*
Time went by. Autumn neared its end and winter dawned. The days grew shorter and the nights longer, and the hallways and classrooms grew chillier by the minute. The first years were nearing the end of the term, longing for the time when they would be able to relax and soak in the Christmas air.
As the climate changed, so did the atmosphere between the first years. From the moment in the library, both groups of friends had set aside their differences and had agreed to be friends. The prank-pulling had come to a temporary stop, and the eight Gryffindors along with their other three classmates enjoyed the serenity that ensued.
Lily and her friends were crowded around the fire in the Gryffindor Common Room one Saturday morning. They were chatting and joking around. For a change, Lily was struggling through her Transfiguration homework, instead of putting it off till later. Sammy was scribbling something on a piece of paper, and Pooja was playing chess with Suzanne – as usual.
Suddenly, the portrait hole swung open to expel Sirius, James, Remus, and a very irritated Peter. All of them, except for Peter, were wearing wide grins. Lily could have sworn that if James didn't have glasses, he and Sirius would've looked like twins. But Sirius had blue eyes – probably the only other difference between the two friends.
"We've made up a name for our gang," James said excitedly.
"Oh, really – and what might that be?" Sammy smirked.
"Guess," was all Sirius said in return.
"Um – are you guys the – uh – Playful Pranksters?" Suzanne asked, making Pooja burst out laughing.
"Yeah, and, like – you're the Queen of England," Remus said, rolling his eyes.
"I am?" Suzanne asked again, grinning this time.
"Oh, shut up," he muttered.
"Are you guys the Mischief-Makers?" Pooja guessed again.
"Come on, you guys – you get one more guess," Sirius said, shaking his head at them.
"Ha, this is like Rumpelstiltskin!" Lily said suddenly.
"This is like what?" all seven of them asked.
"Oh, it's a Muggle story. Don't ask me to tell it to you guys; it's too long," Lily explained.
"Tell it to us Lily! Tell me a story!" James said like a little kid, sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of her.
"Yeah, Lily – you shouldn't have mentioned stories. James isn't going to let you go until you tell him one. And we're the Marauders, by the way," Sirius said, grinning at her.
Lily rolled her eyes at them and proceeded to get up and walk away. James, however, pulled her back down into her chair. She glared at him and tried again, but this time, he sat in her lap, surprising everyone in the Common Room.
"Aah, James, get off me!" she shrieked.
"I want a story!" he yelled, unintentionally jumping while on her lap.
"James, you don't want to make me use my last resort –" Lily warned.
"What's that?" he asked, suddenly stopping.
But Lily had already pulled out her wand and was muttering a few, well-chosen words. In a second, James could no longer be seen. All seven heads looked up to see him floating in the air.
"Wow, Lily – how'd you do that?" Sammy asked, standing up.
"Charms – what else?" she said, smiling at them.
"Lily, get me down!" James yelled.
"Did you hear something?" Lily asked, with her head cocked to one side, still smiling.
"Lily, get me down before I transfigure you into a fish!" he yelled.
"Sorry, James, not even you can do that. We haven't done Human-Transfiguring yet," Lily said, grinning at him.
"This is going to be a long weekend…" James muttered.
*
"James, can you help me with my homework?" Lily asked the next morning. She still hadn't gotten down to finishing her Transfiguration.
Sirius, Sammy, and Suzanne had gone to ask Professor McGonagall about the Quidditch team. They hadn't yet come back. Remus had left last night to see his sister off, and Pooja was sleeping in.
"Is it Transfiguration? Here – take mine," James said, handing her his essay.
"James, I can't copy off of you!" Lily shrieked. "That's cheating!"
"Hold your horses, Tiger Lily. You're talking to James Potter, here. Cheating doesn't exist in my world. Now take it," he said, putting it down on the table in front of her. He turned around and went back to reading his book.
"James…" she whined.
James turned around. A grin appeared on his face when he saw Lily pushing his essay away with her eyes shut. She wouldn't break the rules even if her life depended on it.
"Oh, alright, I was just seeing what you'd do. I didn't expect you to copy, anyway," he said, smiling at her.
He has a cute smile. Oh my god, you did not just think that, Lily! Calm down, girl – you're just too tired – you aren't thinking straight…
They settled down at the table. James started explaining to her all he knew on the subject, and Lily listened attentively. She couldn't imagine that they had nearly become enemies after the first week of school. Being enemies with James Potter – it was the most unimaginable thing in the world.
James was thinking along similar lines. He liked being friends with people. It was just too much to handle having to yell and scream and hurl insults every which way. It was especially hard to hate girls. They were just too nice – especially Lily.
