Charming Atrocities
By: The Marauder's Society
Chapter 1—One of these Days.
Bursting through the double doors in one sweeping motion, Sirius Black single-handedly succeeded in charming nearly all the girls present in the Great Hall that morning. However he did it, he was good, and Sirius Black had to admit…The girls liked him. Flashing an impish smile to a Ravenclaw first year—who nearly died at being on the receiving end of such attention—Sirius nonchalantly sauntered toward his Gryffindor table. Yes, sir, life was good to him.
"Charming as ever, old chap," James Potter began with an amused smile, scooting over in order to make room for his best friend.
"Hello to you too, Prongs—" came the equally pleased remark, coupled with a charming grin.
"Dare I say you're in a good mood, Sirius—Ianthe was it? That midnight stroll of yours…? Studying, did you say? Must've been a heavy lesson, what with you studying the entire night."
Sirius rolled his eyes at Lupin's teasing comment, grabbing a roll from the breakfast tray and leisurely buttering it. He shifted in his chair and scrutinized it absently, scratching his forearm as his eyes lazily drifted toward the Slytherin table. James let out a low whistle as he followed his gaze. "We have a date tonight, lover boy, keep the midnight rendezvous for another day."
"I can't keep the female population at Hogwarts at bay forever, you know—wouldn't want to ruin their dreams—can't disappoint my fans now, can I?"
At Lupin's wry look, he continued, "but being that you two are old acquaintances, I guess I can make some time."
James let out a lengthy sigh before running a smooth hand through his already disheveled hair. Then, motioning for Sirius to come closer, he whispered, "Eleven o'clock, Padfoot—third floor."
Sirius raised an interested eyebrow and sat back in his chair. Eleven o'clock? Then, brow wrinkling, he leaned back towards James, "What are we doing tonight, then, genius?"
Before either James or Lupin had a chance to respond, a feminine—if not slightly overbearing—voice interrupted. "A few honest boys like you three? Why you'd be in your beds of course, sleeping like the good boys you are."
Growling, Sirius turned to face Lily Evans, slight disgust evident in his face. How come she'd never gone studying with him…? However, before he could even begin to form a sarcastic response, James's eyes flashed at him in warning. It was not good Marauder law to have a prefect as an enemy; if anything, they should be on your side.
"Good morning, Lily," Remus said with an amiable smile, easily waving away his two companions, Sirius—who was silent with annoyance—and James who was staring at her rather avidly.
"Sorry I'm late," came a huffing voice suddenly, and out of nowhere appeared Peter, clothes and hair ruffled with sleep, and completely oblivious as he almost tripped over Lily to take his place beside Lupin. If he had noticed she was there, he said nothing, and if he didn't…well, that would've been typical Peter.
"So, Lily," James started, absentmindedly twirling the golden-snitch in his palm, "I hear you fancy Quidditch…players."
Quirking up a questioning eyebrow, James stifled a smirk at her widening eyes. Her cheeks suddenly turned a pale pink and she opened her lips in defense, but nothing came out. James felt his smile widen and condescendingly reclined comfortably against his chair's back. At his side, he could hear Sirius laughing, not bothering to hide it from her.
"Well I'll have you know, James Potter," Lily began, tone rising considerably, cheeks now red with anger, "I may fancy Quidditch players, but not conceited, foolhardy prats who steal supplies from their own team." Pausing then, before continuing, she threw Remus a poignant look, "and I'd lock my doors if I were you, Remus, seeing as how easily he takes a snitch, prized possessions shouldn't be any more difficult."
Then, as quickly as she had entered, she turned away from them and stalked out of the Great Hall, leaving them to complete their plans for the night.
As soon as the doors had slammed shut, Sirius was the first to let out an unadultered laugh. Remus, despite himself, let out a few chuckles at his friend's outrageous laughter. Peter and James, however, didn't seem to find the joke to be very funny, the former because he didn't quite understand it, and the latter because Lily Evans had once again succeeded in bruising his ego.
( * * * )
That afternoon, before dinner, Lily Evans found herself lazily outstretched within the confines of her four-poster bed. Inevitably, her thoughts drifted back towards the incident earlier that day at breakfast. Her face flushing with anger just at the thought of what a scoundrel that James Potter was.
"The nerve…and Remus—what's he doing hanging around with them? Trouble makers—the lot of them…Me liking Quidditch players? What's he playing at, anyway? And Sirius…" Lily growled in pure frustration at the simple thought of him. He was so…so…arrogant. And all the girls didn't seem to care; they actually found him attractive and…what had they said—that he was good? Good at what? Certainly not school-work, that's for sure…although he was smart…Lily couldn't take that away from him—it just seemed Sirius had natural intelligence working for him…while she had to work so hard to keep her high marks.
