said Sirius. Lily smiled.
"Lily, it's really hard coming to a new school where you don't know anyone. And you do know Jamie, she was your best friend all through elementary school, and even though you might make different friends now, nothing can change the fact that you guys are friends. You should go and talk to her, she probably misses you as much as you miss her," said James. Lily considered this.
"Ok, but if we become best friends again what will happen to you? I want you to be my best friend," said Lily. James smiled.
"You can never have too many best friends," he replied. "So are you gonna eat that chicken?"
"So I was talking to Jessica Stewart last night, she's only the most popular and prettiest fourth year of course, and she was showing me how to put on makeup this great way," said Sandra Klein, one of Jamie's new snobby friends. She pushed her aburn hair behind her ears and took out a compact.
"Wow, this is so awesome! At my house my parents would never let me wear makeup because I wasn't old enough," said Sara Thomas. Her blonde hair was up in an elaborate bun and she was smearing on some blue eyeshadow.
"Oh, my parents always let me wear makeup," said Jamie. It wasn't true, her parents never let her, but she wanted to make a good impression. Besides, she had read a lot of beauty magazines and did actually know what she was doing.
"Anyway girls, would you like to know what Jessica showed me?" asked Sandra. Everyone leaned in closer to her so they could watch her put on some eyeliner. Disgusting. Lily had been standing behind them the entire time listening to what they were saying. She wanted to talk to Jamie of course, but she hadn't found an opening in the converstation yet. However, that opening came when Sandra took her eyes off the makeup for awhile and looked up at her.
"Oh, look who it is, little Miss Popularity," she said in a sarcastically happy voice. Lily sighed, she wasn't used to that.
"Hello girls. I was just trying to see if I could get a word in with Jamie really quickly," said Lily, with a voice so cold that it could have turned cocoa to ice. Jamie turned around and started to open her mouth, but she was interrupted by Sara.
"She doesn't want to talk to you. You were the one who ditched her and made all new friends so you could turn them against her," said Sara nonchalantly. She put on some more blue eyeshadow. Lily was not going to stand her and take this, her days of doing that were over.
"And I don't want to talk to you, you snobby brat who looks like you went to a fashion show and then to clown lessons. I wanted to talk to Jamie. And by the way, you should never wear blue. It never looks good save for shows, what you want to highlight your hair and eyes would be a light pink or lilac," said Lily. The last part of her sentance was just as sarcastic as Sandra had been. Sara looked embarassed. She quickly tried to get the blue off of her eyelids and then, after that didn't work, she put purple shadow on top of them.
"No, Lily, she's right. I don't want to talk to you. School has changed you from the person who was my best friend. Besides, you have James and Sirius now, don't you? You don't need me," said Jamie. Her voice was strong, but Lily could tell by her eyes that she wanted to cry.
"Fine. Well when you get over yourself and want to talk to me again, then tell me. You know where to find me," said Lily. She then quickly turned and tried to go over to where Sirius and James were playing wizard chess. Tears glistened in her eyes. She was halfway there when she felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Hi. I heard what Jamie and the Snob-ettes told you. I'm sorry. They don't like me either. It's okay, you're really the most popular girl in the first year. I mean, they think that they are popular and they may even be to a point, but they don't really have friends. They're just good at intimidation," said a pretty blond that Lily recognized from the train. "I'm Nancy by the way."
"Thanks. I know exactly what you mean. I just miss hanging out with her and stuff. She was my best friend. And James is a great best friend, but I kinda need a best friend to talk about clothes and shopping and makeup and boys and all the fun stuff," explained Lily. Nancy nodded, she knew exactly what Lily meant.
"Well, I can't be your best friend or anything like that, but I think it would be cool if we became friends. You can meet my other friend, Jeanine, she's a lot of fun to hang out with," said Nancy, trying to comfort Lily.
"Really?" asked Lily. Nancy smiled.
"Yeah. Come on, I'll show you my dress robe collection, and my earings. It will be fun, come on!" exclaimed Nancy. Lily was happy about this prospect, and they went over to the girls dorms together.
"Lily, Lily, LILY!!!!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!!!!!!" Lily heard a voice yell in her ear. What was the matter, it was almost midnight and she wasn't done with her beauty rest?
"Five more mintues," she said with a yawn as she rolled over and put the pillow over her head.