She's nice. She's really nice – and sweet too. She's nothing like Sabs – I guess Sirius' sister is just different. Lily's more of a typical girl – except for her temper. I'm glad we finally got down to being friends. It's a lot better than fighting all the time. And Lily's friends are fun too – though Suzanne's kind of strange, Sammy's just too boyish, and Pooja's too smart to be in first year. I don't know – they've all got their good sides and bad sides. But Lily's the best.
"Hey, guys, what are you two up to?" Suzanne asked as she waltzed into the Common Room.
"We're catching up on some homework," Lily asked. "What'd McGonagall say?"
"That old crab – she says we have to wait until second year no matter what. That's not fair. It's just not fair. It doesn't make sense. It's not like we're not good enough – Sammers is really good, and so is Sirius. I guess it was just me," she said, sighing.
"Jeez, Suzie – that's not it at all. McGonagall probably just didn't want to get your guys' hopes up. She can't break the rules any more than we can," Lily said, comforting her friend.
"Oh, well, if you say so… Hey, have you guys seen Sammy and Sirius?" Suzanne asked suddenly.
"No, I thought they were with you?" James asked, surprised.
"Well, they were, but I kind of walked out on them after talking with McGonagall. I went for a walk around the grounds, and I expected them to have come back by now. That's strange…"
"I guess they're probably in the library," Lily said, before James could think of anything else.
"Yeah, let's go look."
The three slipped out of their Common Room and walked down the hall. Lily and Suzanne were off to one side, discussing something that James would prefer not to hear. They seemed to be giggling about something or other. James just hoped that that something wasn't him.
In a couple more minutes, they were in the library. Lily smiled inwardly as she heard Sammy's voice. Apparently, Sammy was yelling at Sirius – again. It was quite normal to hear such a thing. It was as natural as James and Lily's constant fighting had been. Except, whereas James and Lily fought out of pure hatred, Sammy and Sirius just argued because that's what friends did.
"See, they've just been in the library. I bet they're working on their project together," Lily said, giving James an I-rest-my-case look.
The three walked around until they found them – in an interesting situation. They had been known to argue – but not to get physical. Sirius was laying face-down on the floor, and Sammy was sitting on his back, bending his arm behind him. It looked as though Sirius had offended Sammy somehow, and she was making him say otherwise.
"Take that back!" she yelled.
"No, I don't think I will…" Sirius said, apparently enjoying himself.
Sammy may have been strong, but Sirius could easily put up with her. He'd had over five years of experience, after all. Neither one of them noticed their three spectators.
"Um, guys – what are you doing?" Suzanne asked.
Both of them stopped. Sammy bit her lip and got off of Sirius, who sat up and rubbed his arm. Both of them turned slightly pink. Lily just grinned at them.
"We were studying – you know, Inkle's stupid project. But – well, Sirius wasn't being very nice and I had to teach him a lesson," Sammy said casually.
James couldn't help it. He burst out laughing. For some reason, he couldn't stop. It was quite a sight to see him like that, doubled over with laughter and slowly turning pink. In a couple of minutes, all five of them were laughing like there was no tomorrow. Madam Pince, the librarian, had to chase them out before they could calm down.
"Okay, now that we've stopped laughing, can someone tell me what was so funny?" Sirius asked, apparently trying to crack some more jokes.
He wasn't successful, however. Everyone else just stared at him, with their eyebrows raised.
"Okay, never mind then… Hey, how are we going to study, now? Madam Pince won't let us in again, that's for sure," Sirius asked.
"Have you ever considered studying in the Common Room, dimwit?" Sammy asked, whacking him on the head.
"I'm a dimwit?" he asked her skeptically.
"Yes, you are – now come on! I don't fancy having Inkle breathing down our necks the whole time in class tomorrow because we haven't gotten any work done," Sammy snapped at him. She grabbed his arm and dragged him away, much to the amusement of the others.
"Okay, now what do we do?" James asked.
Suzanne and Lily just looked at one another and shrugged. What were they supposed to do? They could always do homework – but Suzanne didn't have a partner, as Remus was away and Katherine Hopkins was nowhere to be found.
"Well, I guess we'll just have to work on Transfiguration or Defense – and Suzie, you can just – I don't know, maybe you can do whatever you want. Find Pooja and play chess or something," Lily said, shrugging.
"Yeah, I'll go find Pooja. You two go ahead," Suzanne said, her eyes lighting up. She skipped along and in a matter of seconds, she was gone.
"Do you really want to do homework? I mean, don't you have anything better to do?" James asked her.
"Yes, but I can't think of anything else right now. I suppose I could read – but we can't go back to the library and I don't have anything else to read," Lily said, sighing.
