"Lorrena! Remus! Misty! Arabella! Sirius!" Lily Evans shrieked, jumping onto Sirius's arms for a huge bear hug. Sirius Black had been her very best friend from when she started Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. "Potter." She finished coldly. In all the time she'd been friends with the rest of the Marauders-what James Potter, Remus Lupin, Sirius Black, and Peter Pettigrew liked to call themselves-she'd abhorred the now most wanted playboy with (annoying) unruly black hair, huge chocolate eyes (the color of feces(a/n: no offense to any brown eyed people out there!! lily's thoughts, not mine!)), and round glasses.
"Evans," James replied just as coldly, "Now, if you'd just 'unravel' yourself from my best friend, we could find a compartment before the train leaves!"
"Firstly; he's one of my best friends, also, and secondly; if you would only stop undressing anything and everything female with your eyes, than we should be so lucky to find a compartment."
Lorrena Taliada, one of Lily's other close friends rolled her eyes, and stood in front Sirius. "Let's go already, so we can find a compartment big enough to separate the both of you so us [i]sane[/i] people wouldn't be driven batty by your constant bickering!" Obviously, Lorrena was one of Lily's most...[i]out-spoken[/i]...friends.
"Exactly!" Agreed Sirius, draping both his arms in a loose, backwards hug.
Lorrena's face harbored a serious look as she looked straight ahead and said, "Black, if you don't remove yourself from my person, I will be forced to hurt you and cause the end of the Black family, or my name isn't Lorrena Marissa Renata Stefania Mariola Criola Lila Annetta Alexandra Rigiorana-Taliada!"
Looking confused, the hyper boy looked at her with his eyebrows raised, "Is it??"
"It is. And [i]don't[/i] make me repeat it, since I probably forgot it!"
Everyone laughed, and as the train blew its whistle, they all hurried onto the Express, only to find a small compartment, meant for only about three to four people, not seven-they'd picked up Sirius' current flavor, Briahna, along the way.
"Well, I guess the girls will have to sit on laps, or something," said Remus Lupin, logically.
With a wolfish grin, Sirius pulled Briahna onto his laugh, her giggling all the while. Misty sat with Peter, reluctantly, and Lorrena sat with Remus. Arabella sat on the floor, which she said was good for her back, injured during a Quidditch match the previous year. Lily looked round, hoping for some long lost marauder to show up, as she noticed the only lap available was James Potter's.
"I'm [i]not[/i] sitting on his lap!"
"Come on Lils, you know you love me," he said arrogantly, pulling her onto the very edge-not by his decision (he'd much rather have her closer. He was a teenage male, a vessel of hormones)- of his lap.
"I most certainly do [i]not[/i] love you. Far from it, in fact. And don't call me Lils. That nickname is reserved for the human race only," she stood up, "You lousy chaser."
Normally, that would've been the most pathetic excuse of an insult Lily could've come up with. It was the fact that she was speaking to James Potter, the captain of the Gryffindor Quidditch team. "You...You...You..." he sputtered.
"Come on, now, spit it out!" she taunted. James stood up, towering over her barely five foot frame. This was the reaction she'd been hoping for. She shot around James, and took his original spot on the comfortable, padded bench. Smiling cheekily at him, she claimed her spot with a proud "Hah!"
"I'm not sitting on the floor, Evans."
"Where else would you sit??" Lily batted her eyes innocently, "On the roof of the Hogwarts Express?? Actually, that wouldn't be a bad idea. With luck, you might fall off!"
"Oof!" she grunted. The six-foot-three boy had plopped himself on [i]her[/i] lap! "I told you I'm not sitting on the floor, [i]Lils[/i]."
"And I said you were!"
"And I'm saying I'm not!"
"Are!"
"Not!" Lily mustered all the strength she had in her small body, and...Plunk. James was on the floor.
"Okay, so I am..."
