It was Christmas Eve, actually it was more in the afternoon, and Lily and James were walking back from, Arithmancy. The corridor was deserted. Lily 'accidentally' dropped her books, and of course James bent down to pick them up for her. While he was distracted, she turned a fly on the roof above them into mistletoe. Then, she returned to picking up her books. When she had them all, they stood up.
'Thanks.' said Lily.
'Anytime.' That was when they walked into the invisible wall. Lily felt around her.
'We're trapped.' she said, frowning.
James looked up. 'That's why.' he said. 'Mistletoe. It's all over the castle.'
Lily smiled. 'Oh yeah, I forgot. So…'
'So…' said James. He leaned in and kissed her. After a few seconds she pulled back.
'Come on, we can move again now.' She started walking up the corridor.
He jogged to catch up with her. 'You're pretty rude, you know, just walking off like that.'
'All part of my charm.'
James laughed and they spent the rest of the walk to the Gryffindor common room discussing Lily's 'charm'.
* * *
That evening, the seven of them were sitting in the common room, when Bella said 'I need a candy cane from the kitchen. They're the best.' She turned to Remus, who was sitting next to her. 'Coming?'
He shrugged 'Sure.'
Lily and Ali exchanged glances. They watched Remus and Bella walk out though the portrait hole.
'Hey Bells, you do know where the kitchens are don't you? Because you're going the wrong way.'
'No I'm not. It's through this portrait.' She stopped in front of a portrait with a house elf on it. It's the fastest way.'
Remus had never been down this passageway before. Bella said the password, the portrait opened, and they went down the tunnel there. They came out through a 'wall', right under some mistletoe that just 'happened' to be there.
;Since when was that there?' she muttered to herself 'supposedly'.
'Dunno, but I never miss an opportunity to kiss a beautiful girl.' He, like James, leaned in and kissed her, and she, like Lily, pulled back after a few seconds and said 'The candy canes are calling me.'
They turned a corner, and were in front of the painting of the bowl of fruit. Bella tickled the pear, and they walked in.
'Miss Bella is her! Miss Bella!' squeaked the house elves. Without a word from Bella, the presented her with about 20 candy canes.
'Thanks Tibby.' she said, and she and Remus made their way back to the Gryffindor common room.
* * *
Much later that evening, Ali and Sirius were the only ones left in the common room, because they were playing wizards chess, and Ali kept winning. Sirius refused to accept failure, so they kept playing more games.
'Sirius, this is hopeless. Just admit I win.'
'No.'
'Yes!'
'NO!'
Ali rolled her eyes. 'Whatever, I'm going to bed. You should too.' She started walking towards the staircase.
Sirius scrambled after her. 'But…but I haven't beaten you yet!'
'Say I kiss you? Would you admit defeat?'
'I knew it! I knew I was irresistible!'
'Dream on. in case you haven't noticed, we're standing under mistletoe. I don't have a choice.'
'Oh. Damn.'
They repeated what Lily and James and Bella and Remus had done. When Ali pulled back, she said 'I won.', and ran up to her dorm.
* * *
'Prongsie! Moony! It's Christmas! Wake up!' shouted Sirius. Remus and James jerked awake. They looked at Sirius, then at each other.
'Christmas!' shouted Remus.
James got an evil grin on his face. 'Let's go wake up the girls!' The three boys ran out, and into the girl's dorm.
James grabbed Lily's arm and shook it. 'It's Christmas Lily, wake up!' Lily groaned, shook off his arm and put her head under the pillow. She could see that Bella was doing the same and Bella winked at her, then turned to face Ali.
'Oh baby.' Bella groaned, supposedly in her sleep. 'Oh…oh…Todd…oh…wow.' The three boys stared at her. 'Mmm…I love you too. Mmm…Arabella Avery…I like it.'
Remus looked at Sirius. 'Todd Avery? The Slytherin? She's having a sex dream about Todd Avery?'