"So, Miss Evans spends her entire life studying and reading. Don't you ever do anything fun?" James asked her again.
"Reading's fun," she said, smiling up at him.
"I mean, besides that…" he said, rolling his eyes at her.
"Well, I used to go bike-riding a lot in the summertime, but I couldn't really have brought my bike to Hogwarts, you know," Lily said, grinning.
"Jeez, you really need to learn what 'fun' is. Don't girls ever have anything interesting to do in their lives? I mean, honestly, there are so many things out there to do, and you can't even think of anything!" James exclaimed.
"Oh, really – and what can you think of that I didn't?"
"Well, for one, I could ask you where your wand is…" James said, grinning suddenly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily asked, as she reached inside her pocket.
To her surprise, she found that it was empty. Her wand wasn't there. But she had a sneaking suspicion that James knew perfectly well where it was.
"James, where's my wand?" Lily asked him, her hands on her hips.
"It is right here," he said, holding it out to her. "Don't worry. It's safe with me."
Lily tried to snatch it back, but James was too quick for her. He jerked his arm out of the way in a flash. He twirled it through his fingers like a cheerleader would twirl her baton. Lily glared at him and crossed her arms over her chest.
"How'd you get that from me?" she asked icily.
"Magic," he said winking at her.
"James – you know how to do the Summoning Charm already? But, we haven't even done that yet! We don't learn until fourth year!" Lily said, clapping her hands with excitement.
"Of course, I haven't, silly. I'd just make a good pick-pocket if nothing else takes my fancy," James muttered as he walked on.
Lily stopped in her tracks and pondered this thought for a while. She could be rather slow at thinking things out sometimes. She couldn't figure out what he meant for a couple of minutes, but she did realize that James still had her wand, and so she jogged to catch up with him.
"James, give me my wand back!" she demanded.
She didn't expect him to comply, but strangely enough, he handed it back to her immediately, giving her a smile. Lily just blinked and grabbed it quickly, not wanting to give him a chance to jerk it away again. Things were strange – and getting stranger.
"Come on; hurry up. You're so slow," James complained.
Well, I knew his kindness was just a fake. It couldn't possibly last any longer.
"Okay, then – see if you can get there before me!" Lily giggled.
She set off down the hall before James could say anything. She was small built, but she was also very fast. By the time James knew what she was doing, she was already twenty feet ahead of him. But, luckily for him, he was pretty fast too. The two set off down the hallway. Lily had a sudden fit of giggles and had to slump against the wall to catch her breath. Unfortunately, James didn't see her and tripped over her.
"Oof…" James exclaimed as he landed on the floor.
"Whoops, sorry – I didn't realize you were still running," Lily said, now massaging her ankle where James had hit it.
"Ah, Mr. Potter, you're just the man I was looking for."
Professor Orenstein, the Potions professor and the Deputy Headmistress, had approached the two on the floor and was standing over them with a look of disapproval on her face.
"Professor Orenstein – what are you – I mean, what did you want me for?" James asked, standing up and dusting off his robes.
"I have information on your detention. Professor McGonagall asked me to deliver this letter to you personally. You will serve it tomorrow afternoon. Be prepared to do something – rather different from your everyday work…" she trailed off.
She sneered at him and handed him the note with a stony glare, then walked off. James gulped as he ripped open the note. Lily crawled over to where he was on the floor, and read over his shoulder.
"Well, that isn't so bad. You just have to put up with Inkle for about – two hours…" Lily muttered.
"Yeah, I guess not. I don't mind, really. If I'm in his office the whole time then – well, who knows – I might be able to plan some joke or other to play on him. The only thing I do mind is that I'll be stuck with those two Slytherin jerks… I won't be able to do anything in front of them and get away with it," James said, frowning.
"Well, I doubt they're smart enough to notice," Lily said, grinning.
James grinned back. He got to his feet and helped Lily up as she gingerly put wait on her feet. Lily smiled slightly as he helped her hop to the Common Room.
"James, didn't you already have a detention for what happened in the library with those two?" Lily asked suddenly.
"Oh yeah, I did. This is for something else I did wrong," James said, smiling sheepishly.
"I should have known," Lily said, shaking her head.
"I think I'd better go down to the Hospital Wing. I don't fancy climbing up any stairs with this," she said, gesturing to her twisted ankle.
"Should I help you over there?" James asked her.
"No, I think I'm alright – thanks for the offer, though."
"Yeah, well, I'll see you around," James said, shrugging.
Lily and James started walking their separate ways. Suddenly, though, Lily turned around and addressed James.
"Oh, and by the way, James, I sincerely think you should give it a shot. You know, you can get away with anything during detention," Lily said, smiling again.
"Yeah, I think you're right."
*