"And that Potter…argh—argh…" Lily practically pulled her hair out as she thought about the cocky Gryffindor seeker. He was so positively irritating—and that thing he did, with his hair…what was he trying to prove? That he was sexy? And then, stealing a snitch from the Quidditch supply box every few weeks—he should've been expelled…or worse, killed! Why hadn't Remus done anything…? Why? Because James Potter had a knack for charming his way out of trouble. How many times hadn't she given in and let him off the hook? He would smile that damned enticing smile of his and somehow weasel himself away from punishment. "Oooh…to hell with that smile!"
Rolling over on her stomach, Lily vented out whatever vengeful intentions she might've had against her down pillow. Punching it with every word that escaped her clenched lips, Lily nearly growled at her frustration. "I'm gonna get you one of these days, Potter."
At that moment, Lily's roommates chose to enter their dormitory. The two, unused to Lily being anything but calm and composed, raised two curious eyebrows…particularly because they had caught the name Potter in juncture with the murder of Lily's pillow. The young prefect, red with anger and embarrassment, sat up stiffly and drew in a deep breath.
"All right there, Lil?"
"Perfectly fine, thanks," came the sneering response, coupled with a wave to pull back her flying hair.
Taking Lily's response for granted, Aislinn turned excitedly towards Callista, "Did you hear?" she began, "Sirius managed to trick the staircase to the girl's dormitory. He can come up now whenever he pleases!"
"Boy, am I pleased about that," countered Callista breathlessly, brown eyes twinkling mischievously.
Aislinn waggled her eyebrows suggestively as she jerked her head in Lily's direction. "You should invite him, then…Lils won't mind—after all, you heard her, she's gonna get Potter."
Rolling her eyes, Lily impatiently waved their conversation away. She had even more problems now, what with that Black character having conned the staircase. Oh, would he ever stop…now there'd be no end to the madness. Soon enough, there'd be so many Black children to fill up the whole Astronomy Tower.
Taking note of her indignant look, Aislinn smiled teasingly, "So, Lils, gonna go down to dinner? I hear what James Potter likes to eat."
Deciding it better not to press the issue with her two highly immature roommates, Lily rolled her eyes and descended down the girl's staircase, cursing the day Sirius would make his way up. Then, stopping halfway down the steps, she wondered if James Potter would ever—literally—follow in his friend's footsteps and enter her dorm. She shoved compulsive, hormonal thoughts out of her mind and set out determinately to dinner.
( * * * )
"Snivellus Snape, my my, what are you doing here?"
"James—" Lupin prodded diligently, desperately trying to usher his friend away from another fight that would, surely, end up with the lot of them in detention…again. But before he could even get James to back down, Sirius had already stalked towards Snape, his posture evident of the fact that he wouldn't back down.
Tall frame blocking what would've otherwise been Snape's escape, Sirius let a dark grin grace his elegant features. "And where would you be going this early in the day, you slimy git."
Snape ignored Sirius' sarcastic comment glancing around fervently for another escape route. At least the wands weren't out yet…Distracted by that one thought, Snape didn't take note of the fact that James had come up behind him until it was too late. Surrounded on both sides, and with both player's quick Quidditch reactions, an escape to either their right or left sides wouldn't do much good.
Just as Sirius was raising his wand, a loud haughty voice echoed through the hallway. "You would do well, Black, to keep away from Slytherin. And my, my…wasting your pureblood lineage on such…well," the owner of the voice cast the group surrounding Sirius disgustedly, " unfitting friendships."
Snape looked up worriedly to find Lucius Malfoy approaching him from behind, his wand pointed squarely at James' back, who, cocky as ever, hadn't bothered to turn around.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the royal prat of Slytherin! Look, Sirius—he's actually stupid enough to threaten us—the Marauders!" James snickered maliciously, still keeping his back to Lucius. Then, whipping out his wand, he continued, "See here, Malfoy, I can duel with my back kept to you…What do you say?"
"You think so, do you?" asked Malfoy cynically, brandishing his own 11in. wand, "Well then, I think I'll take you up on that."
At Malfoy's consenting words, Lupin's eyes took an apprehensive tone. Behind him, Peter was cowering dramatically, his watery eyes darting anxiously from Malfoy, to James, to Sirius, and Snape.
Suddenly, a stern voice broke through the uneasy silence, "Mr. Potter, what exactly do you think you're doing!?"
James, surprised, finally turned in Malfoy's direction and looked past him, donning an innocent look towards the rapidly approaching teacher. "Why Professor McGonagall, what ever do you mean?"
Eyes narrowing in scrutiny of the scene before her, McGonagall stepped between the two enemies. Then, swiveling in Remus' direction, she raised a finely arched eyebrow, "Mr. Lupin. Care to explain what's going on, and why a prefect, as yourself, has allowed it to go on for so long?"