'Avery?' murmured Lily, also pretending to have fallen back asleep. 'Severus's friend. Severus…ooh…Oh God…you're bad…I love bad boys…Ohhh…'
James looked disgusted. 'Lily and Snape?'
'Shh…someone will hear us.' whispered Ali, also 'still asleep' 'Shh…ok…' she turned over. 'Lucius…your hair, It's soo…you're right. No talk, just mmm…'
'Ali! Ali, wake up now!' shouted Sirius, jumping on her.
'Ow! You woke me up! I was enjoying that dream!'
Sirius narrowed his eyes. 'You enjoyed getting up close and personal to Malfoy?'
'Aww what's the matter?' cooed Ali. 'Is little Siri-baby jealous?'
'Some of us are trying to sleep here!' said Bella.
'Oh no, didn't you guys realise you talk in your sleep?' said Remus. 'It's disgusting. You actually said you loved Avery!'
'Avery, honestly Bells, I thought you had better taste.' said Lily.
'At least one of you has got some.' said James.
Lily snuggled up to her pillow. 'Now Severus, on the other hand…mmm…'
'Aaahh! screamed James, and he ran out, pulling Sirius and Remus out too.
* * *
That evening, after dinner, the six Gryffindors sat on couches around the fire.
'Did you guys see that seventh year Ravenclaw?' giggled Lily.
'The blond one?' asked Ali. 'He was yummy.'
'Hunny, yummy's not a good enough word.' said Bella. 'Delicious, on the other hand, I could live with.'
'Ahem, excuse me do you mind?' said Sirius. 'Two things. Number 1, PLEASE don't talk about other guys around us, and Number 2, you have three perfectly delicious guys sitting right next to you.'
'Ooh, jealous again, Siri-baby? Twice in one day.'
'Don't call me Siri-baby.'
Ali pouted. 'But…'
'But nothing.'
'Fine the Ravenclaw's hotter than you anyway. I'll go for him.'
'Ali, I know you're good, but you're not THAT good.' said Bella.
'Are you saying I couldn't get any guy I wanted?' asked Ali.
'No Als, she's just saying that some people are out of reach.' said Lily.
'Fine. You pick a guy and I'll get him.'
'Gee, Lils, who should we choose?'
'I don't know…it has to be someone who really doesn't like her.'
'Malfoy?'
'Yep. Ok, you need to get Malfoy.'
'Easy.' said Ali. 'But don't think you two get off that easily. Avery.' she pointed to Bella. 'Snape.' and pointed to Lily. 'You have one week from the start of term.
'You can't be serious!' exclaimed Remus. 'This is totally, absolutely, the stupidest thing you've ever done, worse then Lockhart, Diggory and Bagman!'
'Amen.' said James.
'You think we couldn't do it.' said Bella, her eyes flashing angrily. 'We'll show you. And it's not stupid, Todd's really hot. If he wasn't in Slytherin, I'd have been with him ages ago. But you know what? I don't care anymore. I want him, and I always get whoever I want.' She turned around and walked away, leaving Remus looking shocked. Sirius opened his mouth to speak.
'Don't say anything.' hissed Ali. 'She's right. If they weren't in Slytherin, they'd be perfect. Lucius is rich, gorgeous, on the Quidditch team, confident, smart, everything. If you have a problem with that, I don't give a shit.' She stormed off after Bella.
The three guys eyed Lily warily. 'What?' she snapped. 'The Slytherins are your enemies, not our, so deal with it. And you'll have to learn to be civil to them. And if you can't handle that, guess what? Not. My. Problem.' She walked off after Bella and Ali.
Sirius shook his head, and said 'Girls.'
* * *
For the next few days, Lily, Bella and Ali only talked to the Marauders if it was absolutely necessary, and vice versa. The Marauders were still pissed about the girls' 'bad taste', and the girls just didn't talk to them coz it would kind of ruin the plan.
This is why, on December 9th, the Marauders were shocked when they returned to their dorm to find Lily, Ali and Bella sitting in there.