"No, Lily you have to get up! Today is our first astronomy lesson and it's at midnight. We only have ten minutes to get over there. Hurry up and get ready!" yelled the voice. Lily now realized that James was whispering in her ear. She had completly forgotten about astronomy. She sat straight up and accidently hit James square in the jaw.
"Sorry..." apoligzed Lily. She looked around. Sandra, Sara, and Jamie's beds were empty, but Nancy was still sleeping. "Ok, get out so i can change and wake up Nancy. Thanks for waking me up by the way James. And I really am sorry about your jaw."
"Don't mention it, that's what any friend would do. And you really didn't hurt me. I'll wait for you in the common room and we'll walk over to the astronomy tower together, ok?" asked James. He didn't even bother to wait for her to answer, he just walked over to the room.
"Nancy, Nancy wake up! Astronomy!" said Lily, shaking Nancy awake. Nancy awoke with a start.
"Oh thanks Lily, but where is Sara? She said she would wake me up at 11:30! She promised!" explained Nancy with a sigh.
"It's ok, she didn't even tell me about astronomy. Come on, we only have ten minutes to get down there. Or up there, whatever," said Lily as she threw black robes on over her p.j.s. Then she pulled her hair into a ponytail and pulled on her witch's hat. Lastly she wrapped her scarf around her and then she was ready. Nancy was done a moment later. They only had seven minutes to get to the astronomy tower now.
"That was quick. I thought that girls had to spend hours on their makeup and stuff before they came down from their rooms. I weren't aware they had a face, they always talk about putting it on..." said Sirius. Lily looked at the people in the common room. There were the few first years that had forgotten about astronomy as Lily did, and a group of rowdy seventh years that must have fallen asleep on the couch.
"You only have to to that if you're Sandra or Sara or Jamie," replied Lily, stifling a yawn.
"I think that Sara's nice," said Remus, walking down from the boys dorms. "Ok, everyone meet my new friend Peter."
A somewhat plump boy was walking down the stairs behind Remus. He had thin blond hair and was quite a bit shorter than most of the first years, however he seemed nice enough. When he saw everyone standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for him, he waved rather energetically and then fell down the last few stairs.
"Hullo everyone. Peter Pettigrew's the name," he said, extending his hand. After everone introduced themselves, they realized that they had very little time to get to the astronomy tower. They rushed there as quickly as they could.
The astronomy tower was huge, and was crowded with every first year in the castle. Every year had their astronomy lessons on one day of the week at midnight. Lily and her friends sat down next to a group of Ravenclaws that looked rather sleepy and then turned their attention to the professor. Luckily, class hadn't started yet.
"Hello and welcome to your first astronomy lesson. You will discover that astronomy is a quiet and meticulous art, and you will need to work hard to understand the slight and silent nature and history of the starts," said the professor. She then explained about the stars that they could see with the naked eye. By the end of the lesson Lily was wide awake, taking her usual brilliant notes and asking a multitude of questions.
"Man Lily, how can you care so much about what all the stupid stars are named?" asked Sirius as they left the astronomy tower. Lily rolled her eyes.
"I care because, obviosuly, there will be a test on it. And weren't you listening, all of the stars are not named. Most of them don't have names, and you can name them for a small fee," replied Lily.
"Ok, fine then. I was just wondering how you can still manage to be a-a-awake," said Sirius, yawning at the end of his sentance.
"Well, you'll get used to it. We have to wake up at midnight on mondays for the rest of our time here," explained Lily.
"No, I don't think that I'll ever get used to it. I mean, come on, only freaks who stay up during the lesson like you will get used to it," said Sirius.
"I am not a freak. And for your information-" started Lily, but she was cut off by James.
"Um, you guys, where are we?" he asked. Lily looked around at her surrondings. They appeared to be somewhere in the dungeons, far from the Gryffindor common room. During Lily and Sirius' brief arguement they had ended up taking a wrong turn.
"I've never seen this part of the castle before..." replied Lily.
"Me neither. I think we should go," said Sirius.
"But which way do we go? The two staircases in front of us lead down. We should turn back," said James. Lily looked behind her as the staircase that they had just come down swung to another wall and replaced it's opening with a wall.
"Um James, I don't think that's gonna be a possibility," she said as she pointed back at the wall.