"Um…w—well you see, professor—" Remus began in his defense, only to be cut off by Sirius.
"The point is professor, nothing is happening—thanks to you—it was only a slight misunderstanding, after all. Some people can't stay clear of our way long enough to let us breathe, is all," Sirius stated calmly, throwing a glare in Lucius' direction.
McGonagall finally seemed to take note of Lucius Malfoy who, up until that moment she had either neglected to see, or hadn't bothered acknowledging. "My goodness! Two prefects—one fight! How will we ever survive?"
Sirius was about to say something smart then, when James placed a strong hand over his mouth. "But professor," he began, ignoring Sirius' dirty look, "it was all their fault, you know."
"I will have nothing of this—detentions for the lot of you!" McGonagall cried, tired at the continuity of the fistfights between the two groups. Walking away while muttering to herself, McGonagall left the two feuding groups to their misery.
"I suggest you watch your back, Lucius, or you'll find your pureblood can't save you." Sirius muttered repulsively before walking away with the rest of his friends.
After he was gone, Snape turned towards Malfoy, relief evident in his loosened stance. Eyes downcast, he muttered a half-hearted thanks and prepared to leave, when Lucius' hand came tightly about his shoulder. "Don't thank me, Snape, I'm just keeping up our house's name. Can't have people like you ruining it, after all."
Before Snape could anything more, not that he would've, Malfoy had turned around violently, his cloak billowing behind as he disappeared through another corridor.
Lily wasn't quite sure why she hadn't taken note of it before, but it the rumbling in her stomach was any clue, she was starving. Leisurely, and not in any particular hurry to get to the Great Hall, Lily stopped dead in her tracks when she caught the overbearing frame of James Potter storming darkly through the 1st Floor corridor, making first years about him jump haphazardly out of the way. Beside him she could see Sirius, expression deadly, midnight black hair slightly tousled as he glared at everything that moved near his field of vision. On James' opposite side Lily could see Remus hurrying along, prefect badge shining in the fading light, its importance forgotten amongst his knitted eyebrows. She didn't bother looking for Peter, as he was probably trudging along behind James—his usual custom—eager to be shielded by his bigger, wittier companion.
Curious and slightly alarmed by their countenances, Lily boldly made her way in front of James, courageously blocking his way. When she did so, James stopped dead in his tracks, not because she had scared him, but because he was near laughter despite himself. Who did Lily Evans think she was, standing in front of him like that? Remus, sound and experienced enough to decipher his friend's expression, gently grasped Lily by the forearm and pulled her aside.
"What happened?" she asked quizzically, talking to Remus, but her eyes still glued on James' expression. She didn't understand why Remus had pulled her aside. She wasn't afraid of any boy…much less James Potter.
Remus' eyes darted hesitantly towards James, judging by his look whether or not he should transfer the information onto Lily. A slight, jerky nod signaled his assent. "Had…Well, just a little misunderstanding, really…"
"And with whom?" Lily asked suspiciously, knowing the Marauders well enough to know a 'little misunderstanding' meant a lot of trouble.
"Just…you know—the usual."
Lily raised an eyebrow and let her gaze wander towards James….again.
Remus followed the look and nodded slightly.
"Stop looking at me, Evans—I'm not on display." Lily, not having realized she had been staring at James, was taken aback by the statement. A light blush crept over her pale cheeks.
"And? You didn't lose any more points, did you?" Had her tone been any more exasperated James would've attacked her. Even then, he looked very near losing his composture.
"And what," he began icily, eyes swiveling towards her as he stealthily made his way near her, "makes you think I lost us any points, Evans."
Lily found herself glaring into the very close eyes of James Potter. Had it been any other circumstances, she might've blushed or stuttered, but his eyes were flashing dangerously and for a moment, she was frightened of what his reaction might be.
Much to her surprise, just as James seemed ready to curse her into oblivion, Sirius stepped in between the two, his back to Lily, and placed two stabilizing hands on James' shoulders, pushing him back slightly. "Save it, James. Tonight—we'll get back at them, besides," Sirius tossed a careless look in Lily's direction, "she's not worth it."
Before Lily could even think to muster up a response, Sirius had thrown her a warning glare and pushed off James in the opposite direction, struggling against the other boy's weight. Remus shrugged at Lily defeatedly and hastened after his friends, knowing James would be in one hell of a mood the rest of the night.
Left alone to her own musings, Lily licked her lips in thought before muttering, "I'll get you one of these days, Potter."
( * * * )
A/N: So...Whadda ya think? Angelskates12 should be merited for her sarcasm, Midnightglow for her witty remarks, Metis for her...observations of Sirius, and Weaver Atropos with the "drama" of the storyline...See you all soon!