"I'll bet that you two couldn't be nice to each other, or at least civil, for even a month!" broke in Misty Broyden, a girl about five-foot-four-inches tall with shoulder length, light brown hair.
"As would I!" agreed Arabella Figg, tossing her glossy raven hair behind her.
"Me too! In fact, I will!" Lorrena reached into her pocket and pulled out fifteen galleons (a/n: kk, so I know that galleons are worth a lot of muggle money, but just work with me here!), and placed them in a crocheted satchel of Gryffindor colors. "Anyone else??" she jangled the satchel in front of everyone's face, as they one by one added money.
When the pouch reached Lily and James, they each took out what must have been around five hundred galleons each, what must have been their allowance until Christmas, when both their well-off family's could give them more money. Determined to outdo each other, Lily added an already large amount of galleons, and James added five galleons more. And Lily added more. And James added more. And on it went, until Remus put his hand on James forearm. "Buddy, I think that 200 galleons should be just about enough. Lets make that the limit, eh??" Everyone nodded.
"Fine," James and Lily both grumbled, and took out the excess galleons, both angry they couldn't defeat the other.
"Okay, the rules are," began Arabella, "One; From the moment we step into the Great Hall, you must be nice, yes Sirius, nice, to each other, until the midnight of September 30, marking one month. Two; No one can purposely make them angry at each other. This has to be fair, people! Three; No getting professor's 'accidentally' involved, to stop the betting. Anything else??" she looked around.
"And no getting [i]too[/i] mushy gushy," added Misty jokingly. "We don't want a romance novel in the making, here!"
"Right then, now that that's settled, we'll be going for a walk," Sirius said, putting his arm around Briahna.
"Sure, you are, Padfoot," said James, smirking. It was a well known fact that Sirius's walks with the opposite gender never went any further than the nearest closet, empty room, or dark corner.
*******************
A few hours later, in the Great Hall
********************
"Ev-" James received a warning glare from Arabella.
"Lily," he forced out, "Gi-Please pass me the chicken."
Lily cupped her hand in back of her ear, and said, "What's that [i]James?[/i] Pass you the Turkey??" It was a well known fact that James despised turkey. "I'll do better than pass it to you, I'll put it on your plate so you'll have a minimal workload."
She smiled, and within seconds, have the plate of turkey was on James's plate. By that time, the chicken, the only other white meat-James also hated any form of dark meat-was gone.
'I [i]will[/i] have my revenge!' James thought.
********************
The next morning, six thirty a.m.
********************
"Good morning, [i]friend![/i]" Someone exclaimed loudly. Lily, who was known to almost Avada anyone who woke her up before noon, seven thirty on school days, looked up groggily to find James Potter at the foot of her bed, wide awake. "Come on, Lilykins! It's a beautiful morning! The sun is shining, the birds are chirping!"
Lily collapsed back onto her bed. "This is a nightmare. When I open my eyes, he will be gone. Hopefully forever," she grumbled. "One...Two...Three!" She opened her eyes wide, and saw James walking to the side of her bed.
He kneeled down and said, "Wake up, Lilykins. It is my duty as a friend to wake you up so you won't be your usual tardy self." Arabella, Misty, and Lorrena were watching amusedly from their own beds.
"It's also my duty to make sure you do not smell like garbage on the first day of classes. Up up up!"
"I do not stink," she said indignantly, shutting her eyes and attempting to ignore James and fall back asleep. Secretly, he agreed with her. In fact, Lily smelled of fresh raspberries with a hint of strawberry marmalade... (a/n: this is for YOU Tanner, who once said I smelled like cherries with a hint of New Car Smell!)
James leaned over and opened her eyelids with his finger tips, "Yes, you do. It's a proven fact that all redheads are all naturally stinky in the mornings! I read it in the library!"
"You don't even know where the library is," retorted Lily.
"Do so, how could I not, when I'm top student after you??" James quirked one eyebrow, which he knew annoyed Lily, since she couldn't lift only one eyebrow, but only both.