"Oh this is not good. This is really not good! What should we do?" said James in a panicy voice. This seemed to irritate Sirius.
"Honestly James, do you have to freak out like that? Why don't we just figure out a different way to get back to the common room. No big deal. So based on our surroundings I think we're in the dungeons. All we have to do is find potions and then we will be able to find our way back from there," said Sirius. Lily was glad that he knew how to keep clam in a situation like this.
"Hum...when we go to potions we go in the first corridor after that sprial staircase, and we come from the oppisite direction, so I'm guessing that we need to go to the staircase on the left," determined Lily."Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, listen to what Lily says, yeah..." replied James. Lily almost laughed at him, but thought better of it. The three of them started to head down the stairway over to the left, and it was a few minutes before they recognized anything. James was the one who noticed the potions classroom of the the left.
"Look, there it is! It's right over there!" he yelled with joy. Lily was overjoyed until she heard the ancient caretaker's meanicing voice.
"Students out of bed. Don't worry kiddies, I'll find you soon enough..." he cackled, hurrying towards the potions hallway. Just then James made a brilliant discovery.
"Look!" he whispered, so that Lily and Sirius could hear him. "That statue is just like the one that's by transfiguration! And that's right near our common room!" Lily looked over to the statue that James was pointing out. It was a large, bronze monument of a man that Lily had always assumed to be Godric Gryffindor. He was standing tall, chest forward, shoulders up, with a sword in one hand and his other hand over his chest.
"I bet you all we have to do is figure out someway to get behind the statue, there's probably a secret passage behind there," thought Lily out loud. Sirius and James nodded their heads in agreement. Sirius took out his wand and started waving it around in the air ridiculously.
"Abracadabra, snikely-poo!" he said, a little louder than Lily would have liked him to. Nothing happened at all. "Stupid wand!" exclaimed Sirius, throwing it at the statue. As the tip hit the end of Godric Gryffindor's sword, the statue slid forward, just enought to let them through, and then slowly slid back again.
Lily had expected this new passage to be dark and scary, but it was actually quite to the contrary. There were torches and paintings covering the walls, and beautiful rugs on the floor. There were places where the rugs were stained with footprints, which lead Lily to believe that this was a well known and much used secret passage. It would make sense too, after only a few minutes they had gotten from the potion's corridor to the Gryffindor common room, a feat that usually took them a quarter of an hour. The first years ran into the common room exhilarated and breathless, excited about the prospect of finding the secret passage. Sirius could not stop grinning.
"Do you realize what has just happened here?" asked Sirius. Both Lily and James had no idea what he was getting at. "That statue, that secret passage, there must be hundreds of them in this school. I bet you if we looked hard enough we could find passages that lead to secret rooms, maybe even out of the castle. You know what I think we should do about it?"
"I think we should go to sleep," replied James. The excitement was wearing off, and all James really wanted right now was to lay down in his warm bed and fall asleep.
"We are gonna form a secret society. Only for us, maybe Remus. All we need is a name. Hmm...we could be the mischief makers? That's kinda corny. Magical Menences? No. How about...how about..." started Sirius, but he could not for the life of him think up a name. It was at that point that Lily chimed in.
"How about the Mauraders?" she asked sleepily. James was now nodding off on her shoulder, and she wanted to join him.
"Yes, that's perfect! Lily, James, you are now in our secret society, the Mauraders, where breaking rules and making mischief is our goal. Congradulations!" exclaimed Sirius. What followed was more anti-climactic than he expected.
"I'm not gonna be a part of any club that will get me detention, but I wish you the best of luck. If you don't mind, I'm going to bed," said Lily. She got up and James opened his eyes drowsily, not quite comprehending what was going on.
"Don't let the purple cow untie your shoelaces..." he advised, and then he too got up from the couch and made his way to the dormitories to get a well earned good night's sleep.
A/N- Yeah well it's been awhile, and I must apoligize for that. I still love this story though, and I have been working hard on it lately to get this chapter up as soon as possible. I really want to know what you guys think of it, if it's good and what you think needs to improve, so please review. All flames will be used to roast marshmallows, and maybe make s'mores as well...
Disclaimer- Harry Potter and all related characters belong to J.K.R. Everything else belongs to yours truly.