'Close the door, and put a silencing charm on the room.' said Lily. They were confused, but Sirius did it anyway.
'When were you planning to tell us?' demanded Ali.
'Tell you what?' asked Sirius.
'Oh I don't know hmm…what was it again?' said Bella. 'Wait, I'm remembering something…it's a wolf…a dog…a stag and what's this? A rat.' The three boy's jaws dropped.
'H-How?' stuttered James.
'It doesn't matter how, what matters is we know.'
'And you still haven't answered our question. When were you planning to tell us?'
'Well…er…never?' said Sirius.
'WHAT?!?' screamed Ali. 'NEVER?! Are you crazy? I can't believe you were NEVER going to tell us! Why would we tell anyone?'
'Well…umm…we only did it this year.' said Sirius cautiously. He was really scared of Ali when she was like this.
'Not Remus.' said Belle. 'He was bitten ages ago.' So we want to know, right now, you didn't tell us.'
'Er…' stammered Remus. He looked at his friends for help.
'He didn't tell us either.' said James. 'We didn't figure it out until third year.'
'What? You didn't tell your best friends! What's wrong with you?!?'
'I…um…I…was scared.'
'SCARED? Of what?' demanded Bella.
'Scared that I'd be rejected.' said Remus, regaining his confidence. 'Obviously. If you tell most people you're a werewolf, they run away screaming.' Everyone was silent for a second until Bell said. 'You think we're shallow.'
'No.'
'Yes.'
'Ok, forget about Remus for a moment. What about these two?' asked Ali. 'They don't seem to have a good excuse. In fact, they don't have any excuse.'
'Look, every person we told made it a bigger risk of us going to Azkaban. We did it for Moony, to make his transformations easier.' said James.
The three girls exchanged glances. 'You all own a Nimbus 1000, correct?' said Lily.
'Yep.' said Sirius. 'Best broom in the world.'
'What we want,' continued Lily. 'In exchange for our forgiveness, is a ride. On the broomsticks. One each. You have to come, because we're not overly confident flyers. So you take us whenever, and wherever we want.'
'But…but we don't let ANYONE ride our brooms. Nobody else has been allowed to even TOUCH them.' said James, in shock.
Lily shrugged. 'Take it or leave it. The brooms, or we never talk to you again.'
'Tell you what. You can borrow the cloak, and the map for two weeks, and we'll take the blame for everything you do.' said Sirius.
'Are you saying you would rather get expelled, then be up in the air, alone, with me?' asked Ali. 'Actually, I know what it is. You're scared, Sirius Black.'
'Of what?'
'Of being alone. In the air. With me.'
'Why-why on Earth would I be scared of that?'
She leaned over and whispered in his ear. 'You want me. And you're scared you won't be able to control yourself when you're all alone with your best friend's sister.'
She moved back, grinning at the look on his face. 'I'm right, aren't I? And I bet James and Remus have the same fear about lily and Bella. We'll tell you when we want the ride, and just to help your little fears, we'll all go at different times. Ok?' She flashed a smile at Sirius, the one which drove all the guys at Hogwarts crazy.
'Wait what am I scared of?' asked James.
Lily moved closer to him, and made him look into her eyes. Her face was only about 10cm away from his. 'I think you already know that.'
Bella was whispering something in Remus' ear, and he was looking very uncomfortable. She grinned, and walked over to the door where Ali and Lily were already standing. 'I told you. You're scared.' said Ali, and the three girls walked out of the room.
'It's just one broomstick ride.' said James. 'It's not like a death sentence.'
'And that shit about me wanting Ali was bull. I don't like her. Well, of course I LIKE her, but just as a friend.'
'You should've heard what Bella said!' exclaimed Remus.
'Isn't it weird that the three most wanted girls in the school go for Malfoy, Snape and Avery?' asked James.
'I know. They're bastards.' said Sirius.
'Shit.' said Remus. 'We sound jealous again.'
'No.' said Sirius. 'We're just concerned friends.'
'Yep.' added James. 'Concerned friends.'