"Oh, go away," she said, rolling over and pulling the blankets over her body.
James pulled the blankets from her bed, and she only curled up to keep warm. When that didn't work, he tipped her mattress over, but she held on to the sides for dear life.
Sighing, James did the only other thing he could think of, picked her up so it looked like she was a baby being cradled, and carried her into the girls' bathroom, and plopped her onto the floor of a shower stall, and turned the water on cold. He ran as fast as he could through the dorm, before Lily woke up enough to notice the ice cold shower she was receiving, still fully clothed. "James Potter!!" He heard her shriek as he was about to run through the girls' door.
He turned to face Misty, Lorrena, and Arabella's glares. "I wasn't [i]exactly[/i] breaking the rules, all I did was wake her up!"
They all sighed, in a wordless agreement.
Later, at breakfast, Lily sat down by James, and said, "James, dear, I know you just love your pumpkin juice every morning. Why don't you have any in your glass??" He looked at her suspiciously.
"Because I thought you might've bribed the house elves to poison it."
"Now, do you really think I would do that??"
"You have, and would again."
"Yeah, you're right, but now that we're friends....why don't I pour you some??" she smiled, innocently.
"Okay..." James wearily held out his glass. She took the goblet and filled it full to the brim with pumpkin juice.
"Here you go!" She handed him back his goblet, and watched him suspiciously closely as he took the first sip.
'It tastes normal,' thought James. 'But then why is she watching me so closely??' Then it hit him. She must have done something when he wasn't looking!
"What did you do to it??" he demanded to know.
"Nothing too serious. The side effects should wear off in a few hours, though."
"Gah!" James exclaimed and ran out of the Great Hall, clutching his throat.
"Yes, I knew they'd crack!" gloated Sirius.
"Lily, you couldn't even last a day!" chided Misty.
"What did you do to the juice, anyway ??" asked Remus.
"Nothing," Lily answered.
"But then, why did he run out of the Hall, claiming you poisoned him?" questioned Arabella.
"Yeah, wha-Hey!" Sirius' was distracted by a pretty girl in the fifth year, a year below them, walking by. He grabbed her arm, and asked, "Go to Hogsmeade with me??"
The girl squealed and ran off to her friends excitedly.
Lorrena rolled her eyes at his antics, and said, "What happened to the other girl??"
"Briana?? Oh, I dumped her this morning. Got bored, you know??"
"Her name was Briahna, Sirius," corrected Remus.
"Okay, okay," said Sirius, "Back to what Lily did to James."
"Really, Nothing!" Lily insisted.
"Then what was all the talk about side effects??" asked Misty.
"Paranoia side effects," Lily stated, smiling, "And I didn't even break any rules!"
"Oh, your good," said Misty.
"You're really good," agreed Lorrena.
"You're really really good," said Arabella and Remus together.
"You're really really rea-" began Sirius.
"It's been done, Padfoot," Interrupted Remus.
A/N: Ack, short, I know...think of this as kind of the prologue. The rest of the chapters will be slightly more dramatic, but still with some humor. I would like to dedicate this story to Jeremy, who forgot to take off the daffy duck voice (Thyud up and thtir the thpahgettie thauce!), Chris, who needs some happiness in his life after *cough* losing *cough* his sister, Erika (Always wear a seat belt!), Andi, Denni, Cheryl, Anna, Misty, and Jena, just for being my girls.
Disclaimer: I own nothing but Lorrena (based on me, I always find a way to stick myself in there somewhere, including the name, only Renata and Lorrena are switched around in real life), Misty is based on one of my bestest friends ever, so she belongs to herself, JKR owns the rest of the cast and crew of Harry Potter, except what ever you don't recognize, the Raspberries and a Hint of Strawberries was derived from Tanner's Cherries and a Hint of New Car Smell comment. I own nothing but Lorrena and *counts* six quarters, three dimes and seven pennies, and I owe Misty a Buck Fifty, which brings us to the grand total of Thirty Seven Cents!